Sony’s creator-focused Xperia Pro arrives in the US priced at $2,499

The Xperia Pro can be used as an external monitor for a camera. | Image: Sony

The Xperia Pro, Sony’s first smartphone with 5G in the US, is launching today for $2,499.99. Sony is targeting the device at professional users, who it hopes will use its HDMI input to turn the phone into an external camera monitor and its 5G connectivity to quickly upload or live-stream footage. Sony says it currently has no plans to release the Xperia Pro in Europe.

Outside of its HDMI input and US 5G support, the Xperia Pro’s hardware is very similar to last year’s Xperia 1 II (which shipped with 5G support in Europe but was limited to 4G LTE in the US). That means it’s powered by a Snapdragon 865 processor with a 4,000mAh battery, and around the back, there are the same 12-megapixel wide, telephoto, and ultrawide cameras. The Xperia...

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Raya and the Last Dragon looks like a fantastical Ocean’s Eleven in the latest trailer

Disney has released the second trailer for __Raya and the Last Dragon , giving the best look yet at the upcoming animated fantasy film, which is set to hit both theaters and Disney Plus’ Premier Access program on March 5th.

The new trailer sees Raya (voiced by Kelly Marie Tran) putting together a crew of warriors and con artists (including a surprisingly nimble baby) to join her on a quest to find the titular “last dragon,” which legends promise can save her people. But, as the trailer reveals, the mythical dragon, Sisu (voiced by Awkwafina) turns out to be, in her own words “that one kid [in a group project] who doesn’t pitch in as much but still ends up with the same grade.”

Plus, the movie looks absolutely stunning, as Disney Animation...

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Vizio’s midrange 65-inch 4K QLED TV is $600

Photo: Vizio

Super Bowl Sunday is less than two weeks away! Sure, the game itself won’t be streaming in 4K resolution, but that doesn’t mean you can’t spoil yourself with a new UHD television for your bedroom or living room.

Over at Best Buy and B&H Photo, you can pick up Vizio’s 65-inch M-series (M65Q7-H1 model) 4K television for only $600. It’s not the lowest price we have seen it go for ($580), yet this is still a great deal given the TV’s specs and size. Vizio’s M65Q7-H1 stands out (especially at this price point) because of its QLED panel, allowing for a more accurate contrast and colors, unlike televisions with standard LED.

Don’t have room for a 65-inch television? Not a problem. Hisense’s 55-inch Class H8 4K TV (model 55H8G) is a good...

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Apple launches limited-edition ‘Black Unity Collection’ Apple Watch

Apple is launching a limited-edition Apple Watch for Black History Month, with a unique watch band, new watchface, and some of the proceeds going toward civil rights organizations.

The watch, part of a new Black Unity Collection of products, comes with a black, green, and red striped band and face, meant to reflect the Pan-African flag. It otherwise appears to be the standard aluminum version of the Apple Watch Series 6, with pricing starting at $399. The band will also be available separately for $49.

"Apple also plans to highlight Black artists, authors, and developers throughout its apps"

The products will go on sale starting February 1st at Apple and Target. The band will remain on sale all year, but the watch as a whole will only be...

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Animal Crossing: New Horizons’ next big event is a carnival

The next in-game event for Animal Crossing: New Horizons will bring a little more color to your island. Today, Nintendo revealed its next big update, the highlight of which is Festivale, a carnival-like event that will take place on February 15th. Here’s how Nintendo describes it:

Dancer Pavé will arrive to your island’s plaza to usher in some confetti and carnival spirit. On the day of the event you can capture colorful feathers floating on your island with your net and trade them to Pavé to receive a passionate dance number in return. Rainbow feathers seem to be an especially rare sight, so be sure to catch them and trade them with Pavé.

The event will also introduce new clothing options and reactions. It’s all part of New Horizons ’...

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Hard lessons of the SolarWinds hack

Photo Illustration by Grayson Blackmon / The Verge

Cybersecurity reporter Joseph Menn on the massive breach the US didn’t see coming

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The original Celeste now has a sequel you can play in your browser

Celeste was one of the most acclaimed games of 2018, but what you may not have known is that the tightly designed platformer was an expanded version of a smaller project developed in four days at a game jam. Maddy Thorson and Noel Berry created the original Celeste for the Pico-8 platform, and now that version has a sequel called Celeste 2: Lani’s Trek.

The developers, now including composer Lena Raine, say that this game took just three days to make. The release is to celebrate the third anniversary of Celeste ’s release.

We said we probably wouldn't make a sequel to Celeste, but we never said anything about Celeste Classic

— Maddy Thorson (@MaddyThorson) January 26, 2021

If you’re not familiar with Pico-8, it’s a “virtual console”...

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Facebook users’ phone numbers are for sale through a Telegram bot

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

Someone has gotten their hands on a database full of Facebook users’ phone numbers, and is now selling that data using a Telegram bot, according to a report by Motherboard. The security researcher who found this vulnerability, Alon Gal, says that the person who runs the bot claims to have the information of 533 million users, which came from a Facebook vulnerability that was patched in 2019.

With many databases, some amount of technical skill is required to find any useful data. And there often has to be an interaction between the person with the database and the person trying to get information out of it, as the database’s “owner” isn’t going to just give someone else all that valuable data. Making a Telegram bot, however, solves both...

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Rejoice! Amazon’s new app icon isn’t just a logo in a white box

Image: Apple’s App Store

It looks like Amazon is rolling a new app icon on iOS, and unlike countless other recent app redesigns, it isn’t just a logo dropped inside a white background! Rejoice! The new icon cleverly takes cues from perhaps Amazon’s most recognizable “product” — its shipping boxes and their bright blue tape.

Here it is — in the app’s listing on Apple’s UK App Store. (There are a few other reports of others seeing the icon on their devices as well.)

Whoever worked on this new app design, which will be instantly recognizable on your home screen, deserves a raise.

Correction: We’ve updated the headline to clarify that the new design is an icon, not a logo.

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Warning Signal: the messaging app’s new features are causing internal turmoil

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

The fast-growing encrypted messaging app is making itself increasingly vulnerable to abuse. Current and former employees are sounding the alarm. __

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Grindr fined $11.7 million for illegally sharing private user information with advertisers

Grindr will be fined 100 million Norwegian kroner, or about $11.7 million, by the Norwegian Data Protection Authority for illegally sharing private information about Grindr users to advertisers, according to The New York Times.

Last January, the Norwegian Consumer Council filed three complaints against Grindr for sharing personal information, including users’ locations and information about the device they were using, with advertisers. (One of those advertisers was MoPub, Twitter’s mobile ads company.) Associating that information with an individual could potentially indicate that person’s sexual orientation without their consent, and now, the Norwegian Data Protection Authority is taking action against Grindr for the practice.

Grindr...

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Amnesty International calls for a ban on facial recognition in New York City

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

Amnesty International has launched a new campaign against facial recognition titled Ban The Scan — and is launching with a demand for New York City to halt police and government use of the technology.

Amnesty argues facial recognition is incompatible with basic privacy rights, and will exacerbate structural racism in policing tactics. “New Yorkers should be able to go out about their daily lives without being tracked by facial recognition,” said Matt Mahmoudi, an AI and human rights researcher with Amnesty. “Other major cities across the US have already banned facial recognition, and New York must do the same.”

"“The NYPD has used facial recognition to track tens of thousands of New Yorkers”"

Amnesty is joined in the New York portion of...

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Facebook’s News tab comes to UK in first launch outside of the US

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

Facebook’s News tab will go live in the UK on January 26th in its first launch outside the US. The company says the section will offer a mix of curated and personalized news stories, but for select publishers the bigger news is that it will see Facebook paying them to license their content.

Although Facebook declined to give information on the amount it expects to pay publishers, a spokesperson said the company plans to invest “substantial” amounts over a number of years. These payments are expected to mainly go to publishers whose content isn’t already on Facebook — for instance, like content that’s normally paywalled. The Guardian previously reported that some publishers expect these payments to be worth millions of pounds a year.

A...

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Apple has a new head of hardware engineering in latest executive shuffle

John Ternus, Apple’s new senior vice president of hardware engineering | Photo: Apple

Apple’s hardware team is getting its biggest shakeup in nearly a decade, as Dan Riccio — who served as the company’s senior vice president of hardware engineering since 2012 — transitions to “a new role” at the company. He’ll be replaced as Apple’s head hardware engineer by John Ternus, who led the hardware team designing the iPhone 12 and 12 Pro, in addition to working on Apple’s M1 chips. Ternus has been vice president of hardware engineering at Apple since 2013.

The role of senior vice president of hardware engineering at Apple is a key one: the position reports directly to CEO Tim Cook and is responsible for leading the Mac, iPhone, iPad, and iPod engineering teams. Ternus’ new role will put him in charge of the company’s hardware...

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Biden wants to replace government fleet with electric vehicles

President Joe Biden will start the process of phasing out the federal government’s use of gas-powered vehicles and replacing them with ones that run on electricity. The announcement is the fulfillment of a promise Biden made on the campaign trail to swap government fleet vehicles with American-made EVs.

“The federal government also owns an enormous fleet of vehicles, which we’re going to replace with clean electric vehicles made right here in America, by American workers,” Biden said during a briefing Monday announcing his “Buy American” executive order.

Pres. Biden: "The federal government also owns an enormous fleet of vehicles, which we're going to replace with clean electric vehicles made right here in America, by American...

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Amazon’s Alexa can now act on its own hunches to turn off lights and more

Photo by Dan Seifert / The Verge

Amazon is enabling a new feature today that allows Alexa to proactively complete tasks around the house, such as turning off lights, based on your habits and frequent requests.

Alexa has been able to sense these habits and ask about them since 2018 — the company calls them “hunches” — but before this update, Alexa would ask permission before acting on something like lowering the thermostat before you went to bed. If the new proactive hunches are enabled, though, Alexa will skip asking for permission for a task and just do it.

While proactive hunches seem like they could make Alexa a lot more useful, having granular controls over what Alexa can automatically act on will be important. An Amazon support article seems to suggest you can...

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Nerf’s new blasters curve their shots a la Angelina Jolie in Wanted

Nerf’s got a new trick up its sleeve: Hasbro’s latest foam-flinging sidearms can curve their shots, possibly letting you hit targets you can’t even see. (Think Angelina Jolie or James McAvoy in Wanted but with bouncy balls instead of bullets.)

That’s because each of Nerf’s three new Rival Curve blasters has an adjustable barrel you can twist to change the angle of your shot: left or right to shoot around corners, up to shoot straight, or down to lob balls over cover.

Feeling skeptical? I would also be looking at this CG, especially considering MythBusters all but proved you can’t bend a real-life bullet over a decade ago. But you actually can curve toy projectiles like these foam balls. In fact, companies like Hasbro have...

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5G boxes are coming to people’s homes, whether they want them or not

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

When most people look out their windows in the morning, they likely aren’t expecting to be surprised by a chest freezer-sized box that’s feeding a 5G antenna, but that’s the exact experience some Houston residents have been having. Verizon has been installing the boxes as part of its 5G network rollout since at least 2019, and from the reporting done by the Houston Chronicle, it seems as if it’s been anything but smooth.

The boxes are known as “ground fixtures,” and they supply power and data to 5G antennas that are placed on utility poles nearby. The ones gracing people’s front window views are being set up to build out Verizon’s 5G home internet service. It’s well-known at this point that, while millimeter-wave tech is blazing-fast, it...

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Slow certification process keeps some pharmacists from giving COVID-19 vaccines

Photo by Spencer Platt / Getty Images

When pharmacist Erin McCreary moved to Pennsylvania in 2018, she didn’t anticipate ever having to administer vaccines. She’d taken a vaccination certification course back in pharmacy school six years earlier, but it wasn’t part of her job description as an infectious diseases pharmacist at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center. That’s why she wasn’t concerned about the state pharmacy board rule that pharmacists had to file their certificate within two years of receiving it or they’d have to take the course again.

“Well, now, of course, COVID-19 happened,” McCreary told The Verge. She wanted to sign up to help with COVID-19 vaccination efforts, so she emailed the board asking if they could waive the requirement. “I have my...

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Here are the best Apple Watch deals right now

Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge

Thinking about picking up a new Apple Watch? It’s never a bad idea to wait until there’s a good deal, and thankfully, those happen with some regularity.

There are currently three models to choose from, all of which support watchOS 7. The latest model, and the highest end, is the Apple Watch Series 6 with GPS and Wi-Fi connectivity, which starts at $399. If that’s a little too expensive, you can drop about $120 off the price by buying an Apple Watch SE, which also launched this fall.

Finally, the three-year-old Series 3 is the most affordable Apple Watch model to date. It has a starting retail price of $199, but it frequently goes on sale. If you’re looking for something to last a few years, though, it’s probably worth looking at one of...

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Here are the best Amazon Echo deals right now

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 currently available right now.

Photo by Dan Seifert / The Verge Amazon Echo Dot with LED display

Echo Dot

Last year, Amazon released the 4th 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 3rd-gen Echo Dot, which still retains the familiar dot shape.

During...

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Sony could bring back the Xperia Compact to compete with the iPhone 12 mini

Image: OnLeaks / Voice

Sony is reportedly set to bring back its “Compact” line of phones in 2021 with a new Xperia Compact model. It will offer a 5.5-inch display and dimensions more in line with Apple’s (relatively) diminutive iPhone 12 mini rather than the increasingly large phones that Sony has offered for the last few years.

The new device, according to noted phone leaker OnLeaks, who has also posted renders of the upcoming phone over at Voice, would feature dimensions of 140 x 68.9 x 8.9 mm (5.5 x 2.71 x 0.35 inches), making it just a bit bigger than the iPhone 12 mini (which measures 131.5 x 64.2 x 7.4 mm or 5.18 x 2.53 x 0.29 inches).

The new Xperia Compact is also said to offer an 8-megapixel selfie camera in a teardrop notch, a dual-camera setup with...

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Here are the best Kindle deals right now

Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge

When it comes to finding a device to use to read your ebooks, you have a few options to choose from. You can always buy a tablet or simply use your smartphone, but those devices are multipurpose and can be used for a ton of things, like surfing the web or doom-scrolling through Twitter. If you are looking for something to strictly read books, e-readers, while a niche piece of tech, is designed to store all of your books in a virtual library with no other functionality.

Amazon has dominated the space for years with its Kindle products. Right now, there are three Kindle models you can choose from, each with pros and cons.

Below, we’ve listed each of the current Kindles available for purchase. Sometimes, there isn’t a deal for one or, in...

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Renewable energy production beat fossil fuels in Europe

Wind turbines pictured during evening light on November 23rd, 2020, in Oschersleben, Germany. | Photo by Florian Gaertner / Photothek via Getty Images

Renewable energy became the biggest source of electricity in the European Union in 2020, beating fossil fuels for the first time. Germany and Spain also hit that milestone individually last year — so did the UK, which officially left the EU in January 2020.

Renewables powered 38 percent of electricity in the EU last year, according to a report released today by energy think tanks Ember and Agora Energiewende. That gives renewable energy a narrow lead over fossil fuel-fired generation, which accounted for 37 percent of Europe’s electricity. The remaining quarter comes from nuclear energy.

"“An important milestone in Europe’s clean energy transition”"

The rise of renewables is good news for the health of the planet. Still, renewable energy...

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Verizon prepaid customers can now access fast 5G Ultra Wideband

Verizon’s 5G UW delivers truly impressive speeds. | Verizon

Verizon is extending access to its fast mmWave 5G network to its prepaid customers for the first time. A new unlimited plan starts at $75 a month — $10 more than the standard unlimited prepaid plan — and includes access to Verizon’s 5G Ultra Wideband network. Previously, 5G UW access was limited to postpaid customers on certain unlimited plans. All prepaid and postpaid plans continue to include access to Verizon’s slower Nationwide 5G network, which is currently only a bit faster than LTE.

The 5G UW network does offer impressive speeds, but it’s limited by very short signal range. Currently, Verizon offers the service in parts of 64 cities, so if you’re thinking about upgrading to a plan that includes UW, you’ll definitely want to c...

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Here are the best iPad deals right now

Photo by Brennan King / The Verge

Deals on Apple’s iPad are more common than you might think. Whether you’re after the affordable iPad, the high-end iPad Pro, or something in between like the iPad Air or iPad Mini, there’s usually some sort of price cut happening somewhere. Of course, it’s difficult to know exactly where you can find those deals unless you’re looking around at all of the major retailers. But that’s what we’re doing each day when we hunt for deals, so let us help you out.

Below, we’ve listed each of the current iPads available for purchase. Most of the time, there’s some sort of discount happening on a new or refurbished model. When there is a deal we think is worth telling you about, we’ll let you know, along with any info you need to keep it in context....

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Apple adds walking with celebrities to Fitness Plus’ features

Image: Apple

Apple is adding celebrity-guided walking workouts to Fitness Plus today, with new walks to be added every Monday through the end of April. The new feature, called “Time to Walk,” pairs music and inspirational monologues from famous musicians, athletes, and actors with the exercise tracking that Apple Watch and Fitness Plus are known for.

Today’s launch includes walks with Shawn Mendes, Dolly Parton, Draymond Green, and Uzo Aduba. Apple says each Time to Walk episode features “personal, life shaping moments” from each influential person’s life and career, along with lessons, memories, and moments of levity. The celebrities will also introduce a playlist of songs after their talk to keep the motivation going for the rest of your walk and...

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Twitter launches Birdwatch, a fact-checking program intended to fight misinformation

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

Twitter has launched its Birdwatch program, meant to address misinformation on the platform by allowing users to fact-check tweets, the company announced Monday. Users in the pilot program, which will only include about 1,000 users in the US to start, will eventually be able to add notes to tweets to provide context.

For now, users participating in the pilot can write notes on individual tweets, but the notes won’t be publicly visible on Twitter itself, only on the public Birdwatch website. Pilot users can also rate notes submitted by other participants in the program there.

Here’s an example of what a tweet with the Birdwatch notes would look like:

Image: Twitter An example of what tweets with Birdwatch notes...

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Amazon bans Oath Keepers and Three Percenters groups from charitable shopping program

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

After pressure from activist group Sleeping Giants, Amazon has banned groups tied to the Oath Keepers and the Three Percenters militia movements from its AmazonSmile charity program, the company tells The Verge. Members of the Oath Keepers and the Three Percenters have been arrested for their suspected involvement in the January 6th attack of the US Capitol.

Through its AmazonSmile program, Amazon donates 0.5 percent of eligible purchases on the site to a user’s chosen charity. Users can pick from more than 1 million charities — a list that, until recently, included the Oath Keepers and Three Percenters groups. AmazonSmile’s participation agreement says that groups that engage in or support hate, terrorism, or violence aren’t eligible...

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PSA: phones, MagSafe or not, should be kept away from your pacemaker

Photo by Dieter Bohn / The Verge

When it comes to whether MagSafe-enabled iPhones are safe around pacemakers or other implanted medical devices, Apple and medical device makers have the same advice: it should be okay, but it’s best not to risk it.

MacRumors spotted an update to one of Apple’s support documents, where the company advises that iPhones should be kept at least six inches away from a pacemaker or implanted defibrillator during normal use and a foot away if the device is actively using wireless charging (via 9to5Mac).

This advice isn’t specific to the MagSafe phones. Apple says the additional magnets shouldn’t make the phones any more likely to turn off your implanted medical device than any other phone, a sentiment Medtronic, the manufacturer of such...

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