Weeks later, Google still hasn’t added privacy labels to its most popular iPhone apps

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

Three weeks after Google promised it would add Apple’s mandatory app privacy labels “as soon as this week,” none of the company’s main apps have the labels, including Gmail, search, Photos, Docs, and YouTube.

There have been some questions about whether Google is purposefully not updating its apps to avoid the labels, so I looked through every Google app in the iOS App Store to find out whether the updates have been coming.

Some have: 12 apps now have the iOS privacy labels, though they may not be as recognizable as YouTube or Gmail:

• Stadia
• Google Translate
• Google Authenticator
• Google Play Movies and TV
• Google Classroom
• Google Fiber
• Google Fiber TV
• Wear OS
• Onduo for Diabetes
• Project Baseline
• Google Smart Lock
• Motion Stills - GIF,...

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The HomePod mini finally adds its long-promised ultra-wideband handoff feature

Image: Apple

Apple has officially released iOS 14.4 and a matching update for its HomePod mini speaker, adding the long-promised ultra-wideband (UWB) handoff feature that will allow newer iPhones to more seamlessly transfer music, calls, and podcasts between the two devices.

While both the original HomePod and the HomePod mini have supported handing off music for some time, the smaller device features a U1 ultra-wideband chip that promises to make it even easier to transfer content over from an iPhone 12 or iPhone 11 device. The new U1-enhanced functionality also adds additional features, including new visual and haptic feedback. The U1-based system also will give the option to show listening suggestions when you bring your phone close and display...

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Testing sidelined as health departments focus on vaccination

Photo by Paul Hennessy/NurPhoto via Getty Images

Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles was the biggest COVID-19 testing site in the United States, with the ability to test over 10,000 people each day. But two weeks into January, amid a chaotic and slow-moving COVID-19 vaccine rollout, the city shut down the site in order to convert it into a vaccination site. The city closed another testing site, as well, temporarily slashing government-run COVID-19 testing capacity by one-third.

It’s a pattern playing out across the country, in states like Florida, Nevada, and Illinois. Health departments are working with limited resources to fight COVID-19, and many had to make a choice: keep testing at the same level or focus on vaccinating. “We remain very concerned that there’s only so many resources to...

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Apple execs discussed not ‘leaving money on the table’ when setting Apple TV subscription fees

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

In Apple and Epic’s ongoing court battle over App Store fees, one of the key sticking points has been Apple’s insistence on maintaining a 30 percent cut as a cornerstone of the storefront.

But newly revealed Apple executive emails from the case show that the App Store rules that Apple flouts as essential to the fairness of the app economy were carefully negotiated into existence over time in a way that ensured Apple wasn’t “leaving money on the table.”

The emails date back to a 2011 discussion, which included Apple software and services leader Eddy Cue, around how Apple would handle subscription video applications on the Apple TV — an important conversation, given the rise in popularity of streaming services. And while the discussion...

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Verizon Fios is experiencing outages on the East Coast

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

Verizon Fios, the company’s fiber optic network, appears to be experiencing outages in many locations on the US East Coast.

There are more than 22,000 user reports of problems with Verizon on Downdetector, and there appear to be hotspots on Downdetector’s outage map for Verizon in Boston, New York City, Washington, DC, and more. A few Verge staffers are experiencing outages as well.

A screenshot of Downdetector’s outage map for Verizon , captured at 12:25PM ET.

Many people on Twitter are also reporting issues with their Fios service. Verizon’s support account has replied to some individuals reporting problems, saying that it has been “informed of a potential outage in the area.” The account also said there has been a...

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The Alpha 1 is Sony’s new flagship camera with monstrous specs and a $6,500 price

Image: Sony

Sony has today announced its most advanced mirrorless camera yet: the $6,500 Alpha 1 features a new 50.1-megapixel full-frame sensor, is capable of continuous photo shooting at 30 images per second, and can record 8K video at 30fps. It’ll ship beginning in March.

The powerhouse camera is priced significantly above the highest-end mirrorless cameras from Canon and Nikon, but Sony promises that customers who buy in will be rewarded with “the most technologically advanced, innovative camera” it’s ever made.

It sounds like a dream for sports and action photographers: even with its large sensor, Sony says the buffer lets you shoot “up to 155 full-frame compressed RAW images or 165 full-frame JPEG images at up to 30 frames per second with the...

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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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