Instagram, TikTok, and Twitter team up to crack down on hackers who steal rare usernames

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

Instagram has disabled hundreds of accounts that were stolen as part of online hacking operations designed to gain access to and sell rare and coveted usernames, the company tells The Verge. Both TikTok and Twitter also took action on some of the accounts belonging to the same hackers, reports journalist and cybersecurity expert Brian Krebs.

The Facebook-owned platform set its sights mainly on the community surrounding OGUsers, a website well-known for trafficking in stolen usernames and helping facilitate the hacking of these accounts through methods like SIM swapping, which is when a user gains control of someone’s phone number and uses it to reset passwords and take control of social media handles. News of Instagram’s enforcement was...

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The next victim of the global microchip shortage is Ford’s most profitable truck, the F-150

Many companies have had to scale back car production due to a global computer chip shortage, but CNBC is reporting that the shortages are finally hitting America’s most popular vehicle: the Ford F-150. According to the report, Ford is temporarily cutting the number of shifts in its truck production plants in half: its Dearborn, Michigan, factory is going from three shifts a week to one, and its Kansas City, Missouri, plant is going from three shifts to two.

CNBC quotes Ford spokesperson Kelli Felker as saying Ford expects the plants to return to normal operation in a couple of weeks, and the company is “working closely with suppliers to address potential production constraints tied to the global semiconductor shortage.”

This isn’t the...

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Apple patent application imagines charging cables that might not fray so easily

A Lightning to USB-A cable. | Image: Apple

Apple’s charging cables aren’t exactly known for their durability. They often fray after a year or two and can even break down to the point where they won’t charge your device at all. (I’ve also noticed they can turn an increasingly sour shade of yellow.) But Apple is apparently working on some ideas to make its cables more durable, filing a patent application for a “Cable with Variable Stiffness.”

The patent, first reported by AppleInsider, describes some different ideas for a cable that wouldn’t fray as easily. The methods would give different parts of the cable varying levels of stiffness, while keeping the cable uniformly thick. They would also replace what Apple calls the “strain relief sleeve” — the stiff cap you’ll find at the...

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Two Google engineers quit over firing of ethical AI leader Timnit Gebru

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

Two Google engineers have quit over the treatment of Timnit Gebru, former co- lead of the ethical AI team. David Baker, an engineering director, said Gebru’s dismissal “extinguished” his desire to remain at the company. Vinesh Kannan, a software engineer, said he was leaving because Gebru and April Christina Curley, a diversity recruiter, were “wronged.” The news was first reported by Reuters.

“We cannot say we believe in making a more understanding, informed world, and then ignore how our products amplify biases,” Baker wrote in a farewell note to colleagues. “We cannot say we believe in diversity, and then ignore the conspicuous absence of many voices from within our walls.”

The departures point to an ongoing conflict between Google...

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Walmart will have PS5 and Xbox Series X / S available online at 3PM ET today

Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge

If you have been having a hard time finding PS5 or Xbox Series X / S consoles in stock, you have another chance to get your hands on one or both of these next-gen consoles. A Walmart spokesperson told The Verge that the retailer will have the consoles available for purchase today at 3PM ET.

Like past restocks, Walmart is selling these next-gen consoles exclusively online through its official website as well as through the Walmart mobile app. It’s unknown when Walmart plans to sell these consoles again in stores, so if you want to buy either console currently, online is the only available method.

Walmart told The Verge that it plans to have inventory for the PS5, the PS5 Digital Edition, Xbox Series X, and Xbox Series S gaming consoles...

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Democrats call on FCC to expand remote learning connectivity

Image: Alex Castro / The Verge

In an open letter on Thursday, dozens of Democrats called on Federal Communications Commission Acting Chair Jessica Rosenworcel to expand the use of broadband funds for students struggling to stay connected and participate in remote learning.

In a letter to Rosenworcel, signed by over 30 Senate Democrats, including Sens. Ed Markey (D-MA) and Maria Cantwell (D-WA), they requested that the FCC use E-Rate program funds to connect students with devices and home internet access who are currently unable to participate in online learning as a result of the coronavirus pandemic. The E-Rate program provides universal service funding to connect schools and libraries to the internet.

"“Your prompt action would provide an essential down payment”"

“We...

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Sony sold 4.5 million PlayStation 5 consoles last year

Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge

Sony shipped 4.5 million PlayStation 5 units worldwide in 2020, as revealed by information published alongside the company’s latest earnings report. The number highlights Sony’s current ability to mass-produce the console, which has been extremely difficult to buy since its launch in November.

Demand for the PlayStation 4 dropped dramatically year-on-year, with 1.4 million units shipped in the October-December quarter — a 77 percent decrease from the previous year. Sony actually managed to sell fewer PS4s in the holiday quarter than it did from July to September.

"The best quarter in PlayStation history"

Sony’s gaming business overall performed much better than a year ago, with analyst Daniel Ahmad noting that it was actually the best...

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Huawei’s next folding phone is coming on February 22nd

Huawei will announce a new flagship foldable phone later this month, according to a Weibo post on the company’s official page. Based on the name, the Mate X2 sounds like it should be a more substantial followup to the original Mate X than Huawei’s last foldable phone, the faster and slightly tweaked Mate XS.

Unless Huawei is being deliberately cryptic, the teaser image for the Mate X2 actually suggests that the phone could possibly switch to a different folding screen design with the flexible panel on the inside, like Samsung’s Galaxy Z Fold line. The previous Mate X phones had a single panel that wrapped around the outside when closed, like Royole’s Flexpai devices.

Otherwise, there’s not much in the way of details on the Mate X2 yet....

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This hypercar is China’s first Belt and Road electric vehicle project

Image: Silk EV

A new engineering and design startup called Silk EV headquartered in Italy’s venerable Motor Valley is more than just another attempt at making an electric hypercar. It’s also the latest arrow in the quiver for China’s massive Belt and Road project, though the first that deals with electric cars.

Silk EV announced on Tuesday that it will co-develop an “ultra-luxury hypercar” called the S9 in the home region of Lamborghini and Ferrari with First Automobile Works (FAW), China’s original state-owned automaker. The S9 will be part of the Chinese automaker’s longstanding Hongqi brand, which means “red flag” and was once exclusively made for high-ranking Chinese government officials before becoming more widely available.

The two companies...

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A Cyberpunk 2077 security exploit makes installing mods risky business

Image: CD Projekt Red

CD Projekt Red has warned players that installing Cyberpunk 2077 mods or custom save files on the PC could pose a security risk (via Kotaku). According to the company’s tweet, there’s apparently a “vulnerability in external DLL files the game uses which can be used to execute code on PCs.” The game’s official mod tools were just released last week.

The company warns users not to install files from unknown sources, though as Kotaku points out, that pretty much rules out all mods unless you can read and understand their code. When you’re dealing with a vulnerability that could potentially lead to arbitrary code running on your computer, it’s probably best not to risk it until a fix is available.

If you plan to use @CyberpunkGame...

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The GameStop stock roller coaster has come to the dip

It hasn’t been a good day for WallStreetBets, as GameStop’s stock has plummeted today. AMC, the community’s other bet, dropped as well. But unlike previous dips, the stocks don’t appear to be rallying. Prices stayed low for the entire trading day, something that hasn’t happened since WallStreetBets became a household name one week ago.

When the market closed today, the price of GameStop was $90 even, an 81 percent drop from GameStop’s peak at $483, and a 58 percent drop from its price of $218 on Friday evening. AMC is down too, closing today at $7.82, which is a 61 percent drop from its peak at $19.88.

It’s hard to believe that in August of last year, GameStop was trading at $4.50. Between then and last week, some investors bet that the...

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Apple’s next macOS Big Sur update should make iPad apps look less awkward on the Mac

Photo by Alexander Kramer for The Verge

Apple just yesterday released its latest update for macOS Big Sur with improved Bluetooth reliability and a handful of bug fixes. And today, it’s rolling out the first beta of macOS Big Sur 11.3, which will bring further refinements to Safari, Reminders, Apple Music, Apple News, and other apps. This update will also try to improve the experience of running iPhone and iPad apps on M1 Macs, which can still be a little awkward at this early stage (and without a touchscreen display).

iPadOS apps will now appear larger than before — if your screen size allows for it — and beta testers will find a new preference pane for iPhone and iPad apps that’ll let them better personalize the “touch alternatives” keyboard commands. Touch alternatives...

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Another SpaceX Starship nails clean test flight, but explodes on landing

SpaceX’s latest Starship prototype launched on Tuesday, soaring miles above its South Texas facilities in a successful flight demonstration before exploding during the landing attempt. It’s the second failed landing in a row, after a previous prototype, SN8, launched and failed to stick the landing in December.

This week’s launch demo — one of many in the books already — follows weeks of tension between SpaceX and the Federal Aviation Administration, which approves test launches like this one. During its high-altitude test launch with SN8 two months ago, the company violated its FAA launch license. This triggered an investigation that held up today’s SN9 flight and frustrated SpaceX CEO Elon Musk, The Verge reported last week.

"SpaceX..."

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The iCloud for Windows version that let you sync Apple passwords is no longer available

Apple’s rocky rollout of iCloud password sync on Windows has hit another bump: you can no longer download the version of the app that allowed syncing passwords from your Apple devices with your Chrome web browser on a Windows PC (via Windows Central). Version 12 of Apple’s iCloud for Windows app released last week with supposed support for the feature, but the Chrome extension to make it work wasn’t available until two days ago. Now, version 12 is gone from the Windows Store, with version 11.6 taking its place.

Weirdly, the changelog on the Windows Store still says that the password syncing functionality is present. However, upon downloading, the app shows the version as 11.6 in the top right. We verified this for ourselves, and you can...

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Instagram is stopping some people from posting feed photos to stories

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

Instagram is disabling the ability to share (and reshare) posts from your feed to stories as part of a test to see how it changes engagement with the popular feature. The company announced the change in a notification banner sent to users in “select countries” where the test is being conducted, Social Media Today __ writes. We’ve reached out to Instagram for specifics on exactly which countries are participating and will update if we hear more.

“We hear from our community that they want to see fewer posts in Stories,” the notification starts. “During this test, you won’t be able to add a feed post to your Story.” Resharing posts to stories is a fairly common practice, though it does create situations where you’ll see a post in your feed and...

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TikTok reduces India staff after long-standing countrywide ban

A user browses TikTok in Tehatta, India. | Photo by Soumyabrata Roy/NurPhoto via Getty Images

More than seven months after India issued a countrywide ban on TikTok, the app is significantly reducing its staffing in the country. On Tuesday, Nikkei Asia reported that TikTok was “essentially withdrawing” from India, citing sources familiar with the company.

Reached for comment, a TikTok spokesperson confirmed that it was reducing its workforce in India but disputed the details of Nikkei ’s report.

In a statement, a TikTok spokesperson told The Verge: “ Given the lack of feedback from the government about how to resolve this issue in the subsequent seven months, it is with deep sadness that we have decided to reduce our workforce in India... [We] hope to get the chance to relaunch TikTok in India to support the hundreds of millions of...

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Google Meet’s new ‘green room’ lets you do an audio / video pre-check

It can be difficult to figure out how you’re coming across in a videoconference, especially if you want to make sure everything works before you start the meeting. How is your lighting? Are you sitting too close or too far from the camera? Is your audio okay, are you accidentally muted, or do you sound as if you’re in an echo chamber?

Google has now made it easier to check your appearance and your tech before a Meet conference with its new “green room” feature (via 9to5Google). When you start or prepare to join a meeting, in the usual “Ready to join?” window that first appears, you will now also see a small button below your video that says “Check your audio and video.” Just click on that button, and a pop-up window will not only show...

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Apex Legends is finally coming to the Nintendo Switch on March 9th

Apex Legends is coming to the Nintendo Switch very soon. Today, EA announced that the portable version of its sci-fi battle royale will debut on Nintendo’s tablet on March 9th.

Chad Grenier, Apex ’s game director, says the new version will include “cross-platform play, our latest seasonal content, and full feature parity with the other versions of the game.” Apex Legends originally launched in early 2019, and a Switch version was announced last June. It’s developed by Respawn, the studio behind games like Titanfall and Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order.

The Switch version launches not long after the game’s eighth season, which launches today. To make up for the difference, EA says that “since we’re launching a few weeks after the start of...

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The rise of the GOP Poster’s Caucus

It was September 2018, while Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey was testifying before Congress for the first time, when sitting lawmakers had their first confrontation with the wild nature of the online right. Nearly 90 minutes after the hearing began, Laura Loomer, a far-right internet celebrity, stood up from the committee audience. “Please help us Mr. President before it is too late,” Loomer yelled, selfie stick in hand.

She said something about “censoring” and then something about “shadowbanning,” although it was hard to make out the argument.

“What is she trying to say?” Rep. Billy Long (R-MO) asked, before pretending to lead a live auction, imitating an auctioneer’s call to drown out Loomer’s voice and forcing her out the hearing room.

A...

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Amazon’s latest earnings cap off a sterling 2020, despite the pandemic

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

Amazon founder and soon-to-be-former CEO Jeff Bezos is stepping down from his role, making way for Amazon Web Services CEO Andy Jassy to take his place, and the company couldn’t be in better shape financially for the big transition.

Despite the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, Amazon has kept growing bigger during times that have strained many other businesses. In its Q4 2020 earnings release this afternoon, the company reported net income more than doubling to $7.2 billion for the quarter, compared to $3.3 billion for the same period in 2019. Amazon’s full-year 2020 net sales were up 38 percent, to $386.1 billion.

There’s a little more to unpack in these Q4 earnings than one might usually see. For 2020, Amazon shifted its Prime Day shopping...

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New trailers: The Map of Tiny Perfect Things, Ginny & Georgia, Young Rock and more

Dwayne Johnson in Young Rock | NBC

I think I’m in Ted Lasso withdrawal, you guys; no other shows are quite working for me since I finished it. I just started season 2 of Servant , though, thinking maybe I needed a genre-switch. Servant is still creepy, and Lauren Ambrose’s Dorothy is still both totally unlikeable and totally sympathetic at the same time, which is a marvelous bit of character development. We’ll see how things go, but chances are I’m just going to re- binge Ted again.

This week’s trailers are a nice mixed bag of comedy, teen romance, and spy thriller. Also The Rock!

The Map of Tiny Perfect Things

So the trailer gets the obvious out of the way early on— it’s about is a teenager stuck in a repeating time loop a la “ Groundhog Day and Edge of Tomorrow ,” as lead...

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NASA delays moon lander awards as Biden team mulls moonshot program

Photo by Ozkan Bilgin/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images

NASA last week quietly delayed its plan to award two high-profile crewed lunar lander contracts, moving the finish line back two months for a crucial program under the Trump administration’s hasty timeline to get astronauts on the moon in 2024. With short funding from Congress and a new administration focused on more pressing national issues, the move was expected.

Elon Musk’s SpaceX, a team of aerospace giants led by Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin, and Leidos-owned Dynetics won a combined $967 million in seed funding from NASA last year to develop rivaling concepts for a human lunar landing system. It’s the space agency’s first effort to spend money on astronaut moon landers since the Apollo program in the 1970s.

Last Wednesday, NASA told the...

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Amazon’s Ring now reportedly partners with more than 2,000 US police and fire departments

Photo by Dan Seifert / The Verge

All but two US states — Montana and Wyoming— now have police or fire departments participating in Amazon’s Ring network, which lets law enforcement ask users for footage from their Ring security cameras to assist with investigations, the Financial Times reported, Figures from Ring show more than 1,189 departments joined the program in 2020 for a total of 2,014. That’s up sharply from 703 departments in 2019 and just 40 in 2018.

The FT reports that local law enforcement departments on the platform asked for Ring videos for a total of more than 22,335 incidents in 2020. The disclosure data from Ring also shows that law enforcement made some 1,900 requests — such as subpoenas, search warrants, and court orders— for footage or data from Ring...

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The people wanted Lego bike lanes, and Lego is finally listening

Screenshot: Lego

The quest to get one of the most popular toymakers in the world to make a little space for bicycles

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Motorola One 5G Ace review: a weak hand

The Ace offers a large screen and massive battery, but it falls short in some key areas

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Facebook is getting pulled into a fight about the politics of Israel

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

On November 10th, a Facebook employee sent out an unusual email to an unknown outside party, hoping to arrange a conversation about how the platform moderated against anti-Semitism. “We are looking at the question of how we should interpret attacks on ‘Zionists,’” reads the letter, whose recipient was redacted, “to determine whether the term is a proxy for attacking Jewish or Israeli people.”

That strange but seemingly innocuous email has set off a firestorm in certain corners of the left. Since Tuesday, activists have been circulating a petition calling on the platform to halt any potential changes to the way Facebook moderates the word “Zionist.” Both sides agree the term is often used as part of racist rhetoric that is accurately...

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The latest Steam Game Festival kicks off Wednesday

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

Valve’s latest Steam Game Festival begins Wednesday, giving access to playable demos of more than 500 upcoming games from indie developers, along with livestreamed chats and panel discussions. The first iteration of the festival took place alongside The Game Awards in December 2019, and was followed by similar events last fall and spring that provided indie developers a chance to show off their titles after the 2020 Game Developers Conference was canceled.

A trailer video from Steam titled Play What’s Next teases a few of the games that look to be available for demo during the event, which include Genesis Noir from Feral Cat Den; The Riftbreaker from Exor Studios; Narita Boy from Studio Koba; Almighty: Kill Your Gods from Runwild...

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Volunteers built a one-stop website to find open NYC vaccine appointments

Photo by ANGELA WEISS/AFP via Getty Images

The first two months of the COVID-19 vaccination campaign have been chaotic: local health departments and hospitals are struggling put the limited shots they have available in arms, and people eligible for those shots are often frustrated by buggy sign-up websites. Older adults, in particular, are having trouble with online tools.

In New York City, one of the main pain points is that everything is fractured. Multiple different groups — including the city, the state, and various hospital groups — are distributing the vaccine across dozens of sites. That leaves New Yorkers juggling multiple registration websites as they search for open slots

After experiencing the frustration of jumping from site to site to site firsthand, software...

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G.I. Joe’s Fortnite collaboration includes a Snake Eyes skin and action figure

With all of its recent licensed characters, which includes everyone from Sarah Connor to The Mandalorian, the virtual battlefield of Fortnite is starting to resemble a playground full of action figures. When you think about it like that, a collaboration with G.I. Joe makes a lot of sense. With that in mind, Epic and Hasbro announced that iconic character Snake Eyes will be available as part of the Fortnite universe starting today — both in-game and as a physical toy.

The new version of the character is called Snake Eyes: Zero Point edition, an allusion to a key part of Fortnite lore (one which took on more significance this season). The in-game version will be available starting on January 30th for 1,800 V-bucks, while a 6-inch-tall...

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Google union in turmoil following global alliance announcement

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

The Alphabet Workers Union (AWU) is in turmoil following the announcement of an international alliance on Monday. The alliance, Alpha Global, was billed as a worker-led initiative, but union members in the US say they didn’t know about it until The Verge published an exclusive. That piece included a press release quote from AWU executive council member Parul Koul, which she says she didn’t write.

The news was an unwelcome surprise to union members who expect the Alphabet Workers Union to run democratically. Now, multiple sources tell The Verge that some AWU organizers are considering pushing the group to disaffiliate from the Communications Workers of America (CWA), a national union representing workers in telecommunications and media....

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