Venmo drops the global social feed that could make your payments visible to strangers

The updated Venmo app without the global social feed. | Image: Venmo

Venmo announced it's removing its global social feed on Tuesday, the payment app’s notorious feature that allows strangers to potentially view payments you make and receive on Venmo (via Bloomberg).

Now Venmo’s social elements will be limited to your actual friends on the app in the “friends feed” without you having to toggle any features in the app. The company buried the change in a blog post detailing an update to the Venmo app. Venmo writes:

As part of our ongoing efforts to continually evolve the Venmo platform, while staying true to the heart of the Venmo experience, we are removing the global feed, and the friends feed is now the only social feed that will appear in the app. The Venmo community has grown to more than 70 million...

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Biden to nominate Google critic Jonathan Kanter to lead DOJ antitrust division

Photo by Adam Schultz

President Joe Biden will nominate Jonathan Kanter, an ardent Google critic and competition lawyer, to lead the Justice Department’s antitrust division, as first reported by Bloombergon Tuesday.

Kanter has a long history of representing companies in competition cases against Google, and he opened his own law firm last year. If confirmed by the Senate, Kanter would take the helm on a slate of cases against big tech companies led by the Justice Department, including a monopoly lawsuit filed against Google last October. The case accuses the search giant of creating an illegal monopoly in the digital ads market.

“Jonathan Kanter is a distinguished antitrust lawyer”

“Jonathan Kanter is a distinguished antitrust lawyer with over 20 years of...

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Lightyear finds a manufacturer to build its solar-powered EV

Dutch startup Lightyear has found a manufacturing partner to build its solar-powered electric car, the Lightyear One. Finnish contract manufacturer Valmet Automotive signed a letter of intent with the startup this week, and the two companies plan to start building prototypes together in early 2022, with an eye on midyear for the beginning of production of nearly 1,000 vehicles. A second vehicle meant for mass production is yet to be announced.

Lightyear was founded in 2016 by a team of engineers who had competed together in the World Solar Challenge, a race held every few years in the Australian outback that’s meant to advance the idea of solar-powered cars. The startup showed off the first prototype of the Lightyear One in 2019. It’s a...

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Google is bundling three months of HBO Max with the Chromecast for $64.99

Photo by Chris Welch / The Verge

Google has started selling a new bundle that gives you some premium entertainment to go along with the company’s Chromecast streaming gadget. For $64.99, you’ll get both the Chromecast with Google TV and three months of HBO Max. The device usually retails for $49.99, and HBO Max’s ad-free tier costs $14.99 per month, so you’re basically getting two months of the service for free.

As usual with this sort of thing, the deal is only available for new subscribers of HBO Max; existing customers are out of luck. Google is offering the bundle beginning today, and it’ll be available for the rest of the year. The company is limiting each customer / Google account to three devices, but it’s not like you can stack the HBO Max offer, so there’s not...

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Female Olympians needed to train longer to beat Tokyo’s heat

Team Great Britain trains ahead of the Tokyo Olympics. | Photo by Harriet Lander / Getty Images

The Olympians streaming into Tokyo this week are about to be faced with the hottest games in decades, with temperatures around 90 degrees Fahrenheit and suffocating humidity. Many athletes and sports physiologists have had their eye on the summer temperatures in Japan for years and have been planning to help athletes acclimate to the heat.

In the weeks leading up to the games, female Olympians may have had to spend more time preparing for the heat than their male counterparts. Some early studies show that it can take twice as long for female athletes to adjust than male athletes. The information is limited, though, because until only a few years ago, most of the research on how to prepare to compete in hot environments was only done on...

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Canada plans to start letting vaccinated US travelers back into the country

Starting on August 9th, Canada is planning on opening its borders to vaccinated Americans after the country stopped allowing nonessential travel in March 2020 (via The Washington Post). According to the Canadian government’s announcement, the new travel rules will apply to US citizens and permanent residents who are currently living in the country and who have been fully vaccinated with one of the approved COVID-19 vaccines, as well as unvaccinated children who are traveling with a vaccinated guardian.

The announcement does say that the change will only happen if conditions in the country are still good — meaning that if Canada sees a spike in cases between now and August 9th, the border reopening may be reconsidered.

It won’t be as...

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Jeff Bezos appreciates your efforts to get Jeff Bezos to space

GIF: Blue Origin

After landing from his little jaunt to the edge of space, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos thanked the people who let him do it. “I want to thank every Amazon employee, and every Amazon customer, because you guys paid for all this,“ he said.

No, really, he said that.

this is somehow a real quote

Jeff Bezos: "I want to thank every Amazon employee, and every Amazon customer, because you guys paid for all this ... thank you from the bottom of my heart very much."pic.twitter.com/5JREV6Uha7

— Matthew Champion (@matthewchampion) July 20, 2021

Going to space had been a dream for Bezos since at least high school; his valedictory speech included discussion of creating permanent human colonies aboard space stations, according to Brad Stone’s The...

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Intel’s Mobileye begins testing autonomous vehicles in New York City

Mobileye, the company that specializes in chips for vision-based autonomous vehicles, is now testing its AVs in New York City — a difficult and rare move given the state’s restrictions around such testing.

The announcement was made by Amnon Shashua, president and CEO of the Intel-owned company, at an event in the city on Tuesday. Shashua said the company is currently testing two autonomous vehicles in New York City, but plans to increase that number to seven “in the next few months.”

New York City has some of the most dangerous, congested, and poorly managed streets in the world. They are also chock-full of construction workers, pedestrians, bicyclists, and double- and sometimes even triple-parked cars. In theory, this would make it...

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Chrome for Android will make it easier to manage sites’ permissions

Google is updating Chrome for Android’s permissions controls to make per-site permissions easier to access and manage. The update, available to Chrome on Android users, makes it faster to change what information a site can and cannot access. Tapping the lock button, then tapping Permissions will show a list of what the site is allowed to access, along with toggles to enable or disable them as you want. Google also says that there’s an upcoming feature that will let you “forget” the site from your browsing history, which is in the same vein as its recent feature allowing you to wipe the record of your last 15 minutes of browsing.

GIF: Google

A view of the updated permissions controls.

Google is also introducing...

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Windows 11’s latest preview introduces first Teams integration

When Microsoft announced Windows 11 in June, it revealed that Microsoft Teams would be integrated directly into the operating system and that you’d be able to connect with other people via a new Chat window. The first preview for the new operating system didn’t have that new functionality, but Microsoft is starting to roll it out in a limited way starting Tuesday with the newest Windows 11 preview for Windows Insiders.

The rollout of all of the promised features will happen over time, Microsoft’s Brandon LeBlanc said in a blog post. “In this first stage, you’ll be able to sign in, add contacts, and connect via individual and group chats,” he said. “Over the coming weeks, we will enable audio and video calling, meetings, screen sharing...

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Apple Arcade is getting a musical take on Tetris

Apple Arcade’s recent expansion means that the subscription service is now home to plenty of classic games — and things don’t get much more classic than T_etris_. Today, Apple announced that Tetris Beat, which mashes up the classic block-dropping puzzler with a rhythm game featuring music from the likes of Alison Wonderland, is coming to Arcade “soon.”

There’s no word on a specific release date, but Beat features 18 exclusive songs, split-screen support if you’re on an Apple TV, and spatial audio for those listening with AirPods. It looks to be yet another inventive take on the game, following the likes of the battle royale Tetris 99and Tetsuya Mizuguchi’s meditative Tetris Effect.

The news is also part of a solid run for Apple Arcade....

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Asus’ new premium Chromebooks are now available starting at $749.99

Asus

There are a number of excellent Chromebooks out there, but the race to make the one true successor to Google’s $999 Pixelbook is still very much on. Asus is throwing its hat into the ring with two new releases: the Chromebook CX9 and the Chromebook Flip CX5.

Both new Chromebooks meet US MIL-STD 810H standards, the company says, meaning they’ve undergone various tests for pressure, shock, drop, and more. Both can also be configured with up to an Intel Core i7 processor with Iris Xe graphics (which will be overkill for all but the most particular of users).

The clamshell Chromebook CX9 comes with up to 16GB of RAM, 512GB of storage, and a 550-nit UHD touchscreen. (There are FHD touch and non-touch options as well). Asus claims 14 hours...

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YouTube adds a new way to tip creators

Photo by Cameron Faulkner / The Verge

YouTube viewers will soon have a new way to throw their support — and money — behind their favorite creators. A new tool called Super Thanks that lets you tip creators is now being tested on the platform.

The feature lets users applaud a creator by choosing from one of four price points between $2 and $50 (or the regional currency equivalent). When a user purchases one of these four options, they’ll see a celebratory animation on-screen and a colorful comment with their name appear below the video in the comments section. Creators themselves will be able to respond to these messages in the same way they can on regular comments.

Image: YouTube

YouTube’s new Super Thanks feature shown on a mobile device.

YouTube...

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Twitter shares a first look at the ‘big overhaul’ coming to Tweetdeck

Tweetdeck redesign preview | Image: Twitter

Kayvon Beykpour said in a March interview with The Verge that Twitter does know Tweetdeck still exists and the company is working on an overhaul “from the ground up.” Today, Twitter posted a single image of the reworked app, explaining that it represents a preview going into testing with a few “randomly-selected” people from the US, Canada, and Australia.

We’re testing this preview with a small group of randomly-selected people in the United States, Canada, and Australia to start. If you’re eligible, you’ll see an invitation within TweetDeck to opt in.

— TweetDeck (@TweetDeck) July 20, 2021

Tweetdeck powers The Verge newsroom, and many others, so any changes are likely to meet a skeptical audience of power users, but so far it’s...

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How to reply to your video comments on TikTok

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

If you’re a video creator on TikTok, then your comment section could be really frustrating, especially if somebody leaves a comment that completely misinterprets what you’ve been saying (to say the least). You could send a text reply or simply create another video, but according to TikTok, now you have a third option: you can reply to your comments using video rather than text.

(Note: since this is something specifically for creators who want to video-reply to comments, we haven’t been able to test it yet. If / when we do, we’ll let you know.)

To add a video to a comment on one of your existing TikTok videos:

• Tap on the comment you want to reply to.
• If you have the ability to reply using a video, you’ll see an icon of a video camera on...

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How Capcom used motion capture to bring Resident Evil Village’s scariest monsters to life

Presentation director Masato Miyazaki on animating the likes of Lady Dimitrescu

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Sony might have made the perfect soundbar for PS5 and Xbox Series X

Image: Sony

Sony has just announced two new high-end home theater audio systems, both of which include HDMI 2.1 passthrough ports that offer full support for features like 8K video, 4K gaming at 120Hz, Dolby Vision HDR, eARC, and more.

First up is the HT-A7000 Dolby Atmos 7.1.2-channel soundbar. Priced at $1,299.99, the soundbar has two HDMI 2.1 inputs, so theoretically you could run both a PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X into this thing and play each console to its full potential.

Positioned as Sony’s latest flagship soundbar, the A7000 has two up-firing speakers for Atmos, two beam tweeters, and five front speakers for wider surround. There’s a built-in dual subwoofer, but if you need deeper bass, you can pay extra for a standalone sub; Sony’s...

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Verizon is also switching to Android Messages as default for RCS

Beginning next year, Verizon will join AT&T and T-Mobile in preloading Android Messages as the default texting app on all Android phones it sells. It’s the final step for making RCS Chat — the next-gen standard designed to replace SMS — the default experience for Android. In the US, that only leaves one large cohort that will not use RCS as a default SMS replacement: iPhone users.

Verizon has also said it will fully support interoperability between carriers, so in theory the improved images, video, read receipts, and group chats should just work — assuming everybody you’re texting with is also using Android Messages.

Verizon was the last of the big three US carriers to get on board with Google’s latest strategy to push RCS as the new...

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Blue Origin successfully sends Jeff Bezos and three others to space and back

Photo by Joe Raedle/Getty Images

Jeff Bezos launched to the edge of space Tuesday morning with three fellow passengers and landed safely in a Texas desert aboard his space company’s crew capsule. The NS-16 mission marked Blue Origin’s first to carry humans and kicked off commercial service for the company’s space tourism business. Flying Bezos, the richest man in the world who founded Blue Origin in 2000, sent a signal to prospective space tourists that the company’s suborbital New Shepard rocket is safe to fly and open for business.

The six-story-tall New Shepard booster lifted off under clear skies at 9:12PM ET on Tuesday from its remote launch site in Van Horn, Texas, with the company’s gumdrop-shapedRSS First Stepcrew capsule fixed on top. Bezos, his brother Mark,...

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Dropbox adds new file conversion tools and faster camera backups

Camera uploads should now be faster and more reliable. | Image: Dropbox

Dropbox is getting a slew of interface tweaks alongside new tools and features. One of the more useful inclusions is a new file conversion feature, which lets Dropbox users convert images between different formats like JPEG and PNG, and files into PDFs. Support for video conversion is coming soon. Dropbox is also adding new features to its password manager.

Automatic camera backups from mobile, which will now be available to users on Dropbox’s free tier, are also seeing some improvements. Dropbox says uploads should now be faster and more reliable, and on iOS there’s now an option to specify exactly which folders should be automatically backed up (the feature is coming to Android later this year). There’s also the option to have photos...

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Adobe releases Apple M1 support for Premiere Pro

Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge

Adobe’s Premiere Pro is now ready for everyone using an M1 Mac. Support for Apple’s new chips is rolling out today, after launching in beta in December. Adobe says there are speed increases throughout the app, from a 50 percent faster launch to 77 percent faster “editing,” whatever that giant term encompasses.

Apple released its first computers with M1 chips in November. Though they’re able to run apps that were built for machines with Intel processors, programs had to be updated to take full advantage of the M1’s speed improvements. Getting Adobe on board was always going to be a necessity — its apps are critical creative tools for many industries — and fortunately, Adobe has been fairly quick to get updates out the door for its biggest...

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Apple’s AirPods Max are cheaper than ever at Best Buy and Amazon

Photo by Becca Farsace / The Verge

Apple’s AirPods Max over-ear headphones are more affordable than ever today at Best Buy and Amazon. Normally around $500 in recent weeks, each color option costs $455 (Best Buy has each color for this price, while Amazon’s selection is a little more spotty). It’s pricier than many competing noise-canceling headphones from the likes of Sony and Bose, but these have unrivaled build quality and materials, as well as solid performance in just about every regard. This price drop makes its minor flaws a little more excusable, like that it requires a $35 cable if you want to listen to music with a wire, and that its carrying case isn’t so great.

The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword HD is the latest remaster to hit the Nintendo...

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DuckDuckGo launches new Email Protection service to remove trackers

Illustration by Maria Chimishkyan

DuckDuckGo is launching a new email privacy service meant to stop ad companies from spying on your inbox.

The company’s new Email Protection feature gives users a free “@duck.com” email address, which will forward emails to your regular inbox after analyzing their contents for trackers and stripping any away. DuckDuckGo is also extending this feature with unique, disposable forwarding addresses, which can be generated easily in DuckDuckGo’s mobile browser or through desktop browser extensions.

The personal DuckDuckGo email is meant to be given out to friends and contacts you know, while the disposable addresses are better served when signing up for free trials, newsletters, or anywhere you suspect might sell your email address. If the...

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How Blackstone became the darling of grill TikTok

Photo Illustration by Grayson Blackmon / The Verge

An outdoor cooking company with an influencer staff and a Roku app

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The new RadRover is Rad Power Bikes’ first e-bike with an integrated battery

The RadRover, Rad Power Bikes’ flagship electric bike, is getting another major upgrade. The bike will be the first from the Seattle-based company to feature a semi-integrated battery. And when it’s released later this year, it will be the most expensive model in Rad Power Bikes’ lineup to date.

The RadRover 6 Plus (it’s a mouthful of an official name) comes with a bevy of new parts, including hydraulic disc brakes, a custom geared-hub motor, a new ergonomic frame, and an improved LED display that’s easier to use.

the most eye-catching new detail is certainly the semi-integrated battery

But the most eye-catching new detail is certainly the semi-integrated battery, a first for the company. Rad Power Bikes’ batteries tend to be larger...

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Google TV update adds option to manually clear out ‘Continue watching’ row

The Google TV interface first appeared on last year’s Chromecast. | Photo by Chris Welch / The Verge

Google TV, the new smart TV interface that debuted on Google’s most recent Chromecast, appears to be getting a small but important tweak for its “Continue watching” row. Over on Reddit (via 9to5Google) user u/Alfatango97 has spotted a new option to manually hide entries from the row, which is designed to let viewers quickly jump back into unfinished TV shows or films.

When it works, the Continue watching row is a convenient way pick up from where viewing was interrupted. But occasionally it can get cluttered with content you started watching and have no intention of finishing, or content that’s finished but whose credits are so long that it still shows up as in-progress. Being able to manually clear out the row should make it easier to...

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Apple pushes back return to offices due to rising COVID cases: report

Apple is delaying its plan to return to mandatory in-person work because of the increase of COVID cases driven by the Delta variant, according to Bloomberg. The company had laid out a roadmap for returning to its offices in early September, with employees expected to come in at least three days a week, but now that deadline has reportedly been extended “by at least a month to October at the earliest.”

Apple’s return to offices was controversial among some of its employees. A group of workers in an internal Slack channel for thousands of “remote work advocates” collaborated on a letter to CEO Tim Cook and the rest of Apple’s leadership, making the case that the company should embrace a more flexible work-from-home policy. Deirdre O’Brien,...

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Walmart, Ikea, and Amazon have a dirty shipping problem

SAN PEDRO, CALIFORNIA - FEBRUARY 01: A container ship enters the Port of Los Angeles on February 1, 2021 in San Pedro, California. As of January 28, a record 38 container ships were on standby to offload cargo to the ports of Long Beach and Los Angeles amid a wave of online consumer goods purchases in the U.S. amid the pandemic. | Photo by Mario Tama/Getty Images

Giant retailers, including Amazon and Ikea, have pledged to go green, but their shipping is still pretty dirty. Now shoppers can now see how much pollution some of the biggest retail companies in the US each generate while bringing goods into the country, thanks to a new report. In 2019, the 15 companies in the report generated almost as much climate pollution as 1.5 million American homes do in a year.

The report looks at greenhouse gas emissions and air pollution caused by shipping piles of cargo around the world and ranks the top 15 biggest polluters by company. Walmart topsthe list, generating more greenhouse gas emissions than a coal-fired power plant would in a year. Ashley Furniture, Target, Dole, and Home Depot round out the top...

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HalloApp is a private ad-free social network from two early WhatsApp employees

A screenshot of HalloApp. | HalloApp

Two of the earliest employees behind WhatsApp have emerged with a new private social network called HalloApp.

Starting Monday, anyone can download and sign up for HalloApp in Apple’s App Store and Google Play on Android devices. There are many parallels between HalloApp and WhatsApp: the app is designed for group or individual chats with close friends and family, the only way you can find people is by knowing their phone number, the messages are encrypted, and there are no ads.

While other startups have over the years tried and failed to build successful social networks for close friends (RIP Path), the pedigree of HalloApp’s two cofounders, Neeraj Arora and Michael Donohue, makes this particular effort notable. They both worked at...

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Amazon will end onsite COVID-19 testing at its US warehouses

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

Amazon has informed workers that it will end on-site COVID-19 testing at its US warehouses, as first reported by The Information. The company confirmed to The Verge that it will begin ramping down its testing operations in the US by July 30th.

Although many in the US are vaccinated — 48 percent of the country is fully vaccinated, according to The New York Times’ data as of Monday — the change comes as case rates around the country are going up. The significant majority of new cases have been found among unvaccinated people.

Amazon informed staff Monday about its plan to end COVID-19 testing, according to The Information. “Free COVID-19 testing is now widely available and our employees have many options available to them, including...

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