Facebook’s business is doing better than ever

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg. | Photo by Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images

If you pay even the slightest attention to tech news, you’ve probably recently seen nonstop criticism of Facebook’s handling of COVID-19 misinformation, along with a barrage of negative headlines tied to a new book about the company called An Ugly Truth.

These headlines generally paint the picture of a tech giant that is on the outs with users, advertisers, lawmakers, and its Silicon Valley peers. But as the world’s largest social network showed Wednesday, the reality of how its business is performing couldn’t be more opposite.

Facebook said its revenue grew 56 percent in the second quarter to $29 billion, meaning it grew faster during the period than Apple or Microsoft. More impressively, its profit grew an astounding 101 percent to...

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Activision Blizzard employees walk out of work to protest rampant sexism and discrimination

Photography by Zoe Schiffer / The Verge

‘Until these demands are met, we won’t stop fighting’

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White House says infrastructure deal includes $65 billion for broadband

On Wednesday, bipartisan Senate negotiators reached a deal on an infrastructure package after weeks of tense discussion. The package includes billions in new funding, including more money to connect every household to high-speed broadband, according to the White House.

The Senate’s infrastructure package is expected to be around $1.2 trillion over the next eight years with around $559 billion in new spending. The White House sent out a press release Wednesday outlining what’s included in the bill, focusing on “hard” infrastructure issues like roads, bridges, EV charging, public transit, and high-speed broadband. Specifically, the package includes a $65 billion “investment ensuring every American has access to reliable high-speed...

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Google remembers Voice exists, adds new missed call and caller ID features

Image: Google

Google announced it’s adding new caller ID, missed call, and SMS message features to Google Voice on Wednesday. The otherwise minor update is notable because Google Voice has fallen to the wayside while Google focused on other messaging boondoggles.

From the missed calls or voicemail sections of the mobile Google Voice app, you can now learn why you might have missed a call (for example, Do Not Disturb was on), and receive directions on how to make sure that doesn’t happen again (turning Do Not Disturb off). Google is also making it easier to redial dropped calls and switch to your mobile network if your Wi-Fi connection was the reason your call failed.

Image: Google

Google Voice can tell you why you missed a...

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Here’s the evidence a fired Blizzard developer’s ‘Cosby Suite’ existed

As employees walk out of Activision Blizzard today over allegations of “constant sexual harassment” and workplace discrimination — and how poorly they felt the company responded — Kotaku has released a report backing up allegations that a fired developer kept a hotel suite named after alleged rapist Bill Cosby.

In case you’re catching up, the state of California sued Blizzard for gender discrimination last week. The allegations include claims specifically naming Alex Afrasiabi, the former senior creative director of _World of Warcraft._The suit says that on top of sexually harassing women, Afrasiabi had a hotel room during BlizzCon 2013 nicknamed the “Cosby Suite” — and it suggested that other employees knew about it.

Neither Kotaku’s...

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Is Robinhood really democratizing finance?

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

Robinhood is scheduled to price its stock today before trading begins tomorrow, and yesterday, it disclosed a new investigation: the finance industry’s self-regulator is checking to see whether founders Vlad Tenev and Baiju Bhatt should be registered with them. Currently, the co-founders aren’t.

Is this a big deal? Maybe, I don’t know. I don’t work at the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA), an organization you may remember from the historic fine it leveled against Robinhood — $70 million — for, among other things, the outages that took place in March 2020. (About $12 million went to the people who were harmed, and the rest went to FINRA because that’s Wall Street, baby.) I am somewhat less concerned with FINRA’s...

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How Tesla will open up its Superchargers to other EVs

Photo by Sean O’Kane / The Verge

Tesla CEO Elon Musk has, foryears, talked about opening up his company’s vast Supercharger network to other electric vehicles. But earlier this month, Musk tweeted that Tesla plans to do this “later this year,” and this week, he finally offered some details about how it might work.

It will be “real simple,” Musk claimed on an investor call Monday. Owners of other EVs will be able to charge at a Supercharger station by using the Tesla app — which, right now, is geared toward people who’ve purchased the company’s products. That’s about all Tesla will have to do to make this possible in Europe and China, where there are standardized charging cable connectors, Musk said. (Tesla has already committed to opening up the network in Norway.)

B...

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United Airlines will let passengers preorder food and snacks online before flights

United Airlines announced a new option for passengers to preorder food, snacks, and beverages online up to five days before their scheduled flight. Orders can be made either on United’s website or through the airline’s mobile app. United claims that it is the “first and only” carrier to allow economy customers this option.

Previously, only premium customers on certain eligible flights could preorder their food and drinks. Now, United is extending the option to all ticket-holders. To start out, only passengers on flights from Chicago to Honolulu; Orange County, CA; Sacramento, CA; and San Diego will be eligible to preorder food and drinks. But by early fall, United says it will extend the option to passengers of all flights over 1,500...

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After years of turmoil, Boeing’s Starliner capsule is set for a do-over

Photo by Joel Kowsky/NASA via Getty Images

Test-launching its astronaut capsule a second time, Boeing needs a success now more than ever

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Watch Valve’s Gabe Newell explain why the Steam Deck exists

Image: IGN

Valve president Gabe Newell has given a rare interview to IGN, where he talks about why the company’s upcoming Steam Deck handheld exists and the philosophy the company had when designing it. The interview is worth a watch to see Newell and developer Pierre-Loup Griffais discuss the motivation behind creating an “open” device (with Newell mentioning that you could hook up an Oculus Quest to it if you wanted), along with what discussions inside Valve led to the system’s development. IGN also has a write-up summarizing the interview if you’d rather read than watch.

Newell also discusses the obvious comparison between the Steam Deck and the Nintendo Switch, saying Valve has chosen different trade-offs when creating its portable gaming...

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How to get rid of that irritating Meet tab in Gmail for Android and iOS

I have nothing against Google’s Meet videoconferencing platform — in fact, I’ve used it a few times — but I can’t help being annoyed when the feature is pushed at me via other apps. Specifically, Gmail. Meet first appeared on the desktop Gmail app in the spring of 2020, but it did not take up much space and was reasonably easy to ignore (or remove from your screen, if you so wished).

A few months later, however, Meet made its way onto the mobile Gmail app via two tabs at the bottom of the screen: one labeled “Mail” and one labeled “Meet.” The problem here isn’t only that you’re being pushed to use a particular videoconferencing app while all you want to do is check your email, but it also takes up space, expanding the bottom margin of...

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T-Mobile’s new prepaid offer is a direct play for the Boost customers it sold to Dish

T-Mobile is offering customers who switch from an MVNO a discount on an unlimited Metro plan with 5G. | Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

T-Mobile is introducing a new prepaid promotion with incentives for customers on other prepaid MVNOs to switch to Metro by T-Mobile, including waiving switching fees, a discount on an unlimited plan with 5G, and a trade-in offer for a new 5G phone. In other words, it’s doing exactly what it told regulators it wouldn’t do when it acquired Sprint a year ago.

The US wireless market is lousy with 5G phone trade-in offers and 5G plan upgrades these days, but this one stands out in its direct pitch to lure Boost Mobile customers to T-Mobile’s prepaid brand — the same customers it was ordered to sell to Dish network with the intention of setting the company up as a fourth wireless carrier to replace Sprint. It’s also what Dish warned might be...

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Google will require employees to be vaccinated before returning to offices

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

Google will require that employees be vaccinated before they’re allowed to return to the company’s offices, CEO Sundar Pichai announced today in a letter obtained by The New York Times.

The announcement marks Google as one of the first major technology companies to require that employees be vaccinated before they return to work. The news comes as part of a new wave of vaccination requirements this week, spurred by the Biden administration reportedly planning to announce a requirement for federal workers to either be vaccinated or face frequent testing for COVID-19 sometime on Thursday.

Google’s vaccination requirement will reportedly apply to workers at US offices “in the coming weeks” and to other regions “in the coming months,” per...

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Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine’s protection against severe disease holds steady over six months

Photo by Majdi Fathi/NurPhoto via Getty Images

The Pfizer / BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine’s protection against severe cases of the disease holds steady after six months, according to new data released by the companies. But its ability to protect people from developing any symptoms of the disease dropped over time, the analysis showed.

The data could add to the debate around if and when people may need booster doses of the vaccines, which the Biden administration, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and other experts have been deliberating on for the past few months. The issue became more pressing when cases of COVID-19 in the United States started to surge as the Delta variant spread.

Overall, the vaccine was 91 percent effective against symptomatic COVID-19 over six months. It...

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James Bond’s iconic Aston Martin DB5 is coming to Rocket League for a limited time

Would you pay $10 for the privilege of strapping rocket boosters to James Bond’s iconic Aston Martin DB5 automobile and using it to score spectacular gravity-defying goals with a giant ball? Rocket League is officially making that possible from Thursday, July 29th through August 4th.

Epic Games developer Psyonix says it’s signed a multiyear deal with MGM and Aston Martin to bring 007 to the vehicular sporting game — starting, of course, with the ‘60s classic made famous by Goldfinger but still stealing scenes as recently as _Skyfall_and the upcoming No Time to Die.

Will I buy it, though? Nah — because aside from the teaser atop this post, there doesn’t seem to be much Bond about Rocket League’s version other than the DB5’s historic...

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The Oppo Watch 2 launches in China with a promise of 16 days of battery life

The Oppo Watch 2 has launched in China, featuring the same Apple Watch-style design as the original Oppo Watch but with improved internal hardware. That includes Qualcomm’s latest Snapdragon 4100 platform and a promise of up to 16 days of battery life from a single charge while using a low-power mode (via 9to5Google).

As was the case for the Chinese model of the original Oppo Watch, the Oppo Watch 2 runs Oppo’s Android-based ColorOS, not Google’s WearOS. Last year’s model was eventually released outside of China with WearOS and access to the Google Play Store, but Oppo has yet to announce any plans for a broader release at this time. It’s also possible that the company is waiting for Google and Samsung’s upcoming WearOS 3.0 collaboration...

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Activision Blizzard faces lawsuit and employee backlash over sexual harassment

Image: Blizzard

California’s suit alleges a toxic culture, discrimination, and retaliation

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Activision Blizzard employees say CEO’s letter ‘fails to address’ key concerns

Photo Illustration by Pavlo Gonchar/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images

In a new letter, Activision Blizzard employees said that CEO Bobby Kotick’s note addressing allegations of sexual harassment and workplace discrimination at the company “fails to address critical elements at the heart of employee concerns.” Last week, California’s Department of Fair Employment and Housing (DFEH) filed a huge lawsuit against the company bringing the allegations to light.

Staff slammed the company’s initial response to the lawsuit, and in Wednesday’s response, the employees said they are pleased to see that they have “convinced leadership to change the tone of their communications.” But employees point out that Kotick’s letter does not address some key areas of concern, including ending forced arbitration for all employees...

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How to hide Google Meet in Gmail

Google rolled out Google Meet, a revamped version of its video chatting program Hangouts Meet, in April 2020, and made the app available to anyone with a Google account. You can start or join a Meet videoconference right from your Gmail inbox, using the buttons that Google has placed on the left-hand side of the page.

But what if you don’t intend to use Meet, or even if you just don’t want it to be there all the time? No worries — you can hide the buttons. (Note: if you’re on a corporate Google Workspace account, you may not be able to change this, depending on your administrator’s settings.)

Here’s how to hide Google Meet in Gmail:

• Open Gmail.
• Click on the cog icon in the top-right corner and on “See all settings.”
• Click on the “Chat...

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How to schedule an email in Gmail

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

Google announced that Gmail would natively support email scheduling in April 2019, and the feature became available in desktop and mobile about a month later.

Previously, you’d have to use a third-party add-on to do this sort of basic scheduling. Thankfully, Gmail’s feature is perfectly easy to use, and it has a range of applications for scheduling work and personal messages. Maybe you’re trying to talk to someone in a different time zone, nag someone about an event, or you just want to remind your future self about something. If so, schedule an email.

To schedule a message via Gmail in a desktop web browser, follow these steps:

• Compose a new email
• Click the triangle next to the blue “Send” button
• Select one of the suggested times, or...

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The Great Ace Attorney Chronicles is the perfect vacation game

_The Great Ace Attorney Chronicles_is the kind of engrossing murder mystery that’s perfect for a long vacation — it just happens to be a video game. As a prequel of sorts, Chronicles takes place long before the original Ace Attorney trilogy, with new characters and a much more grounded tone, but with the same absorbing investigative gameplay and shock story twists that make it hard to put down. It’s the best of the franchise in one lengthy package.

The game — which is actually a collection of two titles that previously launched in Japan — follows a budding defense attorney named Ryunosuke Naruhodo during the late 19th century in Japan. Things immediately get off to a rough start. In the first case, Naruhodo is forced to defend himself in...

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Google shows off Play Store’s upcoming data privacy section

The section gives a summary of data collected, and security practices. | Image: Google

Google has revealed an in-progress design for the Play Store’s upcoming safety section, which will provide information about an app’s data collection, privacy, and security practices. Announced in May, developers will be able to start declaring their safety info in October until a deadline of April next year. The safety section is currently due to start appearing in app descriptions in the first quarter of 2022.

Although Google says the design is subject to change, screenshots released today show the safety section sitting above a listing’s existing Ratings & reviews section. It offers a summary of an app’s data privacy features, including the types of data collected and whether data is encrypted. There’s also a “See details” option to...

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Twitter pilots a new shopping section for brands

GameStop and Arden Cove are two of the brands piloting the feature. | Image: Twitter

Twitter is piloting a new feature that allows businesses to add a shopping section to the top of their profiles, the company has announced. The Shop Module launches in the US today and offers a carousel of products for visitors to browse. Tapping a product will link to a listing with the option of making a purchase without ever leaving Twitter. The pilot is currently limited to iOS devices for people who use the service in English, Twitter says.

“People talk about products on Twitter everyday, so we’re excited about how this early exploration of the Shop Module can build a bridge between people talking about and discovering products on Twitter to actually purchasing them,” Twitter says. The pilot is only available with a small number of...

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Extreme heat is on Democrats’ infrastructure agenda

People wait to buy ice cream from a vender on the National Mall as the DC area experiences a heatwave on June 30, 2021, in Washington, DC. - Climate change is causing record-setting temperatures to become more frequent. Globally, the decade to 2019 was the hottest recorded, and the five hottest years have all occurred within the last five years. | Photo by BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI/AFP via Getty Images

During a summer of deadly heatwaves, Democratic senators are pressing for a bigger federal response to the danger posed by extreme heat. Senators Ed Markey (D-MA), Alex Padilla (D-CA), and Cory Booker (D-NJ) reintroduced the Preventing Heat Illness and Deaths Act today. Representative Charlie Crist (D-FL) will introduce similar legislation in the US House of Representatives.Theyare pushing for its measures to be included in either the bipartisan infrastructure or budget reconciliation package that Democrats are scrambling to advance.

“We’ve heard that extreme heat is among the White House priorities in the climate space, and I am fighting to include provisions of my bill,” Markey said in an email to The Verge.

“We’ve heard that...

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Snapchat’s built-in map will start recommending places for you to visit

Snap

More than 250 million people use Snapchat’s built-in map to see where their friends are in the world. The map interface was recently upgraded to a main tab inside the app, and today, Snap is adding a new feature that’ll surface popular places it thinks you may want to visit. Snap Map users will also start seeing lists of places, such as bars or restaurants, they’ve either tagged in past posts or favorited to check out.

The “Popular” tab at the bottom center of the Snap Map will show recommendations for places to go based on factors like your current location, friend activity on the map, and the kind of places you’ve saved as favorites. “This new algorithm in our Popular Tab sets Snap Map apart as a highly personalized discovery platform,...

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The Verge’s back-to-school gift guide 2021

Illustration by Grayson Blackmon / The Verge

Great gifts for high schoolers and the college bound

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Sony has sold 10 million PS5 consoles

Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge

Sony has now sold more than 10 million PS5 consoles. That’s up more than 2 million sales from the 7.8 million Sony previously revealed in April, and it means the PS5 continues to outpace sales of the PS4, making it the fastest-selling console in Sony’s history.

The PS5 may be selling well, but supply is constrained and it’s still difficult to purchase a console right now thanks to a global chip shortage. “While PS5 has reached more households faster than any of our previous consoles, we still have a lot of work ahead of us as demand for PS5 continues to outstrip supply,” says Jim Ryan, president and CEO of Sony Interactive Entertainment. “I want gamers to know that while we continue to face unique challenges throughout the world that...

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The Atmos-ready Sonos Arc sees a rare discount at Wellbots

In a rare move, Wellbots is offering the standout Sonos Arc for $50 off MSRP. | Photo by Chris Welch / The Verge

Sonos products are an easy sell, at least when the price is right. Like most products in the Sonos lineup, the Sonos Arc features a clean design and excellent sound quality, the latter of which is evident while listening to everything from Dolby Atmos movies to the lush sounds of The National’s most recent album, I Am Easy to Find. What’s more, the all-in-one soundbar includes built-in support for Alexa and Google Assistant, as well as Apple’s AirPlay 2. Granted, you’ll need a recent TV that supports Atmos over HDMI ARC to truly unlock the Arc’s potential, but if you have one, it’s a great way to future-proof your home theater setup. Normally $800 and rarely discounted, the white iteration of the Sonos Arc is currently on sale at...

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The teen tycoons of Depop

Illustration by Ari Liloan for The Verge

Young people can make real money selling vintage clothes online — if they can stay on the right side of the algorithm

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Could you beat this bipedal robot’s 5K run time?

Researchers from Oregon State University have coaxed a bipedal robot off the couch to successfully complete the first ever robotic 5 kilometer outdoors run. The bot, Cassie, completed the route in 53 minutes, untethered and on a single battery charge. So next time you’re out for a jog, remember: that’s the time to beat if you want out-pace the killer robots.

(For now.)

Cassie is the creation of OSU spin-off Agility Robotics, which has been pushing the commercial case for bipedal robots for a while. Cassie itself was the company’s first product, manufactured between 2017 and 2019, and now embraced by research labs. Agility now makes an updated bipedal bot, Digit, which has arms to handle packages and has been used by Ford as part of a r...

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