How to use DuckDuckGo’s email protection app

It’s well-known that filling in a form with your email address — say, to get a discount on a product, receive a newsletter, or get the results of a quiz — means you are going to get email from that vendor, and possibly from a bunch of other vendors and / or advertisers, forever.

One of the ways to subvert this has traditionally been to create a free email account to use for sites that you want to register with but that you suspect will be the gateway for a large amount of spam. This is what I did. However, over time, that designated email account can become so well-used that it stops being a hidey-hole for spam and becomes another account that offers advertisers and others a source for information to aggregate.

This is where...

Continue reading…

Microsoft’s ‘Super Duper Secure Mode’ for Edge trades speed for better security

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

Microsoft’s browser vulnerability research team is working on a mode to make the Edge browser more secure, and it’s given it an incredible name: “Super Duper Secure Mode” (via The Record). The mode is currently very experimental, but could help make it harder for attackers trying to exploit bugs in Microsoft’s browser by turning off certain optimizations.

To make the browser “super duper secure,” the mode turns off a feature of Edge’s JavaScript engine that’s meant to make a website’s code run faster. The technology is called Just-In-Time compilation (or JIT), and while it can help improve performance, it’s also fiendishly complex. This makes it easy for bugs to slip in, which can lead to security exploits — Microsoft points to analysis...

Continue reading…

This PS2 mod is a handheld dream come true

Image: GingerOfOz

GingerOfOz, the console modder you might remember from his excellent Game Boy-sized portable Wii, is back with another home console-turned-handheld. This time it’s the turn of the PS2, objectively the best console ever made and the one that just so happens to be the first I ever owned.

Dubbed the “PS2 Eclipse,” the mod involved trimming down an original PS2 motherboard and packing it into a 3D printed chassis with a set of PlayStation Vita buttons, Nintendo Switch joysticks, a 5-inch 480p display, batteries, and a couple of extra custom circuit boards.

It’s a very neat little handheld, and the fact that it’s using original PS2 hardware rather than emulation means it doesn’t have any major compatibility issues with the console’s library...

Continue reading…

Facebook’s justification for banning third-party researchers ‘inaccurate,’ says FTC

Illustration by Alex Castro / Th

When Facebook banned the personal accounts of academics researching ad transparency and misinformation on its platform this week, it justified the decision in part by saying it was only following rules set out by the Federal Trade Commission. But the FTC itself says this is “inaccurate” and that its rules require no such action, reports The Washington Post.

Facebook claims it banned the accounts “to stop unauthorized scraping and protect people’s privacy in line with our privacy program under the FTC Order.” The order in question was put in place following the Cambridge Analytica scandal and says Facebook must obtain “affirmative express consent” from users before sharing their data with a third party (known as the “consent decree”) and...

Continue reading…

Microsoft is integrating Spotify into a new Windows 11 focus feature

Illustration by William Joel / The Verge

Microsoft is planning to integrate Spotify into a new Windows 11 feature. Panos Panay, Microsoft’s head of Windows and devices, teased the Focus Sessions Windows 11 feature on Twitter this week, and it appears to be a new way to focus on tasks and work. Focus Sessions includes Spotify integration, allowing you to create a focus timer to work through tasks while listening to playlist of music from Spotify.

Microsoft hasn’t started testing Focus Sessions in its public builds of Windows 11 yet, but from the video Panay teased it appears to be built into the operating system’s Clock app. It looks like it’s following the Pomodoro Technique, a method of managing time by breaking down work into smaller chunks with short breaks.

Another first...

Continue reading…

Overwatch League sponsors reevaluate support following Activision Blizzard lawsuit

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

Overwatch League sponsors Coca-Cola and State Farm are re-evaluating their support of the competition after the game’s publisher Activision Blizzard was sued by regulators over a culture of ‘constant sexual harassment,’ The Washington Post reports. The companies’ statements come as another sponsor, T-Mobile, appeared to pull its branding from the Overwatch League as well as the Call of Duty League, earlier this week.

In a statement, Coca-Cola told the Washington Post that it is aware of the allegations surrounding Activision Blizzard, and said it is “[taking] a step back for a moment to revisit future plans and programs.” However, a spokesperson for the company would not confirm whether or not the company would cease its sponsorship of...

Continue reading…

The best deals on 4K TVs

The 55-inch Samsung Crystal TU-7000 is on sale at Best Buy for $450. | Image: Samsung

There are a lot of 4K TVs available to choose from, complete with a wide variety of prices and performance. And, with many summer sales in full swing, now might be the best time of the year (or, at least until the fall) to get an amazing TV deal. Even if your budget is less than $500, you can get a good 4K TV in a bigger size than you might expect. Whether you want a secondary TV for the bedroom or a high-end OLED that’s built for a cinema-like experience, we’ve picked out the best TV deals across four common categories:

• The best 4K TV deals for most people
• The best TV deals on a budget
• The best deals on OLED TVs
• 4K TVs for the Sony PS5 and Microsoft Xbox Series X

We will provide regular updates to this post so be sure to check back...

Continue reading…

IMDb TV app finally arrives on iOS and Android

Image: IMDb TV

Amazon’s free streaming service IMDb TV now has its own dedicated app for the iPhone, iPad, and Android after launching on other major platforms earlier this year.

IMDb TV is a dedicated hub for free, ad-supported movies and series as well as its own dedicated originals produced by Amazon Studios. Previously, you could find IMDb TV’s content slate in the primary IMDb app, but a standalone streaming app for the service was not available for iOS and Android. A spokesperson told The Verge the content is still available to stream through IMDb, but the new IMDb TV app was “designed for the streaming experience.”

IMDb TV’s content slate is quite good, even if its originals have struggled to make as much of a splash as titles from larger...

Continue reading…

Bill Gates admits meetings with Jeffrey Epstein were a ‘huge mistake’

Image: CNN

Bill Gates said that spending time with convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein was “a huge mistake” in an interview with CNN’s Anderson Cooper. The interview covered Gates’ relationship with Epstein, which he says was an attempt to get “billions for philanthropy,” as well as Gates’ alleged workplace misbehavior at Microsoft and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

Gates’ story regarding his relationship with Epstein hasn’t changed much since their meetings came to light. In 2019, he told The Wall Street Journal that he had met Epstein, but “didn’t have any business relationship or friendship with him.” A month later, The New York Times quoted a spokesperson for Gates, who said that Gates “regrets ever meeting with Epstein and...

Continue reading…

Tesla reportedly paid $1 million to former employee who said supervisors called him a racist slur

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

A former Tesla employee won a $1 million award from the automaker after an arbitrator found the company failed to prevent his supervisors from calling him a racial slur, Bloomberg Law reported. Melvin Berry, who is Black, was hired at Tesla’s plant in Alameda, California in 2015. He said a supervisor called him the N-word, then retaliated by forcing him to work longer hours and do more physically demanding work when Berry confronted him. Tesla has denied the allegations.

Arbitrator Elaine Rushing said in a May 12th ruling that Tesla was liable for the harassment Berry described, according to Bloomberg. “Case law is clear that one instance of a supervisor directing the N-word at a subordinate is sufficient to constitute severe...

Continue reading…

Virgin Galactic reopens ticket sales at $450K per seat

Photo by PATRICK T. FALLON/AFP via Getty Images

Richard Branson’s Virgin Galactic is reopening ticket sales for its SpaceShipTwo spaceplane, the space tourism firm announced Thursday in its second-quarter earnings release. The price: $450,000, an expected increase from the roughly $200,000 price point the company had years ago, before it closed sales.

The ticket reopening comes on the heels of Branson’s successful flight to the edge of space aboard SpaceShipTwo, Virgin Galactic’s flagship space tourism vehicle that can carry four passengers some 53 miles high for a few minutes of weightlessness. That mission, called Unity 22, was a key milestone test of the rocket-plane before Virgin starts flying individual customers sometime next year.

“Leveraging the surge in consumer interest...

Continue reading…

Twitter Spaces adds co-host option to help moderate and manage rooms

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

Twitter is updating Spaces to allow hosts to designate up to two co-hosts for its social audio rooms, making it easier for hosts of the audio space to help manage and moderate conversations.

Once invited, co-hosts have almost all the same moderation and managing privileges as the main host: they can speak, invite other members of the room to speak, pin tweets, boot people from the room, and more.

There are a few limitations, though: only the main host can invite or remove other users as co-hosts — one co-host can’t invite a second one, for example. Co-hosts also can’t end the room; only the original host can.

The co-host feature also expands the number of participants that can talk at once in a Space: now...

Continue reading…

Apple reveals new efforts to fight child abuse imagery

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

In a briefing on Thursday afternoon, Apple confirmed previously reported plans to deploy new technology within iOS, macOS, watchOS, and iMessage that will detect potential child abuse imagery, but clarified crucial details from the ongoing project. For devices in the US, new versions of iOS and iPadOS rolling out this fall have “new applications of cryptography to help limit the spread of CSAM [child sexual abuse material] online, while designing for user privacy.”

The project is also detailed in a new “Child Safety” page on Apple’s website. The most invasive and potentially controversial implementation is the system that performs on-device scanning before an image is backed up in iCloud. From the description, scanning does not occur...

Continue reading…

Instagram scammers figured out a way to get paid for banning people

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

Instagram scammers have developed a lucrative “banning” racket, according to a new report from Motherboard. For around $60, some scammers will get banned whatever Instagram account you choose, friend or foe, and often the scammers make even more money on the backend by helping the targeted users regain access to their accounts.

The process, according to interviews and material reviewed by Motherboard, involves using a verified account to impersonate a target (their name, photo, bio), and then reporting the target as an impersonator to get them banned. Apparently, as long as the target has a human in their profile picture the method works.

Banning and restoring accounts pays well

_Motherboard_writes that other users they spoke to also had...

Continue reading…

Amazon’s Halo band can share your heart rate to other apps and workout equipment

Image: Amazon

Amazon is updating its Halo fitness band today with the ability to share live heart rate information with third-party devices and fitness apps over BLE (Bluetooth Low Energy). The company is currently partnered with NordicTrack for its iFit service, along with Openfit and CLMBR.

Live heart rate has been available to view since launch in the Live tab of the Halo app, but connecting it to display in other apps and devices is just as easy. Amazon says you can turn on heart rate sharing by going to the Halo app’s Settings, selecting Heart Rate Sharing, switching it to on, and then following the on-screen prompts to share your heart rate with the other app or device.

Image: Amazon

Halo live heart rate data overlaid in...

Continue reading…

The Xbox Series X is available online now at Walmart

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

Update August 5th, 3:14 PM ET: The Xbox Series X appears to be out of stock, however, as we mention below, Walmart often rolls out new stock in 10-minute intervals, which seems to be happening.

Microsoft’s $500 Xbox Series X is available online for delivery through Walmart. It’s also offering both the PS5 disc-based console and the digital version. The pricier and more powerful Series X that has a disc drive and 1TB of storage has been almost as tough to find as the PlayStation 5, so this restock is very welcome news.

If this is your first time jumping into the ring, there are a few bits of advice that might lead to success for you. Don’t leave the site if the console appears to sell out immediately. Walmart usually releases stock in...

Continue reading…

The PS5 is available online from Walmart

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

If you haven’t been able to secure a PlayStation 5, you might be in luck. Walmart has opened orders for the PS5 (online only); this includes the $500 disc-based version of the console as well as the $400 digital disc-less version. Remember, it’s usually the first who gets the worm, but not always. If you miss out on the first wave at Walmart, the retailer usually releases more in 10-minute intervals, with the next being at 3:10PM, 3:20PM, and so forth until it runs out of stock.

Also, if you don’t get lucky at first, persist! Sometimes, the “add to cart” button will pop up intermittently, so just be patient and watch closely. It’ll only help your chances of securing a console if you sign in to your Walmart account and ensure that all of...

Continue reading…

Amazon’s office workers now won’t return until early 2022

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

Amazon’s corporate workers won't be returning to its offices until January 2022, the company has confirmed to The Verge. This marks a delay of around four months, as the company’s previous plan called for employees to return on a hybrid basis starting on September 7th, 2021.

Amazon released updated return-to-office procedures for its employees in June, and it tells The Verge that wearing masks will be optional for fully vaccinated employees but required for everyone else. The company’s news post about the return to office guidance stated that employees could expect a hybrid work model, with the standard being three days in the office and two remote.

Many of Amazon’s workers have been working on-site throughout the pandemic

The news of...

Continue reading…

Scarlett Johansson’s Black Widow lawsuit has unearthed a huge problem with streaming

Image: Marvel Studios

This summer’s biggest Hollywood attraction is a multimillion-dollar battle between two of the industry’s best-known players: Scarlett Johansson and Disney. Johansson sued Disney last week over its day-and-date release of her Marvel superhero film Black Widow, which put the movie on Disney Plus the same day it hit theaters, potentially depriving her of a huge box-office-infused paycheck. The aftermath has been chaotic, but it’s more importantly illuminated the myriad ways that streaming has forever changed the way we experience movies and the implications for the creatives and talent who make them.

Movie contracts have traditionally been negotiated around box office results, with sizable bonuses tied to how well a film performed. This...

Continue reading…

Microsoft is creating a single OneNote for Windows app with a visual refresh

The new OneNote visual refresh. | Image: Microsoft

Microsoft is planning to unify its OneNote and OneNote for Windows 10 apps into a single OneNote app. The software maker is taking all the improvements in its UWP OneNote for Windows 10 app and bringing them over to the traditional OneNote desktop app instead.

These improvements will appear in a series of updates over the next 12 months to the traditional OneNote desktop app that installs as part of Office. The updates include a visual refresh and “key existing features currently unique to OneNote for Windows 10.” It’s not clear which features from OneNote for Windows 10 will make their way over to the OneNote desktop app, but Microsoft says “we are working to ensure that all the most loved features will continue to be a part of...

Continue reading…

The best gaming laptops in 2021: seven laptops to get your game on

Our top picks from Asus, MSI, Razer, and more. | Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales/ The Verge

The best gaming laptop at every size and price

Continue reading…

Apple will reportedly scan photos stored on iPhones and iCloud for child abuse imagery

Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge

Apple plans to scan photos stored on iPhones and iCloud for child abuse imagery, according the Financial Times. The new system could help law enforcement in criminal investigations but may open the door to increased legal and government demands for user data.

The system, called neuralMatch, will “proactively alert a team of human reviewers if it believes illegal imagery is detected, who would then contact law enforcement if the material can be verified,” the Financial Times said. neuralMatch, which was trained using 200,000 images from the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children, will roll out first in the US. Photos will be hashed and compared with a database of known images of child sexual abuse.

The system will be used first...

Continue reading…

A recall of Philips respiratory devices has left users stranded

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

Over a month after the recall, people who rely on ventilators, CPAPs, and BiPAPs are unsure what to do

Continue reading…

Here’s a closer look at Apple’s canceled AirPower wireless charger

A working Apple AirPower prototype unit. | Image: Giulio Zompetti

Apple’s AirPower wireless charger was supposed to arrive with the unique ability to charge an iPhone, Apple Watch, and AirPods all at the same time. Unfortunately, Apple canceled AirPower in March 2019, citing difficulties in bringing the product to life. Since then, we’ve seen a teardown of AirPower, some AirPower clones, and Apple’s MagSafe battery packs. Now, an Apple prototype collector has obtained a working AirPower unit for the first time.

Speaking to The Verge, Giulio Zompetti, a 28-year-old from Italy, says he has been able to purchase a prototype AirPower unit from Chinese e-waste sources. “The unit lacks all of its exterior housing, and shows this beautiful and heavy stainless steel chassis,” says Zompetti.

I...

Continue reading…

AMD’s Ryzen 5000 processors with integrated graphics are now available to buy

In April, AMD announced versions of its Ryzen 5000 desktop CPUs with integrated graphics cards, but it only made them available for prebuilt OEM systems, promising that it would sell the chips to consumers later this year. Well, “later this year” is today, with AMD now offering its Ryzen 5000 G-Series APUs to anyone to buy, not just multimillion-dollar PC manufacturers.

Right now, only two of the Ryzen 5000 G-Series chips are available to purchase on AMD’s website: the eight-core Ryzen 7 5700G for $359 and the six-core Ryzen 5 5600G for $259. Both chips, like the standard Ryzen 5000 CPUs, are built on AMD’s 7nm process with its Zen 3 architecture.

A good option if you don’t need a powerful GPU

Right now, AMD is just selling those two...

Continue reading…

Free Guy is like a AAA game: fun, goofy, and doing narrative backflips to make a guy the lead

Photo by Alan Markfield

In Free Guy, Millie (Jodie Comer) is a game developer on the outs working to prove that publisher Antwan (a strutting Taika Waititi) illegally stole game code from her and her partner, Keys (Joe Keery) to create Free City, the most popular video game in the world. She infiltrates the game, hunting for the evidence to prove that her original idea was stolen — evidence that she thinks is hidden somewhere deep inside the game itself.

And you would think that the movie is about her, right? But Free Guy seems more focused on offering up Ryan Reynolds guilelessly moseying across the screen as the titular Guy, in what feels like a version of The Lego Movie that swaps “charming, stop-motion-style Lego animation” for “video games” and throws in...

Continue reading…

Moderna says a third shot of its COVID-19 vaccine may be needed to protect against variants

Moderna says a third shot of its COVID-19 may be needed against variants | Photo by Ivan Damanik/NurPhoto via Getty Images

Pharmaceutical company Moderna said its COVID-19 vaccine is 93 percent effective through six months after the second dose, but as new variants of the virus emerge, people who received the vaccine may need a booster shot before winter.

The company made the announcement as part of its second-quarter earnings release Thursday.

“We are pleased that our Covid-19 vaccine is showing durable efficacy of 93 percent through six months, but recognize that the Delta variant is a significant new threat so we must remain vigilant,” Moderna CEO Stéphane Bancel said in a statement with the earnings release. Moderna president Stephen Hoge said during an earnings call that a third booster “will likely be necessary to keep us as safe as possible through...

Continue reading…

Nothing Ear 1 earbuds review: almost something

Standout design, noise cancellation, and wireless charging for $99

Continue reading…

Amazon launches new resale programs to cut down warehouse waste

Staff label and package items in the on-site dispatch hall inside one of Britain’s largest Amazon warehouses in Dunfermline, Fife. | Photo by Jane Barlow/PA Images via Getty Images

Amazon announced new efforts that might be able to prevent some overstocked and returned items from becoming trash. It launched two new programs that are intended to make it easier for third-party retailers to sell returned goods and unsold inventory.

The moves come in the wake of several separate investigations into Amazon warehouses that found that many returned and unsold items were labeled for destruction. Businesses that use Amazon to sell their products pay to hold their stock in Amazon warehouses. When those goods don’t sell, or if returned items pile up, they might decide to chuck the products to save money.

Amazon’s new “Grade and Resell” initiative will now give third-party sellers in the UK the option to sell stuff that’s...

Continue reading…

A three-pack of Google Wifi mesh routers is just $150 at Amazon

If you have a solid internet connection, you owe it to yourself to get a mesh Wi-Fi system. It’ll help to cover more of your apartment or home in fast Wi-Fi. You can get Google’s Wifi in a three-pack for $150 at Amazon, down from $200. This 25 percent discount is the biggest price markdown yet. And considering that Google sells a single Wifi unit for $100, it doesn’t make much sense to opt for that when you can get another two for just $50 more.

Now, Google’s newer Nest Wifi does offer better range and more features than this product, but these are still worth getting if you’re on a budget (not to mention, it’s cross-compatible with Nest Wifi, should you ever upgrade). Each Google Wifi router has dual gigabit ethernet ports, and plugs in...

Continue reading…