Vine’s creator is now working on NFT blockchain video games

Just try not reading it as “SuperDrive.” | Image: Supdrive on Twitter

Dom Hofmann, one of Vine’s founders and the creator of Byte and Peach, has a new project called Supdrive. In his tweet announcing Supdrive, he calls it an “on-chain fantasy game console,” which doesn’t necessarily make it any more obvious as to what this project will look like. He’s since explained in an announcement post, which you can read below, that it’ll be a video game console that plays classic-style games (in the vein of Pacman or Asteroid), with NFTs acting as a sort of virtual cartridge.

In a Discord set up for Supdrive, Hofmann wrote that the games will be NFTs, running on virtual firmware. The fact that games will be released as NFTs means that there will only be so many “editions” or copies available. Hofmann also says that...

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Go read this story of a leaker who ‘worked’ as a double agent for Apple

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

Apple products are often leaked because they’re immensely popular, the company is protective of its plans, and people are willing to pay for just about any information on a new product. A new must-read report from Motherboard shows that not everyone selling Apple leaks is on the up-and-up, and not because of the information they’re peddling. Some leakers are working for Apple.

Motherboard’s Lorenzo Franceschi-Bicchierai spoke to a double agent named Andrey Shumeyko, an Apple leaker who began offering information to the company in 2017. By the time 2020 rolled around and iOS 14 leaked, Shumeyko was actively trying to become Apple’s mole, tracking leaked hardware and software and sharing it with Apple’s Global Security team in the hopes of...

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The new Motorola Edge gets a 108-megapixel camera but ditches the edge display

Motorola has a new version of its $700 Edge smartphone, bringing better cameras, a more modern processor, and an updated design.

As with last year’s Edge, the new model doesn’t quite offer the best hardware Android has to offer, with a Snapdragon 778 5G processor, 6GB RAM and 128GB storage, or 8GB RAM / 256GB storage, but those sacrifices might be worth it for the decidedly midrange price tag.

Despite that, the new Edge does feature the 108-megapixel camera that was one of the marquee features on the Edge Plus, along with a larger 5,000mAh battery and mmWave 5G — both of which were also offered on the Edge Plus but were downgraded to a 4,500mAh battery and sub-6GHz-only specs on last year’s Edge.

The display is a...

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Microsoft announces price increase for Office 365 and Microsoft 365

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

Microsoft is announcing its first price increase for its Office 365 and Microsoft 365 services in a decade. The price increases will affect commercial and business users of Microsoft’s software as a service (SaaS) offerings next year, with no changes to pricing for education or consumers.

Microsoft’s updated pricing will go into effect on March 1st, 2022:

• Microsoft 365 Business Basic (from $5 to $6 per user)
• Microsoft 365 Business Premium (from $20 to $22)
• Office 365 E1 (from $8 to $10)
• Office 365 E3 (from $20 to $23)
• Office 365 E5 (from $35 to $38)
• Microsoft 365 E3 (from $32 to $36)

Microsoft first launched Office 365 in 2011 across 40 different markets, and the company has been improving it ever since. These price changes mark “the...

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Google gave phone makers extra money to ditch third-party app stores

Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge

Newly unredacted sections of Epic’s antitrust complaint against Google reveal new details on the lengths to which Google went to undermine third-party app stores on the Android platform. According to the new text, starting in 2019, Google ran a “Premier Device Program” that gave Android phone makers a greater share of search revenue than they would normally receive. In exchange, the OEMs agreed to ship their devices without any third-party app stores preinstalled. Specifically, they followed a rule that prohibited “apps with APK install privileges” without Google’s approval, leaving the Play Store as the only built-in digital marketplace for software.

As noted by Leah Nylen, products that qualified as a Premier Device would receive a 12...

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Google’s ‘Project Hug’ paid out huge sums to keep game devs in the Play Store, Epic filing claims

Illustration by William Joel / The Verge

Google quietly paid game developers hundreds of millions of dollars in incentives to keep their games on the Play Store, a newly unredacted complaint from Epic Games in its antitrust suit against Google alleges. The program was known as “Project Hug,” or later as the “Apps and Games Velocity Program.”

In 2018, when Fortnite for Android first launched, Epic Games took the unusual step of exclusively releasing it outside of the Google Play Store. Instead, players had to download an installer directly from Epic’s website, allowing the company to bypass Google’s 30 percent fee — at the cost of a less user-friendly installation process. Epic Games would eventually relent and release Fortnite on the Play Store in April 2020 (at least, until it...

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Epic’s store-crashing GTA V freebie brought more than 7 million new users to its online marketplace

A screenshot from_Grand Theft Auto V._ | Image: Rockstar Games

In May 2020, Epic Games offered Grand Theft Auto V for free on the Epic Games Store, a deal that proved to be so popular it took down the store for more than eight hours. And thanks to documents discovered as part of the Epic v. Apple trial, we now have an idea of just how popular the deal was: according to an internal Epic slide, it brought more than 7 million new users to Epic’s online marketplace.

You can see the slide below, which also shows how many new users other freebies brought to the Epic Games Store. While other games like Subnautica and _Civilization 6_drove a good number of signups (just under 1 million and 2.5 million, respectively), nothing comes close to the 7 million people who joined for GTA V.

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OnlyFans to prohibit sexually explicit content beginning in October

Image: Alex Castro / The Verge

Video sharing site OnlyFans, best known for its creators’ adult videos and photos, will prohibit sexually explicit content starting October 1st. First reported by Bloomberg, the company says it is making the changes because of pressure from its banking and payment provider partners.

“In order to ensure the long-term sustainability of our platform, and to continue to host an inclusive community of creators and fans, we must evolve our content guidelines,” OnlyFans said in a statement emailed to_The Verge_.

Creators on the platform will still be allowed to post nude images as long as they comply with the site’s acceptable use policy. More information will be available in the coming days, the company added: “OnlyFans remains committed to...

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OnePlus 9 RT is reportedly on the way, but not for North America or Europe

The OnePlus N200, a sub-$300 phone, is the kind of budget device the company is offering in the US. | Photo by Allison Johnson / The Verge

OnePlus may be getting ready to launch another variant of its 9-series phones, the 9 RT, according to an Android Central source. Based on the report, it looks to be a slightly upgraded version of the OnePlus 9R, which was launched earlier this year with more modest specs than the flagship 9 and 9 Pro. That model never made it to North America, and it seems this will also be the case for the 9 RT. Like the Nord 2. And the 9 Pro base model. But who’s keeping track?

According to Android Central, the OnePlus 9 RT will launch in October with a Snapdragon 870 processor, 120Hz OLED, a 4,500mAh battery, and OxygenOS 12 out of the box. For its main rear-facing camera, it will reportedly use the 50-megapixel sensor behind the same (very good)...

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Prime Video releases new profile images for Amazon originals

Image: Prime Video

Prime Video is giving users more options for personalizing their user profiles with the addition of characters from its original series.

Amazon introduced user profiles to its Prime Video service last year, and it previously allowed supported personalized images for individual user accounts. Now, however, users can choose to make their account avatar a character from one of nearly two dozen Amazon original series, including Fleabag, The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, Tom Clancy’s Jack Ryan, The Expanse, Bosch, and more.

To change a user icon on Prime Video’s website, head to the Prime Video homepage and click “Manage Profiles” from the “Who’s Watching?” menu in the upper right corner. To change a user profile image on iOS, Android, and Fire...

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Call of Duty: Warzone and Destiny are making moves to fight cheaters

Alongside its reveal of Call of Duty: Vanguard, Activision Blizzard announced that Call of Duty: Warzone, its popular, free-to-play battle royale, will receive an update later this year that weaves a new “multi-faceted” anti-cheat system into the game. It will arrive alongside a brand-new map that’s currently in development by Raven Studios, though the system will work across all of Warzone.

Cheating has been a huge problem for Warzonesince it launched in early 2020, as it is for almost every online competitive game, yet Activision Blizzard’s attempts to thwart cheaters — particularly in ranked matches — haven’t worked. The company hasn’t detailed exactly how its new system aims to succeed where it hasn’t before, as well as whether it’s...

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Call of Duty: Vanguard brings the series back to WWII in November

As expected, Sledgehammer Games officially announced the next Call of Duty with the reveal of Vanguard, which will be launching in November. The new shooter is set during World War II and will feature a “historically inspired” single-player campaign, along with a multiplayer mode and integration with Call of Duty: Zombies and Warzone.

The announcement comes as Sledgehammer’s parent company Activision Blizzard, and in particular Overwatch developer Blizzard, has come under fire for a culture of sexual harassment, spurred by a lawsuit filed by the state of California. Since then employees have staged a walkout and multiple high-profile developers at Blizzard have left the studio, including president J. Allen Brack.

During a meeting with...

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Quake gets a visual overhaul on Xbox, PlayStation, and Switch for its 25th birthday

QuakeCon, the annual fan convention for the legendary first-person shooter, was canceled last year during the pandemic, but it’s back today with a nailgun-like bang. Machine Games and id Software have teamed up to create a visually enhanced version of the original _Quake_game, after June 22nd marked the 25th anniversary of the game’s release.

It’s the classic Quake, run-and-gun combat through medieval mazes with nailguns, grenade launchers, and shotguns, but it’s all in 4K with widescreen support, online multiplayer, and even new expansion packs.

The original version of _Quake_is now available on PC, Xbox, PlayStation, and Nintendo Switch, complete with up to 4K support, widescreen resolutions, enhanced models, dynamic lighting,...

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Justice Department says facial recognition helped end an almost 15-year manhunt

A fugitive who Justice Department officials say had scammed more than 20 people out of hundreds of thousands of dollars was sentenced to four years in prison on Friday, after being on the run for almost 15 years. Austrian authorities were able to identify Randy Levine, 54, of Boca Raton, Florida, due to a facial recognition system according to the DOJ, after he tried to use an alias to open a bank account, leading to his arrest in June 2020.

Levine fled the US in 2005, after authorities seized his passport as part of an investigation into an alleged scam he had been running, the DOJ said in a release. According to Levine’s plea agreement, which he signed in May, he would offer to set up gambling accounts for people if they sent him...

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Twitter is testing a newsletter subscription button on profile pages

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

Twitter is testing a feature that makes it even more enticing to use its recently acquired Revue newsletter platform: the ability to subscribe to a newsletter directly from a Twitter profile, without having to follow a link to a separate website. The feature can be enabled by all Revue newsletter writers, but the button is initially only being shown to a test group of Twitter users on Android and the web.

The subscribe button has to be turned on in Revue’s settings before it can show up on Twitter. Visually, the new button and newsletter card appear underneath your Twitter bio almost like a pinned tweet, populated with the title of your Revue newsletter, a photo, a short description, and the actual subscribe button. Tapping the button...

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Razer Hammerhead True Wireless (2021) review: ANC with a colorful light show

Razer did the Razer thing and put RGB lighting on its latest earbuds

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HP Pavilion Aero 13 review: budget Envy

It’s not your typical HP Pavilion

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Toyota to reduce production in Japan and North America due to chip shortage

Toyota’s supply chain has been disrupted | Photo by Artur Widak/NurPhoto via Getty Images

Toyota said Thursday that it would reduce production in Japan and North America due to a shortage of semiconductor chips, a sign that even the best-run supply chains are being affected by the shortage.

In Japan, the automaker will reduce production by 40 percent later this month and into September, which will affect most of its production lines, the The Wall Street Journal reported; planned reductions in North America will be between 40 and 60 percent in August. The reductions mean Toyota will produce between 60,000 and 90,000 fewer vehicles.

“Due to COVID-19 and unexpected events with our supply chain, Toyota is experiencing additional shortages that will affect production at most of our North American plants,” the company said in a...

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Google secretly had a giant gaming vision that includes bringing games to Mac

Apple’s Mac has long been an afterthought for the video game industry, and few think of Google as a games company — despite running Android, one of the biggest game platforms in the world. But Google had a plan to change those things in October 2020, according to an explicitly confidential 70-page vision document dubbed “Games Futures.”

The “need-to-know” document, which was caught up in the discovery process when Epic Games hauled Apple into court, reveals a tentative five-year plan to create what Google dubbed “the world’s largest games platform.” Google imagined presenting game developers with a single place they can target gamers across multiple screens including Windows and Mac, as well as smart displays — all tied together by...

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Apple’s new Foundation trailer has some serious ‘Game of Thrones but in space’ energy

Image: Apple

Apple has released a new trailer for Foundation, its upcoming epic sci-fi show for Apple TV Plus based on Isaac Asimov’s series of novels, and I’m getting some serious “_Game of Thrones_but in space”energy from it. There are vast (space) vistas, a sweeping soundtrack, numerous shots of people making very serious faces, and dramatic proclamations that wouldn’t be out of place in an early episode of Game of Thrones:

• “Wars will be endless.”
• “Martyrs tend to have a long half-life.”
• “Change is frightening. Especially to those in power.”

And you know what? That’s fine with me. For me, nothing has replicated the excellence of the first few seasons of Game of _Thrones._Their gripping action, shocking twists, and captivating power struggles made...

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The pandemic revealed the health risks of hospital ransomware attacks

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

A natural experiment in Vermont helped show the impacts

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FTC says Facebook has been a monopoly ‘since at least 2011’ in amended antitrust complaint

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

The Federal Trade Commission has filed an amended antitrust complaint against Facebook, alleging that the company violated federal antitrust laws with its acquisition of Instagram and WhatsApp. The new complaint is a more detailed version of a charge dismissed by the court in June for insufficient evidence.

“Facebook has today, and has maintained since 2011, a dominant share of the relevant market for US personal social networking services,” the complaint alleges, citing time spent and active-user metrics on the daily and monthly scale. “Individually and collectively, these metrics provide significant evidence of Facebook’s durable monopoly power in social networking services.”

Facebook has until October 4th to issue a response to the...

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How to watch Tesla’s AI day event

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

Today is Tesla’s AI Day, a sequel of sorts to the company’s Autonomy Day event held in 2019. The event, which will be held at Tesla’s headquarters in Palo Alto, CA, will be livestreamed for the public starting at 5PM PT / 8PM ET (though the event may not actually begin until closer to 5:30PM PT).

We don’t have a lot of details about what will be announced, but based on the invitation, we’ll get a keynote address by Tesla CEO Elon Musk, hardware and software demos from Tesla engineers, test rides in the Model S Plaid, and “more.” Musk has also tweeted that the “sole goal” of the event is to lure experts in the field of robotics and artificial intelligence to come work at Tesla.

Tesla has been holding events to highlight certain...

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Battery power capacity in the US grew big time in 2020

A worker installs solar panel at the Connexus Energy Athens Township solar-plus-storage project site in Athens Township, Minnesota, U.S., on Wednesday, Sept. 5, 2018. | Ari Lindquist/Bloomberg via Getty Images

2020 was a big year for big batteries in the US, which is crucial for getting grids to run on more renewable energy. Power capacity — a measure of how much power a battery can instantly discharge — for large-scale batteries grew at an unprecedented pace in the US last year, according to an annual report released this week by the US Energy Information Administration (EIA).

2020 smashed the previous record set in 2018

2020 smashed the previous record set in 2018 for the biggest growth in power capacity in the US with 489MW of large-scale battery storage added. That’s more than twice what was added in 2018. By the end of last year, there was 1,523MW of large-scale battery power capacity in the US. For comparison, the largest solar farm in...

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New test brings Reels to Facebook in the US

Facebook

Facebook in the US is going to look slightly more like TikTok for some users. Today, the company announced that it’s testing Facebook Reels stateside, which will bring the short-form, TikTok-like videos to the platform. These will show up for some users in the News Feed and within Groups, where people can watch them together. (The company is already testing this in India, Mexico, and Canada, and the US limited rollout is just an extension of that test.) As part of this test, Instagram users will also be able to cross-post their reels to Facebook.

People can watch and create reels from the Facebook app, and the feature is designed to give people a way to “express themselves, discover entertaining content, and to help creators broaden...

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Bird’s new electric bike looks like a VanMoof, and you can buy it

Shared electric scooter company Bird is branching out into new two-wheeled vehicles, namely electric bikes. A few months after it introduced its first shared e-bike, the company announced that it would also offer its own e-bike for sale.

The bike, dubbed Bird Bike of course, has a 500W rear hub motor, a Gates carbon belt drive, pedal- and throttle-assisted power, and the relatively modest sticker price of $2,299. Design-wise, the bike looks very similar to VanMoof’s popular e-bikes, with a slightly elongated top tube and embedded front and rear lights.

Bird, which was the first company to introduce shared electric scooters in a US city, has always flirted with the idea of e-bikes. The company first rolled out its Scoot-branded electric...

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Xbox game The Vale transports you to a medieval world through sound

Title screen of The Vale: Shadow of the Crown. | Image: Falling Squirrel

The Vale: Shadow of the Crown, an audio-based adventure game by indie studio Falling Squirrel, is available on Xbox and PC today for $19.99. The game was developed in collaboration with the Canadian National Institute for the Blind, and made for and tested by blind and low-vision players.

Players navigate a medieval setting as Alex, the blind second heir to a kingdom, who is on her way to the borderlands when her caravan is attacked by enemy soldiers. Left on her own, Alex has to travel the land, find weapons, learn spells, and fight enemies without sight.

Besides menus, which are presented in text and through audio description, the only visuals in _The Vale_are colored specks that float across a black screen. The behavior of the specks...

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Former Netflix engineers charged with insider trading

Three former Netflix engineers charged with insider trading | Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has charged three former Netflix engineers with being part of a “long-running” insider trading scheme, the agency announced. The engineers and two close associates allegedly traded on confidential information about Netflix’s subscriber growth, generating more than $3 million in total profit.

According to the SEC complaint, while employed at Netflix in 2016 and 2017, Sung Mo “Jay” Jun tipped information about the streaming giant’s subscribers to his brother Joon Mo Jun and friend Junwoo Chon, who used the info to trade ahead of Netflix earnings announcements. After Sung Mo Jun left Netflix in 2017, the SEC alleges, he continued to get confidential information about the company’s subscriber...

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Smartwatch-induced health anxiety led one woman to run 916 ECGs in a year

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

One year after getting diagnosed with atrial fibrillation, a heart condition that causes an irregular heartbeat, a 70-year-old woman was back for another diagnosis: new-onset health anxiety triggered by her smartwatch. Despite not having concerning symptoms, the patient became more and more preoccupied with and worried about notifications from her watch. Over the one-year period, she took 916 ECG recordings through her device.

That patient isn’t an outlier, says Lindsey Rosman, an assistant professor of medicine in the division of cardiology at the University of North Carolina School of Medicine, who wrote about the case in a new paper. She was just one example of a pattern seen in cardiology clinics. “Patients with underlying...

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Sweetheart deals and plastic knives: all the best emails from the Apple vs. Epic trial

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In May, the world watched as Epic Games dragged Apple to court, challenging the most profitable company in the world in the name of app fairness (and securing more Fortnite profits for itself). We’re still waiting for a verdict in Epic v. Apple, but we haven’t just been sitting around. We’ve also been digging through these companies’ dirty laundry, reading scores of internal emails and confidential presentations unearthed during the legal discovery process. It’s fascinating stuff.

In fact, we found dirt on a variety of other companies as well: Microsoft, Sony, Google, Nintendo, Valve, Netflix, Hulu, and many others were caught up in discovery, and many details of their businesses, strategies, and conversations with Apple and Epic are...

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