Facebook reportedly provided inaccurate data to misinformation researchers

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

Facebook apologized to misinformation researchers for providing them with flawed, incomplete data for their work examining how users interact with posts and links on its platform, the _New York Times_reported. Contrary to what the company told the researchers, the data Facebook provided apparently only included information for roughly half of its users in the US, not all of them.

The Times reported that members of Facebook’s Open Research and Transparency team held a call with researchers on Friday to apologize for the error. Some of the researchers questioned whether the mistake was intentional to sabotage the research, or simply an instance of negligence.

The flaw in the data was first discovered by a researcher at Italy’s University...

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CBS’s ‘The Activist’ seems to think doomscrolling equals activism

Photo by Kirstin Sinclair/Getty Images

The entertainment industry spends millions researching what we watch and why every year. As climate destruction and a global pandemic make it more difficult to turn away from our social media feeds, CBS has found a new way to exploit these horrors with its show “The Activist.” Doomscrollers are their new audience.

According to Deadline_,_the five-week CBS reality series will “feature six inspiring activists teamed with three high-profile public figures working together to bring meaningful change to one of three vitally important world causes: health, education, and environment.”

“The show is perfectly timed”

The show is perfectly timed: For the last few years, we have been stuck in a crisis loop. When California catches on fire, the...

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Disney says the rest of its 2021 slate of movies will have exclusive theatrical releases

Disney will release the rest of its 2021 movies in theaters first | Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

The remaining movies on Disney’s 2021 slate will all be released in theaters exclusively before being released on its Disney Plus streaming platform, the company announced late Friday.

“Following the tremendous box office success of our summer films which included five of the top eight domestic releases of the year, we are excited to update our theatrical plans for the remainder of 2021,” Kareem Daniel, chairman, Disney media & entertainment distribution said in a news release, adding that “confidence in moviegoing continues to improve.”

The coronavirus pandemic and temporary closures of movie theaters that began last spring led movie studios to delay the release of many of their films, hoping to allow time for pandemic restrictions to...

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How to sell or trade in your old Android phone

Photo by Vlad Savov / The Verge

There are a plethora of new and exciting smartphones that have just come onto the market (or are about to), and it wouldn’t be at all surprising to find out that you are planning to upgrade from your current phone. Samsung has introduced two new folding phones, the Galaxy Z Fold 3 and the Galaxy Z Flip 3, along with its flagship Galaxy S21 Ultra. Meanwhile, Google has released its latest mid-priced Pixel 5A and has announced its upcoming Pixel 6 and Pixel 6 Pro.

Whether you want to buy one of Samsung’s new folding phones or one of the upcoming Google 6 phones without paying full price, trading in your old phone — or selling it — is a smart way to do that. On the other hand, there are those who will decide instead to buy a lightly used...

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Today is the last day to save up to $100 on Sonos speakers

The Sonos Roam, like most other Sonos speakers, is about to see a price hike. | Photo by Chris Welch / The Verge

If you want to save up to $100 on Sonos products, now is the time. Starting Sunday, September 12th, Sonos will be increasing its prices from $10 to $100, depending on the product, meaning today is the last day you will be able to pick up one of the company’s many smart speakers at their current price.

The Sonos Arc will jump the highest in price, going from $799 to $899. You can also expect to pay $50 more for the Sonos Five, Sonos Sub, and Sonos Amp. The Five will go for $549 instead of $499, while the $699 Sonos Sub will sell for $749 and the $649 Sonos Amp will retail at $699. Sonos will also increase the prices of the Sonos One and One SL by $20, and the company will tack on an additional $10 to the portable Sonos Roam, offering it...

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Motorcycle vibrations can degrade iPhone camera performance, Apple says

Apple says its iPhone cameras may be damaged by motorcycle vibrations | Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge

A new post on Apple’s Support forum says exposing iPhones to high-amplitude vibrations, “specifically those generated by high-power motorcycle engines” could degrade the devices’ camera system. The company recommends against mounting an iPhone on a motorcycle, as the vibrations may be transmitted via the bike’s handlebars and chassis.

Here’s the technical explanation from Apple:

If you accidentally move a camera when you take a picture, the resulting image can be blurry. To prevent this, some iPhone models have optical image stabilization (OIS).1 OIS lets you take sharp photos even if you accidentally move the camera. With OIS, a gyroscope senses that the camera moved. To reduce image motion, and the resulting blur, the lens moves...

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Apple and Epic both lost today

Image by Epic Games

Apple stands to lose billions; Epic failed to #FreeFortnite

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Go read this report about the horrifying leaks coming from school ransomware attacks

Illustrator by Alex Castro / The Verge

Ransomware has been a hot-button topic in 2021 due to its impact on critical infrastructure, hospitals, and computer manufacturers. However, a recent report from NBC Newsmay be one of the more heartbreaking accounts of the effects hackers can have: it details how data leaks from attacks on schools can put student’s most sensitive information out onto the internet, available to anyone who knows how to find it and is willing to pay. It’s a story that’s well worth a read for all the details it goes into and edge cases it explores.

According to NBC’s report, one school district had an Excel sheet called “Basic student information” posted to the dark web after it refused to pay a ransom, according to the FBI’s instructions. The article’s...

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Google faces whistleblower complaint that it underpaid temp workers by as much as $100 million

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

In 2019 a New York Times report called Google’s then-121,000-strong assortment of temporary employees “a shadow work force that now outnumbers the company’s full-time employees.”

Now, a whistleblower has filed a complaint with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) stating that gaps in pay between temporary workers and full-time employees doing similar work had widened over the last few years, stretching far enough that the Guardian reports it broke local laws in the UK, Europe, and Asia. Even worse, documents viewed by the Guardian and the New York Times reveal that last December, Google managers discovered the problem and instead of addressing it immediately, they held off on taking action and only applied correct rates for the...

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Judge says Apple may be ‘stretching the truth’ on Mac malware concerns

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

During the Apple v. Epic trial, Apple software leader Craig Federighi argued that tight control over the App Store was necessary for securing the iPhone. But Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers didn’t buy it, writing in her ruling Friday that he may have been “stretching the truth for the sake of the argument.”

Federighi cast heavy doubts about whether Apple would be able to secure iPhones without its App Review system acting as a gateway, by saying that the macOS security was basically in a bad place. Judge Rodgers doesn’t think Federighi has the proof to back it up (you can read her quotes below in context on page 114):

While Mr. Federighi’s Mac malware opinions may appear plausible, they appear to have emerged for the first time at trial...

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Instagram is testing new ‘Favorites’ to bring order to your chaotic feed

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

You’re on Instagram looking for your best friend’s daily dog update, but you have to scroll endlessly through a sea of posts you care little about, and probably forget what you’re looking for in the first place. After a few extra annoyed scrolls, you close the app in frustration.

It seems Instagram is well aware of your plight, because it is quietly testing out a solution for your messy feed called “Favorites.”

According to Alessandro Paluzzi, a mobile developer who first posted about the new feature on Twitter, Favorites lets you categorize your most important Instagram accounts (friends and creators) as your priorities, so that their posts will land “higher” in your feed.

#Instagram is working on "Favorites"

ℹ️ Posts from your...

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Stephen King’s new short story is a Humble Bundle exclusive

Photo by Scott Eisen/Getty Images for Warner Bros.

Author Stephen King and Humble Bundle are teaming up to release an exclusive short story called “Red Screen.” All pay-what-you-want proceeds (starting at a $5 minimum) from “Red Screen” will benefit the American Civil Liberties Union while the story is available, from September 10th through September 16th.

Besides being notable as one of the newest entries in King’s prolific body of work, “Red Screen” is also the first Humble Bundle Exclusive. Based on what little has been shared of the plot, it certainly sounds...interesting. The description follows (emphasis mine): “The never before published story follows a cop who interrogates a deranged plumber who just murdered his wife, only to discover something far more insidious.”

It’s likely...

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Analogue Pocket preorders won’t arrive until December 2021

The Analogue Pocket has experienced a few delays already due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and it’s suffering another, the company shared on its site. Preorders for the retro handheld that can play Game Boy cartridges and other formats like Game Gear, Neo Geo Pocket Color, and more via adapters will ship “at the latest in December.” The $199 console was previously slated to launch in October, following a delay that pushed it from its original 2020 launch window.

Analogue says that “due to new Covid restrictions with our assembly partners, their capacity to deliver within our agreed timeframe has been affected.” Though understandably frustrating for people who like to stay entertained during tough times, you can’t pin blame just on Analogue...

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You can now jump in the queue to buy a PS5

Sony themselves is often one of the most reliable sources to get a PS5, with a little luck. | Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

The PlayStation 5 is still difficult to get, but as restocks come and go one of the most reliable sources is Sony itself. Sony’s direct online store has opened a queue for ordering the disc-based PlayStation 5 console and PlayStation 5 Digital Edition.

Once you’re on the landing page, you do not have to refresh the page, just try to wait patiently. When the countdown finishes, make sure you have your PlayStation Network account info ready to log in and complete the purchase if you are allocated a spot to buy one.

While you wait...

There are also a variety of accessories to consider when you’re buying a new console, as well as all kinds of new titles to jump into. Here are some starters to ponder over and keep your mind at ease while...

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This tiny plastic Shockbox makes Magic: The Gathering games even more painful

Sheepwave

Magic: The Gathering is a painful game. It hurts to see your meticulously crafted deck obliterated by a killer combo by turn four or to have your game-winning creature fizzle into nothing with a well-timed Counterspell. But Sheepwave — a streamer, artist, and Magic: The Gathering content creator — doesn’t think this already ruthless game is painful enough. To add a little spice to her Magic games, Sheepwave made the Shockbox — a box that delivers a tiny electrical jolt whenever a player takes damage.

Sheepwave says the Shockbox was born out of a “twisted” sense of humor and an affinity for electrical engineering projects.

“The whole thing started as a one-off joke I made,” Sheepwave tells The Verge. “But people really responded to it,...

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The Epic v. Apple ruling could put a serious dent in Apple’s $19 billion App Store business

The App Store may never be the same.

Today’s ruling from Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers in the Epic v. Apple trial mandates that Apple must allow all developers the option to point directly to other payment systems, in addition to Apple’s own in-app purchasing system (IAP). It’s a decision that cuts right to the heart of the roughly $19 billion a year the App Store brings in for Apple, because at the end of the day, the App Store makes most of its money off in-app purchases inside free-to-download games.

It’s not a total sledgehammer to the heart of Apple’s walled garden; the ruling still maintains the App Store as the only place that users can go to to buy or download new apps, and doesn’t challenge Apple’s 30 percent cut of those...

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The Apple App Store: a brief history of major policy changes

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

The pace of change is quickening even as Apple tries to stop it

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Apple’s California Streaming event: rumors, news, and announcements

Image: Apple

The event kicks off at 1PM ET / 10AM PT on September 14th

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The future of the App Store depends on the difference between a ‘button’ and an ‘external link’

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

Today the judge in Epic v. Apple issued a lengthy ruling holding that Epic failed to prove that Apple has a monopoly in mobile gaming transactions. Importantly, the court also held that Apple’s rules preventing other payment options in the App Store are anti-competitive, and issued an injunction telling Apple to cut it out.

Specifically, the court said that “Apple is engaging in anticompetitive conduct,” and that “Apple’s anti-steering provisions hide critical information from consumers and illegally stifle consumer choice.”

To fix that, the court issued the following permanent injunction barring Apple from having rules against other payment systems. I’ve bolded the most relevant bit:

Apple Inc. and its officers, agents, servants,...

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Epic will appeal the Epic v. Apple decision

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

If you’re wondering whether Epic Games is satisfied with Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers’ decision to give iPhone and iPad developers a way around Apple’s 30 percent cut, the answer is most definitely no. Epic will appeal the court’s ruling in Epic v. Apple, a spokesperson confirmed to The Verge.

It’s not hard to imagine why: Epic lost on every other count. Apple will not be forced to allow users to sideload apps, or accept other app stores, or lower its fee below 30 percent.

The lone decision against Apple was a significant one, but it only forces Apple to allow app developers to point to their own choice of payment methods instead of Apple’s IAP — and Epic might not even benefit from that decision unless Apple agrees to bring Fortnite...

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Will Fortnite return to iOS? Probably not any time soon

Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales

The ruling is in on the Epic v. Apple trial. Epic won a major concession when it comes to allowing alternative in-app purchase options, but Apple won out on basically all other counts. The question now is: where does that leave Fortnite, which has been out of the iOS App Store since it first violated Apple’s rules by offering its own payment options in August 2020?

For the moment, it sounds like the game isn’t coming back right away. The judge did not say that Apple would be required to restore the game, and neither Apple nor Epic have indicated that it’ll return any time soon.

Epic wants “fair competition” before ‘Fortnite’ returns

In fact, Epic seems to have indicated that it’s _not_satisfied with the ruling and won’t be restoring F...

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Sonos raises prices for majority of products amid supply chain crunch

Photo by Chris Welch / The Verge

Sonos has announced that many of its speakers will be getting a price increase, ranging from $10 more for its portable Roam, to $100 more for its Arc soundbar. The company says that the price increases are making good on a promise it made during a call with investors last month, and that the increases would be going into effect on Sunday, September 12th. (We’ve reached out to Sonos to clarify if there’s a specific time the increase will happen.) You can see a table with all the price changes below.

During its earnings call, Sonos cited both supply and demand factors in its decision to raise prices. In a statement to The Verge, the company said it’s “always assessing market dynamics — including demand, supply chain, component costs and...

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Epic v. Apple judge rules Fortnite’s Peely can appear naked in court

Peely the banana. | Image: Epic

One of the more bizarre moments of this year’s Epic v. Apple trial was when proceedings got derailed by an exchange about whether Peely the banana — a recurring _Fortnite_character — should be expected to wear clothes in court. Apple suggested Peely ought to wear clothes in federal court and showed him in a tuxedo; Epic argued the suit was unnecessary. And you better believe the judge’s ruling, released today, has come to a final conclusion.

With respect to the appropriateness of Peely’s “dress,” the Court understood Apple merely to be “dressing” Peely in a tuxedo for federal court, as jest to reflect the general solemnity of a federal court proceeding. As Mr. Weissinger later remarked, and with which the Court agrees, Peely is “just a...

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Google search is finally officially getting dark mode on desktop

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

Google is finally adding an official dark mode to search on desktops, letting those who prefer to avoid bright webpages complete their searches while bathed in inky gray (via 9to5Google). According to Google’s support page, you can make the change by going to Settings > Search Settings > Appearance. There, you’ll be able to choose light, dark, or device default, which will automatically follow your computer’s mode. If you don’t see the Appearance option, you may have to wait a bit: Google says the setting will be “rolling out over the next few weeks,” as many of its updates do.

Google has been toying with dark mode search for a while now — we noted that it was in testing in February. To take you behind the scenes a bit, since then, we’ve...

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Twitch sues two alleged ‘hate raiders’

Illustration by William Joel / The Verge

After months of combating a tidal wave of harassment campaigns targeting marginalized streamers, Twitch has filed a suit against two alleged “hate raiders.”

First reported by WIRED, the suit, filed yesterday in US Federal Court, names two defendants, CruzzControl and CreatineOverdose, and alleges the two were responsible in part for the rash of “hate raids” that have plagued Twitch since the beginning of August. In the lawsuit, Twitch said that:

CruzzControl is responsible for nearly 3,000 bot accounts associated with hate raids. Bots developed and deployed by CruzzControl have been linked to various hate raid events, including those targeting black and LGBTQIA+ streamers with racist, homophobic, sexist, and other harassing content....

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Ikea and Sonos’ second-generation Symfonisk lamp leaks with swappable lampshades

Ikea’s second-generation Symfonisk table lamp speaker has leaked thanks to a support document posted to Ikea’s Portuguese website (spotted by a Reddit user who claims to have encountered the lamp shades in a store), featuring a new design that streamlines the speaker-lamp’s base and adds the much-needed option to swap in different styles of lampshades, via Janko Roettgers on Twitter.

Compared to the original Symfonisk table lamp, the new model appears to have ditched the platter-like base for a design that integrates the speaker controllers directly into the unit. But the biggest change is the lampshade component, which ditches the mushroom-like opaque glass shade for removable, swappable options. And like the original, the new model...

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Vergecast: How smart are Facebook’s glasses?

Photo by Amanda Lopez for The Verge

Every Friday, The Verge publishes our flagship podcast, The Vergecast, where co-hosts Nilay Patel and Dieter Bohn discuss the week in tech news with the reporters and editors covering the biggest stories.

This week on The Vergecast, Nilay and Dieter are joined by Verge managing editor Alex Cranz and senior reporter Alex Heath to discuss Facebook’s newest hardware endeavor: sunglasses with cameras on them. Will this new iteration of smart glasses stick around? Or are we overthinking it? The cast dives in.

Second half of the show focuses on next week’s Apple event. The crew discussed their predictions for the iPhone 13, a new Apple Watch, and other products we may see announced on September 14th.

There’s a whole lot more packed into...

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Vimeo adds support for Apple’s iPhone 12 Dolby Vision HDR videos

Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge

The iPhone 12 and 12 Pro launched last year with the ability to shoot video in Dolby Vision HDR — but for the most part, there hasn’t been anywhere to actually post or share those files.

But now, almost a year after they were first announced (and just in time for Apple’s next iPhone announcement on Tuesday), Apple, Dolby, and Vimeo are teaming up to allow iPhone 12 owners to post Dolby Vision HDR videos.

Starting now, you’ll be able to upload Dolby Vision videos shot with iPhone 12 devices (either directly from an iPhone or from your computer after editing in a program like Final Cut Pro) to Vimeo, where anyone will be able to stream them. Dolby Vision videos on Vimeo will have a badge highlighting that they feature HDR content, so...

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Apple must allow other forms of in-app purchases, rules judge in Epic v. Apple

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

Judge Yvonne Gonzalez-Rogers issued a permanent injunction in the Epic v. Apple case on Friday morning, handing a major setback to Apple’s App Store model.

Under the new order, Apple is:

permanently restrained and enjoined from prohibiting developers from including in their apps and their metadata buttons, external links, or other calls to action that direct customers to purchasing mechanisms, in addition to In-App Purchasing and (ii) communicating with customers through points of contact obtained voluntarily from customers through account registration within the app.

In the full ruling, Judge Gonzalez-Rogers explained her thinking on the issue in greater detail. Notably, the judge rejected both parties’ definition of the marketplace at...

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WhatsApp is adding encrypted backups

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

WhatsApp will let its more than 2 billion users fully encrypt the backups of their messages, the Facebook-owned app announced Friday.

The plan, which WhatsApp is detailing in a white paper before rolling out to users on iOS and Android in the coming weeks, is meant to secure the backups WhatsApp users already send to either Google Drive or Apple’s iCloud, making them unreadable without an encryption key. WhatsApp users who opt into encrypted backups will be asked to save a 64-digit encryption key or create a password that is tied to the key.

“WhatsApp is the first global messaging service at this scale to offer end-to-end encrypted messaging and backups, and getting there was a really hard technical challenge that required an entirely...

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