Snapchat adds ‘challenges’ with cash prizes to its TikTok competitor

Snapchat’s Spotlight Challenges | Image: Snap

Snapchat is adding another way for creators to earn cash. The app is launching a feature called Spotlight Challenges, which will reward a handful of creators each week for making videos using specific Lenses, doing certain activities, or playing a chosen sound inside the app’s TikTok competitor, Spotlight.

Around three to five creators will be awarded cash for each challenge, with the winners being chosen from among the most-viewed eligible videos. Snap says the minimum payment will be $250, but prizes will “typically range from $1k to $25k.” There’ll be multiple challenges every week.

Snap is still paying millions to creators of top Spotlight videos

The challenges offer a new way for Snap to incentivize users to make videos for...

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Nintendo Switch OLED review: screentime

It’s not 4K, but it sure looks good

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Metroid Dread is moody, cryptic, and frequently frustrating

Samus Aran’s new adventure is caught between action and exploration

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Pinterest whistleblower Ifeoma Ozoma has a new way for tech workers to speak out

Ifeoma Ozoma poses for a portrait outside her home in New Mexico on February 20th, 2021. | Photo by Gabriela Campos for The Verge

When Ifeoma Ozoma came forward with allegations of discrimination and racism at Pinterest, she was prepared. She had a list of reporters on deck to share her story. She’d already hired a lawyer. Then she started hearing from other tech workers who also wanted to speak out. “The general lack of awareness around options and resources was shocking,” she says.

Now, she’s aiming to fix that.

On Wednesday, Ozoma launched the Tech Worker Handbook — a comprehensive online resource to help employees who want to speak out. “Deciding to go toe-to-toe with a powerful and well-resourced corporation is difficult for many reasons,” the website reads. “Access to information about how to find legal counsel, file a complaint with a governmental...

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Apple’s new iPad Mini is already discounted at Adorama

The new iPad Mini is $25 off today, the first discount we’ve seen on the 8.3-inch tablet. | Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge

At $499, the latest iPad Mini isn’t cheap. Luckily, Adorama is currently taking $25 off of the 64GB, Wi-Fi-equipped model in all four colorways, bringing the final sale price down to $474. The latest model is equipped with Apple’s new A15 Bionic processor and a 12MP rear camera, not to mention Apple’s Center Stage feature, which allows the front-facing camera to digitally pan and zoom in order to keep you in the frame.

In our review, we also praised the design of the sixth-gen iPad Mini, the larger screen, and the fact that the new tablet offers USB-C support, though, we disliked that it lacks a headphone jack. And while today’s discount isn’t a huge one, it is one of the first we’ve seen on the Apple slate since it launched just over a...

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Uber wants to make airport trips less messy

Photo by ROBYN BECK/AFP via Getty Images

Uber is rolling out several new features designed to improve the most dreaded trip imaginable: the airport trip. In select cities, customers can book a ride to the airport 30 days in advance and even send their flight information to their driver so they can track its progress in real-time. The company is also deploying machine learning to improve curbside pickups.

As airport traffic steadily increases in the wake of the pandemic, Uber sees an opportunity to strengthen its position as the first choice for pickups and drop-offs for air travelers, as well as make improvements for drivers, who have long complained about the current chaotic system.

To start out, Uber is rolling out its Uber Reserve advance booking feature to more airports...

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Verge Tech Survey 2021

After a year of the pandemic, we asked Americans if their trust in big tech companies has changed — and if the biggest ones should be broken up

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Twitch source code and creator payouts reportedly part of massive leak

Illustration by William Joel / The Verge

Twitch appears to have been hacked, leaking source code for the company’s streaming service, an unreleased Steam competitor from Amazon Game Studios, and details of creator payouts. An anonymous poster on the 4chan messaging board has released a 125GB torrent, which they claim includes the entirety of Twitch and its commit history.

The poster claims the leak is designed to “foster more disruption and competition in the online video streaming space.” While _The Verge_is unable to immediately verify the contents of the leak, Video Games Chronicle reports that it’s legit.

The leak is said to include the following:

• 3 years worth of details regarding creator payouts on Twitch.
• The entirety of twitch.tv, “with commit history going back to its...

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Polar’s Grit X multisport watch goes Pro

The Polar Grit X Pro (shown in copper colorway) features a sapphire lens and rugged FKM strap. | Photo by Thomas Ricker / The Verge

Polar is making a number of updates to its family of sport watches today. This includes the launch of the Polar Grit X Pro for outdoor multisport enthusiasts, alongside feature and design tweaks to the company’s “premium” Vantage V2 multisport watch and Polar Unite fitness watch.

The Grit X Pro is an update to the Grit X launched last year. For an extra $70/€70, the $499.90/€499.90 Pro model adds a tougher sapphire lens and a durable yet supple FKM watch band. Otherwise, you’re pretty much looking at the same specs as last year: GPS/A-GPS, waterproof to 100 meters, turn-by-turn navigation when linked with Komoot, and what’s considered to be one of the most accurate heart rate sensors available on any watch. Grit X watches will last for...

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HMD’s Nokia is getting into Android tablets with the $249.99 T20

The 10.4-inch tablet. | Image: HMD

After years of focusing on phones, HMD is releasing its first Android tablet under the Nokia brand name — something we haven’t seen since the real Nokia launched the N1 Android tablet back in 2014.

The T20 is a 10.4-inch tablet designed to be used for working and studying from home. Pricing starts at $249.99 in the US where it will be available from November 17th, while in the UK the tablet will be available from today starting at £179.99 for the Wi-Fi version, or £199.99 for the LTE model.

As you might expect from its affordable price point, the Nokia T20 is not a powerhouse of an Android tablet. It’s powered by a modest Unisoc Tiger T610 processor, and in the US and UK comes with 4GB of RAM, and 64GB of expandable storage. HMD reckons...

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Telegram gains 70M new users in just one day after Facebook outage

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

Messaging app Telegram gained a “record” 70 million new users on Monday, as Facebook experienced a nearly six-hour long outage across its services, Telegram CEO Pavel Durov announced. Encrypted messaging app Signal also reported gaining “millions” of new users on the same day. Both apps compete mainly with Facebook’s WhatsApp, although the outage also took down Facebook Messenger, and left users unable to send messages on Instagram.

70 million new users is an increase of over 10 percent compared to the 500 million monthly active users Telegram had as of January this year, the last time it reported a similar surge in new signups. Coincidentally, this last increase in users was also helped by problems at Facebook. In January, WhatsApp...

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Google launches new features to help users shrink their carbon footprints

Google Maps will soon show users in the US the most fuel-efficient route. | Image: Google

Google announced a suite of new features that it says will help people who use their platforms make more sustainable choices. The new services focus on reducing planet-heating greenhouse gas emissions and are primarily found on Search, Maps, Travel, and Nest.

But before we get into the details of how their new tools work, a quick note of context; some environmental advocates have called out companies for shifting responsibility for the climate crisis onto individual consumers. Holding big corporate polluters accountable for their emissions far outweighs any one consumers’ individual impact. And Wednesday’s announcements from Google aren’t really designed to reduce the company’s own carbon footprint.

Holding big corporate polluters...

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Nest Renew could make your smart home smarter

Select Nest thermostats will soon be able to tell you when you are using green energy. | Image: Google Nest

Google has announced several new features for its Nest thermostats centered around helping the smart home become a bigger partner in the battle against climate change. These features are wrapped up in a new service called Nest Renew.

The service will use intelligent automation to allow the thermostats to communicate with energy providers and make it easier for Nest users to know when there is cleaner and / or cheaper energy on their local power grid. The device will then automatically adjust to use that energy at optimal times without you having to do a thing.

Nest Renew is the “First program of its kind,” said Google CEO Sundar Pichai, and it is entirely opt-in. It includes five main features:

• Energy Shift — automatic shifting of...

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Canon’s new dual-fisheye EOS R lens is for creating 3D VR content

Canon has announced what’s easily the oddest glass yet for its EOS R mirrorless camera system: a dual 5.2mm f/2.8 fisheye. The fisheye lenses are 60mm apart and are designed for creating 3D VR images and video content; Canon calls out the Oculus Quest 2 as a potential hardware destination and says this is “the world’s first digital interchangeable lens that can capture stereoscopic 3D 180° VR imagery to a single image sensor.”

The lens can be used to shoot up to 8K footage on the EOS R5, which appears to be the only camera it’ll work with. Canon is releasing a 1.5.0 firmware update for the R5 as well as a Premiere Pro plug-in and a standalone file conversion app called EOS VR Utility. Canon calls this combination the EOS VR System and...

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T-Mobile is making its 5G home internet $10 cheaper

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

T-Mobile has announced that it’s cutting the price of its 5G-powered home internet service by $10, bringing it back to the $50 price that it charged during its pilot program. That $50 a month gets you internet with no data cap, speeds that T-Mobile estimates will be anywhere from 35 to 115 Mbps, and a router capable of turning 5G and LTE into Wi-Fi (which you’ll have to return if you ever cancel the contract-free plan).

T-Mobile is adamant that your bill won't be higher than $50 — in its press release it says there’s no installation fees, activation fees, or equipment rental fees. It seems to view this as a kind of apology for all the fees traditional ISPs like Xfinity and Charter have charged. It’s pretty self-congratulatory, but it’s...

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Mark Zuckerberg breaks silence to say the Facebook whistleblower’s claims ‘don’t make any sense’

Mark Zuckerberg posted a staunch defense of his company in a note to Facebook staffers, saying that recent claims by an ex-employee about the social network’s negative effects on society “don’t make any sense.”

On Tuesday, a former Facebook product manager named Frances Haugen testified before Congress about a trove of internal documents she gave to The Wall Street Journal. The focus of the hearing was on Facebook’s internal research that showed Instagram can have a negative effect on young people, but Haugen took the opportunity to also attack the company’s business model and News Feed algorithm. One of her main arguments was that Facebook’s business of selling ads based on engagement leads it to keep users on the service at all costs,...

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Google files document production demand against one of its biggest public critics

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

Late Monday night, Google filed for a court order to produce documents from longtime Google critic Luther Lowe, as part of its ongoing federal antitrust case, US vs. Google.

The motion arises from an apparent breakdown in negotiations between Google and Lowe’s employer, Yelp. Yelp has agreed to document production from a number of its employees, but has resisted on Lowe in particular, leaving Google to ask the court for a subpoena that would compel email archives and other documents.

“Yelp cannot deny Google the documents it needs to defend itself”

“Yelp’s allegations against Google conceived and advanced by Mr. Lowe, are a central part of the government’s case,” the filing reads. “Now that the very governmental action Yelp advocated...

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Intel tries to bash Apple again with a terrible ‘social experiment’ ad

I regret to inform you that Intel has again made a terrible ad to showcase how absolutely not mad it is about Apple switching to its own processors. This one, called “Breaking the Spell,” follows a classic format — people are put in a room and told about features supposedly coming to MacBooks. Then, after they get all excited, the twist! They were actually being told about Windows computers, powered (of course) by Intel. The folks in the ad (which the fine print says are “real people paid for their time and opinions”) are speechless and then clamor to buy or take the laptops, presumably now that they’ve awoken to the possibilities of the PC.

It’s an ad format that’s never been great, but the real kicker is that it makes absolutely no...

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Twitter is making live video quality better by removing one feature

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

Twitter announced Tuesday that it’s dropping a feature from its live broadcasts tool, but the company is removing it in service of making your video broadcast quality better.

What’s gone? Now, you aren’t able to invite guests to join you in a broadcast via audio ahead of going live. That feature was added in March 2020. Now, when you go live, your broadcast will just feature you and whoever else happens to be in the frame, though people can still post in the chat or tap to add a heart to interact with you while you’re broadcasting.

As of today we’re removing the option to invite guests when you go live, so we can improve your video broadcast quality.

Your viewers can still interact with you through chat and hearts. h...

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It just got much easier to find your lost AirPods Pro or AirPods Max

Photo by Chris Welch / The Verge

Apple today released a firmware update for its AirPods Pro and AirPods Max that introduces new options for finding the pricey products if you happen to misplace them. These capabilities were first promised for iOS 15 but didn’t quite make the launch; thankfully, it didn’t take Apple much longer after that to roll them out. Both 9to5Mac and MacRumors reported on today’s release.

Using Apple’s Find My app, it was already possible to view the location where your AirPods were last paired with your iPhone or play a sound to make them easier to dig out of the couch cushions. But this new update greatly expands that functionality. Now you can activate Lost Mode and have millions of other iPhones, iPads, and Macs aid in the search should your...

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Alexa will now let you take longer to ask a question

A glowing Amazon Echo. | Photo by Dan Seifert / The Verge

Amazon has added a valuable new feature to Alexa: you can now opt to have more time to finish your statement or question before Alexa responds to you. The feature could be useful if you wish you had a bit longer before Alexa replied to what you were saying, but it’s also a useful accessibility feature, particularly for people with speech impediments who may need more time to say something. If you want to enable this, you can turn it on in the Alexa app.

The company has also added the ability for Android users to type requests in the Alexa app. This feature might be handy for when you don’t want to use your voice to ask Alexa a question, but it too could be a boon for accessibility. This feature, which was first added to the iOS version...

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Amazon is reportedly working on a smart fridge

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

Amazon might be working on its own smart fridge, according to a new report from Insider. "Project Pulse," as the project is titled internally, is reportedly being developed by the same Amazon "physical-stores unit" that worked on the company's high-tech Amazon Go stores.

Project Pulse "is designed to track your inventory and purchase habits, predict what you want, and have it delivered," Insider writes. The fridge could also track expiration dates, suggest recipes based on the products in your fridge, and offer an easy way to order more food from an Amazon Fresh or Whole Foods grocery store.

Amazon already introduced a microwave — why not a fridge?

Amazon's foray into fridges has apparently been in the works for at least two years, I...

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Microsoft’s Windows 11 launch event is a ‘6D musical experience’ with a free NFT

Microsoft is launching Windows 11 virtually today, and the company is promising a “first-of-its-kind 6D streaming event,” featuring Allen Stone and Tate McRae. I’m not entirely sure what a “6D musical experience” is, but Microsoft’s website promises multiple camera views during its stream and even a free Windows 11 NFT.

Microsoft describes its Windows 11 NFT as a “one-of-a-kind cryptographic token that lives in your digital wallet and unlocks valuable experiences and rewards.” Again, I’m not sure what valuable experiences and rewards this will unlock, but we’ll find out at 8PM ET / 5PM PT when the Windows 11 launch stream goes live.

Bringing to you the launch of #Windows11 straight from Burj Khalifa tonight! Stay tuned while we reveal...

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Now all of Battlefield 2042’s next-gen digital editions include cross-gen access

A screenshot from_Battlefield 2042._ | Image: EA

EA is making Battlefield 2042 a little bit more accessible across generations. The company announced Tuesday that the digital Standard Edition of Battlefield 2042 on PS5 and Xbox Series X / S now includes the Cross-Gen Bundle, which gives you access to both the PS4 and the PS5 or Xbox One and Xbox Series X / S versions of the game. Previously, the Cross-Gen Bundle was only available with the more expensive digital Gold and Ultimate editions of Battlefield 2042.

It’s important to note that this cross-gen benefit has only been added to the digital Standard Editions for next-gen consoles. If you buy the digital Standard Edition on PS4 or Xbox One, where it is $10 cheaper than it is on the PS5 and Xbox Series X / S, you won’t get the...

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Scroll is shutting down in ‘approximately’ 30 days to become part of Twitter Blue

Scroll’s ad-free subscription web service is shutting down as an independent entity in “approximately” 30 days, the company announced in an email to subscribers. The service — which was purchased by Twitter earlier this year — will instead be rolled into the burgeoning Twitter Blue premium subscription as “Ad-Free Articles.”

In its current form, Scroll is a $5-per-month service that offers ad-free browsing to hundreds of websites, including The Atlantic, BuzzFeed News, G/O Media, _USA Today,_andVox Media — which, full disclosure, includes The Verge. It works by using a combination of third-party cookies and browser extensions to stop websites from showing ads to paid subscribers.

Aw man, Twitter is shutting down Scroll. It was a great...

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Facebook runs the coward’s playbook to smear the whistleblower

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Photo by Justin Sullivan / Getty Images

Facebook has chosen to respond to whistleblower Frances Haugen in the most cowardly way possible: by hiding Mark Zuckerberg, the man ultimately responsible for Facebook’s decisions, and beginning the process of trying to smear and discredit Haugen.

This is some Big Tobacco bullshit — precisely what sleazeball PR guru John Scanlon was hired to do when Jeffrey Wigand blew the whistle on tobacco company Brown and Williamson. Scanlon’s task was to change “the story of B&W to a narrative about Wigand’s personality.”

Of course, that strategy “backfired completely,” _Vanity Fair_reported in 2004. It probably won’t work here, either. One senator, Edward Markey of Massachusetts, has already called Haugen “a 21st-century American hero,” adding that...

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Microsoft is giving away free Windows 11 ice cream in NYC today

Bloomberg is a limited edition ice cream at Mikey Likes It. | Image: Mikey Likes It Ice Cream

Microsoft has teamed up with Mikey Likes It Ice Cream in New York City to give away free frozen dessert today. The collaboration marks the release of Windows 11 and part of what would normally, before the pandemic, include a Windows launch party in New York City. The “Bloomberry” (not to be confused with Bloomberg) ice cream looks like a frozen mix of the default Bloom Windows 11 wallpaper.

The blueberry flavored ice cream is free at Mikey Likes It locations in the East Village and Harlem until stocks freeze up. We’re not sure if there are any entry requirements to getting this Windows 11 ice cream, like having to enable TPM 2.0 at the door, so please get in touch if you have to turn Secure Boot on to get your free ice cream. Please also...

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How to use snap layouts in Windows 11

Windows 11 may not be exactly revolutionary, but there are some features that are just plain useful, and snap layouts are one of them. Replacing the drag-and-drop snap assist feature of Windows 10, snap layouts let you arrange your apps quickly and neatly on your desktop, making it much simpler to see all and use all at once. (Certainly, it’s a lot better than the constant Alt-Tab switching between apps that many of us are used to.)

Here’s how you set it up:

• Hover your cursor over the maximize icon in the upper right corner of an app or press Win-Z. You’ll see four (or six if you have a large monitor) different grid layouts that you can choose from. Each layout will have several zones in a different configuration.
• Choose a layout and...

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Yubico announces security keys with fingerprint readers

Image: Yubico

Yubico has announced a new line of security keys that lets you unlock accounts with a fingerprint. With older YubiKeys, logging in requires putting in a PIN and then tapping the key, but the new version can authenticate with just the tap (though the option to put in a PIN is still available if you’re wearing gloves or your fingers are wet). The convenience does come at a premium — the USB-A version of the YubiKey Bio costs $80, and the USB-C version costs $85.

The YubiKey Bio series acts like a regular security key, so it can help you either log on to services without having to deal with passwords or act as a second factor in addition to something like a password or authentication code from your phone. Either use style can help you...

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Facebook explains the backbone shutdown behind its global outage on Monday

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

The massive outage that took down Facebook, its associated services (Instagram, WhatsApp, Oculus, Messenger), its platform for businesses, and the company’s own internal network all started with routine maintenance.

According to infrastructure vice president Santosh Janardhan, a command issued during maintenance inadvertently caused a shutdown of the backbone that connects all of Facebook’s data centers, everywhere in the world.

That by itself is bad enough, but as we’ve already explained, the reason you couldn’t use Facebook is that the DNS and BGP routing information pointing to its servers suddenly disappeared. According to Janardhan, that problem was a secondary issue, as Facebook’s DNS servers noted the loss of connection to the...

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