Facebook fined $70 million for withholding information about Giphy acquisition

Photo illustration by Chesnot/Getty Images

A UK watchdog has fined Facebook £50 million ($70 million USD) for purposely concealing information about its Giphy acquisition (via TechCrunch). Facebook began its $400 million acquisition of Giphy in 2020, and even members of Congress thought it was a bad idea.

The company’s dealings with the massive GIF-making hub were called out by UK regulators in August, leading the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) to launch an antitrust probe. As part of the investigation, the CMA issued an initial enforcement order (IEO) that prohibits any further integration between Facebook and Giphy, which is supposed to allow the companies to continue competing as if there was no acquisition at all.

“No decision has yet been reached in relation to the...

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DJI is making a cinema camera with a built-in gimbal and LIDAR focusing

Image: DJI

Drone-maker DJI has announced a cinema camera that comes with a built-in gimbal, can shoot at up to 8K resolution, and uses a LIDAR rangefinder that promises a “sharper, faster, and more reliable focusing experience,” even in low light. It’s called the Ronin 4D, and while it’s aimed squarely at professionals, it’s loaded with interesting features and shows that DJI is continuing to develop its camera tech outside of drones.

The Ronin 4D’s camera is called the Zenmuse X9, and it’s full-frame, has interchangeable lens mounts for DJI’s DL and Leica’s M systems, and includes nine (nine!) built-in ND filters for controlling your exposure in the sun. The 6K model can do 6K at 60fps and 4K120, and the 8K model can do 75fps at its max...

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The AI oracle of Delphi uses the wisdom of Reddit to offer dubious moral advice

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

Got a moral quandary you don’t know how to solve? Fancy making it worse? Why not turn to the wisdom of artificial intelligence, aka Ask Delphi: an intriguing research project from the Allen Institute for AI that offers answers to ethical dilemmas while demonstrating in wonderfully clear terms why we shouldn’t trust software with questions of morality.

Ask Delphi was launched on October 14th, along with a research paper describing how it was made. From a user’s point of view, though, the system is beguilingly simple to use. Just head to the website, outline pretty much any situation you can think of, and Delphi will come up with a moral judgement. “It’s bad,” or “it’s acceptable,” or “it’s good,” and so on.

Each answer from the AI oracle...

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Samsung will now let you design your own Galaxy Z Flip 3

The Galaxy Z Flip 3 Bespoke Edition. | Image: Samsung

Samsung released the Galaxy Z Flip 3 in August, but if none of the colorways were exactly what you wanted, the company will let you make your own design with the new Z Flip 3 Bespoke Edition. The new phone was announced at the company’s Unpacked Part 2 event on Wednesday.

You won’t be able to customize the Bespoke Edition with any color you want, but Samsung is offering a lot of options. You’ll be able to choose a black or silver phone frame and front and back colors (aka the top and bottom, if the phone is open) of blue, yellow, pink, white, or black.

If you get tired of your color combination, you’ll be able to make a slight change down the line by swapping out the colors on the back glass panel of the phone for a fee with the Bespoke...

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Alphabet’s Wing is bringing its drone delivery service to Dallas-Fort Worth

Drones will soon be buzzing overhead in Dallas-Fort Worth, bearing small containers filled with Tylenol and Band-Aids. Wing, a subsidiary of Google parent company Alphabet, is bringing its drone delivery service to the Texas city, its first densely populated market.

Wing is starting small, making deliveries from just one Walgreens to the city of Frisco and town of Little Elm. The company says it will be utilizing its new operational model, in which small shipping containers parked next to the store act as tiny hangers from which Wing’s drones will be deployed. Walgreens employees, rather than Wing technicians, will be trained in how to attach the packages to the company’s drones.

Drone deliveries were supposed to revolutionize the...

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Samsung is adding new watchfaces to the Galaxy Watch 4

Photo by Dieter Bohn / The Verge

Samsung is bringing some new features to its Galaxy Watch 4 smartwatches in a new update, the company announced Wednesday. Perhaps the most significant change is four new watchfaces, which include a basic dashboard and a weather-focused one. You can see them in the GIF below from Samsung.

New faces aren’t the only updates headed to the new watches; you’ll also be able to use a “knock-knock” motion in the air to launch a preset app or feature. Fall detection has also been improved so that if you’re standing still and you fall, the watch will still detect it.

The update adding the new features will roll out starting Wednesday for Bluetooth versions of the Galaxy Watch 4 and Galaxy Watch 4 Classic, while the LTE versions...

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How to create virtual desktops with Windows 11

Virtual desktops aren’t new to Windows. In Windows 10, it was a simple matter to create a separate desktop so that, for example, you could have one desktop for one project and a second for another, or one for your work and a second for your personal apps.

However, in Windows 11, there has been an upgrade. Now, you can also have a different wallpaper for each desktop, making it easier to distinguish one from another (and offering you a different mood, depending on what you’re using it for). And there are a number of other features that make the use of virtual desktops easy and efficient. Note that some of these were actually introduced in Windows 10, but together with the new features of Windows 11, they make a handy toolbox.

Create a...

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The 2021 iPad Pro has dropped to its lowest price yet

You can save $200 on the 2021 iPad Pro today. | Photo by Kayla Murkison / The Verge

If you can’t wait to get your hands on Apple’s new MacBook Pros, check out this great iPad Pro deal, which will certainly keep you distracted in the meantime. Today at Amazon, you can save $200 on this upgraded 12.9-inch model that has 256GB of storage. Typically $1,199, the retailer is offering the Wi-Fi-only version in space gray for $999 instead, which is an appealing price since it’s the current cost of the 128GB version.

In our review, we praised the iPad Pro’s beautiful Mini LED screen, the fast M1 processor, and the Center Stage camera, which follows faces while you make video calls. The iPad also offers good dual rear cameras that are paired with lidar, excellent microphones, support for the second-gen Apple Pencil, and more. R...

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No Man’s Sky’s newest expedition adventure features lots of worms

No Man’s Sky is getting its fourth seasonal update with a new expedition called Emergence. Just in time for spooky season (and, coincidentally, the theatrical release of Dune) Emergence focuses on discovering, taming, and battling giant sandworms.

The trailer for Emergence features some of the wormy updates coming to No Man’s Sky. Existing sandworms will come in more varieties, players can obtain a grotesque Sarlacc pit-looking helmet, and, perhaps most importantly, players will be able to tame and ride giant flying sandworms.

Since expeditions launched in March of this year, Hello Games says Emergence is the first one to feature a dedicated narrative. Starting on the sand-blighted planet of Wasan, explorers will unravel the mysteries...

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Resident Evil 4 in VR shouldn’t work — but somehow it does

Oculus

I didn’t have stellar hopes going into Resident Evil 4’s virtual reality adaptation.

VR versions of non-VR games are often at best superfluous and at worst painful — sometimes literally if you’re prone to motion sickness. Resident Evil 7 supported VR to questionable effect in 2017. And Resident Evil 4 in VR, an Oculus Quest 2 version of Capcom’s 2005 GameCube game, makes a lot of tradeoffs that sound compromising on paper. But the weirdest part by far? It mostly works. Resident Evil 4’s VR version retools a horror classic with VR combat satisfying enough to make up for its myriad rough edges, producing something surprisingly fun.

Unlike Capcom’s recent Resident Evil 2 and _3_console remakes, which were heavily reimagined versions of their...

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Brave browser replaces Google with its own search engine

Brave Search launched in beta earlier this year. | Image: Brave

Brave, the privacy-focused browser that blocks third-party ads and trackers by default, is switching to using its own search engine by default, the company has announced. The change will be applied for new users, and will affect which search engine is used via the browser’s address bar. Brave Search will replace Google in the United States, United Kingdom, and Canada, Qwant in France, and DuckDuckGo in Germany. More countries will be switched over in the coming months.

It’s a significant step for Brave’s fledgling search engine, which launched in public beta earlier this year, since most people just take what they’re given. The search engine set as the browser default is a valuable promotion tactic, and so important that the practice has...

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How NFTs are creating a generational divide between platforms

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

Today, let’s talk about a fault line that’s beginning to open up in the gaming world, one I suspect will soon be coming to most platforms and app stores. It’s a divide that begins with a simple question: will your platform allow NFTs? Crypto payments? You know … blockchain stuff?

Like it or not, the rise of non-fungible tokens as an engine for fun and profit has been one of the tech world’s big stories in 2021. Using the blockchain to create unique digital objects with verifiable, transferrable ownership has opened up new possibilities in art, digital trading cards, and gaming. At least for the moment, it seems likely that other forms of media will follow.

Recently I’ve written about ways in which NFTs are challenging the current...

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Netflix boss says he “screwed up” over Chappelle special fallout

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

Mere hours before a planned walkout from Netflix’s trans and allied workers over comments made by Dave Chappelle in a recent special, co-CEO Ted Sarandos has said he “screwed up” over his response to employers over outrage from within the company.

Chappelle’s special The Closer debuted on the streaming service earlier this month and immediately came under fire from members and allies of the LGBTQ+ community as well as Netflix employees who criticized the special as being transphobic. Sarandos, for his part, has stood by the special, telling employees that Netflix doesn’t allow titles on its service “that are designed to incite hate or violence, and we don’t believe The Closer crosses that line.”

In an interview with Variety published on...

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Oppo reportedly developing own chips for flagship phones

Oppo’s current Find X3 Pro flagship phone. | Photo by Sam Byford / The Verge

Oppo is developing its own high-end chips for flagship mobile phones, according to a report in Nikkei. Two people who spoke to the newspaper said that the plan was to release custom SoCs in 2023 or 2024 “depending on the speed of development.” Oppo reportedly wants to use TSMC’s advanced 3nm process technology for the chips.

If plans come to pass, Oppo would be the latest major smartphone manufacturer to take control of its own SoC design. Yesterday Google launched the Pixel 6 and 6 Pro, its first phones with a custom SoC called Tensor. Apple and Samsung also design their own smartphone chips, as did Huawei before US sanctions decimated its mobile business.

Oppo currently uses chips from Qualcomm and MediaTek, like all other Chinese...

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The IATSE’s strike-averting deal means better pay on streaming

Myung J. Chun / Los Angeles Times via Getty Images

Streaming services may pay up to 30 percent more to production workers as part of the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees’ (IATSE) deal with major Hollywood studios to avert a strike.

The union tweeted a document that specifically outlined the new streaming terms of the tentative Basic Agreement. According to the one-sheet, the new agreement would secure higher wages for episodic streaming productions, including longform miniseries with runtimes longer than 66 minutes.

Payouts on some miniseries could increase up to 30 percent, which will depend on how the project is classified. Longform productions that cost between $20 and $32 million, meanwhile, will no longer get a discount on account of the production heading to a...

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Facebook is planning to rebrand the company with a new name

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

Facebook is planning to change its company name next week to reflect its focus on building the metaverse, according to a source with direct knowledge of the matter.

The coming name change, which CEO Mark Zuckerberg plans to talk about at the company’s annual Connect conference on October 28th, but could unveil sooner, is meant to signal the tech giant’s ambition to be known for more than social media and all the ills that entail. The rebrand would likely position the blue Facebook app as one of many products under a parent company overseeing groups like Instagram, WhatsApp, Oculus, and more. A spokesperson for Facebook declined to comment for this story.

Facebook intends to transition to “being a metaverse company”

Facebook already has...

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Activision Blizzard is trying to get the discrimination suit thrown out of court

Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times via Getty Images

Activision Blizzard, facing a discrimination lawsuit from the California Department of Fair Employment and Housing (or DFEH), has filed an application to stay that lawsuit so it can investigate claims that DFEH lawyers engaged in ethical misconduct.

The application claims that the DFEH is represented in the case by lawyers who previously worked for the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (or EEOC) — a federal agency that investigates claims of workplace abuse. The application additionally claims such an arrangement is in violation of a California State Bar conflict of interest rule that says, “a lawyer who has formerly served as a public official or employee of the government [...] shall not otherwise represent a client in...

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PSA: the MacBook Pro 14-inch’s $20 power brick upsell is probably worth it

Image: Apple

If you’re looking at buying the $1,999 base model MacBook Pro 14-inch, there’s one upgrade that you may really want to make — the $20 one that gets you the 96W power adapter instead of the 67W included power adapter. That’s because, according to some wording on Apple’s MacBook Pro configuration page (spotted by MacRumors), you’ll need the more powerful charger if you want to take advantage of the computer’s fast charging feature, which can charge the laptop up to 50 percent in half an hour.

Is it ridiculous that Apple is basically taxing the people who want to buy its least expensive (but still very pricey!) new MacBook Pro? Yes, absolutely — but you should still probably pay it if you want to charge your laptop up quickly. The...

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Google’s Pixel 6 doesn’t come with five years of Android updates — only three

For the first time ever, Google’s new phones are powered by a Google-designed chip, giving the company an Apple-like level of control over the inner workings of the new Pixel 6 and Pixel 6 Pro. But if you were hoping that meant they’d also get an Apple-like level of new OS updates, the company is throwing a bit of cold water on that. Google’s support page shows it’s only promising to offer Android updates through October 2024 (via Android Police_),_a total of three years after release.

“Users will still get at least 3 years of OS updates, after which we’re committing to ensure that Pixels will stay up-to-date and secure,” Google tells The Verge. “The frequency and categories of updates will depend on the capabilities and needs of the...

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A future update to Facebook’s Portal will stop kids from watching content unsupervised

Facebook is delivering an update to Portal devices that will make it possible to turn off the Watch Together feature during calls in Household Mode. The update comes shortly after_a_BuzzFeed News article criticized Facebook’s blatant oversight of not including an “off” switch for the feature.

Watch Together lets you watch shows, music videos, or funny clips with distant friends or family members. Choose a video from Facebook’s selection, and it’ll be simultaneously presented to you on your Portal and on your friend’s device, whether that may be a phone, tablet, or Portal.

Watch Together may sound like a great idea, but it obviously isn’t ideal for parents who want to keep their kids away from videos on the internet. When a Portal device...

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Activision Blizzard says 20 employees ‘exited’ as part of harassment investigations

Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times via Getty Images

Activision Blizzard says more than 20 employees have “exited” the company, and more than 20 other employees have been reprimanded following complaints about misconduct. The Financial Times reported that the company sent a letter to staff on Tuesday with the details, and chief compliance officer Frances Townsend told the outlet that the list included game developers and “a few” supervisors but no members of the board. Activision Blizzard later posted the letter online.

The letter outlines a company attempt to “earn our team’s confidence that, when they speak up, they will be heard” — following a series of lawsuits accusing Activision Blizzard employees of systematic discrimination and gender-based harassment. It says the disciplinary...

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Spec showdown: Google’s new Pixel 6 vs. Samsung, Apple, and more

Photo by Chris Welch / The Verge

At its fall event on Tuesday, Google announced the Pixel 6 and Pixel 6 Pro, which feature its custom Tensor processor and the first big camera upgrade for Google’s phones since the Pixel 3. Since the Pixel 6s are available to preorder now, let’s take a look at how Google’s new phones compare on paper to their Android and iPhone competition.

At this point, how Google’s Tensor custom chip will perform is the biggest question mark — Google says it’s comparable to the Snapdragon 888, but that’s not even Qualcomm’s most powerful chip today, and Qualcomm is holding an event in November, potentially to show off even newer chips. Stay tuned to The Verge, though, as we’re working on putting the Tensor through its paces to see how it performs in...

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Xbox will soon automatically mute your speakers when you plug in headphones

Photo by Cameron Faulkner / The Verge

Microsoft is testing a feature that automatically mutes your speakers when you plug in headphones, fixing one of my biggest pet peeves with playing games on Xbox. The feature is rolling out to Xbox Insiders on the Alpha Skip-Ahead ring, which means it will very likely be available more broadly in the coming months.

Right now, when you plug in headphones to your controller on Xbox, your speakers stay on, too, which means if you want to have the audio just play in your headphones, you have to separately turn down the volume on your speakers. The PS5, on the other hand, handily mutes speaker audio when you plug in headphones, and I’m glad Microsoft is following suit by working on a similar feature for Xbox. The option to atuomatically mute...

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Netflix is shifting the way it ranks its most popular titles

An image from Netflix’s popular title Squid Game. | Image: Netflix

Netflix will change the public-facing metrics it uses to rank the most popular titles on its streaming service, the company announced Tuesday.

In the past, the company has ranked titles based on the completion of at least the first two minutes of a film or TV show in its first 28 days on the service. More recently, however, the company has released rankings based on the total number of hours a movie or series is viewed — a metric it will shift to moving forward beginning later this year, the company said in a letter to shareholders.

“There is some difference in rankings [...] but we think engagement as measured by hours viewed is a slightly better indicator of the overall success of our titles and member satisfaction,” the company...

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How corrosive valves may have delayed the launch of Boeing’s Starliner

Boeing’s Starliner seen rolling out to its launchpad, ahead of the August delay | Photo by /NASA via Getty Images

Boeing says it is narrowing down the source of the issue that delayed the launch of its new Starliner spacecraft this summer, blaming the problem on excess water and humidity causing the vehicle’s valves to stick ahead of the flight. The company plans to extensively study the problematic valves over the months ahead and implement design changes, with the hope of launching Starliner again in mid-2022.

Boeing’s CST-100 Starliner is a new passenger spacecraft, designed to carry astronauts to and from the International Space Station for NASA’s Commercial Crew Program. Before Starliner can carry a crew, however, NASA wants Boeing to launch a successful flight of the vehicle without people on board, to prove the spacecraft can safely go...

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Fortnite adds some melange with new Dune crossover

Image: Epic Games

Epic Games is once again proving that no brand is safe from Fortnite by adding two playable characters from Dune to its hit battle royale shooter. Starting Tuesday at 8PM ET, you’ll be able to buy virtual Fortnite avatars of Paul Atreides and Chani modeled after Timothée Chalamet and Zendaya, the actors who play them in the upcoming movie. There are a handful of other Dune-themed items you can pick up as well, including an ornithopter glider and a Sand Walk emote that mimics how the characters walk to avoid detection by gigantic sandworms.

The tie-up arrives just a few days before Dune’s premiere in theaters and on HBO Max on Friday. While it doesn’t seem as if sandworms will actually be making an appearance in the game (to my great...

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Apple is ready to admit it was wrong about the future of laptops

Ports, ports, glorious ports. | Image: Apple

There’s plenty to be excited about when it comes to Apple’s new 14- and 16-inch MacBook Pros. As well as souped-up Pro and Max versions of the already capable M1 chip that Apple debuted last year, they also include numerous quality of life improvements like the return of MagSafe, a row of function keys rather than an OLED Touch Bar, and of course, a full selection of ports that won’t have users reaching for a dongle if they just want to import some photos from an SD card.

In fact, Apple was so enthusiastic about these “new” features, you’d be forgiven for forgetting that it was the one that killed most of them off in 2016.

“Users value the full-height function row on the standalone Magic Keyboard, and we’ve brought it to the MacBook...

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Which AirPods model should you buy?

The AirPods Pro still sells for $249. | Photo by Chris Welch / The Verge

In addition to new MacBooks on October 18th, Apple finally also introduced its third-generation AirPods, which are set to ship on October 26th for $179 and are available for preorder now. Apple also lowered the cost of the now-entry-level AirPods 2 from $159 to $129 and will now only sell the version that comes with a wired charging case. As a result, the AirPods lineup now consists of four models of AirPods: the $129 AirPods 2, the $179 AirPods 3, the $249 AirPods Pro, and the $549 AirPods Max.

With such a wide range of AirPods available at various price points, it can be overwhelming to try to figure out which one you should purchase. That’s why we’ve put together this guide comparing the models to each other — so you can find the...

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Senators call on Facebook to shelve Novi cryptocurrency project

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

Senate Democrats called on Facebook to end its digital wallet and cryptocurrency project in a letter to chief executive Mark Zuckerberg Tuesday, saying that the company “cannot be trusted to manage cryptocurrency.”

The letter comes hours after Facebook launched Novi, a new digital wallet, as part of a “small” pilot program in the US and Guatemala. Facebook first announced its plans to enter the cryptocurrency industry over two years ago, but the digital currency project, called Libra, was halted after heavy criticism from lawmakers and regulators. The Libra currency was later rebranded as “Diem,” which has yet to be released alongside the new wallet product.

The letter comes hours after Facebook launched Novi

In their letter, Sens. Brian...

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Sinclair TV stations experienced a massive outage during ransomware attack

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

Sinclair, the broadcast group that runs some of the most popular local channels across the US, experienced a nationwide outage during a ransomware attack on October 16th (via The Record). Viewers initially were informed technical difficulties caused the disruption, but the US Securities and Exchange Commission published a filing from Sinclair two days later, identifying ransomware as the source of the outage.

“Certain servers and workstations in its environment were encrypted with ransomware, and that certain office and operational networks were disrupted,” the report reads. “Data also was taken from the Company’s network. The Company is working to determine what information the data contained and will take other actions as appropriate...

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