New social media transparency bill would force Facebook to open up to researchers

Sen. Chris Coons (D-DE) speaks during a Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing | Photo by Alex Brandon-Pool/Getty Images

A bipartisan group of US senators have announced a new bill that would require social media companies to share platform data with independent researchers.

The bill was announced Thursday by Democratic senators Chris Coons (D-DE), Amy Klobuchar (D-MN), and also Rob Portman (R-OH), a Republican. Named the Platform Accountability and Transparency Act (PATA), it would establish new rules compelling social media platforms to share data with “qualified researchers,” defined as university-affiliated researchers pursuing projects that have been approved by the National Science Foundation (NSF).

“this legislation would provide a real pathway for researchers to better understand online harms”

Under the terms of the bill, platforms would be bound...

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Redditors are spamming Kellogg’s job portal to support striking workers

Reddit’s r/antiwork is typically filled with horror stories that make you want to quit not just your own job but strangers’ jobs, too.

“My boss suggested I might not be able to take forty minutes to see my daughters [sic] first ever school play, so I told him try not to be a cartoon villain and he hung up on me,” reads one post from earlier this month. “That’s permission to take the whole afternoon off, right?” the post concludes.

The underlying ethos of r/antiwork isn’t just to be a place to vent—it’s to push back on the idea of work as we know it. So it might seem counterintuitive that on Thursday, a thread blew up that was urging members to apply for jobs.

The jobs in question are permanent positions at Kellogg’s cereal plants in...

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Marvel’s Eternals is coming to Disney Plus on January 12th

Marvel’s supersized superhero epic Eternals is officially going to be available to stream on Disney Plus on January 12th, Disney announced today, about two months after it was first released on November 3rd.

Eternals will also be available to stream in IMAX’s Expanded Aspect Ratio format, which Disney Plus started rolling out on other Marvel films, including Iron Man, Avengers: Endgame, and the recently released Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, in November. The January 12th date has been floating around the internet for a few weeks already, but today marks the official confirmation from Disney of the streaming release.

The January release for Eternals is also perfectly placed for Disney to keep Marvel fans from canceling...

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Analogue’s Pocket will be available to order December 14th but at a higher price

Analogue has announced in a Twitter thread that it will accept orders for its Pocket handheld on December 14th at 8AM PT / 11AM ET, and those who place an order will be placed into a fulfillment group, similar to the process Panic lined up with its now-delayed Playdate handheld and the staggered rollout planned for Valve’s Steam Deck.

Those who order first on Tuesday can expect their Pocket to arrive sometime in Q1 2022. The second group will have to wait considerably longer until Q4 2022. If you aren’t quick, your order will come sometime in 2023.

As part of this announcement, Analogue shared that it’s increasing the price of the Pocket to $219 due to “industry-wide component price increases.” Though, the accessories for the handheld,...

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Samsung’s working on a rollable smartwatch with a camera

Samsung recently filed a patent depicting a rollable smartwatch display and camera | Screenshot: WIPO via LetsGoDigital

Though there have been attempts at wraparound smartwatches, the gadget category itself hasn’t really seen much design innovation for quite a while. Earlier this year, there was talk of a flat-edged Apple Watch, but those turned out to be mere rumors. While it’s unlikely we’ll see drastic change any time soon, it appears tech companies have been toying with the idea of watching videos and taking photos from the wrist.

The latest example comes courtesy of a Samsung patent (via LetsGoDigital and Peta Pixel). Originally filed in June with the World Intellectual Property Office (WIPO), the patent depicts a Galaxy Watch with a rollable screen and camera smack dab in the middle. The watch concept looks like an average round-faced watch, but...

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The Better CEO who fired 900 people over a Zoom call is taking time off

CEO Vishal Garg is reportedly taking time off from Better.com, the company he founded in 2012. | Better.com

The CEO of digital mortgage firm Better.com, who fired 900 employees on a Zoom call last week, is taking time off from the company while it conducts a “leadership and cultural assessment,” according to an email to employees from the board of directors. As first reported by Motherboard, the board’s email says following “the very regrettable events over the last week,” CEO Vishal Garg will be taking time off “effective immediately,” and Better CFO Kevin Ryan will manage day-to-day operations.

Better, which Garg founded in 2012, has been in the spotlight after he held a Zoom call with 900 employees on December 3rd to inform them they were losing their jobs. “If you’re on this call, you are part of the unlucky group that is being laid off,”...

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Vergecast: Matrix Unreal Engine 5 demo, Snap’s first AR Spectacles, and Android games coming to Windows

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 bring in Verge senior reporter Alex Heath to talk about his discussion with Keanu Reeves and Carrie-Anne Moss on making The Matrix Awakens with Epic Games to demo Unreal Engine 5 and how technology is blurring the line between what’s real and virtual.

Alex stays on for the entire show because there is so much to talk about — including a hands-on experience of Snap’s first AR Spectacles, Google bringing Android games to Windows next year, the clash between Roku and YouTube, and this week...

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Citing fires, London’s transport agency bans e-scooters on public transit network

E-scooters have been banned on London’s transport network after several fires. | photo by Mike Kemp/In Pictures via Getty Images

Transport for London announced a ban on all e-scooters on its network, effective December 13th, over safety concerns following recent fires. The ban will apply to all public transport in London, including underground trains and buses.

E-scooters are currently banned on UK roads and sidewalks, but shops can still sell them for use on private land. The only legal e-scooters in use in London are the ones part of rental trials that started over the summer. The ban does not include mobility scooters that are permitted on TfL’s network, and foldable e-bikes are still permitted.

“We have been extremely worried by the recent incidents on our public transport services, which involved intense fires and considerable smoke and damage,” said TfL’s...

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Smart home company Eve plans to use Matter to move beyond Apple’s HomeKit

Eve is upgrading all its compatible products —such as its Eve Energy smart plug — to the Matter smart home standard. | Image: Eve Home

Eve, the makers of high-end Apple HomeKit smart home gadgets for home security, energy, and lighting, has been leading the charge for the new Matter standard for a while now, specifically, its primary protocol Thread. As one of the first device makers to release Thread-based products, Eve just announced its tenth device to get the promised hardware upgrade — the $99.99 Eve Room indoor air quality monitor.

With almost half of its existing products now Thread-enabled and ready for Matter, the company is turning its attention to the rest of its portfolio. Jerome Gackel, CEO of Eve Systems, confirmed to The Verge that Eve will be launching a Thread-enabled Eve Water Guard (a leak detector) in February 2022 and an Eve Flare (a portable lamp)...

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The e-bike revolution comes to the Bronx

Shakira Hart, a landscape supervisor, is one of the frontline workers benefiting from a new e-bike subsidy project. | Photo by Andrew Hawkins / The Verge

E-bike companies are teaming up with local non-profits to provide discounts to frontline workers. Could this be a nationwide model?

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Facebook finally has live chat support for people who are locked out of their accounts

Facebook artwork | Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

Despite eagerly participating in a platform vs. platform war of escalating financial incentives to attract creators, one area where critics have said Facebook / Meta / Instagram is lacking is in the ability to provide basic support for those online stars. Whether that’s through community moderation and page management tools or making sure they have someone to reach if they’re locked out of their account suddenly, it has been a consistent issue.

Now it’s trying to change that, announcing a “small test” of live chat support for English-speaking creators in the US who don’t have an assigned relationship manager. That way these midtier internet stars can get a quick response if they have questions about a payout, or, for example, how to use...

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Meet the real NASA scientist behind Netflix’s Don’t Look Up

Amy Mainzer attends the “Don’t Look Up” World Premiere at Jazz at Lincoln Center on December 05, 2021 in New York City. | Photo by Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty Images for Netflix

In Netflix’s new star-studded space comedy Don’t Look Up, scientists scramble to save the world from a “planet-killer.” In the movie, it’s a comet. In the real world, humans are more likely to conjure up the vehicle of our demise all on our own, whether it’s through climate change or the patriarchy. The movie gets into those thorny themes, too.

It opens with a scene in which a grad student played by Jennifer Lawrence discovers the comet, something real-world NASA astronomer Amy Mainzer has experience with. Just last year, Mainzer and her team discovered the brightest comet in the northern hemisphere in more than two decades, called NEOWISE. To flesh out Lawrence’s character and the other scientists in the film — and bring some real...

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How to (hopefully) restore your Gmail account if you lose access

Illustration by Ori Toor

It’s a good idea to prepare ahead of time in case of problems

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Fitbit’s latest models are getting big discounts today

Photo by Jay Peters / The Verge

Many of Fitbit’s wearables are currently enjoying solid discounts at multiple retailers. A pair of highlights we noticed include the Fitbit Charge 5, normally $179.99, which has been discounted to just $130 at Amazon and Best Buy. Additionally, the Fitbit Versa 3 has been lowered to $179.99 from its regular $229.99 price tag at Best Buy.

While the Fitbit Charge 5 does suffer from a relatively small touchscreen, the lightweight design and excellent battery life are a far more tempting offer at this price point. Read our review.

We haven’t had a chance to review the Versa 3 yet; however, our wearables reviewer, Victoria Song, definitely recommends this Apple Watch look-alike at this price.

Two variations of Samsung’s 8.7-inch Galaxy Tab...

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Tribal communities are facing a new threat: Instagram

Illustration by Ori Toor

Viral photos are becoming a sore spot for protected sites

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Julian Assange can be extradited to the US, rules UK High Court

Photo by Jack Taylor/Getty Images

The UK’s High Court has approved the extradition of Julian Assange to the US. The decision reverses a ruling by a lower court in the UK that blocked the extradition on the grounds that imprisonment in the US was a threat to Assange’s mental health and increased his risk of suicide.

The US government has now successfully appealed this decision by offering a number of assurances to British judges. These include assurances that Assange won’t be held in a “supermax” high-security prison during pretrial or if convicted (unless he “commits any future act which renders him liable to such conditions of detention”) and that the US will allow Assange to serve any final sentence in his native Australia, if he wishes.

As reported by Sky News,...

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The Witcher season 2 gets a little too serious on its quest to answer some big questions

Image: Netflix

The new season is grander, but less playful, than the first

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Game dev known for cursing at The Game Awards curses at The Game Awards while winning game awards

Josef Fares is known for making award-winning co-op gaming experiences. He’s also known for showing up at The Game Awards and dropping some well-placed f-bombs. Tonight, Fares followed up his famous 2017 “Fuck the Oscars” rant with an equally passionate and expletive-sprinkled acceptance speech for the Game of the Year award.

This time, Fares wasn’t on an awkward tear about the Oscars, but both of his f-bombs were in reference to the moment that cemented him for all time in the Game Awards Hall of Fame. After arriving on stage to accept the award and make his speech, Fares recalled the journey from his 2017 moment to now.

“I was up on that stage, 2017 saying, ‘fuck the Oscars’ and now, actually in a way the Oscars got fucked because The...

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The biggest news and trailers from the 2021 Game Awards

Photo by JC Olivera/Getty Images

Another busy night

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Neo visits his past in new Matrix Resurrections clip

Image: Warner Bros.

A new clip for The Matrix Resurrections debuted at The Game Awards Thursday evening. In the clip, Keanu Reeves’ Neo and a blue-haired character played by Jessica Henwick walk through a door to board a train heading to Tokyo. But then, they go through another door to enter a mysterious room where a clip from the first movie is being played. Yes, in the new movie. I’m intrigued.

The new clip is the latest in a string of trailers Warner Bros. has already released for the upcoming movie, which will release in theaters and on HBO Max on December 22nd. In one released this week, Neo remarks that “I still know kung fu,” which is something I also definitely say every day when I wake up. That trailer also features a cameo from The Game Awards’...

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Keanu Reeves and Carrie-Anne Moss on making The Matrix Awakens with Epic Games

“How do we know what is real?”

It’s a telling question asked by a seemingly real-life Keanu Reeves early on in The Matrix Awakens, a playable tech demo built in the new Unreal Engine 5 by Epic Games. Premiered at this year’s Game Awards, the interactive experience stars Reeves along with _Matrix_co-star Carrie-Anne Moss and was written by Lana Wachowski, the co-writer/director of the original _The Matrix_trilogy and director of the upcoming sequel. It’s available starting Thursday to play for free on the PS5 and Xbox Series X / S.

In an exclusive interview, Reeves and Moss talked with _The Verge_about making the Epic demo, how technology is blurring the line between what’s real and virtual, and what to expect from the upcoming Matrix...

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The live-action Halo TV show looks extremely expensive in its newest trailer

After a short teaser last month, Paramount Plus has debuted the first full trailer for the upcoming live-action Halo TV series at the 2021 Game Awards, ahead of the show’s streaming debut in 2022.

Halo will star Pablo Schreiber (American Gods) as the armored super-solider, while Jen Taylor will reprise her role from the games as Master Chief’s AI companion, Cortana.

The trailer still doesn’t give too much of an idea of what to expect from the show, which Paramount says “will take place in the universe” as the Halo games and see humanity face off against the alien forces of the Covenant. But it’s still not clear whether _Halo_will be trying to adapt the games directly or tell its own story within the world of the franchise. The trailer...

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Star Trek: Resurgence is a story-driven game from former Telltale devs coming in 2022

Hot on the heels of Star Trek: Discovery,Picard, and The Lower Decks, the Star Trek franchise is getting a new video game. Dramatic Labs, a brand new studio composed of former Telltale Games developers, announced during The Game Awards that it’s working onStar Trek: Resurgence, a story-driven game reminiscent of Telltale’s The Wolf Among Us and The Walking Dead.

According to the game’s press release, “Star Trek: Resurgence is an interactive narrative video game that tells an original story set in the era shortly after the events of Star Trek: The Next Generation.”

Players will control two characters aboard the _U.S.S. RESOLUTE_as they work to unravel a mystery in order to prevent a galactic war. Spock made an appearance in the...

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Google is bringing Android games to Windows in 2022

Google is planning to bring Android games to Windows PCs next year. A Google Play Games app will be available in 2022, built by Google to allow games from Google Play to run on Windows laptops, tablets, and PCs.

“Starting in 2022, players will be able to experience their favorite Google Play games on more devices: seamlessly switching between a phone, tablet, Chromebook, and soon, Windows PCs,” says Greg Hartrell, Google’s product director of games on Android and Google Play, in a statement to The Verge. “This Google built product brings the best of Google Play Games to more laptops and desktops, and we are thrilled to expand our platform for players to enjoy their favorite Android games even more.”

Google spokesperson Alex...

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After a lengthy wait, Rocksteady’s Suicide Squad finally has a gameplay trailer

Suicide Squad: Kill The Justice League, a new game from Batman: Arkham developer Rocksteady Studios, released its first gameplay trailer and it is explosive. The video got an amazing introduction (and Geoff Keighley got an earful) from renowned actress and all-around badass Debra Wilson in her role as Suicide Squad overlord Amanda “The Wall” Waller.

From the trailer, it seems you’ll be able to play as multiple members of DC’s maladjusted band of villainous misfits, including Deadshot, King Shark, and fan-favorite Harley Quinn in an squad-based action fighter akin to Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy.

Rumors of a Suicide Squad game began this summer and were confirmed in August during DC Comic’s fan-event FanDome. On December 8th, Sefton...

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Among Us is getting a VR version

Innersloth

Social deception game Among Us is getting a virtual reality adaptation. The VR edition will launch on Meta Quest, PlayStation VR, and SteamVR, and it’s being developed by Schell Games, creators of the acclaimed I Expect You To Die series. There’s no release date for the game, but a trailer debuted at the 2021 Game Awards.

The VR version of Among Us is a first-person 3D experience instead of a third-person 2D one, but it retains the “core mechanics” of developer Innersloth’s original multiplayer game. The short trailer, seen above, shows a player interacting with a keypad in a cartoony 3D room before getting attacked by another crewmate who’s (presumably) a sinister imposter.

Task List:
✅submit scan
✅empty garba -- wait what was that
✅...

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A Dune strategy game is coming to PC in 2022

Dune: Spice Wars_will be available in early access next year._ | Image: Funcom

Dune: Spice Wars is a new real-time strategy game for PC set in the Dune universe. It will be available in early access in 2022.

Spice Wars, which was announced at The Game Awards on Thursday, is described by developer Shiro Games and publisher Funcom as a strategy game “with 4X elements.” There will be multiple playable factions and multiple ways to win a game, which could mean a lot of replayability.

Control the spice, control the universe. Choose your faction, explore Arrakis, expand your forces, exploit the spice and exterminate your enemies in #DuneSpiceWars. From @ShiroGames and @Funcom.

Coming to Early Access in 2022 - https://t.co/J8eSFQ2VIipic.twitter.com/ZkOp6Euk0S

— Dune: Spice Wars (@DuneSpiceWars) December 10, 2021

W...

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Sonic Frontiers teases an ‘open-zone’ redemption for the franchise’s 3D legacy

Dread it. Run from it. But Sonic Team still is making another 3D Sonic game: Sonic Frontiers, which was formally announced with an early preview at the 2021 Game Awards.

Originally teased earlier in 2021 as part of Sega’s 30th anniversary celebration for the Sonic franchise, Sonic Frontiers is the first new Sonic game since the release of the much-maligned Sonic Forces in 2017 (which itself had been announced to celebrate the franchise’s 25th anniversary).

Sega didn’t show a real look at gameplay for Sonic Frontiers, which isn’t set to arrive until holidays 2022, but studio is promising “high velocity open-zone freedom,” which could indicate levels with more room to explore. The trailer definitely appears to be going for a Breath of the...

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Cuphead’s years-in-the-making DLC will finally release in June

This boss looks terrifying. | Image: Studio MDHR

Cuphead’s long-in-the-works The Delicious Last Course DLC will finally be released in June, Studio MDHR announced at The Game Awards Thursday. You’ll be able to play through new levels, take on new bosses, and use a new character named Ms. Chalice when the DLC is released on June 30th, 2022, which is nearly five years after the initial release of the original game.

The Delicious Last Course was first announced in June 2018 with a 2019 release date, but that was pushed to 2020 and later to 2021. When it’s out, it will be available on Xbox, PlayStation, Nintendo Switch, Steam, and GOG.

Image: Studio MDHR

Yikes.

“We’re beyond thrilled to finally be sharing a release date for _The Delicious Last Course_with our...

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The original PUBG is going free-to-play

A screenshot from_PUBG: Battlegrounds._ | Image: Krafton

The original PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds (aka PUBG) is moving to a free-to-play model beginning January 12st, 2022, developer Krafton announced at The Game Awards Thursday.

PUBG has been a paid game since it launched on Steam in early access in 2017. It quickly became a huge hit, and it was such a sensation that it inspired Epic Games to make a free battle royale mode for its (at the time) new tower defense game called Fortnite. Fortnite: Battle Royale has since gone on to become an entertainment juggernaut, likely in part because it’s free, and Activision Blizzard has also released its own massively popular free-to-play battle royale shooter, Call of Duty: Warzone.

Although PUBG will soon be free-to-play, there will still be some...

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