Spotify picks Joe Rogan over Neil Young

Photo by Gary Miller/Getty Images

This week, Neil Young published an open letter demanding Spotify remove his music because he didn’t want to share the platform with podcaster Joe Rogan. It appears Young is getting his wish, as Spotify is now removing his music, according to The Wall Street Journal.

“I want you to let Spotify know immediately TODAY that I want all my music off their platform,” he said in the now-deleted letter, reports Rolling Stone. “They can have [Joe] Rogan or Young. Not both.”

Young didn’t mince words in the letter, which he addressed to his manager and his record label, Warner Records. “I am doing this because Spotify is spreading fake information about vaccines — potentially causing death to those who believe the disinformation being spread by...

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Tesla hails its second profitable year as a ‘breakthrough’

Image: Tesla

Tesla’s fourth quarter brought in a record windfall, as the company announced Wednesday that it turned a $2.3 billion profit.

It was the company’s second year finishing in the black, but it significantly improved over last year’s fourth-quarter profit of just $270 million. The company ended this year with $5.5 billion in net income, compared to $721 million in 2020. Tesla turned that profit on just over $17.7 billion in revenue and did it while its average sales price continued to drop due to the increasing popularity of the more affordable Model 3 sedan and Model Y SUV.

Tesla produced 305,840 vehicles in the fourth quarter, a 70 percent increase over the previous year. For the entire year, the company delivered 936,172 vehicles, just...

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The chip shortage didn’t stop Intel from having its ‘best year ever’

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

Intel is still feeling the burn from the chip shortage. It’s struggling to fully capitalize on tremendous pandemic-fueled demand for new PCs, because you can’t make a laptop with Intel chips alone. And yet that didn’t stop Intel from having its best financial year ever — in today’s Q4 2021 earnings, it’s reporting its highest quarterly and highest yearly revenue ever, at $19.5 billion and $74.7 billion, respectively — and four other revenue records as well. Profits weren’t nearly as rosy: net income went down 21 percent in the quarter and 5 percent year over year to $4.6 billion and $19.9 billion, respectively.

CEO Pat Gelsinger warned about other suppliers’ chips constraining the company’s growth during Intel’s Q3 2021 earnings in...

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You no longer have to say ‘Hey Google’ to get the Assistant to shut up

No “hey Google” required. | Photo: Dan Seifert / The Verge

If your Google Assistant-powered smart home display or speaker is rambling on and on after you asked it for the weather, you can now tell it to “stop” without having to say “Hey Google” first. It’s a small, but welcome, change and one that makes interacting with a digital assistant just a little more natural.

Google’s smart home devices have had a version of this feature for years, where you could silence an alarm without saying “Hey Google.” It’s nice to see it expanding to silence the Assistant, too — saying “stop” when you want something to... well, stop happening is just so instinctive, like batting at an insect buzzing around your ear.

Helpful new Google Assistant feature alert! Want your smart display or speaker to stop...

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Kia releases pricing for its all-electric EV6 lineup

Image: Kia

The pricing for Kia’s EV6, the company’s first all-electric model, has finally been revealed, and it ranges from $42,115 to $57,115 (including the mandatory destination fee), depending on the trim level, the company said in a statement. The EV6 lineup will include rear-wheel drive (RWD) and all-wheel drive (AWD) options.

Compared to Kia’s Niro EV, the EV6 is important for Kia because it’s the first EV built with the all-electric design in mind, using parent company Hyundai’s E-GMP platform. Its release also marks Kia having something to show for its space in the EV market — something that’s been plagued with delayed shipping.

Before adding the $1,215 destination fee, the EV6 Light model is available with RWD for $40,900. The EV6 Wind...

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Apple creates personal safety guide as AirTag concerns mount

Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge

On Tuesday, Apple quietly launched a Personal Safety User Guide to help “anyone who is concerned about or experience technology-enabled abuse, stalking or harassment.” The guide is a resource hub to help people figure out what their options are if they wish to remove someone’s access to shared information, as well as personal safety features available across the Apple ecosystem. Most notably, it includes a “Stay safe with AirTag and other Find My accessories” page at a time when an increasing number of people have come forward about being stalked with the devices.

As pointed out by 9to5Mac, the hub is mostly repackaging a data privacy guide that was first published about a year ago. Overall, it’s a good thing to create an easily...

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Discord is down

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

Discord is experiencing a widespread outage, preventing many users from connecting to the communications app. The outage started at around 2:45PM ET and prevents users from joining calls or participating in text chats. “We are currently investigating a widespread API outage and are working to resolve this ASAP,” says the official Discord Twitter account.

Discord is used widely by the gaming community and currently has 150 million monthly active users. This latest outage appears to be affecting most users, with widespread reports of issues even connecting to the service. Some Discord users currently logged into the service may be able to continue to use text chat, or participate in calls.

In a message in the Discord client, the company...

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Twitter received fewer information requests from government agencies in the first half of 2021 — but complied with more

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

In the first half of 2021, Twitter received fewer user information requests from governments and law enforcement agencies than in the six months before — but increased its compliance to a level that meant more user information was released overall.

That’s according to data published by the social media platform Tuesday as part of its latest transparency report. The Information Requests report lists the number of requests as 12,369 globally between January and June 2021, with an overall compliance rate of 36.2 percent. In the previous reporting period for the last six months of 2020, Twitter received 14,561 requests and complied with 30 percent.

Overall, Twitter said that the volume of user information requests had decreased by 15...

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Fanhouse adds a 30 percent surcharge to in-app purchases to cover Apple tax

Image: Fanhouse

After pushing back against Apple’s App Store fees last year, creator platform Fanhouse is introducing in-app purchases to its iOS app — now with a 30 percent surcharge to pay Apple — to let users subscribe to their favorite creators. The app’s co-founder, Rosie Nguyen, announced the changes today on Twitter. The company wrote that the changes are being made “as a result of apple’s b.s.”

On Fanhouse, creators charge a subscription fee that allows fans to access exclusive (SFW) content like updates, photos, and videos. Followers can also tip creators or purchase “locked” content. The app promises its creators will receive 90 percent of payments, with the remaining going to the app.

Fanhouse was initially able to slip a “subscribe” button...

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Galaxy S22: What to expect from Samsung’s February Unpacked

A leaked image, apparently of Samsung’s Galaxy S22 Ultra. | Image: evleaks (Twitter)

The Galaxy S22 will likely be the main event, but what else could there be?

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Thousands of TracFone users saw their numbers ported to other carriers without their consent

Verizon owned TracFone said attackers gained access to customer accounts | Photo Illustration by Rafael Henrique/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images

Customers of Verizon-owned TracFone saw their numbers transferred to different carriers without their consent in recent weeks, as part of what the company characterized as the work of external attackers, according to a notice on its website (via the Wall Street Journal). Its Straight Talk and Total Wireless brands were affected as well.

“We were recently made aware of bad actors gaining access to a limited number of customer accounts and, in some cases, fraudulently transferring, or porting out, mobile telephone numbers to other carriers,” TracFone said in the notice. The company did not reply to numerous requests for comment from The Verge, but the WSJ reported that some 6,000 customers were affected. Some saw their lines had been...

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Uber sued for $63 million by man who was paralyzed in a crash

Uber faces a negligence lawsuit from a Massachusetts man left paralyzed in a crash | Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

A Massachusetts man is suing Uber for $63 million, claiming the ride-hailing company hired a driver with a dangerous record who was at the wheel in an accident that left him paralyzed. Will Good was in an Uber last April 30th on his way home from work when the driver swerved sharply and hit a parked car, according to the lawsuit filed Tuesday in Suffolk Superior Court. The lawsuit says Good struck his head on the passenger side seat and immediately knew he was paralyzed.

The lawsuit states that the driver has a driving history dating back to 1996 that includes more than 20 driving citations, including several for failure to stop and failure to yield. According to the suit, the driver was previously required by Massachusetts to undergo a...

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Tech giants call on SCOTUS to let EPA regulate CO2 emissions

The Appalachian Electric Power coal-fired Big Sandy Power Plant is seen June 3, 2014 in Cattletsburg, Kentucky.  | Photo by Luke Sharrett/Getty Images

Major tech companies are weighing in on a high-profile climate case in support of EPA greenhouse gas regulations. Apple, Amazon, Google, Meta, Microsoft, Netflix, Tesla, Paypal, and Salesforce are among the companies that filed a brief yesterday asking the Supreme Court to uphold the agency’s authority to regulate the pollution causing climate change.

“Both corporate action and EPA regulation are needed to reduce emissions at the rate necessary to avoid the worst impacts of climate change,” the brief says. The companies say they are “united in their efforts to combat this threat.”

The case the companies are weighing in on, West Virginia v. EPA, concerns whether or not the EPA has the regulatory authority to limit greenhouse gas...

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Valve will start selling the Steam Deck on February 25th

Image: Valve

Valve announced that the Steam Deck will go on sale starting February 25th. According to the company’s blog, customers who have reservations will get an email on that day and have three days to place an order. Valve also says that it’ll release new batches on a weekly basis, so if you’ve got a reservation, March will be the time to keep an eye on your email.

Here’s some more info from Valve’s announcement:

We will start sending invites shortly after 10:00 am on February 25th, PST
Order emails are sent in the same order that reservations were made.
You can only order the Steam Deck model that you originally reserved.
Your reservation deposit will be applied to the final price of Steam Deck, and shipping costs are included.

The release date...

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iOS 15.3 is out now, and it fixes a nasty Safari bug

Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge

Apple is releasing iOS 15.3 and iPadOS 15.3 for compatible devices today. It’s a fairly minor update, but it does come with an essential security fix to patch a nasty Safari browser flaw. Security researchers revealed earlier this month that websites could exploit a flaw in Apple’s Safari browser to access URLs visited recently by an iOS user and even obtain a Google user ID.

_9to5Mac_tested the iOS 15.3 release candidate that was released a few days ago and found it fixes this particular security problem. Apple’s quick fix will be useful for iOS and iPadOS users, as, unlike macOS, you can’t simply switch to another browser on iOS to avoid the security flaw. Apple allows third-party browsers on iOS, but they all have to use the same...

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Dune, The Matrix, and Succession boost US-based HBO and HBO Max subscribers to 46.8 million

Illustration by William Joel / The Verge

HBO Max reached 73.8 million subscribers at the end of 2021, 46.8 million of which are located in the US, marking a 5.3 million increase over a full year. The numbers were shared as part of AT&T’s (HBO Max’s parent company) fourth-quarter earnings for 2021.

HBO Max grew aggressively in ‘21, both in the U.S. and in the 45 additional markets where we launched. We are up 35% over the past 24 months and are almost a full 4 yrs ahead of the original HBO Max + HBO sub projections shared with investors prior to the launch of HBO Max. 6/x pic.twitter.com/ZgmT190PKI

— Jason Kilar (@jasonkilar) January 26, 2022

Jason Kilar, the CEO of Time Warner, celebrated the platform’s success on Twitter, noting HBO Max’s subscriber numbers are up 35...

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Disney Plus keeps pressure on Netflix with launch in 42 more countries this summer

It’s a major international expansion. | Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

Disney is planning to launch Disney Plus in 42 countries and 11 territories this summer, according to_The Hollywood Reporter_. It’s a significant expansion that could keep the pressure on other streaming services like Netflix and HBO Max.

Here is the list of new countries getting Disney Plus, per The Hollywood Reporter:

Albania, Algeria, Andorra, Bahrain, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Egypt, Estonia, Greece, Hungary, Iraq, Israel, Jordan, Kosovo, Kuwait, Latvia, Lebanon, Libya, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Malta, Montenegro, Morocco, North Macedonia, Oman, Palestine, Poland, Qatar, Romania, San Marino, Saudi Arabia, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, South Africa, Tunisia, Turkey, United Arab Emirates, Vatican City, and...

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GameStop has an Xbox Series X bundle available right now (update: sold out)

Update January 26th, 12:23PM ET: The bundles have sold out and are currently unavailable.

GameStop has just restocked the Xbox Series X, with one caveat: it’s only available as part of a bundle. The $648.98 bundle includes an extra controller, a three-month subscription to Xbox Game Pass Ultimate, and a $50 GameStop gift card. While many of GameStop’s recent restocks have been restricted to PowerUp Pro Rewards subscribers, this restock is available to everyone. The bundles are being dished out on a first-come, first-served basis, and you only need a valid GameStop account to buy one.

This is just one of many recent console restocks, and more are sure to follow. We are constantly on the lookout for further availability of the latest...

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Orphan prequel will feature an adult woman playing a murderous child, CGI free

Araya Doheny/Getty Images

Isabelle Fuhrman’s performance as Esther in Paramount Pictures’ first _Orphan_film stunned audiences in no small part because of what the movie’s disturbing twist revealed about its titular child murderer. 12 years later, Fuhrman is set to reprise her role in Paramount’s upcoming prequel Orphan: First Kill_from director William Brent Bell,_and the 24-year-old actress is certain that she’s about to shock everyone once again.

In the original Orphan’s final acts, it’s revealed that 9-year-old “Esther” is actually a 33-year-old Estonian serial killer with proportional dwarfism caused by hypopituitarism, which she’s used to pretend to be a child for years as she bounces from one adoptive family to the next. Fuhrman, who was 12 when _Orphan_p...

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White House instructs government agencies to beef up cybersecurity, adopt ‘zero trust,’ in new memo

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

The White House released a new cybersecurity strategy Wednesday aimed at reducing the risk of cyberattacks against government infrastructure.

The strategy outlines the administration’s vision for moving government agencies towards a “zero trust” architecture — a cybersecurity model where users and devices are only given permissions to access network resources necessary for the task at hand, and are authenticated on a case-by-case basis.

The key document was published as a memorandum from the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), the administration’s policy arm, and addressed to the heads of all executive departments and agencies.

According to the memorandum, shifting towards a zero trust architecture will require the implementation of...

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Substack’s rolling out a video feature, but it’s not available to everyone yet

Substack’s video feature is now in a private beta. | Screenshot: Andrew Zimmern via Substack

Substack, the platform where creators can share free or paid newsletters, has announced a new video feature that’s currently in a private beta (via TechCrunch). The feature will let users upload or record videos directly in Substack and then publish them within their posts.

The videos will be directly playable when viewed from a browser

Substack explains the videos will be directly playable when viewed from a browser. When included in an email, however, users won’t be able to click and play it from within the email itself — videos will instead show up as “clickable images” that redirect users to a web version in their browser. The platform’s support page says users can record and upload videos from their smartphone or desktop computer....

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Searching for Susy Thunder

In partnership withEpic Magazine

She was known, back then, as Susan Thunder. For someone in the business of deception, she stood out: she was unusually tall, wide-hipped, with a mane of light blonde hair and a wardrobe of jackets embroidered with band logos, spoils from an adolescence spent as an infamous rock groupie. Her backstage conquests had given her a taste for quaaludes and pharmaceutical-grade cocaine; they’d also given her the ability to sneak in anywhere.

Susan found her way into the hacker underground through the phone network. In the late 1970s, Los Angeles was a hotbed of telephone culture: you could dial-a-joke, dial-a-horoscope, even dial-a-prayer. Susan spent most of her days hanging around on 24-hour conference...

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Prescription video game company goes public via SPAC

Akili Interactive’s first product is a video game for ADHD. | Akili Interactive

Akili Interactive, the company behind the first video game to get approved as a medical treatment, announced today that it will go public through a merger with Social Capital Suvretta Holdings Corp, which is run by former Facebook executive Chamath Palihapitiya. The deal values the company at $1 billion.

The Food and Drug Administration approved Aikili Interactive’s first product, a video game called EndeavorRX used to treat ADHD in children, in 2020. The company is still working towards full commercialization of the game but said in fillings today that around 1,000 doctors have written prescriptions for the game so far.

The company has a slate of other projects in the pipeline, as well. In filings, it said it’s working on expanding...

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Boston Dynamics’ most boring robot is getting a sensible job unloading trucks

Boston Dynamics is synonymous with four-legged robots, particularly its consumer model Spot. But in the past few years, the company has been expanding into logistics — one of the most challenging and potentially lucrative sectors in modern robotics.

Today, Boston Dynamics announced the first commercial purchase of its pallet-stacking machine Stretch, which will be starting try-outs in DHL warehouses. The logistics giant will invest $15 million in Boston Dynamics as part of the deal, and Boston Dynamics will deliver a “fleet” of robots (exact numbers unknown) “to multiple DHL warehouses throughout North America over the next three years” where they will start with the work of truck unloading.

“Deployment of the first Stretch units in...

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How to take better night photos with the Pixel 6 Pro, iPhone 13 Pro, or digital camera

A moon set can make for dramatic photos of the night sky.

I always thought that taking a photo of the night sky meant mounting expensive cameras onto heavy telescopes and having extensive knowledge of the stars. But for the latest episode of my YouTube video series Full Frame, I flew 2,000 miles away from the big city lights of NYC to meet Bettymaya Foott, astrophotographer and director of engagement for the International Dark-Sky Association, who taught me how to capture incredible photos of the stars using cameras I already owned. What once seemed like a monumental task, involving deep knowledge of the cosmos, quickly turned into an incredibly peaceful but also incredibly cold night under the stars.

Here is everything I learned about capturing a great photo of the night sky:

Dark Place,...

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The climate solution in California’s compost and crops

Rows of composting grape pomace are covered for the winter in Sonoma County’s Alexander Valley on December 13, 2015, near Geyserville, California.  | Photo by George Rose/Getty Images

Scaling up composting, tree-planting, and other sustainable agricultural practices in California could trap about a quarter of the state’s annual carbon dioxide emissions by 2030, according to a new report. These strategies for drawing down greenhouse gases are cheaper and easier to ramp up than technological alternatives, like devices that suck planet-heating CO2 out of the air, and should play a key role in the state’s efforts to address climate change, the report authors argue.

Although it often leads the nation in setting aggressive climate goals, California is also a state with one of the biggest carbon footprints, making it imperative that the state consider a wide range of strategies for reducing emissions. That could include...

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Windows 11 is getting Android apps, taskbar improvements, and more next month

Microsoft is planning to launch a public preview of its Android apps for Windows 11 next month, alongside some taskbar improvements and redesigned Notepad and Media Player apps. Windows chief Panos Panay outlined the upcoming changes to Windows 11 in a blog post today, and they appear to be part of Windows 11’s first big update.

The taskbar improvements include a mute and unmute feature and likely the ability to show a clock on secondary monitors. Both were missing at the launch of Windows 11, but Microsoft is still working on improving the taskbar further to bring back missing functionality like drag and drop.

The upcoming Windows 11 next month will also include the weather widget returning to the taskbar, something Microsoft started...

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Pokémon Legends: Arceus breathes new life into Pokémon

By going back in time, the game moves the series forward

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Elroy Air unveils its autonomous vertical take off and landing cargo plane, the Chaparral

The Chaparral and its cargo pod in front. | Image: Elroy Air

Elroy Air, a startup that wants to make cargo deliveries using autonomous hybrid-electric aircraft, has unveiled its pre-production craft: the Chapparral.

Described by Elroy Air’s co-founder Clint Cope as “a hybrid between a rough-and-ready helicopter and a battle-hardened bush plane,” the Chaparral is a vertical take-off and landing (VTOL) craft that transitions between hovering using eight vertical fans and forward flight using four swiveling propellers. A hybrid-electric powertrain gives it a range of up to 300 miles (482km) and a cargo capacity of 300 to 500lbs (136 to 226kg). Goods are loaded into an underslung pod that can autonomously be picked up and dropped off.

“The Chaparral will be a vital logistics link for people around...

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Oculus Quest 2 refurbished bundles are $250

Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge

In case you were looking for a deal on the Oculus Quest 2, Amazon has you covered. Its “Renewed Store,” where refurbished and used products are sold, will begin selling an appealing VR headset bundle on Tuesday, February 1st, although you can preorder it now for $249 (via Slickdeals). The kit contains a “like-new” Oculus Quest 2 128GB headset (normally $299 by itself), along with controllers, a silicon facial interface, a rugged, customizable head strap, and a hard case for the headset. The accessories aren’t official, as in, made by Oculus, but it’s enough to get you started. Read our review of the headset.

This kit is sold and shipped from Amazon, which offers a one-year limited manufacturer’s warranty on the product. We’ve seen...

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