Logitech’s outstanding StreamCam is on sale for nearly its best price to date

Logi’s popular, 1080p webcam is an ace when it comes to picture quality. | Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge

Ladies and gentlemen, the weekend deals! While some of us on the East Coast may be busy shoveling snow this Saturday morning, we hope many of you are having a restful weekend chock-full of deals and discounts.

Kicking things off on the deals front is Logitech’s StreamCam, which is currently on sale in its graphite colorway at Amazon for $108. That’s about $62 off the regular price of this excellent webcam, one we consider to be the best webcam you can buy in terms of image quality. The StreamCam is Logitech’s flagship 1080p camera and is able to achieve 60 frames per second, allowing for a smooth, crisp look. The Capture software can also keep you centered in the frame, much like the Center Stage feature found on Apple’s newer iPads, and...

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Joni Mitchell removes music from Spotify in protest of Joe Rogan’s podcast

Joni Mitchell has decided to remove all of her music from Spotify, joining Neil Young in protest of Joe Rogan’s podcast that Young says spreads misinformation about the COVID-19 vaccines (via The Wall Street Journal).

“I stand in solidarity with Neil Young and the global scientific and medical communities on this issue”

“I’ve decided to remove all my music from Spotify,” The Canadian singer-songwriter writes in a post on her website. “Irresponsible people are spreading lies that are costing people their lives. I stand in solidarity with Neil Young and the global scientific and medical communities on this issue.”

Mitchell also includes a link to an open letter to Spotify, which was signed by dozens of medical and scientific professionals...

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My new toy is a USB-C cable with a built-in power meter

A USB-C power meter cable charging up a Skydio 2 drone. | Photo by Sean Hollister / The Verge

While I’m waiting for the adapter that’ll turn my DeWalt power tool batteries into a powerful laptop charger, I thought I might introduce you to another intriguing USB-C trend. You can now buy $20 USB-C cables that come complete with their own wattage meter, letting you see just how fast they’re charging your devices.

I bought mine a month ago — it took its sweet time getting here — but so far, I’m impressed! For the past couple of days, I’ve been plugging it into everything to see how much it draws: 18W for my V2 Nintendo Switch, 30-31W for my DJI Mini 2 drone, 2.5-3W for one of my PS5’s DualSense controllers, 54-65W for my XPS 15, all the way up to 99W for a 14-inch M1 MacBook Pro or a Skydio 2 drone. Or, down to 0.5W while...

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Epic largely lost to Apple, but 35 states are now backing its fight in a higher court

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

Epic Games may have largely lost its major lawsuit against Apple, but it’s not going out without a fight — and it has some major support in its corner. Soon after the Epic Games v. Apple ruling was issued, Epic appealed, and over the past two days, a large number of organizations have filed amicus briefs in support of Epic’s battle, including a coalition of 35 state attorneys general, Microsoft, and the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF). (The original ruling has since been put on hold after an appeals court granted a stay.)

During the fight, Epic was trying to make the case that Apple has a monopoly in mobile gaming with the App Store, and in so doing, force Apple to take a smaller percentage of all the transactions that go through...

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Life360 is getting out of the business of selling precise user location data

Image: Google

Life360, a safety and tracking service that helps its users to keep tabs on the whereabouts of family and friends who also use the app, is scaling back its user data sales business to just two partners: Allstate Arity and Placer.ai (via The Markup). This news comes after the company announced a deal to acquire the item tracker Tile in November and a December report from _The Markup_said Life360 was the source of precise location data to as many as a dozen data brokers. That report cited sources within the industry who called Life360 one of the largest sources of data.

Life360 says Tile data will “never” be monetized or sold

At the time, CEO Chris Hulls pushed back on that assertion, saying that “with approximately 30 million active users,...

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The best gaming headset deals you can get right now

Logitech’s budget-friendly G435 boasts color and comfort, as well as a host of solid features. | Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge

A good gaming headset is practically a necessity these days. Clean and precise audio is essential for competitive gaming, allowing you not just to pinpoint your enemies, but communicate effectively with your teammates. Moreover, recent developments in spatial audio and virtual surround sound have allowed headsets to meet — and occasionally surpass — more expensive audio setups, allowing even the most budget-conscious gamer to obtain a competitive edge at a fraction of the price.

While you could always invest in a massive pair of speakers, they’re likely to earn you the dubious distinction of the worst roommate of the decade. Thankfully, the right headset will allow you to keep the running and gunning to yourself, which is why we’ve...

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Appeals court upholds California’s net neutrality law

California can enforce its net neutrality law | Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

A federal appeals court on Friday ruled that California’s net neutrality law can remain in place, upholding a lower court decision. California’s 2018 law is the toughest in the country, and was signed into law a year after the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) repealed the federal Open Internet Order. That 2015 order put into place strict net neutrality rules barring internet providers from blocking or throttling legal apps and websites. It also banned prioritization of paid content by ISPs.

California’s law also bars throttling and speed lanes, and not long after the law was passed, the Department of Justice under former President Trump sued the state, arguing that the law was pre-empted by the FCC’s 2017 repeal of the federal...

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Google seems to be giving its Android Tablets division some attention

One of Android’s co-founders is now working as CTO of Android Tablets. | Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

One of Android’s original founders, Rich Miner, is working on Android tablets, a fact that was recently revealed in a ComputerWorld report digging into Google’s history with tablets. Miner’s LinkedIn page appears to confirm it, listing his current title as “CTO Android Tablets,” and says he’s been in that role since March, 2021. Given that someone pivotal to Android’s history is now working on tablets, and some job listings Google has posted, it seems like the company may be doing something interesting with Android beyond phones and foldables.

Miner worked on Android when it was being built by a company called Android, Inc., which would later go on to be acquired by Google. He’s done a lot of things in the time since (including helping...

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Here is the Spotify COVID content policy that lets Joe Rogan slide

Image: Joe Rogan

Spotify employees are vocally upset inside the company over the streaming platform’s deal with Joe Rogan due to his views on COVID vaccines, but their executive leadership has mostly stayed quiet both inside and outside the firm. Today, however, Dustee Jenkins, Spotify’s head of global communications and public relations, posted a message to the company Slack addressing employee concerns about Joe Rogan’s presence on the platform after Neil Young removed his music in protest.

In screenshots viewed by The Verge, Jenkins said she “lead[s] Public Affairs” and that the company has reviewed multiple controversial Joe Rogan Experience episodes and determined they “didn’t meet the threshold for removal.” She adds that Spotify employs an...

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Pokémon’s next Daniel Arsham art collaboration reaches across time and space

Nintendo/Creatures Inc./GAME FREAK Inc./TV Tokyo

While Pokémon Arceusis revealing all new things about the franchise’s past, artist Daniel Arsham’s next collaboration with The Pokémon Company is all about a ruined, fossilized future.

Building on the larger themes of his previous two Pokémon projects, “Relics of Kanto Through Time” and “Time Dilation,” Arsham’s upcoming “A Ripple in Time” exhibition opening in Tokyo will feature a variety of _Pokémon_works of art meant to evoke the passage of time. In addition to paintings, drawings, and Arsham’s signature Pokémon statues inspired by architecture and the concept of fictional archaeology, “A Ripple in Time” will also feature an “animated work” produced by Arsham and Kunihiko Yuyama, former general director of the _Pokémon_anime who now...

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The FAA, AT&T, and Verizon are getting closer to a solution for their 5G mess

Communications weren’t always solid, but they’re picking back up. | Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

Regulators, carriers, and the airline industry seem to be figuring out the details surrounding the rollout of C-band 5G and its potential effects on air travel. According to the Federal Aviation Administration’s latest statement, “through continued technical collaboration, the FAA, Verizon, and AT&T have agreed on steps that will enable more aircraft to safely use key airports while also enabling more towers to deploy 5G service.”

Carriers “have provided more precise data about the exact location of wireless transmitters and supported more thorough analysis of how 5G C-band signals interact with sensitive aircraft instruments,” according to an FAA statement released on Friday, which you can read in full below. Before AT&T and Verizon l...

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Jabra rolls out multipoint Bluetooth support for Elite 7 Pro and Active earbuds

Photo by Chris Welch / The Verge

I’ve written many times that multipoint support has been a signature feature of Jabra earbuds for a long time now. So it was a little disappointing when the company’s Elite 7 Pro and Elite 7 Active buds were released last year without the ability to connect to two audio sources at once. Jabra had promised all along that it would eventually enable multipoint by way of a firmware update, and today’s the day that new software is making its way to customers.

If you own either set of Jabra’s premium 2021 earbuds, you can now head into the Sound Plus app for Android or iOS and update the earbuds to gain multipoint support and a few other new features. Early indications are that multipoint is working as expected.

Jabra says the latest firmware...

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How to install the iOS 15.4 public beta

Photo by Chaim Gartenberg

There have been some exciting features announced for the next version of Apple’s mobile operating system, iOS 15.4, including the ability to use Face ID with a mask and to access some snazzy new emoji. If you can’t wait, you can test them in the first available public beta right now — assuming you’re willing to risk encountering possible bugs. Here, we walk you through the steps for installing the software.

Before we get started, here’s the usual word of warning about installing unfinished beta software: these releases may seem stable for general use, but they could contain some bugs. Your experience may differ from others, depending on the apps you use. And finally, if you do decide to install, we suggest backing up your device’s data...

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Head of WhatsApp on releasing an iPad app: ‘We’d love to do it’

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

WhatsApp’s chief has a message for those who have been clamoring for a native iPad app: don’t give up hope.

“People have wanted an iPad app for a long time.” Will Cathcart, the head of WhatsApp at its parent company Meta, told _The Verge_during an interview this week tied to a new US marketing push for the messaging app. “We’d love to do it.”

Like Instagram for the iPad, a version of WhatsApp for Apple’s tablet has long eluded users despite being a heavily requested feature. And while Cathcart wouldn’t go so far as to commit to the release of an iPad version, his comments suggest it’s possible that one will be built in the near future, especially now that WhatsApp has built the underlying technology needed for such a client to work.

“If I...

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Neil Young says he ‘felt better’ after leaving Spotify and its ‘shitty’ sound quality

Photo by Gary Miller/FilmMagic

Even after departing the platform, Neil Young isn’t done criticizing Spotify yet. Today, the rock legend has published another letter on his website, describing Spotify as a purveyor of “more songs and less sound.” Young says that he “felt better” after pulling his music catalog from the leading streaming music service earlier this week while noting that he’s strongly opposed to censorship and that “private companies have the right to choose what they profit from, just as I can choose not to have my music support a platform that disseminates harmful information.”

Throughout the latest post, Young — a longtime advocate of hi-fi sound — heavily criticizes Spotify for its lossy audio quality. “Amazon, Apple Music, and Qobuz deliver up to...

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Watchdog closes probe into Ubisoft Singapore and will not take action

The Tripartite Alliance for Fair and Progressive Employment Practices’ case is closing its case. | Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

A Singaporean employment watchdog has closed an investigation against Ubisoft Singapore that was opened following allegations of a toxic studio culture and says it will not be taking action against the company. The Tripartite Alliance for Fair and Progressive Employment Practices (TAFEP) investigation was opened last summer after Kotaku published an extensive article detailing alleged issues at the company based on interviews with more than 20 current and former employees. The claims included racial pay disparity, sexual harassment, and an HR department that allegedly took little action in response to reports.

The TAFEP shared two key findings in a press release sent to The Verge_._The first was that “Ubisoft Singapore has a structured...

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US lawmakers probe into crypto mining companies’ energy use

Whinstone CEO Chad Harris poses for a portrait in a room with Bitcoin mining machines during a tour at the Whinstone US Bitcoin mining facility in Rockdale, Texas, on October 10, 2021 | Photo by MARK FELIX/AFP /AFP via Getty Images

Democratic lawmakers are pushing Bitcoin mining companies in the US to divulge how much electricity they use in an effort to assess how that will impact nearby residents and the environment. Eight members of Congress sent lettersyesterday to six companies that mine Bitcoin in the US asking them about the energy and environmental impact of their operations.

“Given the extraordinarily high energy usage and carbon emissions associated with Bitcoin mining, mining operations raise concerns about their impacts on the global environment, local ecosystems, and consumer electricity costs,” the letters say. The letters were signed by Senators Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI), Jeff Merkley (D-OR), Margaret Hassan (D-NH), and Ed...

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How to use Slack channels

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

Slack, the instant messaging app of choice for many companies, has probably become a bigger part of your life if you’re working from home. And while Slack is usually used for work, it’s also very useful for conversing with friends and family. Slack offers paid plans, but anyone can sign up for the free version and create a workspace, a virtual space where you can set up different conversations and projects.

Each of those conversations and projects on Slack are called channels. These channels function like chat rooms or group chats. While there isn’t a limit to the number of channels you can make or private messages you can send in Slack, the free version will only let you see the last 10,000 messages sent in your workspace.

Here’s an...

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Waymo sues California DMV to keep driverless crash data under wraps

Photo by Sean O’Kane / The Verge

Waymo filed a lawsuit against the California Department of Motor Vehicles to keep driverless car crash data from being made public. The autonomous vehicle operator, which is owned by Google’s parent company Alphabet, claims that such data should be considered a trade secret. The news of the lawsuit was first reported by the Los Angles Times.

California’s DMV oversees the largest autonomous vehicle testing program in the country, with over 60 companies permitted to operate test vehicles on public roads. Only a handful are approved to operate fully autonomous vehicles without safety drivers at the wheel, and even fewer have been approved to deploy vehicles for commercial purposes.

Waymo is seeking to keep private information about how it...

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China unveils five-year plan for space exploration that continues push into lunar space

Photo by Kevin Frayer/Getty Images

China has released its plans for space exploration over the next five years, detailing ambitious goals that include strengthening its space infrastructure and developing a next-generation spacecraft for carrying people to space. The country is also researching how it could possibly land people on the Moon in the coming years.

The roadmap, detailed in a new white paper released today, would continue China’s ambitious progress in the realm of aerospace. Over the last few decades, the country has placed significant emphasis on expanding its space capabilities, increasing the frequency and scope of its launches, and pushing into new areas such as the robotic exploration of Mars. China has also mounted a long-term campaign of lunar...

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Three things Web3 should fix in 2022

Last weekend, it felt like everyone I knew was sending me the same link. “The Problem With NFTs,” a long video essay by the Canadian media critic Dan Olson, ricocheted around all corners of the tech world since it was uploaded on Friday. (It now has 2.6 million views and climbing.) Over 138 meticulously researched minutes, Olson traces the history of the 2008 financial crisis, the creation of Bitcoin and Ethereum, and the rise of NFTs and DAOs, and reaches the conclusion that what we have taken to calling “Web3” is effectively beyond saving: the technology is too broken, and its creators too indifferent to its failures, for it to ever to live up to the promise of its most starry-eyed backers.

Few of Olson’s criticisms are entirely new,...

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Hackers have stolen $80 million in cryptocurrency from the Qubit DeFi platform

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

Qubit Finance, a decentralized finance (DeFi) platform, has become the latest victim of a high-value theft, with hackers stealing around $80 million in cryptocurrency on Thursday.

The value of cryptocurrency stolen makes this the largest hack of 2022 so far.

Qubit Finance acknowledge the hack in an incident report published through Medium. According to the report, the hack occurred at around 5PM ET on the evening of January 27th.

Qubit provides a service known as a “bridge” between different blockchains, effectively meaning that deposits made in one cryptocurrency can be withdrawn in another. Qubit Finance operates a bridge between Ethereum and the Binance Smart Chain (BSC) network.

Analysis produced by CertiK, a blockchain auditing and...

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Vergecast: Spotify’s latest Joe Rogan problem, Intel’s bet on Ohio, and Q4 earnings for Big Tech

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge | Photo by Vivian Zink/NBCUniversal via Getty Images

Every Friday, The Verge publishes our flagship podcast, The Vergecast, where we discuss the week in tech news with the reporters and editors covering the biggest stories.

This week, it’s time for earnings reports again! The Verge’s Nilay Patel, Alex Cranz, and Tom Warren look at how profitable the big tech companies like Microsoft, Samsung, Intel, and Tesla were in Q4 of 2021. The crew discusses the surprises, the non-surprises, as well as upcoming plans for these companies for 2022 and beyond.

Later in the show, Casey Newton, contributing editor and editor of Platformer, joins the show to discuss Spotify’s latest controversy regarding Joe Rogan’s podcast, leading to musician Neil Young removing his music from the platform. Will this...

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The eject button held all the power on the original Xbox

The most important button on the original Xbox wasn’t the power button: it was the button to eject the disc tray.

Conceptually, this doesn’t make sense.Of course the power button should be the most important button — it turns on (and off) the whole console. But that attitude is steeped in our understanding of modern devices, where our games and apps are far more self-contained than they were during the original Xbox’s heyday.

The console’s design reflects the eject button’s priority. The disc eject button is bigger, higher up, and surrounded by an LED ring in the console’s iconic green glow, drawing even more attention to it.

The reasoning here is simple: the original Xbox (like its contemporaries and predecessors) was useless without...

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How to set up a Slack account

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

Now that we’re spending more time indoors, we’re finding new platforms — and new ways to use old platforms — to stay in touch, whether it’s for work or with friends. This is the case with Slack, an instant-messaging platform that functions somewhere in the space between email and text messages. Designed for quick communication, Slack became an important tool for a lot of workplaces well before everyone started working from home. But you can use it for pretty much anything: friends, group activities, clubs, or online communities.

Slack has a free version and offers several paid plans. You start by setting up a workspace (which is your main area of operations and contains your network of contacts) on Slack. In your workspace, you create...

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Fortnite’s return to iOS via GeForce Now feels just fine

The game plays much better than I expected.

Fortnite hasn’t been available on iOS since Apple yanked it from the App Store in August 2020, but I’ve been able to play it on my iPhone once again thanks to a closed beta on Nvidia’s GeForce Now cloud gaming service. While it’s not quite as seamless an experience as using a native app, this GeForce Now loophole works a lot better than I expected.

With this closed beta, you’ll be playing a mobile-optimized version of the game. If you’ve tried Fortnite on iOS or Android before, the layout should feel familiar — the experience is well-designed for touch, with easy-to-navigate menus and large (though finicky) onscreen controls. This GeForce Now version also supports controllers, and I’ve played most matches with my iPhone plugged into my...

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Samsung’s QLED TV is back to its lowest price

Save on this excellent QLED from Samsung | Samsung

If you’re looking to pick up a TV ahead of the Super Bowl, Samsung is currently discounting many of its QLED TVs, matching their lowest prices ever. Normally, the 75-inch model of the Samsung QN85A QLED TV costs $2,999.99 but is currently on sale at Samsung and Best Buy for $1,999.99. This massive, slim-bezel display features amazing visual fidelity and also includes a variety of other handy features. The Tizen OS grants access to most major streaming services and a number of helpful apps, and the TV features built-in support for Google Assistant and Amazon Alexa, allowing you to control playback or find your favorite show with ease. The already excellent picture quality is enhanced even further thanks to HDR10+ support, a 120Hz refresh...

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WhatsApp sets its sights on the US

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

With more than 2 billion users, WhatsApp is already one of the most popular messaging apps in the world. But its largest markets are all outside of the US. Now, Facebook, the parent company of WhatsApp that recently rebranded to Meta, is hoping to change that.

Starting this weekend, Meta is kicking off the first-ever US marketing push for WhatsApp, focusing on the privacy offered by the app’s encryption. The first TV ad will air Sunday during the AFC Championship Game, comparing unencrypted messages to a stranger opening your physical mail. Similar ads touting WhatsApp’s privacy will soon start appearing on billboards around the country and online.

The goal of the marketing push is to get more people in the US to switch to WhatsApp by...

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Apple trolls Spotify with Neil Young tweets, playlists, and push notifications

“We Love Neil” — subtle stuff. | Image: Apple Music / The Verge

Earlier this week, Neil Young pulled his music from Spotify after falling out with the platform over its hosting of Joe Rogan and COVID misinformation. So now, of course, rival streamer Apple Music is courting Young and his fans, sending out tweets, playlists, and even push notifications to brand itself as “The home of Neil Young.”

It’s all a bit of theatrical silliness, of course. Neil Young is a legendary songwriter, yes, but his presence or absence won’t decide the fate of this or that streaming platform. He’s no Kanye or Taylor Swift. Instead, Apple is simply indulging in the time-honored corporate tradition of inserting itself into a relevant news cycle while the going is good.

The company’s not been subtle about it either. It even...

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Apple now has 1.8 billion active devices

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

Apple made more money than ever during the holiday season, and its growth during 2021 has helped the company add 150 million more active devices. During an earnings call with investors last night, Apple CEO Tim Cook revealed that Apple now has 1.8 billion active devices.

That’s up from the 1.65 billion Apple reported a year ago, and the 1.5 billion active devices in January 2020. While Cook didn’t delve deeper into the device details, Apple crossed the 1 billion active iPhones milestone a year ago, after selling its billionth iPhone in 2016 and then hitting 900 million active iPhone users in 2019. Apple counts a device as active as long as it has engaged with an Apple service within the past 90 days, so the 1.8 billion number covers a...

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