Spotify CEO defends Joe Rogan deal in tense company town hall

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

Spotify CEO Daniel Ek addressed employees about the Joe Rogan controversy in a 15-minute speech yesterday, of which _The Verge_obtained audio, defending the company’s choice to work with Rogan, explaining its reasoning, and defining why he believes Spotify is a combination of a platform and a publisher. Employees had been skeptically awaiting the discussion at the company’s regular town hall meeting for nearly a week: since things had escalated with Joe Rogan, the company’s star exclusive podcaster, employees had been venting inside the corporate messaging system and awaiting a response from leadership about why it chose The Joe Rogan Experienceover Neil Young, setting off a domino effect of other musicians and podcasters pulling content...

Continue reading…

Motorola’s upgraded Moto G Stylus gets a faster display and a bigger battery for $299

Motorola is back with its latest refresh of its budget stylus phone, the Moto G Stylus. The new 2022 model keeps the same $299 price tag as last year’s version, but promises improvements in battery life, a faster refresh rate, and upgraded cameras over the old model.

Let’s start with what hasn’t changed, though: the 2022 Moto G Stylus still has the same 6.8-inch display as last year, although the hole-punch camera has been moved to the center (instead of the top left corner of the screen.) It still has its eponymous stylus (which neatly stores inside the phone), a 3.5mm headphone jack, a rear triple camera array, and 128GB of onboard storage.

But Motorola has made some important upgrades, too. The display now has a 90Hz...

Continue reading…

A New York bill could bring more climate accountability to the fashion industry

Photo by John Lamparski/Getty Images

New York state might take a first-of-its-kind step toward addressing the environmental impact of the fashion industry.

A bill before the New York State Assembly, the “Fashion Sustainability and Social Accountability Act,” or Fashion Act, would require apparel and footwear brands operating in New York state with more than $100 million in revenue worldwide to note and disclose the environmental and social impact of their operations. The bill, first introduced in October, was taken up by the Consumer Affairs and Protection committee last month.

The bill’s introduction comes as the fashion industry is increasingly under scrutiny for its outsized climate impact and unsustainable practices. Fashion contributed to 2 to 8 percent of global...

Continue reading…

OlliOlli World captures the essence of skateboarding, and then makes it weird

OlliOlli World might be the strangest skateboarding game of all time. It takes place in a fictional realm called Radlandia, which is ruled by skate gods, where players train continuously to become a skate wizard by grinding their way through haunted deserts and mystical forests. It looks and sounds like a long-lost animated series on Adult Swim. But even with all of the oddball humor and bizzaro levels, OlliOlli World still manages to capture the soul of skateboarding — and it’s a hell of a lot of fun.

The OlliOlli series dates back nearly a decade, and is probably best-described as a side-scrolling take on Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater. You control a tiny skater in a 2D world, skating your way through intricately-designed levels in search of a...

Continue reading…

Steam finally shows a game’s size before you click install

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

Valve is starting to let Steam users see the size of a game before they attempt to install it. Library pages of games will finally list the total space required for a game, without having to first click install to see the disk space details and estimated download time. It’s a minor change that’s rolling out as part of a beta update to Steam this week, meaning it should be live for all Steam users in the coming weeks.

The change comes after Valve updated its downloads page to make it a lot more informative in September. The overhaul included an improved section for managing storage, as well as showing more details on download progress and installation progress.

Valve redesigned its Steam libraries in 2019, making it easier to find games,...

Continue reading…

GameStop is launching its own NFT marketplace

Photo by Sean Hollister / The Verge

GameStop plans to launch its own marketplace for non-fungible tokens (or NFTs) and is co-creating an “up to $100 million” fund for game developers who use it. The marketplace will mark GameStop’s expansion from a popular meme stock to a company that dabbles in cryptocurrency and Web3 tech — although it may also provoke the wrath of gamers who are stridently opposed to NFTs.

The new GameStop NFT marketplace is supposed to launch later this year. It’s built on Immutable X, a platform based on the popular Ethereum cryptocurrency blockchain. Designed by Immutable, the company behind the NFT trading card game Gods Unchained, Immutable X is intended to mitigate the biggest drawbacks of Ethereum: its massive energy consumption and the high...

Continue reading…

Biden administration wants USPS to rethink gas-powered mail truck purchases

The new USPS mail truck, announced last year, can be ordered with either gasoline or electric drivetrains. | Image: USPS

The United States Postal Service has been urged to reevaluate its plans to spend billions on a new fleet of gas-powered delivery trucks, the Washington Post reports. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and White House Council on Environmental Quality sent letters to the USPS this week, asking it to reconsider plans that could see just 10 percent of its up to 165,000 new vehicles powered by electricity rather than gasoline.

“The Postal Service’s proposal as currently crafted represents a crucial lost opportunity to more rapidly reduce the carbon footprint of one of the largest government fleets in the world,” wrote the EPA’s associate administrator for policy, Vicki Arroyo. The USPS announced its plan last February to purchase the...

Continue reading…

The US is testing robot patrol dogs on its borders

A Ghost Robotics quadruped posing alongside ATVs in the southwest US. | Image: Ghost Robotics

The latest addition to the United States’ border force could be robot dogs. The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) released new details this week of trials of quadrupedal robots on the southern border. The machines are being tested in a variety of surveillance-focused roles, and although the DHS has shared no timeline for full-term deployment, it says trials were “successful” and that work with the machines will continue.

“The southern border can be an inhospitable place for man and beast, and that is exactly why a machine may excel there,” said Brenda Long, a program manager for the DHS’ research and development arm, the Science & Technology directorate (S&T), in a blog post. “This S&T-led initiative focuses on Automated Ground...

Continue reading…

Today I learned a handy trick to zoom in and out of Google Maps

Image: Google

Did you know that Google Maps has a nifty little trick that lets you adjust zoom with just one finger? Because I sure as hell didn’t until yesterday, when a tweet from Sketchfab CEO Alban Denoyel alerted me to its existence via a years-old YouTube video from 2013. The shortcut is simple: just double-tap the maps interface, but instead of lifting your finger after the second tap (the shortcut for zooming in), you leave it touching the screen. Then a swipe up zooms out, and a swipe down zooms in. Neat right?

With this knowledge you can say goodbye to awkwardly holding the phone and trying to use two fingers to reposition the map to check your directions when your other hand is busy holding a dog leash, coffee cup, shopping bag, or...

Continue reading…

The Nintendo Switch has now outsold the Wii

Photo by Cameron Faulkner / The Verge

The Nintendo Switch had a relatively strong holiday quarter, with 10.67 million units shipped between October and December despite the global semiconductor shortage. That brings the system’s lifetime total to 103.54 million units shipped, meaning it took just under five years to overtake the Wii’s 101.63 million.

Shipments were still down nearly eight percent year on year, but Nintendo was clearly less affected by the supply chain issues than some others. Sony, for example, announced yesterday that it only shipped 3.9 million PlayStation 5 consoles in the same period. Nintendo also launched the new OLED model of the Switch last quarter and says it “got off to a good start.”

Nintendo did, however, further revise its forecast for Switch...

Continue reading…

Two members of Google’s Ethical AI group leave to join Timnit Gebru’s nonprofit

Photo by Kimberly White/Getty Images for TechCrunch

Two members of Google’s Ethical AI group have announced their departures from the company, according to a report from Bloomberg. Senior researcher Alex Hanna, and software engineer Dylan Baker, will join Timnit Gebru’s nonprofit research institute, Distributed AI Research (DAIR).

Today's my last day at Google. Starting tomorrow I'm joining @timnitGebru at @DAIRInstitute as Director of Research.

On my way out, here's some thoughts on the tech company as a racialized organization and the power of complaint. https://t.co/PQhAVo2r7M

— Alex Hanna (@alexhanna) February 2, 2022

In a post announcing her resignation on Medium, Hanna criticizes the “toxic” work environment at Google, and draws attention to a lack of representation of Black...

Continue reading…

The FBI reportedly confirms it tested NSO’s spyware

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

The FBI has confirmed to The Washington Post that the agency had a license to use NSO’s Pegasus spyware and that it tested out the software’s capabilities. The bureau insists that the software, which is capable of silently infecting phones and accessing camera and microphone feeds, contacts, texts, and more, was never used “in support of any investigation,” but the Post’s report says that there were at least discussions within the FBI and Department of Justice about how the FBI might go about deploying the spyware.

The confirmation comes after The New York Timesreleased a sweeping report last week, which included details about the FBI’s relationship with NSO. Not only did the FBI try out the spyware on phones using foreign SIM cards,...

Continue reading…

Spotify says it’s a creator company now

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

Spotify released its quarterly earnings today during a particularly fraught time for the company. Its star podcaster, Joe Rogan, spurred multiple musicians to pull their discographies from the platform over his show’s spreading of misinformation; Spotify-employed podcasters themselves spoke out, and even the White House responded.

CEO Daniel Ek fielded questions about the backlash to having Rogan on the platform and stood by the company’s decision to host, distribute, and monetize the show. He instead tried to reframe the discussion as one of free speech and making Spotify a platform that can help all audio creators make a living, regardless of their opinions.

“We’re trying to balance creative expression with the safety of our users,...

Continue reading…

Facebook lost daily users for the first time ever last quarter

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

Since its inception, Facebook’s user growth has essentially been up and to the right. But on Wednesday, it reported its first-ever quarterly decline of daily users globally, along with lower-than-expected ad growth that sent its stock plunging roughly 20 percent.

The massive stock drop, which instantly wiped out roughly $200 billion in market value, shows that Facebook’s corporate rebrand to Meta isn’t enough to distract investors from the problems in its core business of social media. Not only was user growth across Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp essentially flat last quarter, but the main Facebook app lost 1 million daily users in North America, where it makes the most money through advertising. That drop led to an overall decrease...

Continue reading…

Gran Turismo 7’s new trailer shows off PS5 features and chill music mode

A still captured from PS5 footage provided by Sony. | Sony

Sony’s latest State of Play presentation offered a closer look at the cars, tracks, and game modes that Gran Turismo 7 will deliver when it launches on PS5 and PS4 on March 4th, 2022. Beyond offering a deep car simulator experience with a hefty amount of customization options for each car, there are some new and returning features that should give returning fans (or first-time players) plenty to do.

Starting with some key highlights from the show, the game will offer over 400 cars on launch day, along with 34 racing locales and 90 track layouts. It’ll have two-player split-screen multiplayer (along with online play), and like most PS5 games, Gran Turismo 7 includes a frame rate mode for 60 frames per second performance or a ray tracing...

Continue reading…

What’s the difference between 5G, 5G Plus, 5G UW, and 5G UC?

UC and UW aren’t just academic institutions, they’re also kinds of 5G. | Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

If you’ve noticed cryptic new icons popping up on your phone next to the 5G logo, you’re not alone. Carriers are expanding their 5G networks in a big way this year, and those little “UW” and “UC” logos you’re suddenly seeing represent the different varieties of 5G you’re encountering in the wild. Like Pokémon, but way more confusing.

Isn’t 5G just… 5G?

Nope. There are low, mid, and high-band varieties of 5G spectrum. They all provide different levels of data speeds, and all major US carriers use all three. Naturally, they also have different names for them. Depending on your carrier, you may see abbreviations pop up next to the 5G symbol on your phone when you’re connected to the corresponding network. Here’s a quick guide to the...

Continue reading…

Amazon workers at a second warehouse in NYC say they have filed a petition to unionize

Amazon warehouse workers petition to unionize | Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

Workers at a second Amazon warehouse on Staten Island in New York City have petitioned the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) to join a union, according to the Amazon Labor Union. The group tweeted it had electronically filed a petition for election for workers at the LDJ5 warehouse. NLRB spokesperson Kayla Blado said Wednesday afternoon it had not yet received the petition, however.

The ALU, which is made up of current and former Amazon workers, is also moving forward with unionization at the company’s JFK8 warehouse on Staten Island after the NLRB determined it had “reached a sufficient showing of interest” to hold an election. The NLRB has scheduled a hearing for February 16th and will then determine the date for the election.

The...

Continue reading…

FCC proposal would help combat ‘ringless voicemail’ robocalls

Photo by Chris Welch / The Verge

Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel issued a proposal that could make it much harder for robocallers to leave “ringless” voicemails in your inbox without getting your permission first. Ringless voicemails are those annoying messages that appear in your voicemail inbox without your phone actually ringing first.

Ringless voicemails are messages that appear on your phone without it ringing

Rosenworcel says the technology behind ringless voicemails should be subject to the same rules laid out by the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA), which is supposed to block robocallers from dialing your number without your consent. The TCPA sets a number of other rules as well, requiring telemarketing agencies to...

Continue reading…

Gee, I wonder how Apple Podcasts suddenly became a five-star app

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

Here are some recent five-star reviews of the Apple Podcasts app in Apple’s own App Store.

Let me know if you see a theme?

Amazing⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

This is my favorite podcast and I am so glad I found this. I think I learned more in this podcast then in all my years in school.

Great advice for parents! ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Such valuable advice for parents. I can’t wait for the next episode.

Smart man with a great mindset⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Start with his $100 million offer book and open your mind.

Alex gives away so much valuable content, it makes you want to get big enough just so you can hire him!

The best ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Absolutely the best podcast in Nigeria

Pushkin ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

If reality is a construction, and each postmodern self creates his/her/“their” own reality, then let’s...

Continue reading…

Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League reportedly won’t come out until 2023

Rocksteady’s take on the Suicide Squad won’t be coming out for another year. | Image: WarnerMedia

The release of Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League is being delayed until next year, according to a report from Bloomberg. The game, which is being made by Rocksteady (the studio behind Batman: Arkham Asylum, City, and Knight), was scheduled to come out sometime in 2022. The game’s Twitter account still lists the release date as 2022 in its bio, but as Bloomberg points out, a tweet from WarnerMedia’s CEO about the company’s 2022 game lineup didn’t include Kill the Justice League.

It’s a slightly odd delay, given that the first gameplay trailer was just released in December and made the game look like it was getting close to being done. As we’ve seen, though, making a game during a pandemic is difficult, and mosthigh-profilegameson...

Continue reading…

In controversial move, EU says nuclear power and gas can be green investments

02 February 2022, Lower Saxony, Stadland: The Unterweser nuclear power plant (KKU), which has already been decommissioned and has been in the process of being dismantled since 2018, stands behind photovoltaic panels of a solar park. | Photo by Hauke-Christian Dittrich/picture alliance via Getty Images

The European Commission inflamed tensions over what role nuclear energy and gas should play in the clean energy transition when it proposed new rules today on what can be labeled a “green investment.” After more than a year of heated debate, it decided to consider gas and nuclear “sustainable” under certain conditions.

“Taking account of scientific advice and current technological progress, the Commission considers that there is a role for private investment in gas and nuclear activities in the transition,” the Commission said in its announcement.

The EU has committed to producing no net greenhouse gas emissions by 2050 — a target research has shown is necessary worldwide to prevent the worst effects of climate change. By 2030, the EU...

Continue reading…

The best alternatives to Spotify for listening to music

Shutterstock / Kaspars Grinvalds

As this is being written, we are still in the midst of the Spotify controversy, during which artists are abandoning the audio service in protest of that company’s contract with podcaster Joe Rogan. Neil Young was the first to pull his music from the service, followed by Joni Mitchell and others. And some subscribers are deciding to follow the musicians’ example.

Although some Spotify fans might disagree, there are quite a few alternatives available for good music listening. If you’re one of those who do use Spotify but who has decided to look elsewhere (or if you’re just interested in what music services are out there), here’s a quick rundown of just some of the better-known possibilities.

Amazon Music

Amazon Music

A...

Continue reading…

CNN president Jeff Zucker abruptly resigns

Photo by Jason Koerner/Getty Images

CNN president Jeff Zucker, a leading proponent of forthcoming streaming service CNN Plus, has resigned from the company following the discovery of a consensual relationship with another high-ranking executive.

The relationship, which was not disclosed internally when it began, was discovered as part of an investigation into conduct by former CNN anchor Chris Cuomo. Cuomo was fired from the network in December following a probe into his own involvement in the handling of sexual harassment allegations against his brother, former New York Governor Andrew Cuomo.

Zucker reportedly had a consensual relationship with EVP and chief marketing officer Allison Gollust, who will remain in her position at the company, the New York Times reported....

Continue reading…

Zagg Protect is the case maker’s version of phone insurance

You can get older phones covered too.

Zagg, a company known for its cases and screen protectors, is now offering its own phone protection plan to compete with the likes of AppleCare, SquareTrade, and Asurion. The company is pitching its Zagg Protect service as a lower-cost and more flexible alternative to other plans — it’s $100 a year, the deductible for incidents is only $49, and you don’t have to decide if you want it while you’re buying a new phone. Zagg says any phone running iOS 11 or newer or that runs Android and has access to Chrome browser version 68 or newer is eligible, as long as it’s in working condition when you sign up.

The plan seems focused on repairing, instead of replacing your device — according to Zagg’s website, the plan will pay up to $500 per...

Continue reading…

Firefox’s anti-tracking feature adds per-account VPN for more privacy

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

Mozilla is combining its Multi-Account Containers add-on with its VPN service, which lets you keep your online personas — such as your work and personal browsing histories — separate.

Multi-Account Containers has been available as a Firefox add-on since 2017. It works to “contain” your different online lives into separate tabs that you can label with colors, icons, or names. The containers just don’t hold your browsing histories — they also store cookies and tracking information, which means you can sign into different accounts on the same site just by clicking over to another container.

But using the add-on with Mozilla VPN comes with a distinct advantage (well, at least in my option): the ability to hide your location across...

Continue reading…

Apple’s Face ID with a Mask works so well, it might end password purgatory

Nearly two years into the COVID-19 pandemic, Apple has made Face ID useful again in iOS 15.4 by finally adding the ability to use the face unlock feature while wearing a face mask.

I’ve been testing out the new iOS 15.4 beta for a few days, and I’ve been pleasantly surprised at how well Face ID works with a mask — in addition to simply enjoying being able to use my iPhone the way it was originally intended to work, instead of mashing in a six-digit passcode a dozen times whenever I leave the house.

The Face ID vs. Touch ID / fingerprint sensor debate had been a conversation long before COVID-19 and the new norm of almost constantly wearing a face mask when out in public settings or traveling on buses, trains, or planes. But while masks...

Continue reading…

Biden relaunches cancer-fighting ‘moonshot’

Photo by Win McNamee/Getty Images

Continuing work started when he was vice president, President Joe Biden announced today the White House is relaunching a cancer “moonshot” — aiming to “end cancer as we know it today.”

The ambitious effort has two main goals: to reduce the cancer death rate by 50 percent over the next 25 years and to improve the lives of people with cancer and their families. Biden’s son, Beau, died in 2015 at age 46 from brain cancer.

The White House announcement points to a few strategies to meet those goals, like diagnosing cancer sooner. President Biden and First Lady Jill Biden will encourage people to get regular cancer screenings, the White House will push for more access to home screenings, and federal agencies will work to develop tests that...

Continue reading…

Tesla owners report dozens of instances of ‘phantom braking’

Photo by Sean O’Kane / The Verge

Tesla vehicles are inexplicably slamming on their brakes for no reason, frightening owners and eliciting over 100 complaints to the federal government in the last three months alone, according to The Washington Post.

It’s been a persistent issue for the automaker. Last October, Tesla CEO Elon Musk said on Twitter that the company was forced to “roll back” version 10.3 of its Full Self-Driving beta software because of issues with forward collision warnings and phantom braking.

But since then, the number of complaints about Tesla’s braking has spiked. According to The Washington Post’s analysis, reports from Tesla owners about phantom braking to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) rose to 107 complaints in the past...

Continue reading…

Vizio’s 65-inch P-Series 4K TV with HDMI 2.1 is $300 off

Image: Vizio

Hump Day is better when it’s paired with excellent deals, and excellent deals are all the better when one of them is a great TV for a new low price.

There’s a great deal on Vizio’s P-Series of 2021 TVs that fits nicely with anyone seeking a match for the latest consoles. The P-Series Quantum supports many of the sought-after specs that a PS5 or Xbox Series X owner should look for, including HDMI 2.1, HDR, and a variable refresh rate with 120Hz at 1080p and 60Hz at 4K. When it comes to streaming TV shows and movies, there’s built-in Chromecast and Apple AirPlay 2 compatibility. These TVs come in 65 inches, 75 inches, and a massive 85 inches. Right now, you can get the 65-inch P65Q9-J model for just $899 on Amazon, knocking $300 off. The 7...

Continue reading…

How one company took over the NFT trade

Photo by Jakub Porzycki/NurPhoto via Getty Images

The NFT gold rush made OpenSea into a $13 billion company — but can it stay on top?

Continue reading…