The cost of ripping and replacing Chinese cellular equipment has ballooned by billions

The original estimate was $1.8 billion. The FCC received applications for $5.6 billion in reimbursements. | Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

The estimated cost of replacing Huawei and ZTE equipment in US networks has increased substantially. On Friday, Federal Communications Commission (FCC) chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel told Congress that providers had applied to be reimbursed $5.6 billion for “ripping and replacing” equipment deemed insecure by the US government (via Light Reading). In September, 2020, the FCC estimated that the effort would cost $1.8 billion, and in December, 2020 Congress earmarked around $1.9 billion for the effort.

But Rosenworcel said Friday in a statement that the FCC had received “over 181 applications from carriers who have developed plans to remove and replace equipment in their networks that pose a national security threat.” She went on to say...

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Here’s where you can buy a Nintendo Switch

The Nintendo Switch OLED model boasts a vibrant, 7-inch display and slate of minor upgrades. | Image: Nintendo

The Nintendo Switch was, like most consoles during the pandemic, once in short supply. Thankfully, retailers like Best Buy, Amazon, and Walmart now routinely stock the Nintendo Switch and Switch Lite in multiple color configurations and models, giving those who struck out ample opportunity to purchase Nintendo’s versatile console.

We’re keeping an eye across the web to find where you can buy a Nintendo Switch, the Nintendo Switch Lite (the portable-only version of the console), and the new Nintendo Switch OLED model, as well as any bundles that seem like good deals.

Where can I buy a Nintendo Switch right now?

• If you prefer to pick up the standalone console, you can purchase the Nintendo Switch with red and blue Joy-Cons for $299.99 at...

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Hear me out: browser tabs in music player apps

Alex Castro / The Verge

All right, listen. This is not for those of you with Dewey Decimal mental filing systems or expertly curated music playlists that easily identify the music contained therein. But hear me out: we need music browser tabs in our music player apps.

I can’t, unfortunately, take credit for this proposed — and tremendously useful! — addition to our music player interfaces. It was actually The Verge’s deputy editor Dan Seifert who first tweeted the idea, which I enthusiastically threw my support behind. We’re not the only two nerds who think this would be a handy feature, either. Wearables reviewer Victoria Song chimed in that she, too, would like a tabs-like feature in her music players. (A good and correct opinion.)

i need browser tabs in my...

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Apple reportedly plans to reveal the first iPhone SE with 5G in March

iPhone SE (2020) | Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge

Bloomberg reporter Mark Gurman is typically a reliable source for Apple rumors, so we’re listening when he says the company is targeting March 8th for a spring event to show off a new low-cost iPhone SE with 5G, as well as a refreshed iPad Air that adds a new CPU and 5G for cellular-equipped models.

Rumors of an update for the iPhone SE have been around since before the iPhone 13 launched, and now _Bloomberg_says we should expect to see a faster chip and improved cameras inside a shell that’s similar to the existing model that has a 4.7-inch screen. The current iPhone SE was introduced in 2020, and its $399 price is the same now as it was on launch day, so an A15 CPU and 5G could make it a much better value. There’s no word on the fate of...

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OpenSea launches new contract-clearing system to protect against recent bug

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

On Thursday evening, blockchain platform OpenSea launched a new system that will help users clear out unclaimed sale offers, set to roll out over the next two weeks. In an announcement post, CEO Devin Finzer described the changes as made to “ensure old, inactive listings expire.”

The move comes after a bug that allowed attackers to exploit old contracts to buy tokens for hundreds of thousands of dollars below market price. In one particularly attention-getting case in January, a Bored Ape Yacht Club token was purchased for less than $2,000 and resold immediately for over $192,000.

The bug was a result of how OpenSea’s platform interacts with the Ethereum blockchain, often saving gas fees by listing offers locally rather than coding them...

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Amazon’s Alexa is coming to thousands of Jaguar and Land Rover vehicles

Alexa in the Jaguar I-Pace. | Image: Jaguar Land Rover

Jaguar Land Rover announced a software update this week that offers deep Alexa integration for newer vehicle models (via Bloomberg).

The update is available to over 200,000 Jaguar and Land Rover vehicles outfitted with the company’s Pivi Pro 3.0 or later infotainment system via an over-the-air update. This comes after Amazon’s efforts early last year to open up some of Alexa’s AI to allow car manufacturers to better integrate Alexa into their vehicles.

Competition is already hot for Amazon in the automotive space

Alexa in Jaguars and Land Rovers will be usable without the need of a smartphone and will be able to assist drivers hands-free with playing music, navigating to various points of interest, and everything else Alexa is capable...

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NASA and SpaceX say lagging parachutes on Dragon capsule are not a problem

A screengrab of the livestream during the Crew-2 landing, showing the one lagging parachute | Image: NASA

NASA and SpaceX say they are looking into a recurring issue with lagging parachutes on SpaceX’s Crew Dragon capsule — critical features the spacecraft needs to land when it returns from orbit. However, the two spaceflight partners are downplaying the seriousness of the problem, claiming that the parachutes are still behaving safely despite the behavior.

The parachute issue cropped up during the two most recent landings of SpaceX’s Crew Dragon capsule. During each of those descents to Earth, one of the four main parachutes on the spacecraft was slower to fully inflate than the other three. The lagging parachute was clearly visible during a livestream of a November landing, in which the Crew Dragon carried four astronauts home from the...

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The House hearing on 5G and planes shows the ride isn’t over yet

Photo by Genna Martin/San Francisco Chronicle via Getty Images

On Thursday, after a month of confusion, delays, and canceled flights related to Verizon and AT&T’s rollout of 5G C-Band networks, the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure held a hearing to “discuss the impact that deployment of 5G technologies has on the aviation industry.”

Anyone tuning in hoping for bombshell revelations would’ve been disappointed. While some of the testimony was enlightening, giving insight into how certain segments of the industry viewed the events, the main takeaway was that we have a long way to go before C-Band and aviation will be able to co-exist happily.

“We recognize that the existing process for spectrum allocation didn’t serve anyone well”

“The process” that led to this situation, where...

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CDC launches wastewater tool to help show COVID-19 trends

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

Since the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic, sewage systems in cities around the United States have helped track the spread of the coronavirus in real time. Now, those tracking projects will have public visibility through a tool on the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)’s COVID-19 data tracking website, the agency announced Friday.

The tool pulls in data from National Wastewater Surveillance System (NWSS), which the CDC launched in September 2020. That network includes data from more than 400 sites in the US.

Wastewater gives officials a way to track the spread of the coronavirus because the virus can be detected in the feces of residents before they are prompted to get tested. But, unlike testing data, wastewater...

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Emissions from new cars reach record low in the UK

A charging cable is pictured plugged into a Volvo electric vehicle (EV), parked in a parking bay reserved for electric vehicles, in London on November 18, 2020. | Photo by TOLGA AKMEN/AFP via Getty Images

Electric and hybrid vehicles drove emissions from new cars in the UK down to a record low in 2021, according to new data from a local industry group. But more investments in charging stations and public transport are needed for the UK to meet its goal of cutting emissions by 78 percent by 2035.

Average emissions for new cars fell by more than 11 percent to about 120 grams of carbon dioxide per kilometer driven last year, according to UK trade association Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT). That means drivers turning to EVs are helping to shrink emissions from the UK’s biggest source of pollution. Transportation — mostly on roads — pumps out more than a quarter of the UK’s annual greenhouse gas emissions.

The UK’s biggest...

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Google Stadia has reportedly been demoted, but it might show up in your Peloton

Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge

One year after Google revealed it now saw Google Stadia cloud gaming idea as a mere “technology platform for industry partners” rather than a true rival to Sony, Nintendo, and Microsoft, Business Insider is reporting that some Stadia gamers’ fears have come true: the entire Stadia project has been demoted within Google, and its new priority is to power experiences from companies including Peloton, Bungie, and Capcom rather than attracting more games to Stadia itself.

In fact, Peloton bike owners might have already experienced the fruits of those labors — _BI_reports that Peloton’s very first video game, Lanebreak, was actually powered by Google’s cloud gaming technology, now dubbed Google Stream. (That’s one way to put a game inside your...

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Congress advances new subsidies for domestic chip manufacturing

US Capitol 5 (Verge Stock)

In a Friday session, the US House of Representatives passed the America COMPETES Act on a 222-210 vote. Colloquially described as a “China competition” bill, the COMPETES Act would provide new subsidies to the US semiconductor manufacturing industry, along with other measures aimed at stimulating the economy.

Votes fell roughly along party lines, with only a single House Democrat opposing the measure and only a single Republican voting in support.

$39 billion in direct subsidies for new fabrication facilities

The COMPETES Act provides $52 billion of federal money to boost US semiconductor manufacturing, with $39 billion going to direct subsidies for new fabrication facilities. Many facilities eligible for this funding are already under...

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This is not a self-driving car

Photo by Sean O’Kane / The Verge

The way we talk about cars and driving is changing — faster than most people can really keep up. Which is why we need to be periodically reminded that just because a car brakes by itself, makes automatic lane changes, or even lets you take your hands off the wheel doesn’t make it an autonomous vehicle.

Case in point: _New York Times_columnistFarhad Manjoo recently wrote about his experiences driving the 2021 Cadillac Escalade with Super Cruise. And while Manjoo has done a lot to advance ideas around car-free living and public transportation, he, unfortunately, fell into the common trap of conflating advanced driver-assist features with autonomous vehicles.

He’s not alone, either. YouTube’s favorite auto reviewer Doug DeMuro has...

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Microsoft claims HoloLens is ‘doing great’ after reports version 3 was canceled

Microsoft’s Alex Kipman with the HoloLens 2. | Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge

Microsoft claims “HoloLens is doing great” after a report earlier this week revealed HoloLens 3 may have been canceled. _Business Insider_reported on Wednesday that Microsoft has scrapped plans for HoloLens 3 in recent months and that it could be “the end of the road” for the headset. Microsoft has reportedly agreed to partner with Samsung on a new mixed reality device, a move that has apparently “inflamed divisions” that exist in Microsoft’s mixed reality teams.

The software giant has been working on a custom HoloLens headset for the US Army in a contract that could be worth up to $21.88 billion over 10 years. The headset is supposed to use augmented reality and machine learning to enable a “life-like mixed reality training environment,”...

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Here are the best AirPods deals you can get right now

Apple’s AirPods Pro wireless earbuds are a go-to pick that’s often on sale. | Photo by Chris Welch / The Verge

If you know where to look, there are typically some great discounts available on Apple’s popular — yet oftentimes expensive — AirPods. Since Apple launched the third-gen AirPods in October and unveiled its new lineup, we’ve seen the starting price of the second-gen, entry-level model drop from $159 to $129. What’s more, we’ve seen many retailers starting to heavily discount the second-gen AirPods as well as the more expensive AirPods Pro and Max, which offer noise cancellation and better sound quality than the standard model. We’ve even recently seen some significant discounts on the third-gen model, despite how recently they launched.

Here, we’ll run through the best deals available on each model, including the entry-level AirPods, the...

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DHS creates Cyber Safety Review Board, targets Log4j exploit for its first report

Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge

The US Department of Homeland Security announced Thursday the creation of a new body, the Cyber Safety Review Board (CSRB), to investigate major cybersecurity events.

The 15-person board will be comprised of a mixture of senior officials from agencies like the NSA, FBI and CISA, and governmental departments including the Department of Defense and Department of Justice, along with private sector executives from companies including Google, Microsoft, and Verizon.

“The Biden-Harris administration has taken bold steps to meaningfully improve our cybersecurity resilience,” said Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro N. Mayorkas. “At the president’s direction, DHS is establishing the Cyber Safety Review Board to thoroughly assess past...

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Texas power outages hit counties where people need electricity for medical devices

Photo by JIM WATSON/AFP via Getty Images

This week’s freezing temperatures and winter storms in Texas led to far fewer power outages than a similar freeze last year. But worryingly, a handful of Texas counties with high rates of power outages also have high numbers of people who need power for medical devices, according to a new analysis by the data group CrisisReady.

Losing electricity in bitter cold is always dangerous, but it’s particularly scary for people who rely on it to keep medical devices like ventilators running. The new analysis pulled federal data on Medicare beneficiaries to identify counties with high numbers of people using electricity-dependent medical equipment. It found that six such counties had more than 1 percent of the population out of power at one...

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Les Mills is jumping into the metaverse with VR boxing

The Les Mills BODYCOMBAT VR app. | Image: Les Mills

Popular fitness club Les Mills is punching and kicking its way into the metaverse with a new VR game, BODYCOMBAT VR. The $29.99 game is an extension of an existing workout series that combines shadowboxing with martial arts and is available on the Meta Quest platform.

The game was developed by VR studio Odder Labs and is led by Les Mills BODYCOMBAT directors Rachael Newsham and Dan Cohen. According to Les Mills’ press release, the game incorporates classic boxing moves like jabs, hooks, and uppercuts, as well as squats and slips to dodge walls. Other moves include grabbing targets to slam into a user’s knee. Levels are set against “intergalactic deserts and neo-city skylines” and set to curated playlists. Players earn points for both...

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Vergecast: Facebook’s decline of daily users and Spotify’s publisher versus platform debate

Illustration by Alex Castro

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 on the show, The Verge’s Nilay Patel, Alex Cranz, Ashley Carman, and Alex Heath discuss Meta’s rough week: Facebook 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 crew discusses the takeaways from Meta’s earnings report and the company’s struggle to keep younger users on its platforms.

The crew also discusses Spotify’s response to the Joe Rogan controversy. This week, Spotify CEO Daniel Ek defended the company’s choice to work with Rogan and tried...

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Apex Legends turns three and prepares to change everything with the launch of Defiance

Image: EA

In 2019, Respawn Entertainment surprised gamers by following up its _Titanfall_games with something slightly different, instead opting for a take on the (then) new and growing free-to-play battle royale genre with Apex Legends.

You know what happened next. After a healthy dose of promoted live streams, the game quickly carved out a unique space and grew rapidly in popularity, racking up 25 million registered players in one week and crossing the 100 million mark in time for its second birthday. Now, Apex Legends is turning three, and in a conversation with The Verge, game director Steven Ferreira said that this year, players should expect to see the title do things that are completely unlike what we’ve seen so far while still keeping the...

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Meta is adding a ‘personal boundary’ to VR avatars to stop harassment

Meta is adding a “personal boundary” system to its Horizon virtual reality experiences, aiming to stop harassment in VR. The new feature is being turned on by default in the Horizon Worlds creation platform and the Horizon Venues live event service. It creates an invisible virtual barrier around avatars, preventing other people from getting too close — although you can apparently still stretch your arm out to give someone a fist-bump or high five.

The boundary system builds on an existing feature that could make users’ hands disappear if they got too close to another avatar. As described by Meta, it gives everyone a two-foot radius of virtual personal space, creating the equivalent of four virtual feet between avatars. Meta spokesperson...

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Rockstar finally confirms it’s working on the next Grand Theft Auto

GTA5’s Michael De Santa. | Image: Rockstar Games

A new entry in the Grand Theft Auto series is in active development, Rockstar Games has confirmed. “We are pleased to confirm that active development for the next entry in the Grand Theft Auto series is well underway,” the company wrote in a post on its website. In the more immediate future, GTAV and Grand Theft Auto Online will release on PS5 and Xbox Series X and S on March 15th.

The popularity — and profitability — of GTAV’s online component has meant that there’s been an unusually long wait for a sequel. The game originally released for the PS3 and Xbox 360 in 2013, over eight years ago. In contrast, GTAV released a little over five years after 2008’s GTAIV. “With the unprecedented longevity of GTAV, we know many of you have been...

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Wall Street Journal owner News Corp suffers cyberattack by hackers linked to China

News Corp says it was the target of a hack | Photo by Erik McGregor/LightRocket via Getty Images

News Corp, the media company that owns The Wall Street Journal, said in a Friday filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) that it was the victim of a cyberattack last month. Its security consultant Mandiant, which is investigating the hack, believes the attackers “are likely involved in espionage activities to collect intelligence to benefit China’s interests,” Mandiant vice president of incident response David Wong said in an email to The Verge.

According to the SEC filing, the company discovered in January that one of its cloud-based systems was the target of “persistent cyberattack activity.” A preliminary analysis found that “foreign government involvement may be associated with this activity, and that data was...

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Wyze Video Doorbell Pro review: a lot to like, except for the look

Free video recordings and package detection almost make up for a dull design

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Roku’s Streambar Pro combination soundbar and streaming box is $30 off

Image: Roku

We’ve arrived at the end of another week, folks. And while today may be unapologetically February, we can always brighten things up a bit with some deals.

If you’re in need of a new streaming device as we approach the Super Bowl or even this weekend’s NFL Pro Bowl, Roku’s Streambar Pro is a nice all-in-one solution as a soundbar and 4K-capable streaming device — and it’s currently on sale. You can pick one up for $149.99 ($30 off) at Amazon and Best Buy. The Streambar Pro runs Roku’s popular and straightforward user interface, and you can even expand it later by adding wireless speakers and a subwoofer to go full-on surround sound.

If you don’t need such a large soundbar or expansive system to grow into, the smaller Roku Streambar is...

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Leonor Will Never Die is what true love of cinema looks like

Sheila Francisco as Leonor Reyes.

The elderly heroine of writer / director Martika Ramirez Escobar’s Leonor Will Never Die may not be the image that comes to mind when you think of an auteur filmmaker whose imagination is filled with an untold number of fantasies all yearning to be turned into blockbuster features. But the movie wants you to ask yourself: why not? Why can’t a retired lola from Manilla who’s perpetually late paying her electricity bill also be one of the most brilliant action directors of her era and someone who can only process existential crises by turning them into films within her mind?

Throughout _Leonor Will Never Die,_Leonor (Sheila Francisco) herself rarely stops to ponder these questions because of how essential filmmaking continues to be to her...

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Why gamers hate crypto, and music fans don’t

Image: Coachella

Today, let’s talk about the very different reactions that two different types of fandoms are having to blockchain-based products — and whether that tells us anything about what average people might actually want out of crypto.

The fandoms are gaming and music. And while you’re always going out on a limb when you try to draw conclusions about such large, diverse groups, I can’t help but feel like I’m seeing a trend in the way they have responded so far to efforts from industry to sell them various blockchain-related things.

Start with the gamers. Outside those working on play-to-earn games like Axie Infinity, hostility toward crypto in the gaming community tends to be overwhelming. One of the most popular recurring stories over the past...

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Kokoon Nightbuds review: a pricey Voltron of sleep tech

These earbuds are onto something, but the execution isn’t there yet

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Apple proposes 27 percent commission in Dutch app store dispute

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

Apple plans to charge developers of dating apps a 27 percent commission on any in-app purchases made via alternative payment systems in the Netherlands, the company has announced. The change comes in response to an order from Dutch competition regulator, the Authority for Consumers and Markets (ACM), which has demanded that Apple allow dating app developers — and only dating app developers — to use alternatives to Apple’s in-app payment system in the country. 27 percent represents only a 3 percent reduction compared to the 30 percent commission Apple typically charges for developers using its own payment system.

The announcement follows Google’s proposal to reduce its commission by 4 percent for developers using alternative payment...

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Pixel 6’s magic eraser feature breaks after update

The feature lets your remove unwanted objects or people from images. | Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales

The Google Pixel 6’s magic eraser feature, which lets you remove unwanted people or objects from your photos, appears to have been broken by a recent update, _PhoneArena_reports. Multiple users acrossRedditandTwitter are reporting that attempting to use it causes the Google Photos app to crash, leaving them unable to use a feature that’s been heavily marketed in the promotion of Google’s latest flagship smartphone.

The issue is the latest in a series of bugs to have hit the Pixel 6. Back in December, Google was forced to halt the rollout of an update after owners complained that it was causing network connection problems for their devices. Android 12 has been an unusually rocky update for many devices, but Google’s Pixel lineup seems...

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