White House launches comprehensive plan for cryptocurrency regulation

White House / Flickr

President Biden is poised to issue a new comprehensive strategy for the federal government’s treatment of cryptocurrency, the White House announced on Wednesday. The White House described the pending executive order as “the first ever, whole-of-government approach to addressing the risks and harnessing the potential benefits of digital assets and their underlying technology.”

“The rise in digital assets creates an opportunity to reinforce American leadership in the global financial system and at the technological frontier,” the White House said in a release describing the order, “but also has substantial implications for consumer protection, financial stability, national security, and climate risk.”

“an opportunity to reinforce American...

Continue reading…

Another US internet backbone provider is shutting down services in Russia

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

Lumen, a US firm that provides essential internet services, says it’s pulling out of Russia in response to the country’s invasion of Ukraine. It’s the second major company of its kind to do so in less than a week, following a similar announcement from rival Cogent last Friday, and is the latest example of a ‘digital Iron Curtain’ growing between Russia and the West.

In a blog post, Lumen said it was shutting down all business in Russia “due to increased security risk” in the country.

“We have not yet experienced network disruptions, but given the increasingly uncertain environment and the heightened risk of state action, we took this move to ensure the security of our and our customers’ networks, as well as the ongoing integrity of the...

Continue reading…

Now that Disney Plus is trying ads, how long until the rest of the streamers do, too?

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

Disney Plus’ big ad experiment will arrive on the service later this year, meaning that users will have the option of sitting through advertisements in exchange for a slightly cheaper plan. On the one hand, that’s great news for streamers on a budget. Ad-supported plans give consumers a lot of flexibility to sign up for pricey services they may otherwise pass over. But it’s also a nice little workaround for boosting subscribers fast — something services are keenly aware of as they fight for our attention and our money.

“We’re seeing an evolution of the market away from the monolithic business models of old,” Paul Erickson of research firm Parks Associates tells The Verge. “A lot of the players in the market, they’re not going to just...

Continue reading…

Apple’s 3-meter Thunderbolt 4 cable is a steal at $159

Apple’s 3-meter long Thunderbolt 4 cable. | Image: Apple

Apple is listing a new 3-meter Thunderbolt 4 Pro cable on its store for $159, which is arguably far too much for a cable. But given the scarcity of other Thunderbolt 4 cable options over 2 meters in length, it might be your only option.

The listing coincides with the announcement of Apple’s new Mac Studio, which includes four Thunderbolt 4 ports on its back to connect to displays and other devices. Apple’s also selling a 1.8-meter cable for $129 that ships in two to three weeks. Apple’s 3-meter Thunderbolt 4 Pro cable says it’s “coming soon.”

Apple’s 3-meter Thunderbolt 4 cable won’t have much, if any, competition when it arrives. Whether it’s Belkin, Caldigit, CableMatters, or Plugable, no major cable manufacturer (that I’ve found)...

Continue reading…

Tern announces a more affordable version of its popular electric cargo bike

Taiwanese electric bike company Tern announced a more affordable version of its popular line of cargo bikes. The Tern Quick Haul is as slim and approachable as the company’s other bikes, but with a slightly discounted sticker price.

For years, Tern’s GSD and HSD models have delighted customers looking for powerful, high-performance e-bikes with plenty of cargo space. Now, the company is introducing a slightly smaller model for city-dwelling customers who care as much about parking and storage as they do about hauling kids or groceries.

Another major selling point is the starting price. The Quick Haul lineup comes in two models: the D8, a Class 1 e-bike with a top speed of 20mph, which starts at $2,999; and the P9, a Class 3 bike with a...

Continue reading…

The redesigned MacBook Air might have an M1, not an M2

Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge

TF International Securities analyst Ming-Chi Kuo “strongly believes” that the upcoming MacBook Air redesign will feature an M1 chip, instead of the widely expected “M2” upgrade. Kuo made the comment to 9to5Mac following a tweet where he predicted an “all-new” design for the laptop with more color options and no Mini LED display.

The redesigned MacBook Air had previously been reported to have an M2 chip by Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman. Apple can of course decide its own nomenclature for its chips based on marketing reasons, but if the M1 naming scheme follows the A-series chips in iPhones and iPads, the next number up would denote an upgrade in the CPU design. The M1 chips, including the M1 Pro, Max, and the just-announced Ultra, all use...

Continue reading…

N64 classic F-Zero X comes to Switch this week with online play

F-Zero X is coming to the Nintendo Switch Online Expansion Pack library on Friday March 11th. The futuristic racing game now comes complete with online multiplayer, which of course was not included with the original version on the Nintendo 64.

The sequel to popular SNES racer F-Zero, F-Zero X was released in 1998. It wasn’t the most visually lavish game even by N64 standards, but that was by design. Nintendo’s focus was making sure that the fast-paced game could run at 60 frames per second with 30 racers on the track, which was a technical achievement at the time.

F-Zero X will be the thirteenth N64 game to be added to the $49.99-a-year Expansion Pack tier of Nintendo Switch Online. Last month saw the release of The Legend of Zelda:...

Continue reading…

Electric car prices could go up even as fuel prices soar

The pressure isn’t just at the pump. | Photo by Andrew Hawkins / The Verge

As US gas prices hit record highs in the wake of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, it seems like electric vehicles may not be a safe haven for those looking to save money. That’s because Russia plays an important part in the production of the nickel that ends up in batteries used by many electric vehicles — a metal that’s rocketed up in price even faster than oil.

On February 25th, nickel was trading on the London Metal Exchange for around $24,000 a ton, according to The Wall Street Journal. By March 8th, it was trading at $80,000 (down from a peak of over $100,000), and the London Metal Exchange had suspended trading. There are a few reasons for the massive uptick in price — because it’s 2022, there are financial shenanigans involved, but...

Continue reading…

It’s 2022 and the Magic Mouse still charges from the bottom

Apple launched a new Magic Mouse today, March 8th, 2022. It’s a slick-looking black version. It also still has its charging port on the bottom — meaning that six and a half years after its introduction, Apple still seems to think that the best way to charge the mouse is by flipping it over (rendering it useless) and plugging in a Lightning cable.

Here’s a little secret: I copied and pasted most of that last sentence from an article I wrote about this exact issue nearly a year ago, when Apple introduced a whole line of colorful Magic Mice and had the opportunity to change how they charge, but didn’t. Apple has kept this charge-on-the-bottom design since October 2015.

“Like a beetle with its legs in the air”

My former Verge colleague Nick...

Continue reading…

Android’s archive feature will partially uninstall apps until you need them again

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

Google is working on a tool that should let you “archive” certain apps to help free up space on your device. In a blog post, Google explains any app with the feature will let you partially uninstall it, shrinking the app down by about 60 percent without removing it completely.

Archived APKs are much smaller and “preserve user data until the app is restored”

It does this by creating a new type of APK (Android Package) — otherwise known as the guts that make an app functional on your device — that it calls archived APKs. As Google points out, archived APKs are much smaller and save all your data until you restore it, bringing it back to its original size. The feature will become available to developers with the Bundletool 1.10 release, but...

Continue reading…

Mac Studio vs. Mac Mini vs. Mac Pro

Find out how the new Mac Studio stacks up

Lining up with many of the last-minute rumors, Apple’s Peek Performance event revealed that we’ll have a new compact Mac machine to look forward to. As you might expect, the new Mac Studio can be equipped with either the M1 Max or the new M1 Ultra CPU. In addition to a new processor, the Mac Studio boasts an impressive number of connectivity options.

The Mac Studio bears a striking resemblance to the 2020 version of the Mac Mini. According to our review by Chris Welch, this model of the Mac Mini offered an “appealing price for the power it offers.” And thanks in part to the M1 CPU, provided “blazing performance.”

On the other end of the spectrum is the Apple Mac Pro, which debuted in 2019 and was reviewed by _The Verge’s_own Nilay Patel....

Continue reading…

The best phone to buy right now

William Joel / The Verge

Buying a new phone can be a chore, but we’ve done the work for you

Continue reading…

Here’s how the new iPhone SE compares to Apple’s iPhone 13 lineup

The new iPhone SE for 2022 maintains the longstanding home button with Touch ID. | Image: Apple

Now that the dust has settled from Apple’s “Peek Performance” event, we know that the latest entry in the iPhone lineup is the iPhone SE (2022). It’s a new iteration of the budget model from 2020, and it’s set to launch March 18th with preorders opening on March 11th. This new iPhone SE rounds out the entry-level offering from Apple, coming in at a slightly higher price of $429 (an increase of $30) and equipped with the latest A15 Bionic CPU, 5G compatibility, a slightly larger battery, and more durable glass on the front and rear.

There’s a lot to like in the 2022 iPhone SE — especially if you love a Touch ID fingerprint sensor and home button — even if it still has a dated design with a smaller 4.7-inch screen and big bezels. So how...

Continue reading…

The EU accelerates plans to phase out Russian gas

Exhaust rises from a chimney of the Heizkraftwerk Lichterfelde natural gas-fired power and heating plant stands on November 03, 2021 in Berlin, Germany.  | Photo by Sean Gallup/Getty Images

The European Union announced new plans today to swiftly shrink its reliance on Russian gas and accelerate its transition to clean energy.Russia’s brutal invasion of Ukraine and continued threats to further squeeze Europe’s gas and oil supplies have made clean energy an even more critical priority.

“It is time we tackle our vulnerabilities and rapidly become more independent in our energy choices. Let’s dash into renewable energy at lightning speed,” European Commission Executive Vice President Frans Timmermans said in a March 8th statement.

Over the nextyear, the European Commission says it can drastically cut its gas use by changing how it heats homes and powers buildings.Russian gas accounted for nearly half of the bloc’s gas...

Continue reading…

Twitter is launching a Tor service for more secure and private tweeting

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

Twitter is launching a version of its site as a Tor onion service, optimizing it for the privacy-protecting and censorship-evading network. Software engineer Alec Muffett announced the news today on Twitter, describing it as “possibly the most important and long-awaited tweet that I’ve ever composed.” The Tor network has also been added to Twitter’s supported browsers page.

Twitter’s onion service is available at https://twitter3e4tixl4xyajtrzo62zg5vztmjuricljdp2c5kshju4avyoid.onion while using Tor Browser or a similar tool. While you could already access Twitter’s ordinary website via Tor, the newly launched version adds more layers of protection to the already anonymized browsing experience and is designed specifically for the network....

Continue reading…

The new iPhone SE has a larger battery than the old one

Image: Apple

Apple just introduced the third-generation iPhone SE, and it has some nice improvements, including support for sub-6GHz 5G and an A15 processor. But Apple is also claiming it has longer battery life, and it seems that’s in part because the phone has a physically larger battery — a fact about the new iPhone SE that the company confirmed on background in a group briefing with reporters.

Apple hasn’t shared the battery capacity, so we’ll have to wait for teardowns to see exactly how much juice it has. But comparing the new SE’s tech specs page with the old one, Apple is promising some decent improvements.

For the third-generation SE, Apple is promising up to 15 hours of video playback, up to 10 hours of streaming video playback, and up to...

Continue reading…

Better.com employees were informed of its latest layoffs via severance checks

Better.com

As if things couldn’t get more ridiculous at the online mortgage lender Better.com, where 900 people were laid off over a Zoom call this past December, the company reportedly issued another wave of layoffs by inadvertently notifying employees via its payroll app, as first reported by TechCrunch.

According to TechCrunch, the company was supposed to announce this round of layoffs on March 8th but later pushed it back to March 9th after news of the original date got out. Better apparently forgot to change the date on its accompanying Workday app, though — unsuspecting employees reportedly saw severance checks appear in the app at 12AM on March 8th.

Better CEO and co-founder Vishal Garg was criticized for firing hundreds of employees over a...

Continue reading…

How to preorder Apple’s new Mac Studio and Studio Display

Both the Mac Studio and the Mac Studio Display begin shipping on Friday, March 18th. | Image: Apple

Following a host of late-breaking rumors, Apple officially announced a new Mac during its “Peek Performance” event today, adding another machine to its expanding desktop lineup. Each configuration of the Mac Studio, as it’s called, will feature either Apple’s M1 Max or its new M1 Ultra processor and will start at $1,999 and $3,999, respectively. Apple also introduced the forthcoming Studio Display, a new monitor designed as a companion to its new desktop machine, one that starts at $1,599. Both devices are available for preorder starting today and will begin shipping on March 18th.

If you’re looking to preorder the Mac Studio or the monitor ahead of our reviews, we’ve compiled a list of retailers currently offering the new devices.

Where...

Continue reading…

Apple brings the darkness back to its peripherals with a black trackpad

The Magic Trackpad, dragonglass edition. | Image: Apple

Apple announced a new Mac and monitor at its Peek Performance event, but let’s talk about what we were all really hoping for in our heart of hearts: a black version of the Magic Trackpad. Please hold your applause, and let the darkness consume you.

It’s been a second since the company has sold a dark version of the trackpad separately. The space grey (which was decidedly lighter than the version on Apple’s store now) version was discontinued early last year. The black and silver version _was_available — if you bought a Mac Pro. In fact, the Mac Pro product page still says that the “matching trackpad can only be purchased with your Mac Pro” at time of writing. But nobody would do that just to get a black trackpad. (Please do not tell me...

Continue reading…

The 27-inch iMac has been discontinued

Photo by Dieter Bohn / The Verge

Apple has finally discontinued the 27-inch iMac. Minutes after Apple’s Peek Performance event wrapped, the last of the Intel iMacs disappeared from its online store.

It’s not as if this news is surprising. Ever since Apple announced it was switching to its own chips, the Intel iMac’s days were numbered. That said, the 27-inch iMac was still available after last spring’s Spring Loaded event, which introduced the 24-inch M1 iMac. It made sense. At the time, there wasn’t really another option for people who wanted a larger desktop screen that wasn’t the ludicrously expensive Pro XDR Display.

There’s also less of a reason to keep the 27-inch iMac around now that the Studio Display has arrived. The Studio Display adds 5K on a 27-inch...

Continue reading…

A fully specced-out Mac Studio will cost $8,000

Apple’s new Mac Studio has officially arrived on the scene as the most powerful computer powered by its in-house Apple silicon chips yet — including the new M1 Ultra processor the company announced alongside the new desktop computer. But the Mac Studio’s power doesn’t come cheap: while it starts at $1,999 for the entry model (powered by an M1 Max chip) and $3,999 for the cheapest M1 Ultra version, getting a fully specced-out machine will set you back an eye-watering $7,999.

You’re getting some serious bang for your buck, at least (which it had better, given that it costs more than a 2011 Honda Accord): an M1 Ultra processor with the full 20-core CPU and 64-core GPU configuration (instead of the 48-core GPU on the “base” M1 Ultra), 128GB...

Continue reading…

Apple’s Studio Display actually comes with a stand

Apple has just announced its new Studio Display, a 27-inch 5K Retina display with a built-in webcam. While it isn’t quite as high-end as Apple’s Pro Display XDR, the Studio Display has one big advantage over it: for the $1,599 you’ll pay for the monitor, you’ll also get an included stand.

The lack of a stand was one of the biggest criticisms of Apple’s $4,999 (starting price) 6K Pro Display XDR when it was announced in 2019 — and perhaps more outrageous was that Apple’s official stand accessory cost an eye-watering $999. Fortunately, Apple isn’t forcing you to pay that kind of premium to be able to stand the Studio Display on your desk.

That said, the base-level stand with the Studio Display only lets you tilt its angle. If you want to...

Continue reading…

Instagram adds new tagging options to credit creators

Image: Instagram

Instagram has introduced new tagging options that can display more detail about a person to help credit collaborators. Enhanced tags will show the roles of collaborators — like photographers, artists, writers and others — who work on content but aren’t always immediately visible unless mentioned by a post’s creator.

In announcing the updated tagging options, the company acknowledged that many collaborators’ work goes into creating the content users see on the app.

“For many Black and underrepresented creators, crediting is an entryway to building a sustainable career as a creator, while combating cultural appropriation and ensuring the world knows who is driving culture,” Instagram says in its announcement.

Instagram suggests the...

Continue reading…

iOS 15.4 is set to release next week

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

Apple’s rolling out its highly anticipated iOS 15.4 update next week. The update, which has been in beta since January, comes packed with an array of exciting new features offering improvements to the overall user experience.

iOS 15.4 introduces a mask-friendly Face ID

Apple doesn’t pinpoint an exact release date, but it may become available as an update starting on March 18th. This is the same day Apple’s new iPhone 13 and iPhone 13 Pro with sleek green finishes become available. As noted on the press release, each phone will ship with iOS 15.4, so it would only make sense to launch the update on the same day.

iOS 15.4 brings a mask-friendly Face ID that makes it possible to unlock your phone while wearing a face mask, a feature that...

Continue reading…

The 7 biggest announcements from Apple’s Peek Performance event

Image: Apple

Apple has just finished its Peek Performance event, where it introduced a new version of the iPhone SE with its latest mobile processor and 5G, a new desktop Mac aimed at creative professionals, and an external monitor that doesn’t have a $5,000 starting price (finally). If you’re looking for a quick round-up, here are the biggest announcements Apple made in its hour-long presentation.

Image: Apple

Apple now has four chips in its M1 lineup.

Apple M1 Ultra

Apple announced a new addition to its Apple Silicon lineup, with the M1 Ultra. The TL;DR is that it’s basically two M1 Max chips put together, supporting up to 128GB of RAM. Apple says it’s eight times faster than the standard M1 chip. The M1 Ultra will be...

Continue reading…

Spotify and Discord are down

Alex Castro / The Verge

If you can’t connect to Spotify or Discord, then no, it’s not just you or your internet connection. Both services have acknowledged they’re having problems within the last hour or so, however, this time the culprit doesn’t appear to be any kind of massive DNS or Amazon Web Services (AWS) problem. Sure, Apple’s event servers are still operational, and we haven’t lost access to security cameras or robot vacuums, but the coincidence is still unusual.

According to Discord, after restarting its streaming service to fix one problem, a new issue caused a failure of its API, and as of about 30 minutes ago, they were still investigating. The Spotify Status account tweeted that “we’re looking into it,” but didn’t offer any other details about...

Continue reading…

Apple announces 27-inch 5K Studio Display for $1,599

Image: Apple

Apple just announced a new external display during its “Peek Performance” event. The Studio Display is designed to be the ideal companion for the company’s Mac lineup — including the brand new Mac Studio desktop powered by the M1 Ultra chip. With a starting price of $1,599, this is Apple’s first monitor targeted at prosumers in many years.

The Studio Display has a 27-inch, 5K screen encased in an aluminum enclosure. The display can reach up to 600 nits of brightness, supports P3 wide color, and also works with macOS’s TrueTone feature. Its specs are quite similar to the panel from the now-discontinued 27-inch iMac, though brightness topped out at a lower 500 nits on the iMac. Above the Studio Display’s screen is a 12-megapixel ultrawide...

Continue reading…

Apple’s Mac Studio is a new M1 Max desktop for creative professionals

Apple has announced the Mac Studio, a desktop system that looks like the Mac Mini on the outside but packs a lot more power on the inside. The Mac Studio features both Apple’s M1 Max chip as well as a new, even more powerful processor, theM1 Ultra.

The M1 Ultra is a monstrous chip with 800 Gbps of memory bandwidth, supporting up to 128GB of unified memory. It has a 20-core CPU with 16 high-performance cores and a 64-core GPU. Apple says it’s “nearly” eight times faster than the M1, which powers the Mac Mini.

It’s compatible with Apple’s Studio Display, an external monitor that was also unveiled today.

Developing… For all the latest up-to-the-second news from Apple’s event, follow ourlive blog here.

Continue reading…

Indie games bundle raises over $1 million dollars for Ukraine relief in under 24 hours

An indie developer-led initiative to raise money for charities providing relief in Ukraine has already raised over $1 million in a little over 16 hours. Over 700 creators on itch.io put together the Bundle for Ukraine, a collection of over 900 indie games and more with all proceeds going to charities providing relief assistance in the country.

The https://t.co/vTbmDLvWUP bundle for Ukraine is live!! ~1,000 games worth over $6,500, $10 minimum donation, all proceeds donated to charity. Let's do what we can! https://t.co/oSgXio6UkJpic.twitter.com/6oTPoo2g57

— brandon sheffield (@necrosofty) March 8, 2022

“As game developers we want to create new worlds, not to destroy the one we have,” the Bundle’s description reads. “That’s why we’ve...

Continue reading…

Apple announces new flagship M1 Ultra desktop processor for its most powerful computers

The next generation of Apple Silicon chips has arrived with the announcement of the company’s new M1 Ultra SoC (system on a chip), the latest entry to Apple’s M1 chipset lineup that’s even more powerful than the M1, M1 Pro, and M1 Max chips its released so far.

The key to the M1 Ultra is the Apple’s UltraFusion architecture — effectively, Apple is fusing together two separate M1 Max chips into a single, massive SoC, thanks to the 2.5TB/s inter-processor connection that the M1 Max offers. That design lets Apple double virtually all the specs from its M1 Max chip on the M1 Ultra: 20 CPU cores, 64 GPU cores, and up to 128GB of RAM.

Apple is making some big performance claims for its new, massive chip, too: Apple says that...

Continue reading…