Frances Haugen wants to train lawyers to fight Facebook

Photo by Amanda Stronza/Getty Images for SXSW

Frances Haugen, the whistleblower who released a trove of internal documents and data from Facebook and testified in front of lawmakers about the social network’s behavior, is now looking to start a non-profit focused on holding companies like Meta accountable, according to a report from Politico.

The organization, which Haugen wants to call Beyond the Screen, plans to focus on three main goals: educating lawyers who could potentially be going up against social media companies, incentivizing investors to look into how socially responsible a tech company is before giving it money, and giving regulators and researchers an inside look into how platforms work. Politico reports that Haugen is currently working with two other people on the...

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Mark Zuckerberg has so many VR headset prototypes to show us

Mark Zuckerberg tries on the Holocake 2 prototype. | Meta Reality Labs

And none of them are shipping

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The archive saving home sewing history from the trash

Sewing patterns are meant to be trashed — or not

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Telegram’s Premium subscription is here and it costs $4.99 / month

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

After announcing Telegram Premium earlier this month, the messaging app has finally rolled out the paid tier, which gives users access to extra features for $4.99 / month (via TechCrunch). All the features are outlined in a post on Telegram’s blog, with some of its bigger draws including faster downloads and a larger maximum file upload size of 4GB (rather than the standard 2GB).

Premium subscribers will also get double the limits imposed on standard users. Instead of joining up to 500 channels, subscribers are capped at 1,000 channels. The same goes for other features on Telegram — subscribers can create 20 chat folders with 200 chats each, save up to 10 stickers, pin up to 10 chats, and add a total of four accounts to Telegram instead...

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TikTok and Oracle teamed up after all, but concerns about data privacy remain

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

On Friday, TikTok announced that it had started routing American users’ data to US-based servers owned by Oracle. But a timely report from BuzzFeed News calls into question what TikTok’s promise really delivers, claiming TikTok employees based in China have “repeatedly” accessed US users’ data over the course of at least several months.

In recordings of internal staff meetings and presentations obtained by BuzzFeed News, TikTok employees reportedly mentioned having to ask their colleagues in China to access US user data, as they weren’t able to access this data themselves. One member of TikTok’s trust and safety department team allegedly stated that “Everything is seen in China,” while another employee said a China-based engineer “had...

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Go read this report about a Google contractor who claims he was fired for calling out cult activity

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

Google is known for its close-knit — and sometimes secretive — company culture, but one wouldn’t suspect an actual cult running things behind the scenes. Well, one Google contractor claims that’s exactly the case, as detailed in this unusual report from The New York Times.

Kevin Lloyd, a contractor hired to work as a video producer for Google Developer Studio (GDS), alleges at least 12 members of an obscure religious sect work for GDS and hold an inappropriate level of influence over the work environment. Lloyd claims he was wrongly fired for calling out the group’s behavior and has filed a lawsuit against Google and his contracting agency ASG for wrongful termination, retaliation, emotional distress, and failure to protect him against...

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PowerA’s pastel controllers are perfect for a summer spent playing games indoors

From left to right: pastel dream, purple camo, cotton candy blue, pink lemonade, and lavender swirl.

When it comes to colorful controller designs, Xbox’s game has been on point for years. Ever since the Xbox One generation, Microsoft has released many fun variations of its controllers — including limited editions and the Xbox Design Lab — and this momentum has not slowed with the Xbox Series X / S consoles. Meanwhile, the third-party range of Xbox controllers is more expansive than ever, and brands like PowerA are hitting budget-friendly prices with slick new colorways of its own, like the recently released pastel range of the $37.99 PowerA Enhanced Wired Controller for Xbox and PC.

Marshmallowy vibes for days. The controllers have smooth, satin finishes on the front, lightly textured backs, and glossy accents on the...

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Apple retail workers vote to unionize a store in Maryland

AppleCORE filed a petition to hold the vote in May. | Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

Workers at Apple’s Towson Town Center store in Maryland have voted to unionize, with 65 yeses and 33 nos. Around 110 employees were eligible to vote in the election.

The store is the first Apple retail location in the US to hold a union election, after organizers in Atlanta withdrew their petition to hold a union vote, which had been scheduled to take place in early May.

Organizing at the Towson store has been done by a group of employees that called themselves AppleCORE (an acronym for Coalition of Organized Retail Employees). The workers have said they want to expand their rights, specifically asking for a say when it came to pay, hours, and safety. AppleCORE is associated with a larger, established union, the International...

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WhatsApp now lets you mute individual users during group calls

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

WhatsApp has rolled out several new features this past week, including the ability to mute people during group calls (via Android Central). This sanity-saving feature seems helpful not just for muting people who forget to do it themselves, but also if you’re in the same room as someone who’s also on the call and don’t want to hear an echo of what they say.

While some conferencing apps, like Zoom and Microsoft Teams, let hosts mute all participants (or specific ones), they typically don’t offer a way for individual users to mute whoever they want during a call. This feature offers a new level of control that’s probably best saved for chaotic meetings that involve up to the maximum of eight people on video calls — or up to 32 on voice...

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US lawmakers call on Google to label or limit search results for ‘fake’ abortion clinics

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

A group of US lawmakers has signed off on a letter to Google that urges the company to reevaluate its treatment of search results that direct users to anti-abortion crisis centers rather than legitimate clinics, as first reported by Reuters. Senator Mark Warner (D-VA) and Representative Elissa Slotkin (D-MI) are leading the initiative, while several other Democratic lawmakers have signed the letter in support.

The letter cites research published by the Center for Countering Digital Hate (CCDH), which focuses on Google search results in “trigger law states” — or the 13 states where abortion will become illegal if the Supreme Court overturns Roe v. Wade. Research indicates that 11 percent of Google searches in trigger law states for...

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Lego’s original spaceship, the Galaxy Explorer, is back and better than ever

The 1979 classic returns with retractable landing gear

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Lego’s new $400 Lion Knights’ Castle is a love letter to my childhood

And this time, the ladies are in charge

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Former Amazon employee convicted over 2019 Capital One hack

The 2019 hack exposed the information of over 100 million Capital One Customers. | Photo Illustration by Alex Tai/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images

A former Amazon Web Services (AWS) engineer has been found guilty of hacking into customers’ cloud storage systems and stealing data linked to the massive 2019 Capital One breach. A US District Court in Seattle convicted Paige Thompson of seven counts of computer and wire fraud on Friday, a crime punishable by up to 20 years in prison.

Thompson, who also went by the name “Erratic” online, was arrested for carrying out the Capital One hack in July 2019. The breach was one of the largest ever recorded, exposing the names, birth dates, social security numbers, email addresses, and phone numbers of over 100 million people in the US and Canada. Capital One has since been fined $80 million for allegedly failing to secure users’ data and s...

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Lightyear’s a stiff-as-plastic deconstruction of heroic space dramas

Buzz Lightyear gazing at something in space. | Image: Pixar / Disney

Lightyear’s a visual stunner with a predictable story

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These Apple TV 4K and Sonos deals will end after Father’s Day

Photo by Chris Welch / The Verge

Kick off the weekend with a steep discount on the latest, fastest iteration of the Apple TV 4K. The 32GB model normally retails for $179.99 (it’s usually one of the pricier streaming devices out there), but you can grab one for a much more reasonable $129.99. This deal debuted earlier this week, and we can’t get enough of it. If you want to double the internal storage to 64GB, that model is just $20 more at $149.99 instead of $199.99.

This Father’s Day-timed deal ends on June 20th, and it might be a good idea to take advantage of if you want a speedy, feature-packed streaming box for your TV. The Apple TV 4K supports all of the major streaming services, plus support for games, along with Apple’s core services. Compared to the previous...

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How Shredder’s Revenge captures the essence of classic TMNT arcade games

Frederic Gemus still remembers the first time he played the original Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles arcade game. There was something about the experience, with its big expressive characters and approachable gameplay, that sucked him right in. “Playing that game was so mind blowing because it was just like playing the cartoon,” he tells me over Zoom (with a huge collection of retro games behind him). “It was so different from the Nintendo back in the days.” So, when Gemus, now a designer at Montreal-based studio Tribute Games, had a chance to work on a modern take on TMNT, it was pretty much a dream project. “That was pretty awesome to learn about,” he says of being put on the project.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shredder’s Revenge is out...

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Microsoft’s weird Surface Duo 2 has surprisingly become my favorite device of the year

Microsoft’s Surface Duo 2 has come a long way from where it was at launch last year.

At least nine software updates and a sizable price cut have transformed Microsoft’s dual-screen phone

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Walmart and Roku are partnering on ‘shoppable ads’ for your TV

Buy something without taking your eyes off the TV. | Image: Roku

Walmart and Roku are partnering to introduce what they call “shoppable ads,” which will let you buy something directly from an ad on your TV. It seems like the new ad format is intended to streamline the shopping experience so you don’t have to switch to your phone or computer if you see an ad for something you might actually want to buy.

Here’s how it works, according to a press release:

Viewers simply press “OK” with the remote on a shoppable ad and proceed to checkout with their payment details easily pre-populated from Roku Pay, Roku’s payments platform. From there, tapping “OK” on the Walmart checkout page places the order. A Walmart purchase confirmation is then emailed with shipping, return, and support information.

Below is a...

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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 often 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 seen some significant discounts on the third-gen model that, despite lacking the “Pro” moniker, resembles the AirPods Pro more than the long-stemmed original model.

Here, we’ll run through the best deals...

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Meta is launching an avatar store, and designer clothes are the first products

If you’ve ever thought, “I would like my digital avatar to wear poorly rendered designer clothing,” I have excellent news for you.

Meta is launching an online store where Facebook, Instagram, and Messenger users can purchase digital clothing for their avatar. The first brands on the store are Prada, Balenciaga, and Thom Browne, and clothes include a motocross outfit, a logo hoodie, and suits.

In a Facebook post, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg said more brands would be added soon.

“Digital goods will be an important way to express yourself in the metaverse and a big driver of the creative economy,” he says.

Luxury fashion houses are increasingly partnering with technology companies to create branded digital garments. Last...

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Hundreds of SpaceX employees signed letter denouncing Elon Musk’s behavior

SpaceX headquarters in January 2021. | Photo by PATRICK T. FALLON/AFP via Getty Images

It took less than a day and a half for more than 400 SpaceX employees to sign onto an open letter criticizing CEO Elon Musk after it was posted and shared by some of their co-workers in an internal chat. Just 32 hours after it was shared, the internal landing page for the document was taken offline, around the same time that a group of employees was fired for their involvement in crafting and sharing the letter, a move that may have been a violation of labor law.

The open letter first went live on an internal landing page at noon Eastern, and then it was shared by a handful of employees to roughly 10 chat rooms in Microsoft Teams as well as one email list. The contents were bold: the employees asserted that Musk’s behavior in recent...

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How to run PugetBench for Photoshop

You can do it in just a couple minutes.

Puget Systems offers a number of different benchmarks to test out your PC using automated real-world tasks in the Adobe Creative Cloud. Some of them (such as the one for Premiere Pro) are somewhat complicated and can take a while to get up and running. But one of them — PugetBench for Photoshop — is very simple.

PugetBench for Photoshop measures how fast your computer can perform various tasks, including mask refinement and gradients as well as filter tasks like lens correction and noise reduction. Unlike some of Puget’s other benchmarks, the Photoshop benchmark only requires one quick plug-in to set up.

Note: this benchmark is not yet supported for the M1-native version of Photoshop.

• In the Creative Cloud Desktop app, go to Stock and...

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The best phone plans in 2022 (and how to pick one)

Photo by Avery White for The Verge

Shopping for a phone plan doesn’t have to be painful

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Here are the best Amazon Echo deals right now

The Echo Show 5 (left), Echo Show 8 (middle), and the Echo Show (right). | Photo by Dan Seifert / The Verge

Amazon’s current Echo lineup offers a broad selection of smart speakers and displays that can fit just about anywhere in your home. Whether you want to place a voice assistant in your living room, replace the bulletin board in your office, or pick up a touchscreen-enabled device to showcase recipes in the kitchen, there's an Echo device for just about every occasion and use case.

Regardless of why you might want one, there’s always a way to save on an Echo device, from the last-gen Dot to Amazon’s latest Echo Show 10. Even when they’re selling at full price, for instance, Amazon offers a 25 percent discount when you trade in select devices, meaning there are still other ways to save money when none of the models are on sale.

Below,...

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Readdle’s powerful Calendars app is now on the Mac

Image: Umar Shakir / The Verge

Readdle, best known for its PDF and document productivity apps for iOS, also makes a comprehensive Calendars app that combines tasks, to-dos, and reminders — and, today, that app is now available for Mac (via 9to5Mac). Officially titled Calendars by Readdle, it joins the Ukraine-based company’s collection of Mac apps like PDF Expert and Spark email.

Fans of the Calendars by Readdle app will be excited to know that the Mac app syncs up with the iPhone / iPad versions and that cross-device use will not cost extra on top of the $19.99 per year Pro subscription plan. You can use the main calendar part of the app for free, although you will miss out on the integration features with apps like Google Tasks and Apple’s Reminders as well as the...

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Uncharted will fly out of a plane screaming and onto Netflix in July

Sony’s 2022 lineup is ending up on Netflix. | Image: Columbia Pictures

Uncharted, the movie where Tom Holland recreated some of the PlayStation series’ iconic scenes, will be coming to Netflix on July 15th for US customers, according to What’s on Netflix. While apparently many people have already seen the film (it reportedly made over $400 million during its theater run), this will be its streaming debut.

If you’re trying to decide whether to add it to your summer watchlist, I recommend reading my colleague’s excellent review to see how it holds up as a movie (spoiler: about as well as those ancient buildings Nathan Drake is always destroying). I’ll also add that, as a longtime Uncharted fan, it definitely didn’t feel essential for the series, but my wife and friend who’ve never played any of the games...

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Destiny 2 cheat creators come to a $13.5 million settlement with Bungie

Combating cheats is costly business, but more costly if you make them. | Image: Bungie

In a rather spectacular conclusion to a lawsuit filed by Bungie in August of last year, the owners of the Destiny 2 cheat domains, Veterancheats, LaviCheats, and Elite Boss Tech, will have to pay a settlement totaling roughly $13.5 million in damages. The math of this settlement comes from a fine of $2,000 per violation of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act’s anti-circumvention provisions — 17 US Code Section 1201 a and b — multiplied by the roughly 6,765 unique downloads of the program in question.

According to a report by Andy Maxwell on TorrentFreak, Bungie accused the defendants of breaching copyright law in addition to racketeering, fraud, money laundering, and violations of the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act.

Cheating in games like...

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The original Pokémon Snap for N64 is coming to Nintendo Switch Online next week

Image: Nintendo

Nintendo is bringing the original Pokémon Snap for Nintendo 64 to Nintendo Switch Online on June 24th. If you’ve had a hankering to return to the original game after playing last year’s New Pokémon Snap or want to check it out for the first time, you’ll be able to visit Pokémon Island for a photography adventure very soon.

As with other N64 games on the Switch, you have to subscribe to Nintendo’s premium Nintendo Switch Online Expansion Pack to be able to play Pokémon Snap. Since launch, Nintendo has really rounded out the selection of N64 games, adding classics like The Legend of Zelda: Majora’s Mask, F-Zero X, and even the Microsoft-owned Banjo-Kazooie. Some games have had emulation issues, but Nintendo has shown it’s willing to fix...

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SpaceX firings likely violate US labor law, experts say

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge | Photo by Joshua Lott / Getty Images

On Friday, SpaceX fired a group of employees involved in crafting an open letter to corporate leaders that criticized CEO Elon Musk — and labor lawyers now say the firings may have violated US labor law. The letter circulated Thursday calling for stronger anti-harassment policies at SpaceX and a more restrained Twitter presence from Musk. At least five employees were fired shortly after the letter was published.

It’s unclear whether any of the fired employees will try to file suit with the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB). But if they do, lawyers say they will have a strong case. “To be covered, an action has to be concerted (certainly the case here) and it has to relate to working conditions,” says Charlotte Garden, a law professor...

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The best wireless earbuds to buy right now

Photo by Chris Welch / The Verge

The best from Apple, Samsung, Sony, Beats, and more

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