YouTube’s picture-in-picture mode is rolling out to more iPhone and iPad users

Floating YouTube videos, (maybe) coming to a screen near you. | Image: Google

Google has announced that YouTube’s picture-in-picture mode for iOS and iPadOS, which lets you watch videos in a floating window while using other apps, is rolling out to more people. According to a community post on Monday, people running iOS 15 should start seeing the feature soon, though there is some fragmentation in its availability.

YouTube Premium subscribers should be getting access to the feature no matter where in the world they live — as long as its an area where you can actually get YouTube Premium, of course — and they’ll be able to use it to watch any sort of content. For non-paying YouTube users, YouTube only mentions that picture-in-picture is available in the US. Within the US, though, the company says that “everyone...

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The PlayStation 5 is available for Best Buy Totaltech subscribers beginning July 12th at 12PM ET

Availability of PS5 consoles ebbs and flows. | Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge

It may be Amazon Prime Day time, but a big sales event like that is just an invitation for other retailers to jump in and also take advantage. We’ve already seen Target and Best Buy running “anti-Prime Day” promotions, and Best Buy is adding some fuel to this fire by scheduling a restock of PlayStation 5 consoles for its paying subscribers.

Beginning at 12PM ET / 9AM PT on Tuesday, July 12th, Best Buy Totaltech members will be able to digitally queue for a standard $499.99 PS5 with a disc drive. Totaltech costs a whopping $199.99 per year, though it does include other perks from the big box retailer, like added tech support and free delivery and installation for appliances from Best Buy.

If all the prior Best Buy restocks have taught us...

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The best anti-Prime Day tech deals happening at Target

Illustration by Kristen Radtke

Not an Amazon Prime member or a fan of Amazon in general? Fret not because plenty of retailers are offering competing Prime Day sales this week, including Target. Even better: you don’t need to buy any sort of membership in order to participate. Starting today, July 11th, and running until July 13th, Target is hosting its “Target Deal Days” event, offering discounts on Apple products, headphones, and all sorts of tech. As an added plus, the retailer is also offering free, contactless pick-up — no membership is required.

There’s a lot to choose from, but we’ve curated a list of the very best deals available right now at Target. If you do want to check out what other kinds of great deals are going on at Amazon, however, be sure to browse...

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Twitter’s new lawyers tell Elon Musk the $44 billion deal is still on

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

Twitter’s high-powered lawyers from Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz are preparing for a court battle. After Elon Musk finally filed paperwork attempting to exit a $44 billion deal to acquire Twitter last week, they filed a letter today saying Musk’s termination attempt is invalid because “Mr. Musk and the other Musk Parties have knowingly, intentionally, willfully, and materially breached the Agreement.”

Twitter is being represented by Wachtell partner William Savitt, who has represented other big companies like Anthem and Sotheby’s in cases against activist shareholders.

Musk says he wants out due to concerns Twitter has misrepresented the amount of bot activity on the platform — the same problem he promised to fix — and that Twitter...

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FTC says it will crack down on medical and location data sharing after abortion privacy concerns

Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) says it will step up to protect the privacy of consumers in a post-Roe America, declaring the agency is “committed to fully enforcing the law” against illegal sharing of sensitive medical and location data.

In a blog post published on Monday by Kristin Cohen, the FTC’s acting associate director in the Division of Privacy and Identity Protection, the commission took particular aim at data brokers and third parties who share previously collected information. The post points to a wide range of sources that can potentially collect sensitive information about a user but highlights the combination of location data and health data as presenting a particular risk to consumers.

“The conversation about...

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Uber’s former chief lobbyist in Europe is the Uber Files leaker

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

One day after an explosion of reports sourced from a massive “Uber Files” leak containing thousands of documents and messages between top executives, Mark MacGann, the company’s former chief of policy in Europe, the Middle East, and Africa (EMEA) has come forward as the source.

In this video interview (embedded above), MacGann told The Guardian that “I was the one talking to governments; I was the one pushing this with the media; I was the one telling people that they should change the rules because drivers were going to benefit and people were going to get so much economic opportunity.” Accompanying reports on the interview are available from the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ), The Washington Post, and the...

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Rivian reportedly considers laying off 700 employees

Rivian wants to produce 25,000 vehicles by the end of the year.

Electric automaker Rivian is considering laying off around 5 percent of its 14,000 employees, or around 700 people, according to a report from Bloomberg. The report notes that, while nothing has been officially decided or announced yet, the company is mainly looking to remove jobs that were added as it scaled up and that aren’t involved in manufacturing.

Reached for comment on the report, Rivian spokesperson Miranda Jimenez said that the company doesn’t have anything to add at this time. And Bloomberg said it may be a few weeks before an official announcement.

Rivian’s plan has been to ramp up production this year

This news comes at an important time for Rivian. The company is just starting to ramp up production of its pickups, SUVs,...

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PSA: Lego is raising prices, and these 40 sets cost up to $70 more if you wait

If you’ve had your eye on a pricey Lego set, you may have a limited window of time before it gets pricier still. The price of some of the company’s most desirable plastic creations is going up by as much as $70. That Lego Tree House in the picture above that I’ve desired many a month? Originally $200, it’ll soon cost $250 — a 25 percent price jump.

This won’t be a surprise to devout Lego fans. The company announced in June that it would be raising prices on “around a quarter” of the Lego sets currently in circulation. But this weekend, Barnes & Noble showed us the damage; it became the first major retailer to implement those price increases, revealing exactly how much we’ll be paying for adult-friendly sets like the awesome $250 Lego H...

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Twitch star Myth signs exclusive deal with YouTube

Image: Loaded

In the battle for gamers’ eyeballs, YouTube has struck another blow. Today, the video and streaming giant announced that Ali “Myth” Kabbani has signed an exclusive deal with YouTube Gaming.

Kabbani, a popular Fortnite and Valorant player, announced his deal with a video saying that the move was “his decision.”

This is my decision. pic.twitter.com/oUBiABKt3r

— Myth (@Myth_) July 11, 2022

Kabbani’s jump was facilitated by the talent agency responsible for landing DrLupo and TimTheTatman on YouTube and comes as the platform continues to woo popular Twitch personalities away from the site. Just last week, the variety streamer LilyPichu announced her exclusive deal with YouTube, and the two join other former Twitch creators like Ludwig, V...

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How to download and install the HomePod Software 16 public beta

Apple’s public beta software program is now available on HomePod minis. | Photo by Jennifer Tuohy / The Verge

The new HomePod Software 16 is available in Apple’s public beta software program for the first time, and you can download it today. However, at its June WWDC event, Apple didn’t reveal any new features coming to the HomePods with the software update, so it’s probably all about under-the-hood stuff.

In fact, it’s likely that any updates are focused on preparations for the coming of the Matter smart home standard — due to arrive this fall — and support for Apple’s all-new Home app coming in iOS 16. Along with the Apple TV, the HomePod mini is a hub for Apple’s HomeKit smart home ecosystem, and a hub will be required for using Matter smart home accessories in HomeKit. So you probably only want to give this a whirl if you are trying out the...

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Ubisoft says Steam games like Assassin’s Creed Liberation HD will remain playable despite warning

Multiple Ubisoft games on Steam “will not be accessible” after September 1st, according to notices on the games’ Steam pages. But based on a statement from Ubisoft, the situation isn’t as bad as that message would make it seem.

If you want to see an example of the new notice, check out the Steam page for Assassin’s Creed Liberation HD. It has two:

• “At the request of the publisher, Assassin’s Creed Liberation HD is no longer available for sale on Steam.”
• “Please note this title will not be accessible following September 1st, 2022.”

Image: Ubisoft via Steam

The notices on Assassin’s Creed Liberation HD’s Steam page.

Last week, Ubisoft announced that it would be shutting down multiplayer for more than a...

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The best anti-Prime Day tech deals happening at Best Buy

Best Buy is offering an abundance of tech deals and will match any competing price. | Photo by Becca Farsace / The Verge

Best Buy, along with a host of other retailers, is getting in on the action to take a bite out of Amazon Prime Day. The retailer’s ongoing “Black Friday in July” promotion is bringing sweeping discounts on a wide array of awesome tech, including laptops, gaming keyboards, and noise-canceling headphones. The event runs from now through Wednesday, July 13th — the same Prime Day ends — so it’s worth checking back here if Amazon doesn’t have what you’re looking for. It’s also worth noting that Best Buy has a generous price-matching policy, so if you prefer to buy from a brick-and-mortar retailer but see a better price elsewhere, it’s worth looking into.

We’ll continue to update this page with new deals as they become available, in addition...

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The Xbox Series X will now run one of the best retro versions of Windows

Pictured: a Windows 98 powerhouse. | Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

You know what’s cooler than playing modern games on an Xbox Series console? Using Microsoft’s current hardware to emulate Windows 98 and playing retro games on it. Thankfully, thanks to a combination of RetroArch (a program that’s also let some Xbox users play PlayStation 2 games), a plug-in for it called DOSBox Pure, and a copy of Windows 98, Digital Foundry has shown that it’s possible to do just that. A video released on Saturday shows games like Turok, RollerCoaster Tycoon, and Command & Conquer: Tiberian Sun all running on an Xbox Series X. Digital Foundry even ran traditional apps like Microsoft Paint and Word 97 on the Xbox as well (for that genuine Clippy experience).

Getting all this set up isn’t exactly easy. First, you have to...

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Indian farmers streamed fake pro cricket matches to Russian bettors for two weeks

A real IPL game featuring the Chennai Super Kings and Mumbai Indians, two of the teams the farmers attempted to impersonate. | Photo by Robert Cianflone / Getty Images

A group of Indian farmers set up a fake Indian Premier League (IPL) cricket tournament so convincing that they managed to trick a Russian audience into making real bets. According to a report from the Times of India, the fake games took place on a farm in the village of Gujarat, with 21 farm laborers and unemployed teens who were each paid 400 rupees (~$5 USD) and tasked with impersonating “pro” cricket players from well-known Indian teams.

The farmers reportedly livestreamed the tournament to YouTube over the course of two weeks and even set up a Telegram channel dedicated to the games. That’s where they took bets from Russian gamblers located in Tver, Voronezh, and Moscow, despite the fact that the actual IPL’s 2022 season closed out...

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Twitter is rolling out unmentioning to all users

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

Twitter is widely rolling out its “unmentioning” feature to all users, which allows you to remove yourself from a conversation that includes your Twitter handle. The platform first introduced the feature to a small group of users in April, but now it’s available to everyone.

You might want to use this feature yourself if you’re stuck in a toxic conversation, or simply don’t want to receive notifications for a thread that you no longer want a part of. Unmentioning untags your username, stops notifications for the thread, and also prevents anyone in the thread from tagging you again.

Sometimes you want to see yourself out.

Take control of your mentions and leave a conversation with Unmentioning, now rolling out to everyone on all...

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How to install the macOS Ventura public beta

Stage Manager is a major feature of macOS Ventura. | Image: Apple

Apple is launching the public beta for macOS Ventura today. This is the next big update coming to Mac computers (the final version is expected later in 2022), and it brings several big changes. In this article, we’re going to walk you through how to get the beta onto your computer, should you want it. Once you install the beta, it will likely receive several updates between now and the final release.

(Looking for steps to install the iOS 16 and iPadOS 16 public betas? We’ve got you covered here.)

What’s new about macOS Ventura?

Ventura’s standout feature is the Stage Manager, which is a way to organize your windows by grouping them and switching between sets of apps. Stage Manager should also do some automatic organization when you...

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How to install the tvOS 16 public beta on Apple TV

The Apple TV will get support for Matter with the tvOS16 update. | Photo by Chris Welch / The Verge

The Apple TV, Apple’s excellent streaming box slash HomeKit smart home hub, has a few updates coming with tvOS 16. The update is due to launch this fall, but if you want to get a jump-start on the new features you can download the public beta today.

What are the new features on tvOS 16?

As my colleague Chris Welch noted following its announcement in June at Apple’s WWDC conference, the tvOS16 updates are relatively minor. Although that’s not to say some people won’t find them useful. Better cross-device connectivity between your iPhone, iPad, and Apple Watch could be a boon to Apple Fitness users, among others, and more game controller support — including Nintendo Joy-Cons — will make for some fun family game nights in my household....

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iPadOS 16 preview: jack of all trades, master of some

An iPad with iPadOS 16 is still an iPad, but it’s definitely also a computer.

The iPad can do everything — too much sometimes

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How to install the iOS 16 and iPad 16 public betas

You can now try out the next version of iOS. | Image: Apple

The first public betas for iOS 16 and iPadOS 16 are rolling out now, and if you can’t wait until the official release to get your hands on those sweet lockscreen customization options, you can download them today — at your own risk, naturally. Here’s how to install the beta software on your iPhone or iPad once it’s available for your device.

Before we get started, a word of warning: beta software is inherently unfinished and may contain bugs. Although Apple’s public betas are generally pretty stable, you should think carefully before installing them on any device you depend on. They may not include all the features that will be in the final release. Your experience may differ from others, depending on the apps you use. And finally, if...

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How to install the watchOS 9 public beta

The Apple Watch Series 7 is one of the watches compatible with watchOS 9. | Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge

After previewing its software roadmap at WWDC, Apple has released the public betas for iOS 16, iPad OS 16, macOS Ventura, and watchOS 9. If you’ve got a compatible Apple Watch and want to get a firsthand look at watchOS 9, here’s what to expect and how to get started. (Though you may have to wait for the release to fully roll out first.)

WatchOS 9 introduces a slew of new health and fitness features, as well as new ways to personalize the watch to your tastes. Some of the marquee features include advanced running metrics, new workout views, triathlete support, and medication reminders. That said, this isn’t the final version of watchOS 9. That will come later this fall when Apple releases the Series 8 (and possibly a new SE and a new...

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watchOS 9 preview: all about fitness and personalization

watchOS 9 adds a lunar calendar watchface. | Photo by Victoria Song / The Verge

One of the most significant watchOS updates in a while

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The best Chromebook for 2022

Acer’s Chromebook Spin 713 | Photo by Monica Chin / The Verge

The best Chromebook for work or school for every Chrome OS fan

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Hear me out: the new iOS 16 lock screens rule

A lock screen for every occasion!

There’s a tendency among the highly tech-literate (you know, us nerds) to approach new features with a jaded, seen-it-all-before sentiment. That’s especially true when Apple announces new iPhone features with lots of fanfare and self-congratulation. The Android faithful will then point out that this groundbreaking achievement existed on a Nexus phone seven years ago, and the first three versions of it sucked, but it’s great now.

That attitude could certainly be applied to one of the centerpieces of iOS 16: new lock screens. On a high level, this update adds more customizability to the lock screen, with more wallpaper options and the ability to add widgets. Not groundbreaking stuff, considering that Android 12 lets you easily customize...

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TikTok offers free training to court small businesses

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

TikTok is rolling out a new program aimed at bringing more small and medium-sized businesses to the platform.

The six-week program, called “Follow Me,” includes step-by-step guides teaching businesses how to use TikTok to grow their companies — including how to advertise on the app. The courses are free to enroll in and will include lessons on running campaigns on TikTok and tips from businesses using the platform.

Virtually unknown businesses or products going viral is one of the hallmarks of TikTok, where a visit to a restaurant and a video of a kitchen sponge have the same chance of being seen by millions. Many small business owners have turned to TikTok to promote their companies, and individual customers have in turn built enormous...

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Aqara’s Curtain Driver drags your drapes into the smart home era

Aqara’s new $89 Curtain Driver E1 makes your curtains open and close on their own. | Image: Aqara

Smart home company Aqara has released its retrofit curtain solution in the US and Europe. Previously available in China, the Aqara Curtain Driver E1 starts at $89.99 and mounts onto an existing curtain track or rod to automatically open and close your curtains. It works with Aqara’s own ecosystem as well as with Apple’s HomeKit, Amazon’s Alexa, Google Home, and IFTTT. Aqara says it will also be compatible with Matter when the new smart home standard arrives later this fall.

Automating shades, blinds, and curtains is one of the smart home’s coolest and most useful tricks. Smart window coverings can be set to open every morning and close every night based on a set time or at sunrise and sunset, controlled with a voice command, and...

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The best webcam to buy right now

Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge

Some standout options for multiple budgets

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The best deals on 4K TVs

LG’s fantastic C1 OLED is on sale in the 55-inch configuration for around $1,097, its lowest price to date. | Image: LG

With Amazon Prime Day 2022 around the corner, the future looks bright for those who are looking to nab a great TV at a substantial discount. Many manufacturers — including LG and Samsung — announced new versions of some of their most popular models during the event, ranging from The Frame and LG’s C2 lineup to Sony’s QD-OLED models. And now that manufacturers like Samsung and LG have announced official pricing details and are starting to launch their new TVs, we’re noticing prices beginning to fall on the last-gen, 2021 models.

However, if you’re looking to pick up a solid deal before the new models arrive, fret not, as there are already some great discounts available. There are currently a number of discounted 4K TVs to choose from,...

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The vampire hunters have unionized in Day Shift’s first trailer

Jamie Foxx as Bud Jablonski and Snoop Dogg as Big John in Day Shift. | Netflix

In Netflix’s Day Shiftfrom director J.J. Perry, vampire hunters are skilled laborers who understand the value of the work and the reality that they’re stronger as a collective — a union, to be specific. Day Shift’s first full trailer only gives you the slightest sense of what all a demon hunting union looks like exactly and puts much more emphasis on the movie’s action than its take on vampiric lore. But the trailer is a reminder of the power that comes from workers rallying together in moments of need.

Day Shift tells the story of longtime vampire hunter Bud Jablonski (Jamie Foxx), a man whose relationship with his wife (Meagan Good) and daughter (Zion Broadnax) is somewhat strained because of his secret line of work. While Bud’s...

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Google Meet’s premium video calling features come to individual subscribers

A Google Meet call. | Image: Google

A trio of Google Meet features that were previously only available via Google’s business-focused Workspace plans are coming to Google One subscribers, the search giant is announcing today. These include the ability to have group calls lasting up to 24 hours in length (up from a previous limit of one hour), access to Google Meet’s background noise filtering feature, and support for recorded video calls.

These features aren’t coming to every Google One plan. They’ll only be available to users who pay for 2TB of storage or more, which means paying at least $10 a month or $100 a year for a subscription. The features also aren’t rolling out to every 2TB Google One subscriber right away. Google’s announcement says they’ll be available in the...

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Here are the best Apple Watch deals right now

Apple’s latest Apple Watch, the Series 7, boasts a larger display and faster charging than its last-gen predecessor. | Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge

Thinking about picking up a new Apple Watch? It might be tempting to order one of the Series 7 models, but newer hardware always comes at a premium. And while Apple’s latest wearable offers a slightly larger display and some improvements to durability, it is largely the same Apple Watch we’re familiar with.

Thankfully, each Apple Watch model offers ample functionality and has seen its fair share of discounts over the last year. And with Prime Day 2022 right around the corner, it might be the perfect time to buy. So which ones should you consider if you’re in the market for Apple’s popular smartwatch while trying to shop smarter?

There are currently four Apple Watch models to choose from, all of which support watchOS 8. The highest-end...

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