Facebook begins testing default end-to-end encryption on Messenger

E2EE is currently available in Messenger as an opt-in feature. | Image: Meta

Facebook has shared an update on its long-awaited plans to turn on end-to-end encryption (E2EE) by default in its Messenger chat platform, saying it has begun testing the feature for chats “between some people” this week.

Facebook currently offers Messenger users the option to turn on E2EE on a per-chat basis, but such opt-in schemes are generally only embraced by a security-conscious minority. Making end-to-end encryption the default will be a big step: adding a substantial layer of security to a chat platform used by more than a billion people worldwide. It’s also likely to trigger arguments with governments who say E2EE hinders their ability to fight crime.

End-to-end encryption makes it harder, though not impossible, for third...

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The speakeasy economy of WeChat

Joyce Hu / The Verge

For an app with over a billion users, WeChat doesn’t make a very strong first impression.

When I opened up WeChat for the first time during freshman orientation at Indiana University (IU), I was amazed at how haphazard it was. The design looked outdated, drenched in a hideous shade of green. The media feed was limited to low-quality photos for reasons I didn’t understand. Even basic navigation was illogical and confusing. I already knew WeChat was a cornerstone of Chinese online life — arguably the most powerful app in the world. Was this it?

For most non-Chinese college students, WeChat is relatively unknown. The only non-Chinese people who use it are usually those who have a specific connection to China. As I learned more of the...

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This Mac hacker’s code is so good, corporations keep stealing it

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

Patrick Wardle is known for being a Mac malware specialist — but his work has traveled farther than he realized.

A former employee of the NSA and NASA, he is also the founder of the Objective-See Foundation: a nonprofit that creates open-source security tools for macOS. The latter role means that a lot of Wardle’s software code is now freely available to download and decompile — and some of this code has apparently caught the eye of technology companies that are using it without his permission.

Three different companies were found to be incorporating techniques from Wardle’s work

Wardle will lay out his case in a presentation on Thursday at the Black Hat cybersecurity conference with Tom McGuire, a cybersecurity researcher at Johns...

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Pirates of Khadda Market

Cat Gloeckner / The Verge

A young software engineer looks back at his formative experiences in Karachi, Pakistan

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Apple is reportedly funding podcasts that it could one day turn into TV shows

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

Apple has reportedly signed a deal with podcast producer Futuro Studios to help it fund the development and production of future podcasts, Bloomberg reports. In return for its Futuro deal, Apple gets first refusal on the rights to turn any resulting podcasts into a film or TV show. It has already produced TV shows based on the podcasts WeCrashed and The Shrink Next Door.

Long-form podcasts have emerged as a rich source of inspiration for TV shows at a time when streaming services are more desperate than ever for original content. Hulu’s The Dropout was based on an ABC News podcast of the same name, and the streaming service is also reportedly adapting the podcast Wind of Change into a TV show.

Multiple podcasts have already been adapted...

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Intel shares 48 benchmarks to show its Arc A750 can compete with an RTX 3060

Intel’s Arc A750 is arriving later this year. | Image: Intel

Intel has released 48 benchmarks that show its upcoming Arc A750 GPU should be able to trade blows with Nvidia’s RTX 3060 running modern games. While Intel set its expectations low for its Arc GPUs last month, the company has now tested its A750 directly against the RTX 3060 across 42 DirectX 12 titles and six Vulkan games.

The results look promising for what will likely be Intel’s mainstream GPU later this year. Intel has tested the A750 against popular games like Fortnite, Control, and Call of Duty: Warzone, instead of the cherry picked handful of benchmarks the company released last month.

“These are all titles that we picked because they’re popular,” explains Intel fellow Tom Petersen, in Intel’s benchmark video. “Either reviewers...

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Google Fiber isn’t dead, it’s expanding

The Google Fiber logo. | Image: Google Fiber

Google Fiber, the Alphabet division focused on offering high-speed internet access in the US, has ambitious plans to expand its fiber services in the next three to five years, the company announced in a blog post. It wants to launch fiber services in five new states, which include previously announced plans to enter Arizona and Colorado, as well as Nebraska, Nevada, and Idaho. In total, Reuters reports that Google Fiber hopes to expand to 22 metro areas, from 17 today.

It’s a big turnaround from 2016, when the business reportedly layed off 9 percent of its workforce and paused plans to launch services in over half a dozen cities. In subsequent years, reports emerged that the company was canceling hundreds of installations in existing...

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Google Search will stop telling you when Snoopy assassinated Abe Lincoln

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

The team behind Google Search is tweaking its featured snippets — the text boxes that sometimes spread false information while trying to offer help. The company announced an update that’s supposed to make answers more accurate and avoid the problem of false premises, or questions where no definitive-sounding answer would make sense. It’s paired with an expansion in Google’s “about this result” option and warnings for low-quality data voids, as well as a new partnership on information literacy lesson plans for middle and high-school students.

Snippets appear under many searches, but because they appear to directly answer questions by quoting pages, they can backfire in ways that standard query responses don’t. In a presentation to...

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Sonos has delayed the release of its next product — likely the Sub Mini

3D product render by Grayson Blackmon / The Verge

After reporting bumpy third quarter earnings on Wednesday, Sonos announced that it has decided to push back a product launch that was originally penciled in for the near future. The product in question is almost certainly the long-awaited Sub Mini, a more affordable subwoofer that would join the company’s home theater lineup alongside the existing $749 Sub.

The Sub Mini appeared at the FCC in June. If Sonos had followed its typical window of time between that filing and a consumer release, the product would’ve been arriving relatively soon. But Sonos says it’s now been delayed until the fiscal first quarter of 2023. “We always consider the kind of product that it is, and the timing,” CEO Patrick Spence said on the call. “We remain...

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Overwatch League player learns he was fired via Tweet

Image: Blizzard

Getting fired is never fun, but it’s even worse when you find out via Tweet. Sang-min “Myunb0ng” Seo, support player for New York’s Overwatch League team, found out he wasn’t going to be playing in this or any other week’s games when his organization bid farewell to him in a tweet. Roster changes in the OWL are usually announced via tweet, so this wasn’t out of the ordinary. Problem is, it seems like no one told Seo of his release beforehand. He responded to the farewell tweet with question marks, seemingly confused.

Image: Twitter

He also quote-tweeted the announcement with another question mark, seemingly confirming the idea that he hadn’t known this was coming.

Image: Twitter

This particular...

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How to change your name on TikTok

Illustration by Samar Haddad / The Verge

When you start using TikTok, you’re asked for a profile name and a username. If you’ve been using TikTok for a while, though, it wouldn’t be unusual to decide that you want to change one or both. Perhaps you used your real name and weren’t aware at first that your name would be made public. Or perhaps the name you originally chose is no longer quite right for the type of content you’re going to post. Or perhaps you simply decided that you want to be known by something more exciting.

Either way, it’s simple to change either your profile name or your username. (In TikTok, the username is the one preceded by an @ sign.)

• Go to your profile page (by tapping the Profile icon in the lower-right corner).
• Select Edit profile.
• Select Name (to...

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Final Fantasy VII Remake unofficially comes to VR with this PC mod

I still remember the hush that fell over the audience when Sony revealed the first trailer for Final Fantasy VII Remake — and the cheers. Fans couldn’t wait to see these characters again in HD. But there may now be an even more immersive way to thrust yourself into the world of Cloud, Tifa, Barret, and Aerith: a virtual reality mod by Luke Ross for the PC version of the game.

Ross is the modder we profiled last month whose day job is unofficially bringing games to VR; you pay $10 a month to support his work and get access to his mods. The last time we left him, he’d just been slapped with a DMCA takedown notice seemingly over his popular mods for Red Dead Redemption 2, Grand Theft Auto V, and Mafia: Definitive Edition. While neither game...

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It will cost $220 less to fix a broken Flip 4 or Fold 4 screen

Samsung is trying to smooth out the pain points of folding phone ownership. | Photo by Allison Johnson / The Verge

The Flip and Fold turned a corner last year. Previous versions of Samsung’s folding phones were more tech demos than anything — awkward, very expensive, and too fragile for just anyone to consider against a garden-variety slab-style phone. That started to change in August 2021 when Samsung figured out how to waterproof folding phones.

This year, Samsung has made some key upgrades that bring even more parity to the foldable line versus the S-series flagships. Picking a Z Fold 4 over the S22 Plus doesn’t require you to make as many sacrifices as it did in the past (except for, you know, an extra $800 or so). But there’s still a lot to prove if foldables are really going to go mainstream.

A cracked folding screen could cost you as little...

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FCC rejects Starlink’s bid for rural internet subsidies due to its $600 satellite dish

Photo by Nilay Patel / The Verge

The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has rejected Starlink’s application for $885 million in federal subsidies that it would use to provide satellite internet to broadband customers in rural areas. The FCC states that the SpaceX-owned company’s dish is simply too expensive and that Starlink “failed to demonstrate” that it “could deliver the promised service.”

The funding is part of the broader $9.2 billion Rural Digital Opportunity Fund that provides an incentive for telecom companies to extend internet service to rural and underserved locations. In 2020, Starlink won an initial $885.5 million subsidy as part of a Phase 1 rollout of the program. The FCC also rejected LTD Broadband’s bid for the funding after it initially received...

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Disney Plus’ ad-supported plan will launch in December

Image: Marvel Studios

Disney’s ad-supported tier of Disney Plus will cost $7.99 per month — the current cost of the ad-free plan — and will be available beginning December 8th, the company announced on Wednesday. That same day, there will be a price hike for the ad-free plan, which will cost $10.99 per month.

The ad-supported plan doesn’t come as a surprise; Disney had said earlier this year that the plan would be arriving in late 2022. Netflix is also planning to launch its own ad-supported tier, though the company isn’t expecting to launch it until early 2023. When Netflix’s tier is available, it won’t have everything at launch. We don’t know yet if there will be similar restrictions if you opt for Disney Plus’ ad tier. When the ad tier launches, it will...

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Disney Plus and Hulu are getting steep price hikes

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

Disney has announced that it’s raising the price of Disney Plus to $10.99 / month, up from its current price of $7.99 / month, starting December 8th in the US. The move comes as the company is looking to restructure its pricing options, which will soon include a $7.99 / month ad-supported tier.

Disney’s also raising the price of its Hulu subscription. The ad-free tier will jump from $12.99 / month to $14.99, while the ad-supported version will cost $7.99 / month, up from $6.99. The new pricing goes into effect on October 10th. A price hike for unbundled ESPN Plus streaming was announced in July, taking the monthly price from $6.99 to $9.99.

The price increases also affect bundled plans. Users with an ad-free Disney Plus subscription...

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Hackers and fraudsters used crypto bridge RenBridge to launder $540 million, says report

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

Hackers, fraudsters, and others laundered at least $540 million through the cryptocurrency bridge network RenBridge since 2020, according to blockchain analysis group Elliptic. Elliptic researchers published the report today, citing RenBridge as an example of the risks of decentralized cross-chain networks.

RenBridge is pitched as a way to easily convert virtual currencies like ZCash and Bitcoin to the Ethereum network and then to other blockchains. But “as well as a legitimate tool, cross-chain bridges have also emerged as a key facilitator of money laundering,” letting users avoid regulations and move money easily across networks, the report says. That includes the proceeds of ransomware operations and theft from other chains.

C...

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Microsoft claims Sony pays for ‘blocking rights’ to keep games off Xbox Game Pass

Microsoft has claimed Sony pays for “blocking rights” to stop developers from adding their content to Xbox Game Pass. The explosive claims are part of documents (Word doc) filed with Brazil’s national competition regulator and part of a review of Microsoft’s acquisition of Activision Blizzard.

“Microsoft’s ability to continue expanding Game Pass has been hampered by Sony’s desire to inhibit such growth,” claims Microsoft in an August 9th filing to the Administrative Council for Economic Defense (CADE), as translated from Portuguese. “Sony pays for ‘blocking rights’ to prevent developers from adding content to Game Pass and other competing subscription services.”

Does this mean Sony is evil and Microsoft is casually out here revealing...

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How Donald Trump changed Facebook

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

At one point in time, Facebook’s relationship with politicians was relatively uncontroversial.

But after the 2016 US elections, everything changed.

Early in the campaign, then-presidential candidate Donald Trump tested the limits of Facebook’s rules against hateful speech at the same time that the company became a vehicle of political exploitation by foreign actors.

Facebook’s first test: dealing with Trump’s 2015 Facebook post calling for a “total and complete shutdown” of Muslims entering the US. While some inside the company saw a strong argument that Trump’s comments violated Facebook’s rules against religious hate speech, the company decided to keep the post up. Until then, most Facebook employees had never before grappled with the...

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Meta’s Portal finds new life as a productivity tool

Meta’s smart displays gain support for Duet Display and can now be controlled by a Mac. | Image: Meta

As the corporate world embraces its work-from-home future, Meta is doubling down on turning its line of smart displays into ultimate video calling devices. This week, the company announced its $349 Portal Plus (second-gen) and $199 Portal Go can now do extra work as a second display for your Mac or PC thanks to new support for the Duet Display app.

Meta is also launching the Meta Portal Companion app for Mac so you can share your computer screen while on a video call and more easily access controls to raise your hand, mute yourself, and adjust the volume.

The 10-inch Portal Go and the 15-inch Portal Plus are the newest — and likely last — additions to the company’s foray into consumer smart displays. Meta has reportedly decided it won't...

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How to take pictures on BeReal

Your friends, for real. | Photo by Jakub Porzycki/NurPhoto via Getty Images

If you’ve been hearing about this BeReal thing but you’re not exactly sure what it is or how to use it, fear not. The concept can be an odd one to wrap your head around, but the app is, by design, one of the more intuitive and low-effort social networks out there.

BeReal’s basic premise is that you’re prompted at a specific (but different) time every day to take a picture of what you’re doing, regardless of what it is, and share it with your friends. You can’t see anyone else’s BeReal until you’ve shared your own. If you’re over the age of, say, 22 years old, your feed is likely to be full of people sitting at their desks. Still, that can be a nice comfort to see.

BeReal: how to take pictures

To get started, download the app. It’s...

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Samsung still hasn’t given us a good reason to buy a foldable phone

The Z Fold 4 looks like Samsung’s best foldable yet. But is it really an upgrade from your phone? | Photo by Allison Johnson / The Verge

Folding phones seem, intuitively, like a great idea. Phones are good! Tablets are good! Put them both together, fold it in half, and presto: you’ve made the best of both worlds. Credit to Samsung, too, for willingly subjecting itself to all the growing pains of figuring out how to make a good foldable phone. Last year’s Galaxy Z Fold 3 was a good foldable, and the new Z Fold 4 looks to be even better, if ever so slightly. (I have lots of thoughts about the new era of flip phones, like the Z Flip 4, but we’ll save those for another day.)

What Samsung hasn’t done — what no one has done yet, really — is make the case for why you’d actually want a foldable phone. And until it can explain why it’s worth all the extra cost and tradeoffs, I’m...

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Apple’s next iPhone might be more expensive

The iPhone 13. | Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge

Apple could make the upcoming iPhone 14 more expensive than the iPhone 13, according to Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo. Kuo believes that the average selling price (ASP) of the combined iPhone 14 lineup may increase by 15 percent when compared to the iPhone 13 lineup.

For reference, the standard iPhone 13 model starts at $799 (with carrier discounts), while the Pro and Pro Max models bump that price up to $999 and $1,099, respectively. While Kuo doesn’t mention price predictions for individual devices, he thinks the ASP of the iPhone 14 lineup (Pro models included) could hover around $1,000 to $1,050. Kuo blames the ASP increase on a potentially more expensive iPhone Pro and Pro Max, as well as a “higher shipment proportion.”

(1/2)
Hon...

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No cap, bussin, forreal, forreal: Sen. Mike Lee’s personal Twitter account is called ‘BasedMikeLee’

Senator Mike Lee. | Photo by Andrew Harnik - Pool/Getty Images

No cap, Sen. Mike Lee himself is tweeting from the @BasedMikeLee Twitter account.

The account cropped up seemingly out of nowhere towards the end of last month, posting news articles about the Duke of Sussex, Prince Harry; claiming that Lee is taller than his colleague Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY); and shaming the tech companies he aims to regulate as a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee.

“The haters can’t handle this frickin’ smoke,” Lee said in a July 24th tweet on the account.

Quote-tweeting Turning Point USA contributor Benny Johnson that same day, Lee wrote, “This account is no cap — bussin, forreal forreal.”

The Salt Lake Tribune was the first to confirm that the account belonged to Lee on Tuesday. Lee Lonsberry, a Sen. Lee...

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Facebook ran ads on searches for white supremacist groups, report finds

Facebook logo | Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

Facebook served ads on searches related to white supremacist groups, despite a ban on such content on the platform, according to a report by the Tech Transparency Project.

The report, which was first covered by The Washington Post, identified 119 Facebook pages and 20 Facebook groups affiliated with white supremacist organizations on the platform. Researchers searched Facebook for 226 designated hate groups or dangerous organizations using sources like the Southern Poverty Law Center, Anti-Defamation League, and even Facebook itself, and found more than a third had a presence on the platform.

The study found that despite Facebook’s insistence that the company doesn’t profit from hateful content, ads appeared on 40 percent of the queries...

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Nights are getting way too hot to handle

The sunset viewed from Saint Endellion, on July 17th, 2022, in Cornwall, England, after the Met Office issued a red alert warning for extreme heat for the first time. | Photo by Finnbarr Webster/Getty Images

Summer nights are getting increasingly dangerous thanks to climate change. By 2100, the risk of death from excessively hot nights is expected togrow six-fold compared to 2016 — even under the most optimistic predictions of future global warming, according to a new study published in the journal The Lancet Planetary Health.

Hot nights are becoming both more frequent and way more intense, the study authors found. We don’t know just how much the planet will heat up in the future, but scientists have estimates for best- and worst-case scenarios. When looking at a more middle-of-the-road forecast for future climate change, hot nights become 75.6 percent more frequent by the end of the century. The average intensity of a sweltering night...

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Jabra’s terrific Elite 3 wireless earbuds are just $59.99 today

Amazon and Best Buy are taking $20 off of Jabra’s Elite 3, which are amongst the best wireless earbuds on the market. | Photo by Chris Welch / The Verge

Times are hard, we get it, which is why today’s deal on Jabra’s budget-friendly Elite 3 wireless earbuds stands out. They may lack the bells and whistles other high-quality buds offer, like multipoint support and active noise cancellation, but these are still among our favorites because they boast great sound quality, long battery life, and extreme comfort even for long periods of time. They also offer other niceties, including an IP55 rating for dust and water resistance, the ability to use any earbud independently, and easy-to-use controls.

The Jabra Elite 3 offer terrific value for the money, especially since you can buy them today with their charging case for just $59.99 instead of $79.99 at Amazon and Best Buy. This may not be the...

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Ralph Nader urges regulators to recall Tesla’s ‘manslaughtering’ Full Self-Driving vehicles

Consumer advocate Ralph Nader is calling for the government to crack down on Tesla’s Full Self-Driving beta program.

Ralph Nader, a former presidential candidate and nationally recognized consumer protection advocate, called on federal regulators to recall Tesla’s “Full Self-Driving” (FSD) driver-assist feature, calling its deployment “one of the most dangerous and irresponsible actions by a car company in decades.”

Nader, who first came to prominence with the 1965 publication of the bestselling book Unsafe at Any Speed, a highly influential critique of the American auto industry, said that the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) must use its recall authority to order that Tesla’s FSD technology be removed from every vehicle.

“I am calling on federal regulators to act immediately to prevent the growing deaths and injuries from...

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Spotify tests selling concert tickets straight to fans

Image: Spotify

Spotify’s testing a new website to sell concert tickets directly to fans, as first reported by Music Ally. The site, dubbed Spotify Tickets, currently has a limited selection of upcoming US-based concerts for participating artists like Limbeck, Tokimonsta, and Annie DiRusso.

Spotify already partners with Ticketmaster, Eventbrite, and See Tickets to sell tickets through its new Live Events Feed, where you can browse nearby shows and purchase tickets through a third party. The new Spotify Tickets site, however, eliminates the middleman and lets you buy tickets through Spotify itself.

“At Spotify, we routinely test new products and ideas to improve our user experience. Some of those end up paving the path for our broader user experience...

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‘Take that, Elon Musk’: Ford’s CEO takes a swipe at EV rival while announcing solar investment

Ford CEO Jim Farley poses for a photo at the launch of the all-new electric Ford F-150 Lightning pickup truck at the Ford Rouge Electric Vehicle Center on April 26, 2022 in Dearborn, Michigan | Photo by Bill Pugliano/Getty Images

Ford CEO Jim Farley took a swipe at Tesla CEO Elon Musk Wednesday while announcing a major investment in solar energy. The comment was intended to draw a comparison between Tesla’s long-delayed Cybertruck and Ford’s plug-in pickup, the F-150 Lightning.

Farley was speaking at a Ford plant in Michigan to announce a deal with DTE Energy that both companies billed as the “largest renewable energy purchase from a utility in US history.” But after touting the company’s move to more sustainable sources, he made a quick jab at his main rival in the EV space, whom he has praised in the past for helping spur the industry toward electric vehicles.

“We’re really on a mission at Ford to lead an electric and digital revolution for many, not few,”...

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