Why some tech CEOs are rooting for Elon Musk

Kristen Radtke / The Verge; Getty Images

After a long weekend away, today let’s talk about the largely positive reception that Elon Musk’s radical remaking of Twitter is getting from tech CEOs — and whether those views are likely to change if the fight that Musk is picking with Apple erodes even more value from his $44 billion purchase.

The CEO’s revenge

Last week, Musk publicly mocked Twitter’s somewhat notorious “Stay Woke” T-shirts. The shirts, which the company produced in 2016 in response to the police killing of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri, were considered suspect even at the time. In those days, it was the left rolling its eyes — particularly after then-CEO Jack Dorsey wore the shirt during a Code Conference interview, giving the impression that a phrase that had...

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Italian car company Lancia is being reborn as an EV-only brand

Lancia’s new wordmark featuring its new brand font. | Image: Lancia

Lancia, the Italian car company owned by Stellantis alongside Fiat, Chrysler, Citroën, Vauxhall, and Peugeot, is being revived as an electric car brand. The company announced plans to produce three electric vehicles between 2024 and 2028: a new Ypsilon, new Delta, and an unnamed “new flagship.” The brand is also getting a new logo, the eighth in its 116-year long history, which harks back to its 1957 design.

By 2028, the plan is for Lancia to exclusively sell electric vehicles. But, as Electrek notes, the company only sells a single car (the Ypsilon) in a single market (Italy). So it shouldn’t be too hard to phase out sales of its combustion engine cars.

Image: Lancia

Lancia Brand CEO Luca Napolitano stands in...

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Tuesday’s top tech news: Elon squares off against Apple

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

Plus another crypto bankruptcy and Mario movie trailer.

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The best Lego deals for adults on Cyber Monday

You probably know that Lego isn’t just for kids anymore — it’s a pricey hobby for adults, too! And it didn’t help when The Lego Group raised its prices this year by up to 25 percent. But today is Cyber Monday, and some of today’s deals more than make up for those price hikes.

Below, you’ll only find the very best deals on the very best Lego sets that are actually on sale. For example, I’m not seriously including this sweet $70 Sonic The Hedgehog set because it never actually hit $80, or Boba Fett’s Starship since it can almost always be had for $40, or this miniature James Bond 007 Aston Martin DB5 since you’re only saving $2.

But do you see the incredibly detailed Lego Ideas Tree House above, the one whose price Lego hiked from $200...

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A crypto exchange agrees to pay $360,000 for possibly violating Iran sanctions

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

Cryptocurrency exchange Kraken has agreed to pay $362,158.70 to settle with the Department of the Treasury over claims that the firm violated US sanctions against Iran. Kraken, which lets users buy, sell, hold, and trade cryptocurrency, is also required to invest an extra $100,000 in certain sanctions compliance controls.

As noted in the details of the settlement, Kraken allegedly processed 826 transactions totaling over $1.68 million on behalf of customers who may have been located in Iran. The Department of the Treasury says the apparent violations took place between October 14th, 2015, and June 29th, 2019, and were “non-egregious and voluntarily self-disclosed.”

Kraken already had an existing sanctions compliance program that...

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Samsung may be readying a Self Repair Assistant app

Samsung’s Galaxy S21 is one of the models currently supported in the company’s self-repair program. | Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge

Samsung seems to be working on a new self-repair app to aid customers looking to fix their own devices. The company’s submission at the US Patent and Trademark Office for “Self Repair Assistant” includes a blue Samsung-style Android app icon that has a gear and a wrench within it (via SamMobile).

Samsung’s application describes the Self Repair Assistant as a “computer application software for mobile phones” for self-repair, self-maintenance, and self-installation of devices including smartphones, smart watches, tablet computers, and earbuds. The Trademark Office is currently waiting to examine the application.

Image: Samsung

The icon for Samsung’s purported “Self Repair Assistant” app.

From the description,...

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Google paid millions to radio hosts to endorse the Pixel 4 — even though they hadn’t used it

Google shared scripts for the hosts to read. | Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge

Google and iHeartMedia are settling with the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and seven state attorneys general for allegedly paying radio hosts to read endorsements of the Pixel 4 when the hosts hadn’t actually used the phone. Google allegedly paid more than $2.6 million to iHeartRadio and almost $2 million “in connection with eleven smaller radio networks” for the deceptive ads endorsing the Pixel 4.

For the ads, Google provided scripts for hosts to read on air, which typically began like this, per the complaint:

The only thing I love more than taking the perfect photo? Taking the perfect photo at night.

With Google Pixel 4 both are a cinch.

It’s my favorite phone camera out there, especially in low light, thanks to Night Sight Mode.

I...

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The best budget laptop of 2022

Here are the best cheap Chromebooks and laptops you can buy. | Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales

The best cheap laptops from HP, Lenovo, and more.

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Pentiment’s pretty pages protect otherwise poor play

Image: Obsidian Entertainment

The game’s excellent art style and thoughtful narrative obscure a pretty boring gameplay loop.

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Chinese police are searching phones for Instagram, Twitter, and Telegram as protests mount

Protestors in Hong Kong show solidarity with people in mainland China and hold blank sheets of paper as a symbol of censorship. | Photo by Anthony Kwan/Getty Images

Police in China are checking people’s phones for the presence of foreign apps, including Instagram, Twitter, and the encrypted messaging app Telegram, according to reports from The Wall Street Journal and CNBC. While both outlets indicate that police are stopping people at transportation hubs in Shanghai, William Yang, the East Asia correspondent at the German outlet DW News, says it’s happening in Beijing and Hangzhou as well.

According to reports from TechCrunchand The Washington Post, people in the country are accessing banned services like Twitter, Telegram, and Instagram through virtual private networks (VPNs) to communicate and organize protests against China’s zero-covid policies. Posts about the protests are heavily censored on...

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The best Chromebook for 2022

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

The best Chromebook for anyone who wants Chrome OS on their laptop

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Elon Musk says Apple has ‘threatened to withhold Twitter’ from the App Store

Elon Musk is speaking out against Apple. | Kristen Radtke / The Verge; Getty Images

Elon Musk claims that Apple has threatened to “withhold” Twitter from the iOS App Store for unknown reasons. The news follows a tweet where Musk said Apple had “mostly stopped advertising” on the platform and a poll asking whether Apple should “publish all censorship actions it has taken that affect its customers.” Apple did not immediately comment on Musk’s claim.

The news follows much more subtle signs of mounting tension between Apple and Musk-owned Twitter. Musk has criticized Apple’s App Store fee for in-app purchases, dubbing it a “hidden 30% tax” on the internet. And Apple App Store boss Phil Schiller deleted his Twitter account following Musk’s takeover, shortly after Donald Trump’s account was reinstated.

In a November 15th...

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Crypto collapse: it’s looking like a long, cold, contagious winter

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

FTX is just the latest company facing an uncertain future as cryptocurrency values drop, revealing flaws in risky financial strategies that fueled the recent crypto and NFT boom.

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The N64 controller for Switch is back in stock at the Nintendo store

Finally play StarFox64 the way Nintendo intended | Image: Nintendo

Call it a Cyber Monday miracle if you will, but the official N64 controller for the Nintendo Switch has just been restocked at the Nintendo eShop. This $49.99 controller allows you to experience N64 games the way they were meant to be played — with a big gray controller that has an awkwardly placed central analog stick. This offer is exclusive to the Nintendo store and is only available to purchase if you’re a current Nintendo Switch Online subscriber. (Note: you can only access the N64 games with the purchase of the Switch Online Expansion Pack.)

Unlike some restocks for the Xbox Series X or PlayStation 5, the method for purchasing this controller is very straightforward. Just sign in to your Nintendo account, click “add to cart,” and...

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Google partners with med tech company to develop AI breast cancer screening tools

Medical personnel use a mammogram to examine a woman’s breast for breast cancer. | Photo by Michael Hanschke/picture alliance via Getty Images

Google announced today that it has licensed its AI research model for breast cancer screening to medical technology company iCAD. This is the first time Google is licensing the technology, with the hopes that it will eventually lead to more accurate breast cancer detection and risk assessment.

The two companies aim to eventually deploy the technology in real-world clinical settings — targeting a “2024 release,” Google communications manager Nicole Linton told The Verge in an email. Commercial deployment, however, still depends on how successful continued research and testing are. “We will move deliberately and test things as we go,” Linton said in the email.

“We will move deliberately and test things as we go.”

The partnership builds on...

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I text myself all day every day — and you should, too

Self-chatting feels silly at first, but it’s a game-changer. | Image: David Pierce

Texting yourself sounds weird until you try it. Then it becomes indispensable. For a while now, my highest-volume messaging conversation has been with myself (which sounds sad now that I say it, but we’ll leave that for another day), and it has become a key part of how I live my digital life.

To be clear, I’m not texting with the voices in my head. I’m using my messaging app the way millions of people use their email — to send myself quick notes, reminders, links, photos, and stuff I need to be able to get to later. It all becomes searchable, available across devices, and accessible in the same app that’s already in my dock and opened a hundred times a day to chat with friends and family.

Texting yourself is a pretty good life hack and,...

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Crypto finance firm BlockFi files for bankruptcy following the fall of FTX

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

BlockFi has become the latest crypto firm to file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy a couple of weeks after pausing withdrawals on November 10th. The company is citing a “lack of clarity” around the circumstances of FTX, the collapsed firm going through its own bankruptcy process amid accusations of fraud and shoddy record-keeping. In a press release posted on Monday, BlockFi announced it’s filing for bankruptcy to help “stabilize its business.”

The bankruptcy filing submitted in New Jersey lists Ankura Trust Company as its largest creditor, to the tune of $729 million, followed by FTX US at $275 million. The SEC is fourth on the list, owed $30 million as a result of penalties laid down earlier this year.

Image: BlockFi

B...

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Tesla is reportedly working on a redesigned Model 3

A preproduction Tesla Model 3 as revealed in 2016. | Photo by Chris Ziegler

Tesla reportedly has a new Model 3 design in the works, according to four sources speaking to Reuters with knowledge on the matter. The new model, going by the codename “Highland,” will have fewer interior components and a slightly redesigned exterior, with the goal of both cutting production costs and increasing the appeal of the now five-year-old midsize electric sedan.

The redesigned Model 3 may also have some powertrain performance adjustments, although it’s unclear if this means we will see a faster or more tame vehicle. The sources say that the production of the new model will begin at Tesla’s Shanghai Gigafactory in the third quarter of 2023. It’s planned for Tesla’s Fremont, California, plant as well, though no timeline was...

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How a tiny briefcase-sized spacecraft will prospect for water on the Moon

An artist’s illustration of the Lunar Flashlight mission. | Image: NASA

The Artemis I mission isn’t the only lunar mission happening this month. On Wednesday, November 30th, a SpaceX Falcon 9 is expected to launch a commercial Japanese lander called Hakuto-R to the Moon, carrying the United Arab Emirates Rashid rover. And there will also be an extra payload tucked inside the rocket: a tiny orbiter called Lunar Flashlight.

As part of a wave of increased commercial interest in the Moon, the lander could be among the first private missions to land on the Moon — although, as the Israeli lander Beresheet demonstrated when it crashed into the Moon in 2019, touching down safely on the Moon’s surface still remains a challenge that a private mission has yet to overcome. As for the small Rashid rover, this is the...

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Now the Apple Watch Ultra can actually be your diving computer

The Oceanic Plus app turns the Apple Watch into a dive computer. | Image: Apple

Divers no longer have to wait to use the Apple Watch Ultra as a dive computer. Starting today, you can download the Oceanic Plus app to plan, track, and review dives.

While the Ultra has a native Depth app, it’s not meant to be used as a dive computer. It’s more for activities like underwater pool swims and snorkeling. It mostly tells you the water temperature and time as well as current and maximum depth. Conversely, the Oceanic Plus app was designed by Huish Outdoors to be used as a wrist-worn dive computer for depths up to 40 meters (130 feet). Before dives, users can set their surface time, depth, and gas, which the app will then use to calculate a no-decompression time, which is how long a diver can stay at a given depth. Divers can...

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Meta fined $276 million over Facebook data leak involving more than 533 million users

Illustration by Nick Barclay / The Verge

Ireland’s Data Protection Commission hit Meta with a €265 million fine (about $276 million USD) after an April 2021 data leak exposed the information of more than 533 million users. The DPC started the investigation shortly after news of the leak broke and involved an examination into whether Facebook complied with Europe’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) laws.

The leaked information, spotted by Insider, was posted to an online hacking forum and included the full names, phone numbers, locations, and birthdates of users on the platform from 2018 to 2019. At the time, Meta said the bad actor obtained the information through a vulnerability that the company fixed in 2019 and that this was the same information involved in a prior...

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The Verge’s 2022 holiday gift guide for creators

Photography by Joel Goldberg for The Verge

Finding that perfect gift for a creator can be challenging, which is why we’ve compiled all kinds of useful and fun ideas for all kinds of folks, from TikTokers and Twitch streamers to photographers.

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The Best Cyber Monday deals available now

The Noc Design / The Verge

Black Friday may be in the past, but many of the best deals remain. If you’ve been following our Black Friday coverage, none of the best Cyber Monday deals should come as a surprise. While this may not be particularly exciting, it does provide you with a final opportunity to snag some of our favorite tech ranging from noise-canceling headphones to video games and TVs that are still available for their lowest price ever.

The following is an updated list of all the best deals that are still available on Cyber Monday, along with a table of contents breaking everything down by category.

The best Cyber Monday deals

Here are the all-stars

• You can buy Apple’s new second-gen AirPods Pro at Amazon, Target, and Best Buy for $199.99...

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Nearly a thousand Vietnamese EVs are on their way to the US

VinFast sent a batch of 999 electric vehicles to the US. | Image: VinFast

VinFast, the Vietnamese electric vehicle manufacturer, is shipping its first batch of EVs to the US, capping a five-year effort to develop a Southeast Asian hub for the North American and European markets.

The shipment includes 999 VF 8s, an all-electric crossover with 402 horsepower, 472 pound-feet of torque, around 290 miles of range, and a starting price of $40,700. The first cars are expected to be handed over to preorder customers by the end of December, the company said. Some of the vehicles will end up with Autonomy, a car subscription service, but the majority will go to retail customers.

“A proud historical milestone for the Vietnamese automotive industry”

“The export of the first 999 VF 8s is a significant event for VinFast...

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The creator of the future is smart, attractive, and... animated

Jarett Sitter / The Verge

There’s a decent chance you’ve come across Shudu on Instagram. She’s constantly having cool adventures in New York and Paris, she models for some of the biggest fashion brands on the planet, and she has a huge following on Instagram. Oh, and she’s not real. Or at least, she’s not human: Shudu is one of the Diigitals, “the world’s first all digital modeling agency.” And she’s a big part of the future of the creator economy.

For the next three weeks on The Vergecast, we’re going to be exploring new parts of the business of being a creator. We’re going to dig deep on creator funds and how giant pools of platform money change the way those platforms operate. We’re going to look into livestreaming and why everything from shopping to sleeping...

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Our lunar ambitions depend on this fake Moon dirt

Fun fact from the files of “there’s a job for that”: there are multiple companies that specialize in making fake Moon dirt. Technically, it’s called lunar regolith to help differentiate it from “soil,” which implies the presence of organic material, or from “dirt,” which, for this story, I learned literally just means “anything that makes you dirty.” Whatever you call it, it is nothing like our friendly terrestrial soils: it’s sharp, dusty, and jagged; it’s full of glassy globs from meteorite impacts; and its chemical composition has been altered by constant bombardment from solar wind. In short, lunar regolith is strange and alien stuff.

So why would multiple companies go out of their way to simulate it? Because as more governments and...

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Elon Musk bought Twitter, and here’s everything that happened next

Laura Normand / The Verge

Elon Musk is now the owner, CEO, and sole director of Twitter. His “Twitter 2.0” era has so far included mass layoffs and rapidly changing policy decisions.

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Check out this library of obsolete sounds, including plenty of clips of old tech

Obsolete Sounds is a new project that its creator Cities and Memory claims is “the world’s biggest collection of obsolete and disappearing sounds.” It consists of over 150 sounds that are increasingly rare, ranging from sounds used in retro video games, recordings of old-fashioned transport, and plenty of mechanical sounds from outdated hardware.

Of course, the first sound clip I searched for was the sound of an old 56K modem connecting to the internet, which is thankfully present and accounted for. “In the 90’s, computers would scream every time you went online. That was foreshadowing,” was how one tweet recently described the piercing screech.

“Obsolete Sounds is designed... to highlight those sounds that are worth preserving”

Other...

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Twitter hit with wave of porn and spam obscuring tweets about China protests

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

Twitter search results for major Chinese cities have become filled with tweets about escort services, porn, and gambling that are obscuring legitimate reports about a wave of protests that have gripped the country, Washington Postand TechCrunch are reporting. Searches for “北京” (Beijing) or “上海” (Shanghai) are filled with such spam which, as of this writing, vastly outnumber any tweets about the protests.

One analysis highlighted by Stanford Internet Observatory’s Alex Stamos estimates that over 95 percent of tweets under the Beijing search term are from spam accounts, with over 70 percent of the accounts only having started tweeting in such volumes recently. New spam tweets are appearing every few seconds from accounts that are tweeting...

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Inflight 5G calls and data could become a reality in Europe with new decision

Photo by Soeren Stache/picture alliance via Getty Images

The European Commission is opening the door for European airlines to begin offering inflight 5G connectivity, the organization has announced, by allocating certain spectrum for inflight 5G as well as “previous mobile technology generations.” Passengers will connect to an on-board pico-cell base station, which then connects to ground-based networks via satellite. Calls, texts, and data are all expected to be supported.

“5G will enable innovative services for people and growth opportunities for European companies,” said EU commissioner Thierry Breton. “The sky is no longer a limit when it comes to possibilities offered by super-fast, high-capacity connectivity.” The Commission’s announcement does not offer details on exactly when 5G...

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