Anker’s Eufy breaks its silence on security cam security

Image: Eufy

On the last episode of “Will Anker ever tell us what’s actually going on with its security cameras rather than lying and covering its tracks,” we told you how Eufy’s customer support team is now quietly providing some of the answers to the questions that the company had publicly ignored about its smart home camera security.

Now, Anker is finally taking a stab at a public explanation, in a new blog post titled “To our eufy Security Customers and Partners.” Unfortunately, it contains no apology, and doesn’t begin to address why anyone would be able to view an unencrypted stream in VLC Media Player on the other side of the country, from a supposedly always-local, always-end-to-end-encrypted camera.

What it does contain is a clear...

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The EV tax credit rules are being delayed until March 2023 — here’s what that means for you

Photo by Andrew J. Hawkins / The Verge

Besides its more obvious stated goal of reducing inflation, the Biden administration’s Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) was designed to force profound changes in the electric vehicle market. The legislation revises EV tax credit rules as it seeks to build up domestic battery manufacturing so that the US doesn’t cede the supply chain to China.

It’s also profoundly confusing, hinging new EV tax credits not just on where the cars are built but also where batteries are assembled and where battery materials are sourced from. These rules were all supposed to take effect on January 1st, 2023 — that’s next weekend for anyone keeping track.

Now, however, it’s going to take a little longer for all of the new provisions to be in place. On Monday,...

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The Verge Holiday Gift Guide 2022

Photography by Joel Goldberg for The Verge

Check out our top gift ideas for the tech-savvy and non-techies alike.

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The police want to talk to Elon Musk’s security team over the alleged ‘stalking’ incident

Kristen Radtke / The Verge; Getty Images

Police are looking to question a member of Elon Musk’s security team after he allegedly hit the car of a person who Musk later claimed was a threat to his family.

The December 13th incident took place at around 9:51PM on the 700 block of Mission Street in Pasadena, California, according to a police report. The victim, who is only identified as a 29-year-old from Connecticut, was the only one at the scene when the police arrived.

The Connecticut man said that he had exited the 110 freeway and stopped to use his telephone when another car “pulled directly in front of him, blocking his path,” the police report states. The driver exited the car and accused the Connecticut man of following him on the freeway. Both men apparently recorded...

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Two men indicted for hacking a dozen Ring cameras and livestreaming swatting attacks

Photo by Dan Seifert / The Verge

Two men have been accused of hacking into Ring doorbells and using their cameras to livestream swatting attacks, according to the Department of Justice. Kya Christian Nelson, 21, James Thomas Andrew McCarty, 20, and unnamed others allegedly spent a week using stolen Yahoo email addresses and passwords to access video from a dozen security systems before calling the police to each residence, according to the indictment, which you can read below.

The DOJ says the scheme worked like this: the alleged perpetrators would get the info for the Yahoo accounts and then figure out if the owner also had a Ring account. If they did, Nelson, McCarty, and the others would allegedly “gather information” about the people before calling the police on...

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The Pixel 8 camera might adopt a new HDR technique

The Pixel 7 used the same camera sensor as the previous generation, but that might be changing. | Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge

The Pixel 8 is a long ways off, but some snippets of camera app code identified by developer Kuba Wojciechowski are giving us an early glimpse into what Google might be planning. The code in question refers to “staggered HDR,” which isn’t a technique that Google’s Pixel camera currently uses. The company was one of the first to refine mobile HDR and computational photography, taking them mainstream. Now, it appears to be evolving its tech for the next generation in a significant way.

Staggered HDR is a method of capturing short and long exposures of scenes nearly simultaneously. Google currently employs HDR Plus Bracketing, which takes individual photos in rapid succession and uses them to create a final image with a wide dynamic range —...

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Spotify explores rebranding its main podcast creation tool

Illustration by Samar Haddad / The Verge

A very happy holidays to you all! The news is slow, and the food is fried. I made the best latkes of my life (of anyone’s life?) this weekend and also ate four Peter Pan jelly donuts in the span of 24 hours. It really is the most wonderful time of year.

On that note, we have a modified Hot Pod schedule for the next two weeks. We’ll have a Thursday issue for HP Insiders and be off Friday. Next week, we’ll only be publishing on Wednesday. And I am not saying that I hope you don’t read any of them, but I do hope you take some well-deserved time with loved ones and away from the internet.

Today, Spotify flirts with an Anchor rebrand, and Angela Merkel loves true crime. Who knew?

Anchor may be getting a rebrand

Spotify simply loves a user...

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The Verge’s 2022 holiday gift guide for kids

Photography by Joel Goldberg for The Verge

From toddler-friendly tech to analog items that have stood the test of time, we’ve collected a host of gift ideas fit for kids of all ages.

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Delta will reportedly make its in-flight Wi-Fi free

Who doesn’t like free Wi-Fly? | Photo by Urbanandsport/NurPhoto via Getty Images

Delta Air Lines is reportedly planning to make in-flight Wi-Fi free on a “significant portion” of its planes starting early next year, according to a report from The Wall Street Journal. The company has reportedly been running tests where anyone who’s a member of its free-to-join SkyMiles rewards program gets free access to the internet while in the air, but it seems as if that perk may become much more widely available soon.

Delta is expected to roll out the free Wi-Fi to an increasing number of planes in its fleet throughout 2023, according to the Journal. If it does, it could solve one of the major pain points of trying to stay connected while flying: inconsistency — not in the sense that in-flight Wi-Fi can often be unreliable or...

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Apple’s self-repair program now includes recent Mac desktops

Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge

Apple’s self-service repair program has just been expanded to include the company’s lineup of M1-powered desktop Macs. As noted by Six Colors, customers in the US can now order genuine repair parts for the iMac, Mac Mini, and Mac Studio. The Studio Display has also been added to the program.

You can browse the collection of repair manuals for all of these products on Apple’s website; in fact, you must go through the manual if you want to take advantage of the self-service repair program.

The program is only recommended for people comfortable with carrying out these repairs, which involve dozens of steps, require the use of advanced tools, and can be very time-consuming. If you’re not intimidated by what you see in the manuals, the cost...

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PUBG Mobile continues push into music with new record label

Image: Krafton

PUBG Mobile’s latest major addition isn’t a new weapon, map, or crossover but an entire music label made just for the game. The new label is called “Beat Drop,” and while that’s an admittedly clever pun, we still don’t know much about what it will actually mean for artists or players.

Big live service games are increasingly using in-game music to encourage players to hop in. PUBG Mobile hosted its first virtual concert this year with the K-pop girl group Blackpink. Roblox has hosted concerts with artists like Royal Blood and Lil Nas X. Fortnite is famous for its elaborate in-game shows featuring people as big as Marshmello and Ariana Grande, and the game even lets you listen to real-world music when you hop in a car and flip on the...

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Blizzard offers Overwatch 2 holiday skin for cheap amid pricing controversy

Image: Blizzard

From now until January 3rd, Overwatch 2 players can get a pretty sweet (heh) Gingerbread Bastion skin for the low, low, low price of one Overwatch coin. While the skin is yet another example of the Overwatch design team really nailing it, players might find themselves balking at the price. Not because it’s so cheap but because the offer seems like a poke in the eye, given the ongoing conversation regarding the game’s new monetization system.

Before Overwatch 2 took the game free to play, players had the opportunity to win new skins via loot box. And, if luck wasn’t on their side, loot boxes also spat out fair chunks of premium currency that players could use to purchase a skin outright. In Overwatch 2’s new monetization scheme, players...

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Cruise’s driverless robotaxis are accepting passengers in Phoenix and Austin

Image: Getty

Cruise is delivering on its promise to expand its robotaxi service to two new markets before the end of the year. For years, Cruise has operated its autonomous ridehail service exclusively in San Francisco. But earlier this year, the GM-backed company said it would launch in Phoenix, Arizona, and Austin, Texas, before the end of 2022.

On Tuesday, Cruise CEO Kyle Vogt tweeted a short video of passengers from those two cities raving about its fully driverless vehicles as proof of a promise delivered. “Folks, we are entering the golden years of AV expansion,” he added.

We promised we’d go driverless in 3 cities by the end of this year, and WE DID IT! @Cruise is now live in SF, Austin, and Phoenix.

Folks, we are entering the golden years...

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Lionel Messi beats an egg on Instagram

The award he’s holding pales in comparison to the internet clout he just got. | Photo by Marcelo Endelli / Getty Images

In addition to a World Cup and a full set of other soccer (aka football) awards, Lionel Messi has taken another crown: the person with the most-liked post on Instagram. The pictures he posted after the Argentine team won the 2022 men’s World Cup have racked up almost 64 million likes. That’s enough to beat the former record-holder, a stock photo of an egg on a white background with a caption that starts, “Let’s set a world record together and get the most liked post on Instagram.”

The egg’s record has stood since early 2019 after it beat out a post from Kylie Jenner by racking up 19 million likes. At time of writing, it has around 57 million likes.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Leo Messi...

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‘We might be wrong, but we’re not confused’: how Tomer Cohen, chief product officer at LinkedIn, figures out what works best

Image illustration by William Joel / The Verge

We dive into managing the relationships between designers, engineers, and PMs.

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The Hyundai Kona is the latest mid-price EV to get a glow-up

Image: Hyundai

More weird cars? Yes. More weird cars, please.

The Hyundai Kona is a small crossover that could never really be described as “weird.” But practical and economical? Certainly, even in all-electric form where it undercut the larger Hyundai Ioniq 5 EV by tens of thousands of dollars.

Now, it’s getting some downright cyberpunk looks to go with all of that pragmatism. Hyundai just unveiled the all-new 2024 Kona, and a “futuristic design” is on the menu for this otherwise humble car that currently starts in the low $20,000 range. And it’s yet another design win from Hyundai, which is outdoing a lot of other car companies in that department as of late.

It’s yet another design win from Hyundai

Like the outgoing car, the new Kona comes in four...

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US Postal Service to purchase 66,000 electric delivery vehicles in major shift

The USPS’s “Next Generation Delivery Vehicle” built by Oshkosh | Image: USPS

The United States Postal Service said that it will add 66,000 fully electric delivery vehicles to its aging and polluting fleet of trucks. The mail agency agreed to spend $9.6 billion on 106,000 “next generation delivery vehicles,” which includes $3 billion secured through the Biden administration’s Inflation Reduction Act. After 2026, USPS will only purchase EVs.

It’s a significant shift from the USPS’s previous proposal, which included only 40 percent EVs out of a full order of 84,000 delivery vehicles. And that deal came after an even less climate-friendly one that would have only seen 10,019 EVs being added to the fleet. But the constant pushback from Democrats and the Biden administration, which is requiring all federal vehicle...

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This year’s Apple Watches won’t piggyback off your phone’s GPS

All of the 2022 models will use built-in GPS sensors 100 percent of the time, even if you have your iPhone on hand.

If you’re thinking of buying a new Apple Watch, there’s something you should know about the GPS tracking. Apple has confirmed that the Apple Watch Series 8, second-gen SE, and Ultra won’t piggyback off your iPhone’s GPS signal if your phone is nearby. Instead, all three will rely on their built-in GPS sensors. Older models, however, will still use your iPhone’s GPS when possible.

While this change wasn’t a secret, it flew under the radar because of flashier updates like Crash Detection, temperature sensors, and, well, the Ultra’s entire existence. However, DC Rainmaker — a well-respected sports and endurance tech reviewer — spotted that Apple made it official by adding a line to an Apple Watch support page.

* Apple Watch Ultra, Series...

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Facing mounting legal battles, 3M quits forever chemicals

A 3M plant during the pilot installation of a PFAS purification method in Antwerp on September 27th, 2022. | Photo by Nicolas Maeterlinck / BELGA / AFP via Getty Images

3M plans to phase out “forever chemicals” over the next few years, the manufacturing giant announced today. The announcement comes as the company faces a slew of lawsuits over its toxic legacy with per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, also known as PFAS or forever chemicals.

Specifically, 3M says it will discontinue the use of forever chemicals in its portfolio of products and “exit all PFAS manufacturing by the end of 2025.” Currently, 3M nets around $1.3 billion in annual sales of PFAS it manufactures. The chemicals have gone into many of its most iconic products over the years, including Scotchgard fabric protector. In the 1960s, the company also worked with the Navy to develop firefighting foam using PFAS.

“PFAS are critical in the...

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Elon Musk started looking for a new Twitter CEO before polling the site’s users

Illustration by Laura Normand / The Verge

That poll that Elon Musk posted to Twitter Sunday evening? Asking whether he should stay on as CEO of Twitter or appoint someone else? The one where he said he would “abide by the results” no matter how it turned out? The one where nearly 58 percent of participants said, yes, please step down already?

It was probably mostly meaningless. According to CNBC’s David Faber, whose reporting is pretty reliable on this kind of stuff, Musk has been actively searching for a replacement even before posting the poll. In fact, that search has been “ongoing,” Faber writes. How ongoing? Faber doesn’t say, but Musk hasn’t been exactly shy about describing his tenure at Twitter as only temporary.

Musk hasn’t been exactly shy about describing his tenure...

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Here’s what it’s like to wear the Dyson Zone

Unlike Bane, no one cared who I was, even after I put on the mask.

I channeled my inner Bane, but not a single jaded New Yorker gave Dyson’s wearable air purifier a second glance.

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Google search is getting better at displaying bilingual results

The new bilingual search function is available in India first and will display search results in both English and Hindi in certain regions. | Illustration: The Verge

Google is improving how Google search presents information in two languages, alongside developing its voice search feature to understand inquiries that use a mix of languages.

Search results in the knowledge graph box and some sections like “Top stories” and “People also ask” will be displayed in both English and Hindi in Hindi-speaking regions of India, regardless of which language the user used to make the search. The new bilingual search function is available in India first with plans to add Tamil, Telugu, Marathi, and Bengali sometime next year. The feature is location-based, which means you may already have access to it if Google recognizes you’re located in a region of India where Hindi is a dominant language.

I...

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Akira Toriyama’s Sand Land will be Bandai Namco’s next big multimedia project

Image: Bandai Namco

Bandai Namco is looking to adapt another major work from Dragon Ball creator Akira Toriyama. The company has announced a push to develop Sand Land, a manga written by Toriyama in 2000, into what it describes as “a full IP.”

That will start with an animated film adaptation. No other specific projects were announced, but given the company’s history — both with Dragon Ball and the massive success of titles like Elden Ring — it’s safe to say that video games are likely to be part of the project as well.

You can get a sense of the world of Sand Land in the brief teaser above. Here’s the official description:

In a desert world where both demons and humans suffer from an extreme water shortage, Beelzebub, the prince of demons, and Rao, a...

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Sensual ASMR has boomed on YouTube — but creators are facing a crackdown

Kristen Radtke / The Verge; Photos: Getty Images

A popular niche risks running afoul of the site’s rules against ‘sexually gratifying’ content.

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Two of our favorite 8BitDo controllers got a rare discount on Amazon

The 8BitDo Pro 2 is the best pro controller for the Nintendo Switch and a number of other consoles. | Image: Sam Byford

If you’re in the market for a versatile controller that doesn’t cost a grip, 8BitDo currently has a couple of models on sale you might be interested in. On sale for $39.99 at Amazon and Best Buy (normally $49.99), we consider the 8BitDo Pro 2 to be the best pro controller for the Nintendo Switch, even though it performs just as well with a variety of platforms, including Windows, macOS, and mobile devices.

The Pro 2 is modeled after the classic SNES controller but includes a pair of grips for enhanced comfort. It also includes an additional pair of front triggers to support modern controller layouts and two back paddles as well. All of the inputs on the Pro 2 can be remapped using the 8BitDo app. You can learn more about it in our full...

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This mechanical keyboard has a whole-ass screen underneath its keys

The Centerpiece’s screen appears to dynamically respond to keypresses. | Image: Finalmouse

Boutique gaming mouse manufacturer Finalmouse has big plans for its first foray into the mechanical keyboard market. Its Finalmouse Centerpiece is an eye-catching $349 keyboard that has a screen embedded underneath its transparent keycaps and switches. The effect is that it looks like you’re typing on the screen directly, while (hopefully) maintaining the feel and tactility of traditional mechanical switches.

There’s been at least one similar attempt at this idea made in the past: the Optimus Popularis. But while the Popularis used its screen (which was only visible through its individual transparent keys) to display useful information like keyboard shortcuts, Finalmouse’s seems to be far more cosmetic.

Introducing:

Centerpiece.

A...

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Amazon and EU reach agreement to try to level the playing field for third-party sellers

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

Amazon and European Union regulators have reached an agreement over two long-running antitrust cases, the European Commission has announced, which it’s hoped will help make third-party sellers more competitive on Amazon’s marketplace. The agreement means Amazon will avoid fines that had the potential to stretch into the billions of dollars, but it has agreed to make a series of legally binding commitments that it will have to abide by for up to seven years.

The commitments come in three broad parts that are consistent with those that were made public in July this year. First, Amazon has agreed not to use nonpublic data from independent sellers on its Marketplace platform to make decisions like which products to launch or what prices to...

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Successes of 2022: iOS 16’s amazing lock screen customization

Micha Huigen / The Verge

In 2022, Apple introduced iOS 16, which brought with it vastly improved lock screens — and made the iPhone so much better.

With iOS 16, you can now set things on your lock screen, like different clock fonts, lock screen widgets, and new wallpapers, in just a few taps. Anytime I want to give my iPhone a fresh coat of paint, I can do it right from the same screen I see every time I wake my phone — without having to dive into settings. And even better, when you start to make a new wallpaper, the page contains a bunch of suggestions and options to help you decide what it might look like.

Want a lock screen focused on the weather? Apple has a recommendation for that. Want a fancy pattern of emoji? There are a bunch of patterns to pick from,...

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WhatsApp adds undo button for your message deletion mishaps

Accidental Delete grants users a five-second window to restore incorrectly deleted messages. | Image: WhatsApp

WhatsApp has rolled out a new feature that allows users to restore deleted messages on the platform. Accidental Delete grants users a five-second window to bring back messages, acting as a safety net for WhatsApp users to correct mistaken deletions or reselect how they want a message to be deleted.

There are currently two options available for deleting messages on WhatsApp: “Delete for me” (which hides the message from yourself but keeps it visible for everyone else) and “Delete for everyone.” Previously, if a user accidentally selected “Delete for me” instead of “Delete for everyone,” there was no way to access the message and select the correct deletion option — a distressing situation if you need to remove something sensitive from a...

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Congress blew its last chance to curb Big Tech’s power

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

Tech platforms spent millions opposing sweeping antitrust reforms, and their lobbyists may soon be able to breathe a giant sigh of relief — at least for the next few years.

Early Tuesday morning, the House Committee on Appropriations released a more than 4,000-page bill stacked with congressional priorities. But notably, a pair of antitrust bills that received broad bipartisan support was not included in the final measure. The bills were approved out of the Senate Judiciary Committee nearly a year ago, but they haven’t yet been brought up for a floor vote. As part of a last-ditch effort to approve the bills, lawmakers tried to attach them to the must-pass spending bill, but the effort did not receive the backing necessary from...

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