TikTok is expanding its state-controlled media label to more countries

Illustration by Nick Barclay / The Verge

TikTok is adding labels to state-affiliated media outlets in more markets following an initial pilot program announced last March.

The company first announced the labels in response to the war in Ukraine, saying it was “expediting” the rollout of the program with the pilot in Russia, Ukraine, and Belarus. Several government-controlled Russian outlets like RT, RIA Novosti, and TASS have been labeled under the policy so far.

Image: TikTok

The label appears on profiles and videos.

Now, TikTok will expand the labels to 40 markets beginning immediately, with more to come in the future. The criteria for the label take into consideration things like editorial independence, coverage, journalistic conduct, and...

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BBC apologizes after live broadcast sabotaged by X-rated Brazilian meme

The BBC Sport hosts struggled to remain composed while audio from a Brazillian meme played repeatidly from a concealed mobile device in the studio. | Image: BBC Sport

BBC Sport’s coverage of an FA Cup soccer match was interrupted yesterday after distorted audio from a porn video was played during a live broadcast. Studio staff were initially unable to locate the source of the noise, which started shortly after the show began and played repeatedly for around 15 minutes.

Host Gary Lineker speculated while on air that “Somebody’s sending something on someone’s phone, I think.” While disrupted, the hosts appeared in good spirits during the show, with Lineker later referring to Liverpool’s opening goal as “a screamer ... which was not the only one we’ve had tonight.”

Well, we found this taped to the back of the set. As sabotage goes it was quite amusing. pic.twitter.com/ikUhBJ38Je

— Gary Lineker ...

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Galaxy S23 spec leak leaves few surprises ahead of February launch

A leaked image of the Galaxy S23 Plus (left) and Galaxy S23. | Image: WinFuture

Spec sheets for all three devices in Samsung’s upcoming flagship smartphone lineup, the Galaxy S23 series, appear to have leaked online. If legitimate (which they appear to be) they give a more or less complete picture of what we should expect from Samsung’s new phones ahead of their February 1st launch; detailing everything from their screen and battery specs through to their cameras.

WinFuture has a complete rundown of the specs of the Galaxy S23 and S23 Plus, which corroborate those published on Twitter by leaker billbil-kun, who also has official-looking information on Samsung’s high-end Galaxy S23 Ultra.

Official Technical Sheet for Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra (always for France)

So we can confirm that there will be a 1TB version...

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Wednesday’s top tech news: layoffs come for Microsoft

Illustration: The Verge

Plus good news if you want to repair a Galaxy S22, but bad news if you’re counting down the days to Apple’s AR glasses.

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Logitech’s new $69.99 webcam is a stylish alternative to its aging C920s

Logitech’s new Brio 300 webcam. | Image: Logitech

Logitech is adding a new webcam to its Brio lineup in the form of the Brio 300. At $69.99 (£74.99), it’s at the low end of Logitech’s Brio lineup and only offers up to 1080p / 30fps capture rather than 4K / 30fps or 1080 / 60fps like the $199.99 Brio 4K Pro. It has a single microphone built in and is available in a choice of gray, off-white, or pink. Alongside the Brio 300, Logitech has also announced a business-focused variant, the Brio 305.

The Brio 300’s price and specs put it in the same ballpark as Logitech’s ubiquitous C920s Pro HD webcam, which also has an MSRP of $69.99. But the Brio 300 benefits from a sleeker, more modern design and a neatly integrated privacy shutter that can be manually swiveled around to cover its camera...

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Apple reportedly shelved its plans to release AR glasses any time soon

Illustration by Nick Barclay / The Verge

Another Apple rumor from Bloombergreporter Mark Gurman focuses on the company’s efforts to create game-changing augmented reality glasses that could make picking up your iPhone obsolete — if they’re ever built.

The race to develop consumer-friendly AR glasses is in full swing, despite notable misfires like Google’s abandoned Glass project and Microsoft’s now enterprise- and military-focused HoloLens.

Meta, Google, and others are working on similar projects with names like Project Iris and Nazare, but now Gurman reports Apple’s plan to release a set of glasses following the launch of its first mixed reality project — a high-end headset set to debut this year — had already slipped from 2023 to 2025 and is now on hold indefinitely.

A...

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Now Twitter is selling one year of blue check privileges at a discounted rate of $84

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

Ever since Elon Musk took over Twitter, one of his aims has been to build up its subscription business, launching a revamped Twitter Blue package that gives subscribers a “verified” checkmark, reduced ads, preferential treatment by its algorithm, and other benefits. The subscription, which is still available only via iOS or the web, now offers a discounted annual subscription for customers, which you can pick instead of the $8 per month web pricing or $11 iOS price that shifts Apple’s 30 percent fee to the consumer.

If you’d like to kick in some extra funds right away, Twitter Blue annual subscriptions are available on the web for $84 per year, saving you a little over 12 percent compared to paying for a monthly web subscription — or 36...

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Firefox found a way to keep ad-blockers working with Manifest V3

Image: Mozilla

Firefox’s version 109 update, released on Tuesday, includes a new extensions system that sparked years of controversy when it was adopted for Google Chrome, due to the fact that it nerfed some ad-blockers. However, Mozilla promises that its version will still let users “access the most effective privacy tools” and ad-blockers, while still maintaining the cross-compatibility that will let developers easily port their software between browsers.

(While Google hasn’t pulled the plug on the system that lets ad-blockers operate as they have been, users do still have to deal with the threat of that happening. It’s currently unclear if Google will wind up keeping the system that’s currently letting them run.)

In a Tuesday blog post explaining...

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You can finally repair your own Samsung Galaxy S22

Taking the USB-C charging board out is Step 39 of 60 when trying to tear down to the Screen / Battery assembly of a Galaxy S22 Ultra. | Image: iFixit / Samsung

Samsung is finally adding Galaxy S22 parts and manuals to the self-repair program it established last year with partner iFixit. Just as we’re preparing for the Unpacked event that will launch the Galaxy S23, customers can now get access to genuine replacement parts for the S22, S22 Plus, and S22 Ultra, as well as the Galaxy Book Pro (15-inch) and Pro 360 notebooks.

When Samsung first launched the self-repair program in August, customers only had access to limited OEM parts like replacement back covers, USB-C charge ports, and screens for previous generation Galaxy S20 and S21 devices, as well as the Tab S7. Even with the addition of S22 devices, not much has changed in terms of what customers can officially fix.

Samsung Galaxy S22...

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Now DoorDash will deliver Starbucks across the US, too

Image: DoorDash

DoorDash will soon start delivering Starbucks food and drinks in all 50 US states, the company announced in a blog post. The service will initially roll out to Northern California, Texas, Georgia, and Florida before expanding into the rest of the US in March.

Through the partnership, users can place orders with the DoorDash app instead of the Starbucks app. Starbucks says it’ll make about 95 percent of “its core menu” available through the service and will let customers customize their orders as if they were using Starbucks’ own app.

While DoorDash first started delivering Starbucks products last year, the program was only limited to select cities, including Atlanta, Houston, Sacramento, Seattle, Portland, and New York City.

Meanwhile,...

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Now there are even fewer reasons to get a Fitbit smartwatch

Music playback was one of the reasons to pick up an older Fitbit smartwatch. Not anymore. | Photo by Brent Rose for The Verge

The writing is on the wall for Fitbit smartwatches. Today, the company announced its ending support for Pandora and Deezer on the Sense, Versa 2, and Versa 3 smartwatches. While you can still control media on your phone from the wrist, Fitbit users will no longer be able to download Pandora stations or add Deezer playlists to their smartwatches. That means that after March 31st, no Fitbit smartwatch will support onboard music.

Per 9to5Google, Fitbit sent out an email stating that support for Pandora and Deezer will end as of March 31st. At that point, Fitbit users won’t be able to add new music content from those services. They also won’t be able to play anything that was previously downloaded. While Pandora and Deezer might not be as...

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Samsung will unveil two ‘premium’ mobile devices at Unpacked, says TM Roh

The Galaxy S22 Ultra marked a turn in the product line’s evolution as it gobbled up the Note series. | Photo by Allison Johnson / The Verge

Samsung has just published a blog post by TM Roh setting the stage for February 1st, when the company will hold its first in-person launch event since the start of the pandemic. Roh doesn’t offer many concrete details but specifically mentions improvements to its smartphone camera system and tells us to expect two new devices that “set the new premium standard for innovation.”

Reading between the lines, it looks like that means two new Ultra devices — a lot like last year when we got the Note-esque S22 Ultra and massive Tab S8 Ultra tablet.

TM Roh:

For Samsung, Ultra means big. Ultra means bold. Ultra means the best of the best in performance.

To take everyday experiences further, we redefine the essentials.

The upcoming Galaxy is...

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Tesla staged Autopilot demo video, says director of software

Image: Tesla

Tesla’s much-hyped video of its Autopilot driver-assist system “driving by itself” from 2016 was not actually driving itself, according to Ashok Elluswamy, Tesla’s director of Autopilot software.

In a recent deposition, Elluswamy said that the video titled “Full Self-Driving Hardware on All Teslas” was intended to “portray what was possible to build the system” rather than what customers could actually expect the system to do.

The video, which Tesla CEO Elon Musk tweeted a link to saying that “Tesla drives itself,” shows a Tesla driving and parking itself, avoiding obstacles, and obeying red and green lights. The video starts with a title card saying that “the person in the driver’s seat is only there for legal reasons” and that “he is...

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New podcast creation has fallen off a cliff

Illustration by Kristen Radtke / The Verge; Getty Images

Hope you all had a great weekend! We’ve got some big Hot Pod Summit updates for you all, as well as the latest in audio news. Today, Audible lands another star, Spotify experiences another outage, and creators stop bothering to make podcasts when it is so hard to get anyone to listen to them.

Who will be at Hot Pod Summit?

Hot Pod Summit in Brooklyn is coming up fast, and we’ve been working hard getting the lineup together. I am really excited about who we have so far, and I hope you will be, too! Summit headliners include:

• Spotify’s global head of audiobooks, Nir Zicherman.
• Dan Zitt, senior vice president of content production at Penguin Random House Audio.
• Gretchen Rubin, author of The Happiness Project and host of the Happier...

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2023 will be the year of the display

Razer’s Blade 16 is only one of the gaming laptops with decked-out screens coming in 2023. | Photo by Owen Grove / The Verge

The laptops of 2023 will get new chips and new graphics. Many will get new touchpads, some will get new fans, and a few will get funky styluses. But some of the coolest, weirdest, and most exciting updates are coming to screens.

Just a couple years ago, buying a high-end laptop display — particularly for gaming — meant figuring out your priorities. You could have a high resolution or a high refresh rate. You could have OLED or a device that was actually affordable.

This year, we’re seeing more of those benefits converge. There are more laptops coming that are both high-refresh-rate and high-resolution than ever before. We’re seeing those elements combined with features that have been unusual and niche on laptops in the past, such as...

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You might need a new PC to play Forspoken properly

Image: Square Enix

From the beginning, Forspoken was pitched as a technological showcase for PS5 and PC, offering the latest in SSD game load times and AI upscaling technology. But until today, it hadn’t quite sunk in just how much power the “magical parkour” game will demand. Square Enix has now revealed the PC system requirements, and I’m honestly not sure my midrange gaming rig can handle it.

The minimum spec requires a 3.7GHz Core i7 CPU or better, 16GB of RAM, and 150GB of hard drive space to — I kid you not — play this game at a measly 720p resolution at just 30 frames per second.

Screenshot by Sean Hollister / The Verge

Forspoken’s PC system requirements... start out at 720p 30fps. That’s low.

The recommended spec is...

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How to activate Bluetooth on your Stadia controller

Once the Stadia service goes down on January 18th, 2023, this controller is useless. That is, unless you turn on its Bluetooth mode before the end of the year. | Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge

Google is turning off its Stadia cloud game streaming service on January 18th, 2023, but it’s giving the wireless Stadia controller a second chance as a Bluetooth controller that can be connected to PCs, Macs, phones, and presumably other devices, too. The change won’t happen automatically; it’s a manual process that can’t be reversed. What’s more, you only have until December 31st, 2023, to do the switch, and after that date, any unconverted Stadia controller you have will just be a gamepad-shaped paperweight.

I’m going to walk you through the process for converting your Stadia controller by using Google’s browser-based tool.

Charge your controller, plug it in, and open the tool

• Make sure your controller is charged above the 10...

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Discord acquires Gas, the popular app for teens to compliment each other

High schoolers have been gassing each other up in this popular app. | Image: Gas

Discord has acquired the Gas social app. The poll-based app has become popular among teens in recent months, allowing friends to share compliments with each other. The app is designed for anonymous compliments and positive affirmations or, as kids say, gassing your friends up.

Gas has polls that ask users to vote for things like the most beautiful person they’ve met or the classmate that isn’t afraid to get in trouble. It has soared in popularity among high schoolers since launching in August. One of the co-creators of TBH, a very similar teenager app acquired and shut down by Facebook, created Gas, which has caught the attention of more than 1 million daily active users and 30,000 new users per hour in October.

“Gas’ founders have a...

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Microsoft set to lay off thousands of employees tomorrow

The Verge

Microsoft is preparing to announce job cuts tomorrow. Sky News reports that thousands of roles will be cut, with the software giant said to be looking at cutting around 5 percent of its workforce. With more than 220,000 employees at Microsoft, that could mean more than 10,000 layoffs.

While Sky News doesn’t name an exact date for the expected cuts, a source familiar with Microsoft’s plans tells The Verge that the company will likely announce layoffs on Wednesday, ahead of its quarterly earnings next week.

Bloomberg is also reporting that a number of layoffs will be announced in Microsoft’s engineering divisions tomorrow. The job cuts are said to be “significantly larger” than the 1 percent cut to Microsoft’s workforce last year. The...

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Coachella will continue streaming on YouTube through 2026

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

Can’t fly to California for Coachella? No problem. You’ll still be able to stream the annual arts and music festival live from the comfort of your own home for at least another few years.

YouTube and Coachella organizers Goldenvoice announced on YouTube’s official blog that they’ve renewed their exclusive partnership through 2026. As a result, fans around the world will continue to stream the festival live for free from YouTube as well as watch on-demand videos of performances.

“Our partnership with YouTube brings Coachella to everyone around the world,” said Goldenvoice president Paul Tollett. “The 2023 lineup sees performers from Brazil, France, Iceland, India, Jamaica, Nigeria, Puerto Rico, South Korea, Spain, and beyond, and...

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Here are the best Kindle deals right now

The 2021 Kindle Paperwhite is on sale as part of a discounted bundle starting at $169.97. | Photo by Chaim Gartenberg / The Verge

When it comes to finding a device to use to read your ebooks, you have a few options to choose from. You can always buy a tablet or use your phone, but those devices are multipurpose and can be used for a ton of things, like surfing the web or doom-scrolling on Twitter. If you are looking for something to strictly read books, e-readers, while niche, are designed to store all of your books in a virtual library with limited functionality.

Amazon, one of the pioneers of the e-reader, has dominated the space for years with its ever-expanding Kindle lineup, which consists of several unique models with their own pros and cons. The bulk of the devices function as simple ebook readers; however, with the Kindle Scribe, Amazon looks to be moving...

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The Willow breast pump now has an Apple Watch app to make pumping slightly less terrible

The Willow 3.0 in-bra breast pump now comes with a handy Apple Watch companion app. | Image: Willow

The Willow 3.0 in-bra breast pump is designed to help nursing parents carry on with their lives while pumping, and its latest new feature adds an extra level of convenience: a companion app for the Apple Watch. The app lets you change modes, control suction, and track your sessions without having to fiddle with the pump itself or pick up your phone. That doesn’t sound particularly earth-shattering, but in case you weren’t aware, I’ll let you in on a little secret: breast pumping is awful, and anything that makes it a little less awful is a godsend.

Throughout much of recent history, using a breast pump meant stopping everything that you’re doing every few hours to sit tethered to a bowling ball-sized contraption plugged into a wall...

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Twitter says it’s intentionally blocking apps like Tweetbot

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

Twitter confirmed that it’s purposefully blocking third-party apps like Tweetbot and Twitterific following days of silence. In a post on Twitter, the company writes that it’s “enforcing its long-standing API rules,” which “may result in some apps not working.”

While the statement confirms suspicions that Twitter had been purposefully locking users out of third-party Twitter clients, it doesn’t even contain a link to the rules that Twitter’s referring to and still doesn’t tell us anything about what’s really going on. This is the first time Twitter’s acknowledging the issue since apps started breaking last Thursday.

Twitter is enforcing its long-standing API rules. That may result in some apps not working.

— Twitter Dev (@TwitterDev) J...

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Google’s Stadia Controller Bluetooth support is available now

Image: Google

Google’s Stadia Controller Bluetooth support tool is now live, allowing all Stadia controllers to connect to PCs and other devices with Bluetooth Low Energy. Google’s tool to update Stadia controllers works over the web using Chrome, so it should work for both Windows and macOS users without the need to download an app.

The tool itself will disable the proprietary Wi-Fi connectivity on the Stadia Controller and replace it with Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) instead. That means if you want to use Stadia for one final time today or tomorrow, you’ll need to wait to run the update, as it’ll disable the controller’s connectivity with Google’s servers.

Disabling the Wi-Fi connectivity also means that many workarounds will no longer function. Some...

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FEC dismisses GOP complaint that Google censored fundraising emails in Gmail

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

The Federal Elections Commission dismissed a Republican-led complaint that Google’s filters in Gmail unfairly send GOP fundraising emails to spam folders at a higher rate than those from Democrats.

The Wall Street Journal was the first to report the FEC’s dismissal on Tuesday, citing a commission letter to Google earlier this month saying that it “found no reason to believe” that Google’s spam filtering algorithms were unfairly weighted against Republicans and could be considered in-kind corporate contributions to Democrats.

The Commission’s bipartisan decision to dismiss this complaint reaffirms that Gmail does not filter emails for political purposes,” José Castañeda, a Google spokesperson, said in a statement to The Verge Tuesday....

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The Samsung Galaxy Watch 5 is getting a battery diagnostic tool

Battery life was the most disappointing thing about the Samsung Galaxy Watch 5 at launch. | Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge

Battery life was one of the most disappointing things about the Samsung Galaxy Watch 5. Despite Samsung touting bigger upgraded batteries for the Watch 5 series, the claims didn’t hold up in our initial testing. However, it looks like Samsung is adding a tool that lets you check your Watch 5’s battery health from your phone. It won’t entirely fix the issue, but it’ll at least help users better maintain their watches.

9to5Google first spotted support for the tool in the Watch 5 series’ most recent update. While the feature isn’t live yet, it’ll be called “connected device diagnostics” and works through the Samsung Members app. On top of battery health, the diagnostic tool will also let you run tests on the touchscreen and other features...

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How to buy Apple’s new M2-powered MacBook Pros and Mac Mini

The new 14- and 16-inch MacBook Pros are accompanied by a new Mac Mini. | Image: Apple

Apple’s freshly announced MacBook Pro laptops and Mac Mini desktop now come equipped with M2 processors, and these new computers are already available to order. Here’s the lowdown on what these new machines offer and where you can order them right now so you get yours right away.

While these new Macs look a whole lot like the previous M1 models they are replacing, Apple claims that this spec-bump generation means a lot for processing power and battery longevity for the MacBooks. We’ll have to review them to see just how improved they really are, but if you’re in the market for being an early adopter, here’s where to buy these computers that are all scheduled to ship on January 24th.

Image: Apple

A top-level view...

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Wyze’s two new security cameras can be paired together for live multiview streaming

The Wyze Cam OG (pictured left) and the Wyze Cam OG Telephoto 3x (right) can be used independently or paired together to make full use of the former’s built-in spotlight and the latter’s 3x telephoto lens. | Image: Wyze

Smart home company Wyze has released two new budget security cameras that aren’t short of features. The Wyze Cam OG and the Cam OG Telephoto 3x will serve as a new camera line that provides similar features to the Wyze Cam v3 at a more affordable price.

The $19.99 Wyze Cam OG comes equipped with an integrated motion-activated 40-lumen spotlight to pick up greater image detail and help deter unauthorized individuals from your property, while the $29.99 Wyze Cam OG Telephoto 3x instead provides a zoom lens to help users get a clearer view of distant areas such as a mailbox, garage, or shed.

Image: Wyze

Each camera provides a different security feature, with the Wyze Cam OG’s spotlight helping to illuminate footage...

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Don’t forget about Persona 3

Persona 3 Portable. | Image: Atlus

The 2017 release of Persona 5, which turned the once cult series into a mainstream hit, was a long time coming. Its predecessor, Persona 4, was a big moment, particularly the refined Golden edition that became a must-own for PlayStation Vita owners. But it was 2007’s Persona 3 that laid the groundwork for the series’ successful future and its distinctive mash-up of high school life simulator and demonic dungeon crawler.

Now modern audiences can finally see what the fuss is about: both Persona 3 Portable and Persona 4 Golden launch this week on PC and a pretty wide range of consoles, including the Nintendo Switch, Xbox, and PS4. (They’ll also both be available to Game Pass subscribers.) For those jumping back in time after getting started...

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Elon Musk’s securities fraud trial starts today — here’s what you need to know

Kristen Radtke / The Verge; Getty Images

Before Elon Musk bought Twitter and ran it off a cliff, he used the social media platform to post an incredibly ill-considered tweet that ended up costing him millions of dollars and a coveted job title. Today, a trial in San Francisco related to that tweet is getting underway — the outcome of which could cost Musk money and status, depending on how it turns out.

Of course, I’m referring to his infamous “funding secured” tweet in which he said he was considering taking Tesla private at $420 a share.

It was later revealed that Musk had not actually secured the funding. After an investigation, the SEC fined him $40 million, and Musk was forced to step down as chair of Tesla’s board. Amazingly, the tweet continues to haunt him to this day:...

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