Cerebral admits to sharing patient data with Meta, TikTok, and Google

Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge

Cerebral, a telehealth startup specializing in mental health, says it inadvertently shared the sensitive information of over 3.1 million patients with Google, Meta, TikTok, and other third-party advertisers, as reported earlier by TechCrunch. In a notice posted on the company’s website, Cerebral admits to exposing a laundry list of patient data with the tracking tools it’s been using as far back as October 2019.

The information affected by the oversight includes everything from patient names, phone numbers, email addresses, birth dates, IP addresses, insurance information, appointment dates, treatment, and more. It may have even exposed the answers clients filled out as part of the mental health self-assessment on the company’s website...

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HP is blocking third-party printer ink again

Image: Getty Images

HP is preventing more customers from using third-party ink with their printers. Numerous reports scattered across Reddit, Twitter, and the HP community forum suggest that a recent printer firmware update is blocking the use of non-HP ink as part of the company’s stringent “dynamic security” policy, as first reported by Ars Technica.

First introduced in 2016, dynamic security is part of HP’s cartridge authentication process the company says should “protect the quality of our customer experience, maintain the integrity of our printing systems, and protect our intellectual property.” This means barring the use of ink or toner cartridges that do not contain “new or reused HP chips or electronic circuitry” in some printers, something HP has...

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Ecovacs’ beastly Deebot X1 Omni robot vacuum is $600 off right now

It takes up serious space, but the X1 Omni is a powerful robovac that also doubles as a 2001: A Space Odyssey prop. | Photo by Jennifer Pattison Tuohy

This weekend isn’t just bringing us daylight saving time to once again wreck our sleeping habits, but also a few fresh deals to compliment some highlights from earlier this week that are still available. Today, for example, Ecovacs’ do-everything Deebot X1 Omni robot vacuum is on sale for $999.99 at Amazon and direct from Ecovacs.

It’s a big investment for a vacuum, but you have to consider that’s a $600 discount on a bot that vacuums, mops, cleans its own pads, and empties and refills itself. Robot vacuums are meant to keep your house clean on the regular without you having to lift a finger, and the X1 Omni is more hands-off than most. Plus, it touts other helpful features, including AI obstacle avoidance to prevent it from running over...

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How to edit ProRAW photos on your iPhone

Edit your ProRAW photo like a pro. | Illustration by Samar Haddad / The Verge

Apple’s ProRAW camera feature is a powerful tool to have in your back pocket. An image taken in ProRAW mode combines the same great post-processing flexibility of a traditional RAW file with the benefits of multi-frame computational photography. Kind of the best of both worlds! But once you’ve gone through the steps to enable it on your iPhone and have taken your photo, that’s when the real work starts: processing and converting it to a shareable format like JPEG, PNG, or HEIF.

ProRAW files are saved in Adobe’s ubiquitous DNG format, which is compatible with virtually every RAW photo editing app under the sun. That means you have a lot of options, including just sending the file to a computer and using desktop software. But you don’t...

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This smart oven solved my work-from-home lunchtime conundrum

Tovala reinvents the TV dinner with its connected oven combined with a meal delivery service that cooks healthy, delicious meals in under 20 minutes. But as a smart oven, it’s a disappointment.

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Yes, paper-feel screen protectors for the iPad are good

The right screen protector can make writing on your iPad much more comfortable. | Photo by Dan Seifert / The Verge

Apple’s iPad and Pencil combination makes for an excellent note-taking or digital drawing solution. But even though writing notes or creating art on the iPad has a lot of advantages over using analog pen and paper, the actual feel of writing with a plastic-tipped stylus on the iPad’s smooth glass isn’t great. The hard plastic of the stylus hitting the hard glass of the iPad can be noisy, slippery, and just unpleasant to use if you’re used to writing on paper.

Yet it doesn’t necessarily have to be that way. There is a small cottage industry of paper-feel (or paperlike or paper-type) screen protectors for the iPad that address this issue directly. And as someone who takes handwritten notes on the iPad every single day, I now swear by...

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It’s a great time to start playing Dead Cells

Just me and my bud Alucard. | Screenshot by Jay Peters / The Verge

This week_,_ the indie roguelike Dead Cells got a massive Castlevania-themed expansion, the game’s fourth paid DLC. After years of wanting to play Dead Cells, I’ve finally started in earnest, but I feared I would be overwhelmed by everything that had come before. Turns out that I had nothing to worry about: Dead Cells is smartly designed so that newcomers can jump in and have a blast without already knowing about the game’s worlds, weapons, or mysteries.

As a 2D action game, it’s pretty easy to grasp the basics of Dead Cells. You’ll explore rooms, collect weapons, and use your arsenal to defeat various enemies that are out to get you. The roguelike elements of the game mean that you’ll frequently stumble upon new and better weapons while...

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Ford recalls over a dozen F-150 Lightnings after battery fire, will restart production Monday

Image: Nilay Patel / The Verge

Ford issued a recall notice for 18 F-150 Lightning pickup trucks with defective battery cells, which caused at least one truck to catch fire. The automaker will restart production of the electric truck on Monday, March 13th, with a “clean stock” of battery packs, after a four-week pause of production and shipment to investigate the cause of the defect.

Ford said the “root cause” of the issue was at South Korean battery supplier SK On’s factory in Georgia. In a statement, spokesperson Emma Bergg said that the company was not aware of any reports of accident or injury related to this recall.

“Together with SK On, we have confirmed the root causes and have implemented quality actions,” Bergg said. “Production is on track to resume Monday...

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Going to the movies is becoming a test of what you can afford

Image: The Verge

Back in the Great Depression of the 1930s, people found escape from the bad news of the day by going to the movies. In fact, I can’t count how many movies — Sullivan’s Travels, The Purple Rose of Cairo, Matinee, Cinema Paradiso, just to name a few— are about people going to the movies for entertainment and escape. People stood in line and rushed to get their favorite seats; first come, first served. You’re part of a couple who are both comfortably making six figures? You’re paying off a college loan or trying to make it on your Social Security benefits? Doesn’t matter. You’re entitled to the best seat you can wrangle.

Even when theaters began selling advance reservations, it was still first come, first served — if you wanted to see a...

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Xbox is skipping the E3 2023 show floor

Illustration: Alex Castro / The Verge

Xbox is the latest big gaming brand to officially say that it won’t be on the E3 show floor, confirming the decision to IGN on Friday. Just this week, Microsoft announced the June 11th date for its annual Xbox showcase and a dedicated Starfield show, but we still didn’t know if Xbox would actually be on the floor of this year’s in-person E3 convention.

“We can’t wait to host our Xbox Games Showcase on June 11th and will share more details later,” an Xbox spokesperson said in a statement to IGN. “We also look forward to co-streaming our event as part of E3 Digital and will not be on the E3 show floor.”

In February, Nintendo confirmed that it wouldn’t be a part of E3, which now means that both Nintendo and Microsoft won’t have booths at...

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Rivian says ‘thousands’ of R1T reservation holders will get their trucks within months

Photo by Mitchell Clark / The Verge

For some Rivian R1T reservation holders, the wait is almost over. “Thousands of R1T reservation holders can expect an invitation from us in the coming days,” says Andy Bowman, director of communications at Rivian. “Once their order is confirmed, they can expect to take delivery in the next 1-4 months.”

The announcement comes as the EV startup has struggled to ramp up production, leaving many people on the waitlist for a year or more. The company has a big backlog to work through, too — it’s not sharing how many reservations it has anymore, but last September, the count was around 114,000, according to The Wall Street Journal.

According to a Rivian support article, those who get the invitation to order an R1T will get access to the...

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The best wireless earbuds to buy right now

The current earbuds lineup is the strongest to date.

The best from Apple, Bose, Samsung, Sony, Beats, Google, and more

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Fortnite won’t slow down

Chloe Kim is right at home on the rails. | Image: Epic Games

Fortnite doesn’t seem capable of slowing down — and I’m not just talking about the relentless inclusion of seemingly every piece of modern pop culture. I mean the game itself. Fortnite keeps getting faster, and its latest major update, which ushers in a cyberpunk theme, speeds things up even more.

This is something that has been brewing for some time and really became apparent when Epic added a “zero build” mode to the battle royale. Without that previously defining build feature, Fortnite had to adapt to give players more mobility options: swimming and sprinting, vehicles like cars and dirtbikes. The additions came slow and steady, but eventually, they made the game feel much speedier and more dynamic.

That’s on full display in the new...

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Silicon Valley Bank has failed

Image: Getty Images

Within hours of reports that Silicon Valley Bank was considering a sale after it failed to raise enough money to keep going, state and federal banking regulators shut it down. In an announcement from the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC), the agency said, “All insured depositors will have full access to their insured deposits no later than Monday morning, March 13, 2023.”

Silicon Valley Bank is important for venture capital firms and startups. But as the economy has changed, VC-funded companies burned through their available cash. Simultaneously, VC funding dried up. So Silicon Valley Bank’s deposits dropped faster than the bank anticipated.

After Silicon Valley Bank announced on Wednesday that it had sold $21 billion in...

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Where to preorder the yellow iPhone 14 and iPhone 14 Plus

Apple’s yellow iPhone 14 and iPhone 14 Plus will be available starting Tuesday, March 14th. | Image: Apple

Apple’s iPhone 14 lineup just got a whole lot brighter. Like last spring, the tech giant recently announced that its latest smartphones will now come in a new color: yellow. The bright colorway will only be available for the iPhone 14 and iPhone 14 Plus, not the Pro models, which was the case when Apple debuted the green colorway last year.

Aside from the new look, the phones don’t come with any changes. They still offer the same A15 Bionic chipset and feature set, which includes newer features like car crash detection and Emergency SOS via Satellite. The iPhone 14 Plus remains the larger of the two, with its 6.7-inch screen and longer battery life. The phones are just a little more vibrant and join other shades in Apple’s lineup,...

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Roku’s new super cheap TVs will be Best Buy exclusives, which explains the price

Image: Roku

Roku’s upcoming Select and Plus TV sets will be a Best Buy exclusive, and the streaming hardware company is planning to cross-pollinate its ad data with Best Buy’s own ad system. The partnership includes the whole TV lineup that Roku announced at CES this year, and outside brands can partner with the duo to target product ads to Roku viewers based on their Best Buy shopping habits.

The news comes just as Roku released its system OS 12 software that’s rolling out in the coming weeks. It’ll include new content discovery features, local news channels, and news recommendations that are curated to streamers and is “powered by AI,” according to the press release.

The new system also includes new location-based experiences, which should enable...

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These boots were made for plumbing

A physical recreation of Mario’s boots. | Image: Red Wing Shoes

If you’ve ever wondered what Mario’s shoes would look like in real life, wonder no more. Nintendo partnered with footwear maker Red Wing Shoes to recreate Mario’s boots as shown in The Super Mario Bros. Movie.

To my eyes, they seem like boots for, well, a fictional Italian plumber. But really nice boots, of course — I’d expect nothing less for the man known for traveling across literal galaxies to stomp on sentient mushroom-like beings and evil turtles. Gotta have good shoes for that!

If you want to see the boots for yourself, they’re actually on display at the Nintendo store in New York City right now:

I saw them with my own eyes. This is peak living pic.twitter.com/bDcnSkyjur

— J'97 (@J97gaming) March 10, 2023

But if you aren’t...

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The shift to EVs is slowly killing off AM radio — and that’s bad for emergency broadcasts

Photo by Sean O’Kane / The Verge

AM radio is under the gun, with more and more automakers discontinuing its use, especially as the industry undergoes a rapid shift to electrification. Lawmakers and regulators are worried that the slow demise of AM radio could make it more difficult to broadcast emergency information during a natural disaster or other related events. But automakers are undeterred and seem determined to sweep AM radio into the dustbin of history.

The latest model to hit dealerships without the first-generation radio broadcast technology is the 2024 Ford Mustang, according to Ars Technica,citing Ford Authority. Indeed, Ford was one of eight companies to essentially declare AM radio to be an obsolete technology in their response to Senator Ed Markey’s...

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Why Disney and Comcast still can’t reach an agreement over Hulu

The agreement stipulates that Comcast could still force Disney to buy its stake in Hulu, with a final valuation to be determined by independent analysts nearer the deadline. | Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

Hulu’s fate still hangs in the balance following statements from Disney CEO Bob Iger this week. Speaking at the Morgan Stanley Tech, Media, and Telecom conference on Thursday, Iger said that Disney is still debating whether it will buy out Comcast’s 33 percent stake in Hulu, alluding to the current economic downturn and the company’s own difficulties with Disney Plus.

“What we’re doing right now, because we own two-thirds of Hulu, and we have an agreement with Comcast that may result in us owning 100 percent, is we’re really studying the business very, very carefully,” Iger said. In an interview with CNBClast month, Iger had similarly refuted assumptions that Disney would buy the remaining stake in Hulu, saying “that that is not...

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SodaStream is a bad deal, and everyone should know it

The entire exchange system for these things sucks. Time to go DIY. | Photo: The Verge

Home seltzer mods have been around for years. CO2 is dirt cheap. So why are any of us putting up with a middleman jacking up the price of fizzy water?

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Another tech bank is in deep trouble — but not because of crypto

Image: Michele Doying / The Verge

Two days after Silvergate Bank announced its shutdown in a collapse with deep ties to problems with some of its crypto customers, Silicon Valley Bank is also struggling. Its stock price plunged more than 60 percent before trading was halted on Friday morning. It may sell itself — CNBC reports it’s now in talks to sell itself, and Reuters says that it’s “exploring options, including a sale.”

Silicon Valley Bank is known for serving venture capital firms and the local tech startups those firms invested in. On Wednesday, the bank announced a bunch of bad news. It sold almost all of its securities, some $21 billion worth, at a $1.8 billion loss because deposits dropped quickly. The bank said this was because VC-funded companies were burning...

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The future of TV is up in the air

Illustration by Hugo Herrera / The Verge

Antenna television is back. In recent years, millions of cord-cutters have rediscovered antennas as a reliable way to watch broadcast networks like ABC, NBC, and FOX, all for free — and now, broadcasters are eager to get the rest of us hooked. They’ve been marching ahead with the deployment of ATSC 3.0, a next-generation broadcast format that supports 4K, HDR, Dolby Atmos audio, and even interactive apps over the air, no cable or streaming subscription required.

A little over a year ago, one of the country’s biggest broadcasters made an unexpected acquisition to help bolster the transition: The E.W. Scripps Company, which operates dozens of ABC, NBC and Fox stations as well as a handful of nationwide broadcast networks, quietly bought...

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Nintendo’s Mario-themed Switch is now available (and comes with a free game)

The reddest of reds. | Image: Nintendo

Calling all Mario fans! Today is officially Mario Day, and in honor of the mustachioed little plumber, Nintendo has released a new Mario-themed Nintendo Switch bundle for $299.99. In addition to a standard, non-OLED Switch and a pair of red Joy-Con controllers, the special edition “Mario Choose One” bundle comes with a download code for one of three games: Super Mario Odyssey, Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, or New Super Mario Bros. U Deluxe. You’ll also get a set of stickers from the upcoming Super Mario Bros. Movie, which you can use to tag the included dock, a binder, or... whatever else people tag these days.

If you were looking to buy any of those games and a Switch anyway, this works out to be a nice little deal. They normally retail for...

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Building the perfect boyfriend

For $300, Replika sells a companion who will never die, argue, or cheat — until his algorithm is updated.

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The best noise-canceling headphones to buy right now

Sony’s WH-1000XM5 headphones have an all-new design. | Photo by Chris Welch / The Verge

Get some peace and quiet with the any of our top picks for noise-canceling headphones. Sony’s still the best overall pick, but there are reasons to go elsewhere, too.

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Apple’s climate change drama Extrapolations is earnest and plausible but also has talking whales

Daveed Diggs in Extrapolations_._ | Image: Apple

It takes a while for Extrapolations to get going. The Apple TV Plus drama has an intriguing premise, exploring the future of climate change through various perspectives, with each episode jumping forward a few years to see how things change over time. It’s as much a prestige drama as it is a thought experiment. But those two sides never quite gel. The science makes for plenty of fascinating situations, but it also gets in the way of telling a focused story. Even worse, the show takes itself so seriously that it often descends into being straight-up goofy. This is a plausible vision of our dark future that also has talking whales.

Note: this review is based on the first three episodes of Extrapolations_. It includes very light spoilers for..._

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The Verge’s favorite music for work

The Verge

Some people work at home with a speaker system droning out their favorite background music. Some sit in an open office with a carefully assembled playlist blasting through their headphones. And some scrub the toilet while singing to the latest pop songs vibrating in their earbuds.

While there are people who prefer to work in silence, others feel more comfortable laboring to the beat of their favorite tunes. We asked staff members of The Verge what kind of music — if any — they liked to play while they worked. Here is a sampling of the very varied answers we got.

Focus playlists and / or as much noise as possible

My go-to flow state music for the past five or six years is the 45 Warm Focus playlists from Patrick Ewing’s internet radio...

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Dell’s Latitude 7330 convinced me that business laptops are too expensive

This isn’t a bad laptop, but it is a bad deal.

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Ted Lasso season 3 starts with a full-on existential crisis

Jason Sudeikis in season 3 of Ted Lasso. | Image: Apple

The feel-good sitcom Ted Lasso is based on an absurd premise: an American college football coach takes on manager duties at a small club in the English Premier League, despite knowing almost nothing about soccer. And despite the typically short shelf-life inherent in the job, he managed to keep the gig. People (mostly) love him, the team (eventually) played well, and here we are with Ted (Jason Sudeikis) preparing for his third season in charge. It brings with it a burning question: what the hell is he still doing here?

Note: this review is based on the first episode of Ted Lasso season 3, which premieres on March 15th. It includes very light spoilers.

The opening episode of Ted Lasso’s third season is best described as an existential...

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Ring’s battery-powered Video Doorbell 4 has dropped to its lowest price to date

The battery-powered Ring Video Doorbell 4 ranks among our favorites. | Image: Jennifer Pattison Tuohy / The Verge

Whether you’re looking to improve your home security or just want to make sure nobody steals your Amazon package, a video doorbell like Ring’s Video Doorbell 4 can help. The handy device lets you keep tabs on who’s at the door directly from your smartphone, letting you keep an eye on packages and your home from wherever you might be. Right now, you can buy it for $159.99 ($60 off) at Amazon and Best Buy, which is a new all-time low.

If you’re shopping for a battery-powered video doorbell, the Video Doorbell 4 is the one we’d recommend. Not only does it offer clear 1080p video with an HDR option and perks like free quick replies, but it’s also reliable. Of all the battery-powered models we tested, this was the only one that will never...

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