House votes to reauthorize FISA, without the warrant requirement amendment

Cath Virginia / The Verge | Photos from Getty Images

After three failed attempts and a heated floor debate, the House voted on Friday to reauthorize a controversial program that lets US intelligence agencies spy on foreign communications without a warrant. The bill ultimately passed 273–147.

Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act is scheduled by statute to expire on April 19th, though the FISA court recently granted a government request that would have authorized the program for another year without congressional approval.

The battle over the amendments to the bill revealed some unexpected alliances in the House over privacy issues. A bipartisan coalition of progressives and members of the far-right Freedom Caucus rallied together behind an amendment to impose a warrant...

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Spotify’s lossless audio could finally arrive as part of ‘Music Pro’ add-on

Image: Nick Barclay / The Verge

Could lossless streaming on Spotify actually be happening this time? We’ve been through so many twists and turns with this saga already, but there’s new cause for hope. Code snippets in recent builds of Spotify for Android yet again tease the possibility of the company’s long-delayed lossless audio coming in the near future.

After originally being known three years ago as “Spotify HiFi” and then rumored to be part of a more expensive “Supremium” subscription tier, it seems like Spotify has again pivoted on strategy. The code samples indicate that lossless audio will be included in an optional “Music Pro” add-on that will also include the DJ remix features that my colleague Jess Weatherbed covered earlier today. Those will let Spotify...

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Here’s 16 pages of what Epic wants after winning its Google app store lawsuit

Photo illustration by Cath Virginia / The Verge | Photo by Philip Pacheco, Getty Images

Do you think a judge will make Google allow an Android version of the Epic Games Store to live inside its own Google Play Store, let the Epic Games Store have access to every app inside Google Play, and let Android users begin sideloading apps with a single tap? Because Epic’s asking for those and a whole lot more in the aftermath of Epic v. Google.

On December 11th, Epic won a surprise victory against Google in federal court. A jury unanimously decided that Google had turned its Google Play app store and Google Play Billing service into an illegal monopoly. But what did Epic win? That’s yet to be decided by Judge James Donato, and today, we’re finally learning precisely what Epic believes it should get.

As you’ll see in the 16-page...

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Oh no, I started playing Fallout Shelter again

Well, hello there, Ghoul. | Image: Bethesda Softworks

The new Amazon adaptation of Fallout is excellent, nailing the goofy yet grim vibe of the series, all while telling a new story. It’s so good, in fact, that after the eight episodes were over, I was left with a strong urge to head back into the wasteland. But where to start? An open-world RPG like Fallout 4 felt like too much of a commitment (even with a next-gen update on the way), so I turned to something simpler: the mobile strategy game Fallout Shelter. And now I can’t seem to stop.

Now, to be clear, Fallout Shelter isn’t a new game. It launched in 2015, and while it started as a mobile release, it’s been subsequently ported to PC and consoles. It’s a bit like a city-builder, just one that takes place mostly underground. You’re the...

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Roku hit with second major breach of 2024, this time affecting 576,000 users

Image: The Verge

Roku says it found another cyberattack on Friday that affected 576,000 users. This is the second breach to affect the company since March.

Roku says the attackers used the login information of account holders, a technique called credential stuffing, to gain access to the streaming service and the payment methods of some users. The hackers were then able to use partial credit card numbers from “about 400 cases” to make unauthorized purchases for subscriptions to streaming services and Roku devices. But the company said the hackers did not get sensitive information like full credit card numbers and addresses.

The hackers used a method called credential stuffing, in which malicious actors take stolen usernames and passwords and try these...

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Google’s Pixel 8A leaks in all colors — including a bold green

Image: Android Headlines

We’re a month out from Google I/O, where the company will likely announce its new Pixel 8A phone. At this point, there have already been plenty of renders and even some real-world shots. And now, courtesy of Android Headlines, it appears official marketing images of the device have leaked.

If accurate, they show that Google plans to offer the Pixel 8A in four colors: black, porcelain, blue, and a very vibrant green. It’s certainly more saturated than the subdued “mint” that Google added to the Pixel 8 color choices earlier this year.

Like its predecessor, the phone is rumored to have a 6.1-inch display, though it’s not yet clear whether it’ll top out at 90Hz or 120Hz. The 8A still has thicker bezels than the flagship Pixel 8 and 8 Pro —...

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America’s roads and bridges to get $830 million for a climate makeover

A 20-foot chunk of Newport, Rhode Island’s beloved Cliff Walk broke off and dove into the depths of the ocean in a significant landslide and partial collapse, pictured on March 4th, 2022. | Photo by Jonathan Wiggs / The Boston Globe via Getty Images

The US Department of Transportation (USDOT) is doling out nearly $830 million in grants to 80 different projects aimed at strengthening US infrastructure against climate change.

The funding will fan out over 39 states and territories to projects ranging from refurbishing aging bridges to expanding emergency evacuation routes. The grants are “the first of their kind,” according to USDOT, which is partnering with state, local, and tribal governments thanks to funding made available through the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law.

Climate change is intensifying risks to the nation’s transportation infrastructure. The number of billion-dollar weather disasters reached a record high last year. And even slow-moving calamities like rising seas are...

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Google threatens to cut off news after California proposes paying media outlets

Google is piloting removing links to California news websites for a small percentage of users. | Illustration: The Verge

Google says it will start removing links to California news websites in a “short term test for a small percentage of California users.” The move is in response to the pending California Journalism Preservation Act (CJPA), which would require Google to pay a fee for linking Californians to news articles.

“If passed, CJPA may result in significant changes to the services we can offer Californians and the traffic we can provide to California publishers,” Jaffer Zaidi, Google VP of global news partnerships, wrote in a blog post announcing the decision. “The testing process involves removing links to California news websites, potentially covered by CJPA, to measure the impact of the legislation on our product experience.”

Zaidi adds that...

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The best instant cameras you can buy right now

Image: Kristen Radtke / The Verge

We found the best cameras for your budget and needs.

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Ford’s hands-free BlueCruise comes under scrutiny after fatal crash

Photo by Sean O’Kane / The Verge

The National Transportation Safety Board is investigating an incident involving Ford’s hands-free driver-assist system after a Mustang Mach-E driver crashed into another vehicle in Texas, killing the occupant. A second fatal crash involving a Mach-E took place in Philadelphia, although it’s not known whether the driver-assist system played a role. Both crashes involved Mach-Es crashing into stationary vehicles.

The first incident took place at 9:50PM on February 24th outside of San Antonio, Texas. According to a preliminary report from NTSB, the 44-year-old driver of the Mustang Mach-E was traveling eastbound on Interstate 10 when he rear-ended a stationary Honda CRV. The 56-year-old Honda driver was killed in the crash.

“Based on data...

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4TB SD cards are arriving in 2025 for your cameras and laptops

Image: Western Digital

It wasn’t that long ago when we were impressed by a 400GB microSD card, but now, Western Digital is showing off a full-size SD card with 10 times the storage capacity. The new SanDisk Extreme Pro4TB SD card is designed for cameras and laptops, and it’s the first time we’ve seen this storage size on an SD card.

While Western Digital is previewing its four-terabyte SD card at the NAB Show this week, it won’t actually be available until 2025. AnandTech notes that the card uses the Ultra High Speed-I (UHS-I) interface, which supports up to 104MB/s data transfers in the UHS104 (SDR104) mode. It also has minimal sequential write speeds of 30MB/s, enough for 8K video recording.

The SD Association first announced its Secure Digital Ultra...

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China is planning to ‘rip and replace’ Intel and AMD chips

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

China has plans to force foreign-made chips out of its telecom systems, according to a report from The Wall Street Journal. The country’s officials reportedly told its telecom providers to replace foreign chips, such as those made by Intel and AMD, by 2027.

Under the order from China’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, telecom providers will have to check their networks for any foreign-made chips and then create a timeline for their removal. This change will mainly affect Intel and AMD, sources tell the WSJ, as the two California-based companies provide the “bulk” of the processors included in China’s networking equipment.

The move echoes the US government’s efforts to “rip and replace” cellular equipment made by the...

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Inside the quest to finish Super Mario Maker’s disappearing levels

Image: Nintendo

In 2015, Nintendo released Super Mario Maker for the Wii U, a game that allowed players to make and share their own 2D Mario levels. In 2021, the company ended the ability to upload courses, the game having been eclipsed by its sequel on the Switch. But in January 2024, Nintendo announced an end to all online services for Wii U and Nintendo 3DS games on April 8th. For Super Mario Maker, that meant the millions of player-made levels would be unceremoniously shuttered.

Or at least, it would have been unceremonious, if it weren’t for a group called Team 0%. The group had been trying to beat every uncleared level in the game for years, which was made easier once they had a fixed target in 2021. When the announcement came that the Wii U’s...

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A popular open-source content delivery network went down for hours

Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge

Unpkg, a content delivery network (CDN) that powers more than 4 billion requests per day, went down for several hours on Friday morning. The outage broke the thousands of websites that use the open-source CDN, leaving developers scrambling for a fix.

The outage appeared to have started around 4AM ET, with sites returning a 520 error from Cloudflare, which powers Unpkg. Many developers affected by the outage switched to jsDelivr, another open-source CDN for GitHub and the package manager npm, in order to keep their sites online. Unpkg started coming back online at around 9AM ET. That’s when Fly.io — the service that Unpkg’s origin server uses to provide auto-scaling infrastructure — announced that it “deployed a fix” to recover affected...

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The good, the bad, and the Humane Pin

Image: Alex Parkin / The Verge

Seven. Hundred. Dollars. After a year of asking questions about this much-hyped AI wearable, the Humane AI Pin is here, and, well, we still have lots of questions. We’re also still trying to figure out how it all works — and where it goes from here.

On this episode of The Vergecast, we dive deep into our review of the AI Pin and try to figure out what went wrong with this device and whether there’s a real future for it or any other AI-powered gadget. The trouble, we discover, is that these devices are stacking new technology on top of new technology, and until it all works perfectly, none of it will work very well. Also, did we mention the AI Pin is seven hundred dollars?

After that, we talk about the growing rift between OpenAI and...

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Spotify is developing a remix feature to rival sped-up TikTok tunes

The tools could open new revenue streams for artists who otherwise wouldn’t see money from unauthorized remixes. | Cath Virginia / The Verge

Spotify is working on some seemingly TikTok-inspired remixing features in its latest attempt to capitalize on the social media platform’s explosive popularity. According to the Wall Street Journal, Spotify is developing tools that would allow paid subscribers to “speed up, mash-up, and otherwise edit” tracks from their favorite artists, which could then be saved for repeat listening.

One use case for the tools is to allow Spotify users to adjust the speed of the songs they listen to. These music modifications are already popular with teens and young adults on TikTok, with content analysis firm Pex finding that 38 percent of songs on the platform had their speeds or pitches modified in 2023, compared to 25 percent the year prior.

A...

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The Google One VPN service is heading to the Google graveyard

The service will be shut down on an unspecified date later this year. | Image: Google

Google is shutting down its VPN by Google One service, according to a vague customer email seen by Android Authority, less than four years after it was rolled out in October 2020. The email doesn’t specify when this will happen, only that the VPN service will be discontinued “later this year.”

Subscription prices for Google One’s VPN start at $1.99, with availability on Android, iOS, Mac, and Windows. The company told 9to5Google that it is killing the service because “people simply weren’t using it.” Perhaps its customers were simply spoilt for choice, given this is actually one of three VPN services provided by Google alongside the VPN offerings still available via Google Fi, and Pixel devices from the Pixel 7 on up.

VPN by Google One...

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X’s Premium users can no longer hide their blue checks

Illustration: The Verge

X giveth, and now X taketh away. The platform is eliminating the ability for Premium users to hide their blue checkmarks, according to a notification received by multiple users on Thursday. X made displaying the blue check optional last summer, and it’s unclear exactly why the platform plans to remove the feature — or when.

Twitter says it is removing the "hide your checkmark" feature lolololol pic.twitter.com/PQFPbAGhef

— Ben Goggin (@BenjaminGoggin) April 11, 2024

Once a status symbol, the blue check lost some of its luster after X shifted to a paid verification system under Elon Musk’s ownership. A blue check then just became an indicator that the account holder paid for a Premium subscription. The feature was also abused by s...

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Discord is nuking Nintendo Switch emulator devs and their entire servers

Illustration by Cath Virginia / The Verge | Photos from Getty Images, The Verge

Discord has shut down the Discord servers for the Nintendo Switch emulators Suyu and Sudachi and has completely disabled their lead developers’ accounts — and the company isn’t answering our questions about why it went that far. Both Suyu and Sudachi began as forks of Yuzu, the emulator that Nintendo sued out of existence on March 4th.

“Discord responds to and complies with all legal and valid Digital Millennium Copyright Act requests. In this instance, there was also a court ordered injunction for the takedown of these materials, and we took action in a manner consistent with the court order,” reads part of a statement from Discord director of product communications Kellyn Slone to The Verge.

The developers ofSuyu and Sudachi only...

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Dbrand’s brash social media schtick just cost the company $10,000

Image: Dbrand

Dbrand, the phone case company known for its sassy attitude toward users and tech companies, gave $10,000 to a customer as an apology after it made a racist comment about their last name.

On Tuesday, Dbrand reposted a complaint from a customer, Bhuwan Chitransh, who said that the skin they purchased for their MacBook changed color after just two months. Dbrand replied with a crude message that rhymed the customer’s name with “rash.” Chitransh later responded, saying Dbrand’s post reflects its racist perspective toward Indian customers.

The following day, the company said that it had made a “huge fumble.” Dbrand said it apologized to Chitransh and offered him $10,000 “as a gesture of goodwill.” However, Dbrand didn’t delete the original...

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Showtime’s streaming service will finally shutter later this month

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

Following Paramount’s move to add Showtime programming to certain Paramount Plus streaming plans, the Showtime standalone streaming platform is coming to an end.

Variety reports that Showtime streaming subscribers have begun receiving notices that they will no longer be able to access the platform after April 30th. Going forward, subscribers will have to sign up for the $11.99 per month Paramount Plus with Showtime plan. Paramount Global announced its intentions to shutter the Showtime platform last year after also rebranding the traditional Showtime network as ”Paramount Plus with Showtime.”

Though this whole renaming process has been awkward, Paramount’s following through on its plan to fully subsume the Showtime brand. And while...

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Apple renews Monarch for season 2 and has plans for more Godzilla spinoffs

Image: Apple

Apple announced some Godzilla-sized updates for its streaming service. First up, the spinoff series Monarch: Legacy of Monsters, which premiered on Apple TV Plus last year, has been renewed for a second season. There aren’t any details on what the new season will entail or when it’ll start streaming, but showrunners and co-creators Chris Black and Matt Fraction will be returning.

On top of that, Apple says that it has signed a deal with Legendary for even more projects based in its “monsterverse,” which will include “multiple spinoff series.” It’s not clear yet what those series might be, but here’s hoping we get a deep dive into the Shobijin. The news comes just a few weeks after the latest feature in the franchise, Godzilla x Kong: The...

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An NPR editor accuses the network of institutional bias

Photo: Saul Loeb / AFP via Getty Images

This is Hot Pod_,_ The Verge_’s newsletter about podcasting and the audio industry._

Hi, everyone — I’m starting off today with some big news to share: next week will be my last at Hot Pod and The Verge. Before coming here, all I wanted was to cover the podcasting industry, and I still can’t believe I managed to get a job doing just that. Even when the news was bad (which, let’s be real, was often), I was buoyed by the passion and innovation of this community. It’s been a real privilege getting to know so many of you.

I’ll have a few more stories coming out before I leave as well as some final thoughts on the state of the industry. My colleague Jake Kastrenakeshas a note below with more information about the newsletter moving forward.

As...

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Civil War is an arresting journalism film lacking a real thesis

Image: A24

Director Alex Garland’s new dystopian thriller seems like it has something to say about American society, but it doesn’t have the guts to articulate a cohesive, thoughtful point.

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Find the best AI-powered app to transcribe your audio

Image: Kristen Radtke / The Verge; Getty Images

Transcription apps — apps that record and make text transcriptions of the conversation — have been an extremely useful way of keeping records for many of us. This doesn’t only pertain to journalists, who, of course, often keep records of their interviews. When you are caring for a family member who is ill, for example, having a recorded and transcribed record of a conversation with the doctor can be very useful. And when you’re dealing with the insurance company rep afterward — well, ’nuff said.

There are two types of transcription services available online today: one that uses an AI engine and the other that uses human transcribers. The latter is usually much more accurate but is also considerably more expensive. As a result, most...

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Dyson’s AR app shows you where you’ve vacuumed

Dyson wants to make cleaning fun again, but I was already having fun letting the robots do it. | Image: Dyson

Dyson has developed a new feature that uses your smartphone’s augmented reality sensors to virtually paint over areas you’ve vacuumed, so you can see if you’ve missed a spot.

The feature, called CleanTrace, uses the lidar scanner found on Pro or Pro Max iPhones 12 and newer and requires you to attach your phone to the vacuum. For now, the $1,000 Gen5detect is the only dust sucker in Dyson’s ranks that will accept the smartphone clamp, which will be sold separately. We’re not yet sure how much it’ll cost. Dyson is planning to add the feature to its mobile app as a free update when it launches this June.

CleanTrace exists because “consumers are haphazard and inefficient – regularly overing the same areas multiple times and missing other...

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Android 15’s first beta release is out

The countdown to Google I/O starts now. | Image: The Verge / Android

Android 15’s first public beta is available to download now, provided you have a Pixel phone and a bit of a sense of adventure. It’s the first consumer-facing release after two developer previews, and while we have a good idea of what to expect from Google’s next mobile OS version, we’ll certainly hear more at the company’s annual developer conference soon enough.

The blog post highlighting updates in today’s release covers some pretty pedestrian stuff. Apps will scale edge to edge by default and will draw behind translucent system bars on the top and bottom of the screen, rather than around them. There’s OS-level support for app archiving and unarchiving so third-party app stores can take advantage of this feature. Android 15 will also...

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Uber’s safety tools are now customizable and easier to access

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

Uber has launched a new safety preferences section that gathers all of Uber’s safety tools in one place and lets users schedule them to switch on automatically.

Some of the safety tools you can customize include audio recording — which saves encrypted audio of the trip that Uber can use to investigate reported incidents — and PIN verification, so you can ensure you’re entering the right vehicle. You can also share your live location and ride details with people you trust via ShareMyTrip, while RideCheck notifies Uber when a ride suddenly stops or goes off-course.

You can choose to activate all of Uber’s safety features by default for every ride or customize your settings based on time and location. For example, you can set it to turn on...

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Taking CO2 out of the air would be an absurdly expensive way to fight climate change

Executives hold shovels during a groundbreaking ceremony at the Occidental Petroleum and 1PointFive carbon removal plant in Ector County, Texas, on April 28th, 2023. | Image: Jordan Vonderhaar / Bloomberg via Getty Images

Attempting to filter enough carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere to make a significant impact on climate change would require hundreds of billions of dollars in government spending, according to a new report.

The suite of technologies emerging to attempt that task all fall under an umbrella called carbon dioxide removal, or CDR. It’s still risky and astronomically expensive. But there’s been growing chatter about it, particularly as the US continues producing record amounts of oil and gas.

According to the new report by research firm Rhodium Group, the US needs to spend roughly $100 billion a year on CDR in order to scale up to a level that would help the country meet its climate goals. A majority of that needs to come in the form of...

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The Last Ronin is becoming a live-action Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movie

Image: DW / Esau Escorza ,Isaac Escorza, Samuel Plata, Luis Antonio Delgado

Taking the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles in a bold new visual direction has worked out phenomenally for Paramount in the past, but the studio’s next experiment with the characters feels like something that’s going to be tricky as hell to pull off well.

According to The Hollywood Reporter — Paramount is in the early stages of developing a live-action, R-rated film based on The Last Ronin, IDW’s 2020 comic that tells the story of how one of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles grows up to become an even deadlier warrior following the death of his three siblings. The movie is set to be produced by former head of DC films Walter Hamada, and Boy Kills World co-writer Tyler Burton Smith is attached to write the script.

The comic series — written by...

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