Illustration: The Verge
My Uber driver asked for my PIN recently. In my half-asleep state, I stared at him, alarmed, for a few seconds before it dawned on me: he was asking me to share the PIN Uber sent so I could verifymy ride.
It turned out I’d activated all of Uber’s safety features while writing about Uber’s new safety customization section last month and then forgot about their existence entirely — which, to be honest, is pretty easy to do. Hidden away under Settings in the Uber app, Uber’s safety tools are less visible than all of its many services and even its Emission Savings feature (yeah, that’s a thing).
That’s a real shame because as a single female caregiver who frequently takes Ubers and has experienced harassment, I’m starting to appreciate the...
Image: Microsoft.com
Microsoft is finally adding an easy way to use QR codes inside Windows 11’s built-in Snipping Tool. A new update has started rolling out to Windows Insider testers today that will automatically detect QR codes in screenshots so you can open links from your PC. The Snipping Tool update also includes support for emoji.
The automatic QR code detection will appear if you enter the text actions part of the canvas in the Snipping Tool and will highlight the QR code and its clickable link. If you’re an emoji fan, then you’ll be able to add Microsoft’s 3D emoji to your screenshots. This new option is part of the shapes toolbar, and any inserted emoji can easily be resized and moved around on top of your screenshot.
Image:...
Skylight’s 15-inch touchscreen planner is probably the last calendar your family will ever need. | Image: Skylight
As cool and useful as the Skylight Calendar is, I can’t blame anyone for feeling apprehensive about paying north of $300 for something their smartphone and a cheap paper calendar can do. But the 15-inch version of the excellent family planner is now receiving a rare $70 discount at Amazon and Best Buy, which drops it to an all-time low of $249.99. If you’re a Costco member and don’t mind waiting until tomorrow, May 10th, you can even pick it up for $219.99 ($80 off).
The Skylight Calendar is a fun smart display that lets you create color-coded sticky notes and appointments, which look similar to the Google Calendar web interface. (By the way, Skylight sells an even more impressive 27-inch version that starts at $569.99 and a more...
Illustration: The Verge
One important step of evolving Threads into a fully featured social media platform is being more transparent about reach and distribution. And today, Instagram boss Adam Mosseri says the company is making it easy for anyone to see a post’s view count. “It’s important that people understand how their Threads posts perform, so we’re rolling out the ability to tap anywhere on a post to display its total view count,” he writes.
As usual, it’ll take some time before everyone gets this option — I’m not seeing it in my app or on the web just yet — but it’ll be a welcome window into performance for influencers, businesses, and regular users. If nothing else, it’s always nice to know you’re not just shouting into the void. “We’ve got more work...
Image: The Verge
The Maryland legislature passed two bills over the weekend limiting tech platforms’ ability to collect and use consumers’ data. Maryland Governor Wes Moore is expected to sign one of those bills, the Maryland Kids Code, on Thursday, MoCo360 reports.
If signed into law, the other bill, the Maryland Online Privacy Act, will go into effect in October 2025. The legislation would limit platforms’ ability to collect user data and let users opt out of having their data used for targeted advertising and other purposes.
Together, the bills would significantly limit social media and other platforms’ ability to track their users — but tech companies, including Amazon, Google, and Meta, have opposed similar legislation. NetChoice, a trade...
Photo: Lego
Lego is releasing a new Retro Radio build that emulates a classic portable sound system. It visually scratches the nostalgic itch with its mechanical tuner knob, a handle, and even an antenna. Jay’s Brick Blog reports the $99.99 set, part of Lego’s Icons collection, can play preloaded sounds or house a smartphone to play whatever — but unfortunately, Lego skipped on implementing an actual radio.
The Retro Radio is made up of 906 pieces and includes a special speaker-containing sound brick that plays its included tunes of fake stations like a sports broadcast that you can interact with by turning the dial. The other knob powers on the unit, and there’s also a pretend AM / FM switch.
Lego includes some key details on the Retro Radio, like...
The last-gen iPad is still worth buying even after Apple killed it and cut the price of its successor. | Photo by Dan Seifert / The Verge
Apple may have stopped selling iPads with headphone jacks, but that doesn’t mean you can‘t buy one. Despite the fact Apple dropped the ninth-gen iPad from its official lineup this week, you can still purchase the tablet from multiple third-party retailers for the time being. Until they run out of stock, Amazon, Walmart, Best Buy, and Target are still selling the last-gen iPad starting at $249 ($80 off) with 64GB of storage and Wi-Fi.
If you’re looking for a budget-friendly tablet for entertainment purposes, the 10.2-inch ninth-gen iPad still offers excellent value for your money. It’s $100 cheaper than its larger, 10.9-inch successor with an older A13 Bionic processor, yet it runs the same software and can do a lot of the same things....
Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge
Sonos has responded to the avalanche of feedback — some good, plenty bad — about the company’s redesigned mobile app that was released on May 7th. In the days since, customers have complained about missing features like sleep timers, broken local music library management, and no longer having the ability to edit playlists or the upcoming song queue. More alarmingly, the Sonos app’s accessibility has also taken a hit, something the company says it’s aiming to resolve by next month.
In a statement provided to The Verge, Sonos confirms that it’s keenly aware of the gripes that customers have expressed about the new app. It’s hearing their response and is working to address the functionality that has (for now) gone missing. But the company...
Image: The Verge
TikTok already automatically applies an “AI-generated” tag to content on its platform made using TikTok’s AI tools, and that same label will now apply to content created on other platforms. Now, TikTok will detect when images or videos are uploaded to its platform containing metadata tags indicating the presence of AI-generated content and says it’s the first social media platform to support the new Content Credentials.
Support for the Adobe-developed tagging system (which has been added to tools like Photoshop and Firefly) comes as TikTok partners with Adobe’s Content Authenticity Initiative (CAI) as well as the Coalition for Content Provenance and Authenticity (C2PA).
Image: TikTok
TikTok writes that Content...
Photo: New Line Cinema
Last year, Warner Bros. Discovery announced that it was working on “multiple Lord of the Rings movies’’ with New Line Cinema, the production company that put out Peter Jackson’s original trilogy based on J.R.R. Tolkien’s novels. Now, we know when the first of those new movies is probably hitting theaters.
During an earnings call today, WBD CEO David Zaslav announced that the company expects Lord of the Rings: The Hunt for Gollum to debut sometime in 2026 and “explore storylines yet to be told.” Andy Serkis is set to direct the film and reprise his role as the titular Hobbit-like man whose encounters with the One Ring transform him into a crazed ghoul, and Jackson, Fran Walsh, and Philippa Boyens have joined the project as producers.
In a...