US justice department seizes bitcoins worth more than $3bn stolen a decade ago
A search of James Zhong’s Georgia home uncovered 50,000 bitcoins found on a circuit board in the bottom of a popcorn tin
The United States is seeking the forfeiture of more than $1bn in bitcoin stolen from the Silk Road online marketplace, federal prosecutors in Manhattan said on Monday.
In the second largest seizure in US Department of Justice history, Internal Revenue Service (IRS) agents obtained the 50,000 bitcoins during a November 2021 search of the defendant James Zhong’s home in Gainesville, Georgia.
Greece to Ban Sale of Spyware After Government Is Accused of Surveillance Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis announced the ban after a news report claimed that he had directed the use of spyware against prominent politicians and journalists, which he denied.
Amazon says it has ‘hundreds’ of Rivian electric vans making deliveries in the US
The deadline to deliver 100,000 electric vans has been pushed to 2030.
Amazon’s fleet of Rivian-made electric delivery vans is growing. Since first rolling out earlier this year, the retail giant’s new zero-tailpipe emission vehicles have made more than 5 million deliveries in the US, with its fleet-size exceeding 1,000 EDVs (electric delivery vans).
That’s still only a fraction of the company’s overall transportation fleet, which is comprised 30,000 Amazon-branded delivery vehicles and 20,000 branded trailers. But the electric-portion is growing, with Rivian eventually expecting to deliver 100,000 vans to the company.
Starting in July, the EDVs first rolled out in Baltimore, Chicago, Dallas, Nashville, San Diego, and Seattle. Since then, they’ve been put into service in a bunch of new cities, including Austin, Boston, Denver, Houston, Indianapolis, Las Vegas, Madison, Newark, New York, Oakland, Pittsburgh, Portland, Provo, and Salt Lake City.
The vans have been making their way into Amazon’s service, as Rivian’s manufacturing pace slowly accelerates. The EV company said it made 7,363 R1T pickup trucks, R1S SUVs, and EDVs during the three-month period that ended on September 30 — though it didn’t say how much of each. Rivian also said it delivered 6,584 vehicles during the same span. (The company is expected to report its third quarter earnings later this week.)
Of course, supply chain woes and inflation, as well as other hurdles, have conspired to stymie Amazon and Rivian’s goals of an electrified delivery fleet. When then-CEO Jeff Bezos announced a deal with the EV startup in 2019 to buy 100,000 vans, he said they should be on the road by 2024. Now, Amazon projects to hit 100,000 vans on the road by 2030.
“We’re always excited for the holiday season, but making deliveries to customers across the country with our new zero-emission vehicles for the first time makes this year unique,” said Udit Madan, vice president of Amazon Transportation. “We’ve already delivered over 5 million packages with our vehicles produced by Rivian, and this is still just the beginning—that figure will grow exponentially as we continue to make progress toward our 100,000-vehicle goal.”
Twitter launches $8 blue tick subscription service
Twitter Blue offers status marks formerly used to validate VIP accounts, with more features ‘coming soon’
Twitter has launched a subscription service allowing users to buy blue-tick verification for a monthly fee of $7.99 (£7) in a significant change under its new owner, Elon Musk.
The system was designed to help users identify authentic and influential users on the platform, including government figures, sports stars, entertainment figures, journalists, brands and organisations.
Devialet brings its sci-fi design aesthetics to a $790 portable speaker
The speaker maintains the sci-fi aesthetic that Devialet is known for. | Image: Devialet
Devialet, the French audio company best known for its lineup of eye-catching audio gear that looks like Daft Punk helmets, is getting into the portable smart speaker business. Today, it’s announcing the Devialet Mania, a battery-powered speaker that retains the company’s signature sci-fi stylings but in a compact form factor that it says offers 10 hours of battery life at “moderate volumes.”
The Mania includes four full-range drivers and two sub-woofers, which Devialet says offer 360-degree sound. But perhaps more interesting is how the speaker adjusts its sound profile based on measurements of your listening space it takes from its four microphones. Place the speaker up near a wall, for example, and Devialet claims the speaker’s two rear drivers will adjust their sound to “reinforce” the front two drivers.
Image: Devialet
The speaker with its optional $100 charging stand.
Image: Devialet
There’s also a USB-C port for charging.
In terms of connectivity, the speaker supports both Wi-Fi and Bluetooth streaming. Protocols include AirPlay 2 and Spotify Connect, and there’s built-in Alexa for voice commands. It’s got an IPX4 rating for dust and water resistance, which should mean it’ll survive a light splash of water, but Devialet makes no claims about it being protected from solid particles like dust or sand. There’s a USB-C port for charging or a docking station available separately.
The Devialet Mania is going on sale from today starting at an eye-watering $790. But if it sounds anywhere near as good as the company’s recently released soundbar, then that could go some way toward justifying this hefty premium over other similarly portable smart speakers. For comparison, Sonos’ portable Roam speaker offers a choice of Alexa or Google Assistant and retails for $179.
Apple reportedly wants to swap the ‘Hey Siri’ trigger phrase for just ‘Siri’
Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge
Apple’s looking to change Siri’s trigger phrase from “Hey Siri,” to just “Siri,” according to a report from Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman. This means you would just need to say “Siri” followed by a command to activate the smart assistant.
As noted by Gurman, Apple’s been working on this feature for the past several months and is expected to roll it out next year or in 2024. But Apple will have to put in a “significant amount of AI training and underlying engineering work,” to get the feature to function properly, as the smart assistant will need to understand the single wake word in multiple accents and dialects. The current, two-word trigger phrase, “Hey Siri,” increases the chance of Siri picking up on it.
Switching to a single wake word could help Siri keep up with Amazon’s Alexa, as it already lets users activate the smart assistant using just “Alexa” instead of “Hey Alexa.” It would also put Siri one step ahead of Google Assistant, which requires the “Ok Google” or “Hey Google” phrases to activate it (although you don’t have to repeat the wake word when saying back-to-back commands). Even Microsoft made the shift from “Hey Cortana” to “Cortana” on smart speakers before shutting down the voice assistant last year.
The shorter trigger phrase isn’t the only change expected to come to Siri. According to Gurman, Apple could further integrate Siri into third-party apps and services, while also making some improvements to its ability to understand and process users’ requests. Apple recently made some small tweaks to the voice assistant, adding a new voice recorded by a member of the LGBTQ+ community, and introducing a new Siri activation sound.
I have been searching far and wide for a budget gaming laptop that I could recommend for shoppers looking in the sub-$800 range. I was hoping and praying that the HP Victus 15 — which has been one of Best Buy’s most popular products this year — would be it.
My takeaway, having been gaming on the Victus ($799.99 for my Core i5/8GB/512GB/GTX 1650 model) for the past few days, is that it’s not the slam dunk I hoped it would be. The low price is quite attractive (and will be even more so if you can find it on sale), but the dated GPU inside our test model is not delivering the frame rates that I’d hope to see from a modern gaming laptop. That doesn’t mean that the Victus is a unilaterally bad purchase — just that, as is often the case with budget gaming laptops, you should go in with realistic expectations.
The Victus has an unobtrusive design. My review unit is almost entirely black with modest backlighting and a simple “V” on the lid (which, as you may notice in the photos, picked up a mess of fingerprints quickly). It’s more of a “could bring to the office” device than a “chaotic mess of RGB that will not leave the basement” device. At 5.06 pounds, it’s fairly portable (for a gaming laptop) but certainly not a lightweight device.
HDMI, USB-A, Ethernet, USB-C on the right.
Ports include most of what you’ll probably need — two USB-A, one USB-C, one audio jack, one HDMI 2.1, one Ethernet, and one full-sized SD reader in addition to the charging port. There’s no Thunderbolt 4, which is worth noting (even though Thunderbolt 4 isn’t a requirement at this price point). My one note about the chassis is really the touchpad. Not only does it pick up fingerprints easily, but it has quite a stiff click.
Of course, this is a gaming laptop, and the gaming performance is what matters. I would call my results in that area “acceptable” for the GTX 1650 inside. You can certainly game on this thing, but I don’t see the bang for your buck as exceptional here.
Screen was a bit dim, maxing out at 235 nits.
Lighter titles like League of Legends and CS:GO easily maxed out the Victus’ 144Hz screen. Overwatch 2 got up there after I bumped the graphics down to medium (and still achieved a respectable 78fps on the Epic preset).
But heavier fare gave the Victus more trouble, and I would recommend that you look for a better GPU if you plan to play these titles often. Red Dead Redemption 2 only averaged 38fps at its highest preset and 45fps at medium. Cyberpunk was a rougher ride, averaging only 39fps at medium and 24fps at ultra. The good news for RPG fans is that the Victus 15 can run Elden Ring at around 45fps at maximum settings, and bumping down to medium got me to 60.
The fans weren’t audible unless I was gaming.
And then there’s the ever-looming matter of battery. The lifespans we’ve been getting from this generation of Intel gaming laptops haven’t been great, and this Victus is no exception. I averaged just two hours and 19 minutes of regular work use with brightness around 200 nits and Battery Saver on. You can expect less when you’re gaming — I got an hour and 13 minutes of League of Legends play to one charge, playable the entire time.
I know many people don’t intend for their gaming laptop to leave their desk, but I do think a two-hour battery life will rule this device out as a primary driver for some users. You may not be able to make it through a full movie, let alone a work day, without the charger in tow. For price-sensitive shoppers, buying a secondary portable device for non-gaming use cases may not be realistic — so I do see this battery life as a problem.
It’s a decent device, but $100 more will get you much further.
Ultimately, the HP Victus 15 is an $800 laptop that can game. That fact alone is enough to recommend it to some degree (again, especially if you see it on sale).
But it is worth considering a few alternatives. For example, the Victus 15 with an RTX 3050 (which we’d expect to deliver a better experience on those AAA titles) MSRPs for $969 but is on sale for $697 as of this writing. Acer’s staple Nitro 5 with that RTX GPU is currently available for $899 (just $100 more than my test model), as is Dell’s G15 with an even more powerful RTX 3050 Ti. My point is that if you can pay just $100 more, can find a good discount, or are willing to buy used, there are all kinds of options available for close to this price that can really nail AAA games.
At the end of the day, this is a budget laptop with budget laptop frame rates — and if you’re in a position to do so, you can get much more gaming power for not too much more money.
How does TikTok’s uncanny algorithm decide what you see? We tested it on three people
A week-long experiment by the Guardian showcased how widely each person’s experience and ‘For You’ page varied
Dance videos, viral pranks, adorable pets, beauty tutorials and 60-second recipes. A scroll through TikTok’s “For You” page offers a steady stream of strange and delightful content that can feel both chaotic and somehow perfectly suited to your tastes.
But how exactly does TikTok’s algorithm decide what to serve up, and why do you get that eerie feeling it knows you better than you know yourself?
Create a brand new account using their real identities (even if they already had one)
Open their “For You” page at the same time every morning
Make a note of the first 10 videos the algorithm served up
I tested one by hitting it against a wall – the wall took the damage
I was born with Poland syndrome, a disease that prevented the formation of my right arm and pectoral muscles. I was bullied at school. People said things like, “It’s not your fault that you were born like this, it’s your mother’s fault.” Or asked me to catch a ball with my right hand. Stupid comments that wouldn’t affect me now, but back then they struck very hard.
I would play with Lego a lot as a child. I got my first kit when I was five. My parents realised it was a great way to improve my dexterity. I just kept going, building planes and cars. I even built a guitar.
Russia Reactivates Its Trolls and Bots Ahead of Tuesday’s Midterms Researchers have identified a series of Russian information operations to influence American elections and, perhaps, erode support for Ukraine.
Inside the unhinged midterm election conspiracy theories on Truth Social
Stuffed ballot boxes, ‘BlueAnon’, support for Russia and ‘corporate communists’ are catnip on the rightwing platform
Ballot boxes being stuffed. “BlueAnon”. Men in underpants. Every Democratic candidate: a “complete weirdo psychopath”.
To dive into Truth Social, Donald Trump’s Twitter-but-for-conspiracy-theorists social media platform, is to enter a world where all of the above are real topics of debate, breathlessly discussed by Trump-backing Republicans and anonymous rightwing provocateurs.
UN urges Elon Musk to ensure Twitter respects human rights
Volker Türk says reports of platform’s human rights team being laid off is ‘not an encouraging start’
Elon Musk has been urged by the UN to make respect for human rights central to Twitter after suggestions that as many as half of its more than 7,500 staff could be sacked.
In an open letter, Volker Türk, the UN high commissioner for human rights, said that reports of the new owner laying off the platform’s entire human rights team were “not, from my perspective, an encouraging start”.
Jack Dorsey takes responsibility for Elon Musk’s mass layoffs at Twitter
Laura Normand / The Verge
Jack Dorsey, Twitter’s co-founder and former CEO, responded to the mass layoffs under Elon Musk’s ownership by saying he owns “the responsibility for why everyone is in this situation” and that he grew the company “too quickly.” On Friday, Musk laid off about half of Twitter’s workforce, affecting employees across all departments.
“Folks at Twitter past and present are strong and resilient. They will always find a way no matter how difficult the moment,” Dorsey writes. “I realize many are angry with me. I own the responsibility for why everyone is in this situation: I grew the company size too quickly. I apologize for that.”
I am grateful for, and love, everyone who has ever worked on Twitter. I don't expect that to be mutual in this moment...or ever…and I understand.
“Elon is the singular solution I trust,” Dorsey said on Twitter in April. “I trust his mission to extend the light of consciousness.” He expressed this same sentiment in the private text messages that were revealed as a part of Twitter’s lawsuit against Musk. In a message to the Tesla and SpaceX CEO, Dorsey said, “I won’t let this [the acquisition] fail and will do whatever it takes. It’s too critical to humanity.” Dorsey retained a 2.4 percent stake in Twitter when Musk assumed ownership, according to a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
Prior to laying off about 50 percent of Twitter’s staff, which included 15 percent of the team responsible for content moderation, Musk also fired Agrawal and a number of other executives, including chief financial officer Ned Segal and policy chief Vijaya Gadde. A group of Twitter employees has since filed a class action lawsuit against the company, accusing it of not giving them enough notice of the job cuts in line with the federal Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act (WARN) and California WARN Act.
Elon Musk defends Twitter layoffs, saying staff given three months’ pay
New owner says company is losing $4m a day as he tries to reassure advertisers over content moderation
Elon Musk has defended the mass layoffs at Twitter by saying axed employees received a three-month payment from the company, which is losing more than $4m (£3.5m) a day.
The social media company began widespread staff cuts around the world on Friday, with suggestions as many as half of its more than 7,500 staff could lose their jobs.
Fed Up With Political Text Messages? Read On. In this polarized climate, hundreds of Americans told us they agree on one thing: Campaigns must stop spamming voters’ phones with unwanted political texts.
Twitter’s mass layoffs, days before US midterms, could be a misinformation disaster
Internal chaos at the company – and the decimation of its staff – has created ideal conditions for falsehoods and hateful content
The mass layoffs at Twitter that diminished several teams, including staff on the company’s safety and misinformation teams, could spell disaster during the US midterm elections next week, experts have warned.
The company has laid off around 50% of its workforce, according to news reports; a figure that Musk and others have not disputed, amounting to an estimated 3,700 people.
Apple has finally approved a MagSafe car mount charger, and it only costs $99.95
Imagine: mounting your phone with magnets, and charging it at 15W at the same time. | Image: Apple
A mere two years after Apple introduced MagSafe for iPhones, we're finally getting the accessory that probably should've launched with it: a magnetic car mount that's also capable of actually charging your phone. As 9to5Mac spotted, Belkin has announced its Boost Charge Pro Wireless Car Charger With MagSafe, which is available for pre-order on the Apple store.
I know what some of you may be thinking: “wait, Amazon is flooded with MagSafe car chargers, and they’re nowhere even close to $100. What makes this one special?” The answer is that this one is actually MagSafe, where the rest are MagSafe compatible. That means that they use a ring of magnets to hold your phone, and standard Qi charging that can’t pump as much power into your phone — because Apple won’t let it. (Some really suspicious listings say they can do 15W charging, but it seems like they mean that the coil in it is technically capable of fast wireless charging for phones that aren’t iPhones.) But one that has the iPhone maker’s official blessing is finally here... and it seems a bit difficult to recommend.
Image: Apple
One of my colleagues said the part that grabs the vent looks a bit like Greedo, and now I can’t unsee it.
The Belkin’s extremely wordy name basically spells out exactly how it works: you clip it onto your car vent, and it holds your iPhone up so you can see whatever maps or music controls are on it (in theory, anyways — a lot of car vents struggle to stay in place under the weight of a phone and mount). It'll also provide 15W of charging power, more than iPhones can pull from standard Qi chargers.
As I said before, this is a pretty obvious use for Apple's MagSafe tech. That’s why it was so surprising when Belkin basically announced this exact thing the day after the iPhone 12 introduced MagSafe — except it cost $40 and it bafflingly left off the ability to actually charge your phone. You know, the main thing you'd want it to do if you were trying to use a power-hungry navigation app.
Unlike that model, Belkin’s new accessory includes a built-in USB-C cable to get the power from your car to your phone. I was going to be mad about that, because most cars modern enough to have USB-C ports will probably come with CarPlay (though there are notable exceptions), making this accessory far less necessary. Thankfully, Belkin also includes a 12V car charger adapter for people whose cars come with USB-A ports or no phone charging capabilities to speak of. That seems sensible enough, and I can't think of any situations where that would be a problem, though I might've preferred a removable cable on a product that'll probably be constantly exposed to sunlight.
Image: Apple
The 12V charger is what makes USB-C make sense.
The mount can also swivel your phone from portrait to landscape, for however you like to see your directions. For the most part it, seems like a perfectly competent accessory —except that, again, it costs $99.95.
I do understand that MagSafe accessories generally don’t come cheap, but I think most people will probably want to at least consider other, less expensive options. Spigen makes a $21 version of this that acts as a receptacle for a $39 MagSafe puck. Even if you splurge for a fancy $20 dual USB-C 12V adapter (because it doesn’t come with one), you’d still be saving a decent chunk of change. Plus, Spigen’s version comes in black, while Belkin’s version only comes in white, which will stand out like a sore thumb against most dashboards.
You could also get Belkin’s $60 BoostCharge Magnetic Wireless Car Charger, which is “MagSafe compatible,” meaning it holds your phone using magnets, but can only charge at 10W, instead of 15W. Given that I’d expect faster wireless charging to overheat my phone during the summer, I might gravitate towards that version over the MagSafe ones.
If you don’t like either of those options, though, the Belkin Boost Charge Pro Wireless Car Charger with MagSafe starts shipping on November 14th.
The layoffs affected “approximately” 15 percent of Twitter’s Trust and Safety group, “with our frontline moderation staff experiencing the least impact,” according to Roth. The company restricted access to some internal tools last week for “security reasons” — Roth didn’t say exactly when, but that would put the timing around when Elon Musk took over the company — but “most” content moderators who did frontline reviews weren’t impacted, and access to those tools will be “fully restored in the coming days.”
Daily volume of “moderation actions taken” has “stayed steady,” Roth said, though only supported that assertion with a vague chart showing the volume of tweets “reviewed and actioned, daily.” Musk made a content moderation assertion of his own Friday evening, claiming that “we have actually seen hateful speech at times this week decline *below* our prior norms.”
More than 80% of our incoming content moderation volume was completely unaffected by this access change. The daily volume of moderation actions we take stayed steady through this period. pic.twitter.com/rSGKtq0e3J
However, Twitter has had to “deprioritize a few workflows” like helping with lost password requests and “some” suspension appeals, according to Roth. Twitter is “working to get these back online in the days to come.”
Moderation on Twitter has been a concern in the leadup to next week’s US midterm elections, but election integrity remains a “top priority,” Roth said. Musk, who said last week that Twitter will implement a “content moderation council,” also underscored Twitter’s focus on moderation: “again, to be crystal clear, Twitter’s strong commitment to content moderation remains absolutely unchanged,” he tweeted on Friday.
Starlink is getting daytime data caps
Be careful not to use too much data with Dishy McFlatface. | Image: Starlink
Starlink is about to feel a little more like other ISPs, with a new data policy that mimics Anytime Minutes from the bad old days of highly restricted cellphone service. The satellite internet division of SpaceX will start throttling home internet for customers who use more than 1TB of Priority Access data per month during peak hours beginning in December. The change is being rolled out as part of a new “Fair Use policy” in the US and Canada.
Residential customers will now start each monthly billing cycle with an allocation of “Priority Access” data that tracks what you’re using from 7AM in the morning until 11PM at night. If you surpass that 1TB cap, which Starlink says less than 10 percent of users currently do, you’ll be moved to “Basic Access” data, or deprioritized data during heavy network congestion, for the rest of your billing cycle.
If you want to buy more Priority Access data, you can, at the cost of 25 cents per GB, and any data used between 11PM and 7AM doesn’t count towards your Priority Access tally. (You may want to download new Call of Duty updates or schedule device backups to run while everyone’s asleep, for example). RV and Portability satellite internet customers can’t get Priority Access at all, while there are different brackets for anyone with a Business account or who’s using Starlink at sea.
You’ll be able to track your data usage and opt-in to buying Priority Access data from the Starlink app or your Starlink account webpage. As part of the new Fair Use policy, Starlink has also detailed data caps and Priority Access pricing for its business and mobility plans.
Starlink claims that its internet is a “finite resource” (just ask the Ukrainian government) that will grow as it launches more satellites and says that it has to “manage the network to balance Starlink supply with user demand.” But the new data caps bring Starlink down to earth with other ISPs like Comcast, which currently has 1.2TB data caps for many customers (and has repeatedly delayed introducing them in Northeast states).
Here are the best AirPods deals you can get right now
Apple’s first-gen AirPods Pro are one of our go-to picks and are often on sale. | Photo by Chris Welch / The Verge
If you know where to look, there are often some great discounts available on Apple’s popular — yet oftentimes expensive — AirPods. Since Apple launched the third-gen AirPods last year, we’ve seen the starting price of the second-gen, entry-level model drop from $159 to $129. And now that you can buy the second-gen AirPods Pro and Black Friday is just around the corner, we’ll likely start seeing even better discounts on the last-gen Pro and other models.
If you can’t wait until then, though, fret not: we’re already beginning to see some good discounts ahead of the holiday season. Below, we’ve curated the best deals currently available on each model, including the entry-level AirPods, the AirPods Pro, the third-gen AirPods, and the AirPods Max.
Last year, Apple lowered the list price of the second-gen AirPods — now the entry-level model — from $159 to $129. It now only sells the model with a wired charging case, however, which charges via a standard Lightning cable. Despite their age, we found that the easy-to-use, second-gen AirPods still offer great wireless performance and reliable battery life, making them a great pick if you can live without a wireless charging case.
With support for the company’s MagSafe technology and an asking price of $179, Apple’s third-gen AirPods are often considered the middle child in Apple’s current AirPods lineup. The shorter stems make for a more subtle design, too, while improved sound and features like sweat and water resistance, support for spatial audio with dynamic head tracking, and improved battery life render them a nice improvement over the last-gen model.
In case you missed it, Apple announced the second-gen AirPods Pro during its “Far Out” event in September, a pair of earbuds that feature a similar build to the first-gen model but offer better noise cancellation. They also sport swipe-based controls, come with Apple’s new H2 chip, and feature an extra-small pair of swappable silicone ear tips for smaller ears. They arrived a little over a month ago, but they’re already on sale at Amazon and Walmart for $239 instead of $249. Read our review.
If the second-gen AirPods Pro are too expensive for you, rest assured that we often see discounts on the first-gen AirPods Pro. They have better sound quality than the non-premium models listed above, as well as active noise cancellation. They also come with swappable silicone tips — albeit three, not four — and support Apple’s spatial audio feature, which adds an immersive surround sound effect to select content.
Last year, Apple launched a new configuration of the AirPods Pro with a wireless charging case that supports Apple’s MagSafe technology, just like the third-gen AirPods. The noise-canceling, MagSafe-ready earbuds typically retail for $249, but they’re currently available at Best Buy and Walmart for $169.99, which is $10 shy of their all-time low price.
The AirPods Max aren’t the iconic in-ears that have become synonymous with the AirPods name. They’re large and luxurious, comprised of aluminum, steel, and mesh fabric that remains comfortable during extended listening sessions. They also sport excellent noise cancellation, Apple’s spatial audio feature, and wide, balanced sound, even if they lag behind some of their peers when it comes to bass response. They’re not the best noise-canceling headphones for most people — blame the $550 sticker price — but it’s hard to find a pair of Bluetooth headphones that sound better and feature more intuitive controls.
Although Woot and other retailers have discounted the AirPods Max to as low as $409 in the past, prices have since increased across the board. Right now, for instance, the noise-canceling headphones are only on sale at Amazon and Walmart in select colors for $449.99. If you’re lucky enough to live close to a Micro Center, however, you can pick them up for $369.99.
Elon Musk announces Twitter mass layoffs to begin Friday
The action comes as the new Twitter CEO was speculated to cut as much as 50% of the workforce
Elon Musk will begin mass layoffs at Twitter on Friday, sharply reducing the social media platform’s workforce, the company said in an email to staff on Thursday.
“In an effort to place Twitter on a healthy path, we will go through the difficult process of reducing our global workforce on Friday,” said the email, seen by Reuters. The New York Times and Washington Post both reported on the layoffs and cited the internal email.
PayPal and Venmo will soon support Apple’s Tap to Pay contactless payments tech
You’ll be able to accept contactless payments on your iPhone through the PayPal or Venmo iOS apps. | Image: Apple
PayPal is going to make it easier for merchants in the US to take payments right on their iPhones. The company is adding support for Apple’s Tap to Pay technology into the PayPal and Venmo iOS apps, meaning merchants will be able to accept contactless credit or debit cards and mobile wallets without an external card reader (via MacRumors).
Apple first announced Tap to Pay in February. Integration with PayPal and Venmo’s apps might mark a notable step up for adoption of Apple’s touchless technology and could be helpful for merchants who don’t want to rely on external readers to accept contactless payments. It will also help PayPal compete with payments rival Square, which launched support for Tap to Pay in September.
Support will be added to PayPal and Venmo “soon,” PayPal said in its Q3 2022 earnings report on Thursday (pdf). This isn’t PayPal’s only recent move to expand Venmo’s usefulness; Venmo is also being added as a payment option on Amazon.
General Mills latest to halt Twitter ads as Musk takeover sparks brand exodus
Cheerios and Lucky Charms cereal company joins General Motors Co and Audi among others in pulling money from the platform
General Mills is the latest to join a growing group of companies halting advertising on Twitter after the social media platform was acquired by billionaire Elon Musk for $44bn.
The company, known for its Cheerios and Lucky Charms cereals, confirmed on Thursday it would pause advertising on the platform. “We will continue to monitor this new direction and evaluate our marketing spend,” said spokesperson Kelsey Roemhildt.
The best deals on MacBooks right now
The 2020 MacBook Air, one of the best laptops you can get, is frequently on sale. | Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge
With multiple configurations and various models to choose from, finding a deal on an M1-equipped MacBook or Mac Mini is not all that difficult. It’s sometimes a slightly different story for the MacBook Pros with the beefier M1 Pro and M1 Max CPUs, but any savings you can get on those Pro models is sure to be worthwhile. As for the newer 13-inch MacBook Pro and MacBook Air with M2 processors, it may take time to see truly sizable savings.
Here, we’ll run through the discounts that are currently available for the current MacBooks, as well as any deals to be had on the Mac Mini. Of course, you may still find older Intel-based configurations lying around, with some heavy closeout sales. While those are compatible with the , we strongly recommend opting for a newer model now that Apple has its M1 and M2 chips across the MacBook Air and Pro lines. There is really no downside to opting for Apple’s own silicon, save for Windows Boot Camp holdouts.
Alternatively, purchasing refurbished is another way to save money on an Apple computer. Apple’s refurbished store provides a one-year warranty on all products and generally has discounts of 15 to 20 percent off the price of a new unit. If you’re looking for a new model, however, here are the best MacBook Air, MacBook Pro, and Mac Mini deals available.
The MacBook Air is Apple’s entry-level laptop. It’s best suited for typical productivity work, with a comfortable keyboard, excellent trackpad, and all-day battery life. The redesigned M2 version of the MacBook Air is out, but even with the arrival of that pricier model, the 2020 version with an M1 processor and fanless design remains in the lineup as the budget option. For most people, the M1 Air ticks all the right boxes when it comes to performance and price, which is why it’s the one we recommend for budget-minded MacBook seekers in our best laptop you can buy guide, even with the M2 now available.
The base MacBook Air with the M1 chip has 8GB of RAM and a 256GB SSD. It typically sells for $999, but That’s as good as it gets on the M1 Air, and it’s still an excellent value nearly two years after its release.
As for the newer, much fancier MacBook Air with the M2 processor, it’s $100 off in the base 256GB configuration at Amazon and B&H Photo in most colors. That modest discount drops the price of the MagSafe-equipped laptop to $1,099.
The new MacBook Air is a super slim and light laptop with a 1080p webcam that’s actually usable and that handy magnetic charger that frees up one of its precious two USB-C ports. Its M2 processor didn’t kick-start a revolution like the M1 generation, but it's a great performer for any user outside of more demanding creatives.
It does have some slight downsides, like slower storage in the base configuration and a notch cutout in its otherwise excellent screen. But even so, there hasn’t been a more travel-friendly laptop offered by Apple since the days of the polarizing 12-inch MacBook, and this one’s good enough to be the No. 1 laptop we now recommend in our buying guide.
The best MacBook Pro deals
The MacBook Pro line has been split into two different segments — for the time being. The M1-powered MacBook Pro of 2020 and its new 2022 replacement with the M2 processor remain the Touch Bar holdouts. These are siblings to the 2020 MacBook Air, with similar designs save mostly for a fan that allows them to run at peak performance for longer.
At this point, it’s best to avoid the older 13-inch M1 MacBook Pro and opt for the newer M2 version with its exceptional battery life. Yes, it’s still plagued by the Touch Bar, and its base model has its shortcomings on speed, but we’re occasionally seeing discounts on this new laptop.
Right now, the only prevalent deal is a $100 discount on the who do intensive creative work may still be better served spending more on the more capable 14-inch MacBook Pro (see below).
As for the 14- and 16-inch MacBook Pros announced a year ago, they come with the M1 Pro or optional M1 Max CPUs and are the likely choice of demanding creative professionals.
As for the 16-inch MacBook Pro with 512GB of storage and the M1 Pro, Best Buy has it for $2,099 ($400 off). Likewise, you can also save $400 when stepping up to the 16-inch model with 1TB SSD at either B&H Photo or Best Buy (now $2,299). These discounts on the 16-inch models aren’t as steep as the recent $400 ones, but they’re still a good deal on a workhorse laptop.
Our reviews of the latest MacBook Pro line were absolutely beaming with praise. Whether it was the beautiful display or the remarkable performance and battery life they exhibited, these premium laptops are investments that we can wholeheartedly recommend. As soon as there’s a steep price break on these impressive laptops, we’d suggest that anyone in the market for a new laptop consider purchasing one, as they’re likely to sell out fast.
The best Mac Mini deals
While it is not an Apple laptop, the Mac Mini is an affordable desktop computer with macOS. It does not include a display, keyboard, or mouse (so you’ll have to supply your own), but this compact machine is an excellent performer if you aren’t concerned about portability. It’s fast, efficient, and comes outfitted with Wi-Fi 6.
Like the 2020 MacBook Air and 13-inch MacBook Pro, the Mac Mini features Apple’s M1 processor. It starts at $699, with the price varying based on your RAM and storage configurations. We often see it selling in its base configuration with 8GB of RAM and 256GB of storage for $659, and often much less. However, right now, the major stores aren’t offering any sales. Costco is the lone offering, where it’s on sale for a meager
The newer Mac Studio may get all the recent praise, but that’s a much pricier machine. The little M1 Mac Mini is still a very capable desktop for everyday users who dabble in some creative work, even if widely available deals on it have recently gotten a little quiet.
Aqara’s Matter transition begins in December with free hub update
Over 40 existing Aqara devices will be Matter compatible after the Hub M2 is updated in December. | Photo by Thomas Ricker / The Verge
Aqara just lifted the veil on its smart home roadmap at the Matter launch event in Amsterdam. It starts with a free software update in December for the Hub M2 to make many of Aqara’s existing Zigbee devices Matter compatible. That will be followed by the release of Aqara’s first two Matter-over-Thread devices in early 2023 and a new multi-protocol hub coming sometime in the future.
Starting in December, the maker of low-cost smart home devices will issue an over-the-air update to the Aqara Hub M2 to make over 40 of Aqara’s existing Zigbee devices Matter compatible when attached to the hub. That list will eventually expand to support more than 160 of the company’s Zigbee devices. Aqara’s other hubs, including the Hub M1S/M1S Gen 2, Hub E1, Camera Hub G3, and Camera Hub G2H Pro, will be made Matter compatible in “the following months,” according to Aqara.
Once the hub is updated, any Aqara Zigbee device attached to the M2 can be used in any Matter ecosystem. It’s the same approach Ikea is taking to making its existing smart home devices Matter compliant with an update to the new Dirigera hub coming early next year. Frankly, it’s the fastest way to Matter compatibility for most companies and means that hubs will still be required on Matter networks for anyone already invested in lots of Zigbee devices.
In addition to making old devices Matter compatible, Aqara’s also announcing more details on its first Matter-over-Thread devices teased at CES back in January. The Thread-based Door and Window Sensor P2 and the Motion and Light Sensor P2 are set to be released in early 2023. Aqara says it will eventually release an array of new Thread-based devices, including “various smart sensors, dimmer switches, smart plugs, and lights.”
One future device is the Hub M3, a “next-gen smart home hub with multi-protocol support,” according to Aqara. The M3 is designed to bridge existing Aqara Zigbee devices to Matter while serving as a Thread border router and Matter controller to connect and manage Thread and Matter-compatible devices. Support for third-party Matter devices is also coming to the Aqara Home app.
Here’s the list of Aqara’s existing Zigbee devices that will be Matter compatible after the M2 Hub is updated in December:
Image: Aqara
That’s a lot of Matter-compatible devices come December.
Changpeng Zhao, the chief executive and founder of Binance, said “a slimmer workforce would make more sense” at the social media platform. The cryptocurrency exchange has invested $500m (£441m) in Twitter as part of Musk’s $44bn takeover, which completed last week and has been followed by a stream of changes and mooted overhauls of the company ever since.
Apple’s own 5G modems might come to iPhones later than expected
Qualcomm will be making a bunch of chips for iPhones next year. | Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge
Apple will once again rely on Qualcomm modems for its 2023 iPhones, Qualcomm said on its Q4 2022 earnings call, meaning that we’ll be waiting a little while longer for Apple to introduce its long-rumored custom 5G modem.
Nikkei reported in 2021 that Apple was looking to introduce its own 5G modem in partnership with Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (TSMC) in 2023, and Qualcomm had previously assumed that it would account for 20 percent of modem orders of the 2023 iPhones. However, on Wednesday’s call, Qualcomm CFO Akash Palkhiwala said that the company now expects to “have the vast majority of share of 5G modems for the 2023 iPhone launch.”
Apple bought “the majority” of Intel’s smartphone modem business three months after its surprise 2019 settlement with Qualcomm, so it’s not exactly a secret that the company is working on its own modems. After the success of its many custom chips for things like iPhones, Macs, and Apple Watches, it’s not surprising that Apple would want to make its own version of one of the most important pieces of a smartphone.
But Apple’s efforts have reportedly run into some snags. Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo reported in June that Qualcomm would be the exclusive supplier of 5G chips for the 2023 iPhones after modem chip development “may have failed,” and Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman said in July that Apple’s modem prototypes have been overheating “over the past year or so.” Whatever is going on behind the scenes, it all means that Qualcomm gets to be a big supplier for another set of iPhones, which could be a boon after what might be a rough holiday season this year.
Qualcomm is assuming “minimal contribution from Apple product revenues in fiscal 25,” Palkhiwala said on Wednesday’s call, which could point to Apple’s own modems appearing as late as the 2025 iPhones.
Elon Musk’s Twitter Faces Exodus of Advertisers and Executives At least five Twitter executives have left in recent days, as one of the world’s largest ad companies said clients should pause spending on the social media platform.
People Love to Hate-Watch Tech Villains. That Won’t Hurt Spotify. “The Playlist” resembles other TV dramas that follow founders to their eventual comeuppance — except Spotify isn’t facing any messy implosion.
Uber settles VAT claim with HMRC and posts better than expected results
US-based company hands over £615m to UK tax authorities after previously claiming it was exempt from VAT
Uber is handing £615m to UK tax authorities to settle an investigation into unpaid VAT, as it reported better than expected results, sending its shares higher.
The San Francisco-based ride hire and food delivery company said it achieved a UK tax settlement on Monday to resolve all outstanding VAT claims and would pay £615m to HM Revenue and Customs during the fourth quarter.
Musk posts baseless conspiracy theory about Paul Pelosi attack on Twitter
Post comes days after Musk takes over social media platform amid concern that hate speech will run rampant under his leadership
Elon Musk was criticized on Sunday after posting a baseless conspiracy theory about the assault of Paul Pelosi to Twitter – the social media giant he took over several days ago with a promise to impose fewer restrictions on its content.
Paul Pelosi, husband of US House speaker Nancy Pelosi, was attacked with a hammer at their California home on Friday. The attacker, identified by authorities as David DePape, allegedly said “Where is Nancy?” during the attack; Joe Biden said that she appeared to be the intended target.
Twitter has been hit by a coordinated trolling campaign in the wake of Elon Musk’s takeover, with more than 50,000 tweets from 300 accounts bombarding the platform with hateful content.
The social media platform said it has been targeted with an attempt to make users think Twitter has dropped or weakened its content policies after the world’s richest man bought the company for $44bn (£38bn) last week.
Tinder parent company defies tech downturn as more people pay to find love
Match Group beat earning estimates for the third quarter, posting revenues of $810m
Tinder’s parent company, Match Group, beat revenue estimates for the last quarter as more users looking for matches took out paid subscriptions on the popular dating app.
Their results were an outlier in what has been a quarter of poor performance for some of the biggest tech companies in the US. Match Group, who own a suite of dating apps including Hinge and OKCupid, saw their shares rise 16% on Tuesday.
Google’s putting its Lens image search right on its home page
Google Lens is now built into its search bar.
Google has been integrating its Lens image recognition tech into several of its products for quite a while now, including Google Photos and Chrome, but now it’s putting it front and center. As 9to5Google points out, Google’s added a Lens button right to its home page, in its famous search bar. That’s a big deal, according to Rajan Patel, a vice president of engineering at Google who’s in charge of Search and Lens — as he said on Tuesday, the Google homepage doesn’t change often.
Clicking on the Lens button (a little camera in Google-y colors) prompts you to upload an image or paste a URL to one. Once you do so, you’ll be taken to a page that’s pretty familiar if you’ve ever used the Lens app or any of its other integrations.
The google homepage doesn't change often, but today it did. We're always working to expand the kinds of questions you can ask and improving how we answer them. Now you can ask visual questions easily from your desktop. pic.twitter.com/p9ldYvXnTK
Google Images has let you search for similar-looking pictures for quite a while now, but Lens goes well beyond that; it also tries to give you information about what’s in the picture. If you scan a picture of a product, you’ll be greeted with shopping results, and if you upload a picture of a plant or animal, Google will do its best to tell you what it is, with plenty of images that you can use to cross-reference.
There’s also several other built-in features. If you scan an image containing text you’ll be able to copy and even translate it. And if you scan a QR code it’ll give you info about it. Google also gives you a link to do a reverse image search to find out where it came from.
Again, none of these features will come as a surprise to those who have used Lens on Android and iOS, and some of them are even built into desktop operating systems like macOS. But for those using systems without those features, an easy-to-access version of Lens could become a very handy multi-tool for images.
Google is discontinuing support for the standalone Street View app and pulling it from app stores
Did you know Google had a separate Street View Map? I didn’t. | Illustration: The Verge
Google will be pulling the standalone Street View app from app stores in the “coming weeks” and discontinuing support for the app in March 2023, spokesperson Madison Gouveia confirmed in a statement to The Verge. 9to5Google first spotted evidence in a recent update indicating the search giant was planning to move on from the app.
The dedicated Street View app, available on both Android and iOS, lets you check out places on Google Maps with Street View and contribute 360-degree imagery, or what Google calls “photo spheres,” to help make Street View better. But you can also use Street View in the main Google Maps app and contribute 360 imagery with the Street View Studio web app. That all makes the separate app somewhat redundant, and soon, Google will be discontinuing support.
I don’t think this change means Google is pulling back from Maps in any significant way. Just a few weeks ago, the company showed off some ways it is planning to make the app more immersive, including what it calls an “Immersive View” that gives you a 3D aerial view of a specific location with details like weather and traffic.
Sony’s new PlayStation Plus subscriptions are off to a rocky start
Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge
The number of people subscribing to Sony’s PlayStation Plus fell from 47.3 million to 45.4 million this quarter, the company announced in its latest earnings release. It’s the subscription service’s third quarterly decline in a row, and comes despite Sony launching a revamped subscription lineup between May and June this year including new tiers that offer inclusive access to hundreds of games to download and stream.
Sony has now sold 25 million PlayStation 5 consoles in total as of this quarter, VGC notes. It sold 3.3 million PS5 consoles between July and September 30th, which is the same number it sold in the same quarter the previous year. It sold 62.5 million physical copies of games, a reduction of almost 20 percent compared to the same quarter last year.
Image: SonyA slide from Sony’s earnings presenation.
The company has faced high profile supply chain challenges getting the PlayStation 5 into people’s hands, after its latest console launched in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020. The console became a poster child of the global chip shortage, and for months was very difficult for many people to get their hands on.
Revenue from the company’s games segment was up from 645.4 to 720.7 billion yen (around $4.4 billion to $4.9 billion) year-over-year, with some of the increase due to the impact of the weak yen. But operating income fell from 82.7 billion yen to 42.1 billion yen (around $560 million to $285 million), a decline of almost 50 percent. Sony cited the costs involved with making acquisitions such as Bungie, as well as developing games more generally, as contributing to this decline.
“Performance of Sony’s two major pillars, games and image sensors, was bad and masked by the weak yen,” Toyo Securities analyst Hideki Yasuda told Bloomberg. “PlayStation software sales continued to be lackluster and still-declining PlayStation Plus subscriber numbers are concerning.”
As a result of the challenges, Sony has cut its annual profit forecasts for its games division from 255 billion yen to 225 billion yen (around $1.7 billion to $1.5 billion), Bloomberg notes. The company recently said it’s focused on ramping up production of its PS5 console, but also plans to release more games on PC and mobile to broaden their reach.
Across Sony in general, Nasdaq reports that operating profit was up 8 percent, beating analyst estimates. Sales of Sony’s image sensors, which are used across numerous high end smartphones, were also up.
Truth Social’s Influence Grows Despite Its Business Problems The right-wing social network faces two federal investigations and an uncertain financial future. But it has still managed to outpace its rivals.
Can a new form of cryptography solve the internet’s privacy problem?
Techniques which allow the sharing of data whilst keeping it secure may revolutionise fields from healthcare to law enforcement
Rachel is a student at a US university who was sexually assaulted on campus. She decided against reporting it (fewer than 10% of survivors do). What she did, however, was register the assault on a website that is using novel ideas from cryptography to help catch serial sexual predators.
The organisation Callisto lets a survivor enter their name in a database, together with identifying details of their assailant, such as social media handle or phone number. These details are encrypted, meaning that the identities of the survivor and the perpetrator are anonymous. If you hacked into the database, there is no way to identify either party.
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