The ‘queer.af’ Mastodon instance disappeared because of the Taliban
Image: The Verge
Were you aware that the “.af” domain extension is administered by Afghanistan’s government? That’s a truth that the “queer.af” Mastodon instance is now reckoning with as the Taliban, which has controlled the country since 2021, has shut down the domain, according to 404 Media. And it may not be alone, given reports that other .af domains have abruptly gone dark, too.
Erin Shepherd, the administrator of the instance and key ActivityPub developer, told the outlet they were already planning “to shut things down” instead of renewing in April, but that the early termination was a surprise. An email from the Afghanistan Ministry of Communications and IT that Shepherd posted said that the queer.af domain had been suspended and that websites or emails connected with it “will cease working shortly.” The instance had been in place since July 2018, 404 writes, as a place “for those who are queer or queer-adjacent who would like a more pleasant social media experience.”
Screenshot: Wes Davis / The Verge
Shepherd’s postshowing the notification from the Afghanistan Ministry of Communications and IT.
Shepherd said in another post that all .af domains acquired through the Gandi domain registrar had been shutdown, mentioning inet.af as one. We’ve reached out to Gandi to verify and to ask for more information, but at the moment, a message on Gandi.net says that the registrar is no longer registering, renewing, transferring, or restoring .af domain names. Internet Archive captures show the site had already stopped taking new registrations for the domain extension by October 2020 and disabled renewals of it by November of last year.
When country code top-level domains (TLD), or ccTLDs, are used outside of those countries, it can have substantial downstream effects like this or, as 404 notes, can even be a massive source of income for smaller nations like Tuvalu, which made enough money off of its “.tv” ccTLD to fund its entry into the United Nations in 2000.
But there are less cheerful potential ramifications of choosing to use ccTLDs, whether as a gag or some other reason. For example, Ukraine asked the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) to disable the Russia-administered “.ru” extension after Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022. ICANN denied the request, but domain providers like Namecheap ended services for customers using the extension, while Reddit blocked links appended with it.
The safer alternative is to use generic TLDs like “.com” or “.net,” or any of the many others that have no specific association with a country or organization, and of course, most websites on the internet use extensions like those, according to Statista.
Microsoft is working on its own DLSS-like upscaler for Windows 11
Photo by Ashish Vaishnav/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images
Microsoft appears to be readying its own DLSS-like AI upscaling feature for PC games. X user PhantomOcean3 discovered the feature inside the latest test versions of Windows 11 over the weekend, with Microsoft describing its automatic super resolution as a way to “use AI to make supported games play more smoothly with enhanced details.”
That sounds a lot like Nvidia’s Deep Learning Super Sampling (DLSS) technology, which uses AI to upscale games and improve frame rates and image quality. AMD and Intel also offer their own variants, with FSR and XeSS both growing in popularity in recent PC game releases.
Screenshot by Tom Warren / The Verge
A new AI super resolution feature has been discovered in Windows 11 test builds.
Microsoft has not yet officially announced this new super resolution feature, so it’s not clear exactly how it will work, nor if it will require any specific hardware. Nvidia’s DLSS leverages the tensor cores that ship on its RTX range of graphics cards, whereas AMD’s FSR and Intel’s XeSS are both powered by their respective GPU hardware.
Microsoft is also working on an improved color management feature for Windows 11, which will be particularly useful for the latest round of OLED monitors that make use of HDR. Windows has lacked a good OS-level color management system for years, leaving PC gamers having to add custom color profiles in a dialog box that looks like it shipped in Windows 95.
With today's Windows Insiders build for Canary and Dev (Build 26052), users will be able to see the new Color Management settings page located under Settings > System > Display > Color management. This new page allows users to add/remove color profiles, set defaults, and more! pic.twitter.com/T05KvasqfO
With the upcoming changes, color management will be integrated into the main display settings area of Windows 11, allowing PC users to set color profiles for sRGB and DCI-P3. There’s also a new feature that will automatically control these various color profiles.
“Auto color management makes sure your apps and other content have accurate colors on this display,” says Microsoft about this color management feature. It’s not clear if this will let Windows 11 users easily change gamma curves, though. Hopefully this means Microsoft is investing more in HDR support on Windows, which can lead to a washed out desktop experience if enabled system wide.
When the Voice You Hear Is Not the Actor You See The playwright Lucas Hnath has been making magic with the sound of speech. Now he’s directing a play by Mona Pirnot, his wife, in which a computer speaks her words.
Super Bowl 2024: the best ads and movie trailers
Super Bowl merchandise is ready at the NFL Super Bowl Experience in Las Vegas, Nevada. | Photo by Jamie Squire/Getty Images
These are the best ads we’ve seen from the Super Bowl this year.
It’s Super Bowl time again, which means it’s also time for the Puppy Bowl and Nickelodeon’s slime-filled broadcast. But amid all of that, we’ll have the biggest collection of ads anyone looks forward to watching.
We probably won’t see much in the way of crypto ads, but we probably will see at least some AI ads, and you can bet Apple will be at the ready with a Vision Pro commercial. Of course, companies want to get all the mileage they can out of these frequently big budget commercials, so lots are already out there.
The Kansas City Chiefs are going up against the San Francisco 49ers this Sunday, February 11th, at 6:30PM ET. It’s been four years since the Chiefs beat the 49ers in 2020’s NFL championship game, and a year since the Chiefs’ victory against the Philadelphia Eagles. The Apple Music-sponsored Usher halftime show should be a big production. Barring any issues with her flight from Tokyo, Taylor Swift will be there watching her boyfriend, Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce, and you can bet many among her legion of fans will tune in as well.
CBS is broadcasting the Super Bowl this year, but you can also catch it on Paramount Plus.
The latest iOS beta makes it easier to use Apple Cash
Now you can turn your Apple Cash card into a Visa card. | Screenshot: Wes Davis / The Verge
The iOS 17.4 beta lets iPhone users generate a virtual card number for Apple Cash, reports 9to5Mac, citing user reports on Reddit in the last couple of weeks. With a virtual card number, iPhone users can pay with Apple Cash even when Apple Pay isn’t available, removing one of the big limitations of Apple’s built-in Venmo-like service.
I’m seeing the option in the 17.4 beta as well, but as 9to5Mac notes, its possible it hasn’t been rolled out to every beta user. It’s easy to check if you have it, though. Simply open the Wallet app, tap on your Apple Cash card, and look for a message below your balance invites you to set up a virtual card number — doing so is a simple, two-step procedure.
Screenshots: Wes Davis / The Verge
Setting up the Apple Cash virtual card number is very easy.
Once you’ve created the number, you can tap the three dots menu in the top right to view the newly-generated card information, which includes an expiration date and three-digit security code. Apple Cash still appears to use a separate card number for Apple Pay transactions — that’s now another menu deeper from the card number info screen, when you tap “Additional Card Numbers.” After setting up the feature,
This is a nice change for frequent Apple Cash users since, as widely as Apple Pay has been adopted, there are still plenty of places where it’s not supported. Now, users can auto-fill their Apple Cash card number rather than deal with transferring money to their bank, which costs a small fee when users choose the instant transfer option versus the free 1 – 3 business day alternative.
A crowd destroyed a driverless Waymo car in San Francisco
Firefighters attempt to put out the Waymo car. | Image: FriscoLive415
A person jumped on the hood of a Waymo driverless taxi and smashed its windshield in San Francisco’s Chinatown last night around 9PM PT, generating applause before a crowd formed around the car and covered it in spray paint, breaking its windows, and ultimately set it on fire. The fire department arrived minutes later, according to a report in The Autopian, but by then flames had already fully engulfed the car.
At the moment, no outlets seem to have reported a motive for the attack. Waymo representative Sandy Karp told The Verge via email that the fully autonomous car “was not transporting any riders” when it was attacked and fireworks were tossed inside the car, sparking the flames. Officer Rueca of San Francisco’s police department confirmed in an email to The Verge that police responded at “approximately” 8:50PM PT to find the car already on fire, adding that there were “no reports of injuries.”
A video posted by the FriscoLive415 YouTube channel shows the burnt-out husk of the electric Waymo Jaguar.
Another set of videos posted by software developer Michael Vendi gives a view into the scene as it played out and the fire grew.
The fire takes place against the backdrop of simmering tension between San Francisco residents and automated vehicle operators. The California DMV suspended Waymo rival Cruise’s robotaxi operations after one of its cars struck and dragged a pedestrian last year, and prior to that, automated taxis had caused chaos in the city, blocking traffic or crashing into a fire truck. Just last week, a Waymo car struck a cyclist who had reportedly been following behind a truck turning across its path.
City officials and residents opposed the cars being given a license for 24/7 operation last year, with some residents rendering them immobile by putting orange cones on the cars’ hoods in protest.
The hottest new(ish) thing in social networks
Illustration: William Joel / The Verge
Hi, friends! Welcome to Installer No. 25, your guide to the best and Verge-iest stuff in the world. (If you’re new here, welcome, so psyched you found us, and also, you can read all the old editions at the Installer homepage.)
I also have for you Google’s new AI tools, a new-ish social network, a better take on Google Docs, a new weather app worth checking out, and a bunch more. Let’s dig in.
(As always, the best part of Installer is your ideas and tips. What are you into right now? What should everyone else be into right now? Tell me everything: installer@theverge.com. And if you know someone else who might enjoy Installer, forward it to them, and tell them to subscribe here.)
The Drop
Bluesky. The cool kids club of social media is now open to everyone! And as every site is required to do, it promptly crashed in a bunch of big and funny ways as people poured in. It’s still a pretty new service, but it has a lot of really smart ideas about social — I love the way it handles custom feeds and usernames in particular.
Google Gemini. Great news: Google heard your complaints that Installer is too heavy on iOS-only apps and released the new Gemini app exclusively on Android. (In your face, iOS.) Google’s AI chatbot also got a new name this week, and Google also released its new and supposedly much more powerful model, Gemini Ultra, to the public.
“Why ‘Shot On iPhone’ Commercials Look So Good!” This video moves so fast, I had to check my settings to make sure I wasn’t accidentally on 2x. But it’s a great look at the state of camera gear, a fun interview with an accomplished filmmaker, and a life lesson: understanding your tools is more important than getting “better” tools. Deep!
The Ring Battery Doorbell Pro. Not the cheapest Ring doorbell out there, nor the most powerful, but this does seem like the Goldilocks model — more accurate sensors, all the features you want, super easy to install. I agree with my colleague Jennifer Pattison Tuohy, though: the basic Ring look needs a redesign.
Craft. Craft is basically what Google Docs would be, if anyone at Google cared about making Google Docs nice to use. And this lovely little note-taking app just got a bunch of really nice collaboration features, which make it even more useful. Craft is still a little fiddly for my taste, but it’s a really well-made app.
iCloud for Windows. Big week for iPhone-owning Windows users! The iCloud app got a big update, Apple Music and Apple TV are no longer in “preview” mode, and it’ll all just work better. And the best news? You basically don’t have to use iTunes ever again.
Tokyo Vice. This is such an underrated show. I didn’t really get it at first, but it has this intense, relentless energy that kept me hooked. Reviewers seem to think season 2 is even bigger and better, and I’m psyched to dive back in.
The Weather Channel app. You know I love a weather app, and TWC’s new one is a huge upgrade: it’s much nicer-looking, has lots of alerts and personalization (I currently worry a lot about UV index, not so much about air quality), and some nice news integration. iOS-only for now, though, and I do still hate the icon. Gotta fix that icon.
Physical Media Strikes Back With Tim Simons. From the very good podcast The Big Picture, this is almost 90 minutes of talk about Blu-ray organization, box-set tips, what it means to own a movie, the changing entertainment industry, and much more. As the proud owner of exactly zero DVDs, this made me want to start a collection.
MGIE. Lest you think Apple is sitting out the generative AI revolution, here’s something cool: a model designed to make image edits just by describing them. “More blues!” “Move that thing over there!” “Make my face less bad!” Not a real product yet, but a really cool idea.
Screen share
This is the 25th edition of Installer! It’s our silver anniversary. This newsletter can now rent a car. Very soon, Installer will begin its quarter-life crisis.
First of all, thanks to everyone who has read, subscribed, and recommended stuff for these first 25 issues! This has been so much fun, and the Installerverse community has decimated my phone storage and increased my screen time in all the best possible ways.
Second of all, it’s time to do something I plan to do every 25 issues, which is to share my own homescreen! As Installer’s Head Tester of New Stuff, I’m constantly experimenting with new apps, new widgets, and new ways of using technology. So I figure that, every now and then, I should share how it’s going.
So here’s my homescreen, as it looks right now:
The phone: iPhone 15 Pro.
The wallpaper: A picture of my wife and son on the lock screen, same picture blurred on the homescreen. For some reason, having two different pictures just feels aesthetically weird to me, but I also don’t like having a super visible wallpaper obscuring all the icons. So this basically works.
The apps: Google Maps, Day One, Weller, Readwise Reader, Unread, Sofa, Phone, Spotify, Pocket Casts, Camera.
My dock has the four categories of apps I use most, but the apps in there change depending on what I’m testing or pretending will make my life better. Right now, the messaging app is just Apple Messages, the notes app is NotePlan, the calendar is Minical (which I just discovered this week thanks to Christopher Lawley), and the browser is Arc Search.
I’m using an icon pack from Ruffsnap, which I mostly like! It doesn’t cover every app I use, so I’ve had to repurpose some icons onto other apps; you’ll notice that is not the Day One icon, for instance. But I like the custom icons because they look nice and also because these Shortcuts bookmarks can’t have badges on them. The only apps allowed to have badges are the social, chat, and email apps in the Comms folder. (Content is news apps, games — that sort of stuff.)
This has been my homescreen vibe for a few weeks now, and it’s working pretty well! But I’m already looking for a better calendar widget (why does everyone make such ugly calendar widgets?!), and I’m already looking longingly at another notes app. Please send help.
Crowdsourced
Here’s what the Installer community is into this week. I want to know what you’re into right now as well! Emailinstaller@theverge.comor message +1 203-570-8663 with your recommendations for anything and everything, and we’ll feature some of our favorites here every week.
“If you are looking for a display that can show your calendar, I urge you to take a look at DAKboard. More than a calendar, lots of different things, and cheaper: monitor and Raspberry Pi for under $150. And it’s worth the five bucks a month — fun to build and integrates with so many other services.” – Doug
“Skylight is amazing. For my mom. Because it’s simple. For you, get the largest 720p TV or monitor you can for your space, a Raspberry Pi, and use the DAKboard project. It will change your life.” – Jeremy (Two DAKboard recommendations! Guess what I’m doing this weekend…)
“Griselda! Like every other narc show I’ve watched but the fact that everyone is Colombian and actually speaking in Spanish adds a ton for me.” – Ema
“I’m late, but worth a mention on the ‘how I get my news’ topic: WhatsApp Channels! I discovered this feature about two months ago and have used it daily since. I follow certain channels that I like (NYT, WSJ, sports-themed, even celebrity-themed, etc.), and their top stories make it to the WhatsApp channel that I catch up on as if it were a group chat with my friends.” – Santiago
“I don’t know if this counts, but my friends and I are playing StarCraft II again. It has co-op, and we just noticed.” – Forrest
“Radiant is a really nice, customizable Mastodon client for iOS. It’s free to use but has a reasonable upgrade as well. And Elk is also a great Twitter-looking web app for Mastodon.” – Harvey
“There is a series of apps that are called ‘Not Boring.’ A set of apps that look absolutely beautiful, with wonderful graphics and amazing haptics. I especially love the Weather app because messing around with the icons is awesome.” – Arjun
“I received the Analog Weekly planner from Ugmonk for Christmas, and I’ve been using the heck out of it paired with a Field Notes memo book. I take meeting notes in Field Notes and put key weekly tasks / deadlines on the Analog Weekly planner.” – J
“I’ve been using a free iOS app called ScreenZen to claw back control over my phone usage. Crucially, instead of just informing you about your usage at the end of your day, it helps you kill the compulsion by setting a countdown screen before you open an app. Other app blockers do this, but what’s special here is what it calls Pause Groups, so you can set different rules for different apps, websites, categories, etc. Couple these Pause Groups with Focus Modes and Shortcuts, and you have some pretty powerful stuff.” – Zack
“How about the Libby app? I’ve been using it since 2017. It’s free, one just needs a library card to use it, and I love it for the audiobooks it has.” – Pooja
Signing off
The Super Bowl is this weekend, which means a hundred million or so Americans and I will be camped in front of the TV for about 14 consecutive hours on Sunday. Here’s a life hack: as always, most of the best Super Bowl ads are already online, so you can peruse them now and then use in-game commercial time for things like naps and beverage refills.
And here’s a fun game to play: when you watch the ads, try to figure out which one will get some celebrity sued the way all those crypto ads did a couple of years ago. Who’s going to court over an AI ad this year? I have some guesses.
Imran Khan Uses A.I. To Give Victory Speech in Pakistan It was not the first time the technology had been used in Pakistan’s notably repressive election season, but this time it got the world’s attention.
Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace will hit theaters again in May
Image: LucasFilm / Disney
Pod races, trade negotiations, and Darth Maul will be on the big screen once more when Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace comes back to theaters on May 3rd, 2024. The return is meant to celebrate the 1999 movie’s 25th anniversary, reports Empire.
The return to theaters comes during a renaissance for this part of the long-running franchise. In the last few years, Disney has given the prequel era the nod with series like Ahsoka, Obi-Wan Kenobi and The Bad Batch. Hayden Christensen, who played Anakin Skywalker in the second and third movies, told Empire in an interview that his experience with Star Wars has been “a very heartwarming one,” and that the response to them today “feels like vindication for the work we did.”
Disney and Lucasfilm hired poster artist Matt Furgeson to create a new poster for the films, too.
Every saga has a beginning.
Star Wars The Phantom Menace turns 25 this year!
To celebrate, the film will be back in theaters - May 2024!
I had the distinct pleasure of continuing my series of anniversary one sheet posters & was hired by Disney & Lucasfilm to make this new art. pic.twitter.com/ajMpou0VJL
Here are 22 last-minute gifts you can still grab ahead of Valentine’s Day
Sony’s adorable SRS-XB100 speaker is a pint-sized gift with plenty going for it (including a built-in strap). | Image: Sony
It seems like just yesterday we were celebrating Christmas, and now we’re shifting through scores of Super Bowl TV deals ahead of the big game. Valentine’s Day is also nearly here, though there’s no need to panic (yet) if you haven’t found the perfect gift for your significant other. After all, the deals team at The Verge has your back.
We published our Valentine’s Day gift guide a few weeks ago, but as the holiday draws closer, we’re aware that not all of our recommendations will arrive in time. That’s why we’ve put together a list of a few gifts that will. Some, like Apple’s latest AirPods Pro with USB-C, are discounted highlights culled straight from our gift guide, while picks like the Google Pixel Watch 2 are entirely new suggestions. And just in case you put off gift hunting until the last possible minute — no judgment here! — we’ve included a few digital gift ideas at the bottom you can send and receive instantly.
Gifts that (should) arrive on time
Whether your giftee is an Apple fan or simply a music lover, the second-gen AirPods Pro are a gift worth shelling out for. Apple’s latest wireless earbuds improve upon the first-gen model with onboard volume controls and a MagSafe charging case with a built-in speaker, which allows you to keep tabs on them more easily using Apple’s Find My app. They also feature better noise cancellation and sound quality, along with dust resistance and support for USB-C charging. Normally $249, you can buy them in time for Valentine’s Day for $189.99 at Amazon, Best Buy, and Walmart.
Alternatively, the cheaper third-gen AirPods should also ship in time for the holiday when you buy them for $139.99 ($30 off) with a Lightning charging case at Amazon or Best Buy. Apple’s latest entry-level AirPods are a good pair of water-resistant earbuds if you want to stay in the Apple ecosystem but can do without perks like active noise cancellation and swappable ear tips.
If you want to gift your music-loving valentine something more budget-friendly, there’s Sony’s charming SRS-XB100 speaker. The powerful speaker is the size of a can of Coke, yet it still manages to deliver crisp, clear audio and features perks like IP67 dust and water resistance. What’s more, the colorful speaker can also function as a speakerphone, which is impressive given its price point. Typically $59.99, Best Buy and Amazon will ship it in time for Valentine’s Day for around $48 ($11 off), though, the latter requires a Prime membership.
Given it’s the middle of winter, chances are the weather where you live isn’t exactly conducive to a romantic picnic in the park. Thankfully, there are plenty of gifts to keep you and your valentine entertained indoors. Gamers, for instance, can play their favorite video games for hours on end with consoles like the Xbox Series X (Best Buy) and Nintendo Switch OLED (Amazon), both of which should arrive in time for the holiday. You can even gift the PlayStation 5, though you’ll have to pick it up from a local Best Buy store to get it in time.
Both the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X are capable of playing games in 4K at up to 120fps, offer a whopping 1TB of built-in storage, and allow you to play physical media (assuming you didn’t grab the Digital Edition of the PS5). The Nintendo Switch OLED, meanwhile, is great for handheld gaming, with a sturdy kickstand and vibrant 7-inch OLED screen that’s the largest in the lineup (at least, for now).
Speaking of fun indoor activities, few things are more relaxing than binging your favorite show or movie, which is why streaming devices make for great gifts. They’re also relatively budget-friendly and can go for as low as $20 — which is the current price of the Onn Google TV 4K Streaming Box at Walmart. If you don’t mind spending $20 more, you can also buy the Chromecast with Google TV (4K) at Amazon and Best Buy for $39.99 ($10 off).
Both streaming devices support 4K resolution and offer various Google TV perks, including curated recommendations based on your favorite streaming services. Built-in Chromecast support also means you can easily cast photos, videos, and music onto your TV, or control either device using your voice via Google Assistant. Keep in mind, however, that while both devices support HDR10 and Dolby Digital surround sound, only the 4K Chromecast offers support for Dolby Vision and Dolby Atmos.
If you have a health-conscious valentine, gifting a smartwatch like the Google Pixel Watch 2 could be an easy win. As our favorite Fitbit-powered smartwatch, the second-gen Pixel Watch can help your giftee keep tabs on a wide range of health and wellness metrics, including both their stress and blood oxygen levels. It also supports Google services such as Gmail, Google Assistant, Google Wallet, and Google Maps. Fortunately, you can pick up the second-gen watch ahead of the holiday starting at $299 ($50 off) at Best Buy and Amazon.
If you’re working with a tighter budget, you can still gift something similar to the Pixel Watch 2 with the Amazfit Band 7. Like Google’s aforementioned wearable, Amazfit’s budget tracker can keep tabs on your activity levels, sleep, stress, and heart rate. It doesn’t offer Fitbit-powered health features, built-in GPS, or Google apps, but it does offer some nice perks for less than $50 (including an OLED display and Alexa support). Right now, you can get it for $44.99 ($5 off) when you purchase it at Best Buy or Amazon.
Philips Hue’s color-changing bulbs are great gifts for setting the mood, and right now some people can buy a starterkit containing two A19 bulbs and a Philips Hue Bridge at Amazon for $129.99 and Best Buy. Philips Hue’s 800-lumen bulbs offer millions of colors, from warmer shades to bright pink hues. The Bluetooth-enabled LED bulbs are also compatible with Amazon Alexa, Google Assistant, and Apple Home, so you can schedule and control the lights with your voice. The included Hue Bridge makes them even more versatile, allowing you to control up to 50 lights and easily set up automations.
While we’re on the subject of smart devices, the latest Echo Show 8 is another great gift idea. The 8-inch smart display delivers some excellent sound with spatial audio support, and it boasts some new tricks its predecessor lacked. The latest model, for example, can now act as a Matter controller, Zigbee hub, and a Thread border router, which means you can use it to control a wide array of smart home devices. Along with being a good smart home controller, it also lets you carry out a range of Alexa-enabled tasks while acting as a decent digital photo frame.
Normally $149.99, right now you can buy the Echo Show 8 for $89.99 and get it in time for the holiday from Amazon (if you’re a Prime member) or Best Buy. Amazon is also throwing in a free Sengled smart bulb, which you can either gift or keep for yourself (we won’t tell).
Fujifilm’s Instax Mini 12 is the kind of present that’s just as perfect for your kid as it is for your beau, and right now it’s down to $69.95 ($10 off) at Amazon. You can also buy it as a part of a bundle with a 10-pack of film, a photo album, and a photo holder with a magnet for $79.95 ($10 off) at Best Buy and Walmart.
For an instant camera, the Instax Mini 12 takes some pretty clear wallet-sized photos that look relatively true to life. Though it lacks fancy features found in pricier cameras, it makes up for that with its ease of use, affordability, and a simple yet fun selfie mode. Plus, it comes in a wide assortment of fun colors, from pink and purple to green and blue.
Last-minute digital gifts you can buy on short notice
If you want to send something less stereotypical, Sugarwish can add a personal touch to any order with a digital card and an assortment of cookies, candies, popcorn, nuts, and even coffee. Sugarwish gift boxes start at $25 and your giftee will automatically receive both the card and a link to place their order once you’ve made your purchase.
If you’re not around to split a bottle of wine over dinner, you can make up for it with a subscription to the Eater Wine Club, which starts at $70 a month. Every month, Eater-approved experts will select two to four bottles of wine from around the world just for your giftee. They include wines focused on different themes and seasons, ranging from Azimut Brisat Orange, which can help keep you cool during the summer, to a Nestarec Youngster Rosé that’s sure to add some extra flavor to your meals come the holidays.
If you want to enjoy unlimited movie nights, a gift card to a major streaming service like Netflix (Amazon, Walmart, Best Buy) or Max will provide access to hits like Griselda,Dune,Squid Game: The Challenge, Barbie, The Last of Us, and more. The Disney Bundle ($14.99 per month), meanwhile, pulls together Disney Plus, ESPN, and Hulu in a single package, so you can watch sporting events as well as hits like The Bear, Ahsoka, Loki, and more.
Sending console-specific gift cards to gamers is a good idea because it lets them choose from a wide selection of games and accessories. Thankfully, you can easily buy gift cards for Xbox (Amazon, Best Buy, Walmart), PlayStation (Amazon, Best Buy, Target), and Nintendo (Amazon, Best Buy) at varying price points.
For the book-loving valentine, a subscription that grants them instant access to millions of bestsellers, classics, magazines, and other books — like Kindle Unlimited ($11.99 a month) — is sure to go down well.
How to check which apps are using the most data on an iPhone
Illustration by Samar Haddad / The Verge
You’ve no doubt allowed dozens (or even hundreds) of apps to live on your smartphone, and it’s important that you know what these apps are up to. Part of that is keeping tabs on how much communicating each app is doing with the outside world. We’ve previously written about how to check data usage on an Android device, and here, we’re going to focus on iPhones.
There are a couple of reasons to watch how much data your phone is using. First, while unlimited data plans are much more widespread than they used to be, bear in mind that these plans often apply speed restrictions when you go over a certain point every month. And if you’re using a limited plan and apps go over your data allowance while you’re away from Wi-Fi, it could start costing you money, especially if you’re abroad.
Then, there’s the privacy aspect: dig into the data usage figures for your phone, and you might find that some apps are uploading and downloading a lot more than they really should given their functionality. It’s another method for spotting suspicious app activity that needs more investigation.
Before you dig into these settings, we’d recommend checking the details of your data plan so you know what your limits are. This is typically done on the web or through an app. You should be able to find this out from your carrier. AT&T, Verizon, and T-Mobile all have online FAQ pages to help.
Check app data usage on an iPhone
You can check data usage per app or across your entire phone.
You can also see the data that different iOS services have been using.
To find out how much data your apps have been using on iOS, open up Settings, then tap Cellular. Right at the top, you’ve got a toggle switch for turning cellular data on or off — turn it off, and apps won’t be able to get online at all unless you’re connected to Wi-Fi. (Calls and texts will still work.)
Tap Cellular Data Options to turn Data Roaming on or off. This affects cellular data access when you’re outside your carrier’s network (typically, if you’re abroad).
Back on the Cellular screen, scroll down to see how much cellular data and roaming data you’ve used in the “current period”— that means since you last manually reset these statistics.
Next to each installed app is how much data it has uploaded or downloaded in this current period. You’ll notice that the apps that have used the most data are listed at the top. Use the toggle switches to the right to block cellular data access for specific apps.
Tap System Services to see data usage for the iOS system, covering activity like push notifications and software updates.
Scroll all the way down past the list of apps, and you’ll see when these data usage statistics were last reset. If you want to reset them (maybe to monitor usage over a day or a week), tap Reset Statistics.
Turn on Low Data Mode on an iPhone
Data Roaming controls data usage outside of your carrier network.
Use Low Data Mode to minimize the amount of cellular data transferred.
As well as blocking individual app access to cellular data or turning it off entirely, there’s another option on iOS that you can use to limit data usage while you’re away from Wi-Fi: Low Data Mode.
Apple says this pauses automatic updates and “background tasks” while you’re away from Wi-Fi, though it doesn’t go into too much detail about what those background tasks are. One tradeoff that is specifically mentioned is a lower bitrate on FaceTime calls.
From iOS Settings, tap Cellular and then Cellular Data Options.
Tap Data Mode to find the Low Data Mode option.
The options you see alongside Low Data Mode are going to vary depending on your network. For example, you might see an option to allow more data on 5G, which means your iPhone will use a faster 5G connection over Wi-Fi, if one is available.
Don’t forget there’s always airplane mode if you want to make absolutely sure that apps aren’t transferring any data over cell networks or Wi-Fi. A swipe down from the top-right corner of the screen will reveal the Control Center, and you can then tap the airplane icon to enable or disable airplane mode.
TikTok’s attempt to stall DMA antitrust rules rejected by EU court
Illustration by Nick Barclay / The Verge
TikTok’s attempt to stall the EU from designating it as a “gatekeeper” — companies with platforms powerful enough that they must follow strict Digital Markets Act (DMA) antitrust rules — has been rejected by a court. Bloomberg reports that the EU’s General Court has dismissed owner ByteDance’s request for an interim measure that would effectively would buy TikTok some more time to implement the regulations, finding that the company “failed to demonstrate the urgency” required.
Although TikTok is appealing the EU’s gatekeeper designation, the bloc still hasn’t reached a final decision yet on the appeal. ByteDance asked for an interim measure in December so it wouldn’t have to comply with the regulations before the EU decided the outcome of the appeal. Today’s decision is a rejection of that request, meaning that TikTok will have to at least temporarily comply with DMA rules that go into effect in March, even if the EU decides later to approve the appeal.
“ByteDance has not shown that there is a real risk of disclosure of confidential information or that such a risk would give rise to serious and irreparable harm,” judges said.
TikTok’s status as a gatekeeper means the platform will join other large tech companies like Apple, Meta, Amazon, and Google in making a series of changes for EU users, including allowing third-party businesses access to their services and requiring consent for personalized advertising. It also means millions of euros in fines for TikTok and all other gatekeeper companies, if they ever break DMA rules. (For a full account of Big Tech’s ongoing battle with the EU over the DMA, check out our StoryStream.)
“While we are disappointed with the decision, we look forward to having the substance of our case heard on an expedited basis,” a spokesperson for TikTok told Bloomberg.
TikTok received more bad news from Europe on Friday in the form of a separate EU probe into its content moderation rules for minors, Bloomberg is also reporting. The investigation, which will be carried out under the EU’s new Digital Services Act (DSA), sprang out of concerns that the changes TikTok made to comply with the DSA aren’t enough to protect underage users, a source familiar with the probe told the news outlet.
Last year TikTok made a series of changes for its EU users directly in response to the DSA, including no longer serving personalized ads based on their activities on the platform to minors.
Apple argues against right-to-repair bill that would reduce its control
Photo by Dan Seifert / The Verge
Apple might’ve backed a right-to-repair bill in California, but it was spotted lobbying against a new bill in Oregon that tries to ban the practice known as parts pairing. Cybersecurity expert Tarah Wheeler posted footage from and testified during a hearing about the state’s proposed right-to-repair bill, where testimony showed the company doesn’t want to give up full control of the repair process, as reported earlier by 404 Media. John Perry, Apple’s senior manager for the secure design team, said that Apple uses parts pairing to “make repair easier” while ensuring the device and its data “remains secure.”
The bill in question, SB 1596, would require companies to provide the documentation, tools, and parts both customers and independent repair shops need to fix broken products. However, unlike the bill in California, it also targets parts pairing, a restriction imposed by companies like Apple that can prevent customers from repairing a device with aftermarket parts.
SB 1596:
An original equipment manufacturer may not use parts pairing to:
(A) Prevent or inhibit an independent repair provider or owner from installing or enabling the function of a replacement part or component of consumer electronic equipment, including a replacement part or component that the original equipment manufacturer has not approved;
(B) Reduce the functionality or performance of consumer electronic equipment; or
(C) Cause consumer electronic equipment to display unnecessary or misleading alerts or warnings about unidentified parts, particularly if the alerts or warnings cannot be dismissed.
Apple, in some cases, requires users to “pair” replacement parts like batteries and screens to their device using Apple’s System Configuration tool. If the part isn’t verified as from Apple, customers will receive pesky notifications that say the part they’ve installed isn’t genuine, and features like Face ID may refuse to work. This iFixit article explains how Apple and many other manufacturers have increased the use of parts pairing across wide swaths of electronics, with a graph showing how the percentage of paired parts in iPhones grew over the years.
Perry testified that the bill’s stance on parts pairing “will undermine the security, safety, and privacy of Oregonians by forcing device manufacturers to allow the use of parts of unknown origin and consumer devices.” Perry also mentioned that Apple has updated the parts pairing process so that customers no longer have to contact Apple support when installing a new part.
“Consumers have the right to choose which parts they use for repair, provided the device transparently reflects the repair history and the use of the part does not pose a risk to consumer safety, security, or privacy,” Perry said.
After years of fighting against the right to repair, Apple announced a new initiative to make parts, tools, and documents available to customers last October. The company has also launched — and continues to expand — a Self Service Repair program that includes a range of iPhones and Macs.
Google Joins Effort to Help Spot Content Made With A.I. The tech company’s plan is similar to one announced two days earlier by Meta, another Silicon Valley giant.
Ring is raising the price of its cheapest subscription plan by 25 percent
The price to record visitors at your Ring video doorbell is about to go up. | Image: Jennifer Pattison Tuohy / The Verge
In what is fast becoming a trend, another security camera company is raising the price of its subscription plan. According to a Ring support article, starting March 11th, 2024, it will cost $4.99 monthly or $49.99 yearly to subscribe to the Ring Protect Basic plan, an increase of $1 a month or $10 a year.
The Basic is Ring’s cheapest plan and gives you access to cloud storage of recorded videos from one camera or video doorbell. If you subscribe, you’ll see the bump on your next renewal date after March 11th unless you cancel before then.
Just last month, Arlo increased its single-camera subscription price to $7.99 monthly from $4.99. Google Nest’s cheapest plan went up to $8 a month from $6 late last year, but that covers all cameras on your account. On balance, Ring’s increase is small, but unlike when it raised prices in 2022 (from $2.99 to $3.99), subscribers aren’t getting any new features — just higher costs all around.
Without a subscription, all you can do with a Ring camera is view a livestream and get alerts for motion from your camera.
The hikes feel designed to push users to subscribe to the company’s higher-priced plans, which are not increasing. The next tier up — $10 a month or $100 a year — covers unlimited cameras and now makes more sense if you have two or more Ring devices. Then, it’s an easier jump to add yet another camera since it won’t cost you any more per month.
If you’re looking for a cheaper alternative, Blink and Wyze offer some of the cheapest plans for viewing cloud-recorded video from a single camera. Both cost $3 a month, but I wouldn’t hold my breath on those prices staying that way.
Local storage of videos is the way to avoid price increases like these. Blink and Wyze offer local storage, as do cameras from Eufy and Reolink. Video doorbells that support Apple HomeKit Secure Video record to your iCloud account, but Apple’s subscription services aren’t immune to price increases.
My current pick for the best video doorbell is the Nest Doorbell Wired, which has three hours of free event-recorded video, so you don’t have to pay to see who was at your door — unless it was over three hours ago.
Meta’s not happy with its bill for enforcing the EU’s tough new DSA
Illustration by Nick Barclay / The Verge
Meta is challenging a fee it must pay EU regulators tasked with enforcing tough new content moderation rules required by the Digital Services Act (DSA), Reuters reports. Although the fee is capped at 0.05 percent of a company’s profits, Meta isn’t happy that loss-making companies won’t have to pay while it’s on the hook for a reported €11 million.
“We disagree with the methodology used to calculate these fees,” Meta’s EMEA policy comms spokesperson Ben Walters tells The Verge. “Currently, companies that record a loss don’t have to pay, even if they have a large user base or represent a greater regulatory burden, which means some companies pay nothing, leaving others to pay a disproportionate amount of the total.”
Under the DSA, the 20 companies identified as very large online platforms (VLOPs) are expected to fund the bloc’s enforcement of the new moderation rules. Meta has been labeled a VLOP because it has at least 45 million monthly active users in the EU. The DSA divvies up enforcement costs so that companies with the most users pay more, unless they were unprofitable.
Meta and Google’s parent company Alphabet are therefore on the hook to pay around three quarters of the €45.2 million (around $48.7 million) annual enforcement bill. That works out to €11 million (around $11.9 million) for Meta and €22.1 million (around $23.8 million) for Alphabet, according to a Bloomberg report last year. But because the fee is capped at 0.05 percent of a company’s annual global profits in 2022, companies like Amazon and X were likely to pay nothing despite consuming EU resources required to monitor and enforce DSA compliance.
X, for example, is under official investigation by the European Commission over concerns that the company previously known as Twitter may have broken the DSA’s rules by failing to prevent “the dissemination of illegal content in the context of Hamas’ terrorist attacks against Israel.”
Responding to Meta’s legal challenge, a European Commission spokesperson told Barrons that companies have a right to appeal, but insisted that its “decision and methodology are solid,” and said it will defend its position in court. Amazon and Zalando have also challenged the DSA, but over their designations as VLOPs, rather than the specific fees. The EU spokesperson confirmed to Barrons that all companies paid their fees by the December 31st deadline.
The DSA came into force last year, and companies need to be compliant with it by February 17th. Companies that fail to comply could face fines of up to 6 percent of their annual revenue, or even be banned in the EU.
After Figma’s $20 Billion Windfall Evaporated, It’s Picking Up the Pieces Regulatory scrutiny felled the sale of Figma, a design platform, to Adobe. Now it’s grappling with employee expectations and a changing market.
ESR Qi2 wireless car charger review: goodbye Mag$afe
It’s just as fast, the magnet is just as strong, but it costs half as much as those proprietary Apple mounts.
It’s not often that a truly useful new technology is released that both increases performance and undercuts the cost of the tech it replaces. But that’s exactly what the new Qi2 magnetic wireless charging standard has done for iPhone owners — and soon, Android — now that the first products have arrived.
For the past two weeks, I’ve been testing a new Qi2 charging mount for cars that matches the performance of Apple’s MagSafe-certified chargers and costs less. Hell, it’ll also work with Android devices once they start shipping with Qi2 support.
To be honest, I don’t know if it’s the $35.99 ESR charger that I’m so impressed by or the fact that Qi2 products have shipped that are immediately beneficial just one year after the standardization effort was first announced. USB-C didn’t do that, Wi-Fi 7 didn’t, and Matter... well, I’m not brave enough to even try.
But this inexpensive car mount holds my phone securely with a strong magnet, fast-charges it at 15W, and takes just seconds to set up in a car. It’s enough to make me forget about the potential of the Vision Pro because Qi2 is the future, now.
After upgrading to an iPhone 15 Pro a few months ago, I finally got interested in Apple’s MagSafe charging tech to replace my slow $55 robotic car mount that could only muster a 7.5W Qi charge. I just didn’t want to pay a premium for a MagSafe-certified car mount — which start at $80 on Apple dot com — knowing that inexpensive Qi2 solutions were coming.
And now that I’ve tested the ESR charger, I can confirm it does in fact do (almost) everything MagSafe does, only cheaper. When placed on the ESR charger, my iPhone 15 Pro in an Apple MagSafe case charges from zero to 100 percent in two hours and 45 minutes, same as it would if connected to an Apple MagSafe charger.
The ESR wireless car charger comes with the magnetic charging base and two mounts that attach to the base in less than a minute. One mount is a clip that you squeeze and release to grab onto the slats inside your car’s air vent; the other is an oversize GoPro-like 3M adhesive mount for a semipermanent attachment to your car’s dashboard. I don’t own a car, so being able to temporarily clip the charger into whatever car-share I’m driving is crucial to my needs.
Here’s the thing, though: that clip on the vent mount is fat. I tested it on the vents inside a piece of shit VW Up, a stupidly fast BMW 335d E92, and an old Ford Westfalia camper van. It easily fit the first two but was far too thick to latch securely onto the Ford’s dense and shallow cluster of slats inside its vents.
Otherwise, the clip performed as expected. It’s bolstered by a small adjustable flange below the clip that rests on the vent or dashboard (depending on which vent slat you choose to clip the mount) to create a sturdy platform that keeps the phone still and directed at the driver. When the ESR logo is upright on the charging puck, the USB-C jack is at the bottom, with two blue lights on the driver and passenger sides to indicate power.
ESR includes two mounts in the box: the air vent clip (shown attached to the charging puck) and a flexible 3M adhesive mount that conforms to the shape of your dashboard.
The mount easily fits the vents in this BMW.
It also fits this VW.
The ESR charger comes with a USB-C to USB-C cable as well as a small USB-A to USC-C adapter that I’ve already lost. The cable is just one meter (three feet, four inches) long, which was fine everywhere I tested it but could be too short for some setups. If you want that full 15W Qi2 wireless charge to your phone, you’re on the hook to provide a power source of at least 18W to account for conversion inefficiencies. That 18W comes either directly from your car’s more powerful USB-C sockets (USB-A is likely capped at 12W) or via an adapter (not included) for your car’s 12V “cigarette lighter” socket.
In my testing at home, I saw the charger briefly pull a maximum of 22.3W from the wall jack early in the charging cycle, but usually, it hovered between 14W and 11W before dropping well below 10W for the last 45 minutes of charging — all right in line with a typical charging curve for a modern phone. The phone did get noticeably warm at times, but not excessively so.
If you’re concerned about heat and its impact on your battery’s longevity, you can always pull the plug from the puck and insert it directly into your phone. Then, you’ve basically got a MagSafe vent mount, which Mophie sells for $30 and also doesn’t charge your phone (or come with a second adhesive dashboard mount).
That’s also what you should do if you want to use the ESR mount with an Android phone in a MagSafe-compatible case. Just know that Qi2 chargers are limited to 5W when used with Qi v1 phones.
Unlike MagSafe, Qi2 also can’t remember which StandBy display you want on which charger, like family photos when in the kitchen or an alarm clock at your bedside.
And while the Qi2 magnet should be strong enough to deal with bumpy roads and potholes, I can still fling the iPhone 15 Pro off the mount with some vigorous shaking. It’s fine — just don’t plan on using the ESR mount for the next Dakar race or think you can repurpose it for a helmet cam to bomb down mountain bike trails.
For owners of iPhone 13, iPhone 14, and iPhone 15 devices, ESR’s high-quality $35.99 (on sale for $30.99 right now) Qi2 magnetic car mount does exactly what it should: it holds your phone tight, charges it (relatively) fast, and is quick to mount to either your car’s air vent or dashboard. And at just half the price of comparable MagSafe mounts, there’s really nothing to complain about.
Google’s use of student data could effectively ban Chromebooks from Denmark schools
Illustration: The Verge
Danish privacy regulator Datatilsysnet has ruled that cities in Denmark need considerably more assurances about privacy to use Google service that may expose children’s data, reports BleepingComputer. The agency found (translated) that Google uses student data from Chromebooks and Google Workplace for Education “for its own purposes,” which isn’t allowed under European privacy law.
Municipalities will need to explain by March 1st how they plan to comply with the order to stop transferring data to Google, and won’t be able to do so at all starting August 1st, which could mean phasing out Chromebooks entirely.
The regulator ruled that municipalities aren’t allowed to send Google data unless the laws change or Google provides a way to filter students’ information out. Google using it for purposes like performance analytics or feature development is a problem under their interpretations, even if it doesn’t include targeted advertising. For instance, it’s easy to see how regulators might take issue with student data being used to develop and improve AI features, which are increasingly part of Google Workspace and Chromebooks.
Datatilsysnet says that cities hadn’t actually done a thorough enough job of vetting the risk of using Google Workplace for Education before they approved their use by local schools. In 2022, it required 53 municipalities to re-do their assessments as a condition for rescinding a previous data-sharing ban for the city of Helsingør. As part of the process, they needed to get information on how Google used the student information it collected and where it sent that data, leading to the new order.
How Ford’s F-150 Lightning, Once in Hot Demand, Lost Its Luster Some buyers said the electric Lightning did not meet expectations, and Ford has slashed its production plans for the pickup because sales are lagging.
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Screenshot: Wes Davis / The Verge
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Screenshots: Wes Davis / The Verge
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