How to file and pay your 2023 taxes online

How to file and pay your 2023 taxes online

Image: Samar Haddad / The Verge

The holidays are over, a new year is here, and along with all the various upheavals that we are facing, most of us have to deal with our annual income taxes. (The usual quote about death and taxes goes here.)

While we were able to wait until April 18th in 2023, this year, tax day is back to the traditional April 15th, which is a Monday. That is, unless you live in Maine or Massachusetts — then you have until Wednesday, April 17th, because of the Patriots’ Day and Emancipation Day holidays.

Despite the stress that many of us feel at the thought of tackling our yearly taxes, try not to worry — we’re going to list some resources that are available so that you can prepare your taxes. As always, it might not be a bad idea to start working on those taxes as soon as possible to avoid any last-minute panic. And whether you’re a full-time worker dealing with a single W-2 or a freelancer / gig worker getting a series of 1099s, the fastest way to pay the piper these days is to do it online.

And now, in 2024, there’s a new way to file: through the IRS’s pilot of its own Direct File program. We’ll get to that in a moment.

To begin with, the IRS offers a series of directions on its website to help US citizens figure out their taxes, report those taxes, and send in payments (or ask for refunds) using its e-file online method. Here’s a rundown of what’s available and where you can find it, starting with how to fill out your tax forms.

Your first stop: irs.gov.

Try the Direct File pilot program

As mentioned above, the IRS has developed Direct File, its own free filing software, and is running a pilot program for a limited number of taxpayers. You have to live in one of 12 states:

• Arizona
• California
• Florida
• Massachusetts
• Nevada
• New Hampshire
• New York
• South Dakota
• Tennessee
• Texas
• Washington state
• Wyoming

In addition, residents of four states (Arizona, California, Massachusetts, and New York) will be able to file their state taxes as well, either with Direct File or with an associated state program.

For now, the Direct File pilot program is limited to fairly simple tax scenarios. For example, you can’t use it if you’re self-employed or have any gig economy income, have income from a pension or retirement account distributions (although you can use it if your income is from Social Security or unemployment), itemize your deductions, want to claim a child tax credit, or make more than $200,000 — and there’s more. If you click on “Check my eligibility” on the Direct File page, you’ll be directed to a several-page questionnaire that will help you determine whether you can file using this program.

Try the Free File program

If your adjusted gross income for 2023 was $79,000 or under, you can use the IRS Free File option. There are several of what the IRS calls “trusted partners” to choose from. When you go to IRS Free File, you are given a series of questions to see if you qualify; if you do, you are then referred to an appropriate partner.

You may notice the absence of two prominent tax software companies: Intuit, the makers of TurboTax, and H&R Block. For some time, there had been some tension between the IRS and those companies. For example, in March 2022, the FTC sued Intuit because of what it said were deceptive claims of free tax filing, and in May of that year, Intuit agreed to distribute a refund of $141 million to consumers who were tricked into paying for its free service.

Finally, when the IRS announced its intention to develop Direct File, Intuit and H&R Block pulled out of the Free File program in protest.

Free File is available for those whose income is $79,000 or less.

Do your own taxes

If your income is above $79,000, you can still use fillable forms provided by IRS Free File, but you don’t get the support of the free software, and you can’t do your state taxes through this method. (If you’re really into doing your own taxes, you may want to check out the IRS page on tax tips.)

Get some help

If you’re not a pro at filling out taxes, you’re going to either have to use e-file with one of the available software solutions or find a tax preparer who can do it for you. For those whose income is $60,000 or less, who have disabilities, or whose English is limited, the IRS has a program called the Volunteer Income Tax Assistance (VITA) program to help with tax preparation. There is also Tax Counseling for the Elderly (TCE) for people who are 60 years of age or older. Go to the page describing these programs for more information. You can also use a locator tool to find providers of these programs near you. There’s also the AARP Foundation Tax-Aide program, which is available up to April 15th and provides a variety of services, including coaching from a tax counselor.

If you use a tax preparer, the person or company that does your taxes needs to be authorized to use e-file; if you don’t already have a tax professional, you can find one at the IRS website.

Pay your taxes online

If you’ve got to actually pay taxes, it’s a lot easier to do it online. The IRS lists a variety of payment methods.

First, you can use Direct Pay to pay your annual taxes (using 1040 forms), quarterly estimated taxes, or a number of other types of taxes; they are listed here. Direct Pay is for paying personal taxes. If you are paying business taxes, you can do that through the Electronic Federal Tax Payment System (EFTPS). Be aware that, according to the IRS, it can take up to five business days to process a new EFTPS enrollment.

If you use a credit card, it could cost you up to another 1.98 percent of your payment amount

You can also pay via a credit or debit card or a digital wallet such as PayPal or Click to Pay; however, there is a fee involved (since the IRS isn’t going to absorb what your credit card company is charging for the service). If you’re paying by debit card, it can cost anywhere from $2.14 to $2.50 or more, depending on the service you use. If you use a credit card, it could cost you up to another 1.98 percent of your payment amount — so if you can, Direct Pay is definitely the way to go.

If you owe taxes but simply don’t have the available funds to pay them, you can arrange for a payment plan. If you owe less than $100,000 and can manage to pay the full amount within 180 days, you can establish a short-term payment plan in which there is no setup fee (although you will have to pay penalties and interest on the owed amount). Otherwise, you could qualify for a monthly payment plan for which you apply either online, by phone, or by mail. If you agree to a monthly debit from a checking account, it will cost an additional $31 setup fee besides penalties and interest if you apply online (or $107 if you apply by phone, by mail, or in person), although it’s possible to get a waiver for that fee if you qualify. Any other method of payment gets expensive: the setup fee is $130 for applying online and $225 otherwise.

How do I get my refund?

One of the ways the IRS tries to convince you to file online is to assure you that you will get your refund faster — in less than 21 days, in most cases, although there are exceptions. (If you file via paper, it could take six months or more to process.) Once you’ve filed, you can check the status of your refund online 24 hours after you’ve filed. You can also download the official IRS2Go mobile app, which allows you to check on the status of your refund, pay your taxes, and get other information.

What if I’m going to be late?

If you can’t do your taxes by the due date because of a family emergency, job pressures, or because you simply put it off for too long, you can file for an extension. We’ve got a separate article telling you how to do that right here.

Update March 4th, 2024, 4:57PM ET: This article was originally published on January 19th, 2024, and has been updated with information about Direct File and other tax filing resources.

Apple hit with first-ever EU fine following Spotify complaint

Apple hit with first-ever EU fine following Spotify complaint

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

Apple has been hit with a fine of €1.84 billion (about $2 billion) by European Union antitrust regulators over its App Store rules, and has been told it cannot stop music services from advertising cheaper subscription deals outside of Apple’s store. News of today’s fine was earlier reported by the Financial Times, and comes ahead of Apple’s huge shakeup of the iPhone’s app distribution rules due to the EU’s Digital Markets Act.

In a press release on Monday, the EU Commission said its investigation found that “Apple bans music streaming app developers from fully informing iOS users about alternative and cheaper music subscription services available outside of the app,” in addition to preventing app providers from sharing instructions on how to subscribe to such offers.

“For a decade, Apple abused its dominant position in the market for the distribution of music streaming apps through the App Store,” said Margrethe Vestager, Executive Vice-President in charge of competition policy. “They did so by restricting developers from informing consumers about alternative, cheaper music services available outside of the Apple ecosystem. This is illegal under EU antitrust rules, so today we have fined Apple over €1.8 billion.”

Today, @EU_Commission has fined @Apple 1.84 bn € for abusing its dominant position on the market for the distribution of #music #streaming #apps.

@Apple illegally restricted #app developers’ ability to inform #users about cheaper options to buy , outside the ecosystem.

— Margrethe Vestager (@vestager) March 4, 2024

The Commission said it took into account the “duration and gravity of the infringement” when setting the fine, as well as Apple’s total turnover and market capitalization, while also factoring in “incorrect information” submitted by Apple during the administrative procedure.

“This decision sends a powerful message — no company, not even a monopoly like Apple, can wield power abusively to control how other companies interact with their customers,” Spotify said in response to the ruling. “Apple’s rules muzzled Spotify and other music streaming services from sharing with our users directly in our app about various benefits — denying us the ability to communicate with them about how to upgrade and the price of subscriptions, promotions, discounts, or numerous other perks. Of course, Apple Music, a competitor to these apps, is not barred from the same behaviour.”

Apple also issued a scathing response to the ruling, saying the Commission failed to “uncover any credible evidence” of consumer harm or anti-competitive behavior. The company also says that Spotify wants to “rewrite the rules of the App Store” to gain competitive advantages, while paying nothing to Apple, despite Apple claiming the App Store was crucial to Spotify’s current market domination. Apple says it will appeal the decision.

The EU’s investigation dates back to 2020 and was announced after Spotify filed an antitrust complaint over Apple’s so-called “Apple Tax.” As well as complaining about the 30 percent commission, Spotify took issue with App Store rules that it said restricted communications with its customers and limited its ability to market and promote deals.

Over time, the commission’s investigation has homed in on App Store rules that prevent developers from telling their users about alternatives to Apple’s own payment options. In February 2023, the commission said its “preliminary view” was that Apple’s “anti-steering obligations” represent “unfair trading conditions” and argued that its App Store policies were “neither necessary nor proportionate,” could result in users paying more, and limited consumer choice.

Apple has already made some concessions. In 2021, it said that developers could advertise payment methods outside of the iOS app via communications such as email. Then, in early 2022, it started allowing developers to link out to their own sites from within the iOS apps themselves. But this second change only applied to so-called “reader apps” for services like Netflix, Kindle, or Spotify that are designed primarily to provide access to digital content, and developers needed to request an “entitlement” before they could add an external link. Bloomberg, which earlier reported on the EU’s antitrust fine, said Spotify criticized Apple’s rule changes as being “just for show.”

The EU’s fine comes as Apple is preparing to overhaul its app distribution rules in the EU in order to comply with the Digital Markets Act (DMA) from March 7th, for the first time allowing third-party app marketplaces on the iPhone. But app developers have been critical of Apple’s approach, which includes charging a commission of up to 17 percent for developers who use their own payment method or link out to their own website, plus an annual €0.50 fee per app install after the first million. Spotify said the changes are “an unworkable alternative that will stifle [developers’] businesses immediately.”

On March 1st, Spotify also published an open letter backed by 33 other companies and associations that spotlighted concerns with Apple’s DMA compliance. In the letter, Spotify claimed that the EU’s response to the proposal will “serve as a litmus test of the DMA and whether it can deliver for Europe’s citizens and economy.”

Meanwhile, US courts have also ruled that Apple has to allow developers to link out to other payment methods as a result of a legal challenge from Fortnite developer Epic Games. But when Apple did start allowing developers to link out, it maintained that it would still take a cut of up to 27 percent from any digital purchases — a small reduction over its typical 30 percent rate. Apple’s critics called out the changes, with Spotify saying they showed that Apple “will stop at nothing to protect the profits they exact on the backs of developers and consumers under their app store monopoly.”

Alongside its investigation into Apple’s App Store policies, the European Commission has also been looking at Apple’s policy of restricting the iPhone’s tap-top-pay NFC (near-field communication) to its own wallet and payment services. As a result of the investigation, Apple has offered to let third-party mobile wallet and payment providers use the iPhone’s NFC feature for payments.

Update March 4th, 8:21AM ET: Added Apple’s and Spotify’s responses.

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Forced to Change: Tech Giants Bow to Global Onslaught of Rules

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Google Drive search on iOS gets better filtering options

Google Drive search on iOS gets better filtering options

Image: Google

Google Drive for iOS now lets you filter searches using dropdown menus for File Type, Owners, and Last Modified, the company wrote on Friday in its Workspace Updates blog. The dropdown menus show up before and after a search, and relevant filter recommendations will show up as well as users type.

Google says the update is available to Google Workspace customers and individual subscribers, as well as anyone with a personal Google account on iOS. The feature hasn’t been rolled out for Android users yet, but Google says that’s coming, too.

Here’s a screen recording I made to show how it works:

Screen recording: Wes Davis / The Verge

Dropdown menus are GOAT, as the youths say.

The new filter update makes it much more pleasant to search and browse for files when you don’t know where they are. For instance, if you know you’re looking for a video stored in Drive but have no idea what it’s called, you can just tap the Videos file type, then choose “custom range” under the last modified and search for the time period you last touched it. I’d love to see this updated to let me filter by other types of dates or file sizes.

It’s a marked improvement to Google’s previous approach, which involved filter suggestions and swipeable filters. Turns out, dropdown menus are still the best. Who’d have thought?

Apple may not do a spring event this year

Apple may not do a spring event this year

Illustration by Nick Barclay / The Verge

Apple has plenty of releases planned for the spring, by the rumor mill’s reckoning, but one thing it may not do is make a big production out of it, according to Mark Gurman in today’s Power On newsletter for Bloomberg. It’s not all that unusual for Apple to skip a spring event — it didn’t have one last year, and it’s skipped it in years past, too. Even so, it’s a little surprising, given the plethora of devices the company is expected to launch.

The biggest thing is a revamped iPad Pro with an OLED screen and an M3 chip. For the most part, Apple’s highest-end tablet’s design has been unchanged since its 2018 refresh, when it took on the flat-sided design language that also defines the company’s phones, laptops, and even the iMac. The company is also expected to update the iPad Air, introducing a new 12.9-inch version alongside the usual 10.9-inch model. Both would be the first new iPads since 2022.

Rumors have been predicting a new Apple Pencil, too, though there hasn’t been a lot of information about what will be different. There could be new interchangeable magnetic tips that alter its characteristics for different kinds of art, and it may also have Find My built-in. Other accessories that have been tipped by Gurman and others include a redesigned Magic Keyboard for the iPad Pro that would be encased in aluminum and lend the deluxe iPad more of the illusion of a laptop.

Rumors have pegged spring as the release window for M3 chip-equipped 13- and- 15-inch MacBook Airs, as well. Those probably won’t change hugely — just more powerful chips. But apart from perhaps a nicer display, I’m not convinced anyone is clamoring for big changes on the Air lineup. As with iPads, this would be the first update to the excellent 13-inch MacBook Air since 2022.

That’s so much new hardware to announce without a big production! But maybe it makes sense. After all, it’s not without precedent, and it’s not like there are any fancy new chips for Johnny Srouji to talk up in his lab. Plus, if Apple changes little else about the iPad Pro apart from the screen, there’s functionally not a lot to really get excited about there, either. It also remains to be seen how big a deal a larger iPad Air will be to customers.

That would make Apple’s next big event its World Wide Developer Conference, typically in June. There, we expect a lot of changes. As Gurman writes, the company is getting ready to unveil the fruits of its massive effort to catch up with everyone else on generative AI. That’s also where Apple shows off what it’s doing to update its operating systems, so expect plenty of updates there — particularly for iOS 18, which Gurman has said (and does again today) will be the most significant software rejiggering the iPhone has ever seen.

The very best food stuff on the internet

The very best food stuff on the internet

Illustration: William Joel / The Verge

Hi, friends! Welcome to Installer No. 28, your guide to the best and Verge-iest stuff in the world. (If you’re new here, welcome to the Installerverse, so glad you found us, and also, you can read all the old editions at the Installer homepage.)

This week, I’ve been reading about that wacky AI Willy Wonka event and what happened to the Apple Car, dying laughing at “Indiana Jones and the $3,500 Headset,” testing Twodos as a new tasks app for iOS, giving both Notion and Notion Calendar another shot, and trying to figure out how to import the adorable Microlino Lite into my driveway.

I also have for you the new Dune movie, a new smartwatch, a buzzy new tech book, and oh so many food-related YouTube channels. It’s food week here at Installer, so let’s get into it.

(As always, the best part of Installer is your ideas and tips. What are you reading, watching, playing, testing, knitting, or conjuring this week? Tell me everything: installer@theverge.com. And if you know someone else who might enjoy Installer, or you want to get it in your inbox a day early, subscribe here.)

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The Drop

• Dune: Part Two. The vibes around this movie are so good that I finally got around to watching Part One (which is awesome, despite the fact that hardly anything ever happens?). The buzz is that it’s bigger and better, and obviously I have to see it in theaters to get one of those horrifying popcorn buckets.
• Final Fantasy VII Rebirth. This game will make you feel feelings. Stressful, intense, breath-holding feelings. But in a good way. It’s a huge open game with a ton to do, and while it doesn’t exactly reinvent the wheel, everyone seems to be finding something to love in here.
• Sennheiser’s Momentum True Wireless 4. Sennheiser should be a bigger name in headphones; it just consistently churns out great-sounding stuff. These new $300 buds are definitely high-end, but their audio quality can hang, and they have a bunch of features — like Auracast! — that make them pretty compelling.
• The Tourist season 2. The first season of this show was a huge hit internationally but kind of under the radar in the US — though it’s having a moment now that it’s on Netflix. I loved it: it’s intense and surprising and beautifully made. If you haven’t watched yet, now’s the time to watch both seasons.
• “This Hardware Company May Be the Next Apple!” I always like to describe Teenage Engineering as your favorite tech company’s favorite tech company. I don’t think they’re the next Apple, and this video from Varun Mayya does a good job of explaining why — Teenage Engineering is very much playing its own game. And winning.
• The OnePlus Watch 2. OnePlus’ first smartwatch was… bad. But this one seems to be good! Early reviews say it has solid battery life and pretty good performance, more health and fitness stuff, and a much-improved design. It’s not cheap, but it looks like OnePlus is figuring this smartwatch stuff out.
• The Recipe with Kenji and Deb. A new food thing! Perfect timing for this week. And I love the show so far: it’s about food, but it’s also about how two very smart people create recipes, which means it’s about how they think about food and how they work. It’s a pure process deep dive, and it’s great.
• Google Docs markups. If you have an Android device, you can now highlight, draw, or otherwise mark up Google Docs right within the app. This is so much better than leaving a million comments or doing that weird thing where you change the font color and write your notes that way. I need an Android tablet.
• Burn Book. The discourse around Kara Swisher’s book has been so funny — some people love it, some people hate it, and everybody’s talking about it, which is just precisely the way I suspect Kara wants it. Few people have seen as much of tech as she has; whatever this book is, I’m sure I’m gonna like it.
• Superhuman Instant Reply. I’m on the record that I think the very best thing AI chatbots do is write emails. Superhuman took it one step further by marrying AI to Gmail-like smart replies, so now you can tap, like, “Sounds good,” and it’ll write out a whole email for you. Superhuman remains the most power user of power user email tools, and it’s still ludicrously expensive, but it’s pressing at AI email in some really fun ways.

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Screen share

Since it’s food week here at Installer, I asked a true expert to share their homescreen with us today: Stephanie Wu, the editor-in-chief of our sister publication Eater. Eater, among so many other things, is single-handedly responsible for helping me find all the good pizza in my new city and is the reason I’ve been thinking about ube donuts for like the last three years. Stephanie writes a terrific newsletter about Eater and food and news, and you should definitely subscribe.

Stephanie warned me in advance that her homescreen wasn’t just full of food apps. Which I realize now makes perfect sense: she’s also a mom, and a boss, and just a human, and one of the fun things about seeing people’s screens has been realizing that no matter what you do all day, we all do so many of the same things. But still… Stephanie, we need some food stuff. And she delivered.

Here’s Stephanie’s homescreen, plus some info on the apps she uses and why:

The phone: I have the Google Pixel 8 Pro and am a Pixel devotee.

The wallpaper: My homescreen is a photo of my two kids, who are almost three and almost one.

The apps: Google Messages, WhatsApp, WeChat, Baby Tracker, Nanit, Duolingo, Chrome, Gmail, Phone, Google Maps, Camera.

The most useful thing on my homescreen is my calendar widget, which is how I stay on top of everything. It’s color coded for meetings, focus blocks, exercise, and personal events.

WhatsApp is my go-to messaging app, and I’ve forced all my friends to move over our group chats, which has much improved my life as an Android user. Then I have my new-parent essentials: an app that keeps track of feeds and diaper changes and the baby monitor.

I started my NYT crossword puzzle and Duolingo streaks while I was on parental leave and haven’t been able to give those up. I also love Connections, as frustrating as it can be sometimes.

Off-screen, the food-related app I’ve been using the most is the NYC Smart Compost app. Having an orange bin around the corner is a game-changer.

I also asked Stephanie to share a few things she’s into right now. Here’s what she said:

• Like everyone else I know, I’m obsessed with The Traitors. We watch it as soon as it airs because I can’t stand being spoiled. And I love Tournament of Champions, Guy Fieri’s game show-esque cooking competition with a stacked roster of big-name chefs.
• I’m not a big cook, but I always have a jar of chile crisp in my fridge. Some of my recent favorites are Mama Teav’s Hot Garlic, Yun Hai’s Su Chili Crisp Mala, and Fly by Jing’s Sichuan Chili Crisp.
• My current go-to kitchen tool is a mini spatula, also known as a jam spoon. It’s great for feeding the baby and scraping clean containers of yogurt or peanut butter.

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Crowdsourced

Here’s what the Installer community is into this week. I want to know what you’re into right now as well! Email installer@theverge.com or message +1 203-570-8663 with your recommendations for anything and everything, and we’ll feature some of our favorites here every week.

Last week, I asked you all to share your favorite food stuff on the internet. Your favorite apps, blogs, creators, recipes, and everything else from the best of the Food Web. And like you always do, you delivered!

I’ll get to a bunch of specific stuff, but first, let me try to consolidate the Greatest Hits from all of your responses. Here are the things that came up a bunch of times:

• Paprika. This was not just the most recommended app but the most recommended thing by far in my inbox: a cross-platform app for meal planning, recipes, and grocery shopping. There are a lot of apps that do this, but Paprika is your overwhelming favorite.
• Mela. The runner-up in the app category: Mela doesn’t do as much as Paprika, and it only works on Apple devices, but wow is it well designed and just delightful to use.
• Claire Saffitz. Everybody loves Claire Saffitz. I got recommendations for her Dessert Person cookbook and a whole slew of people saying how much they love her YouTube channel. I just rediscovered her breakfast sandwich video, and I know what I’m doing this weekend.
• Ethan Chlebowski. You all like his recipe site, his newsletter, and especially his YouTube channel. His approach is a little different from most: he makes a lot of videos about whether you really need expensive parmesan cheese and lots of deep dives into food science. His theory is that if you understand food, you’ll cook it better — and I dig it.
• All the just-the-recipe services. One thing everyone wants is a way to turn complicated, ad-filled food websites into simple recipes. Paprika and Mela both do that well; folks also recommended Just the Recipe, CookBook, Cooked, and Pestle as ways to get the recipe without all the extra stuff. (I have a lot of feelings about what this does to food blogs and their businesses online… but that’s for another day.)

Now, here are a bunch of other specific recommendations, because y’all sent in so much good stuff, it seems rude not to share:

“By far my favorite food content is from Mythical Kitchen on YouTube. Started as part of Rhett & Link’s Good Mythical Morning and has grown into an awesome channel with a great cast. They do everything from busting food myths to budget ingredient comparisons, historical fast food recreations, and more.” – Mack

“NileRed is another YouTuber who is more chemist than chef, but that doesn’t stop him from doing weird stuff like turning a plastic glove into grape soda.” – Wally

“The best and most important food blog I’ve ever found is Budget Bytes. Beth, the founder of the website, puts together great low-cost recipes, broken down by ingredient price. It was a lifesaver in grad school and in the first couple years of postgrad, but even now when I’m not sure what to make for dinner, Budget Bytes is one of the first places I go to. And I make Beth’s baked oatmeal almost every week.” – Zoe

“I recommend checking out Cook Well for your food-related issue. Dead simple, no gimmicks. Best recipe site I’ve used in years.” – Matty

“I specifically want to recommend World of Mouth. They are trying to create a community for foodies. I tried it on my vacation to Vietnam recently, and it was surprisingly great. The selection may be a little sparse vs. other mediums, but quality over quantity.” – Nachiketa

“There are a bunch of really great cooking instruction shows free on YouTube. Personal favorites are “Bake It Up a Notch” by Erin Jeanne McDowell on Food52, “Cooking 101” with Sohla El-Waylly, and also — less educational but delightful — “Mystery Menu” and the gingerbread house series with her and her husband, Ham, are AMAZING and just great comfy TV.” – Kailey

“Gotta be the Sidekick app from the guys at Sorted Food on YouTube. The channel is a riot: a mix of professional chefs and ‘regular guys’ competing and learning about cooking together. The app not only has a ton of great recipes but helps you figure out what to make based on what you have and minimize food waste from cooking in the process. Awesome stuff.” – John

“I also use the New York Times Cooking website and BBC Good Food as major sources of recipes. It’s great to get recipes without a big story like a lot of cooking blogs do.” – Richard

“My nomination is for the Tabitha Brown YouTube channel. She is a Black woman who shares vegan recipes and restaurants and also a renowned actress with a children’s show that is also hosted on her channel — overall just a lovely person and personality, and her North Carolina-isms and slang ‘that’s your business!’ and reactions make for a heartwarming (and mouthwatering!) watch.” – S. Erin

“Since you mentioned ramen, I must mention Alex (aka FrenchGuyCooking) on YouTube. He’s done a ton of videos about ramen (I believe two series), and they’re fantastic. You can also see a lot of DIY on his channel as he builds or modifies his equipment.” – Tiago

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Signing off

I realized this week, not for the first time, that I’m paying for three different music services. Spotify I pay for by itself; YouTube Music comes free with YouTube Premium, which is annoyingly expensive but is also the best money I spend every month because ads on YouTube are an unbearable scourge; and I get Amazon Music free with Amazon Prime.

This is so dumb! But I don’t know what to do. Spotify is… better than the others, right? But they all have the same stuff, so maybe I’m just flushing money. I need help! Tell me what you do. Help me decide what to do before I accidentally go throw more money at Apple Music or Tidal or something.

I don’t know. Maybe the right answer is just to hack an old iPod and go back to living the local music life. I do miss that click wheel.

See you next week!

HP is in the rent-a-printer business now

HP is in the rent-a-printer business now

Rent-a-print. | Image: HP

HP has a new proposition in a time when (companies like it have made sure) you don’t really control much about your computer anyway: why don’t you just let HP rent you one? The company debuted a subscription service today — just like CEO Enrique Lores said it would last month — called the HP All-In Plan. It’s essentially an extension of HP’s Instant Ink, and like that plan, you’ll have ink sent to you as you approach empty, but unlike it, your monthly fee also covers the printer itself.

Which printer you get depends on the plan you choose. They start at $6.99 per month for 20 pages’ worth of prints and whatever the current HP Envy model is, and go all the way up to a $35.99-a-month affair that gets you an OfficeJet Pro and 700 pages. If you go over your page allotment, HP will add more for a dollar per block of 10–15 pages.

But each plan is a two-year rental, not a lease-to-own situation. So if you decide HP All-In isn’t for you after all, you’ll have to return the printer and go back to rubbing elbows with everyone else at FedEx whenever the need to print arises. And if you cancel after an initial 30-day trial or before two years, you’ll pay a fee as high as $270, depending on the plan and when you cancel.

The subscription, like HP’s recent ad campaign promoting its printers as “made to be less hated,” trades on the idea that printers are frustrating commodities. The company’s configurator page mentions bonuses like “continuous printer coverage” and “next-business-day printer replacement,” for instance. That way, if a firmware upgrade blue-screens your printer, at least you have some recourse that doesn’t involve driving to a store to buy a whole new one.

There are people this plan will undoubtedly appeal to. Not everybody cares that deeply about feeling like they own their printer. And receiving ink before you run out is great if you are, like me, the kind of person who ignores the “low ink” warning all the way until I’m fully out and am actually printing something critical, rather than coloring pages for your kid, for once.

But those are mostly functions of the fact that I don’t really print that often and rarely encounter the annoyances of printer ownership. For those who do, companies can take two paths. One is HP’s plan, which appeals to the frustration of user-hostile experiences like scanners that don’t work because you bought third-party ink and printers that become unusable without some serious effort because you moved overseas. The other approach is making printers that mostly just do the thing you want them for.

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Here are the best Kindle deals right now

Here are the best Kindle deals right now

The Kindle Paperwhite, our favorite Kindle, is on sale with a power adapter and one of three fabric covers starting at $174.97 ($20). | Photo by Chaim Gartenberg / The Verge

When it comes to finding a device to use to read your ebooks, you have a few options to choose from. You can always buy a tablet or use your phone, but those devices are multipurpose and can be used for a ton of things, like surfing the web or doom-scrolling on Twitter. If you are looking for something to strictly read books, e-readers, while niche, are designed to store all of your books in a virtual library with limited functionality.

Amazon, one of the pioneers of the e-reader, has dominated the space for years with its ever-expanding Kindle lineup, which consists of several unique models with their own pros and cons. The bulk of the devices function as simple ebook readers; however, with the Kindle Scribe, Amazon looks to be moving beyond books and into the realm of writing — something that should make future Kindles function more akin to physical paper.

Below, we’ve listed each model currently available. Sometimes, there isn’t a deal for one or any of the products, but we’ve mentioned the most recent sale price in those instances. Keep in mind that Amazon also offers 20 percent off all of its Kindles when you trade in select devices, so there are still other ways to save money when none of the models are available at a discount.

Image: Amazon

The best Kindle (2022) deals

In case you missed it, Amazon announced a new entry-level Kindle in 2022, one that was designed to replace the 2019 model. The latest Kindle — which starts at $99.99 — puts Amazon’s base e-reader more in line with the most recent Kindle Paperwhite, providing a number of quality-of-life improvements in the process. The 2022 model features longer battery life, a 300ppi screen, and charges via USB-C instead of Micro USB. It also touts 16GB of storage by default and comes in a “denim” color, which resembles the soft blue you might associate with jeans.

In the past, Amazon’s newest ad-supported Kindle has dropped to as low as $74.99 ($25 off) with three months of Kindle Unlimited included. Right now, however, you can only buy the Kindle at Amazon, Best Buy, and Target for its full retail price of $99.99. That said, you can pick it up on sale at Amazon with ads, a power adapter, and a fabric cover starting at $134.97 ($15 off). Regardless of whether you choose the standalone model or the bundle, the entry-level Kindle remains a worthwhile option if you’re looking to pick up an e-reader for less than the latest Paperwhite.

Read our Kindle (2022) review.

The best Kindle Kids (2022) deals

The latest base Kindle wasn’t the only e-reader Amazon introduced in 2022. The entry-level model arrived alongside a new Kindle Kids, which is identical to the standard model but comes with a handful of accessories and provides age-appropriate content for younger readers who prefer digital books. Like the last-gen Kindle Kids, the latest model retails for $20 more than the base model, bringing the MSRP to $119.99.

In terms of add-ons, the new Kindle Kids edition consists of four items: the device, a case, a two-year extended replacement guarantee (in the event the device breaks), and one year of Amazon Kids Plus. The latter is the biggest selling point of the device aside from the kid-friendly patterns, as it allows parents to grant their child access to a digital library of kid-friendly books like Percy Jackson and the entire Harry Potter series at no additional cost.

While we’ve seen the Kindle Kids drop to as low as $79.99, right now there are no deals available. That means you can only buy Amazon’s latest Kindle Kids from Amazon and Best Buy at its full retail price of $119.99.

Photo by Chaim Gartenberg / The Verge

The Kindle Paperwhite Signature Edition is identical to the standard model but features wireless charging and a sensor to automatically adjust the backlight.

The best Kindle Paperwhite (2021) deals

Amazon’s latest Kindle Paperwhite is its 11th-gen model, which comes with USB-C support, longer battery life, and a larger 6.8-inch display. The e-reader launched more than two years ago, and it often receives steep discounts at retailers like Amazon and Best Buy, particularly around Black Friday and throughout the holiday season. You can still occasionally pick up the last-gen model from 2018 at a discount.

The 2021 Kindle Paperwhite comes in a variety of configurations: first, there’s an 8GB model with ads for $139.99 and an 8GB model without ads for $159.99. There’s also a 16GB version with ads for $149.99 and an ad-free version that sells for $169.99. Finally, there’s a 32GB ad-free Signature Edition for $189.99. The latter is identical to the standard Paperwhite except it also features Qi wireless charging and a sensor that will automatically adjust the backlight when needed.

Amazon has also rolled out a Kindle Paperwhite Kids Edition for $169.99, which comes bundled with a kid-friendly cover, a two-year extended replacement guarantee, and a year of Amazon Kids Plus, much like the aforementioned Kindle Kids. All 2021 models are also similar to the 2018 model in that they feature a waterproof design and Audible audiobook support.

There aren’t any discounts currently available on the standard Kindle Paperwhite by itself, meaning it's only available at Amazon and Target starting at $139.99. However, you can buy the base Paperwhite at Amazon as part of a package that contains a power adapter and your choice of a fabric cover for $174.97 ($20 off), a leather cover for $181.97 ($20 off), or a “cork” cover for $189.97 ($20 off).

Read our Kindle Paperwhite (2021) review.

As for the 32GB ad-free Signature Edition, it’s available at Amazon and Best Buy right now for $189.99 — its regular retail price. However, you can buy the ad-free Signature Edition with 32GB of storage, a wireless charging dock, and a leather cover on sale at Amazon for $244.97 ($20 off). You can also buy the e-reader with a cork cover and a wireless charging dock for $252.97 ($20 off) or a fabric cover and a wireless charging dock for $237.97 ($20 off).

Image: Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge

The best Kindle Scribe deals

The ad-free Kindle Scribe is Amazon’s biggest e-reader to date — one that also represents a departure from past Kindle models. It packs a 10.2-inch display with 300 dpi, along with the same great battery life for which Kindles have become known. What separates the Scribe from other models, however, is that it comes with one of two styli, which can be used to annotate books, doodle, or jot down notes. We found the e-reader’s note-taking capabilities lacking in our testing, but Amazon has already started to improve the software via free OTA software updates, helping bring it up to speed with other E Ink competitors.

The Kindle Scribe is available at its full retail price of $339.99 at Amazon in its 16GB base configuration with a Basic Pen and three months of Kindle Unlimited. The same model is also available at Amazon bundled with a leather cover and a power adapter for $379.97 ($60 off). Meanwhile, the bundle with the Premium Pen, which offers a shortcut button and a built-in eraser, is currently on sale in the 16GB configuration with a folio cover and a power adapter starting at $389.97 ($60 off).

Read our Kindle Scribe review.

A note on the Kindle Oasis

Up until recently, Amazon also sold the 2019 Kindle Oasis. Along with a 7-inch 300ppi E Ink display, the Oasis was unique in that it offered physical, page-turning buttons. Sadly, however, the waterproof ebook reader is neither on sale nor in stock at Amazon or any other major retailer. While the international version of the e-reader is available at Amazon starting at $199.99 ($70 off), it may not be worth buying at this point. Amazon won’t ship it to US addresses, and more notably, the Oasis is no longer listed as part of Amazon’s official Kindle lineup. That suggests that Amazon may have discontinued it and that we may see a newer version at some point in the near future.

UnitedHealth says Blackcat is the reason healthcare providers are going unpaid

UnitedHealth says Blackcat is the reason healthcare providers are going unpaid

Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge

Health insurance provider UnitedHealth has identified Blackcat as the group behind a debilitating cyber attack that has disrupted healthcare providers nationwide, Reuters is reporting. The attack has led to more than a week-long outage of the the United-owned Change Healthcare system, disrupting payments at hospitals, clinics, and pharmacies across the nation.

Since Change Healthcare acts as a middleman between healthcare providers and insurance companies, the breach has hindered everyday transactions like electronic pharmacy refills and new insurance claims. The company first identified suspicious activity on its IT systems on February 21st, according to an SEC filing.

The breach could last for weeks, UnitedHealth Group Chief Operating Officer Dirk McMahon told STAT. The insurance company is setting up a loan program for healthcare providers in the meantime.

Blackcat, also known as ALPHV, has claimed credit for numerous hacks over the past year, including the MGM casino breach in Las Vegas, a hack on Reddit’s systems, and many others.

In a joint cybersecurity advisory, federal agencies including CISA and the FBI warned that Blackcat is now intentionally targeting the healthcare system. “Since mid-December 2023, of the nearly 70 leaked victims, the healthcare sector has been the most commonly victimized,” the agencies wrote.

The US government has even offered a combined $15 million reward for any actionable intelligence on the group’s whereabouts. An attempt by the FBI to seize Blackcat’s servers and sites last year seemingly failed —the group quickly regained control.

In a darknet message that was later deleted on Wednesday, Blackcat also claimed it stole millions of patient records, including sensitive medical and insurance data in the UnitedHealth breach, Reuters reported. The group also admitted, in the same message, to stealing data from Medicare, the military medical agency Tricare, and even CVS Health. No further details were provided about the timing of these breaches, and the message was reportedly deleted without explanation. Reuters was unable to reach the hackers or verify any of their claims.

Even the theft of sensitive records from UnitedHealth alone could impact millions of people. Change Healthcare handles nearly 1 in 3 patient records in the US, the American Hospital Association told HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra in a letter sent on Monday. “Any prolonged disruption of Change Healthcare’s systems will negatively impact many hospitals’ ability to offer the full set of health care services to their communities,” wrote AHA president Richard J. Pollack.

UnitedHealth is currently working with Google-owned Mandiant and cybersecurity software vendor Palo Alto Networks, CNBC reports. The company hasn’t indicated whether it plans to pay the ransom.

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Here’s your first look at Tron: Ares, premiering in 2025

Here’s your first look at Tron: Ares, premiering in 2025

Image: Disney

The third Tron movie is nearing release. Disney announced that production on Tron: Ares — a follow-up to Tron: Legacy, which itself was a sequel to the 1982 original — began in January and that the plan is for the film to premiere in 2025. As part of the announcement, the first image for the film was also released. It definitely has Tron vibes but also wouldn’t be out of place as a skin in a shooter like Destiny or Fortnite.

Here’s the full thing:

Image: Disney

According to Disney, the new film is about “a highly sophisticated Program, Ares, who is sent from the digital world into the real world on a dangerous mission, marking humankind’s first encounter with AI beings.” It’s being directed by Joachim Rønning, who previously worked on the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise and the sequel to Maleficent. And while we don’t know much about the characters, the cast includes Jared Leto, Greta Lee, Evan Peters, Hasan Minhaj, Jodie Turner-Smith, Arturo Castro, Cameron Monaghan, and Gillian Anderson.

Of course, the real unanswered question is who will be doing the soundtrack.

This ‘Amazon’s Choice’ video doorbell could let just about anyone spy on you

This ‘Amazon’s Choice’ video doorbell could let just about anyone spy on you

An “Aiwit” doorbell camera. There are many like it. | Image via Amazon

Does your video doorbell look anything like the one in the picture? Perhaps you bought it for cheap at Amazon, Temu, Shein, Sears, or Walmart? Does it use the Aiwit app?

Consumer Reports is reporting the security on these cameras is so incredibly lax, anybody could walk up to your house, take over your doorbell, and permanently get access to the still images it captures — even if you take control back.

The cameras are sold by a Chinese company called Eken under at least ten different brands, including Aiwit, Andoe, Eken, Fishbot, Gemee, Luckwolf, Rakeblue and Tuck. Consumer Reports says online marketplaces like Amazon sell thousands of them each month. Some of them have even carried the Amazon’s Choice badge, its dubious seal of approval.

Yet Amazon didn’t even respond to Consumer Reports findings last we’d heard, much less pull the cameras off its virtual shelves. Here’s one of them on sale right now. Shopping app Temu, at least, told CR it would halt sales after hearing just how incredibly easy they are to hack.

Frankly, “hack” might be too strong a word

Not only do these cameras reportedly expose your public-facing IP address and Wi-Fi network in plaintext to anyone who can intercept your network traffic (hope you aren’t checking them on public Wi-Fi!), they reportedly broadcast snapshots of your front porch on web servers that don’t ask for any username or password.

One Consumer Reports security staffer was able to freely access images of a colleague’s face from an Eken camera on the other side of the country, just by figuring out the right URL.

Worse, all a bad actor would need to figure out those web addresses is the serial number of your camera.

Even worse, a bad actor could get that serial number simply by holding down your doorbell button for eight seconds, then re-pairing your camera with their account in the Aiwit smartphone app. And until you take control of your own camera again, they’ll get video and audio as well.

Worse still, that bad actor could then share those serial numbers with anyone else on the internet. Consumer Reports tells us that once the serial number is out in the wild, a bad actor can write a script that would just keep downloading any new images generated by the camera.

Image: Eken

“Your privacy is something that we value as much as you do,” reads Eken’s video doorbell website.

I guess you could say “Well, these cameras only face outdoors and I don’t care about that,” but Eken advertises indoor-facing cameras as well. (Consumer Reports tells us it hasn’t tested other Eken models yet.) I also really don’t want bad actors to know exactly when I leave my home.

You might say “Ah, this isn’t a big threat because a bad actor needs local access to the camera” — but that assumes they can’t figure out a way to randomly hit upon working serial numbers, or recruit porch pirates to canvas neighborhoods. At least the serial numbers seem to be randomized, not incremental, Consumer Reports tells us.

You also might say “Won’t Eken just stop hosting these images at freely accessible URLs?” That’d be good, but it apparently couldn’t be bothered to respond to Consumer Reports’ requests for comment.

Do the Aiwit servers do anything at all to prevent hackers from just randomly trying URLs until they find images from people’s cameras? If so, Consumer Reports hasn’t seen it yet.

“I have made tens of thousands of requests without any defense mechanisms triggering,” Consumer Reports’ privacy and security engineer Steve Blair tells The Verge via a spokesperson. “In fact, I was purposely noisy (hundreds of requests at once, from a single IP/source, repeated every couple of minutes) to try to determine if any defenses were present. I did not see any limitations.”

At least Consumer Reports isn’t yet suggesting this has been exploited in the wild.

We didn’t independently confirm these flaws, but we did read through the vulnerability reports that CR shared with Eken and another brand named Tuck. And it wouldn’t be the first time a “security” camera company has neglected basic security practices and misled customers.

Image: Eken

Eken sells a wide variety of video doorbells under an even wider variety of brands. Consumer Reports points out that the buttons and sensor spacing are similar, though.

Anker admitted its always-encrypted Eufy cameras weren’t always encrypted after my colleagues and I were able to access an unencrypted live stream from across the country, using an address that, like Eken, consisted largely of the camera’s serial number.

Meanwhile, Wyze recently let at least 13,000 customers briefly see into a stranger’s property — the second time it’s done that — by sending camera feeds to the wrong users. And that was after the company swept a different security vulnerability under the rug for three whole years.

But the Eken vulnerability might even be worse, because it sounds far easier to exploit, and because they’re white-labeled under so many different brands that it’s harder to protest or police.

Consumer Reports says that even after Temu pulled some of the worrying doorbells, it kept selling others — and that as of late February, despite its warnings to retailers, most of the products it found were still on sale.

Now it’s the Galaxy Z Flip 6’s turn to leak in unofficial renders

Now it’s the Galaxy Z Flip 6’s turn to leak in unofficial renders

Unofficial renders of what the Z Flip 6 could look like. | Image: OnLeaks / SmartPrix

Yesterday was the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 6, now it’s the Z Flip 6’s turn to have its alleged design leak in a series of unofficial renders from OnLeaks and SmartPrix ahead of its rumored July unveiling.

While the overall form-factor of the device is similar to last year’s Z Flip 5, including a 6.7-inch inner folding display and 3.4-inch cover screen, SmartPrix reports that its thickness could increase from 6.9mm to 7.4mm, prompting speculation about what the extra internal space could be used for. The front-running theory comes from a GalaxyClub report from last year, which said the Z Flip 6’s battery capacity could increase from 3,700mAh to 4,000mAh. It’s a move that could (hopefully) address the so-so battery life we experienced on the Z Flip 5.

Good Morning #FutureSquad! Another day, another leak with your very first look at the #Samsung #GalaxyZFlip6 (360° video + sharp 5K renders + dimensions)!

On behalf of @Smartprix https://t.co/x1mL7WcRyR pic.twitter.com/nJ5wA47nxL

— Steve H.McFly (@OnLeaks) February 29, 2024

Other specs include a Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 processor and a return of the dual camera setup from last year. SmartPrix reports that they’ll once again both have 12-megapixel resolutions. GalaxyClub earlier reported that Samsung was testing the inclusion of a 50-megapixel main camera in the Z Flip 6, but it’s unclear if it’ll make it to the final device. Available colors include light purple and mint green.

Although it’s impossible to tell from the renders, you have to imagine that Samsung’s suite of Galaxy AI features is going to make an appearance on its upcoming foldables. What’s less clear is whether there’ll be any new AI tools, or whether the features will be similar to what we saw on the Galaxy S24.

X adds live video to Spaces instead of bringing back Periscope

X adds live video to Spaces instead of bringing back Periscope

Illustration: The Verge

Spaces, the live audio feature for X, is now letting hosts turn on their video during chat sessions. The platform formerly known as Twitter announced the news on Wednesday as owner / CTO Elon Musk reposted a walkthrough from a user named "Dogedesigner."

Spaces users will notice a new option to “enable video” when they first create a new Spaces session. Hosts can opt for either their phone’s front or back-facing cameras as well as either a landscape or vertical view of their video feed.

The Video Spaces are available on the iOS version of the X app, but we haven’t seen them available on Android or the web yet. Multiple users reported significant lag while trying out the feature so far.

BREAKING: Video Spaces are now live on

Here's how to host a video space: pic.twitter.com/PgYHiq0jhU

— DogeDesigner (@cb_doge) February 28, 2024

X bringing video to the formerly audio-only Spaces may sound like it’s bringing back Periscope, that’s technically not the case. X already has a live broadcast feature, which lets users stream video that appears both on their profiles and the timelines of their followers. Periscope (before its untimely demise) did have a feature where hosts could invite other guests to participate in live broadcasts.

Right now, only hosts have the ability to turn on video. The end result is a prominent display of the host’s video feed, which is then surrounded by icons of co-hosts, speakers, and any listeners. At first glance, it’s an environment that resembles Twitch — expect for the fact that any selected audience members can chime in at any minute. A host’s video feed also only lives inside a Spaces session, so users will have to join the session in order to tune in.

When Elon Musk announced that Spaces would get video late last year, his description of it sounded closer to a videoconferencing app or video call app like FaceTime, where the video feed switches to whoever is currently speaking.

But for now, a typical Spaces with video session prominently features the host’s video feed, which is surrounded by the smaller icons of any other speakers, co-hosts, or listeners in the room. It’s not exactly like Twitch since anyone you give permission to can speak back to you, but it does turn the host into the main event in a similar fashion.

The new video integration of X Spaces is separate from the platform’s existing live broadcast feature, which lets users directly livestream video. Spaces functions as a live chatroom, where multiple users can tune in and speak. In contrast, the audience in a typical live broadcast can only comment or send hearts.

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