Technology news

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge On Thursday, T-Mobile disclosed a security breach that impacted some of its prepaid customers in the United States.
The company told Bleeping Computer on Thursday that a “small number of customers” were affected by the breach that was discovered earlier this month. According to T-Mobile, customer names, addresses, phone numbers, account numbers, rate plans, and plan features were all left exposed. More sensitive information like passwords, fin

Image: Apple Apple is delaying the theatrical release of its upcoming feature film The Banker following sexual misconduct allegations leveled about Bernard Garrett Jr., the son of the character depicted by Anthony Mackie in the film.“We purchased The Banker earlier this year as we were moved by the film’s entertaining and educational story about social change and financial literacy,” an Apple representative said in a statement to The Verge, echoing what the company previously

Photo credit should read SAUL LOEB/AFP via Getty Images Congress has been struggling for years to pass a federal data privacy law, but on Friday, lawmakers gained an unexpected ally in Apple CEO Tim Cook.
In an interview with ABC News, the executive said big tech companies haven’t corrected their mistakes, and it’s time for the government to step in — ideally with a federal privacy bill. “I think we can all admit that when you’ve tried to do something and companies

Most of the Black Friday gaming deals that we’ve seen so far have been on console games for the Xbox One, PS4, or Nintendo Switch. Today, Epic Games Store is bringing some much-needed sales for PC gamers with a slew of Black Friday deals, offering up to 75 percent off on both new releases and older titles currently available on the platform.The sale is happening now, and you don’t need to enter any offer codes to get the deal prices. This Black Friday event will run until 11AM ET on

After 12 long years, there’s finally going to be a new Half-Life game, and it’s exclusive to VR. Half-Life: Alyx is due to arrive in March 2020 for a wide array of PC VR headsets, but none with traditional flat screens, mice, and keyboards. Is it the killer app VR has been waiting for and the fulfillment of Half-Life fans’ dreams? Or is it merely a bump in the road?
Here’s what a savvy selection of The Verge’s staff thinks about that.
Michael Moore, reviews coordina

The return of the electric Citi Bike is nigh! Several thousand pedal-assist electric bikes were yanked from service last April after “dozens” of people were injured due to harder-than-expected brakes. But now the brakes are fixed, and hundreds of e-bikes will begin appearing at docking stations across the city starting this winter. The news follows a similar announcement that e-bikes are coming back to San Francisco, after a couple battery fires put those bikes out of service, too.Ne

Illustration: Alex Castro / The Verge Google has announced that Cloud Print, which lets you easily print things from the web using Google Chrome (even on printers that lack an internet connection), will print its final pages on December 31st, 2020. 9to5Google reported on the news. Cloud Print has been a handy service, as it works both on desktop and mobile and gives extended utility to older printers. Interestingly, despite being introduced back in 2010, Google Cloud Print still has a beta tag.

Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge It’s tough to keep track of all the gaming deals that will kick off on Black Friday. That’s sort of a good problem to have; it means that there’s no shortage of deals on consoles, games, and accessories for the Nintendo Switch, Sony PlayStation 4, and the Xbox One X and S. If you’re a PC gamer, we’ve pulled together the best deals on PC gaming components happening before or on Black Friday.
We’re tracking all of the

Image: OnLeaks (via 91Mobiles) We knew this was coming, but the first batch of early renders for the upcoming Galaxy S11 show that Samsung might be joining Apple and Google in the trend of sticking massive rectangular camera modules on the back of its phones. The renders come from noted hardware leaker OnLeaks, over at 91Mobiles.
To be clear, these aren’t official Samsung images; they’re renders created by OnLeaks based on the current rumors and leaks going around about Samsung&rsqu

Photo by Dan Seifert / The Verge Amazon has shared a long list of devices that will be discounted ahead of Black Friday. These deals will begin on Friday, November 22nd, with several waves of Amazon’s own products going on sale during the week that leads up to Black Friday and Cyber Monday.Like the other major retailers, Amazon usually goes big for the shopping season, so you can probably expect even more deals once Black Friday arrives. But for now, this is the info we have to go on. If

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Jeremy “DisguisedToast” Wang, a 27-year-old Hearthstone and Teamfight Tactics streamer from Canada with more than a million followers on Twitch, is now streaming exclusively on Facebook Gaming, and his first stream is set for today at 3PM ET. It’s Facebook’s first big streamer acquisition, and it showcases the company’s ambitions: by decisively entering the bidding war for streaming talent, Facebook is making it clear that it

Illustration by William Joel / The Verge In a unanimous vote, the Federal Communications Commission has moved to block United States telecoms from using critical federal funds to buy Huawei equipment.Under the new rule adopted by the commission, wireless carriers can’t use money from the Universal Service Fund (USF) to make purchases from companies deemed national security threats. The fund provides billions of dollars in subsidies for companies to offer wireless service around the countr

Image: Segway Black Friday is almost here, and with it, you can expect lots of deals on a range of tech gadgets. Even though it’s almost winter on the East Coast, there’s another kind of product you should consider for your list: electric scooters. Whether you use scooter-sharing services like Lime and Bird, or you (or someone you know) have an eye out for electric scooter deals, now’s a pretty good time to buy one. Wellbots is offering exclusive deals with free shipping and n

Valve Yesterday, Valve released a trailer for its upcoming game Half-Life: Alyx — the first we’ve seen of the shooter series since 2007. Valve says Alyx is “the next part of the Half-Life story, in a game around the same length as Half-Life 2.” (For the record, that’s about 10 to 15 hours.) It might even help clear up some of Half-Life 2: Episode 2’s myriad questions. And it’s coming exclusively to virtual reality headsets in March.
Valve is making a no

As soon as I’m crowned league champion in a Pokémon game, that’s usually it for me. Once the main campaign is over, the games quickly lose their appeal; I’ve never been one to go back just to fill out my pokédex or hunt down rare, legendary creatures. But that’s changed with Pokémon Sword and Shield, the latest titles for the Nintendo Switch. And it’s all because of the brand-new wild area: a vast, open plain that’s the perfect place to re

Photo by Stefan Etienne / The Verge Console refreshes happen every few years, but for PC gamers, there’s always a tantalizing potential upgrade that could make your gaming machine just that much better. And with Black Friday and Cyber Monday coming up, there are a lot of great deals to consider to find that perfect missing part. We’ve rounded up some of the best deals we could find — in fact, a lot of deals are live right now, which we’ve noted — and hopefully, the

Photo by Universal History Archive / Universal Images Group via Getty Images Weather forecasters pushing for strict limits on 5G’s rapidly growing footprint were dealt a blow today by the World Radiocommunication Conference in Egypt. Delegates there voted to create a new international standard that places much looser limits on interference from 5G operating in a specific radio frequency that’s crucial to accurate weather forecasting. Meteorology experts worry that this decision coul

When Instagram opened up its platform this August for anyone to create face filters, it sent a wave of creators to download Spark AR, Facebook’s software for building augmented reality effects. It’s user-friendly enough that beginners can create simple effects pretty quickly, but it’s also powerful enough for artists like Ommy Akhe to create world effects like AR designer rugs, dancing Bearbricks, and digital tarot cards.I first saw Akhe’s work in the Spark AR Community g

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Since it was first announced in 2014, Amazon’s Alexa personal assistant has become a resident in thousands of homes, is consulted by exercising adults and studying children, plays music, turns on the air conditioning, guards the house, and tells you whether it’s going to rain. As of January 2019, according to Amazon, 100 million Alexa devices have been sold.
The types of devices that use Alexa are multiplying as well. What started with the Ama

Google has updated its Gmail apps on iOS and Android with support for AMP, allowing users to interact with compatible emails as though they are dynamic webpages without needing to open an external browser. The feature’s mobile rollout began yesterday, and follows its introduction on the web back in July.
Google gives a few different examples of what the new feature can be used for. You could RSVP to events, manage subscription preferences, or eventually respond to comments on a Google Doc,

Photo by Dan Seifert / The Verge Here’s an interesting stat from the Pew Research Center: more than half of smart speaker owners in the US (54 percent) report saying “please” at least occasionally to their AI assistants, with one-in-five (19 percent) saying please frequently. Curiously, the question of AI politeness also breaks down along gender lines, with 62 percent of women reporting that they say “please” at least sometimes, versus 45 percent for men.Why that m

Photo: Sony There have been plenty of tantalizing Black Friday deals on gaming tech so far, and now there’s even more to pore over. GameStop has released its Black Friday ad, but first: some key details that you should know about right up front. The in-store deals start at 3PM local time on Thanksgiving Day, which is Thursday, November 28th, and they last through December 1st, the day before Cyber Monday. But online shoppers will actually get the jump on these deals; sales start on GameSt

Photo by James Bareham / The Verge Microsoft has been granted a license to export software to Huawei once again. The software giant was caught up in a long line of US-based technology companies that have been forced to comply with President Trump’s executive order to crack down on Chinese tech companies.
“On November 20th, the US Department of Commerce granted Microsoft’s request for a license to export mass-market software to Huawei,” says a Microsoft spokesperson in a

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Twitter has changed its security settings to let you use two-factor authentication (2FA) without having to give the service your phone number. Back when Twitter relied on SMS to send users their six-digit 2FA codes this requirement made more sense, but now that it allows them use authentication apps or security keys, however, asking for phone numbers is increasingly unnecessary.
This is a very positive development from Twitter. Not only is SMS vulnerable

“Please clap.” Elon Musk’s Cybertruck is nothing if not divisive. But nobody should feign surprise: the warning signs were there.His Tesla pickup passion project is every bit “the futuristic-like cyberpunk, Blade Runner pickup truck” Musk said it would be. He even telegraphed its alienating aesthetic when interviewed by Recode’s Kara Swisher last year, conceding that he might have to build a more conventional truck in the future if nobody likes it:
”I&r

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge AT&T is finally opening its 5G network up to consumers. Next month, the carrier will begin selling the Galaxy S10 Plus 5G for $1,300, and customers on select unlimited plans will be able to connect it to AT&T’s burgeoning 5G network.
Initially, 5G for consumers will be offered in five cities: Indianapolis, Pittsburgh, Providence, Rochester, and San Diego. An additional 10 cities, including New York, Boston, and San Francisco, are listed as c

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge AT&T is finally opening its 5G network up to consumers. Next month, the carrier will begin selling the Galaxy Note 10 Plus 5G for $1,300, and customers on select unlimited plans will be able to connect it to AT&T’s burgeoning 5G network.
Initially, 5G for consumers will be offered in five cities: Indianapolis, Pittsburgh, Providence, Rochester, and San Diego. An additional 10 cities, including New York, Boston, and San Francisco, are listed

Image: Tesla Tesla CEO Elon Musk took the stage on November 21st to unveil the Cybertruck, Tesla’s all-electric pickup truck and the automaker’s sixth vehicle since its founding in 2003.There will be three versions of the truck — 250 miles, 300 miles, and 500 miles of range — with a variety of towing capacities and 0-60 mph capabilities. Musk unveiled the truck at a cyberpunk-inspired event with many, many lasers, and even a surprise ATV.But the event didn’t exactl

Tesla’s newly revealed Cybertruck is now available for preorder at tesla.com/cybertruck. The company is currently taking $100 deposits to reserve the truck. But as Tesla CEO Elon Musk noted during an event in Los Angeles Thursday night, deliveries are still a ways off.There are three versions of the truck available:
Single motor rear-wheel drive with 250 miles of range, 7,500-pound towing capacity, and 0-60 mph capabilities in under 6.5 seconds, for $39,900.
Dual motor all-wheel drive with