Technology news

Photo by Dan Seifert / The Verge Google has disabled Xiaomi devices’ access to its Nest Hub and Assistant after a camera owner reported seeing unfamiliar still images apparently from other cameras, Google confirmed to The Verge. The issue was first reported by Android Police.
“We’re aware of the issue and are in contact with Xiaomi to work on a fix,” a Google spokesperson said in a statement. “In the meantime, we’re disabling Xiaomi integrations on our device

Photo by George Rose/Getty Images A collection of at least 75 rare performances by the Rolling Stones briefly appeared on a brand-new YouTube account on New Year’s Eve, then vanished just a day later, as spotted by Variety. The uploads could have been the work of a dedicated pirate, but copyright lawyers have another theory: ABKCO Music & Records, which administers the rights to the band’s 1960s catalog, uploaded them intentionally as a way to extend their hold on the recordings

Astrid Riecken/Tribune News Service via Getty Images Facebook removed personal injury advertisements early this week that contained misleading information about medications designed to prevent the spread of HIV, after months of outcry from LGBTQ organizations like GLAAD, The Washington Post reported. Encouraging people at risk of HIV to take these medications is a key strategy in efforts to reduce the transmission of the virus — so misinformation around this drug is especially concerning.

It’s that time of year again: the Consumer Electronics Show is set to take over Las Vegas, Nevada, during the first week of January. CES 2020 kicks off on Tuesday, January 7th, and runs through Friday, January 10th. But you can join Nilay Patel, Dieter Bohn, and Ashley Carman for a special CES preview The Vergecast Live on Monday, January 6th.
The event runs from 3PM–5PM PT; The Vergecast Live will begin recording at 3:30PM with a reception to follow at 4:30PM.
Seats are limited for

Image: Netflix The Witcher is the most in-demand show in the world, according to Parrot Analytics, surpassing Disney+’s The Mandalorian. It also nearly topped Netflix’s most popular shows of 2019, despite being released less than a month ago. By all metrics, The Witcher is a success. The show received middling reviews from critics, but that didn’t stop people from bingeing their way through it, sometimes more than once.Part of that success has come from The Witcher’s bui

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) announced today that it is ordering companies to pull flavored e-cigarette cartridges from the market. The agency promised regulatory action if the flavored pods and cartridges weren’t removed from shelves within a month. Tobacco or menthol flavored cartridges are still allowed. The decision comes as the vaping industry waits for many products to go through the FDA’s lengthy approval process.The announcem

Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge In 2018, Dell released its Mobile Connect app, which lets you connect your Dell computer to your phone so you can respond to phone calls and texts and receive notifications from apps directly from your computer. Starting this spring, Dell says you’ll be able to wirelessly transfer photos and videos and interact with apps from your iOS device while using the Mobile Connect app, two features that were previously exclusive to using Mobile Connect w

Photo by Horacio Villalobos#Corbis/Corbis via Getty Images Fortnite is still the biggest game in the world — if not quite in terms of audience, then in terms of attention and revenue. According to Nielsen’s game-industry research arm, SuperData, Fortnite brought in a staggering $1.8 billion in revenue in 2019. That’s down a quarter from 2018 — when it earned a record-setting $2.4 billion, as Variety reports — but it’s still about $200 million more than its cl

Photo by Daniel Zuchnik/Getty Images Television executive Richard Plepler is credited as the man who helped HBO become the prestige network it is today, helping launch titles like Game of Thrones and Big Little Lies and overseeing HBO’s transition to streaming. Now, after departing HBO earlier this year, he’ll take his talents to Apple where he’s set to produce original TV shows, films, and documentaries exclusively for Apple TV Plus, according to The New York Times.
The five-

Get ready for a smart fridge showdown at CES 2020, because Samsung and LG will both be unveiling fridges with added artificial intelligence capabilities this year. Samsung’s latest edition of its Family Hub refrigerator and LG’s second-generation InstaView ThinQ fridge both tout AI-equipped cameras that can identify food. The idea is that the cameras can scan what’s inside and let users know what items they’re short on, even making meal suggestions based on the ingredient

Photo: TechTalkTV (Twitter) Samsung’s upcoming Galaxy Note 10 Lite has seen plenty of leaks, with renders for the phone making their way across the internet. But today’s batch from TechTalkTV on Twitter takes things a step further, with an early look at the actual, physical device itself, via 9to5Google.Given that seemingly official renders from Samsung have already leaked, there’s not much new in the pictures here of the Galaxy Note 10 Lite, but it does give a better look at

Image: Dave Zatz (Twitter) Federal Communications Commissions filings for a second generation of Amazon’s Ring Chime Pro had an image of the back of the device that hinted at a brand-new design for the plug-in Wi-Fi extender for Ring devices. Today, tech writer Dave Zatz shared an image on Twitter that seemingly reveals what the whole thing will look like.
The first-generation Ring Chime Pro was a small rectangular device with a speaker grille and two large antennas sticking up. But this

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge A former high-level Google executive says he was pushed out after promoting human rights at the company, as leadership pushed plans for a censored Chinese search engine.
Ross LaJeunesse says company executives were dead set on entering China with some kind of censored search engine, despite comments from Google saying the project was always an experiment. “They are determined to do this,” he says he realized as executives made decisions about

Brydge will release an iPad keyboard with a built-in trackpad next month, after Apple added support for trackpads to iPadOS back in September. A $199.99 model will be available for the 11-inch iPad Pro and a $229.99 model will be available for the 12.9-inch iPad Pro, with both models clasping onto the iPad with a hinge that can fold the devices open and closed like a laptop. Initial preorders will ship in late February, with the rest following a month later.
The keyboard, called the Brydge Pro+,

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Apple will once again license technology from Imagination Technologies, the chip designer that used to provide graphics processors for the iPhone and iPad, the UK-based company announced today. In a short statement posted on its website, Imagination said that it had entered into a multiyear license agreement with Apple, under which the Cupertino, California-based firm will have access to “a wider range of Imagination’s intellectual property in

Dell’s XPS 13 has long been one of the best Windows laptops around, and at CES 2020, the company is updating it yet again with a bigger 13.4-inch display that also shifts to a 16:10 aspect ratio. By adding the taller display, Dell has also completely cut out the bottom bezel to make the new XPS 13 look better than ever, too.Despite the larger display, the new XPS 13 is actually 2 percent smaller overall than its predecessor. As part of the redesign, the 2020 model also has a larger keyboar

Hello and well met! You’re reading the first newsletter we’re calling Processor. It’s a newsletter about “computers,” but I am using that term in a winky way. What I mean is consumer technology: gadgets, tablets, computers, phones, software, and the companies that make the products we use every day. So Processor is about the computers that are all around us — on your wrist, on your wall, and yes, on your lap, too.Every day, I’ll be rounding up the most i

Image: Samsung Last year, Samsung announced the Galaxy Book Ion and Galaxy Book Flex, a pair of new laptops that were designed to replace its Notebook 9 Pen and Notebook 9 models. Now, just ahead of CES 2020, the company is unveiling another new laptop: the Galaxy Book Flex α (pronounced “Alpha”), which is designed to bring some of the high-end features of those new Galaxy Book laptops to a cheaper price point.Like the pricier Galaxy Book Flex, the Galaxy Book Flex α fea

Image: Samsung Last year, Samsung announced the Galaxy Book Ion and Galaxy Book Flex, a pair of new laptops that were designed to replace its Notebook 9 Pen and Notebook 9 models. Now, just ahead of CES 2020, the company is unveiling another new laptop: the Galaxy Book Flex α (pronounced “Alpha”), which is designed to bring some of the high-end features of those new Galaxy Book laptops to a cheaper price point.Like the pricier Galaxy Book Flex, the Galaxy Book Flex α fea

C by GE Hubless Smart Dimmer with motion detection | Image: GE Lighting GE Lighting is introducing new smart lighting switches and dimmers to its C by GE line of connected products that do not require the use of a neutral wire. This allows the C by GE Hubless Three-Wire Smart Switch and Hubless Dimmer models to be installed in many more homes than most smart switches, including homes built before 1980. In addition, the new switches do not require a hub to connect to the internet or be used with

LG Display’s previous rollable TVs have all rolled upwards out of a box. The upcoming design will roll downwards from the ceiling. | Photo by Chris Welch / The Verge LG Display has a new version of its rollable TV to show off at CES 2020, the company has announced. This year’s model works a little differently to the prototypes the company has shown off for the past two years, however. Rather than unrolling upwards out of its box, the TV will instead roll downwards from the ceiling;

Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge “Most people are posting pics of them from the begining [sic] of the decade in order to show how far they’ve progressed in life. If you find that boring, how about using Google’s servers to find out what you were EXACTLY THINKING 10 years ago?”That’s what a Reddit user suggested in r/LifeProTips earlier today — so I figured I’d give it a go. Who wouldn’t enjoy taking a creepy trip down memory lane with G

Photo by Kimberly White/Getty Images for TurboTax Earlier this year, ProPublica published a report showing how Intuit, the company behind TurboTax, was misleading users into paying to file their taxes — something that’s supposed to be free in the first place for many. They, along with H&R Block, went so far as to keep the free versions from showing up in search engine results. This made it harder for users to find the free versions online, and many people ended up paying to file

ProtonMail ProtonMail just launched an encrypted calendar beta to let users manage their schedules privately. It’s the latest tool from a company known for its encrypted email services, and could help users who are looking to wean themselves off Google.The tool, called ProtonCalendar, is currently available for all users with a paid ProtonMail plan. In the future, the company plans to launch the calendar for all users. “We believe everyone has the right to plan dinner with friends w