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Image: Intuitive Machines NASA and Intuitive Machines’ lunar vehicle Odysseus is expected to touch down on the Moon today at 6:24PM ET and become the first successful US Moon landing since 1972’s Apollo 17 mission.Odysseus began its journey to the moon on February 15th after it hitched a ride on SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket. It plans to land on the Moon’s south pole.The mission, officially known as IM-1, carries scientific cargo to help NASA learn more about the Moon’s

Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge Avast, the cybersecurity software company, is facing a $16.5 million fine after it was caught storing and selling customer information without their consent. The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) announced the fine on Thursday and said that it’s banning Avast from selling user data for advertising purposes.
From at least 2014 to 2020, Avast harvested user web browsing information through its antivirus software and browser extension, according to the

Image: Bluesky Bluesky is taking a big leap toward federating. On Thursday, the social network announced that it is opening up early access for users and developers who want to self-host their data. While this isn’t true federation yet, the company plans to open up federation to larger servers with even more users in its next phase. When the dust settles, anyone can (in theory) create their own server with their own rules on Bluesky’s AT Protocol.The draw of self-hosting is that it o

Image: Bluesky Bluesky is taking a big leap toward federating. On Thursday, the social network announced that it is opening up early access for users and developers who want to self-host their data. While this isn’t true federation yet, the company plans to open up federation to larger servers with even more users in its next phase. When the dust settles, anyone can (in theory) create their own server with their own rules on Bluesky’s AT Protocol.The draw of self-hosting is that it o

Illustration: The Verge This afternoon, AT&T confirmed that it has restored mobile service following a major outage that disrupted its network for customers across the US for much of Thursday. “We sincerely apologize to them,” the carrier said of subscribers in a statement on its website. “Keeping our customers connected remains our top priority, and we are taking steps to ensure our customers do not experience this again in the future.”
The company hasn’t yet o

Image: The Verge On Thursday, Reddit filed its S-1 registration statement with the SEC detailing its finances and business goals ahead of its imminent initial public offering on the NYSE under the symbol RDDT.In its S-1 document, Reddit said it made $804 million in revenue last year, the vast majority of which came from advertising. However, the company is unprofitable, with a net loss of $90.8 million in 2023.
In an unusual twist, Reddit is also giving a number of its top users, including moder

Image: Engadget The nearly 20-year-old tech publication Engadget is laying off staff and restructuring editorial teams today with a new focus around traffic and revenue growth. The changes are designed to give the outlet a stronger emphasis on commerce revenue, while removing key editorial leaders from its newsroom, including its editor-in-chief.
Engadget, which is operated by Yahoo, will lay off 10 employees, according to people with knowledge of the situation who say staff were “blindsid

In not-so-surprising news, OnlyFans is a pretty lucrative side hustle. Keeper, a tax-filing service focused on freelance workers, found OnlyFans had the highest median income of the top side hustles. It found the median annual income was $4,995. For comparison's sake, the most popular side hustle — DoorDash — had a median annual income of $2,636.SEE ALSO:Diary of an OnlyFans queen at AVN
Delivery side hustles were the most popular, according to Keeper. Working for DoorDash, Uber, and

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Image: Mercedes-Benz Mercedes-Benz is backing off its plan to only sell electric vehicles after 2030, the company said Thursday. It was the latest evidence that the global auto industry is feeling more dour about the all-electric future after a slowdown in sales growth.It was only three years ago that Mercedes was feeling quite bullish about plug-in powertrains, saying that by 2030 it would only sell EVs. At the time, the company said it would completely phase out gas-powered vehicles, while inc

We might be watching a historic moon landing today.Intuitive Machines’ IM-1 spacecraft, the uncrewed Odysseus, could potentially land on the surface of the Moon on Feb. 22 at around 4:24 p.m. ET, after an eight-day journey through space. While we can't be completely sure that the landing will be successful, on Wednesday Intuitive Machines said Odysseus "continues to be in excellent health in lunar orbit."SEE ALSO:Why landing a spaceship on the moon is still so challenging
You can watch the

Researchers have discovered a Russia-aligned PSYOPs campaign with a curious mix of espionage, disinformation, and Canadian pharmacy spam. It also has links to Alexi Navalny, the Kremlin critic who died last week in an Arctic penal colony. The PSYOPs — a military term for “psychological operations” — were unearthed by analysts at ESET, a cybersecurity firm headquartered in Slovakia. They named the campaign “Operation Texonto.” The operation disseminated w

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge The Justice Department appointed Princeton professor and technology law researcher Jonathan Mayer as its first chief AI officer as it figures out how AI impacts law enforcement.Attorney General Merrick Garland said in a statement that appointing an AI officer was important for the department to “keep pace with rapidly evolving scientific and technological developments.”One of Mayer’s responsibilities will be to build a team of technical a

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge The Justice Department appointed Princeton professor and technology law researcher Jonathan Mayer as its first chief AI officer as it figures out how AI impacts law enforcement.Attorney General Merrick Garland said in a statement that appointing an AI officer was important for the department to “keep pace with rapidly evolving scientific and technological developments.”One of Mayer’s responsibilities will be to build a team of technical a

Image: The Verge Google is getting AI training data from Reddit as part of a new partnership between the two companies. In an update on Thursday, Reddit announced it will start providing Google “more efficient ways to train models.”The collaboration will give Google access to Reddit’s data API, which delivers real-time content from Reddit’s platform. This will provide “Google with an efficient and structured way to access the vast corpus of existing content on Reddi

If you're an Avatar: The Last Airbender fan and have a keen ear and a penchant for heart-wrenching, melancholy moments, you might have heard a devastating musical callback in the live-action Netflix series.In episode 4, "Into the Dark," the show takes a beat to focus on the cruel impact of war. It's here we learn of the tragic loss suffered by Uncle Iroh (Paul Sun-Hyung Lee), whose son Lu Ten died in battle. It's also the moment when the Netflix series pays homage to the original animated series

UPDATE: Feb. 22, 2024, 4:02 p.m. EST T-Mobile reached out to Mashable with a comment stating that it has not experienced any network outages.Did you wake up this morning and find that your smartphone was in SOS mode?You're not alone. There appears to be a major cell service outage across the U.S.What's going on?On Thursday, hundreds of thousands of smartphone users reported trouble with their cellular network. While the reason for the downtime is unclear as of publication, it's safe to say that

This year, all eyes are on April 8. That's when a rare total solar eclipse will pass over Mexico, the U.S., and Canada, giving people in the right place at the right time the opportunity to witness the moon completely block out the sun. If you want in on the action, you'll need to get yourself near the path of totality (where you can see the total solar eclipse). Here are the best flight deals to book today if you're ready to witness one of the most spectacular natural shows our universe offers.

SAVE $120: The Apple iPad Mini (WiFi, 256 GB) is just $529 at Amazon, marked down from the normal price of $649. That's an 18% discount and the lowest price we've ever seen at Amazon.Opens in a new windowCredit: AppleApple iPad Mini (WiFi, 256GB) $529 at Amazon (save $120)Get DealIn a world of oversized electronics, sometimes a mini version is actually best. If you've been sensing that most tablets feel more like portable monitors when it comes to size, today's deal on a small tablet is meant to

Galaxy AI is coming to more Samsung devices, and soon. On Thursday, Samsung announced that the Galaxy S23 series, S23 FE, Z Fold5, Z Flip5, and Tab S9 series are poised to get Galaxy AI in late March. Galaxy AI, a focal point of this year's Samsung Unpacked, is an AI model on newer Samsung devices that enables features like live translation, summarizing text, drafting messages, and some snazzy photo editing tools. SEE ALSO:Samsung Galaxy AI hands-on: Your invisible robot friend
The Galaxy S24 se

Because who wants to pay $70 just to develop analog drift in another three months? | Photo by Cameron Faulkner / The Verge I love the Nintendo Switch’s Joy-Con, but they develop stick drift way too easily, and people with ham-sized hands like mine can’t play for long before cramps set in. They’re also pretty expensive to replace. I’ve personally settled on Hori’s Split Pad Pro Joy-Con replacements to remedy all of that, but it makes my Switch too bulky to fit comfor

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Some added assistance for when you can’t be bothered to fill in web forms yourself. | Image: Google Google has started rolling out “Help me write” — an experimental Gemini-powered generative AI feature for its Chrome browser that aims to help users write or refine text based on webpage content. Following the stable release of Chrome M122 on Tuesday, the new writing assistant is now available to try out on Mac and Windows PCs for English-speaking Chrome users in the US.
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Some added assistance for when you can’t be bothered to fill in web forms yourself. | Image: Google Google has started rolling out “Help me write” — an experimental Gemini-powered generative AI feature for its Chrome browser that aims to help users write or refine text based on webpage content. Following the stable release of Chrome M122 on Tuesday, the new writing assistant is now available to try out on Mac and Windows PCs for English-speaking Chrome users in the US.
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Image: Riot Games Riot Games has given Project L, its in-development 2v2 fighting game, an official name: 2XKO.
2XKO — a name that is unlikely to spawn its own catchphrase ala “When’s Mahvel?”— was first announced in 2019 along with a battery of other League-themed projects including Arcane and Legends of Runeterra. Last year, however, Riot underwent layoffs of around 500 people, scaling back projects including Runeterra and shuttering its publishing arm Riot Forge.

The FDA has issued a new safety alert for smartwatch enthusiasts relying on their devices to monitor their health and potentially detect common conditions, including diabetes. The government agency warns consumers that they should steer clear of wearable smart devices that claim to detect blood glucose levels without actually penetrating a user's skin — potentially misleading tech that could have serious health consequences for those relying on consistent monitoring."The FDA has not author

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SAVE $21: As of Feb. 22, you can get three months of the Starz streaming service for just $3 a month, down from the usual monthly price of $10. That's a savings of $21.Opens in a new windowCredit: StarzStarz subscriptionThree months for $3 per month (save $21)Get DealIf you need a cheaper solution when it comes to streaming services, you might have overlooked Starz. The platform is home to a plethora of original TV shows including Outlander, Party Down, and Mary & George starring Julianne Mo

Image: OnLeaks via Smartprix The Google Pixel Fold 2 could trade a prominent camera bar for a new square-shaped camera bump nestled in the corner of the device, as shown in a new set of renders reliable leaker OnLeaks shared with Smartprix.
Since the launch of the Pixel 6, Google has shipped every Pixel device with a prominent camera bar that stretches across the rear of the device — and the first-gen Pixel Fold is no exception. It seems like Google might want to change things up for the P