Technology news

The days of being able to share a single streaming service account with your family and friends are quickly coming to an end.Max, the Warner Bros. Discovery-owned streaming service formerly known as HBO Max, is the latest company to announce that it will be cracking down on accounts it suspects of password-sharing.SEE ALSO:Netflix password-sharing restrictions are now global
The news of Max's password-sharing crackdown comes directly from Warner Bros. Discovery CEO JB Perrette while speaking at

Illustration by Nick Barclay / The Verge A year ago, TikTok introduced a new way for creators on the platform to make money: make longer videos. The invite-only Creativity Program, then in beta, required TikTokers to post clips longer than a minute to qualify for monetization, demonstrating a shift in how the company wanted people to use its platform. It was a move away from the so-called short-form video style that made TikTok a household name in the first place.TikTok announced today that the

Image: Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge Owners of Meta’s Quest 2 or Pro headsets can turn on a setting that allows their headset to work while lying down, thanks to the v63 software update that’s starting to roll out.Meta tested lying down mode in a public preview early last year but removed the feature before the v53 update shipped for everyone. In January, Meta exec Mark Rabkin told a user, “It shall make a comeback,” and here it is, at least as an experimental option

The IRS Direct File pilot program is now open to receive tax filings from eligible taxpayers. The program allows some taxpayers to file online for free directly to the IRS, using the agency's own in-house software and customer service support. Only taxpayers who live in Arizona, California, Florida, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New York, Nevada, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Washington, and Wyoming are eligible to participate.SEE ALSO:How to talk to a human at the IRS
The program started as i

Image: Apple Apple Podcasts will auto-generate transcripts for podcasts beginning today, thanks to the 17.4 update for iPhones and iPads. Transcripts will automatically appear for new podcast episodes shortly after their publication, while Apple will transcribe podcast back catalogs over time.The podcast transcripts are searchable, allowing users to type in a specific word or phrase and skip to that part of an episode. Users can find transcripts for individual podcast episodes on the bottom-left

The Mill is a smart kitchen trash can that grinds up food scraps and uses sensors and AI built into its bin to manage your food waste efficiently. | Image: Mill Industries Last year when I reviewed Nest co-founder Matt Rogers’ new project, the Mill smart trash can, I was impressed with its food-grinding prowess. But I disliked its monthly subscription and that it wasn’t actually making chicken feed out of my food waste as promised.A year later, the company is out with the second gene

Illustrations by Alex Castro / The Verge One day after the Nintendo Switch emulator Yuzu utterly folded in the face of Nintendo’s lawsuit, it’s not yet clear what other parts of the emulation community might have to fear. But the Yuzu settlement already took the Nintendo 3DS emulator Citra down with it, and it’s not the only change the community’s making seemingly out of an abundance of caution.
The developer of popular Nintendo DS emulator Drastic just made its app compl

Illustration by Nick Barclay / The Verge Spotify isn’t going to launch the in-app purchases it previously planned for the European Union, at least right now. Instead, if Apple approves a newly submitted update, it’s going to try to do the next best thing: provide pricing information within the app and link users to its subscription options.
Spotify tells The Verge that it’s planning to make this change in response to the European Commission’s ruling on Monday, which fined

Illustration by Nick Barclay / The Verge Spotify isn’t going to launch the in-app purchases it previously planned for the European Union, at least right now. Instead, if Apple approves a newly submitted update, it’s going to try to do the next best thing: provide pricing information within the app and link users to its subscription options.
Spotify tells The Verge that it’s planning to make this change in response to the European Commission’s ruling on Monday, which fined

It's great to have a ride or die. But few have ever been as faithful as Dune: Part Two's Stilgar — the Fremen character played by Javier Bardem — who repeatedly backed Paul Atreides AKA Lisan al Gaib. No real spoilers here for "Dune: Part Two," which is a fantastic film. All you need to know for this article is that Stilgar really pushes the belief that Timothée Chalamet's character, Paul Atreides, is the Lisan al Gaib, a long-promised savior for the Fremen people of Arrakis.S

The new iOS 17.4 update is officially here. Expect a gaggle of new emojis, tweaks to Apple Podcasts, and more.Curious about the eye-catching new features that will grace your iPhone? Check out the top five perks coming your way via iOS 17.4.iOS 17.4 update: 5 new features coming to your iPhoneYour can update your phone by navigating to Settings > General > Software Update. Without further ado, here are the new features coming to your iOS device.1. New emojisAs we mentioned in January, Appl

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge After making it available as a beta feature for a few weeks, Signal has rolled out support for usernames on its encrypted messaging service so anyone can add an optional username that will connect them to others without sharing their phone number.
You can create a username by heading to your settings and selecting “Profile.” After you create a unique username, you can generate a QR code or link that points people to your username in the app. Ot

Image: Waze / Screenshots: Wes Davis / The Verge Waze announced several new features, including an alert for stopped first responders, for its already busy driving directions map. That feature is out now, but others, like new road hazard warnings and updated routing info, will be available on iOS and Android phones this month, with still others planned for later this year.The first responder alert feature shows a blinking icon of an emergency vehicle on the map and tells you how far aw

The original Star Wars series is very good. This isn't even really a debatable fact now, nearly five decades since the first film — now known as Star Wars: Episode IV – A New Hope — was released. George Lucas has famously made some questionable changes to the re-released versions of the trilogy, including color timing, audio mixing, take choices, visual effects, and scene expansions. But there was one edit many of us hadn't seen before this week on X when a beer commercial was

Helldivers 2 is a certified hit, and — since it's a PlayStation 5 exclusive — a massive success for Sony. Arrowhead Game Studios has delivered a solid PVE experience, with a peak player count of over 400,000 dedicated citizens fighting to spread democracy across the galaxy.SEE ALSO:'Final Fantasy VII Rebirth' is everything you could want it to be
However, it seems Xbox fans are feeling left out. So much so, there's even a petition to bring the game over to the Series X. Given that Mi

The Verge Tidal seems to have decided that there just aren’t enough people willing to pay upward of $20 per month for the highest-possible audio fidelity. So starting April 10th in the US, the company will combine its existing HiFi and HiFi Plus plans into a single subscription tier that will simply be called “Tidal.” And it’ll cost the same $10.99 per month that the less expensive HiFi plan did.
At a high level, it sounds like this new, much simpler subscription model wi

Image: Warner Bros. Discovery Wired reports that Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD) is gearing up to implement a new set of restrictions designed to prevent subscribers from sharing their passwords with people who aren’t paying for the service themselves. Speaking at Morgan Stanley’s Technology, Media & Telecom conference on Monday, WBD head of global streaming and games JB Perrette said that the company plans to launch its crackdown some time in late 2024.“We’re launching

Some GE Appliance’s Café wall ovens can now recognize what’s in them and suggest cooking modes for you. | Image: GE Appliances If you have a smart GE Appliances wall oven, it’s about to get smarter. Cookcam AI is a new feature that uses artificial intelligence to recognize what you put in the oven and figure out the rest for you, so you don’t need to hover over it and worry about burning your pizza. The company says Cookcam AI is coming to select GE Profile and Caf

iPhone 15 users should now see more battery-related information under Battery Health settings. | Image: The Verge Apple’s iOS 17.4 update is now available, introducing new emoji and a cryptographic security protocol for iMessage, alongside some major changes to the App Store and contactless payments for the iPhone platform in Europe. Apple is making several of these changes to comply with the EU’s Digital Markets Act (DMA), a law that aims to make the digital economy fairer by removi

The first trailer for Dreamworks Animation's The Wild Robot is sure to pull your heartstrings and leave you in awe of nature.Based on the book by Peter Brown, The Wild Robot introduces us to ROZZUM unit 7134, aka Roz (voiced by Lupita Nyong'o), a robot who's been shipwrecked on a deserted island. As time goes by, it will learn to adapt to its new (beautifully animated) surroundings, build friendships with the animals living alongside it, and even adopt an orphaned gosling.The Wild Robot is writt

SAVE $50 ON $100+: As of March 5, you can save $50 on $100+ roundtrip airfare at JetBlue using promo code SPRINGTRAVEL.Opens in a new windowCredit: JetBlueJetBlue's The Big Spring SaleSave $50 off on your $100+ roundtrip airfare with promo code SPRINGTRAVELGet DealPlanning on getting some travel in now that the weather is heating up? You can save a bit of cash if you book soon, thanks to JetBlue's Big Spring Sale, which can net you some money back in your pocket if you're looking to make travel

GET $15 OFF: As of March 5, you can score $15 off everyday essentials when you spend $60 on select Unilever products at Amazon. Opens in a new windowCredit: Unilever Buy $60, get $15 off Unilever products Get DealShopping for groceries is expensive. I can't go in and out of Target or Harris Teeter without spending $100, and somehow, every time I look down into my cart, there are only a few items in there (usually paper towels and toiletries).Thankfully, Amazon has been putting out some pretty go

Illustration by Nick Barclay / The Verge After a long reprieve from serious congressional scrutiny, lawmakers are taking another crack at getting TikTok to sever ties from its Chinese parent company, ByteDance.
The leaders of the House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party, chair Mike Gallagher (R-WI) and ranking member Raja Krishnamoorthi (D-IL), announced the introduction of the Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act on Tuesday. The bill, which has 19

Image: Microsoft Microsoft is ending support for its Android subsystem in Windows 11 next year. The software giant first announced it was bringing Android apps to Windows 11 with Amazon’s Appstore nearly three years ago, but this Windows Subsystem for Android will now be deprecated starting March 5th, 2025.
“Microsoft is ending support for the Windows Subsystem for Android™️ (WSA),” reads a new support document from Microsoft. “As a result, the Amazon Appstor

SAVE $100: As of March 5, the Samsung Galaxy S23 is on sale at Amazon for $599.99, down from its original price of $699.99. That's a discount of 14%. Opens in a new windowCredit: AmazonSamsung Galaxy S23$599.99 $699.99Save $100.00Get DealThere may be new smartphone models every year, but that doesn't mean you have to upgrade every time one comes out. If you're an Android phone user and you're uninterested in the folding phone craze – or just don't want to shell out too much cash for a phon

Dune: Part Two. | Image: Warner Bros. Pictures Finding something to watch or play can sometimes feel like work — there’s just so much out there vying for your free time. That’s true whether you’re heading to a theater, browsing the many streaming platforms, or looking for a new video game. It’s easy to get overwhelmed with choice.
So, as we’ve done in years past, we’re collecting all of our favorite releases from 2024 in one place. The goal is to make yo

SAVE $71.88: As of March 5, Verizon customers can bundle Netflix Premium and ad-free AMC+ for $25.99/month through their free +play account, saving you $5.99 per month and a total of $71.88 annually.Opens in a new windowCredit: VerizonNetflix Premium and AMC+ bundle through Verizon +play$311.88 at Verizon $383.76Save $71.88Get DealThe growing list of streaming services that won't let you share passwords has us all on a perpetual quest to finesse streaming service costs whenever we can. Verizon i

Illustration by Nick Barclay / The Verge Facebook, Instagram, and Threads are coming back online following an outage lasting about two hours. The three Meta-owned platforms stopped working for many users starting around 10AM ET. Some users experienced issues logging in to their Meta Quest headsets, too.Facebook logged users out of their accounts, while Instagram users couldn’t refresh their feeds, and Threads displayed a message saying, “Sorry, something went wrong. Try again.”

It's time to escape from hell. Again.On March 19, you'll be able to do that as much as you want, whenever you want, as Netflix is bringing Hades to iOS on that day. Supergiant Games' classic rogue-lite action game will be available on the mobile platform with new, customizable controls, 60 frames per second performance, achievements, and more, exclusively through a Netflix subscription.If you've never played a game through Netflix before, the instructions are very simple. All you have to do is d

Image: Netflix Netflix continues to strengthen its lineup of games with Hades launching on iOS mobile on March 19th. The launch comes with a fancy new trailer highlighting how mobile controls will work for the escape-from-hell roguelike and you can pre-register for the game here.
Hades represents the latest in a handful of popular games Netflix is adding to its growing roster. You can already play Oxenfree II, Kentucky Route Zero, Before Your Eyes, and Spiritfarer, while Katana Zero, Sonic Mania

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Google is rolling out a few new changes to its ranking systems in search, which are designed to help surface good content in your results and hide some of the worst and most cynical stuff on the web. The company says that it is doing a better job of downranking content that exists only to summarize other content — which can sometimes be normal SEO stuff but is also increasingly a job for generative AI tools — and in combatting some of the trick