Technology news

Photo by John Moore / Getty Images Customs and Border Protection (CBP) just released updated data on migrant deaths at the US-Mexico border, and the results are staggering. At least 895 people died at the border during the 2022 fiscal year — a 57 percent increase from the previous fiscal year. This grim statistic makes 2022 the deadliest year on record for migrants attempting to come to the US, and it’s possible that the figure is an undercount.
For years, CBP has blamed the persiste

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge The cost of TapeACall, the occasionally glitchy app many reporters use to record their interviews, will increase significantly in less than a month. I discovered this thanks to a pop-up notification when I opened the app, which alerted me that my annual subscription would increase from $29.99 to $79.99 per year on April 16th.
The price increase appears to be a result of new ownership. In January, IAC sold its Mosaic Group mobile apps — which includes

Cath Virginia / The Verge | Photo from Getty Images A week after the House of Representatives passed a bill that seeks to force TikTok to separate from its Chinese parent company, it passed a second bill that aims to protect Americans’ data from foreign adversaries.
The Protecting Americans’ Data from Foreign Adversaries Act, or HR 7520, would prohibit data brokers from selling Americans’ personally identifiable information to foreign adversaries, including countries like China

C’mon, how cute is that little ghost in the window? | Image: Sago Mini / The Verge Kids entertainment can be a special kind of hell if you’re not a kid. For every Bluey — a show that’s thoughtful, funny, and thoroughly watchable if you’re over the age of five — there’s a Blippi. If you’re not familiar, he’s a kind of MrBeast for toddlers. But he’s hardly alone: YouTube Kids is littered with low-grade, algorithm-optimized videos of color

Screenshot by Alex Cranz / The Verge An investigation has found that the physicist who claimed to have developed one of the first room-temperature superconductors engaged in “research misconduct,” according to a report from The Wall Street Journal. Ranga Dias, a researcher and assistant professor at the University of Rochester, has been under investigation by a committee of outside experts since last August over concerns about the accuracy of his findings.
“The committee conclu

Screenshot by Alex Cranz / The Verge An investigation has found that the physicist who claimed to have developed the world’s first room-temperature superconductor engaged in “research misconduct,” according to a report from The Wall Street Journal. Ranga Dias, a researcher and assistant professor at the University of Rochester, has been under investigation by a committee of outside experts since last August over concerns about the accuracy of his findings.
“The committee

Photo by James Bareham / The Verge These days, we are all dealing with huge amounts of information, from meeting notes to social media, to photos and videos, to whatever else we’ve collected — and we are all trying to find some way to store it, organize it, and find it when we need it.If you want to get really basic, you can use a spreadsheet or create a simple set of word-processing documents. Otherwise, you can try what is somewhat inaccurately described as a note-taking app. These

The debate on how far artificial intelligence can go revolves around questions about what actually constitutes human intelligence, and can a machine function similarly enough to a human brain? While not shooting for AGI, UK-based Stanhope AI is building its models according to neuroscience principles, and using the predictive, hierarchic machinery that make up our brains for inspiration.  The result is an AI that doesn’t need training. It basically just needs to be told that it exist

Illustration: The Verge Apple is not living up to the letter or spirit of an order issued by a California federal judge in its trial against Epic Games. That’s what Meta, Microsoft, Match Group, and X told the court in an amicus brief on Wednesday.
Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers told Apple in 2021 that it could not prevent app developers from using “buttons, external links, or other calls to action” informing users of payment options outside of their apps. Epic and other develope

Bose’s travel-friendly QuietComfort Ultra Headphones are $50 off.| Photo by Chris Welch / The Verge Spring is a season of refreshment and renewal. It’s an “upgrade season,” if you will, and Amazon’s Big Spring Sale offers a little something for everyone to add faster and better gadgets to their homes and everyday carry. The sale kicks off today and runs through March 25th. We’re seeing great deals on tech across the board, whether you’re after a new pair

Image: Epic Games The worlds of Lego and Fortnite are continuing to intertwine. At its State of Unreal keynote at GDC, Epic announced that, starting today, creators will now be able to use Lego templates and other Lego-branded elements to craft their own games inside of Fortnite. The Lego tools will be available in both Fortnite Creative and the Unreal Editor for Fortnite (UEFN).
Like all other user-made games in Fortnite, Lego games are eligible for payouts through the game’s creative eco

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge YouTube TV subscribers can now watch several programs at once on smaller devices — not just big TV screens. As noted by 9to5Google, the service’s multiview feature has rolled out on iOS and iPadOS, although the Android crowd will have to wait for it to arrive “in the coming months.” So, Google’s leaving its own crowd out of watching several March Madness games while on the go. Ouch.Multiview lets you watch four different thing

Image: Epic Games At GDC last year, Epic launched a robust new creative tool called the Unreal Editor for Fortnite (UEFN). And this year, the company announced some major new features that are on the way for it. To start, the company’s MetaHumans — hyperrealistic human characters that can be animated using only an iPhone — will be available in UEFN beginning today. Epic says that users can import any characters made using the MetaHuman Creator tool and the MetaHuman Animator in

Epic’s State of Unreal keynote opened with a surprise: a first look at 1943: Rise of Hydra ,the new Marvel game from writer and director Amy Hennig, best known for her work on the Uncharted franchise. It features an “ensemble” of playable characters including Captain America and Black Panther, and is described as a “narrative-driven action-adventure game.”
Here’s how Marvel describes the set-up:
As the game’s narrative unfolds, players will assume the r

Photo by Kevin Carter / Getty Images The Biden administration announced new automobile standards aimed at slashing greenhouse gas emissions in half by 2032 while also allowing automakers to meet their targets at a slower pace than originally proposed.
The new standards were not as strict as the proposal laid out by the Environmental Protection Agency last year, in which automakers would have been required to reduce emissions by over two-thirds by 2032. Car companies and the autoworkers union opp

The Municipal Water Authority of Aliquippa, PA (pictured) was targeted by a cyber attack last year. | Image: AP Photo / Gene J Puskar The Biden administration is asking states to bolster security for water and wastewater systems, warning that utilities across the country are being targeted by “disabling cyberattacks.”In a letter sent to all US governors on Tuesday, the White House and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) cited ongoing threats from hackers linked with Iranian and

Photo courtesy of: Becca Farsace We know how much you’ll miss the icy streets, freezing temperatures, and misbehaving radiators that the winter season brings, but spring is right around the corner, which means that while you no longer have to worry about shoveling snow off your driveway, it is time to start thinking about plants — whether it’s in your garden or on your windowsill. We asked the staff members of The Verge what they are planning to grow over the coming spring and

Image: Beeper Beeper needed a fresh start. Late last year, the company bet big on a hacked-together iMessage app for Android, only to be shut down by Apple within days. Beeper tried to fight back, but it ultimately threw in the towel just weeks later in a widely covered defeat.
“December was a wild ride,” Eric Migicovsky, the co-founder of Beeper, tells The Verge.With dreams of an iMessage app dead, Beeper went back to square one to figure out its next steps. And the answer was to st

Google has been slapped with a €250mn fine for breaching EU intellectual property rules in how it deals with media publishers, including scraping news articles to train its AI models without permission.  The regulator found Google guilty of scraping content from news websites to train its chatbot Bard — now Gemini — without notifying publishers or the authorities. Google also didn’t provide a way for publishers to opt out, blocking them from possibly negotiating fair

Patch 1.6 gives Stardew Valley players masses of new content, including this new “Meadowlands” farm biome. | Image: Stardew Valley / @pearblossoms_ Stardew Valley’s massive 1.6 update has been out on PC for less than 24 hours, and it’s already taken the game’s popularity to staggering new heights. The cozy farming simulator hit 146,159 concurrent players on Steam according to SteamDB data, smashing the game’s previous record as players flock to enjoy new conte

In the era of artificial intelligence and accessible photo editing, you can’t believe everything you see online. One exception, of course, is (usually) if it’s published by a reputable news source. The foundation of photojournalism lies in its ability to present reality in an authentic and unaltered manner. Digital manipulation poses a significant threat to this core principle, undermining the credibility and trustworthiness of the images distributed by photo agencies. The controver

Two pro players were forcibly given cheats while livestreaming their finals matches. | Image: Respawn Apex Legends has postponed the North America finals for its Global Series championship over concerns that hackers have compromised the “competitive integrity” of the game. Two professional players from major teams were targeted while livestreaming on Sunday by an attack that forcibly applied advantage-granting cheats during competitive gameplay.
The cause of these attacks hasn’