Technology news

Illustration by Cath Virginia / The Verge Yelp, one of Google’s most persistent and outspoken rivals, has finally filed its own antitrust lawsuit against the search giant, less than a month after a federal judge ruled Google an illegal monopolist.
Yelp alleges that Google has created or preserved its monopoly in local search services by preferencing its own inferior vertical over competitors’, which Yelp says harmed competition and reduced the quality of local search services. Yelp c

This just in: French prosecutors have charged Telegram’s Russian-born founder Pavel Durov with a wide range of crimes and banned him from leaving the country. He’s now placed under a heavy judicial control with twice-a-week police check-ins and has to post a €5mn bail, according to a statement by Paris Public Prosecutor Laure Beccuau. This development marks a major milestone in what seems to be one of this year’s most important technology news stories that started less th

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Sonos has released an update to its app as it attempts to reverse the fallout from a disastrous redesign. But while the update adds enhanced accessibility settings and improved stability during the product setup process, the update addresses just a fraction of user complaints.
Sonos is reintroducing the ability to clear your music queue on the Android app — a feature that’s been sorely missed since the app’s relaunch. It also added a Nigh

Illustration: The Verge Apple Music subscribers can now transfer their playlists over to YouTube Music, according to a recent support document spotted by MacRumors. Up until now, Apple did not offer native tools for transferring playlists to rival music services, making YouTube Music the first.
There are some caveats, however. Only songs available on YouTube Music can be transferred over, which means you won’t be able to migrate audio files like podcasts or audiobooks. You also can’t

Image: Cath Virginia / The Verge, Getty Images A French investigative judge has charged Telegram CEO Pavel Durov with enabling illegal transactions among other alleged offenses, according to reports from NBC News and Le Monde. Durov had been arrested Saturday as part of an investigation into child sexual abuse material and other criminal activity on Telegram.
French prosecutors will release Durov under judicial supervision on a €5 million bail, but he won’t be allowed to leave France.

Klarna CEO Sebastian Siemiatkowski is so bullish on AI that the Swedish buy-now-pay-later (BNPL) platform plans to cut it's workforce by 50 percent in the next few years. Speaking to the Financial Times, Siemiatkowski said that Klarna is hoping to scale its workforce down from 3,800 to 2,000 employees. The current employee count was already reduced from 5,000 after Klarna conducted mass layoffs last year. With almost half the workforce at the company, Siemiatkowski plans to shift customer servic

Image: Meta Meta is opening up Horizon Worlds, its 3D social platform, to users between the ages of 10 and 12, the company announced on Wednesday. As part of the rollout, parents will have a significant amount of control over what experiences their preteens can access, and experiences will get age ratings to help parents determine which ones are appropriate for their children.
For a preteen to use Horizon Worlds, they’ll have to have a parent-managed Meta account and request access to Hori

Image by Alex Castro / The Verge Reddit is experiencing a widespread outage that’s impacting the entire site and subreddits. If you try and visit Reddit right now, you’ll be met with a “Server error. Try again later” message in a red banner at the top of the site. The same outage error can be found on subreddits and individual posts, too.
The status page for Reddit says the site is currently experiencing “degraded performance” and that engineers are “cur

Image by Alex Castro / The Verge Reddit experienced a widespread outage that impacting the entire site and subreddits earlier today. Millions of Reddit users were met with a “Server error. Try again later” message in a red banner at the top of the site for around 45 minutes today. The same outage error was displayed on subreddits and individual posts, too.
The status page for Reddit initially indicated the site was experiencing “degraded performance” at 4:16PM ET, before

The Ray-Ban Meta Smart Glasses. | Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge Meta is working on a smaller mixed-reality device that looks like a large pair of glasses, according to a report from The Information. The glasses, reportedly codenamed Puffin, may not arrive until 2027 — if the project comes to fruition at all.
Sources tell The Information that the glasses could weigh around 110 grams, putting it somewhere between Meta’s lightweight Ray-Ban smart glasses and the bulkier Qu

Tesla has promised its wide-ranging Supercharger network will open to other U.S. electric vehicles for more than a year. Yet, here we are in August 2024 and most non-Tesla EVs cannot charge with a Supercharger. Why? The New York Times has a detailed report on the subject. The primary culprits are delays in software and hardware. A non-Tesla EV would need both updated software and a physical adapter to use a Supercharger. The rollouts for both those components have proven painfully slow. SEE ALSO

Garmin's got a new flagship in its rugged smartwatch category, the Garmin Fenix 8. The company's Fenix line of smartwatches has long been the golden standard for durable smartwatches for athletes, but Apple put up a pretty good fight with its Apple Watch Ultra (now on its second iteration) rugged smartwatch. Garmin Fenix 8Garmin Fenix 8Garmin Fenix 8999.99Get Deal
The list of specs on both these watches is incredibly long and includes support for a multitude of sports and outdoor activities, but

The Ioniq 9 will be based on Hyundai’s Seven Concept that was revealed in 2021.| Image: Hyundai Hyundai’s next electric vehicle for the US will be the Ioniq 9, a beefy, three-row SUV that will be manufactured at the company’s factory in Georgia, Hyundai executives announced during an investor day conference this week.It’s a sign that while other automakers continue to second-guess their EV investments amid slowing demand, the South Korean automaker is intent on growing it

It's almost new Apple Watch season, which means it's potentially almost time for you to pick out which band you'll use with your next Apple Watch.Whether you'll be upgrading to the new Apple Watch 10 or the Apple Watch Ultra 3, there are a ton of watch band options for you. Apple's website has a long, almost overwhelming, list of watch bands in every size and color you could imagine. Whatever you want your Apple Watch to look like is how it will look. The world is your oyster.With that in mind,

So, you had a video go viral and it had a very specific phrase, like "Hawk Tuah on that thang" or "very demure, very mindful." Sure, maybe a viral phrase isn't the most sophisticated form of humor, and maybe the trend doesn't promise long-term relevance or a particularly enduring appeal. But viral phrases can lead to a huge influx of brand deals and, if you're smart about it, merchandise sales. Take Jools Lebron, the TikTok creator who popularized the viral phrase "very demure, very mindful." Be

UPDATE: Aug. 28, 2024, 1:50 p.m. EDT This story has been updated with additional Android Days deals on smartphone accessories.The very best Android Days deals at a glance:Best unlocked phone dealGoogle Pixel 9 Pro XL (128GB)$1,099 at Amazon + free $200 gift cardGet DealBest tablet dealSamsung Galaxy Tab S9 FE+ (128GB)$479.99 at Amazon(save $120)Get DealBest Chromebook dealAsus Chromebook CX1 (Intel Celeron N4500, 8GB RAM, 64GB eMMC)$189.99 at Amazon(save $60)Get DealBest smartwatch dealSamsung

Illustration by Nick Barclay / The Verge TikTok must face a lawsuit over the viral “blackout challenge” that several parents blame for their children’s deaths, a Pennsylvania-based appeals court ruled on Tuesday. The ruling illuminates how courts are thinking about platform accountability in the wake of a major Supreme Court ruling this year and could highlight the potential limits of a key tech immunity shield.
TikTok’s algorithmic recommendations on the For You Page (FY

By now, you've probably seen the viral videos of the Tesla Cybertruck get stuck trying to do, well, truck things. Videos such as the one showing a Cybertruck struggle to get through a little bit of snow in an off-road setting have spread all over the internet.But is this a Cybertruck issue? Or has the Cybertruck opened up off-road driving to a new audience who is inexperienced with what they need to do with their new truck? Perhaps it's a combination of the two.Nevertheless, it appears Tesla rea

X's native AI chatbot Grok is now providing users with election-related queries a Vote.gov banner and directs them to visit the site for "accurate and up-to-date information about the 2024 US Elections."SEE ALSO:How Big Tech is approaching explicit, nonconsensual deepfakes
Earlier this month, Secretaries of State for Michigan, Minnesota, New Mexico, Pennsylvania, and Washington demanded action from X after they investigated reports that the chatbot populated incorrect election information. False

Illustration: The Verge Soon, all of the blogs on Tumblr will be hosted on WordPress. Automattic, the parent company of WordPress.com and Tumblr, announced on Wednesday that it will start to move the site’s half a billion blogs to the new WordPress-based backend.
This update shouldn’t affect the way Tumblr works for users, whom Automattic promises won’t notice any difference after the migration. Automattic says the change will make it easier to ship new features across both pla

An estimated 27,000 Swifties gathered last night, not for the Eras Tour, but to rally for the election of Vice President Kamala Harris. SEE ALSO:Is it 'Kamala' or 'Harris'? The answer is complicated.
Swifties logged onto Zoom, streamed on YouTube, X / Twitter, and Instagram to hear fellow Taylor Swift fans, politicians like Senator Elizabeth Warren and Senator Ed Markey, organizers including Annie Wu Henry and Indivisible's Kim McMurray, and Carole King make Swiftian puns and encourage Swifties

This summer was Brat summer. We're approaching demure fall, which may transition into a season with longer staying power than the "demure" and "mindful" trend holds. One trend that appears to have miraculously enduring appeal is Barbie Summer a label for June and July 2023 that has somehow maintained relevance well into 2024. So much so that HMD just dropped a Barbie-branded flip phone. According to The Verge, the phone was preannounced earlier this year at Mobile World Congress and will go on s

Brilliant, maker of smart switches and smart control panels, is back in business. | Photo by Jennifer Pattison Tuohy / The Verge Brilliant is back in business. Three months after laying off its staff, shutting down its support center, and ceasing sales, the maker of smart home control panels has reemerged with a new name, new focus, and a new product on the way. The good news for Brilliant customers is that existing products never stopped working during the transition period and will continue to

Where to Watch shows you all the sports on ESPN — and elsewhere. | Image: ESPN ESPN’s newest feature will be a welcome bookmark for sports fans everywhere: the company just launched “Where to Watch,” which aims to be a universal guide for streaming sports all over the internet.When you open the page on ESPN’s website or in its app, Where to Watch looks like a typical schedule of games, the kind of thing ESPN has had forever — it’s sortable by sport and a

SAVE 20%: The Amazon Smart Thermostat is on sale for $63.99 at Amazon, down from the normal price of $79.99. That's a savings of $16.Opens in a new windowCredit: AmazonAmazon Smart Thermostat$63.99 at Amazon $79.99 Save $16.00Get DealThe nights are getting cooler and we're almost into September. After consuming everything pumpkin spice, the weather will chill and you'll be in a thermostat battle with your other household members to find the ideal temperature for everyone (once again). Instead of

Image: Bandai Namco Blue Protocol, an anime-inspired MMO developed by Bandai Namco, will shut down its Japanese servers on January 18th, 2025. The game was in the process of being released in the West, with publishing handled by Amazon Games. Because of the game’s pending shuttering, its Western release has been summarily canceled.
Blue Protocol’s developers released a statement on the game’s website in Japanese and English announcing the cancellation. “We have worked har

These are the best headphones deals ahead of Labor Day:Best Labor Day Headphone DealsBest Headphones DealApple AirPods Max$399 at Amazon(Save $150)Get DealBest Noise-Cancelling Headphones DealBose QuietComfort Ultra$349 at Amazon(Save $80)Get DealBest Budget Headphones DealBeats Solo3 Wireless On-Ear Headphones$119 at Amazon(Save $80.95)Get Deal
Nothing soothes the soul like music. Or your favorite podcast. Or a call to Mom and Dad for a fun little chat when you're missing home. If you're lookin

Concord is Firewalk’s debut game — and it’s part of Sony’s initiative in releasing more live-service games. With the monumental success of Helldivers 2 earlier this year, it seems like Sony was on the right track. Concord has solid gameplay mechanics, but fails when it comes to providing characters to care about and doesn’t accomplish its attempts to stand out from other hero shooters.SEE ALSO:Mashable's best games 2023: No, 'Baldur's Gate 3' isn't No. 1
Concord plo

As one of millions of adults who grew up building Lego, the company’s digital adventures distort my childhood memories. Yet my screaming inner infant can’t derail the transition. Our beloved bricks have now been in video games for nearly three decades. Since debuting on Sega Pico in 1995, the Lego games empire has expanded across over 80 titles and 200 million sales. The biggest hits have come from licensing deals. Collaborations with Star Wars, Marvel, and Harry Potter have sh

GET $30 OFF: As of Aug 28, you can snag a Keurig K Mini single-serve coffee maker for just $59.99, down from $89.99, at Target. That's a $30 discount.Opens in a new windowCredit: Keurig Our pick: Keurig K Mini$59.99 at Target$89.99 Save $30.00Get DealWhen I was an undergrad, it was nearly impossible to find a decent cup of coffee before my dreaded 8 a.m. classes. The campus coffee shop was always packed, and the vending machine options were less than desirable. Don’t be like me — mak

Illustration: The Verge Google will soon let Gemini subscribers create custom chatbots that can serve as a gym buddy, cooking partner, writing editor, and more. Users can give the chatbots — called Gems — distinct personalities and specialties by simply describing a set of instructions.
Google first introduced Gems during I/O in May. In an example prompt shown by Google, users can create a “knowledgeable, casual, and friendly” Gem that can help people plan low- or no-wate

Google’s Imagen 3 is capable of generating photorealistic images of people. | Image: Imagen 3 Google is letting its users generate images of people through its Gemini AI chatbot again after pulling the feature earlier this year amid reports of historically inaccurate images, like racially diverse Nazis. In an announcement, Google says it will roll out an early access version of the capability to Gemini Advanced, Business, and Enterprise users in English “over the coming days.”

Google has announced that Gemini, its AI tool that rivals ChatGPT, now supports AI-generated images of people. The feature was previously available on Gemini, but was disabled in February by Google after users quickly discovered they were able to create disturbing images using the tech giant's AI tool. To prevent exploitative misuse, Google claims that it is implementing strict guardrails.In addition to this news, the search engine giant said that it's rolling out customized Gems, a new feature