This happened today
Apple Releases Safari Technology Preview 138 With Bug Fixes and Performance Improvements.
Apple today released a new update for Safari Technology Preview, the experimental browser Apple first introduced in March 2016. Apple designed the Safari Technology Preview to test features that may be introduced into future release versions of Safari. Safari Technology Preview release 138 includes bug fixes and performance improvements for Web Inspector, CSS, Experimental Model Element, Media, Web Animation, WebAuthn, SVG, Web API, Service Workers, WebRTC, WebAssembly, and Web Extensions. ...
Blizzard boss details what the studio is doing to ‘rebuild your trust’.
Blizzard chief Mike Ybarra posted a blog about the changes on Thursday. | Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Blizzard Entertainment, the developer of huge franchises like Diablo and Overwatch, has been under intense scrutiny since California sued parent company Activision Blizzard last summer over allegedly fostering a culture of harassment and discrimination. ...
Apple Highlights iPhone 13 Battery Life and Durability in New Ads.
Apple today shared a pair of iPhone 13 ads highlighting key features like battery life and the durable Ceramic Shield front display. In the first spot, titled "Doin' Laps," a child sets his iPhone 13 up on his bike and then cruises around the neighborhood capturing a long video. At the end of his journey, which lasts for five hours, the iPhone is still recording and has not run out of battery. ...
Instagram will now reduce the visibility of 'potentially harmful' content.
Instagram is taking new steps to make “potentially harmful” content less visible in its app. The company says that the algorithm powering the way posts are ordered in users’ feeds and in Stories will now de-prioritize content that “may contain bullying, hate speech or may incite violence.”While Instagram’s rules already prohibit much of this type of content, the change could affect borderline posts, or content that hasn’t yet reached the app’s moderators. ...
TikTok is thinking about letting its creators charge subscription fees.
TikTok is testing paid subscriptions | Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge TikTok confirmed Thursday that it is testing support for paid subscriptions, paving the way for creators on the short form video platform to charge for their content. First reported by The Information, the company didn’t share details about when it might roll out to creators, how many creators are currently testing it, or what the pay structure might look like. ...
Netflix co-CEO says there will ‘absolutely’ be a second season of Squid Game .
Image: Netflix Hold on to your jumpsuits — Netflix’s wildly popular Squid Game series has been confirmed by the company for a second season. During its fourth-quarter earnings call Thursday, Netflix’s co-CEO and chief content officer Ted Sarandos confirmed that the Korean miniseries is returning. ...
Apple Watch Charging Bug Fixed in watchOS 8.4 Release Candidate.
The watchOS 8.4 release candidate that was seeded to developers and beta testers this morning addresses an ongoing bug that could cause some Apple Watch chargers not to work properly with the Apple Watch. Back in December, we reported on a growing number of charging issues that Apple Watch Series 7 owners were facing. ...
Godzilla and the Titans will reunite in new Apple TV Plus Monsterverse series.
Legendary Pictures Though Legendary’s Godzilla vs. Kong made waves last summer by debuting on HBO Max and quickly becoming one of the platform’s top performing features, the next time we see the titanic monster and his fellow kaiju, they’ll be calling new streamer home: Apple Plus. On Thursday, Apple Plus announced that it has greenlit a new live-action series set in Legendary’s Monsterverse from co-creators Chris Black (Star Trek: Enterprise) and Matt Fraction, writer of Marvel’s Hawkeye run that the recent Disney Plus series heavily draws from. ...
Congress weighs cleaning up cryptocurrency mining in the US .
The “Sandow Switch” that once was used by the Alcoa coal power plant now provides electricity for the Whinstone US Bitcoin mining facility in Rockdale, Texas, on October 9, 2021. | Photo by MARK FELIX/AFP /AFP via Getty Images On Thursday, members of Congress debated how to make cryptocurrencies greener, as energy-intensive bitcoin mining booms in the US. ...
The IRS will soon make you use facial recognition to access your taxes online.
The IRS will use a third party facial recognition company to verify online taxpayers | Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge The Internal Revenue Service will require people who access and pay their taxes online to enroll in a third-party facial recognition company starting this summer (h/t Krebs on Security). ...
Netflix stock plunges as company misses growth forecast .
Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Netflix investors have been worried that the company isn’t adding subscribers fast enough — and today, they started to panic. After Netflix reported lower than projected subscriber additions for the final quarter of 2021, its stock plummeted nearly 20 percent. ...
Apple Shares 'Shot on iPhone 13 Pro' Film Celebrating Chinese New Year.
Apple today shared a short film called "The Comeback," which has been released in celebration of Chinese New Year. Created by director Zhang Meng, the video kicks off the Year of the Tiger with the story of a father, a son, and a forgotten village with an "out-of-this-world dream." The 23 minute film was shot using the latest iPhone (which is the iPhone 13 Pro) like all of the videos in Apple's ongoing "Shot on iPhone" series. ...
Samsung will unveil its next Galaxy S flagship in February.
After introducing S Pen support to the Galaxy S21 Ultra and not launching a new version of the Note series last year, Samsung's next Unpacked event would be a timely opportunity to address concerned fans. Though the company has yet to confirm an exact date beyond the month of February (rumors suggest it might take place Feb. ...
Samsung confirms February Unpacked, hints at the end of the Note line.
The Note 20 will likely be the last of its kind. | Photo by Dieter Bohn / The Verge Samsung will host an Unpacked event next month, the company has confirmed in a press release authored by president TM Roh, and the writing is on the wall for the Galaxy Note series. The release hints that more Note features will be coming to the Galaxy S series — specifically the next Ultra phone in the lineup, which looks poised to take on the Note’s built-in stylus and related productivity features. ...
Want to preorder Samsung’s next Galaxy phone sight unseen? You can.
Image: evleaks (Twitter) For the launch of Samsung’s next flagship smartphones — the Galaxy S22, S22 Plus, and S22 Ultra, we think — the Korean electronics giant will once again let you signal your intent to buy its phones before they’re even announced, much less go on sale. So if you’re the kind of person who absolutely needs the new Samsung handset before anyone else (except influencers, journalists, and the like), you’ll want to check out Samsung. ...