Technology

Congress has sent subpoenas demanding information from Meta (formerly Facebook), Twitter, Reddit, and Alphabet concerning the January 6th, 2021 attack on the US Capitol. The House of Representatives Select Committee that’s investigating the attack wants each company to disclose moderation policy details and other information that could illuminate how participants organized their efforts or spread conspiracy theories about the 2020 presidential election. The committee requested records from dozens of companies on a voluntary basis last year, but it says the response from the aforementioned four has been “inadequate” so far. “Two key questions for the Select Committee are how the spread of misinformation and violent extremism contributed to the violent attack on our democracy, and what steps...

In November, Valve gave everyone some bad news, revealing a two-month delay for the Steam Deck, but it’s starting off 2022 on a better note. In its latest update, the company says it “looks like” Steam Deck shipments will start by the end of February. Of course, we’re in a pandemic, and things can always change, but the preorder windows for Verge staffers are holding steady with their original projections — you can check your status here. Just as important as the hardware, however, is the games that you’ll try to play on the thing. Valve apparently shipped out “hundreds” of Steam Deck units to developers last month so that they can make sure their PC games are fully compatible with its software environment and AMD-powered hardware. Testing is required to get a green “verified” checkmark in...

PUBG-maker Krafton filed a big lawsuit Monday: it’s suing the developer of two mobile games that it accuses of copying PUBG: Battlegrounds, the hit PC battle royale shooter, and it’s suing Apple and Google for distributing those games on their app stores. Krafton even accuses Google of hosting YouTube videos with gameplay of the two games in question, as well as “numerous posts containing a feature-length Chinese film that is nothing more than a blatantly infringing live-action dramatization of Battlegrounds.” The games Krafton takes issue with are called Free Fire and Free Fire Max, offered by developer Garena. On both the App Store and Google Play, they show up as Garena Free Fire and Garena Free Fire Max. Both are available for free with in-app purchases. According to Krafton: Free Fire...

Block, the financial services company founded by Jack Dorsey formerly known as Square Inc., is building a Bitcoin mining system. Dorsey first touted the idea of building a Bitcoin mining system in October, saying that the process needed to be more distributed, more efficient and accessible to everyone. In a series of tweets on Thursday, Block’s general manager of hardware Thomas Templeton said that the company is now pursuing the idea in greater detail. “We want to make mining more distributed and efficient in every way, from buying, to set up, to maintenance, to mining,” Templeton wrote. “We’re interested because mining goes far beyond creating new bitcoin. We see it as a long-term need for a future that is fully decentralized and permissionless.” In October we announced that we’re consid...

ViacomCBS has canceled 60 Minutes Plus at its tentpole streaming service Paramount Plus, axing a title that was touted as one of the service’s premium exclusives. The company confirmed to The Verge that it will no longer produce 60 Minutes Plus, a spinoff of its award-winning broadcast news magazine 60 Minutes. The series had only streamed one, 30-episode season as of the cancellation announcement, which was shared with staffers Thursday morning, Variety earlier reported, citing sources familiar with the situation. In a statement, the company said that the content the series produced will remain on Paramount Plus. “The excellent work that has been done by the 60+ team will continue to be on Paramount+.” “We are proud of the team at 60 Minutes+ and of the stories they produced, which inform...

This afternoon, small satellite launcher Virgin Orbit successfully lofted seven tiny satellites into orbit around Earth, marking the third successful mission for the Virgin Galactic spinoff company. The payloads consisted of various research satellites for the Department of Defense, along with three small satellites from companies SatRevolution and Spire Global. The launch comes less than a week after Virgin Orbit’s stock began publicly trading for the first time on the New York Stock Exchange. Virgin Orbit announced in August its plan to go public through a merger with a special purpose acquisition company, or SPAC, making it one of three small rocket launch companies to follow the trend in 2021. On Friday, January 7th, Virgin Orbit CEO Dan Hart rang the Nasdaq opening bell, while the com...

She ran a program that used iPods to teach reading and math to underprivileged Native American schoolkids living on tribal land. Now, 46-year-old Kristy Stock of New Mexico is getting 18 months in prison for stealing 3,000 of them, which she resold for a personal gain of over $800,000 between 2013 and 2018. That’s according to the US Attorney’s Office for the District of Maryland (via Engadget), and Stock isn’t the first who’s been sentenced as part of this scheme — it all seems to center around around 36-year-old Colorado resident Saurabh Chawla, who bought up stolen electronics and other goods and resold them on eBay and Amazon. Law enforcement raided him in 2019, according to an earlier press release, and he bought stolen iPads from another New Mexico school district as well. Perhaps ev...

NBC News has published a great report on the struggles Amazon employees face trying to get tested for COVID after the company stopped onsite testing last summer, and the HR quagmire they could end up in when reporting their results or dealing with illness-related PTO. The story is well worth a read, as it delves into Amazon’s policies and systems, and gives a voice to the employees they affect. The author of the report spoke to workers who faced breakthrough cases and unexpected costs as they tried to get tested for COVID, struggling with an overburdened and difficult-to-navigate healthcare system. “I really wish they would bring free COVID testing back to us,” says one employee. One employee says Amazon’s systems “take the human out of human resources” The story also shows the problems th...

Twitter is now letting all Android and iOS users record Twitter Spaces, the company announced Thursday. Users will be able to choose to record a Space when they’re setting one up and the recording will be available for public playback for 30 days after the Space has ended. If you’re in a Space that’s being recorded, you’ll see an icon at the top of the Space letting you know. You can see how it all works in this tweet from Twitter’s support account. Another update on Spaces Recording: The option for hosts to record is now available for everyone on Android and iOS! When starting a Space, tap the “Record Space” switch to have it available for public playback for 30 days once the Space has ended. pic.twitter.com/fYzaOjQJlF — Twitter Support (@TwitterSupport) January 13, 2022 Twitter first int...

Funding a media outlet is a tricky business, and in recent years, some journalists have looked toward the cryptocurrency world to do it. That includes Dirt, an entertainment newsletter co-founded by Kyle Chayka and Daisy Alioto in late 2020. Dirt has raised money since launch by selling non-fungible tokens (NFTs), and earlier this week, it announced plans to work those NFTs into a decentralized autonomous organization or DAO — giving its audience input into where Dirt spends its money. Dirt isn’t the first blockchain-based media outfit. In 2017, for instance, a project called Civil funded a panoply of websites using its own cryptocurrency token. But Civil collapsed after a difficult launch and initial funding that quickly ran dry. Meanwhile, lots of cryptocurrency enthusiasts have created ...

Throughout months of metaverse hype, with all the new names and virtual real estate speculation, I can’t count how many times I’ve thought, “Didn’t Second Life already do that?” Apparently, the people behind Second Life agree and are trying to pull our attention back to their virtual world that (rather helpfully) exists somewhere you can visit on your existing computer. A strengthened “commitment to growing an innovative, inclusive, and diverse metaverse” includes Second Life founder Philip Rosedale rejoining the project as a strategic adviser. After launching Second Life, he’s been involved in a number of other efforts, popping up with a virtual marketplace for people to sell their skills and a neuroscience collaboration, However, his VR project High Fidelity, a telepresence-focused exper...

Phone companies could have to follow new rules about how they notify customers and the government following a data breach if a proposal from the Federal Communication Commission’s chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel passes. The notice of proposed rulemaking, released on Wednesday, cites the “increasing frequency and severity of security breaches involving customer information” as a risk to consumers. The current rules give telecommunication providers seven business days to notify the FBI and Secret Service of data breaches that leak customer proprietary network information, or CPNI. In most cases, the company cannot notify customers about the breach until seven business days after information has been relayed to federal law enforcement. The proposal suggests doing away with that mandatory waiti...