Technology

Getting a COVID-19 vaccine is associated with only a small change to the menstrual cycle, according to a new study using data from the birth control app Natural Cycles. The study follows widespread reports of heavier and longer periods from people who had recently been vaccinated after the start of the COVID-19 vaccination campaign in the United States. “This is reassuring for health and reproductive health,” says Alison Edelman, a study author and professor in the department of obstetrics and gynecology at Oregon Health and Science University. “It’s also validating in regard to patients reporting that they’d experienced something.” Longer, heavier periods were always a plausible side effect of COVID-19 vaccination. Any stress on the immune system can affect the menstrual cycle, although t...

Rumors for Apple’s upcoming 2022 iPhone refresh are continuing to roll, with Twitter leaker DylanDKT claiming that the iPhone 14 Pro lineup will feature a pill-shaped hole-punch design for its front-facing camera, with the bulk of Apple’s Face ID hardware being placed under the display (instead of an eyesore of a notch). The report corroborates earlier rumors from well-regarded Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo from late last year, which also claimed that the 2022 iPhone 14 Pro and 14 Pro Max would be shifting over to a hole-punch cutout for the camera. I am able to corroborate information regarding a hole punch camera for the pro models of the iPhone 14. Face ID hardware will be placed under the display. As a reassurance to any concerns, the functionality of these sensors have not been negativel...

Former President Donald Trump’s new social network, Truth Social, will launch on iOS on February 21st, according to a listing on the App Store. (That’s Presidents Day, if you didn’t know. Subtle.) The app is being made by the Trump Media and Technology Group (TMTG), Trump’s new media company led by former US Rep. Devin Nunes. Truth Social looks very much like a Twitter clone, based on screenshots in the App Store listing. The profile page shown in one screenshot looks almost exactly like Twitter’s, and posts appear to have icons for replies, retweets, faves, and sharing. (Truth Social describes each individual post as a “truth” in the app’s description. The retweet equivalent is apparently called a “re-truth.”) The Twitter-like design likely isn’t an accident The social network’s Twitter-l...

OnePlus is sharing a few more details about the upcoming OnePlus 10 Pro, this time with a focus on camera specifications. If you were hoping for lots of hardware upgrades from this second-gen partnership with Hasselblad, it looks like you’ll have to keep waiting — with the exception of a new ultrawide, these updates are primarily software-based. To recap some basic camera specs that we learned earlier this week, the OnePlus 10 will offer a triple rear camera — likely the same 48-megapixel main, 50-megapixel ultrawide, and 8-megapixel telephoto configuration as last year. There’s a 32-megapixel front-facing camera, which is a significant resolution bump from the 9 and 9 Pro’s 16-megapixel selfie camera. A notable update is the addition of a shooting mode called RAW Plus which, like Apple’s ...

Cryptocurrency-based crimes hit an all-time high in 2021, according to a new report by blockchain data platform Chainalysis, with scammers raking in $14 billion USD in stolen funds. The firm released a preview of its 2022 Crypto Crime Report on Thursday ahead of the full release in February. It found that illicit crypto addresses received $14 billion USD over the course of the year, nearly double the amount of money illegally traded in 2020. Stolen funds, fraud shops, ransomware, scams and terrorism financing were among the ways criminals made their money. The number of stolen funds is a fraction of the $15.8 trillion USD total transaction volume across all cryptocurrencies tracked by Chainalysis. The firm adds that illicit activity’s share of cryptocurrency transaction volume is at its lo...

A proxy statement filed by Apple on Thursday revealed exactly how much one can earn after ten years of running the world’s most valuable and most profitable company, and for Tim Cook, that number is $98.7 million. While his base salary stayed at $3 million, an additional $12 million in incentives, $82 million worth of stock awards, and the money spent to cover items like security and private flights — since 2017, Apple doesn’t let its CEO fly commercial — nudged the entire thing closer to the $100 million mark. According to Apple, its total shareholder return “was at the 97th percentile of the companies that were included in the S&P 500 for the entire performance period” from 2018 to 2021.Image: Apple That’s more than six times his 2020 pay of $14 million, and as noted by MacRumors, an...

The US International Trade Commission has ruled that Google is in violation of five Sonos patents relating to smart speakers (via The New York Times). The decision affirms a judge’s ruling in August, and it’s the kind of decision that could theoretically force Google to stop importing products using the infringing technology. However, it’s not yet clear whether any specific Google products will necessarily disappear from shelves, and for now it seems unlikely that will happen at all. “We do not expect any impact to our ability to import or sell our products,” Google spokesperson José Castaneda tells The Verge, pointing to how the International Trade Commission already approved Google workarounds for each of the five patents, as Bloomberg initially reported in September. We confirmed ...

After going very quiet on its once much-touted connectivity network Sidewalk, Amazon is starting 2022 with a bang. Today it launched the Amazon Sidewalk Bridge Pro powered by Ring (doesn’t that just roll off the tongue?). This professional-grade bridge is designed to extend the low-bandwidth, long-distance wireless network into public spaces, such as city parks, state parks, city centers, universities, businesses, and other places where there aren’t likely to be a lot of Ring and Echo devices hanging out. “The long-term vision of Sidewalk is to drive proliferation of smart and connected things,” Stefano Landi, director of Amazon Sidewalk, said in an interview with The Verge. “Today, connectivity is the biggest challenge for devices.” Cellular connectivity is too expensive and Wi-Fi and LoR...

If you have multiple Google smart speakers in your house, you might want to be aware of a certain legal ruling — because it’s going to affect how your speaker groups work. After the US International Trade Commission ruled that it was infringing on Sonos’ patents, Google has already announced software workarounds including the “need to adjust each speaker individually instead of using the group volume controller,” and that users will no longer be able to adjust a speaker group’s volume with their phone’s volume rocker. It blames this change on “a recent legal ruling,” one which you can read all about right here. When news of the patent decision broke, Google told The Verge it had gotten non-infringing designs approved by the ITC. Sonos warned, however, that Google might have to “degrade or ...

One of the paid subscription services that experienced sudden growth during the pandemic has been iRacing. While real-life racing leagues were on hiatus, they used the detailed and realistic sim racing service as an esports broadcasting platform, and enough new people started playing to grow its base of racers on PC from 110,000 at the beginning of 2020 to over 200,000 today. Now iRacing.com Motorsport Simulations says it has acquired Monster Games, Inc. (MGI). That Minnesota-based studio developed the first four games under the NASCAR Heat brand and its most recent title, SRX: The Game, for play on PC and the PlayStation and Xbox consoles. A press release announcing the purchase is careful to note, “The iRacing development team will remain 100% focused on continuing to develop the core pr...

E3 — one of the largest video game trade shows of the year — will once again be an online-only event this summer, the ESA has announced, citing ongoing concerns around the COVID-19 pandemic. The news, first reported by VentureBeat, marks the third year in a row that E3 will have skipped its in-person event due to the pandemic. “Due to the ongoing health risks surrounding COVID-19 and its potential impact on the safety of exhibitors and attendees, E3 will not be held in person in 2022,” the ESA commented in a statement to VentureBeat. “We are nonetheless excited about the future of E3 and look forward to announcing more details soon.” E3 will miss a third straight year in person The ESA had originally planned to bring back E3 as an in-person conference in 2022, announcing in April 2021 (whe...

Twitter has announced that it’s testing a feature called “quote tweet with reaction,” where you can embed a copy of a tweet into a photo or video instead of just replying to it with text. Twitter says that the feature is currently being tested on iOS. If you have access to the feature, the retweet menu will have a “Quote Tweet with reaction” button. Tapping it will take you to a screen where you can take a photo or video to put the tweet on top of, or choose one from your camera roll. One of Twitter’s product leads did a reaction quote tweet to the announcement, which lets us see how the reactions will show up to users. Tweet reaction videos can now start on Twitter! Testing on iOS: when you tap the Retweet icon, choose “Quote Tweet with reaction” to create and customize your very own Twee...