Technology

United Launch Alliance won’t be selling any more of its workhorse Atlas V rockets, and it has stopped buying the launch vehicle’s Russian-made rocket engines for good, the company’s chief executive told The Verge. ULA’s decision sets up the retirement of one of the US government’s most trusted launch vehicles and is expected to mark the end for Russia’s iconic — but controversial — RD-180 engine, an engineering marvel and a core source of revenue for Russia’s space program. “We’re done. They’re all sold,” CEO Tory Bruno said of ULA’s Atlas V rockets in an interview. ULA, a joint venture between Boeing and Lockheed Martin, has 29 Atlas V missions left before it retires sometime in the mid-2020s and transitions to its upcoming Vulcan rocket, Bruno said. The remaining Atlas V missions include...

A person claiming to be behind the T-Mobile data breach that exposed almost 50 million people’s info has come forward to reveal his identity and to criticize T-Mobile’s security, according to a report by The Wall Street Journal. John Binns told the WSJ that he was behind the attack and provided evidence that he could access accounts associated with it, and he went into detail about how he was able to pull it off and why he did it. According to Binns, he was able to get customer (and former customer) data from T-Mobile by scanning for unprotected routers. He found one, he told the Journal, which allowed him to access a Washington state data center that stored credentials for over 100 servers. He called the carrier’s security “awful” and said that realizing how much data he had access to mad...

As part of a proposed agreement to resolve a class action lawsuit from US app developers, Apple says iOS developers will finally be able to contact their customers, with permission, using information collected inside their apps. The change will mark a major shift to the anti-steering policy that has been a significant point of contention between Apple and its critics for years. “To give developers even more flexibility to reach their customers, Apple is also clarifying that developers can use communications, such as email, to share information about payment methods outside of their iOS app,” Apple said in its press release. “As always, developers will not pay Apple a commission on any purchases taking place outside of their app or the App Store. Users must consent to the communication and ...

Disney Plus subscribers will finally be able to watch the Queen of Mean on the service at no additional cost beginning Friday. The live-action origin story of Disney’s notorious Cruella de Vil will hit the service tomorrow after debuting simultaneously in theaters and on Disney’s Premier Access platform on May 28th. Premier Access releases typically run viewers an additional $30 on top of their monthly or yearly subscription costs to be able to access the film early. But Cruella will officially join the Disney Plus library beginning this week. Emma Stone stars alongside a pack of sometimes real, sometimes CGI dogs in a spin on Disney’s animated One Hundred and One Dalmatians. This one, though, is set in 1970s London and sees Stone take on fashion icon Baroness von Hellman. The plot deviate...

Streamlabs, the popular livestreaming software company owned by Logitech, is rolling out a “monthly tipping service” as an alternative way for streamers to earn money from their fans. Streamlabs Creator Subscriptions will offer streamers flexibility on what kinds of subscriptions they offer, and they will integrate directly into Streamlabs’ OBS software suite for streaming to Twitch, YouTube, or Facebook. Using Streamlabs Creator Subscription seems about as simple as the company’s earlier donation tools or the tipping feature that already existed on the platform. Creators can enable or disable monthly tips in settings, along with setting specific subscription prices. There’s also the option to let a viewer tip whatever amount they want and send redeemable monthly tip notifications during a...

The Switch still doesn’t have apps like Netflix or Twitch, but Nintendo decided to do us one better by announcing that Pokémon TV — the media app devoted to all things Pokémon — is now available on the console. Pokémon TV is an app that Pokémon enthusiasts can use to watch episodes of the long-running cartoon series, videos offering tips and tricks to players, and competitive Pokémon broadcasts. The app launched in 2019 on mobile and smart TVs and is now available for free on Switch. [embedded content] In addition to being able to watch episodes from all seven series of Pokémon shows free of charge, the Pokémon TV app is also launching a Junior category with programming geared toward younger players and fans. Twenty-five years after its debut in Japan, Pokémon still enjoys an incredible am...

Data-mining firm Palantir invested $25 million in Faraday Future shortly before the electric vehicle startup became a publicly traded company in July, according to a previously unreported Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) document filed late last week. In addition, Faraday Future signed a commercial contract to use Palantir’s software, according to one of Palantir’s most recent SEC filings. Neither company disclosed how much Faraday Future is paying, though Palantir’s filing notes the contract will last between four and six years. Representatives for both companies did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Palantir says its software is meant to serve as a “central operating system” for companies that need to sift through lots of data. Its customers have included the US Cu...

Snapchat’s camera has to date mostly been associated with sending disappearing messages and goofy AR effects, like a virtual dancing hot dog. But what if it did things for you, like suggest ways to make your videos look and sound better? Or show you a similar shirt based on the one you’re looking at? Starting Thursday, a feature called Scan is being upgraded and placed front and center in the app’s camera, letting it identify a range of things in the real world, like clothes or dog breeds. Scan’s prominent placement in Snapchat means that the company is slowly becoming not just a messaging app, but a visual search engine. Scan also helps address a growing problem for Snapchat users: how to find the millions of AR effects, or Lenses, that are made by Snap’s creator community. With its abili...

Netflix is taking its next step into gaming by allowing subscribers in Poland on Android to play two Stranger Things games inside the Netflix app, the company announced Thursday. “Starting today, members in Poland can try Netflix mobile gaming on Android with two games — Stranger Things 1984 and Stranger Things 3 — all as part of their membership,” a Netflix spokesperson said in a statement. “It’s still very, very early days and we will be working hard to deliver the best possible experience in the months ahead with our no ads, no in-app purchases approach to gaming.” You can see how it works in a tweet from Netflix’s Polish team. Available games will show up in your home feed. If you tap on a game’s icon, you can learn more about the game and tap a button to download it, which will load u...

Apple has a new offer for publishers: join Apple News, and it’ll only take 15 percent out of your in-app purchases and subscriptions instead of 30. Publishers can apply to Apple’s News Partner Program to take that bargain, but they have to agree to Apple’s requirements, which naturally benefit Apple and go beyond just maintaining a channel in Apple News. The list of specific eligibility requirements to apply is short but worth sharing in full: You must maintain a robust Apple News channel in Australia, Canada, the United States, and the United Kingdom, and publish all content to that channel in Apple News Format. If you’re based outside of these regions and do not publish in Apple News Format, you must share content via an RSS feed. The primary function of your app must be to deliver origi...

We recently wrote how Panasonic maybe went a little overboard with wacky promotional images for its new SoundSlayer wearable gaming speaker. Fun, right? Here’s something less amusing: it appears that Panasonic couldn’t be bothered to take actual photos of its product on actual human beings, so it digitally inserted them into royalty-free pictures from Shutterstock and Getty Images. And then, it appears to have done something worse: stick a white man’s head on a Black man’s body, altering his skin tone to match. Let’s start with the less egregious example. Here’s Panasonic’s image of its headset blowing a gamer’s mind: Image: Panasonic If you type “nerdy gamer” into Shutterstock, it’s the very first result. Screenshot by Sean Hollister / The Verge There’s no question this image from Lasse B...

Despite the recent surge in popularity for NFTs, the market remains quite new, leaving opportunity for innovation to help artists and collectors alike. That’s exactly the goal of CXIP, a new NFT minting software that’s increasing protection for both creators and buyers. CXIP aims to become the gold standard in the NFT industry with a best-in-class approach to security, authentication and other steps in the minting process. The venture is headed by CEO Jeff Gluck, who is currently working as Futura‘s lawyer against The North Face and is an expert in prioritizing artists rights, taking his knowledge to the NFT market.  While the landscape of NFTs is rapidly growing, there’s a lack of standardization in how marketplaces mint these digital works. Each platform mints NFTs differently, ...