Technology

On Monday, Tim Sweeney tweeted that Epic isn’t touching NFTs, in a public response to what was presumably an NFT pitch. He cites the space’s problem with scams as the reason for his hesitancy, which sparked some discussion in the comments (as strong statements about crypto tend to do). Sweeney has since clarified his views on NFTs a little, saying that, to him, owning an NFT is about as valuable as liking an image on Twitter and calling into question whether NFT ownership is actually non-fungible. While Sweeney’s publicly made his position clear, it’s not likely to stop him from getting a wave of NFT pitches, which you can see for yourself by searching “@TimSweeneyEpic nft” on Twitter. It’s understandable why people try, though — Fortnite has made billions through the sale of virtual objec...

During this year’s Code conference, Netflix co-CEO and chief content officer Ted Sarandos shared a significant haul of data about some of the streaming giant’s top titles — a rare move for a company that traditionally holds numbers close to the chest. In one slide, shared while Sarandos was speaking on the Code stage with Kara Swisher, Netflix shared numbers about how many accounts viewed its top 10 films and series based on the number of accounts that watched at least two minutes of the title during the first 28 days it was on Netflix. Image: Netflix/Code The first season of Bridgerton led its top series list with 82 million accounts having viewed the title, followed by part one of Lupin and The Witcher, with 76 million accounts having watched each. Extraction led its top films list with ...

Instagram is temporarily halting the development of a new version of its app designed for children, according to a video and blog post shared by Adam Mosseri, head of Instagram, on Monday. “We’re going to take a step back and we’re going to take that time to talk and listen to parents, safety experts and researchers and get to more consensus about how exactly to move forward,” Mosseri said in a video posted to Twitter. Mosseri confirms he still “strongly” believes in creating “Instagram Kids” with more rigorous parental controls and no advertisements for users between the ages of 10 and 12, citing that children are already misrepresenting their ages to create accounts on the social media platform. We’re pausing “Instagram Kids.” This was a tough decision. I still think building this experi...

Ford is recalling the Mustang Mach-E out of concern that the windshield and panoramic roof could leak or, worse, come flying off during a crash or while driving. Nearly 18,000 of the electric SUVs sold to date are at risk of the former, though Ford says only around 13,000 of them run the risk of the roof detaching. The company will start providing owners with recall instructions in late October, and it says it is not aware of any accidents or injuries related to the defect. Ford initially started recalling Mustang Mach-E SUVs last week in Canada, as Electrek reported. Ford told the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration earlier this month that it had become aware that the windshield and panoramic roof of the Mustang Mach-E may not be properly bonded to the car. The company said it ...

Messaging app Discord announced today that its premium Nitro tier will now allow subscribers to use a different avatar on each of their servers. The option to “change nickname” in the app has been changed to “edit server profile.” That’s where you’ll be able to change both your nickname and server avatar, so if you use multiple servers — as a lot of Discord users do — you can keep each identity separate and unique. Discord also announced today that they’re starting the rollout of scheduled events, which allow users to plan ahead, giving time to spread awareness and join. The company says it’s seeing more communities use stage channels to connect with members, in AMAs, open mic events, or other large-scale discussions. With scheduled events in Discord, users can create an event with a topic...

Facebook announced that it would be “pausing” work on its Instagram for kids app on Monday after weeks of growing pressure from lawmakers and advocacy groups to scrap the app. But many lawmakers aren’t satisfied with the pause, calling on Facebook to stop development entirely. In a statement issued Monday, Democrats in the House and Senate called Facebook’s decision to halt development of the Instagram product targeted to kids under 13 as “insufficient.” Four lawmakers signed onto the statement, including Sen. Ed Markey (D-MA) and Rep. Lori Trahan (D-MA), “Facebook has completely forfeited the benefit of the doubt” “Facebook has completely forfeited the benefit of the doubt when it comes to protecting young people online and it must completely abandon this project,” the statement reads. Fa...

Skype’s had more redesigns in the past five years than I’ve had hot dinners, but Microsoft is still ready to try and tweak things once again. The software maker is teasing plans for an “improved, faster, reliable, and super modern-looking Skype.” Microsoft says it has been listening to feedback and, over the next few months, will start rolling out changes to modernize Skype. The most important part of Skype, what Microsoft calls the call stage, is getting the most attention. The grid that’s displayed during calls will soon include everyone on a call, regardless of whether they have enabled video or not. This puts all participants side by side, including your own video in the main interface. The new calling interface in Skype.Image: Microsoft Microsoft is also adding new themes and layouts ...

Facebook is unlocking the bootloader of its discontinued Oculus Go headset and giving users full root access. That means the headset will remain useful long after official support ends. The move was announced by Oculus’ consulting CTO John Carmack, who stepped down from his full-time role as CTO in 2019 to focus on his work as an independent AI researcher. Root access will be achieved by sideloading a future software update, opening the door for anyone to modify and improve Oculus’ original standalone all-in-one VR headset. Facebook originally released the Oculus Go in 2018 before supplanting it with the Oculus Quest the following year. The Go was officially discontinued in 2020. This opens up the ability to repurpose the hardware for more things today, and means that a randomly discovered...

Amazon is holding its annual fall hardware event on Tuesday, September 28th starting at 12PM ET / 9AM PT. It’s invite-only, and while Amazon said it would share news about “devices, features and services,” it’s not elaborating on which product lines might get updates or what new devices could be revealed. If last year was any indication, expect to see a massive amount of hardware. Last year, Amazon unveiled a new spherical Echo with Zigbee support and “premium, adaptive sound” from Dolby, spherical Echo Dots (one which came with a clock), and the Echo Show 10 got a motorized base that turns its screen to face you while you’re interacting with it. It also added Netflix support. Plus, Amazon unveiled its AWS-powered gaming service Luna along with a special Luna Controller. And Amazon’s Ring ...

When Amazon announces new products in the fall, it often does it in bulk — fitting for a retailer, maybe, but harder to discern what’s what and which new products are most worthy of your attention. The Verge will try and help with that. We anticipate Amazon announcing a variety of new products coming to its Echo, Fire, and Ring lineups on September 28th. Amazon has already been making some waves with recent announcements of its own line of TVs, a new Kindle Paperwhite, and a new flagship Fire TV Stick. Yet we’re sure to see plenty more. But even if Amazon has already made some notable announcements prior to this event, don’t forget how expansive its products are, from Ring to August smart locks to game streaming and actual video game development. The most recent rumors encompass a wall-mou...

It makes me feel very old to say this, but we are on the ninth generation of Lenovo’s ThinkPad X1 Carbon. And there have been nine of these for a reason. The X1 Carbon has historically been one of the best business laptops you can get. And that remains the case with its newest iteration. Lenovo has made a few tweaks, but otherwise, it’s the same ThinkPad excellence we’ve come to expect. Before we get into the pricing, I need to make the usual caveat that Lenovo loves to put absurdly high MSRPs on all of its ThinkPads, but they’re usually available for significantly less. So the base X1 Carbon (the Linux model) has an MSRP of $2,336 but is currently available for $1,401.60. That model includes a Core i5-1135G7, 8GB of RAM (soldered), 256GB of storage, and a 1920 x 1200, 14-inch, 400-nit, no...

Backbone Labs has acknowledged the issue that hampers the use of its excellent iPhone gaming controller with the new iPhone 13 Pro and 13 Pro Max. As we noticed last week, the iPhone 13 Pro’s thicker camera bump means the phone doesn’t sit neatly in the Backbone One controller, either sticking out on one side or causing the bridge on the back to slightly buckle. It’s not unusable, but it’s not great. “We spent a tremendous amount of time meticulously crafting every surface of Backbone One (both bits and atoms) and even designing universal support for the iPhones available when it was released,” a Backbone representative wrote in an official post on Reddit. “As a result, we’re disappointed in the situation at hand. Several folks on the team even upgraded to 13 Pro Max for a better gaming ex...