Technology

OnlyFans on Wednesday announced that it will no longer ban sexually explicit content on its platform. Last week, the content subscription site said that it would prohibit the posting of “any content containing sexually explicit conduct” beginning on October 1. OnlyFans founder Tim Stokely later addressed the reason for the ban, claiming that banks have continued to deter the company’s growth, going as far as citing reputational risk and declining their business. However, OnlyFans took to Twitter on Wednesday to share that the planned ban will no longer go forward. “Thank you to everyone for making your voices heard,” the tweet began. “We have secured assurances necessary to support our diverse creator community and have suspended the planned October 1 policy change. OnlyFans stands for inc...

Samsung has revealed its TVs can be remotely disabled if the company finds out the units have been stolen. The feature is called the “Television Block Function” and Samsung says it was recently activated in South Africa after a number of Samsung TVs were taken from a company warehouse during a wave of protests and unrest last month. Samsung says the technology is “already pre-loaded on all Samsung TV products” and “ensures that the television sets can only be used by the rightful owners with a valid proof of purchase.” It’s not clear, though, from Samsung’s description whether the feature is only intended to combat large-scale theft, or if it will ever be used to help individual consumers. For the TV Block Function to work, Samsung needs to know serial code of the stolen unit. When the set...

The iconic nude baby photographed for the cover of Nirvana’s Nevermind album is all grown up and suing the band, alleging the image violates child pornography laws. Spencer Elden, now 30, is seeking $150,000 from each of 17 named defendants, including record executives, Nirvana band members, and Courtney Love, the former wife and executor of Kurt Cobain’s estate, according to Variety. The lawsuit, a copy of which was obtained by Variety, claims that the defendants knowingly exploited young Elden to increase attention and boost sales. “Defendants intentionally commercially marketed Spencer’s child pornography and leveraged the shocking nature of his image to promote themselves and their music at his expense,” reads the lawsuit. “Defendants used child pornography depicting Spencer as an esse...

Google is expanding the scope of its AI-powered Smart Reply feature to suggest responses to comments in Google Docs. It will be rolling out in the coming weeks to all users and will be turned on by default, though you can disable it via Tools > Preferences > Show Smart Reply suggestions. It’s the latest territory claimed by Google’s AI Smart Reply and Smart Compose features. The latter is already available in Gdocs and elsewhere, while the former lurks most prominently in your Gmail inbox. Smart Reply as it appears in comments in Google Docs. Image: Google Reactions to these AI-powered features are varied. Some enjoy the convenience of using AI to offer up those little verbal platitudes that keep the wheels of workplace life turning smoothly (“That’s perfect, thank you!”). Others bem...

In the spring of 2020, Alaina Bradley was working in the collections department at a storage facility in eastern Tennessee. She was already pretty miserable before, but it got worse when the pandemic hit and she was overseeing mass auctions of people’s treasured belongings on the daily. With not much to lose, she decided to take a chance on something wild — and maybe too good to be true — that she’d been following on Facebook. One of her mutuals from when she lived in Atlanta a few years back had been sharing screenshots of his gains on Robinhood nonstop, plus links to his stock trading course and pay-to-join investing community. “At first I thought, ‘Oh, he’s scamming people,’” Bradley says. But by the time that first stimulus check came in, Bradley, 30, was willing to give it a shot. She...

Bowers & Wilkins has returned to its 800 Series Diamond loudspeakers, updating the model favored by the music industry for a fourth generation. The speakers are used by musicians and recording studios — including London’s Abbey Road Studios — across the world, and the new design includes a range of new technical advancements. The 800 Series was first introduced more than 40 years ago, although the fourth generation loudspeakers feature some all-new elements. One stand-out is the Biomimetic Suspension system, developed by Bowers & Wilkins to reduce unwanted noise and create a more transparent and natural sound. Additionally, the cabinet design now includes more aluminum sections, while the Solid Body Tweeter-on-Top housing has been revised with an elongated tube-loading system to pr...

According to reports, new rumors are now noting that Apple might introduce a buttonless iPhone 13. A US patent application suggested the company will be investigating “capacitive sensing input devices.” Physical buttons will be replaced by “invisible backlit holes” that will only appear in use and disappear when untouched as the sensing input system would live under the surface of the phone’s screen. The device could suffer less mechanical damage and give a sleek edge to the silhouette. “Deflection of a metal frame of the input device causes a change in capacitance that is used to control a function of an electrical device,” Apple explains. “The input device appears invisible because it is made of the same material as the housing it is contained in. Invisible backlit holes may make the inp...

Walmart plans to offer its logistics and delivery services to other companies as part of a new last-mile delivery business, the company announced on Monday. The service, called Walmart GoLocal, hopes to serve as a white label delivery offering for businesses big and small, and yet another way for Walmart to try to edge out Amazon. Details on Walmart GoLocal are fairly sparse, though Walmart does say the service will be “competitively priced” and that it has “already established a number of contractual agreements with national and enterprise retail clients.” Walmart tells The Verge pricing will be based on “the needs of the client and based on what they want to offer to their customers.” The GoLocal website offers a few more details: customers will order directly from a small business, that...

A clip art NFT JPEG of a rock sold for $608,000 USD just days before the collection’s price floor surpassed $1 million USD. According to a new tweet from Twitter account EtherRock Price on August 22, even the most affordable version of the Ethereum-based NFT at the time reached a staggering 321.12 ETH, which is roughly $1,046,742 USD. The most expensive one sold stands at an incredible 420 ETH, or approximately  $1,397,277 USD. Just a day before that, EtherRocks were going for around $300,000 USD, already a massive increase from the $100,000 USD price tag from two weeks ago. While the immense surge in value does look attractive to potential investors, Decrypt highlights that EtherRocks are literally just JPEG images of rocks that have no other inherent value other than being trad...

Google-owned YouTube is starting to crack down on Discord music bots. The search giant has sent a cease and desist to the owners of the popular Groovy Bot, which lets Discord users play music from YouTube videos and is installed on more than 16 million Discord servers. Google wants the service gone within seven days, and Groovy is complying by shutting down its bot on August 30th. Google confirmed to The Verge that it took action in this case: “We notified Groovy about violations of our Terms of Service, including modifying the service and using it for commercial purposes,” a YouTube spokesperson writes, adding that its APIs are for developers who comply with its terms of service. “Groovy has been a huge part of my life over the past five years. It started because my friend’s bot sucked an...

Twitter is experimenting with a way to make it easier to find Spaces that you might be interested in. Some users on iOS or Android will now see if someone they follow is listening in on a Space right at the top of their timelines, according to the Spaces Twitter account. Twitter has already been surfacing Spaces in that top bar (where you might have also seen Fleets before Twitter shut them down), but previously, it only showed Spaces from people you follow who were hosting the social audio rooms. Now, though, you might also see when somebody you follow is tuning into one. we’re experimenting with ways to help you discover more Spaces. for some of you on iOS and android, if someone you follow is listening to a Space, you’ll see it at the top of your tl.you can control who can see your list...