Technology

After many teases, it seems as if a Samsung foldable is finally going to get support for an S Pen stylus. FCC filings for the S Pen Pro, a bigger version of the S Pen with Bluetooth connectivity that Samsung announced in January, have been made public, and one document (PDF) reveals that the upcoming stylus will work with the unannounced Galaxy Z Fold 3 (which is presumably the next device in the Z Fold lineup). And it’s not just the Z Fold 3 — the stylus, which doesn’t have a release date but is set to hit this year, will apparently support the S21 Ultra, the Note 20 lineup, and more. You can see the full list of devices that the S Pen Pro will support in this image from the filing: The list of devices the S Pen Pro will support.Image: FCC The S Pen Pro’s support for the Z Fold 3 isn’t a ...

TikTok parent company ByteDance is not planning an initial public offering anytime soon, and The Wall Street Journal reported Monday that such plans have been “indefinitely” shelved. The WSJ reported that ByteDance founder Zhang Yiming made the call to postpone IPO plans in March after meeting with regulators who suggested the company should focus on data security concerns. Beijing-based ByteDance hired Shou Zi Chew as its chief financial officer in late March, which led to conjecture that an IPO may be imminent. “We don’t comment on rumors or speculation,” a ByteDance spokesperson told The Verge Monday in response to a request for comment. The company has not publicly announced any potential IPO plans, and in response to what it called speculation in the media, ByteDance said in April tha...

Microsoft says it’s gone door-to-door replacing routers compromised with the Trickbot malware in Brazil and Latin America, hoping to squash an international hacking group. The Daily Beast reported the detail in an article about the group, which is an ongoing target for US Cyber Command as well as information security companies like Microsoft. The Daily Beast reports that the hacking ring — also known as Trickbot and based in Russia, Belarus, Ukraine, and Suriname — is a persistent presence online. The group uses compromised computers as a massive botnet and runs ransomware attacks and other illegal operations. Trickbot is known to hijack routers and internet of things devices that are often easy to infect without owners realizing it. Eradicating malware from routers can be particularly dif...

One fun (?) thing about cryptocurrency is that it’s newer than regular money — or as the cryptocurrency enthusiasts call it, fiat — and for this reason it is less regulated. I am going to leave the case against regulation to the libertarians who are interested in making it; instead, let’s direct our attention to this Wall Street Journal story about Binance. Binance, the largest cryptocurrency exchange in the world, had a Robinhood-style oopsie woopsie during a plunge in Bitcoin value on May 19. Users were locked out of the system, and couldn’t make trades to stop the bleeding. It seems like people are having a bad time! Now, Robinhood users are suing Robinhood for the March 2020 outages, but Binance doesn’t have a headquarters — so it seems Binance users are having some difficulty figuring...

SecretLab’s new line of 2022 gaming chairs have a renewed focus on packing in more features without significantly boosting the price. It’s also making it easier to decide which one to buy. Instead of offering both the Titan and Omega chairs, it’s cramming the best aspects of each into a single model called the Titan Evo. SecretLab told The Verge that it’ll launch the Titan Evo in mid-July starting at about $20 or $30 more than the small-sized Omega chair, which is currently selling for $359. The company is offering the Titan Evo in small, regular, and extra-large sizes. And no matter the size you choose, it’ll come with the same new comfort and cosmetic features. It revamped the seat base to offer thigh support, and there’s a new knob on the left side of the chair that tweaks its new and i...

A revamped iPad Mini “should be a go” for this fall featuring “the biggest redesign in [its] nine-year history,” according to Bloomberg‘s Mark Gurman’s latest Power On newsletter. While the iPad Mini’s design has remained largely consistent since its initial release in 2012, the updated construction is expected to include smaller bezels, an 8.4-inch screen (an increase from its current 7.9-inch display), a faster processor and an all-screen layout with no home button similar to Apple’s new iPad Air released last year, MacRumors notes. The forecast aligns with Bloomberg‘s initial reporting on the device last month, which said the tech giant would omit the traditional home button to maximize screen space. In line with an iPad Air-reminiscent design, the new iPad Mini will like...

It’s hard to be a fan of the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s Black Widow. She sticks out like a sore thumb. On a team of super-powered guys (and Hawkeye), she fills the less cinematic “master manipulator” and “weird sexy martial art flippity flips” roles. Her story until Black Widow has been about as nuanced and impactful as that of Smurfette’s. When she has been given more to do than pose in front of explosions or take people down with her thighs, the storylines have been so heavily critiqued they’ve turned punchline in their own right. In Age of Ultron she was crammed into a hamfisted romance with the Hulk that was immediately mocked in Thor: Ragnarok. Her big swan dive into oblivion in Endgame for the sake of her “boys,” the Avengers, is repeatedly mocked in her titular film, Black Widow. F...

Foxconn and TSMC, two Taiwanese giants of the international tech supply chain, have agreed to buy 10 million COVID-19 vaccine doses for the island in a move that dodges a standoff between Taipei and Beijing. The two companies will be paying up to $35 a dose of the BioNTech vaccine and donating them to the government; each company has pledged to spend $175 million. BioNTech is partnered with Shanghai Fosun Pharmaceutical Co. to distribute its mRNA-based vaccine, which was co-developed with Pfizer, within China. Taiwan claims that the Chinese government blocked an attempt to secure a supply of vaccines from BioNTech, and later refused an offer of vaccine donations from the mainland. With the new arrangement, however, BioNTech and Fosun are being allowed to deal with private companies rather ...

Apple plans to release a new iPad mini featuring “the biggest redesign in [its] nine-year history” this fall, Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman reports (via 9to5Mac). The new device is expected to feature slimmer bezels, a larger display, faster performance, and a design similar to Apple’s new iPad Air from last year, MacRumors notes. It could be a big shakeup for Apple’s smallest tablet, whose design has remained remarkably consistent since its debut in 2012. The news tallies with Bloomberg’s previous reporting about the upcoming device, which it said last month could ditch the home button to allow for narrower screen bezels. Reports of an iPad Air-style design suggests it could use a Touch ID sensor built into a side-mounted power button. Last year, analyst Ming-Chi Kuo predicted that Apple’s next...

The latest addition to TikTok‘s banned promotional content sees financial services and products like cryptocurrencies and pyramid schemes added to the list. In a recent report from the Financial Times, TikTok has taken these measures after users were warned about taking financial advice from certain TikTok videos. There was continual growing concern regarding younger users who may take these notes too seriously. To combat the issue, TikTok’s “branded content policy” page has now added financial services to the platform’s list of “globally prohibited industries.” The section details that amongst pyramid schemes and cryptocurrency, foreign exchange, lending and management of money assets, buy now pay later services, loans and credit cards, trading platforms and debits and pre-payment cards a...

Following Virgin Galactic‘s successful first fully-manned spaceflight on Sunday, founder Richard Branson announced that the company was partnering with fundraising platform Omaze to offer up two tickets for an upcoming spaceflight. “Would you like to travel to space?” Branson asks in a video announcing the partnership. “Well I recently flew aboard a Virgin Galactic spaceflight alongside an incredible crew and had the most remarkable experience seeing Earth from above, and I’m thrilled to pass that opportunity onto you now.” The winner of the sweepstakes and a friend will get to meet Branson and receive a private tour of Spaceport America, the company’s launch site in New Mexico, where they will be be prepared for their upcoming trip. Branson joked during the event livestream that he would ...

We might now know a lot of what’s coming at Samsung’s next Galaxy Unpacked event thanks to a series of tweets from noted leaker Evan Blass. It seems like the event could be a big one, as Blass tweeted a long thread with GIFs of two new Galaxy foldables, a new Galaxy FE phone, two new Galaxy Watches, and even a set of new Galaxy Buds. He also says the event is set to take place one month from now on August 11th. First up, the foldables. Blass has already leaked what appear to be official renders of the rumored Galaxy Z Fold 3 (which could support the S Pen stylus) and Galaxy Z Flip 3, but the new GIFs he shared give looks at both devices at all angles. Here’s the Z Fold 3, which Blass shared GIFs of in white, green, and black: And here’s the Z Flip 3, which Blass tweeted in purple, black, g...