Technology

Apple has not been spared the effects of the ongoing global component shortage, according to a new report in Nikkei. The publication says that some production of MacBooks and iPads has been delayed, with “a portion of component orders” pushed back to the second half of 2021. The issue with MacBooks is said to be related to the ability to mount certain components on circuit boards ahead of the device’s assembly. Delayed iPad production, meanwhile, is apparently because of a shortage of displays and display components. Bloomberg reported earlier this week on how the squeezed supply of display drivers is causing a bottleneck across the entire tech industry. Nikkei didn’t state which MacBook or iPad models would be affected, nor whether the postponed production was for existing devices or yet-...

Adidas has a new version of its Ultraboost DNA running shoes with a unique twist — the company’s iconic three-stripe logo is now made of real plastic Lego bricks, allowing for a pair of more customizable kicks. Officially known as the Adidas Ultraboost DNA X Lego Plates shoes, the new $200 brick sneakers feature transparent plastic slots on the side in the shape of flat two-by-six Lego plates: enough to fit three two-by-two Lego plates in each stripe. The shoes also feature a few other Lego homages, including a Lego logo on the tongue and brick-style detailing on the top and sole of the shoes. The interior lining is also done up in a bright Lego yellow. And while the shoes do come with a collection of bricks in primary colors, there’s presumably nothing stopping you from swapping in your o...

A number of OnePlus 9 Pro owners say they’re getting persistent overheating warnings, often with use of the camera app. Android Police spotted the mounting number of reports, many of which are collected in a thread on OnePlus’ support forum and often mention use of the camera app in connection with the warnings. OnePlus tells The Verge this is a known issue and that a fix will be coming via software updates “over the next few weeks.” Some 9 Pro owners reporting the problem say that the warning appears even with light use of the phone’s still photo or video recording capabilities, and in some cases the phone will prohibit any more photo taking until it cools back down. Others mention the problem arising around or soon after initial setup. We didn’t encounter the issue while testing the OneP...

Facebook is responding to the recent news that data from 533 million accounts leaked online for free, but perhaps not in the way users might have hoped: the company doesn’t plan to notify the users whose data was exposed online, a Facebook spokesperson told Reuters. In the dataset, there’s apparently a lot of information that you might not want floating around the internet — including birthdays, locations, full names, and phone numbers — so it’s disappointing to hear that Facebook doesn’t plan to notify users that might be affected. The company cited two reasons to Reuters as to why it’s not telling users proactively: it says it’s not confident it would know which users would need to be notified, and that users wouldn’t be able to do anything about the data being online. On Tuesday Faceboo...

LG has announced a pledge to issue future Android OS updates to many of its smartphones despite confirming earlier this week that it’ll be leaving the phone business altogether. The Velvet, Wing, and G- and V- series phones from 2019 or later should be getting three Android updates from their year of release, and “certain 2020 models such as LG Stylo and K series” will get two updates. For example, the Velvet came out last year with Android 10, and its Android 11 rollout is currently in progress. That means that it should also be getting Android 12 and 13 at some point, assuming Google continues its yearly cadence. LG variously describes this announcement as a “three-year pledge” and a “three-OS-update guarantee.” The announcement is a little surprising because LG phones generally wouldn’t...

Rapper Lil Nas X has just released a free rhythm game that has you twerking to his new song “Montero (Call Me By Your Name).” Yes, the main mechanic is twerking. It’s a free browser game, and you can play it right now at this link. If you want to get an idea of how the game works, check out this video he tweeted. Or just use your imagination. It’s exactly what you think. I tried it briefly before writing this post, and I have to admit that I had a hard time lining up my twerks with the on-screen arrows. (What a sentence. Also hi Dad, who gets email notifications whenever I publish a Verge story.) But the game says I somehow got 43 of the 50 arrows, and a rating of two and a half stars out of three. I’ll take it! The new game is Lil Nas X’s latest internet-savvy stunt to help promote the ne...

A Google Fi user in Hawaii received a couple text messages Monday night wishing him a happy Easter. The problem is, those messages had been sent on Easter Sunday, but only made it through more than a day later. Google is now informing Fi users who receive text messages through Hangouts that messages sent to them may have gone missing between March 31st and April 5th. The company said there was a service “interruption” that impacted “a small number of people.” Google says it has now resolved the issue and is sending through the delayed messages. Missing messages should appear in Hangouts by the end of today, April 7th. Google has now disabled texting from Hangouts Fi users have for years been able to send and receive calls and messages through Hangouts, but Google announced plans years ago ...

100 Thieves, a popular esports organization and lifestyle brand, announced that two of its biggest content creators, Rachell “Valkyrae” Hofstetter and Jack “CouRage” Dunlop, will now be co-owners. “As a streamer and former pro-player myself, I always wanted 100 Thieves to be an organization guided by and built to be a platform for content creators,” Haag said in a statement. “Rae and Jack have been with us since 2018 and 2019, respectively, and are significant contributors to 100 Thieves. They deserve recognition for what they’ve done for the company to date – and we want their strategic input on what we can all do together in the future.” Hofstetter and Dunlop join 100 Thieves founder and CEO Matthew “Nadeshot” Haag, rapper Drake, music industry talent manager Scooter Braun, and Cle...

Because the world desperately needed another GPU people can’t actually buy, AMD decided to release a limited-edition “Midnight Black” version of its Radeon RX 6800 XT early Wednesday morning, where it sold out before most people even saw the card was there. You might be thinking: “Why would you release a limited-edition version of something that’s practically a collector’s piece even without a new coat of paint?” (AMD’s recent GPUs are even rarer than Nvidia’s, though both currently command two to three times their retail price on eBay.) Or you might be thinking: “When, exactly, did AMD announce a new GPU? I don’t remember that.” That’s because the company didn’t formally announce it: according to VideoCardz, AMD quietly told its “AMD Red Team community” fanbase by email at around midnight...

Today, you can fire up an Xbox game console and play Halo with a mouse and keyboard. It’s hard to believe I’m writing those words. Five years ago, I asked a small room of first-party Xbox devs how they felt about supporting mouse and keyboard (now that their boss Phil Spencer had confirmed they were on the way), but they were seriously skeptical. It took two more years for the Xbox One to get even a handful of keyboard and mouse titles in a November 2018 update. Even though games like COD: Warzone and Fortnite have paved the way for controller parity, the industry is still understandably wary about mixing console and keyboard players. But now, keyboard and mouse is a native part of Halo: The Master Chief Collection (including Halo CE, Halo 2, Halo 3, Halo 3: ODST, Halo: Reach, and Halo 4) ...

Facebook’s experimental app development division, the NPE Team, has released a new Q&A platform that borrows concepts from buzzy, audio-only social network Clubhouse but with dashes of live-streaming thrown in. The platform is called Hotline, and it featured its first Q&A with investor Nick Huber earlier today, according to a report from TechCrunch. A website for the service is online now and allows sign-ins via Twitter, but it features only a waitlist and a tool for applying to host your own show. TechCrunch says Facebook has created designs for mobile versions of the app, though those do not appear to be live at this moment. News of Facebook building its own version of Clubhouse first surfaced in February, though Hotline is said to be a different product than the ongoing Clubhous...

The first Bluetooth tracker that can work with Apple’s vast Find My Bluetooth network of iPhones, iPads, and Macs is here. But it’s not Apple’s long-anticipated AirTags tracker; it’s the Chipolo One Spot, an updated version of the company’s One tracker that’s designed to exclusively work with Apple’s network. Chipolo calls the One Spot a “special edition” product. While it has the same 12-month battery life (with replaceable battery), 120dB ring, water resistance, and overall design as the regular One tracker, the One Spot only works with Apple’s Find My network. That’s potentially an upgrade for anyone who already uses Apple products, given that a Bluetooth tracking tag is only as effective as the number of users who are on the same network. And while Chipolo has been around for a while, ...