Technology

The Arizona State Senate was scheduled to vote on an unprecedented and controversial bill Wednesday that would have imposed far-reaching changes on how Apple and Google operate their respective mobile app stores, specifically by allowing alternative in-app payment systems. But the vote never happened, having been passed over on the schedule without explanation. The Verge watched every other bill on the schedule be debated and voted on over the senate’s live stream, but Arizona HB2005, listed first on the agenda, never came up. One notable Apple critic is now accusing the iPhone maker of stepping in to stop the vote, saying the company hired a former chief of staff to Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey to broker a deal that prevented the bill from being heard in the Senate and ultimately voted on. Thi...

We’re still waiting on a release date for the Playdate, a tiny handheld with a crank made by Untitled Goose Game publisher Panic, but Panic just showed off a new feature for the device on the official Playdate Twitter account: you’ll be able to plug the Playdate in to your computer and mirror its screen. As Playdate says in its tweet, there are a lot of potential use-cases for this, including better accessibility and making it easier to stream your Playdate gameplay. And pressing the virtual buttons in the Playdate app will pass them back to your Playdate device, giving you another way to play your games. (It doesn’t look like there’s a virtual crank, but maybe that’s something Panic hasn’t shown off yet.) Here’s a short video of the computer connection in action: Here’s a fun little new t...

I. Last week, a partnerships manager at Medium working with the White House found that there was a strange problem with the platform: President Joe Biden was being served porn. The manager was in a video conference with a White House staffer to discuss how Biden, who had used Medium as a campaign blog in 2020, could begin posting to the official Medium @POTUS account. While sharing his screen with the White House, the staffer logged in to @POTUS and saw the first article recommended to him by Medium: “A is for After,” which a sub-headline described as “a cuckold love story.” It’s unclear if the White House saw the story. But after the meeting, the Medium staffer tried to improve Biden’s recommendations. He followed political topics; he “read” posts by President Obama and Vice President Kam...

Beeple has been one of the biggest names in NFTs, likely because some of his artwork has sold for truckloads of money. So it was really only a matter of time before someone came along with a tool that let you create Beeple-like artwork without having to download and pose assets yourself. (NFT? WTF? If you’re lost, here’s our NFT guide.) Enter BeepleGenerator.com a site that does… well, exactly what it its name implies. Here’s a look at some of the… art it generated, along with some genuine Beeples for comparison. Image: BeepleGenerator Image: BeepleGenerator Could you sell the generated pictures as NFTs? Well… I don’t think there’s anything stopping you from listing them. But that’s thinking small — the real big brain play is to buy the site as an NFT. Oh, yeah, did I for...

Sony’s plan to combine Crunchyroll and Funimation into a streaming service to lead its anime empire seemed as simple as tossing AT&T a billion dollars. But now the plan is reportedly concerning enough that the US Department of Justice is extending its antitrust review of the $1.175 billion purchase into a full-on probe, according to three sources who spoke to The Information. The DOJ is focused on whether the deal limits the options of Japanese studios looking to license shows in the US, according to The Information’s sources. “WarnerMedia and Sony have told the Justice Department that Crunchyroll and Sony’s budding anime empire are just two of many options anime creators have to distribute their shows outside Japan,” The Information writes, but even if direct competition isn’t a conce...

MrBeast said last year that he wanted a way to invest in up-and-coming creators, help them blow up, and get a cut of their business in return — and today, he’s announcing a plan to do just that. The hit YouTuber, whose real name is Jimmy Donaldson, is launching a $2 million investment fund that will offer creators up to $250,000 in exchange for a stake in their channels. The fund is part of a new company called Creative Juice, in which Donaldson is an investor, and which was announced this afternoon in The Information. “We’re gonna make sure we find [creators] that actually need a giant cash inflow and aren’t just trying to go buy a Lamborghini,” Donaldson told The Information. Juice is going to change so much you guys don’t even understand. Genuinely excited 🙂 — MrBeast (@MrBeast) March 2...

Dyson has a new flagship vacuum cleaner, the $699 V15 Detect, which adds a laser dust detection system that’s designed to illuminate the dust on your floors so you can better clean it. Based on Dyson’s images showing how the laser works, though, it looks like the V15 Detect will primarily help you feel a sense of guilt and / or horror at just how dusty your kitchen floor is. Unlike most vacuums with lights on the cleaning head — which help you see where you’re vacuuming — the new lasers are designed to help you see what you’re vacuuming. The new model replaces 2019’s V11 at the top of Dyson’s range. Like that model, this one features an LCD display to convey more information to users, with the ability to display different vacuum modes and how much battery life is left. The other big additi...

Have you ever been scrolling through Twitter and thought, “This website could really use some Facebook-style emoji reactions”? Yeah, me neither. Nonetheless, the company has been surveying users throughout the past month about that possibility, TechCrunch reports. Per screenshots of the survey that a Twitter user shared, the proposed emoji reactions could include the basics — a laughing face with tears, a thinking face, a crying face — and some spicier variations — shocked faces, angry faces, fire emojis. They could also include a downvote or dislike option. A Twitter spokesperson tells The Verge, “We’re exploring additional ways for people to express themselves in conversations happening on Twitter.” The spokesperson emphasizes that Twitter’s research is still in its early stages and note...

Apple has a rocky relationship with some iOS developers because of its seemingly arbitrary decisions over what gets published and when — and now, because of a dumb miss, it’s being accused of putting profits ahead of human rights in Myanmar by the founder of ProtonMail and ProtonVPN, even though that’s probably not what happened. Proton founder Andy Yen writes that Apple blocked an important security update to the company’s privacy-protecting ProtonVPN software simply because Apple didn’t like the app’s description, specifically this line: Whether it is challenging governments, educating the public, or training journalists, we have a long history of helping bring online freedom to more people around the world. If you’re having a hard time finding anything objectionable there, you’re not al...

LG today announced the pricing for its 2021 lineup of 4K OLED TVs. The most buzz-worthy part for home theater enthusiasts is the new G1 series, which includes LG’s new “OLED evo” panel with a brighter picture than any of the company’s past OLEDs. But the G1 doesn’t come cheap: it’s $2,199 for a 55-inch model, $2,999 for a 65-inch, and $4,499 if you want a 77-inch screen. LG says the G1 sets also “have an unbelievably thin bezel with included wall mounting leaving virtually no gap from screen to wall.” You’re paying for both the superior picture and that gallery-like aesthetic here. Stepping down from the G1, you get the C1 series, which succeeds last year’s highly praised CX series. All sizes of the C1 TVs still come with the full suite of HDMI 2.1 features (4K at 120Hz, variable refresh r...

Nintendo has a new tool that lets show off your Animal Crossing: New Horizons island with a poster or even a trailer. While you’ve always been able to take screenshots and video clips from the game using the Switch’s built-in tools and share those with your friends and on social media, the new Island Tour Creator lets you add some Animal Crossing-themed flair to what you’ve captured. Nintendo made an example island tour video in this tweet. It includes a voiceover and even New Horizons’ iconic theme song, and the trailers you make will have them, too, which I thought was a nice touch. And here’s a poster I made for my island, Hoopla: To use the Island Tour Creator, which only works on mobile, visit this link on your smartphone. From there, you’ll be asked to log in to your Nintendo account...

Microsoft is giving the File Explorer inside Windows 10 a visual overhaul with new icons. The software giant has started rolling out a test build of Windows 10 that includes changes to the system icons you’ll find in File Explorer, including the Recycle Bin, Documents folders, and devices like disk drives. “Several changes, such as the orientation of the folder icons and the default file type icons, have been made for greater consistency across Microsoft products that show files,” says Amanda Langowski, Microsoft’s Windows Insider chief. “Notably, the top-level user folders such as Desktop, Documents, Downloads, and Pictures have a new design that should make it a little easier to tell them apart at a glance.” The new Recycle Bin icon.Image: Microsoft Perhaps daringly, Microsoft also notes...