Technology

Twitter has apologized for accidentally sending out emails asking users to “confirm your Twitter account.” The company says the messages were sent out by mistake. “If you received one of these emails, you don’t need to confirm your account and you can disregard the message,” the company said. The Verge’s own Tom Warren was a recipient of one of the emails, which looks like the one Twitter sends out to validate an email address during its sign-up process. Users who weren’t expecting to receive the emails quickly assumed they were being sent out by someone trying to imitate Twitter as part of a phishing scam, BleepingComputer reports. On this occasion the cause of the emails was the result of what seems to be a simple error, but it’s always best to play it safe when you receive an email you ...

Microsoft is releasing a preview version of Office 2021 for Mac and Office LTSC this week. While Office LTSC (Long-Term Servicing Channel) is designed for commercial customers, both versions are perpetual versions of Office that don’t rely on subscriptions or the cloud. Microsoft announced its plans for Office 2021 back in February, and a Windows version — which won’t be available in preview — will also be released later this year. Office 2021 for Mac will support both Apple Silicon and Intel-based Macs, and require at least 4GB of RAM and 10GB of storage space. It’s designed to be a static release of Office, but during the preview there will be monthly updates that could include new features. Once Office 2021 for Mac is final and released, no new features will be added. Current improvemen...

If you’ve read a review, a gift guide, or a how-to on The Verge, then you’ve read something that’s been assigned by, edited by, or written by Dan Seifert. A longtime presence here, Dan’s knowledge of tech is vast and impressive — and is reflected by the number and quality of the devices you can see here in his home office. Tell me a little about yourself. What is your background, and what do you do at The Verge? I’ve been at The Verge for nearly nine years and have held many hats and done many jobs over that time. But I’ve always had an involvement in the product reviews program, because I’m a complete gearhead who loves playing with new gadgets and technology. Currently, I’m a deputy editor who helps run The Verge machine every day. I oversee our entire product reviews and service journal...

Spotify is reportedly planning to debut its in-app podcast subscription offering next week. The Wall Street Journal reports today that the company will not take a cut from podcasters who choose to sell in-app subscriptions and also will allow them to set their own pricing. Listeners on its iOS app will be routed through a website to purchase the subscriptions, thereby allowing Spotify (and podcasters) to skirt around Apple’s fees. The news comes right after Apple Podcasts debuted its own in-app subscriptions. The company will allow podcasters to sell access to ad-free, bonus, or early-access content at whatever price they choose to set. Unlike this reported Spotify plan, however, Apple requires podcasters to pay $19.99 per year to even list their subscriptions, as well as a 30 percent cut ...

Apple’s new Siri Remote doesn’t come equipped with an accelerometer or gyroscope, which means it won’t work as a motion controller in certain Apple TV games. The omission was initially spotted by Digital Trends, and can be seen on the remotes’ product pages. The old Siri Remote lists an “Accelerometer” and “Three-axis gyro” in the tech specs, but they’re missing from the new listing (we’ve linked to a Google Cache because as of this writing Apple’s store is down ahead of AirTags pre-orders going live). The change means that the new Siri Remote won’t work with certain Apple TV games that rely on motion controls. According to code in tvOS 14.5 seen by MacRumors, trying to play an incompatible game will lead to the following error message: “To play this game on your Apple TV, you need to conn...

Twitch users will be able to make threaded replies in Twitch chat starting today, the popular streaming platform announced. Threaded replies could make it a lot easier to have side conversations within Twitch chats, which are sometimes chaotic waterfalls of text with no easy way to tell who might be talking to another. Twitch is calling the new feature Chat Replies. To start a threaded reply, just hover over a message, click the arrow that will appear, and then type your message. Twitch first launched threaded replies as a 30-day experiment to 50 percent of channels in August 2020, so you may have seen something like it during your travels around the site at the time. In response to that experiment, Twitch is including a few new features with the full release, such as the ability to custom...

Snap has finally reaped the benefits of building a fully functional Android app. The company announced in its earnings report today that its user base mostly uses Android instead of iOS. That overall user base continues to grow, too. During the first quarter of 2021, Snapchat reached 280 million daily active users, an increase of 22 percent year over year. CEO Evan Spiegel called the moment Android users overtook iOS users a “critical milestone that reflects the long-term value of the investment we made to rebuild our Android application,” in his prepared remarks today. As a reminder, Snapchat originally launched only on iOS and released its first Android app in 2012. The team later spent over a year rebuilding the app to bring it up to par with its iOS counterpart. As the Android app lang...

The University of Minnesota has been banned from contributing to the Linux kernel by one of its maintainers after researchers from the school apparently knowingly submitted code with security flaws. Earlier this year, two researchers from the university released a paper detailing how they had submitted known security vulnerabilities to the Linux kernel in order to show how potentially malicious code could get through the approval process. Now, after another student from the university submitted code that reportedly does nothing, kernel maintainer and Linux Foundation fellow Greg Kroah-Hartman has released a statement calling for all kernel maintainers to reject any code submissions from anyone using a umn.edu email address. In addition to not accepting any new code from the university, all...

Apple announced on Wednesday that it’s once again extending the deadline for requiring in-app purchases for iOS apps that sell access to online classes and group events until December 31st, 2021, effectively meaning it won’t impose its 30 percent cut on businesses providing those services until next year. Apple extended the deadline initially to June 30th, 2021, but now developers have another six months. Apple cites the ongoing pandemic as its main justification for the change, but we have to wonder if it might also have something to do with the Congressional antitrust hearings that have zeroed in on whether Apple and Google’s app stores are monopolies. Helping out small businesses by not taking its traditional 30 percent cut is an example Apple can now use to demonstrate how it encourage...

Congressional Democrats have introduced a bill that would make it easier for the Consumer Product Safety Commission to warn people about unsafe products, by repealing part of a 49-year-old law that limits what information the agency can release publicly. The Sunshine in Product Safety Act (PDF) comes after reports that exercise machine company Peloton “obstructed CPSC’s investigation” into its Peloton Tread Plus treadmill, according to the members of Congress. The Tread Plus has been involved in some 39 accidents where children were injured, including one death. The CPSC “was unable to alert the public of the reported incidents related to children, pets, and objects getting pulled under the treadmill until a month later,” according to the congresspeople. “These incidents ranged from mild i...

Facebook wants to inspire, apparently. The company announced changes to its News Feed today that are supposed to fill feeds with things users like, rather than the content that annoys them. At the end of March, Facebook began introducing filters to allow users to customize their feed, and now, the company is hoping to learn more about what users like and dislike, with what seems like a special focus on moving away from political content and toward “inspirational posts.” The company has been under intense scrutiny for helping fan the flames of political division in the US and even playing an outsized role in elections. Facebook’s influence on both issues has largely stemmed from the misinformation that’s been spread on the platform. It’s an issue that seems directly connected to Facebook CE...