Technology

Apple is reportedly developing a new iPhone charging accessory in the form of a battery pack that magnetically attaches to the rear of the device using MagSafe, Bloomberg reports. Although some prototypes have a rubber exterior, the battery pack isn’t thought to act as a protective case like previous iPhone battery accessories from Apple. Alongside details of the new battery case, Bloomberg also notes that the iPhone lineup is unlikely to receive support for reverse wireless charging anytime soon. The battery pack accessory is thought to have been in development for at least a year, but it’s reportedly faced development issues relating to the iPhone’s software thinking that the pack is overheating. Bloomberg notes that Apple is cautious about announcing charging accessories, after it was f...

Images of the unannounced Oppo Find X3 Neo have leaked again, this time giving us our best look yet at the third phone in Oppo’s upcoming Find X3 phone lineup, NieuweMobiel.nl reports. As tipster Evan Blass has subsequently pointed out, the handset appears to be a rebranded version of Oppo’s Reno5 Pro Plus 5G. The phone is expected to be announced next month alongside the Find X3 Pro and Find X3 Lite. Since the Find X3 Neo is based on an existing phone, we already have a pretty good idea of what its specs might be. These include a Snapdragon 865 processor, 4,500mAh battery with 65W fast charging, and a 6.55-inch 90Hz OLED display. Around back there are four cameras: a 50-megapixel wide-angle camera, a 13-megapixel telephoto, a 16-megapixel ultrawide, and a 2-megapixel macro. The Find X3 Pr...

All of those obnoxious marketing emails that crowd your inbox aren’t just pushing a product. They’re also tracking whether you’ve opened the email, when you opened it, and where you were at the time by using software like MailChimp to embed tracking software into the message. How does it work? A single tracking pixel is embedded into the email, usually (but not always) hidden within an image or a link. When the email is opened, code within the pixel sends the info back to the company’s server. There have been some attempts to restrict the amount of information that can be transmitted this way. For example, since 2014, Google has served all images through its own proxy servers, which could hide your location from at least some tracking applications. And extensions such as Ugly Email and Pix...

This morning, Nvidia announced that it would artificially reduce the performance of its upcoming $329 GeForce RTX 3060 graphics card when it comes to one specific task: Ethereum cryptocurrency mining. As weird as that news might sound, it was music to the ears of some gamers — who have been trying and failing to get their hands on graphics cards for months due to the great GPU shortage, and blaming miners for part of that. You might be wondering: what does this mean for other GPUs? Nvidia isn’t talking about its plans for future graphics card just yet, but the company tells The Verge (in no uncertain terms) that it won’t nerf existing GPUs. “We are not limiting the performance of GPUs already sold,” says a spokesperson. I was also a bit skeptical that the company’s new batch of Cryptocurre...

This morning, Nvidia announced that it would artificially reduce the performance of its upcoming $329 GeForce RTX 3060 graphics card when it comes to one specific task: Ethereum cryptocurrency mining. As weird as that news might sound, it was music to the ears of some gamers — who have been trying and failing to get their hands on graphics cards for months due to the great GPU shortage, and blaming miners for part of that. You might be wondering: what does this mean for other GPUs? Nvidia isn’t talking about its plans for future graphics card just yet, but the company tells The Verge (in no uncertain terms) that it won’t nerf existing GPUs. “We are not limiting the performance of GPUs already sold,” says a spokesperson. I was also a bit skeptical that the company’s new batch of Cryptocurre...

YouTube has removed one of Felix “PewDiePie” Kjellberg’s recent videos, a diss track aimed at popular children’s channel Cocomelon, for violating guidelines around cyberbullying and child safety. In the video, Kjellberg attacks Cocomelon’s content and pokes fun at kids who watch the videos. Kjellberg also uses phrases like “your audience is just a bunch of motherfucking virgins,” which could violate YouTube’s guidelines for using offensive or vulgar language in videos that include children. Toward the end of the video, Kjellberg also hands what appears to be plastic weapons to a few kids, who use them to attack a melon. YouTube’s team decided to remove the video because it contained imagery that was inappropriate for children despite “looking like it was made for kids” and for creating con...

YouTube has removed one of Felix “PewDiePie” Kjellberg’s recent videos, a diss track aimed at popular children’s channel Cocomelon, for violating guidelines around cyberbullying and child safety. In the video, Kjellberg attacks Cocomelon’s content and pokes fun at kids who watch the videos. Kjellberg also uses phrases like “your audience is just a bunch of motherfucking virgins,” which could violate YouTube’s guidelines for using offensive or vulgar language in videos that include children. Toward the end of the video, Kjellberg also hands what appears to be plastic weapons to a few kids, who use them to attack a melon. YouTube’s team decided to remove the video because it contained imagery that was inappropriate for children despite “looking like it was made for kids” and for creating con...

Apple is said to be lobbying the Indian government in a move that could see the company manufacture iPads in the country for the first time. Reuters reports that the government is planning to launch an incentive scheme designed to boost India’s computer exports, and Apple wants in — but is angling for a better deal. The initiative will have a budget of up to Rs. 70 billion ($964 million) over five years, according to Reuters, but Apple is reportedly asking for that to be almost tripled to Rs. 200 billion. The reason is said to be partly that India’s supply chain doesn’t yet have the scale to meet Apple’s demands. Apple already makes iPhones in India, having started in 2018 to avoid new import tariffs imposed by the Indian government as part of a “Make in India” initiative. The company has ...

Apple is said to be lobbying the Indian government in a move that could see the company manufacture iPads in the country for the first time. Reuters reports that the government is planning to launch an incentive scheme designed to boost India’s computer exports, and Apple wants in — but is angling for a better deal. The initiative will have a budget of up to Rs. 70 billion ($964 million) over five years, according to Reuters, but Apple is reportedly asking for that to be almost tripled to Rs. 200 billion. The reason is said to be partly that India’s supply chain doesn’t yet have the scale to meet Apple’s demands. Apple already makes iPhones in India, having started in 2018 to avoid new import tariffs imposed by the Indian government as part of a “Make in India” initiative. The company has ...

YouTube’s permanent Spaces locations, which were designed to offer resources and networking opportunities to its creators, won’t reopen after the pandemic, the company has confirmed. Instead, YouTube says it’s shifting to a hybrid model that will combine pop-up locations with virtual events. The Spaces that won’t be re-opening are in Berlin, London, Los Angeles, New York, Paris, Rio, and Tokyo. Although it was the pandemic that pushed YouTube towards a virtual model, the shift away from permanent Spaces has been underway for at least a couple of years. Back in 2019, TubeFilter reported that the company was moving towards a reliance on temporary pop-up locations to give it the flexibility to serve creators across a wider area. At the time it said it would shutter its permanent Spaces in Mum...

YouTube’s permanent Spaces locations, which were designed to offer resources and networking opportunities to its creators, won’t reopen after the pandemic, the company has confirmed. Instead, YouTube says it’s shifting to a hybrid model that will combine pop-up locations with virtual events. The Spaces that won’t be re-opening are in Berlin, London, Los Angeles, New York, Paris, Rio, and Tokyo. Although it was the pandemic that pushed YouTube towards a virtual model, the shift away from permanent Spaces has been underway for at least a couple of years. Back in 2019, TubeFilter reported that the company was moving towards a reliance on temporary pop-up locations to give it the flexibility to serve creators across a wider area. At the time it said it would shutter its permanent Spaces in Mum...

When Masashi Takahashi, a producer at Square Enix, started working on Bravely Default, he had a very specific audience in mind. Takahashi had grown up playing classic turn-based roleplaying games — he distinctly remembers watching his older brother play Final Fantasy III while he was still in kindergarten — and felt that many modern RPGs had become too complex, leaving older players behind. “They seem kind of impenetrable,” he says of modern games. “I thought if I could make a game that was able to make [older players] recall things they liked about games when they were younger, and create a game for that type of audience, that was one thing that spurred me forward.” The first Bravely Default launched on the Nintendo 3DS in 2014, and it was an experience clearly inspired by earlier Final F...