Technology

Apple’s warranty program, AppleCare Plus, just saw a significant expansion in its coverage with an added annual repair for accidental damage. The changes, spotted first yesterday by MacRumors in the wake of Apple’s “Time Flies” hardware reveal, mean AppleCare Plus owners are now covered for two cases of accidental damage coverage every 12 months. That’s a total of four fixes over the standard two years of coverage. The prior window for those two incidents of coverage was 24 months (or 36 months for certain products like Macs). It appears this is the case not just for the iPhone but for all other AppleCare Plus-eligible products, which include AirPods, Apple TV, Apple Watch, Beats headphones, HomePod, iPad, iPod Touch, Mac, and Pro Display XDR. You can see the changes applied at the new App...

If you were thinking of adding a new Apple Watch (or any other LTE-ready smartwatch with a dedicated phone number) to your Verizon account, you’ll probably like to hear that the carrier just cut the monthly cost of doing that by half. It’s normally $20 to add a watch if you don’t already have a phone on your account, though it will now costs $10 per month per watch for all standalone plans. Pricing for subscribers who have both a phone and a watch on their accounts is unchanged. This is welcome news considering Apple debuted two new Apple Watch models today: the Apple Watch Series 6 and Apple Watch SE, both of which have an LTE option. The most affordable Series 6 with LTE costs $499 ($399 without LTE), but the real bargain is the Apple Watch SE with LTE, which costs $329 (just $50 more th...

Amazon Music now offers podcasts. The company issued an update today that brings more than 70,000 shows to the platform, including some major titles, like Serial and Pod Save America, as well as new exclusive deals like a show with DJ Khaled called The First One, where he’ll interview artists about their breakthrough hits and the stories behind them. Disgraceland, a popular show from iHeartMedia, will also become exclusive to the platform starting in February 2021. Podcasts can be listened to through the updated Amazon Music app, on the web, or on Amazon Echo devices. Echo devices will search Amazon Music by default and will remember where listeners left off, regardless of what platform they use to listen. The Wall Street Journal reports that Amazon will be selling ads for its shows, altho...

Microsoft is reportedly planning to refresh its ARM-powered Surface Pro X this fall. Windows Central reports that the Surface Pro X will be updated to include Microsoft’s SQ2 processor, which will likely be based on Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 8cx Gen 2 5G. It’s not clear if this refreshed Surface Pro X will include 5G support, but Qualcomm’s latest chip supports the option for Microsoft to include it. Microsoft is also rumored to be working on a new color variant for this updated Surface Pro X, which would see the device launch in the platinum typically found on the Intel-based Surface Pro line. Microsoft launched the Surface Pro X in black last year, with a black Type Cover. It’s likely we’ll see a variety of Type Cover colors for this new Surface Pro X to complement the new platinum variant. ...

Apple has responded to Epic’s demands that the iPhone-maker restore Fortnite to the App Store in new legal filings, arguing that the company’s injuries are “entirely self-inflicted” and that Fortnite can return to iOS at any time — just as soon as Epic removes the custom in-app payment system that triggered the game’s removal in the first place. “Epic started a fire, and poured gasoline on it, and now asks this Court for emergency assistance in putting it out,” writes Apple in the 37-page opposition brief. “[E]ven though Epic can do so itself in an instant by simply adhering to the contractual terms that have profitably governed its relationship with Apple for years.” “Epic could have avoided any further harm […] with a simple keystroke” Later, the company adds: “Epic could have avoi...

VanMoof just announced $40 million in new outside investment to capitalize on the surging global demand for electric bikes. Importantly, VanMoof’s co-founders, Ties and Taco Carlier, tell The Verge that about a third of that new money will be directed at solving VanMoof customer support issues that have intensified with the launch of the company’s new S3 and X3 e-bikes in the middle of a global pandemic. “Over the next six to twelve months, we’ll have upgraded every step of the customer journey, from production to scheduling check-ups. Getting a VanMoof e-bike serviced will be as easy as ordering a meal online,” promises Taco in a prepared statement announcing the new investment round. VanMoof calls the new app-based service the Bike Doctor Network, and it’ll begin sending support technici...

I. A dilemma On Sunday night, after being encouraged to by friends and family, I hit play on a new documentary about our digital lives. Directed by Jeff Orlowski, The Social Dilemma explores the effect of smartphones and social networks on human behavior. Blending talking-head interviews with some well known Silicon Valley apostates and fictional, after-school special-style dramatizations of what happens when Johnny and Janey scroll through feeds all day, the film presents itself as an urgent warning about our modern condition. I’m more than a little sympathetic to these concerns. I started writing this newsletter in 2017 after coming to the belated realization that social networks really did have an outsized impact on modern life, and deserved to be taken as seriously. My thinking has ben...

Even though Apple didn’t announce new iPhones yesterday, the event was a jam-packed hour. Apple announced four new hardware products, a major new service, and a new bundle. By any objective standard, that’s a big day. As I’ll note below, the most important products might not be the hardware, but Fitness Plus and the ability to make an Apple Watch a kid tracker. Besides those announcements, the main thing that struck me is that Apple seems to be making a subtle but important shift in its product strategy this year. You may have heard of the “Good, Better, Best” pricing strategy — it’s been applied to Apple a bunch. I think what Apple is doing this year is making the “better” option …better — and also a little more expensive. It’s the “better better” model. The old among us have Steve ...

Apple, the world’s most valuable company, is currently under assault by Fortnite developer Epic Games in an incredible legal and cultural fight, but Epic was hardly the first to accuse Apple of abusing monopolistic power. Today, Spotify — the music service whose complaints helped launch two official EU antitrust investigations into Apple’s App Store and Apple Pay practices — has taken offense at Apple’s announcement of an all-in-one subscription bundle that includes its rival Apple Music. Here’s Spotify’s statement: Once again, Apple is using its dominant position and unfair practices to disadvantage competitors and deprive consumers by favoring its own services. We call on competition authorities to act urgently to restrict Apple’s anti-competitive behavior, which if left unchecked, will ...

Earlier this year, my colleague Cameron Faulkner reviewed the Razer Kishi, a smartly designed game controller for Android phones created in collaboration with Gamevice. Now a version for iPhones is here, and it’s essentially the same story — the biggest difference is what it can do. The Kishi is like two Nintendo Switch Joy-Cons that are permanently attached to each other, collapsing down into an easily portable package. The band between them is elasticized, meaning you can pull them over the edges of your phone and get a snug fit. The iOS version has a Lightning connector on one end and a port for passthrough charging. I tried it with an iPhone 11, but it also comes with adapters for smaller phones like the SE. Verge Score 7 out of 10 Good Stuff Convenient, portable design Easy to attach ...

One way to avoid having your repetitive pro-Trump posts tagged as belonging to a bot is to hire teenagers in Arizona to behave like bots — and that’s exactly what The Washington Post reports conservative group Turning Point Action did. These kids posted messages such as “Don’t trust Dr. Fauci” to Twitter, Facebook and Instagram, the Post reported. They echoed President Donald Trump’s disdain for mail-in ballots, and posted erroneous claims about voter fraud, using the repetitive posting behavior that is most common in bots or trolls. “In this election, the troll farm is in Phoenix.” The campaign occurred over the course of months, and the Post identified at least 4,500 tweets that came from the Turning Point Action effort. “In 2016, there were Macedonian teenagers interfering in the electi...

AT&T is mulling offering wireless phone plans that would be subsidized in part by ads, CEO John Stankey said in an interview with Reuters. “I believe there’s a segment of our customer base where given a choice, they would take some load of advertising for a $5 or $10 reduction in their mobile bill,” Stankey said. The new plans could be offered beginning in “a year or two,” according to Stankey. Is this what healthy wireless industry competition looks like? AT&T has experimented with at least one form of brand-subsidized phone plan in the past, though it didn’t exactly pass along the savings to you. The “Sponsored Data” program, which was announced back in 2014, let brands pay AT&T so they could deliver their content without counting against your data cap. This sounds like it wo...