Technology

Secure messaging app Telegram has launched an alpha version of one-on-one video calls on both its Android and iOS apps, the company announced, saying 2020 had “highlighted the need for face-to-face communication.” In a blog post marking its seventh anniversary, Telegram described the process for starting a video call: tap the profile page of the person you want to connect with. Users are able to switch video on or off at any time during a call, and the video calls support picture-in-picture mode, so users can continue scrolling through the app if that call gets boring. Video calls will have end-to-end-encryption, Telegram’s blog posts states, one of the app’s defining features for its audio calls and texting. Telegram “Our apps for Android and iOS have reproducible builds, so anyone can ve...

A minor face-covering controversy broke out this week, thanks to a widely-misinterpreted paper involving masks, lasers, and spit. The study, which came out in Science Advances on August 7, was pretty straightforward. It laid out a method that other scientists could use to test masks in their own labs. Using a dark box, some lasers, a cell phone camera and a relatively simple algorithm they figured out a way to test how effective different kinds of masks were at containing spit. People spit when they talk. They also spew droplets out of their mouth when they breathe heavily, sneeze, or sing Hamilton tunes. That humid mess can contain viruses, which is one reason that everyone is now encouraged to wear a mask in public — to reduce the chances that you’ll pass the coronavirus that causes COVI...

President Donald Trump has joined Triller, a rival to the video sharing app TikTok that he wants ban in the US. First noted by New York Times reporter Taylor Lorenz, Trump’s Triller account (@donaldjtrump) has about 3,500 followers, and his introductory video has more than 590,000 views. The intro video features clips of the president and audio clips of him saying “I’m a professional at technology,” and “nobody can do it like me.” The other two videos on the account as of Saturday afternoon were a clip of the president making a short speech in which he says “Joe Biden has no clue,” and another clip mocking the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee. Over the past few weeks, as the Trump administration has continued its push against TikTok in the US, Triller is one of several similar a...

Mozilla and Google have extended their arrangement to keep Google the default search engine within the Firefox browser until at least 2023, ZDNet reported. The companies have not formally announced the deal, which ZDNet estimates is worth between $400 and $450 million per year, but are expected to announce it later this fall. The current arrangement was due to expire at the end of 2020. The move comes as Mozilla just announced plans to lay off 250 employees, representing about a quarter of its workforce. Mozilla CEO Mitchell Baker wrote in a blog post that the coronavirus pandemic had “significantly impacted our revenue.” In the blog post announcing the changes, Baker wrote that the company would focus on building new products “that people love and want to use,” renew its focus on communit...

Tesla CEO Elon Musk tweeted Friday that two-factor authentication for its app is “embarrassingly late” but apparently is now on the way. Musk didn’t provide a timeline, but said on Twitter that two-factor authentication — which adds an additional step to verify a user’s identity at sign-in— is in “final validation.” Sorry, this is embarrassingly late. Two factor authentication via sms or authenticator app is going through final validation right now. — Elon Musk (@elonmusk) August 14, 2020 Judging from Musk’s tweet, Tesla’s 2FA will be available via SMS and authenticator apps, which are generally considered more secure. Musk said last year that Tesla was working on “foundational upgrades” to Tesla’s core operating system and would be introducing 2FA shortly after. Tesla’s app basically serv...

The Food and Drug Administration authorized a saliva-based COVID-19 test that the National Basketball Association helped study. The testing method, called SalivaDirect, is cheap and could be run by most labs. Labs could charge as little as $10 per sample to run the test, said Nathan Grubaugh, an assistant professor at the Yale School of Public Health and one head of the team developing the test, in a press release. This is the fifth saliva-based testing method authorized by the FDA. People can collect a saliva sample themselves by spitting into a tube, rather than have a healthcare provider insert a swab deep into their nasal cavity. Many labs have struggled to get enough swabs for COVID-19 tests, and using saliva sidesteps that bottleneck. The SalivaDirect test also does not use an extra ...

Apple has always had a complicated relationship with the game industry, but this month that relationship slid into a bitter and very public legal and regulatory war that could shape the future of iPhone apps. The first escalation occurred when Apple laid out in clear terms why it has no plans to ever approve cloud gaming services from its tech rivals Google and Microsoft. The second was when Apple kicked the massively popular battle royale hit Fortnite off the App Store after its creator, Epic Games, provoked the company with a rule-violating update. Epic countered Apple’s removal with an antitrust lawsuit, prepared well in advance and complete with a detailed 62-page legal complaint. It may be a strong enough case to impose long-lasting changes on Apple’s business. But Epic’s dramatic pub...

This story is part of a group of stories called Only the best deals on Verge-approved gadgets get the Verge Deals stamp of approval, so if you’re looking for a deal on your next gadget or gift from major retailers like Amazon, Walmart, Best Buy, Target, and more, this is the place to be. Genki is offering a 15 percent discount to readers of The Verge who buy two or more products from its site. Two easy picks are its new Covert Dock for the Nintendo Switch along with the Portable Stand or Genki Audio Bluetooth adapter for the Switch to go with it. Whatever you end up buying, just add them to your cart and then paste in the offer code ONTHEVERGE at checkout to save. If you were thinking about getting the Covert Dock and the Portable Stand together, the cost goes from $95 down to $80. P...

Facebook appears to flipping the switch on integrating the chat systems for Instagram and Messenger. On Friday evening, several editors at The Verge across the country — on both iOS and Android devices — noticed an update screen popped up in Instagram’s mobile app with the message “There’s a New Way to Message on Instagram” with a list of features including a “new colorful look for your chats,” more emoji reactions, swipe-to-reply, and the big one: “chat with friends who use Facebook.” Once you hit update, the regular DM icon in the top right of Instagram is replaced by the Facebook Messenger logo. Chats on Instagram are indeed more colorful than before, with the sender’s messages shifting between blue and purple as you scroll. However, at least for right now, it’s still not possible to me...

President Trump issued an executive order Friday giving ByteDance 90 days to either sell or spin off its TikTok business in the US. “There is credible evidence that leads me to believe that ByteDance … might take action that threatens to impair the national security of the United States,” Trump wrote in the order, which references national security concerns. ByteDance is based in China, and the Trump administration has recently suggested that the company could share information about Americans with the Chinese government. The company has denied it does so. The move gives TikTok a bit of a reprieve from Trump’s August 6th order that would have blocked all US transactions with ByteDance, TikTok’s parent corporation, due to what the president referred to as an effort to “address the nat...

Many of us are online a lot more than usual these days, and much more of our communication is entirely virtual as well. As we enter month six of pandemic life, that means once-small annoyances in virtual communication that you maybe used to let slide may have started to feel like all-consuming social indiscretions. The Verge newsroom devolved into a debate over such a topic after reading Angela Lashbrook’s great piece in OneZero about how Instagram’s reaction buttons are a scourge. You should go read it! It inspired us to spend the better part of an hour arguing over the merits of emoji reactions as a whole. Some of us are anti-reaction, while others are pro-reaction (*waves*). The conversation was long and intense enough that we decided to lay out our thoughts in one place. Ashley Carman:...

Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) signed a contract with facial recognition company Clearview AI this week for “mission support,” government contracting records show (as first spotted by the tech accountability nonprofit Tech Inquiry). The purchase order for $224,000 describes “clearview licenses” and lists “ICE mission support dallas” as the contracting office. ICE is known to use facial recognition technology; last month, The Washington Post reported the agency, along with the FBI, had accessed state drivers’ license databases — a veritable facial recognition gold mine, as the Post termed it — but without the knowledge or consent of drivers. The agency has been criticized for its practices at the US southern border, which has included separating immigrant children from their fami...