Technology

Image: Epic Games Apple has banned Fortnite from the App Store for violating store policies, and Epic is rallying players against the iPhone maker in part by telling them they could miss the game’s upcoming season if Apple doesn’t change its rules. “Because Apple has BLOCKED your ability to update, when Fortnite Chapter 2 – Season 4 releases you will NOT be able to play the new Season on iOS,” Epic said in a blog post titled “#FreeFortnite.” Fortnite Chapter 2 Season 4 is scheduled to begin on August 27th. If nothing changes between Apple and Epic by then, that means the game’s many iOS players will lose out on the chance to play Fortnite’s next major update in just a couple weeks. New seasons typically introduce a significant amount of content, such as… Continue reading&hellip...

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge When you delete something from Instagram you expect it to be gone for good. But when security researcher Saugat Pokharel requested a copy of photos and direct messages from the photo-sharing app, he was sent data he’d deleted more than a year ago, showing that the information had never been entirely removed from Instagram’s servers. Instagram says this was due to a bug in its system that it’s now fixed, and Pokharel has been rewarded a $6,000 bug bounty for highlighting the problem. As reported by TechCrunch, Pokharel discovered the bug in October last year and says it was fixed earlier this month. “We’ve fixed the issue and have seen no evidence of abuse.” “The researcher reported an issue where someone’s deleted Instagram images and… Continue...

Image: Google Election Day in the US — November 3rd — is almost here. Now, if you type “how to vote” or “how to register to vote” into Google’s search box, it will automatically detect which state you live in and give you voting dates, ways to register to vote online, and more. If you go to Google’s search engine or the Chrome web browser to search for specific voting information, you’ll now get some very specific results: Google search provides detailed answers to questions you may have about registering or voting in your state. If you search “how to vote,” the first thing that appears on the webpage — below all of the ads, anyhow — is no longer the top search result for that phrase. Instead, you’ll see specific information on… Continue reading… You Deserve to Make Money Even...

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Epic Games has filed suit against Google over alleged antitrust violations, just hours after seeing Fortnite dropped from the both the Google Play Store and iOS App store and filing a similar lawsuit against Apple. Epic’s complaint alleges that Google’s payment restrictions on the Play Store constitute a monopoly, and thus a violation of both the Sherman Act and California’s Cartwright Act. Epic’s hit game Fortnite was removed from the Google Play Store earlier today. “Twenty-two years later, Google has relegated its motto to nearly an afterthought” Where the Apple complaint opened with a description of the company’s iconic 1984 ad, Epic’s complaint against Google focuses on that company’s now-infamous “Don’t Be Evil” mantra…. Continue reading&...

Image: Verizon Samsung’s affordable midrange 5G phone, the Galaxy A51, is finally available at Verizon. Compared to other phones released within the past year, the $550 Galaxy A51 5G UW is one of the more affordable 5G phones right now: $900 cheaper than the (discontinued) Samsung’s Galaxy Z Flip originally cost, $250 less than the OnePlus 8 5G UW, and $100 cheaper than the Galaxy A71 5G UW. The new Galaxy A51 5G UW comes in just one color, “Prism Bricks Blue,” which is basically a slightly pearlescent blue. Compared to the Galaxy A71 5G UW, the A51 5G UW has the same Qualcomm Snapdragon 765G processor and 128GB of storage. Both phones also have the same 12-megapixel wide-angle camera, a 5-megapixel macro camera, and a 5-megapixel depth camera. But… Continue reading… You Deser...

Image: OnePlus Epic Games sued Google over pulling Fortnite from the Google Play Store Thursday evening, following a similar lawsuit against Apple. We might have expected that. What we didn’t expect: Epic claims that Google forced phone manufacturer OnePlus to break off a deal that would have seen a special Fortnite launcher preinstalled on OnePlus phones — and demanded that another Android phonemaker, LG, abandon any plans to do the same. With OnePlus, Epic claims that Google “forced OnePlus to renege on the deal” after Google expressed ‘concern’ about Epic’s ability to bypass the Play Store. Epic also alleges that the original deal between Epic and OnePlus would have made the launcher available worldwide, but Google “demanded that OnePlus not… Continue reading… You Deserve t...

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Amazon can be held liable for defective products sold on its Marketplace in California, an appeals court ruled Thursday. The California Fourth District Court of Appeals reversed a 2019 trial court ruling and reinstated claims from a woman who says she suffered third-degree burns when a defective laptop battery she bought from a third-party seller on Amazon caught fire. The decision could have dire repercussions for Amazon, which has argued for years that it only serves as an intermediary between buyers and third-party sellers on the Marketplace portion of its platform. That stance has protected Amazon from liability for Marketplace products, that is, until now. The company is now facing several other lawsuits over defective products in… Continu...

Photo by Scott Olson/Getty Images Postmaster general Louis DeJoy is under fire over a new CNN report that shows he holds stock options in Amazon, an apparent conflict of interest. Federal law prohibits employees of the executive branch from holding a financial interest in a company that could have an impact on their government duties. Amazon is a significant customer of the USPS, with some analysts estimating the e-commerce giant uses the post office for around 40 percent of its shipping. DeJoy held between $100,000 and $250,000 worth of stock in Amazon when he joined the Trump administration, CNN reported, citing financial disclosures. DeJoy divested the shares on June 24th but on the same day bought between $50,000 and $100,000 of Amazon stock options, which give him… Continue read...

Image: OnePlus Following its removal from the Apple App Store, Fortnite has also been kicked off of the Google Play Store for Android. Earlier today, Epic Games snuck in an update for both the iPhone and Android versions of the game that allowed users to pay Epic directly for in-app purchases instead of using the officially sanctioned system for both platforms. What followed was a wild ride: Apple kicked Fortnite off the App Store, then Epic sued Apple, and finally there was an in-game video parodying Apple’s own 1984 commercial, positioning Apple itself as the monopolist. Now, Google is in the conversation. As with Apple, Google requires that games use the Google Play system for in-app purchases. Although the Play Store’s rules are somewhat more lax… Continue reading… You Des...

Photo Illustration by Omar Marques/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images Facebook says its third-party fact-checking partners “do review and rate climate misinformation, and there has never been a prohibition against them doing so,” in a response to criticism from Democratic senators. Facebook will continue its policy of exempting “clear opinion content” from fact-checking, the letter says. The senators are unsatisfied. In the response, which was shared exclusively with The Verge, the tech behemoth says it does not consider all climate change content “opinion.” But opinion articles about climate change don’t receive fact-checking, a policy Facebook says it began in 2016. “There should be no company too big, too powerful, and too opaque to be held accountable for its role in the climate ...

Photo by ROBYN BECK/AFP via Getty Images Uber and Lyft are still obligated to classify drivers as employees after a California superior court judge denied the companies’ attempt to delay a preliminary injunction from going into effect. The two companies have threatened to leave the state if they are forced to change the status of their drivers from independent contractors to employees. Earlier this week, Uber and Lyft were ordered by California Superior Court Judge Ethan Schulman to classify their drivers as employees. The ruling was in response to a preliminary injunction filed by California Attorney General Xavier Becerra as part of a lawsuit alleging the companies are in violation of the state’s AB5 law that went into effect on January 1st. The law enshrines the so-called… Continu...

Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge Microsoft has published a full 35-minute Surface Duo press briefing video that it held with journalists earlier this week. Microsoft typically holds in-person events for its Surface products, and this year’s press briefing was essentially a virtual version of a Surface event. Panos Panay, Microsoft’s Windows and Devices chief, discusses everything from how the company built the Surface Duo to the tech inside and lots more. It’s probably the best demonstration of Microsoft’s Android phone yet. Microsoft even teases some unannounced colorful Surface Duo bumper cases at one point in the demo. New Surface Duo bumper colors. Microsoft announced the Surface Duo, a dual-screen Android phone, earlier this week. Priced from… Continue reading…...