Technology

Photo by Yan Guolin/VCG via Getty Images Chinese tech company ByteDance censored media criticizing the Chinese government on news aggregation apps in Indonesia up until the middle of 2020, Reuters reported Thursday. In 2018, ByteDance purchased the Indonesian news aggregation app Baca Berita (BaBe) after the country briefly banned the tech giant’s video-sharing platform TikTok. Shortly after ByteDance’s acquisition of BaBe, moderators for the app were instructed to take down content critical of the Chinese government. News that referenced the Tiananmen Square protests in 1989 or Mao Zedong, founding father of the People’s Republic of China, was removed from the app, according to Reuters. ByteDance and TikTok did not immediately respond to requests for comment from The Verge. W… Conti...

Photo by Eric Espada / Getty Images Jake Paul finally commented on the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s raid on his home last week, saying that the search was related to a “looting” incident at an Arizona mall in May. “There are rumors about it having to do with so many other things that have nothing to do with me or my character, and the shit that people are making up is absolutely absurd,” Paul said in a video that appears to have been deleted but was captured by TMZ. The FBI raided Paul’s home in Calabasas, California, on the morning of August 5th. The bureau later confirmed that it was investigating “allegations of criminal acts” related to the incident at the mall. Police in Scottsdale, Arizona, had previously called the incident a “riot” and filed misdemeanor… Continue reading...

Photo by Niko Tavernise / Netflix Netflix’s “dun dun” sound that plays before an original movie is pretty familiar, but in order to spice it up a little for films that receive theatrical releases, the streamer teamed up with composer Hans Zimmer. The sound, which can be heard in the video below, has little in common with the short “ta-dum” sound that I’ve become used to hearing. It’s, well, incredibly Hans Zimmer; orchestral, intense, loud. The “ta-dum” as it existed on Netflix was too short for theaters, and the company knew it needed something longer to play in theaters. Netflix’s brand design lead Tanya Kumar told Dallas Taylor, creator and host of the Twenty Thousand Hertz podcast, that Netflix knew it wanted to work with someone who had deep ties to cinema but also… Continue rea...

Image: Google Google may finally end the internet tradition of traffic-grabbing how-to-watch posts with a new search feature that will display local TV and streaming options for NBA and MLB games when you search phrases like “how to watch the Lakers games.” The new feature is rolling out in the US today, and it can incorporate your location data to help you figure out which specific local channel is airing the game you want to watch. The new TV options will also appear on Google’s existing sport game search widgets alongside things like the box score or time remaining in the game. Right now, the feature supports MLB and NBA games and works with a variety of cable and network channels. Google says it’s working to support more leagues and more… Continue reading… You Deserve to M...

Google is experimenting with showing domain names only in Chrome’s address bar instead of full URLs. The feature will be tested in the upcoming Chrome 86 release, with Google hoping the change could protect users against scams and phishing attacks using misleading URLs. Domain names and URLs are one of of the most basic forms of web security we have, letting us quickly know where we are online. Sometimes, though, they can be used to mislead. Hackers and scammers often create fake websites that look plausible by using URLs with typos (twittter.com) unfamiliar subdomains (yourbank.sign-in.info) or hyphenated domains (secure-gmail.com). Unsuspecting users then visit these URLs thinking they belong to legitimate companies before being… Continue reading… You Deserve to Make Money E...

Photo by Sam Byford / The Verge Several major US companies have expressed their concern over the effects of the Trump administration’s executive order targeting WeChat, according to a report in The Wall Street Journal. “More than a dozen” companies including Apple, Ford, Walmart, and Disney are all said to have taken part in a call with White House officials on Tuesday where the companies detailed the adverse consequences that a ban on WeChat could have on their own businesses. The executive order was signed on Thursday night and explicitly blocks “any transaction that is related to WeChat.” It’s set to go into effect in a matter of weeks, but due to its broad language there’s still a lot of confusion on the intended reach of the ban, which is subject to the Commerce… Continue readin...

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Apple is planning to unveil a range of subscription bundles alongside its new iPhones this October according to Bloomberg. Internally, the bundles are being referred to as “Apple One,” though that’s not necessarily the name they will launch under. A number of different tiers will be available, starting with a basic combo of Apple Music and Apple TV+, while more expensive bundles will add Apple Arcade, then Apple News+ at the next tier, then extra iCloud storage for the tier above that. Higher-end bundles will also reportedly include an as-yet unseen fitness subscription service from Apple. This will offer virtual classes and workouts accessible via an iOS app and on Apple TV, similar to services from Nike and Peloton. Bloomberg says… Continue r...

“idk what this is yet but I had an idea.” That’s how game developer @davemakes started a Twitter thread last January, sharing a GIF of colorful tiles floating through a diagonal game space. Follow Dave’s thread, though, and you’ll see how they develop this single idea over the months into a fully fledged rhythm and puzzle game called Mixolumia, available to buy on Itch.io as of last weekend. idk what this is yet but I had an idea pic.twitter.com/w9JbNxZ0Zt — davemakes mixolumia ✨ (@davemakes) January 29, 2019 The game itself looks extremely fun, pairing a simple and bold art style with immersive music and sound effects, and gameplay that looks to be a cross between Tetris and Puyo-Puyo. What’s really fascinating about the thread,… Continue reading… You Deserve to Make M...

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Unlike the Xbox One, the Xbox Series X will launch in Japan at the same time as other major markets, meaning it’ll see release this November. Microsoft confirmed the news in response to an inquiry from Japanese site Game Watch. The Xbox One came out in November 2013 in 13 countries, but Japan had to wait until September 2014 along with several other regions, despite its outsized importance to the games industry. Some countries saw their announced release dates slip with Microsoft citing localization issues; the Xbox One’s initial focus on Kinect and voice commands made it more complex to support a wide variety of languages. The Xbox One has not performed well in Japan The Xbox One has not performed well in Japan, to put it lightly. Sales… Conti...

The Stealth 600 Gen 2 gaming headset | Turtle Beach Turtle Beach is releasing new versions of its Stealth 600 and 700 gaming headsets, improving on the 2017 models with a refined design that moves its buttons to a more convenient location while swapping out Micro USB charging for much-needed USB-C across the entire lineup. The peripheral maker is still splintering the headsets by gaming platform, with a Stealth 600 and 700 for Xbox owners and options made specific for PlayStation gamers. Really, the major differences are what they’ve been for a while now: color and connection type. For the Stealth 600, you can get a headset that matches the color scheme of either console (or simply in white if you don’t feel like displaying your allegiance). And while the PlayStation version relies on a...

illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Last month, the world’s biggest tech show announced that CES would go online-only in 2021 instead of expecting companies and journalists to brave Las Vegas in January. But the Game Developers Conference (GDC) just announced it isn’t following suit: it’ll hold a “hybrid event taking place physically in San Francisco” that also includes a “robust virtual offering.” While it’s not yet clear how robust the virtual portion will be, GDC 2021 does have one thing going for it right away: it’ll be held July 19th–21st of next year, instead of the typical March timeframe. Perhaps we’ll have a vaccine by then or at least be more confident about gigantic business and social gatherings. Or perhaps it’ll simply be a smaller event: GDC has never been… Continue...

Image: iFixit iFixit, a company known for its tech product teardowns, has dissected Samsung’s new Galaxy Buds Live wireless headphones. Despite not officially calling them Galaxy Beans, the word “bean” is actually printed inside each earbud — which shows that at one point or another, the company was totally calling these earbuds the vegetables they resemble. Comparing to other wireless earbuds like Apple’s AirPods Pro, iFixit points out the Galaxy Buds Live are not hard to pry open, and actually some of the easiest buds they’ve ever dissected. Inside, you can clearly see “bean left” and “bean right” on the cable that connects the two halves of each earbud. Image: iFixit iFixit also found that the battery is a standard size and… Continue reading… You Deserve to Make Money Even ...