Technology

Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge Google Play Music as a service will begin its staggered, region-based shutdown starting next month, but Wear OS users have only a few weeks left to use the smartwatch app before it’s rendered unusable. That latter detail went unmentioned during Google’s announcement that put a December expiration date on the service, and it went unnoticed — until Android Police picked up on a recent post that details its upcoming sunsetting on Google’s Wear OS forums. The most notable thing to take away here is while you can easily migrate your Google Play Music library over to YouTube Music on the mobile app, there isn’t a Wear OS app for YouTube Music to quickly take its place. Google says in the forum post that it plans to bring improvements to… Continue reading&h...

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Instagram has disabled its “related hashtags” feature after a bug restricted the feature for select phrases across the platform. Related hashtags did not appear on the tens of thousands of hashtag pages affected by the bug, potentially restricting available information to any user who tapped on one as it appeared in photo or video captions or sought it out via search. The issue came to light after a Tech Transparency Project (TTP) report, further explored by BuzzFeed News, found that the bug affected Trump-related hashtags but not those related to Joe Biden. Because many of the related hashtags were derogatory — including #creepyjoebiden, #joebidenpedophile, and #neverbiden — the disparity raised concerns Instagram might be favoring… Continue r...

Photo by Michael Reaves / Getty Images The Federal Bureau of Investigation raided the California home of YouTube star Jake Paul this morning, according to TMZ and CBSLA. There are no details yet on why his home was raided or what the bureau was searching for, but ABC7 spotted agents removing several objects that looked like firearms from the house. An FBI spokesperson confirmed that a “federal search warrant was executed” this morning. The FBI declined to comment on the evidence sought or recovered, saying that the warrant remained under seal. The FBI also declined to say when the seal would be lifted. No arrests have been made or are planned, the spokesperson told The Verge. Paul’s house is also the home base of Team 10, Paul’s YouTube collective, and other members… Continue reading...

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge A few weeks ago, Intel teased that “something big” is happening on September 2nd. Now, thanks to the event calendar on the company’s own investor relations site (and eagle-eyed Twitter user @SteakisGood for spotting it), we have confirmation that this is when Intel plans to talk more about its 10nm 11th Gen Tiger Lake CPUs, the ones featuring its anticipated Xe graphics. Acer has already promised machines that feature the new processor, so perhaps we’ll hear more about OEM support. Another notable date on the calendar is even sooner. Next week, on August 13th, Intel is hosting an event called “Updates from our Chief Architect, Raja Koduri.” We suspect the company will be providing more details about its first discrete GPU, the DG1, w… Continue ...

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Samsung and Microsoft announced at last year’s Galaxy Unpacked that they would be forming a closer partnership to help Android and Windows work better together. At today’s Galaxy Unpacked, the two companies revealed new integrations between their two ecosystems — including a way to run apps from your Galaxy Note 20 on your Windows 10 PC. Here’s a GIF from Microsoft showing a Windows 10 PC running WhatsApp and Instagram side by side from a Galaxy Note 20: You’ll only be able to use one app at a time on your PC at first, but Microsoft says that you’ll be able to run multiple apps, as is shown in the GIF, sometime in November. You’ll also be able to pin apps to your Windows taskbar or Start menu so you can access them more… Continue reading&hellip...

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge DoorDash on Wednesday announced the launch of a chain of virtual convenience stores the company is calling DashMart, which will sell snacks, groceries, and other food-related products from partner restaurants. These stores don’t have brick-and-mortar locations. Instead, they exist solely on the DoorDash app, kind of like a ghost kitchen if it were a CVS or 7-Eleven instead. Right now, the company says DashMart is available in eight cities in the US: Chicago, Illinois; Columbus, Ohio; Cincinnati, Ohio; Dallas, Texas; Minneapolis, Minnesota; the greater Phoenix, Arizona area; Salt Lake City, Utah; and Redwood City, California. But DoorDash is planning to expand that to more locations in the future, starting with a broader rollout in… Continue rea...

Samsung announced FDA clearance during today’s event. The Samsung Galaxy Watch 3 includes a heart-monitoring electrocardiogram (ECG) app, which the company says has been cleared by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA). It’s the second smart watch in the US with this feature — the Apple Watch received clearance for a similar app in 2018. “I’m excited to announce that we have just received the US FDA clearance for Samsung’s ECG monitoring app,” said Samsung SVP Federico Casalegno in today’s “Unpacked” event. The clearance means that the watch can be used as a medical device. It’s not the same as full approval, which is a high standard only given to high-risk devices that go through extensive testing. It’s not clear when the app will be made available to US users. The existing Samsung...

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Microsoft isn’t planning to rename Xbox Live or discontinue Xbox Live Gold. Rumors of an Xbox Live rename appeared this week, after Microsoft announced changes to its services agreement. The software giant started referring to Xbox Live as the “Xbox online service,” prompting some to assume Xbox Live was going away. “The update to ‘Xbox online service’ in the Microsoft Services Agreement refers to the underlying Xbox service that includes features like cross-saves and friend requests,” says a Microsoft spokesperson in a statement to The Verge. “This language update is intended to distinguish that underlying service, and the paid Xbox Live Gold subscription. There are no changes being made to the experience of the service or Xbox Live… Continue ...

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Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Password management service LastPass can now proactively tell you if your logins have been compromised in data breaches — but only if you’re a paid LastPass subscriber. The tool comes as part of a new security dashboard designed to give you a better understanding of the strength of all of your passwords. The new “dark web monitoring” tool actively checks your logins against Enzoic’s database (previously PasswordPing, who LastPass started partnering with in 2017). If the monitoring tool finds one of your logins in the database, LastPass will alert you in the new security dashboard and by sending you an email. That alert will show you which site was breached and will link out to that website so you can change your password. The new… Continue read...

Unagi, which makes one of the most stylish electric scooters on the market today, is the latest company to try its hand at a subscription service. Unagi has always operated under the belief that people who are sick of wonky scooter-sharing services, with their broken vehicles and unreliability, would rather own a scooter than rent one. Not only that, but Unagi figures there are enough people in the world willing to shell out $1,000 for a really fancy-looking electric scooter that’s been endorsed by famous musicians like Chance the Rapper and Billie Eilish. But now, with COVID-19 turning some people off to sharing scooters altogether and even more people strapped for cash, the company realized it needed an alternative to personal… Continue reading… You Deserve to Make Money Eve...

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge TikTok is establishing new moderation policies today to better protect its platform against misinformation, election interference, and other forms of manipulative content ahead of the 2020 election. The company, which is currently embroiled in an unprecedented acquisition negotiation with Microsoft following threats of a US ban, says it now explicitly bans deepfakes. Deepfakes are artificial intelligence-powered manipulations of audio and video designed to mislead people about something someone may have done or said. “We’re adding a policy which prohibits synthetic or manipulated content that misleads users by distorting the truth of events in a way that could cause harm,” Vanessa Pappas, the general manager of TikTok’s US operation,… Continue ...