Technology

When Glen Schofield left Call of Duty developer Sledgehammer Games back in 2018, he needed a break. The game designer, best known as the creator of the seminal sci-fi horror series Dead Space, decided to head out to the desert in Arizona for a little R&R — which for him meant coming up with lots of new game concepts. “I would go out there and draw,” he says. “And while I was drawing, I was coming up with ideas.” He came back with a 40-page book that would ultimately turn into his return to the survival horror genre: a game called The Callisto Protocol. The game — which is being developed by Striking Distance Studios, a new team under the umbrella of PUBG company Krafton — was first announced in 2020, and last week, a gruesome new trailer was unveiled at Summer Game Fest. (It was loving...

A couple of days ago, The Verge reported on a strange glitch that caused Sonos to ship customers more items than what they ordered — and charge extra on top of that. While most customers received anywhere from two to six extra speakers, we were recently contacted by a customer who has had a much more extreme experience. As a quick recap, all of this emerged after two users contacted The Verge about this issue earlier this week and pointed us to a Reddit thread with users who had the same (or similar) experiences of ordering one or two speakers and receiving several in return. In an email sent to customers (which you can read in full in our previous report linked above), Sonos attributed the problem to a system update resulting in “some orders being processed multiple times” and customers g...

A couple of days ago, The Verge reported on a strange glitch that caused Sonos to ship customers more items than what they ordered — and charge extra on top of that. While most customers received anywhere from two to six extra speakers, we were recently contacted by a customer who has had a much more extreme experience. As a quick recap, all of this emerged after two users contacted The Verge about this issue earlier this week and pointed us to a Reddit thread with users who had the same (or similar) experiences of ordering one or two speakers and receiving several in return. In an email sent to customers (which you can read in full in our previous report linked above), Sonos attributed the problem to a system update resulting in “some orders being processed multiple times” and customers g...

Verizon is tossing a nice upgrade to subscribers of its lower-cost 5G Start unlimited plan: beginning June 16th, the plan will include 5GB of premium mobile hotspot data at no extra cost. Right now, the plan doesn’t offer hotspot data at all, and it’s the only Verizon unlimited plan to not have it. Verizon spokesperson Ashley Colette tells The Verge it will be added automatically, meaning 5G Start subscribers shouldn’t have to make any changes on their end to use the data. You can check out all of Verizon’s unlimited plans on the company’s website. 5G Start is the most affordable at $35 per line for four lines, but you have to also sign up for paper-free billing and auto pay to get that rate. (If you have just one line, the plan costs $70 per month with paper-free billing and auto pay.) Ve...

With the price of Bitcoin, Ethereum, and almost every other cryptocurrency tumbling dramatically, major crypto companies like Coinbase and Crypto.com have laid off hundreds of workers in the past few days alone. But one company is on a hiring spree — just not for employees who will call out racism, transphobia, or label other kinds of workplace behavior toxic. The Kraken cryptocurrency exchange, ranked in the top five globally by trade volume, announced in a blog post Wednesday that it was hiring more than 500 new staff, as long as they fit with the company’s vision of a “crypto-first culture.” Another document linked in the post outlines the fundamentals of that culture divided into sub-sections that summarize a particular vision of crypto-libertarianism associated with controversial CEO ...

Facebook employees were recently given a new directive with sweeping implications: make the app’s feed more like TikTok. Simply bringing Reels, the company’s short-form video feature, from Instagram into Facebook wasn’t going to cut it. Executives were closely tracking TikTok’s moves and had grown worried that they weren’t doing enough to compete. In conversations with CEO Mark Zuckerberg earlier this year, they decided that Facebook needed to rethink the feed entirely. In an internal memo from late April obtained by The Verge, the Meta executive in charge of Facebook, Tom Alison, spelled out the plan: rather than prioritize posts from accounts people follow, Facebook’s main feed will, like TikTok, start heavily recommending posts regardless of where they come from. And years after Messeng...

As the Supreme Court’s expected decision to overturn Roe v. Wade looms over Washington, Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) has announced sweeping legislation to ban the sale of location and health data. Warren’s Health and Location Protection Act — cosponsored by a slate of Democratic senators, including Sens. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) and Ron Wyden (D-OR) — would bar “data brokers from selling or transferring location data and health data.” There are few limitations, making the bill one of the most strident proposals aimed at regulating data sales. “Data brokers profit from the location data of millions of people, posing serious risks to Americans everywhere by selling their most private information,” Warren said in a statement on Wednesday. “With this extremist Supreme Court poised to overturn Roe...

Microsoft has patched a Windows vulnerability that hackers are actively exploiting. If you own a system that uses Windows 7 and up, you’ll want to update your computer as soon as possible (via Bleeping Computer). The security flaw, called Follina (CVE-2022-30190) by researchers, lets bad actors hijack users’ computers through programs like Microsoft Word. Security researchers have been aware of the threat since late May, but Microsoft reportedly dismissed their initial findings. In an attack documented by security company Proofpoint, hackers associated with the Chinese government sent malicious Word documents to Tibetan recipients. When opened, these documents use the Follina exploit to take control of the Microsoft Support Diagnostic Tool (MSDT) to execute commands that could be used to i...

Perhaps one of the more unexpected announcements from Apple’s WWDC event last week was the unveiling of a new 13-inch MacBook Pro that will be equipped with Apple’s new M2 processor. While it was initially hinted by Apple that the new MacBook would become available in July, we now know that you can preorder the new laptop starting this Friday, June 17th, with deliveries and in-store availability beginning on June 24th. Currently, you can only preorder configurations of the new 13-inch MacBook through the Apple storefront or through a small handful of authorized resellers that we’ll list on this page as more retailers make preorders available. 13-inch MacBook Pro with M2 (2022) The base model of Apple’s latest iteration of the MacBook Pro comes with a 13-inch display and Apple’s M2 CPU in a...

In an effort to compete with TikTok, Facebook is implementing a new “discovery engine” feed change that will prioritize recommended posts over content from accounts that users follow, according to an internal memo from April shared via The Verge. The letter, which came from Meta executive and head of the Facebook app Tom Alison, details the social media giant’s goals to “make Reels successful,” “build world-class recommendations technology” and “unlock messaging-based sharing.” In addition to the algorithm update, the note discloses that Facebook plans to reintegrate Messenger into the main Facebook platform, following their separation into two different apps in 2014. ? LEAKED MEMO: Facebook plans ‘discovery engine’ feed change to compete with TikTok And its bringing Messenger back in...

CASETiFY will be collaborating with the popular Japanese anime series, Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon, to bring the fantastical series to life with a range of quirky, pastel-colored lifestyle and tech accessories. Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon is all about celebrating the power of friendship, and this collection unites friends and Sailor Moon fans around the world. The collection consists of multi-colored phone and AirPod cases, Apple Watch bands, water bottles, and phone charms, along with an exclusive Nintendo Switch carrying case and a reflective Pink Mirror Case. Each of the playful accessories shows off the unique Sailor Moon characters’ personalities, adorned with their trademark catchphrases and funky outfits. Each different case variation brings a different part of the classic anime to ...