TheVerge

Snap says New Mexico intentionally friended alleged child predators, then blamed the company

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Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Snap says the basis of a scathing lawsuit suggesting it systematically recommends teens’ accounts to child predators is backwards — the company is now accusing the New Mexico attorney general of intentionally seeking out such accounts before recommendations were made. The company says the AG’s case is based … Read more

FCC passes auto safety spectrum rules

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Image: Department of Transportation The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has voted to finalize new spectrum rules that will push cellular vehicle-to-everything (C-V2X) communications technology forward. C-V2X will use existing cellular networks to send messages from vehicle to vehicle, vehicle to infrastructure, vehicle to cyclists, or vehicle to pedestrians to warn of each other’s presence for … Read more

OpenAI accidentally erases potential evidence in training data lawsuit

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Image: The Verge In a stunning misstep, OpenAI engineers accidentally erased critical evidence gathered by The New York Times and other major newspapers in their lawsuit over AI training data, according to a court filing Wednesday. The newspapers’ legal teams had spent over 150 hours searching through OpenAI’s AI training data to find instances where … Read more

Automakers plead with Trump: don’t kill the EV tax credit

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Image: Laura Normand / The Verge The auto industry is sending an urgent message to President-elect Donald Trump: spare the $7,500 electric vehicle tax credit. In a November 14th letter to Trump and his transition team, the auto industry’s main lobbying group urges the new administration to preserve incentives for EV buyers and manufacturers that … Read more

The company that sold cameras with ‘terrible’ security flaw has a new problem

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Image: Eken The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is proposing more than $700,000 in fines against Eken, a Hong Kong-based video doorbell manufacturer whose products were found to be susceptible to hackers, for an unrelated rules violation discovered during the commission’s ongoing investigation. The commission began investigating Eken after Consumer Reports found in February 2024 that … Read more

Steam is adding support, and more rules, for ‘season pass’ content

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Image: The Verge Steam is building support for season passes into its platform and setting up rules to help protect buyers from buying ones with unclear promises. Steam published new guidelines urging developers to “think about whether there’s a customer benefit” for purchasing season passes, as reported by SteamDB creator Pavel Djundik. Season passes have … Read more

Google reportedly cancels Pixel Tablet 2 and might quit the category — again

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Photo by Dan Seifert / The Verge Yesterday Android Headlines reported that Google had canceled its development of the Pixel Tablet 3 — even before announcing a second-gen model. Well, today Android Authority is saying that it’s in fact the second-generation Pixel Tablet that has been canned, meaning that the device released last year will … Read more

A new ‘ultra-secure’ phone carrier says it can make you harder to track

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Image: Cath Virginia / The Verge; Getty Images A new cell phone carrier is launching with an interesting pitch: it says it will offer secure cell service that limits how much personal data users give up, as reported earlier by 404 Media. The service, called Cape, is geared toward “high-risk” individuals like politicians, journalists, activists, … Read more

WhatsApp will soon transcribe your voice messages

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Illustration: The Verge WhatsApp is introducing a new transcription feature that makes it easier (and more convenient) to communicate using voice messaging. The feature is rolling out globally to Android and iOS users “in the coming weeks” according to WhatsApp, and will automatically create a text version of voice clips under the message for moments … Read more

An anti-deepfake declaration may have been written by AI

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Illustration: The Verge A federal lawsuit over Minnesota’s “Use of Deep Fake Technology to Influence An Election” law is now directly dealing with the influence of AI. In a recent filing, attorneys challenging the law say an affidavit submitted to support it shows signs of containing AI-generated text. The Minnesota Reformer reports Attorney General Keith … Read more

Threads’ algorithm will focus more on the people you follow

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Illustration: The Verge “We are rebalancing ranking to prioritize content from people you follow, which will mean less recommended content from accounts you don’t follow and more posts from the accounts you do starting today,” Threads boss Adam Mosseri announced on Thursday. This is another significant change to Threads since many people started flocking to … Read more

Apple Pay, Cash App, and other digital wallets will be regulated more like banks now

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Illustration: Hugo Herrera / The Verge Major digital payment providers will soon be subject to bank-like supervision from the US Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB). On Thursday, the CFPB issued a final rule that will regulate digital payment apps that process over 50 million transactions each year, covering services like Apple Pay, Google Wallet, PayPal, … Read more

Honda has a plan to build solid-state batteries for EVs

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Image: Honda Honda set up a demonstration facility in Japan to show off its plans to mass-produce solid-state batteries at lower costs, which could be crucial to unlocking higher-range, longer-lasting electric vehicles for the future. Solid-state batteries have been elusive for many companies due to the complexity of scaling up production. The technology swaps out … Read more