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Colonial Pipeline CEO confirms company paid $4.4 million ransom it wasn’t supposed to pay

Colonial Pipeline CEO Joseph Blount has confirmed that his company did in fact pay $4.4 million to the hackers responsible for the ransomware attack on the pipeline system that transports around 45 percent of fuel used on the East Coast, The Wall Street Journal writes. Earlier reporting estimated Colonial Pipeline paid a ransom of nearly… Read more

People are uncomfortable with digital health tools used to control COVID-19

Most people in the United States don’t want their digital data used to control the spread of COVID-19, a new study found. More than half of the people in the study remained wary of sharing their data in different scenarios, including a smart thermometer company sharing information with public health officials, or using the Google… Read more

Google employees call for company to support Palestinians and protect anti-Zionist speech

A group of Jewish Google employees is calling on the company to increase its support of Palestinians amid Israel’s deadly bombing campaign in Gaza. The conflict started with Israel’s attempt to evict Palestinians from their homes in East Jerusalem, and escalated when militants fired rockets toward Jerusalem and Israel responded with airstrikes. In an internal… Read more

Android 12 preview: first look at Google’s radical new design

There are new features, but it’s the biggest design update in years Google is announcing the latest beta for Android 12 today at Google I/O. It has an entirely new design based on a system called “Material You,” featuring big, bubbly buttons, shifting colors, and smoother animations. It is “the biggest design change in Android’s… Read more

Twitter may be working on Twitter Blue, a subscription service that would cost $2.99 per month

Twitter has previously confirmed that it’s exploring a paid subscription model for some features, and app researcher Jane Manchun Wong tweeted Saturday that she’s discovered how much it will cost and what it will be called. Twitter Blue, Wong says, will cost $2.99 per month, and will include an Undo Tweets feature and bookmark collections…. Read more

Twitter politely asks you to protect its targeted ad dollars in new iOS 14.5 prompt

As part of iOS 14.5, Apple’s App Tracking Transparency forces developers to ask permission for something they used to be able to do for free: track iOS users. Today, Twitter is joining the ranks of other developers and adding a prompt that asks users to enable tracking on iOS (via MacRumors). Twitter’s main justification for… Read more

Apple Music for Android reveals lossless audio could be imminent

Apple might have bigger plans for next week than initially thought. The new iMac, iPad Pro, and Apple TV 4K are all set to start shipping to early preorder customers on or around May 21st, but now it seems there could be two surprise announcements: a hi-fi streaming tier of Apple Music, and maybe even… Read more

New Wi-Fi Flaws Revealed – Actually Quite Old

Home News (Image credit: Shutterstock) Widespread flaws affecting Wi-Fi have been disclosed to the public by security researcher Mathy Vanhoef nine months after he tipped the Wi-Fi Alliance off about the problem. The vulnerabilities, reported by Gizmondo from a site set up by Vanhoef exploit mistakes in the implementation of Wi-Fi standards, and can affect… Read more

Connect a U.2 SSD to Your PC’s USB Port With This Adapter

Home News (Image credit: Icy Dock) Icy Dock has developed the industry’s only U.2 to USB 3.2 Gen 2 adapter, which lets you connect an enterprise-grade U.2 SSD to any desktop or laptop with a USB Type-A or Type-C port. The EZ-Adapter Ex MB931U-1VB targets people who need to transfer data from an enterprise-grade SSD to a… Read more

Where to preorder the new black and red DualSense controllers for the PS5

With the PlayStation 5, Sony opted for a less traditional color scheme, one that ditched the classic jet-black exterior found on earlier PlayStation consoles in favor of a black-and-white finish. For some, the new exterior was an acquired taste, as was the matching aesthetic found on the accompanying DualSense controller. On Thursday, however, the company… Read more

Samsung Galaxy Book Pro 360 (15-inch) review: a big-screen entertainment machine

Samsung has released a number of Galaxy Books in the last few years. Despite generally being good devices with a recognizable brand name, most of them have remained Samsung-enthusiast purchases; none have truly entered the mainstream conversation. So it seems fitting that the Galaxy Book Pro 360 isn’t a direct sequel to any preexisting Galaxy… Read more

Epic fights Apple in court by playing Candy Crush

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Expert testimony continues Sometimes I reflect on my life and wonder where I went wrong, such that I am sitting on a wooden pew in federal court, watching a Google search for Candy Crush Saga on the display monitor. This is a huge trial with major stakes for… Read more

Italian authorities fine Google $120 million for an Android Auto issue that’s already solved

The Italian Competition Authority (ICA) handed Google an approximately $120 million (€100 million) fine today for not letting a third-party charging app on Android Auto in 2019 (via 9to5Google). The case started with a probe into the search giant’s automotive software business, which until October 2020 had limitations around what kinds of apps were allowed… Read more

Renewable energy won’t make Elon Musk love bitcoin again

Elon Musk shouldn’t hold his breath waiting for bitcoin to become environmentally friendly enough for Tesla to take it as payment. Musk announced yesterday that Tesla was walking away from the cryptocurrency because of the fossil fuels used for bitcoin mining and transactions. In the announcement, he left the door open for Tesla to accept… Read more

New Humble Bundle offers a lot of great games to raise money for COVID-19 relief

Humble Bundle is launching a new bundle to raise money for COVID-19 relief in India and Brazil, which have recently seen a surge in COVID-19 cases. The new Humble Heal: COVID-19 Bundle is jam-packed with a lot of great games, including the cult hit RPG Undertale, mind-bending puzzler Baba Is You, turn-based strategy games Into… Read more