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Vergecast: Windows 11 leaks, RCS encryption, and this week in antitrust policy

Every Friday, The Verge publishes our flagship podcast, The Vergecast, where co-hosts Nilay Patel and Dieter Bohn discuss the week in tech news with the reporters and editors covering the biggest stories. In this episode, the show is split into three sections. First, Nilay and Dieter talk to Verge senior editor Tom Warren about this… Read more

Google announces starred messages, emoji mashup suggestions, and more for Android

Google has announced six new features for Android that it says will help improve accessibility and make Assistant Shortcuts more useful, among other things. The new features announced today are: Google says its phone-based earthquake detection and alert system will be coming to Turkey, the Philippines, Kazakhstan, the Kyrgyz Republic, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan. The… Read more

Google Workspace and Google Chat are officially available to everybody

Google is announcing some changes to its Workspace suite of apps and services today, including availability for anybody who has a Google account. Google says that there are over three billion users of its Workspace apps — though it’s probably a safe bet that Gmail accounts for a healthy chunk of that userbase. A lot… Read more

The Twitter Blue subscription service starts rolling out Thursday

Twitter has officially announced Twitter Blue, a paid subscription service that offers access to new features like undoing tweets and viewing threads in an easier to digest “Reader Mode.” Starting Thursday, it will roll out first in Canada and Australia, where the subscription will cost $3.49 CAD or $4.49 AUD per month, respectively. We already… Read more

Robinhood competitor Public is launching in-app live audio programming

Public, the trading and social networking app, is the next app to get into live audio. Like many apps before it, the company says it’s planning to roll out live audio features starting this week under the name Public Live. Unlike its competitors, like Clubhouse and Twitter Spaces, however, Public will initially program these chats… Read more

Dogecoin is crashing while Elon Musk is on Saturday Night Live

While Elon Musk hosted Saturday Night Live, Dogecoin investors sold. When SNL first went live, the cryptocurrency hovered around 69 cents (nice). But as the show wore on, the price dropped. As of this writing, it is worth 56 cents, a 12 percent plunge. There was a slight recovery when Musk — on “Weekend Update,”… Read more

Google Assistant will sing you a song about getting vaccinated

Many of us are excited that COVID-19 vaccines are now widely available in the US, and it seems like Google Assistant is joining in. In fact, it’s got a song to share about it (via Android Police). You can listen to the song yourself by asking Google Assistant to “sing the vaccine song,” but I’ve… Read more

Google remembers Wear OS long enough to add a new keyboard

In what feels like an increasingly rare occurrence, Google announced that it’s updating Wear OS with a new feature today — but don’t get too excited, it’s just a keyboard. In this case, Google is porting over Gboard, the swipeable, predictive text-powered keyboard that it offers for Android, iOS, and Android TV, as spotted by… Read more

Google Play’s app listings will require privacy info next year, just like the App Store

Starting next year, apps on Google Play will show details about what data they collect, as well as other information about their privacy and security practices, in a new safety section in their listing. The announcement comes just a few months after Apple started displaying similar privacy information in the App Store. In the same… Read more

Behind the controversy at Basecamp

Basecamp announced it would ban “societal and political discussions” at work. But the hardest conversations at work were about the company itself. I. The controversy that embroiled enterprise software maker Basecamp this week began more than a decade ago, with a simple list of customers. Around 2009, Basecamp customer service representatives began keeping a list… Read more

Apple rolls out iOS 14.5 and watchOS 7.4

Apple is now rolling out iOS 14.5 to the iPhone alongside iPadOS 14.5 and watchOS 7.4. This is a pretty sizable update that brings a lot of new features but here’s a quick rundown of some of them. The main new feature is that you can now unlock your iPhone with your Apple Watch if… Read more

Apple will now let you add virtual lasers and confetti to your Clips videos

Apple now lets you add augmented-reality lasers, confetti, and more to your Clips videos, thanks to an update to the short-form video app. The feature, called AR Spaces, will let users with LIDAR-equipped Apple devices (so far, that’s the iPhone 12 Pros and iPad Pros from 2020 or later) add room-filling effects that can interact… Read more

The macOS 11.3 update includes a massive security patch and new emoji

Apple has just released macOS 11.3, alongside iOS 14.5. It’s probably worth updating your Mac to it as soon as you can — not only because it comes with some new features, including improvements for running iPhone and iPad apps on M1 Macs and updates to Apple Music and Podcasts, but it also fixes a… Read more

iOS 14.5 is out now with new Face ID mask features and Apple’s App Tracking Transparency

Apple has begun rolling out iOS and iPadOS 14.5. The latest software update includes the new App Tracking Transparency feature, which lets users decide whether to allow apps to track their activity “across other companies’ apps and websites” for advertising purposes. A pop-up will now appear whenever apps are designed to share your activity in… Read more

AirTag location trackers are smart, capable, and very Apple

They work super well, and they’re one more thing keeping you on the iPhone I was starting to get really worried that I wouldn’t find my friend. For this first look at AirTags, I sent Vjeran Pavic off into an unfamiliar city with a single Apple AirTag and no phone, no smartwatch, or any other… Read more