Emoji

Zoom update delivers more emoji reactions and new annotation features

This week’s Zoom update includes a couple of quality of life improvements for anyone using its annotation or emoji reaction features, the company has announced. Meeting participants can now use any emoji that was previously available in Zoom chat to react during a meeting, up from the six meager options that were available previously. These… Read more

Your AirTag can’t say horseshit but it can say shit horse

After what feels like ages of rumors, speculation, and worry that I was getting way too obsessed with a Bluetooth item tracker that seemed similar to ones made by several other companies, AirTags are finally here. But before you preorder the Mentos-esque pucks, there’s something you should be aware of: if you want to engrave… Read more

Apple quietly reveals that iOS 14.5 will arrive next week

In a press release for Apple’s new Tile-like AirTag tracker, the company has revealed that iOS 14.5 will officially arrive “starting next week” — as spotted by Wall Street Journal’s Joanna Stern. AirTags go on sale April 30th and will only work with devices running iOS 14.5 or higher. Likewise, watchOS 7.4 and macOS 11.3… Read more

Apple Brings M1 to iMac and iPad Pro

Home News (Image credit: Apple) Apple is continuing its move from Intel to Arm on the desktop, putting its M1 processor new line of iMacs and in the iPad Pro. Both were announced at Apple’s “Spring Loaded” virtual event, and are the first time each of those product lines is using the new chip. Previously,… Read more

Apple’s Spring Loaded event: the 8 biggest announcements

Apple just wrapped up its “Spring Loaded” event, announcing new iPads, iMacs, and more. It was jam-packed with news from the company. If you want to read about what was announced as it happened, check out our live blog with commentary from Nilay Patel, Dieter Bohn, and Chaim Gartenberg. But if you just want the… Read more

Android 12 may support a trash bin for deleted files, but it’s messy

Google appears to be preparing to add a feature to Android devices that has long been a part of more traditional desktop operating systems: a trash bin (or, if you prefer the way Windows names it, a recycle bin). XDA-Developers has been digging into the code for Android 12 to uncover features that Google hasn’t… Read more

The Unicode Emoji Subcommittee is back, baby

After pausing its review of emoji submissions, the Unicode Emoji Subcommittee is back with tips for successful submissions, chair Jennifer Daniel announced. Anything you submit now could come to phones as soon as 2023 — but if you want to fine-tune your emoji, she’s got some suggestions. A good emoji has multiple uses, can be… Read more

What to expect from Apple’s ‘Spring Loaded’ event

Apple has officially announced its “Spring Loaded” event for April 20th, its first major product announcement of 2021. Unlike a lot of Apple’s events, its spring events tend to be a bit more scattershot: one year might see high-end iPads, another a more education-focused event, or a launch of a comprehensive service strategy. This year,… Read more

LG leaves behind more than a flip phone-shaped hole in our hearts

The LG Stylo 6 is one of the company’s bestselling phones in recent history.Photo by Allison Johnson / The Verge The company leaves a void that brands like Motorola and TCL are well-positioned to fill LG’s exit from the smartphone business felt inevitable in the weeks leading up to it as rumors mounted. When it… Read more

Facebook’s first crack at a Clubhouse competitor is a new Q&A platform called Hotline

Facebook’s experimental app development division, the NPE Team, has released a new Q&A platform that borrows concepts from buzzy, audio-only social network Clubhouse but with dashes of live-streaming thrown in. The platform is called Hotline, and it featured its first Q&A with investor Nick Huber earlier today, according to a report from TechCrunch. A website… Read more

Twitter now lets you add stickers to Fleets

Twitter is adding stickers to its ephemeral, Snapchat Stories-like Fleets, the social media company announced on Wednesday. Stickers are available for users on both Android and iOS. When you’re making a Fleet, you’ll be able to add stickers by tapping the smiley face icon on the bottom row of your screen. When you do, you’ll… Read more

Google celebrates the unblocking of the Suez Canal with a small boat parade in search

The big boat is no longer stuck. After days of rapt attention from the internet, a non-metaphorical rising tide has indeed lifted all the boats — and particularly, the Evergreen Marine Corporation’s Ever Given cargo ship — reopening the Suez Canal to regular shipping traffic and ensuring that the precious lifeblood of capitalism can continue… Read more

How to type special characters on a Windows PC

Here’s the situation: you’re typing a report for work, and you suddenly have to write the phrase “Jones née Berkowitz.” Or you are adding a phrase in Spanish and need to use the word “años.” How do you add the special characters to the letters? Special characters (also known as diacritical marks) may be more… Read more

Slack will soon respect your chosen skin tone color when you smash that emoji reaction

Many of us here at The Verge are big fans of emoji reactions in Slack, and today we noticed that our newsroom’s Slack now groups emoji reactions with different skin tones into one mass reaction. The feature is now rolling out to everyone, the company tells The Verge. Here’s how it works. Let’s say that… Read more

Here’s a first look at Mark Cuban’s podcasting platform Fireside

Last month, The Verge broke news of Mark Cuban and Falon Fatemi’s new app Fireside, which promises to deliver a “next-gen podcast platform,” and today, we can provide a better sense of the app’s functionality and interface. It’s currently in beta on iOS with a limited number of testers, most of whom appear to work… Read more