Nvidia’s cloud-based gaming service, GeForce Now, has just received a new update that features new support for Google Chrome’s web-browser and support for Apple’s M1 based Macs (through the native macOS app).
With the addition of Google Chrome, now any device or computer capable of running Chrome should be capable of running GeForce Now. However, Nvidia says they do not guarantee support on devices that are on operating systems other than macOS or Windows. Specifically, that means Nvidia still doesn’t officially support Linux platforms.
We conducted some cursory testing with the Chrome-based GeForce Now app on a Windows 10 machine and found it was very close to the native app experience. However, several options are missing in the settings menu compared to the native app: There is no 30 fps option (60 fps only), no option to change VSync, and the toggle to “adjust for poor network conditions” is missing as well.
Besides the missing options, the gameplay experience was good. Testing with Shadow of the Tomb Raider yielded excellent results; image quality, smoothness, and frame rates were great (with help from a wired 300 Mbps down/30 Mbps up ISP connection). The only minor difference we spotted with our limited selection of tests was in Apex Legends, where switching from the Chrome app to the native-app yielded a barely noticeable decrease in input lag. However, this is a small problem; if you play games casually instead of competitively, this should be a non-issue.
Overall the Chrome version works well, but if you can run the native app, it would be best to do so to get the best experience possible. Nvidia’s Chrome implementation is mostly aimed towards devices that aren’t capable of running the native GeForce Now apps in the first place, like Windows 10 ARM-based devices. Unfortunately, we were not able to test the M1 Mac update at this time.
Facebook-owned messaging app WhatsApp has started posting Status messages to users about its “commitment to your privacy.” The in-app messages were appearing for members of The Verge staff in the US and UK on Saturday, and some users reported the Status messages — WhatsApp’s version of Snapchat Stories or Twitter Fleets—have been appearing in India for a while now.
“There’s been a lot of misinformation and confusion around our recent update and we want to help everyone understand the facts behind how WhatsApp protects people’s privacy and security,” a WhatsApp spokesperson said in an email to The Verge. “Going forward, we’re going to provide updates to people in the Status tab so people hear from WhatsApp directly. Our first update reaffirms that WhatsApp cannot see your personal messages, and neither can Facebook, because they are protected by end-to-end encryption.”
The messages read “One thing that isn’t new is our commitment to your privacy,” and a reminder that “WhatsApp can’t read or listen to your personal conversations as they’re end-to-end encrypted.”
WhatsApp adds Status updates about its privacy policy
The messages are part of a larger effort from WhatsApp to dispel misperceptions about an upcoming update to its privacy policy. The update is meant to explain how businesses that use WhatsApp for customer service may store logs of their chats on Facebook’s servers. WhatsApp previewed the changes to business chats in November. Given Facebook’s history of privacy blunders, however, users misinterpreted the changes to the privacy policy to mean WhatsApp would require sharing sensitive profile information with Facebook.
The company posted an FAQ page about the changes, and has pushed back the date the update will take effect from February to May. It issued a statement earlier this month addressing the confusion to reiterate what the new privacy policy would cover:
The update does not change WhatsApp’s data sharing practices with Facebook and does not impact how people communicate privately with friends or family wherever they are in the world. WhatsApp remains deeply committed to protecting people’s privacy. We are communicating directly with users through WhatsApp about these changes so they have time to review the new policy over the course of the next month
Amid the ensuing confusion, rival messaging apps Signal and Telegram have both recently seen a surge in new users. Telegram said last week it’s added the ability for users to import their chat history from WhatsApp. And Signal has added new mainstream chat features like animated stickers and wallpapers to its app.
Apple has notified subscribers of its Apple TV Plus streaming service that they’ll continue to get refund credits on their accounts until June, following a second extension of its free trial program earlier this month, 9 to 5 Mac reported.
Apple extended the free year-long trials of Apple TV Plus to customers until July 2021. The trials were included with the purchase of any Apple device (an iPhone, iPad, Mac, or Apple TV) and were initially set to last until November 1st, 2020. This was the second extension; an earlier extension had pushed back the free trial end date to February, allowing users who started a free trial between November 2019 and June 2020 to get up to five months of additional access for free.
But before Apple issued the first extension of the free trial, some users had switched to paid subscription status in the meantime, and Apple gave these customers refund credits. It’s doing the same thing for the second extension. 9 to 5 Mac says affected subscribers are being advised via email that they’ll receive monthly credits of $4.99 (or the local equivalent) to their Apple accounts, which will be automatically applied for each month the subscriber is charged between February and June. The credits can be used toward App Store purchases.
(Pocket-lint) – The Apple Pencil has been a superb addition to Apple’s tablet ranks, letting you use stylus controls on a variety of apps for easier and more precise movements, which is particularly great for creatives and designers.
Which Apple iPad is best for you? iPad mini vs iPad vs iPad Air vs iPad Pro
However, whether you pick up the first version or the refined follow-up, it’s a pretty pricey bit of kit, for all its slickness, and that puts plenty of people off. If you want a stylus but don’t want to break the bank, though, you’re in luck – there are options. Here are some of the very best alternatives to the Apple Pencil for your iPad.
Our guide to the best Apple Pencil alternatives to buy today
Logitech
Logitech Crayon
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The very best alternative to Apple’s own Pencil is the equally simply-named Crayon from Logitech, which makes so many excellent peripherals. It’s no surprise that this is another impressive one, with an interesting shape that’s comfortable to grip.
It’s easy to pair with your iPad, works with an impressive range of apps, and is really satisfying to use whether you’re handwriting notes, or doing more complex design tasks. It’s not the cheapest, but it’s one of the very best.
Adonit
Adonit Pro 4
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This interesting stylus from Adonit has a specific design point that may take some getting used to, but lends you real precision – that little plastic dish on the end of it, which anchors you on the screen for smoother drawing.
It might not look too normal, but it works really well, and the attractively-designed stylus is also really nicely made, so it all comes together into a great package that’s quite a lot more affordable than the Crayon above.
Wacom
Wacom Bamboo Fineline
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Wacom makes brilliant graphic tablets and syluses, so it’s no surprise that it makes a great pen for the iPad in the form of the Bamboo Fineline (one of a few options it has, in fact).
It’s nice and affordable, while this model has quite a distinctive look thanks to its brushed gold finish. More importantly, though, it’s a good precise stylus that has solid app compatibility and feels great in the hand.
Adonit
Adonit Note-M
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Up at the other end of the pricing scale is this alternative option from Adonit, which is a little less focussed on design use, and perfect for all-round usability.
It’s got a bunch of buttons for functionality, and will also work great with a range of other tablets, in case you’re not just on an iPad, which makes it a useful all-rounder, in our books. Plus, if you’ve got an iPad that has magnets to store an Apple Pencil, this model will snap on there as well, which is super welcome.
Awavo
Awavo Stylus
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The most affordable of our options, and with a relatively bare-bones feature-set to go with that price, comes from Awavo, but this is still a very decent option if you’re keen to keep costs down.
It’s a simple stylus with a good tip that’s easily replaced if it wears out, and it’ll also magnetically snap to the side of compatible iPads. It’s great for drawing and design, although it might be a little simple for more complicated workflows.
Writing by Max Freeman-Mills. Editing by Dan Grabham.
(Pocket-lint) – The rise of Amazon Music Unlimited has gone hand-in-hand with the explosion in the use of Amazon Echo speakers and Alexa, its digital assistant. It integrates seamlessly with Echo devices, while also working just like any other streaming service on your phone and other devices.
Spotify is probably the first service you think of when you think of music streaming – it’s been around the longest, integrates with loads of services, and has some very clever features.
But which service is best for you – Amazon Music or Spotify? We’ve looked at the features of both, how much Spotify and Amazon Music cost, and how you can access them to help you make your ultimate decision: Spotify or Amazon Music Unlimited?
Want to check out other options such as Apple Music or Tidal?
Amazon Music Unlimited vs Spotify: Prices compared
Amazon Music Unlimited is available with several different pricing tiers available. To help you get to grips with Amazon Music Unlimited and to decide if it’s the right service for you, Amazon offers a 30-day free trial.
If you don’t subscribe to Amazon Prime, a Music Unlimited membership will cost you £9.99/$9.99 a month, but if you do have a Prime account then you’ll only pay £7.99/£7.99 a month or £79/$79 for the whole year.
Subscribe to Amazon Music Unlimited UK
Subscribe to Amazon Music Unlimited US
Amazon also offers a membership for £3.99/$3.99 a month but you can only stream music through the Echo speaker or Echo Dot. Note that you can only use the £3.99 month Echo membership on a single Echo device and it can’t be transferred. If you have multiple Echo devices in your home and want to use Amazon Music Unlimited with all of them, you’ll need a regular individual membership. There’s also a Student membership at $4.99.
A Family membership is available for £14.99/$14.99 a month for up to 6 family members or £149/$149 for a year.
Spotify has a much simpler pricing structure with just three tiers: a free, ad-supported tier and a Premium tier that costs £9.99/$9.99 month. Again, there’s a 30-day free trial.
Spotify also offers offer a family subscription plan which costs £14.99/$14.99 month for you and up to five family members. Each member gets their own personal account.
Students can also get a discounted membership for just £4.99, but they have to sign up through UniDays or NUS Extra.
Sign up for Spotify
Amazon Music Unlimited vs Spotify: Devices
While Amazon Music can be played on a wide range of devices, it’s in connectivity that Spotify has a killer feature – Spotify Connect. And even though Amazon now has Alexa Cast – enabling you to cast to a variety of Alexa or Bluetooth devices from within the Music Unlimited app – it’s not quite as flexible as Spotify Connect.
Spotify Connect enables you to control what is playing on any Spotify Connect device or Spotify app, from any other. That means you can use your desktop app to control Spotify on your Echo, you can pause it on your phone, find something else and play that on your PC instead. Each app gets to control the music wherever it’s playing.
Amazon Music Unlimited is accessible through the Amazon Music app. The app can be downloaded on iOS and Android devices, as well as Mac and PC. You can also access it through a Web player in your browser and through the company’s Echo devices and Fire tablets. You can also play music through a Sonos multi-room system or Roku media streamer.
Amazon has also said that select BMW and Mini cars are Amazon Music-enabled and provide access to the service through its infotainment system when connected to a smartphone.
Spotify is available almost everywhere, there’s an app for iOS, Android, PC and Mac but is available via Spotify Connect on a list of devices that’s almost too long to put here. You can get a Spotify app on select TVs from Panasonic, LG, Sony, Samsung, B&O and Philips while Spotify works with stacks of audio products including those from Bose, Sonos, Onkyo, Denon, Yamaha, Pionner, Naim, Libratone and Revo.
A wide range of car manufacturers, as well as Uber, have either built-in access via Spotify Connect, Android Auto or Apple CarPlay. The Sony PlayStation and Microsoft Xbox One have apps for Spotify, along with Google Chromecast and Chromecast Audio. Check out this full list of Spotify Connect Devices.
We’ve mentioned both on Amazon Echo devices – while Amazon Music is slightly better integrated, Spotify plays natively too, so there isn’t a huge difference in experience.
And, naturally, you can always stream either from your phone to a Bluetooth speaker or another Bluetooth-enabled device.
Amazon Music Unlimited vs Spotify: Which offers better sound?
Amazon hasn’t revealed the streaming bitrate quality of its library, but we’d have a guess and say it will be 320kbps as this would put it on par with Spotify.
Spotify reserves 320kbps streaming for its Premium tier. It’s called “extreme quality” on mobile. If you use the free tier and listen on a mobile, you can choose between 96kbps normal quality or 160kbps high quality. The same 160kbps streams are called standard quality on a computer.
However, Amazon also offers a premium tier called Amazon Music HD, which unlocks lossless music at a higher quality, for audiophiles. It’s pricier, and has a more limited library, but is a great way to get higher-quality audio, so that’s a major leg-up over Spotify for now.
What is Spotify Spotlight and how does the new format work?
Amazon Music Unlimited vs Spotify: Other features
Radio
Both Amazon Music Unlimited and Spotify offer personalised radio stations based on artists and tracks you like.
Both have mood-based playlists and a list of auto-generated stations and you can also choose to start a station based on an artist or song you’re currently listening to. These can also be accessed on Echo devices.
Playlists
Both services will let you create your own custom playlists you can then share with friends, or you can save curated ones to your collection.
Discovery
Amazon’s Music app and the web player have a recommended section which serves up albums and playlists that it things you’ll like based on your listening habits. The Music app itself has had a major redesign, and now claims to make music discovery easier than ever before.
Spotify meanwhile has a feature called Discover Weekly, which is an automatically curated playlist of songs that it thinks you’ll like based on your listening habits. It’s updated every Monday morning and from our experience, we’ve always liked what we’ve heard.
Assistant
Because of the integration with Echo devices, Amazon Music Unlimited can be used with Alexa. You can ask Alexa all manner of questions to get the music you want, such as “play music for a dinner party” or “play Britney Spears greatest hits” and so on.
Spotify has no built-in assistant as such, but can be controlled with Alexa or Google Assistant – so you can simply ask for the music you want “on Spotify” and it will play.
Offline
Both Amazon Music Unlimited and Spotify offer offline playback. Amazon offers it as standard but you can only download songs from Spotify if you subscribe to the Premium tier.
Amazon Music Unlimited vs Spotify: Which is best?
If you already have an Amazon Prime membership and you’ve bought an Echo speaker or Echo Dot, paying just £3.99 a month makes it incredibly worthwhile if you just want playback on your Echo – certainly cheaper than paying for a full Spotify subscription. And the cheaper price for Prime members mean Amazon Music Unlimited is a no-brainer if you already have a Prime membership.
Subscribe to Amazon Music Unlimited UK
Subscribe to Amazon Music Unlimited US
But if you aren’t within the Amazon ecosystem already then Spotify is our pick. Spotify is available almost everywhere and offers a free tier. It’s worth noting that while the free tier still lets you listen to Spotify’s entire music catalogue, it does come with some limitations on where and how you can play your music, restricting downloads and so on.
It helps that Spotify is incredibly easy to use, sounds good and has some incredibly useful music discovery features. We also rate Spotify Connect – it’s the best system if you have a range of different speaker types.
Sign up for Spotify
Also why not check out these Spotify tips and tricks, if you want to level up your experience.
Writing by Max Langridge and Dan Grabham. Editing by Max Freeman-Mills.
Netflix is launching a global test today on Android devices that will allow subscribers to set a timer for their viewing period.
The new feature lets people choose between four timer settings: 15 minutes, 30 minutes, 45 minutes, or end of whatever people are watching. After the episode or film ends, the Netflix app will stop. This should, in theory, help conserve battery life on Android devices while also ensuring that episodes don’t continue to auto-play. (Fall asleep to Bridgertonwithout worrying about where you left off!)
Although the test is limited to Android devices right now, Netflix will explore bringing it to other devices, including TV sets and desktops, depending on how widely the product is adapted and if subscribers seem to like it, according to the company.
To use the feature, follow the below directions:
Choose and play your favorite TV show or movie on your mobile device.
In the upper right corner, subscribers will see a clock icon that is labeled Timer.
Tap on Timer.
Select 15, 30, 45 minutes, or “Finish Show.”
As of right now, the feature is only available on adult profiles. Although it seems like a perfect feature for kids, especially where screentime is concerned, the company is trying to make the feature more applicable for account profiles designed for children. Instead of simply tapping a clock icon and setting the timer, it needs to be a little more difficult because kids tend to tap on screens.
I personally like to think of it as a sleep tool. If you’re someone like me, who falls asleep watching Netflix or Disney Plus or whatever it may be on their phone, having it turn off when an episode ends is a pretty good feature.
Robinhood has started restricting trading in cryptocurrencies this morning, just as the price of joke cryptocurrency Dogecoin has soared more than 300 percent in 24 hours. CNBCreports that Robinhood users started noticing instant deposits for cryptocurrencies were no longer working on Friday morning, and the company has confirmed it has put restrictions in place.
“Due to extraordinary market conditions, we’ve temporarily turned off Instant buying power for crypto,” says a Robinhood spokesperson in a statement to CNBC. “Customers can still use settled funds to buy crypto. We’ll keep monitoring market conditions and communicating with our customers.”
Dogecoin price on Friday morning.Image: Coindesk
Dogecoin came to life in 2013 off the back of a Twitter joke — a play on bitcoin and the doge meme. Its price started soaring yesterday, and Dogecoin currently stands at a more than $7 billion market cap thanks to a huge volume of transactions over the past 24 hours.
The market activity and restrictions over the past 24 hours have now made Dogecoin a popular meme among the r/WallStreetBets investors. Dogecoin has been consistently spammed in the WallStreetBets Discord server over the past couple of days.
Bitcoin is also on the move, up nearly 20 percent over the past 24 hours. Tesla CEO Elon Musk also changed his Twitter profile to include #bitcoin and tweeted “in retrospect, it was inevitable.”
Elon Musk’s Twitter profile now mentions bitcoin.
Robinhood’s latest crypto restrictions come less than a day after the company moved to restrict its users from buying or trading any of the popular Reddit r/WallStreetBets stocks, including GameStop ($GME), AMC ($AMC), BlackBerry ($BB), Bed Bath & Beyond ($BBBY), Nokia ($NOK), and more.
It’s a move that has been met with widespread criticism, and Google was forced to salvage Robinhood’s one-star rating on the Google Play Store by deleting nearly 100,000 negative reviews after unhappy users review-bombed the app. Robinhood says it will now allow “limited buys” of stocks like GameStop starting Friday.
(Pocket-lint) – In the world of tech we’ve become accustomed to devices with multiple purposes. One could point at the smartphone as being the ultimate example of that – with plethora of apps, it’s replaced our physical alarm clocks, calendars, to-do lits, sticky notes, cameras, and many other functions. So when a gadget comes along with a single purpose, it catches our attention.
That’s what Norway-based ReMarkable is attempting to do with its paper tablet. It’s a digital tablet, but it’s designed to replace paper and pen only. To do that, the company has focused on recreating a genuine paper-and-pen experience of writing, so that – in this age of wanting to reduce our impact on the planet – it can replace physical notebooks and notepads.
It’s not cheap, but for those who love to write with a pen or pencil on paper – whether to jot down ideas, keep a journal, or just doodling – it’s a modern alternative to books, which either take up space on our shelves, or paper, which inevitably ends up in the recycling bin.
Design and display
Dimensions: 187 x 246 x 4.7mm / Weight: 403g
10.3-inch monochrome display
One of the elements that makes ReMarkable’s second-generation tablet so appealing its its design. It’s made from super slim piece of aluminium. And when we say super slim, it really is: imagine if someone sliced an iPad Air in half and you’re pretty much there. At just 4.7mm thick, the ReMarkable 2 is much slimmer than your typical tablet.
Pocket-lint
That slimness makes it a pleasure to hold, but also makes it really easy to carry around in your bag. You don’t need to make space for it. Likewise, at just 403 grams, it’s not that heavy either – about a third of a laptop’s typical weight.
This isn’t really for carrying around instead of your laptop, phone or tablet though. Due to the ReMarkable 2’s dedicated function, it’s really just to replace an A4 notepad. In that context, it’s far easier and more convenient to carry around than a Black’n’Red ruled notepad. And that’s where its attraction first sets in. For those of us used to carrying around paper sketchpads or notebooks, the lightness and ease of the ReMarkable 2 is really appealing.
The display takes up a lot – but not all – of the space on the front. It’s surrounded by a white bezel which is thicker on the bottom than on the top, to give you somewhere to rest your palm when you’re writing on the bottom section of the digital page. What we like is how this white frame is designed to match the default white surface of the E-Ink display. It’s also covered in the same matte-textured glass.
Pocket-lint
This same texture and finish is on the back too, which adds consistency to the feeling and look from both sides of the tablet. It contrasts nicely with the dark grey metal frame that runs around the edges and the metal side panel on the left edge. One nice little detail is the rubber feet on the back – there are four tiny rubber dots, one per corner, so that when you place the tablet down on a desk or table to write on it, it doesn’t feel uneven or slip around.
As far as ports and buttons go, there’s not much to talk about. There’s a power/sleep button right on the top edge in the left corner, with a USB Type-C port for charging on the bottom edge. Apart from that, you have a five-dot connection point on the left edge, with magnets built into the sides that allow you to snap on one of the company’s luxurious and lovely folio cases, or the essential Marker stylus.
Reading, writing and rhythm
Textured display surface
Digital ‘Marker’ support
Multiple page formats as standard
PDF and ePUB file reading
After we’d finished gawping at the slim design, the thing that stood out is just how easy the ReMarkable 2 is to get writing on. That’s pretty much the entire point of this tablet – to feel like pen/pencil on paper.
Pocket-lint
There’s no learning curve. No awkward repositioning of a hand because it was making the touchscreen react oddly. No having to hold the Marker (stylus) in a specific way to see what we were doing. We just put the tablet down, loaded up an Oxford-ruled lined paper template, then started writing. Easy.
That textured surface on the front is a big part of what makes this tablet such a pleasure to use. Your hand doesn’t slip like it might on a glossy slab of glass, like the displays on ‘proper’ tablets. What’s more, because it’s a transflective E-Ink display, the surface reflects the colour temperature of the light in the room, so it looks natural.
Reponse on screen is relatively lag-free. It’s not quite as instant as using a real pen on real paper, but it’s not far off and it’s not laggy enough that it stops the natural feeling. The monochrome E-Ink also means it’s easy to see what you’re doing. It’s inky black and relatively sharp thanks to its 226dpi resolution.
However, it’s not sharp enough that it looks super crisp, not so responsive that it feels effortlessly fluid. Both points that could be improved a little for third-generation model, if there is one in the future.
Pocket-lint
The only aspect to learn is the interface, but that doesn’t take long. The home page – if you want to call it that – is an overview of your notebooks. You create new ones by tapping an icon at the top of the screen, where you select what style of paper you want, which is where its versatility shines.
Not only can you choose from a wide array of standard lined, ruled and grid papers, but for the musically minded there are useful templates like guitar tab, bass tab, guitar chords, and piano sheet templates in various sizes. There are week planner templates for those who like to get their week organised in advance, and – for artists – various isometric, symmetrical and caligraphy templates.
Essentially, if you can buy a book from a stationery story with bespoke template lines in, ReMarkable has thought of it and added it to the available options. So if you need one notebook as a journal, another for practicising your calligraphy, another for song-writing, and another just for planning and doodling ideas, you can do that all in the one place.
Pocket-lint
Once you’re in a notebook, drawing away, you can add multiple layers to a page and hide layers you’re not working on, just like working in painting app/programme, so it’s even flexible in that regard. You can also choose which style of pen you’re using within a page. For instance, choosing a paintbrush, pencil or pen, depending on how you want to draw or write.
The only thing that took us aback a little was that the ReMarkable tablet doesn’t come with a stylus as standard – that’s an additional extra. Which is unusual given how essential it is to using the tablet. And how pricey the product is in the first place. The Marker has a built-in ‘eraser’ at the end for rubbing out text on screen. There’s no setup required and you don’t need to charge it. It just works – much like a real pen.
While the ReMarkable 2’s primary aim is as a distraction-free creation tool, that’s not all it can do. With ePub and PDF support, you can load up e-books and documents on to it as well for offline reading. What’s more, with the iOS and Android smartphone apps, plus the MacOS and Windows 10 desktop apps, you can sign into your account on a smart device and read/sync pages and notebooks for easy access everywhere.
Pocket-lint
The biggest downside of the lot, however, is that the display is lacking a backlight. So those wanting to read, write or create while in bed at night will need a bedside lamp on in order to see what they’re doing. Again, much like real paper.
Verdict
Sometimes a gadget comes along that’s so niche and limited in its purpose that for most people it’d be a needless expense. But for those who want to reduce their impact on the planet but love handwriting notes, plans and journals, the ReMarkable 2 is simply divine. With a backlight on the display it’d be almost perfect, although it’s not cheap.
If you’re completely focussed on going paperless, there isn’t a product on the market that can replicate the pleasure of writing with a pen on paper digitally like the ReMarkable 2. It’s divine.
With that said, its limited functionality and singular purpose mean that it’s not a gadget for most people. It’s not going to replace your existing tablet, laptop, Kindle or phone, but we get the sense that ReMarkable is fine with that. It knows its audience, and for those people, it might just be the perfect device.
Jon Stewart has just joined Twitter, and is now the proud owner of a verified account. And, of course, his first tweet was about the redditors on r/WallStreetBets and their stonks.
While it may be the first time he’s made an appearance on Twitter, Stewart is already fitting right in — with a profile picture that’s not actually of him, but a dog.
This is bullshit. The Redditors aren’t cheating, they’re joining a party Wall Street insiders have been enjoying for years. Don’t shut them down…maybe sue them for copyright infringement instead!! We’ve learned nothing from 2008. Love StewBeef
— Jon Stewart (@jon_actual) January 28, 2021
Fellow late-night commentator Stephen Colbert jumped in to welcome him to the platform, giving Stewart a quote tweet hours before his account was verified.
In his second tweet, Stewart thanked everyone for the warm welcome, but says he only plans to use Twitter in a “sporadic and ineffective manner.” (Opposed to the rest of us, who use it constantly and ineffectively.)
Thanks for the warm welcome! I promise to only use this app in a sporadic and ineffective manner.
— Jon Stewart (@jon_actual) January 29, 2021
It’s unclear what the future holds for Stewart on Twitter. Will he use it to promote his upcoming return to television with his Apple TV show? Will he actually say the word “stonks”? Whatever his plan is, it’ll be seen by a large audience — he’s racked up more than 120,000 followers in the nearly five hours since he first tweeted.
From all of us here at The Verge: welcome to Twitter.
No, Robinhood tells The Verge, it didn’t sell off full shares of GameStop, AMC, and other buzzy stocks without permission from its traders.
That contradicts the stories of twelve people who spoke with The Verge, saying that the app unexpectedly sold off their holdings in some of these companies. Quite a number of Robinhood users expressed their surprise on social media today that the app was selling off their stakes, and we tracked down a dozen of them. These traders didn’t believe they had prompted the sales, and they said they weren’t aware of anything on their account that would have automatically triggered them.
“I didn’t have any triggers to sell the stock whether it went up or down. I certainly wouldn’t have put it at $197 when it had just been almost $500,” Jett Flores, who said he was holding stock in GameStop and AMC through Robinhood, told The Verge.
A spokesperson for Robinhood said these small sellers are wrong about how their shares were sold. “I can confirm that claims that Robinhood proactively sold customers’ shares outside of our standard margin-related sellouts or options assignment procedures are false,” the spokesperson told The Verge.
On Wednesday, Robinhood warned some investors with options in GameStop and AMC that it may automatically sell off their stakes to reduce risk, the spokesperson said. But these investors told The Verge they didn’t have options in GameStop or AMC and hadn’t purchased the stocks on margin. They had purchased the shares outright, they said, and were planning to hold onto them.
Margin orders occur when an investor borrows money from the broker (in this case Robinhood) to complete a sale, and brokers can call in those shares if they’re worried the investor can’t pay up. According to Robinhood, most of its actions have been calling in options to purchase shares — a more aggressive move, but not unprecedented. But if users fully owned their shares, as these traders claim they did, selling the holdings would be far more unusual.
The Verge saw screenshots from six traders indicating that their purchase of GameStop or AMC stock had been filled within Robinhood. Six traders sent screenshots showing that their stock in these companies had been sold, with four clearly indicating that they had been sold today. Another trader sent screenshots showing a purchase of Naked Brand stock being filled and then sold within the app. The screenshots don’t indicate how the purchases were funded or how the sales were initiated, but in several of them the app displays a message saying, “We’ve received your order to sell [#] shares of [stock] at the best available price.”
Traders who spoke with The Verge said they were disappointed to lose their stake in these companies. The traders had been planning to keep the stock for longer, and several said they certainly wouldn’t have sold it at the point that they believe Robinhood pushed through the transaction, as GameStop’s stock was faltering from a nearly $500 high.
“It’s extremely dishonest trade on their part and unacceptable,” Ian Q., who said Robinhood unexpectedly sold his shares in GameStop this morning, told The Verge.
The surprise selloff isn’t happening to everyone — plenty of people on the r/WallStreetBets subreddit (and one person I know, who told me they purchased GameStop stock days ago) say they weren’t impacted. And though traders may be outraged by the surprise, Robinhood’s terms of service grant it permission to close a trader’s position under a number of circumstances.
While r/WallStreetBets has been at the center of the frenzy around GameStop and AMC stocks, Robinhood has been the tool of choice for many of the small-time and brand new traders jumping in to take part. But this morning, Robinhood blocked new purchases of stock from GameStop, AMC, BlackBerry, Nokia, and others that were spiking in large part because of purchases coming through the app. The company is now facing widespread backlash from users, celebrities, and politicians, and it’s announced plans to re-open purchases on a “limited” basis on Friday.
It’s still not clear what happened to cause these users’ stakes to be sold off today. But at the very least, it means Robinhood has even more unhappy customers.
Google is actively removing negative reviews of the Robinhood app from the Google Play Store, the company confirmed to The Verge. After some disgruntled Robinhood users organized campaigns to give the app a one-star review on Google’s Play Store and Apple’s App Store — and succeeded in review-bombing it all the way down to a one-star rating — the company has now deleted enough reviews to bring it back up to nearly four stars.
Robinhood came under intense scrutiny on Thursday, after the stock trading app announced it would block purchases of GameStop, AMC, and other stocks made popular by the r/WallStreetBets subreddit, and some users have already replaced their deleted one-star reviews with new ones to make their anger heard.
Here’s a screenshot from the Play Store page captured by 9to5Google when the app had a one-star rating and nearly 275,000 reviews:
Robinhood’s page on the Play Store earlier on Thursday.Image: 9to5Google
And here’s a screenshot we took shortly before publishing this article, showing a nearly four-star rating and around 180,000 reviews.
Robinhood’s Play Store rating later on Thursday.
It’s not outside Google’s purview to delete these posts. Google’s policies explicitly prohibit reviews intended to manipulate an app’s rating, and the company says it has a system that “combines human intelligence with machine learning to detect and enforce policy violations in ratings and reviews.” Google says it specifically took action on reviews that it felt confident violated those policies, the company tells The Verge. Google says companies do not have the ability to delete reviews themselves.
On Apple’s App Store, Robinhood has a 4.7 rating, and we didn’t see any reviews newer than Wednesday. However, popular apps like TikTok, Uno, and Genshin Impact also didn’t have reviews from any later than Wednesday when we checked.
Unhappy Robinhood users aren’t just using reviews to show their ire — they’re also calling for a class action lawsuit. Later on Thursday, Robinhood said it would allow “limited buys” of certain stocks on Friday. The company said that halting purchases on Thursday was “a risk-management decision.”
Before the Raspberry Pi Pico arrived, there was a sharp distinction between the Raspberry Pi and Arduino ecosystems. The Pi is a Linux computer that boots up into a full operating system and the Arduino is a microcontroller that just runs one program at a time. With the arrival of the Raspberry Pi Pico, which is itself a microcontroller, and the new RP2040 SoC, the distinction has blurred. Raspberry Pi Foundation now makes its own silicon, and is enabling partners to use ‘Pi Silicon’ in their boards including Arduino which is working on its own RP2040-based board with Wi-Fi and Bluetooth.
Both the Arduino and the Raspberry Pi Pico are great for physical computing projects where the main goal is to activate lights, motors and sensors reliably, without all the overhead of running a full-operating system. You can even use either one in combination with a regular Raspberry Pi, and use one for higher-level tasks like A.I. and the other for interfacing with electronic components.
The first Arduino board was introduced in 2005 and, since then, millions have been sold and a huge ecosystem has arisen. Meanwhile, the Raspberry Pi Pico just launched recently, but already we’re seeing a ton of support for it. So which is better and which should you use in your next project? To help you decide, we’ll compare the two platforms based on functionality, value, power consumption and more.
Functionality and GPIO of Raspberry Pi Pico vs Arduino
(Image credit: Tom’s Hardware)
The Raspberry Pi Pico introduces a new form factor to the Raspberry Pi ecosystem, a 40 pin ‘DIP’ style PCB. All 40 pins are broken out to standard pads and, around the perimeter, there are castellations which can be used to solder the Pico to a carrier board in a similar fashion to surface mount electronics.
The DIP package is nothing new, Arduino boards such as the Micro have been using it for years. The DIP package can be soldered into a carrier board, placed into a breadboard or stacked atop compatible addons. It is a more convenient package compared to the Raspberry Pi and Arduino Uno style layouts which favour a larger layout. Adopting the DIP layout, the Raspberry Pi Pico provides us with an easy to use form factor which is easy to embed into a project.
The Raspberry Pi Pico GPIO offers plenty of digital IO, three analog inputs and multiple I2C, SPI and UART connections. But what the Pico also offers are a series of programmable IO (PIO) pins which can be configured to simulate other interfaces / protocols such as WS2812 “NeoPixels”, they can also be used to offload complex tasks to a background process. All of this from a $4 board means the Raspberry Pi Pico is a low cost “Swiss Army knife” of GPIO pins.
Winner: Raspberry Pi Pico
SoC of Raspberry Pi Pico vs Arduino
(Image credit: Tom’s Hardware)
The older and more popular Arduino boards are powered by Atmel chips such as the ATMega328P but the later boards now feature Arm CPUs. For example Arduino’s Portenta H7 has a dual core Arm Cortex M7+M4 CPU. While the ATMega328 is never going to compete with an Arm processor, it is a reliable chip for projects, proven by the countless number of Arduino projects on offer.
Arm chips are becoming more common with microcontrollers, Adafruit, Seeed and SparkFun have all developed boards with Arm chips. Microcontrollers do not necessarily need multiple cores and fast speeds as they are typically used for a single part of a process.
The RP2040 used in the Raspberry Pi Pico is a level above a typical microcontroller. First of all, we have a dual core Arm Cortex M0+ running at up to 133 MHz, much faster than an UNO’s 16 MHz 328P. SRAM on the RP2040 is 264KB, again much more than the Uno’s 2KB. With only 32KB of flash storage the Uno again falls short of the 2MB found on the Pico.
But how does the Pico shape up against Arduino’s flagship board the Portenta H7? Well the Portenta H7 features a dual core Arm Cortex M7 + M4 that can run up to 480 MHz and have up to 2MB of flash storage and 1MB of RAM. The Portenta H7 also comes with WiFi, Bluetooth, camera interface and a GPU. The Portenta H7 blows the Raspberry Pi Pico out of the water in every way, except the price. Retailing for €89.90 (excluding taxes) which is approximately $109, the Portenta H7 has a high price for the level of tech squeezed within it. To put it into perspective, $109 would buy 27 Raspberry Pi Pico boards.
Winner: Raspberry Pi Pico
Coding Raspberry Pi Pico vs Arduino
(Image credit: Tom’s Hardware)
The Arduino IDE is the go to editor for Arduino projects, but there are alternatives in the form of PlatformIO and Arduino Create, a cloud IDE from Arduino. But the Arduino IDE is still what many use and think of when they see “Arduino.”
The Arduino IDE has improved over the years and now we see built in features such as multiple board management and a means to search and install libraries of packages for add-ons and accessories. Arduino Create is a cloud version of the Arduino IDE. It is designed for IoT projects, but it can still be used to tinker with even the most basic Arduino code. PlatformIO comes in three versions, a command line tool, a dedicated IDE, or it can integrate with your existing IDE for example Microsoft’s Visual Studio Code.
As we noted in our Raspberry Pi Pico review, the new platform has two officially supported languages, C and MicroPython. Currently C/C++ on the Raspberry Pi Pico is a workflow best left for advanced users. In fact, Raspberry Pi officially suggests using MicroPython with the Pico especially for new users.
If you would like to write C code on your Raspberry Pi Pico, then you have two main choices. Write the code in an editor (Vi / Vim. nano etc) and then build the code using terminal tools, or set up Microsoft’s Visual Studio Code and use a number of extensions to create a workflow to build and flash code to the Pico. Both of these approaches are possible but they are not the most user friendly. However, help may soon be at hand via an update to the Arduino IDE with support for the RP2040 chip.
If Python is your preferred language, then you are in luck as the Raspberry Pi Pico supports MicroPython, a version of Python 3 for microcontrollers. At launch, MicroPython can be written in two ways, directly into the Python Shell, known as the REPL (Read, Eval, Print, Loop) or we can use an IDE such as Thonny which has support baked in from version 3.3.0 onwards. The path of least resistance is via MicroPython: we can quickly write and deploy our code from the fantastic Thonny editor and we’re using a standard language that’s very popular and used across a variety of platforms.
Winner: Raspberry Pi Pico
Ease of Use on Raspberry Pi Pico vs Arduino
(Image credit: Tom’s Hardware)
Other Raspberry Pi boards are computers. Once we have our OS on the SD card, we use them in the same manner as any computer. But with the Raspberry Pi Pico we see a change of workflow.
No matter our language choice, we need to flash the Pico with an image for that language. This then enables us to write and save code directly to the board. The format of choice for images is UF2, a USB flashing format from Microsoft which has been championed by Adafruit for their CircuitPython range of boards. We just need to press the BOOTSEL button as we plug in the micro USB cable, drop the UF2 file onto the RPI-R2 drive and, in a few seconds, we can start writing code. This ease of use is evident in the MicroPython workflow. Once we have the MicroPython UF2 file on the Pico, we can simply connect using Thonny and start writing code.
The C/C++ workflow is a little more advanced and something that would put off those new to the scene as it requires significant “hoop jumping” in which to create a final product. From a terminal, we need to write the project code in a text editor, then after downloading extra applications and dependencies, we can “build” the project into a UF2 file which is then manually copied to the Pico.
A slightly more automated process is available via Microsoft’s Visual Studio Code, in which we can write the project code and build via just a few clicks. That’s not the most user friendly process for newbies, but this is set to change and it is thanks to Arduino. The Arduino team announced that they are working on an Arduino core for the RP2040. What does this mean? Well it offers the chance to use the Arduino IDE with the Raspberry Pi Pico and other RP2040 based boards
The Arduino IDE workflow has been influenced by years of improvements and feedback; the entire process happens in app with very limited interaction from the user. ore advanced users can change the board, ports and libraries used in a project, features which have seen great improvement in recent Arduino IDE releases.
There are alternatives to the Arduino IDE, including Arduino Create, a cloud version of the IDE which is free for limited use, but to do anything “serious” we need to sign up for a paid plan. The Arduino Create IoT Cloud is a means to create applications based around the Arduino ecosystem and it works exceptionally well, but you will need to invest a little time to learn the process.
How easy to physically use are the Pico and Arduino boards? The first big difference is that the Raspberry Pi Pico comes unsoldered. This is no great issue as it is easy to solder your own pins, provided that you have a soldering iron. Typically Arduino boards comes pre-soldered, with the exception of DIP based board such as the Arduino Nano Every and Nano 33 IoT. With presoldered Arduinos we can start hacking straight out of the box.
Winner: Raspberry Pi Pico
Power Consumption on Raspberry Pi Pico vs Arduino
The Raspberry Pi Pico is an efficient board for embedded projects. Compared to a typical Raspberry Pi, the Pico consumes much less current, because it is a microcontroller with none of the overheads that a computer brings.
In our review test we powered a Raspberry Pi Pico running 12 Neopixel LEDS at full brightness from a 5V power supply. We recorded 140mA current draw, 0.7W! This is remarkable as a Raspberry Pi 4 running idle with nothing connected would run at 4-5W. So compared to Raspberry Pi, the Pico sips power but how does it compare to an Arduino Uno running the same test?
We recorded 5V at 90mA, 0.45W! So the Arduino Uno consumes the least amount of power but then that was to be expected given that it has the slowest processor. If we were to repeat the test with another board, say the Portenta H7, then we would see a much higher power use as the Arm CPU used on the Portenta is more powerful than even the RP2040.
Winner: Arduino
Which is Better: Raspberry Pi Pico or Arduino?
At $4 and with an impressive selection of GPIO pins, ease of use and great documentation, the Raspberry Pi Pico is the best board for microcontroller projects. For such a small amount of money you get official hardware and know that it will work as expected, unlike other clone boards.
Don’t get us wrong; we have many clone boards in our workshop, but each of those boards has its own quirks that we must work around. Right now MicroPython is your best bet to quickly get up and running with your Pico, but once the Arduino IDE is updated to support the Pico, this will greatly improve the C/C++ workflow to a point where even Arduino fans may just be tempted to try out the Raspberry Pi Pico over their previous favorite.
An upcoming change to Google’s Play Store policies will allow gambling and betting Android apps that use real money in 15 more countries, including the US, according to 9to5Google. Currently, gambling apps are only allowed in four countries: Brazil, France, Ireland, and the United Kingdom.
The new rules will be applied starting on March 1st, and they’ll permit gambling apps in Australia, Belgium, Canada, Colombia, Denmark, Finland, Germany, Japan, Mexico, New Zealand, Norway, Romania, Spain, Sweden, and the United States. Of course, each country will have its own limitations on what kind of online gambling is legal, with some countries allowing online casinos, sports betting, lotteries, and daily fantasy sports, and some being more restrictive.
The restrictions are also complicated. Most countries only allow lotteries if they’re run by the government, but some, like the UK, don’t have that restriction. And as is often the case, what’s allowed in the US varies on a state-by-state basis. Anyone looking to release a gambling app will have to do their legal homework first, considering the patchwork of laws and regulations permitting specific types of online gambling in the US.
The US has the largest details box by far.
The change won’t be opening the floodgates for just anyone to release a slot machine app. Currently, Google requires developers to go through an application process to get their gambling apps on the Play Store, and the new policies won’t be removing that requirement. The application ensures that the developer uploading the app is licensed to run a gambling operation in the country where the app will be sold.
Before this change, users who wanted to use gambling apps on their Android phones would have to sideload them, a practice that Google has been discouraging more and more as time goes on. iPhone users, on the other hand, have been allowed to download them straight from the App Store.
Of course, it could be argued that many games and apps that are on the Play Store today already include gambling mechanics (any game that includes loot boxes, for example, or apps that allow people to make bets on Wall Street). The apps that will be allowed under this policy differ in that they’ll be allowing apps that are purely made for gambling, using real money. If I could make one request to Google, it’d be to let people hide gambling apps like they’re allowed to hide gambling ads.
Google was not immediately available to comment on the policy change.
Financial services company E-Trade has restricted purchases of GameStop and AMC stock, a source tells Bloomberg. The two stocks have become popular on forums like the r/WallStreetBets subreddit and seen their prices skyrocket to unprecedented highs over the past week. (GameStop hit $483 earlier on Thursday and briefly went above that during the day. Last Thursday, the stock closed at $43.)
We’ve seen users on Twitter report that they have been unable to buy the stocks as well.
eTrade is also prohibiting buying Gamestop.
— Thomas Wicklund (@tgwicklund) January 28, 2021
Welp, ETrade wouldn’t let me buy AMC stock online.
— Aramadon (@Arammadon) January 28, 2021
Bloomberg writes that an E-Trade representative declined to comment, and the company didn’t immediately respond to a request from The Verge.
E-Trade follows other stock-trading platforms in placing restrictions on the stocks. Robinhood added new limits to its app to restrict buying or trading GameStop, AMC, and other stocks that are popular on r/WallStreetBets on Thursday morning. Angry Robinhood users are now calling for a class action lawsuit as a result and have even made a subreddit focused on creating that lawsuit. Robinhood competitors Public and WeBull also restricted some transactions for a period of time on Thursday before lifting the restrictions.
Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-OH), the incoming chair of the Senate Banking Committee, announced Thursday that he plans to hold a hearing on the “current state of the stock market” in the wake of unprecedented volatility around GameStop, AMC, and other stocks.
The volatility has been most pronounced around the retailer GameStop, which has more than quadrupled in value over the past week in the face of a Reddit-organized campaign to boost the company’s value. But with several markets blocking further purchases of the stock to stem hedge fund losses, the incident has sparked a broader conversation about institutional bias in US financial markets.
“People on Wall Street only care about the rules when they’re the ones getting hurt. American workers have known for years the Wall Street system is broken — they’ve been paying the price,” Brown said in a statement Thursday. “It’s time for the SEC and Congress to make the economy work for everyone, not just Wall Street. That’s why, as incoming Chair of the Senate Banking and Housing Committee I plan to hold a hearing to do that important work.”
NEW: Senate Banking Committee will hold a hearing on “the current state of the stock market,” incoming Chairman Sherrod Brown, a Democrat from Ohio, said in a statement. pic.twitter.com/CX1zj8HHVo
— Daniel Flatley (@DanielPFlatley) January 28, 2021
As of publication, it’s unclear when the hearing will take place, but lawmakers from both chambers have expressed a need for further investigation. Earlier Thursday, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) called on Congress to investigate the Robinhood app, calling the actions against GameStop “unacceptable.”
Other progressives have followed suit. Rep. Ro Khanna (D-CA) put out a statement saying, “We’re done letting hedge fund billionaires treat the stock market like their personal playground, then taking their ball home as soon as they lose,” he continued. “We need more regulation and equality in the markets.”
On Wednesday, Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) also called for further regulation of the financial industry. “It’s long past time for the SEC and other financial regulators to wake up and do their jobs — and with a new administration and Democrats running Congress, I intend to make sure they do,” she said.
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