Richard Lawler

When we checked out IRL in 2021, the company claimed to have 12 million monthly active users, and The Information reports that lately, it’s put the number at 20 million. Now, the outlet reports, the board of directors of the Softbank-backed company has concluded 95 percent of those were fake. A spokesperson said it will shut down and return capital to shareholders.

Joseph James O’Connor, aka PlugWalkJoe, is a UK citizen connected to a massive 2020 breach on Twitter that pushed crypto scam ads through accounts for Barack Obama, Elon Musk, Apple, and others, as well as other social media account breaches.

Director James Cameron has given another interview, had a lot to say to CNN about the Titan, including that there’s an indication the sub dumped ballast and started to ascend before ever reaching the sea floor. He also apparently knew of the implosion sounds picked up by Navy listening devices as early as Monday.

EA CEO Andrew Wilson announced the gaming company is restructuring with two sides that both report to him, split into EA SPORTS (all caps for some reason) under president Cam Weber and EA Entertainment for everything else under its own president, Laura Miele.

The Block cites a source who claims to know the people behind recent phishing attacks with “NFT drainers” targeting high-value accounts. According to OpenSea employee “Plum,” it’s high school kids who “all play Roblox for the most part. So they’ll buy the coolest gear for their Roblox avatar, video games, skins and things like that.”

Former Logitech CEO and repeat Verge podcast guest Bracken Darrell has been appointed as the new president and CEO of VF Brands (via Bloomberg).

Wired writes about Apple attempting to secure IP rights for “a realistic, black-and-white depiction of an apple variety known as the Granny Smith,” how that’s part of a long list of similar requests made worldwide, and what it could mean for other companies with apples in their logos (via Techmeme).

The slow drip-feed of rumors and details about Nothing’s next phone continues, with exec Carl Pei tweeting a photo of a USB-C cable (only the ends are clear, which is a little disappointing) that we expect to see debut with the Phone 2 on July 11th.

In a pair of tweets, supply chain analyst Ming-Chi Kuo said Apple would “aggressively” upgrade hardware specs with an eye to the ecosystem around its $3,499 headset.