Tuesday’s top tech news: The law comes for Bankman-Fried – The Verge

Logitech’s new iPad keyboard and stylus are a better buy than Apple’s

2022-12-20T11:45:54-05:00

Logitech’s Combo Touch keyboard case and USB-C Crayon stylus for the 10th Gen Apple iPad.

Apple's 10th-gen iPad is a bit of an enigma, a mix of newer design and technology with older features and limitations. Nowhere is this more apparent than with the accessory situation, where the 10th-gen iPad uses Apple's older Pencil instead of the model used with the iPad Air, iPad Mini, and iPad Pro and the bafflingly expensive and limited Magic Keyboard Folio.

Fortunately, where there are frustrations, there are opportunities, and Logitech has swooped in to grab them. The company has released a Crayon stylus and Combo Touch keyboard case for the 10th-gen iPad that manage to do a better job than Apple's devices while costing considerably …

Read the full story at The Verge.

The many lies of Sam Bankman-Fried

2022-12-13T18:04:51-05:00

Turns out reading the terms of service wouldn’t have saved FTX customers. | The Verge

The US government says it was fraud from the jump. The complaint made public today by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission has some hair-raising details - and if it's right, Sam Bankman-Fried hasn't been telling the truth for quite some time. According to the complaint, Bankman-Fried operated Alameda Research and FTX as a common enterprise, for instance. This complaint is civil.

In a press conference today, US attorney Damian Williams characterized Alameda Research and FTX as "one of the biggest financial frauds in American history."

Sam Bankman-Fried was deeply involved with Alameda Research

Sam Bankman-Fried, the founder of failed c …

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watchOS 9.2 adds new running features and longer Ultra battery

2022-12-13T15:33:49-05:00

Race Routes is now officially live in watchOS 9.2. | Photo by Victoria Song / The Verge

watchOS 9.2 started rolling out today along with the iOS 16.2 update, and with it comes two new running features: Automatic Track Detection and Race Routes. The former uses Apple Maps and GPS to detect the exact lane of a track you're running on, while the latter lets you race against your past self on your favorite routes. Additionally, the Apple Watch Ultra can now get up to 17 hours in Low Power Mode during multisport activities.

Automatic Track Detection can tell whenever you arrive at any standard 400-meter outdoor track. Runners will be prompted to select the lane at the start of an Outdoor Run workout. (If you have to run to the trac …

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PlayStation’s 2022 Wrap-Up recaps playtime, trophies, and meows

2022-12-13T15:03:00-05:00

I contributed a fair number of those meows. | Image: Annapurna Interactive

PlayStation's new 2022 Wrap-Up is available now, giving you a look at things like your personal playtime and some accomplishments from the broader PlayStation community.

The recap is broken into four main sections: total playtime, top games, trophies earned, and PlayStation Plus. Within each section, not only will you see your own stats but also community statistics for some of PlayStation's biggest games of the year, including Horizon Forbidden West and God of War Ragnarök. The recap also reveals that players were absolute terrors in Stray, with 1 billion meows and 12 million "things ruined." (I admit to contributing significantly to those …

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Apple is reportedly preparing to allow third-party app stores on the iPhone

2022-12-13T14:33:36-05:00

The App Store may no longer be the only place to get software for your iPhone or iPad. | Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

Apple is planning to let users install alternative app stores on iOS, according to a report from Bloomberg. The shift would be a remarkable change from the company, which has famously only allowed iPhone and iPad users to download apps from the App Store.

The plans are reportedly being spurred on by the EU's Digital Markets Act (DMA), which is meant to enact "rules for digital gatekeepers to ensure open markets" when its restrictions become a requirement in 2024, according to a press release.

Changes would also come to NFC chip and camera access, Find My network for rivals to the AirTag, web browsing engines and other areas of Apple's soft …

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Kentucky Route Zero joins Netflix’s mobile games lineup

2022-12-13T14:00:00-05:00

The esoteric indie title Kentucky Route Zero will be available Tuesday on iOS and Android as part of Netflix's suite of mobile games. The narrative-focused game seems like one that will lend itself well to a mobile format, and after a more than six-month wait since publisher Annapurna Interactive said Kentucky Route Zero would be coming to phones, you can now get lost in its weird world from the smartphone in your pocket.

Kentucky Route Zero, from developer Cardboard Computer, is difficult to describe. It's not so much a game as a magical realism story that you experience in an interactive form. I played it for the first time when the game' …

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iOS 16.2 arrives with improved always-on display and iCloud end-to-end encryption

2022-12-13T13:05:49-05:00

Apple's latest iOS 16.2 update is now rolling out and includes a number of new and improved features for iPhone users. iPhone 14 Pro owners will benefit from improved always-on display settings, which let users turn off the mode's wallpaper and notifications if they're distracting. Other new features include end-to-end iCloud encryption, the Apple Music Sing karaoke mode, and much more.

End-to-end iCloud encryption is being branded as Advanced Data Protection in iOS 16.2 and means data like Notes, iCloud backups, and Photos are now protected with end-to-end encryption. The protection covers 23 "data categories" now, up from 14, and includes …

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Netflix’s Kaleidoscope looks like the perfect crime in new trailer

2022-12-13T13:01:59-05:00

Netflix is getting a little experimental in the new year. The streaming service will be releasing its latest crime anthology, Kaleidoscope, on January 1st - and the latest trailer shows off just how intense of a heist it really is, with a few billion dollars on the line.

While Netflix has no shortage of crime and heist shows, what makes this one interesting is how it's structured; the show is nonlinear, designed so that you can watch the episodes - which encompass a story spanning around 25 years - in any order. "All viewers will eventually see all episodes, but the order in which they watch the episodes will affect their viewpoint on the …

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Instagram is adding a BeReal clone, a tweet-ish feature, and groups

2022-12-13T12:54:21-05:00

Instagram’s take on BeReal is called “Candid.” | Image: Instagram

Instagram is announcing a suite of new features that could be big focuses for the company in 2023, including a BeReal clone called Candid Stories, the ability to post very short text "Notes," and groups.

Candid Stories appear to mirror much of what has made BeReal popular. You'll be able to share an image that includes a snapshot from both your front and back cameras, and you'll be able to take a candid from a daily notification reminder. You'll also be able to snap candids from the Stories camera or a multi-author Story.

Instagram confirmed it was testing this feature earlier this year, and Candid Stories will launch first as a test in So …

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A ‘scientific breakthrough’ in nuclear fusion? How to watch the announcement

2022-12-13T12:48:47-05:00

Director of the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Kim Budil speaks at a press conference to announce a major milestone in nuclear fusion research on December 13, 2022. | Photo by OLIVIER DOULIERY/AFP via Getty Images

On Tuesday, December 13th, scientists with the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory announced that they'd achieved "fusion ignition." The Verge has an updated post on the news here.

A "scientific breakthrough" in the development of fusion energy is expected tomorrow from the Biden administration. For more than half a century, people have poured billions of dollars into nuclear fusion research, hoping to create a source of abundant, clean energy.

The rough idea is this: if we develop technology that can replicate the way the sun generates energy in a controlled way, we could power the world with energy that's free of greenhouse gas emissi …

Read the full story at The Verge.