Friday’s top tech news: unexpected price cuts at Tesla – The Verge The Verge is about technology and how it makes us feel. Founded in 2011, we offer our audience everything from breaking news to reviews to award-winning features and investigations, on our site, in video, and in podcasts. 2023-01-14T04:27:07+00:00 https://www.theverge.com/rss/stream/23317355 https://platform.theverge.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/01/verge-rss-large_80b47e.png?w=150&h=150&crop=1 Richard Lawler <![CDATA[Spotify says it’s recovered after an outage]]> https://www.theverge.com/2023/1/13/23554575/spotify-down-outage-songs-not-playing-streaming 2023-01-13T23:27:07-05:00 2023-01-13T23:27:07-05:00
The service is... spoty. | Nick Barclay / The Verge

It's Friday night in the US, and for a while there, the music was not playing on Spotify for many people. Users reported streams suddenly stopped, and for people who've logged out, some say they can't log in again.

The outage has garnered over 30,000 reports on DownDetector.com, starting just before 8PM ET and rising sharply since then. A status page for the company's web API indicates a "minor" partial outage affecting only the player itself, which is consistent with what we're seeing - but that's also the most important part of Spotify.

Read the full story at The Verge.

]]> Tom Warren <![CDATA[Microsoft’s fix for disappearing Windows application shortcuts doesn’t bring them back]]> https://www.theverge.com/2023/1/13/23553370/microsoft-start-menu-taskbar-shortcuts-windows-disappearing-it 2023-01-13T18:36:30-05:00 2023-01-13T18:36:30-05:00

On Friday afternoon, Microsoft wrote it's fully deployed a fix for an issue in Windows that caused application shortcuts in the Start menu or taskbar to disappear. Multiple IT admins detailed the problem on Twitter and Reddit this morning, and Microsoft confirmed it was related to a recent update to the Microsoft Defender threat detections.

The problem is affecting businesses and organizations using Microsoft 365 and Defender for protection against malware, viruses, and other threats. In a note to customers, Microsoft said it received reports that a certain attack surface reduction (ASR) rule is causing the problems. Earlier in the day, IT …

Read the full story at The Verge.

]]> Mitchell Clark <![CDATA[YouTube’s testing free ad-supported TV channels]]> https://www.theverge.com/2023/1/13/23553917/youtube-test-free-tv-channel-hub-ad-supported 2023-01-13T16:48:59-05:00 2023-01-13T16:48:59-05:00

YouTube is testing free ad-supported TV channels that show content from certain media companies, according to a report from The Wall Street Journal. The concept is similar to services like Pluto TV, Roku's Live TV channels, or the experiences built into TVs from companies like Samsung, LG, and Vizio - there will be a "hub" that lets you pick what you want to watch.

The concept has been part of a profitable business model for some of the other companies in the space, as earnings reports from Vizio and Roku show that they make more profit from advertising and commissions on subscriptions than they do from selling hardware. The most recent rep …

Read the full story at The Verge.

]]> Victoria Song <![CDATA[Strava knows its messy price hike is confusing]]> https://www.theverge.com/2023/1/13/23553453/strava-subscription-increase-fitness 2023-01-13T16:27:51-05:00 2023-01-13T16:27:51-05:00
Strava, an official price chart would be nice. | Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge

No one likes price hikes, but Strava's messy rollout has left many customers wondering what's happening to their subscription. Here's what's actually happening: the company is raising prices for the first time in more than a decade, and the new price everyone pays depends on the region they live in, whether they are a monthly or annual subscriber, and whether they purchased their subscription prior to November 23rd, 2022. (Customers who subscribed after that date aren't affected.) But Strava didn't make this easy to understand.

As spotted by sports blogger DC Rainmaker and r/Strava Redditors, things got confusing when customers started comp …

Read the full story at The Verge.

]]> Justine Calma <![CDATA[A Swiss company says it has pulled CO2 out of the atmosphere and stored it underground]]> https://www.theverge.com/2023/1/13/23553515/climeworks-microsoft-stripe-shopify-carbon-removal-climate-tech 2023-01-13T15:05:08-05:00 2023-01-13T15:05:08-05:00
Collector containers at the “Orca” direct air capture and storage facility, operated by Climeworks AG, in Hellisheidi, Iceland. | Image: Arnaldur Halldorsson/Bloomberg via Getty Images

Microsoft, Stripe, and Shopify are officially the first companies in the world to pay to filter their carbon dioxide emissions out of the air, store those emissions underground, and have that service verified by a third party. Climate tech company Climeworks announced yesterday that it had completed the service, and its third-party verification of the carbon removal marks a first for the emerging industry.

In 2021, Climeworks opened up the world's largest direct air capture (DAC) plant, called Orca, which essentially filters carbon dioxide out of the ambient air. That captured carbon is then supposed to be trapped in basalt rock formations …

Read the full story at The Verge.

]]> Jay Peters Mitchell Clark <![CDATA[Twitter’s For You timeline appears on desktop browsers now, too]]> https://www.theverge.com/2023/1/13/23550345/twitter-for-you-following-desktop-ios-android 2023-01-13T14:09:38-05:00 2023-01-13T14:09:38-05:00
The new tabs are here. | Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

Twitter's new For You tab, which rolled out to iPhones and iPads on Tuesday, is now appearing on desktop web browsers.

The For You tab is the TikTok-inspired name for Twitter's algorithmically curated "Home" tab, and on iOS, it's now the default tab you see when you close and reopen the app. You can still access the reverse-chronological list of the latest posts from the people you follow on the "Following" tab (previously "Latest"), though Twitter has removed the star icon to switch between the timelines.

For some, this change is now even more annoying since major third-party Twitter apps just stopped working, blocking people's escape fro …

Read the full story at The Verge.

]]> Andrew J. Hawkins <![CDATA[Judge rejects Elon Musk’s request to move his upcoming securities fraud trial to Texas]]> https://www.theverge.com/2023/1/13/23553916/elon-musk-trial-request-move-california-texas-judge-reject 2023-01-13T14:05:21-05:00 2023-01-13T14:05:21-05:00

A judge rejected Elon Musk's request to move his upcoming securities fraud trial out of San Francisco, Bloomberg reports. Musk had argued that the jury pool from the city would be biased against him.

Musk is facing a civil trial next week stemming from a lawsuit filed by Tesla shareholders who accuse the billionaire of making false statements in his tweets from 2018 about taking the electric vehicle company private. The shareholders argue that Musk's tweets, in which he claimed he had "funding secured" to take the company private, caused wild swings in Tesla's share price, costing them billions of dollars.

The deal to take Tesla private ne …

Read the full story at The Verge.

]]> Mitchell Clark Jess Weatherbed <![CDATA[YouTube creators are ducking outraged by its swearing policy]]> https://www.theverge.com/2023/1/13/23553746/youtube-swearing-advertising-policy-change 2023-01-13T12:54:23-05:00 2023-01-13T12:54:23-05:00
Don’t put this article in your video’s thumbnail. | Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

At exactly 18 seconds into his video "YouTube is Run by Fools," ProZD makes his feelings on the platform's recent restrictions on foul language crystal clear: "That's the dumbest fucking shit I've ever heard."

The tirade's timing was deliberate, meant to test the company's updated "approach to profanity" that it announced in November: YouTube will now limit ads or completely demonetize a creator's video if they swear within the first 15 seconds. That may not seem like a huge deal on its own, but it also seems to apply to every video YouTubers have ever created - and they've done a whole lot of swearing.

ProZD is far from the only creator s …

Read the full story at The Verge.

]]> Allison Johnson <![CDATA[Clear Calling on the Pixel 7 is like noise cancellation for hard-to-hear phone calls]]> https://www.theverge.com/2023/1/13/23552300/google-pixel-7-pro-clear-calling-noise-cancellation 2023-01-13T12:09:22-05:00 2023-01-13T12:09:22-05:00
The Pixel 7 Pro (left) and Pixel 7 (right) support Clear Calling as of December’s feature drop. | Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge

You probably haven't been on the phone with someone who's using a serger sewing machine. I have, and I'm here to tell you it sounds like talking to someone who's in the middle of a raging tornado as it tears through a bus depot. That is, until Google's Clear Calling feature kicks in. When that happens, the tornado dissipates into a mild windstorm, making it possible to carry on with your conversation. It's the sort of helpful background feature that Google's Pixel phones can be so good at delivering. It's just a shame that most of them won't get it.

When Google announced the Pixel 7 and 7 Pro, it talked up a feature that would be coming aft …

Read the full story at The Verge.

]]> Barbara Krasnoff <![CDATA[How to use your phone to find hidden cameras]]> https://www.theverge.com/23550845/smartphone-hidden-camera-android-ios-how-to 2023-01-13T11:23:06-05:00 2023-01-13T11:23:06-05:00

To quote a worn - but occasionally true - saying from Joseph Heller's novel Catch-22, "Just because you're paranoid doesn't mean they aren't after you." The popularity of Airbnb and other informal rentals has coincided with the increased production of cheaper hidden cameras, making it increasingly likely that your stay could be viewed by the person who rented the place out to you.

Want to make sure your privacy is being respected? There are a couple of ways you can kinda, sorta find out if there are any hidden cameras in your space.

Use your phone to find an IR-equipped camera

Photo of hand holding a TV remote with a small, visible pinkish light at the tip.

If a camera wants to catch movement or take photos in low-light …

Read the full story at The Verge.

]]>