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Four Tinder plaintiffs — Rosette Pambakian, Joshua Metz, Jonathan Badeen, and James Kim — are voluntarily withdrawing from their Match Group / IAC lawsuit today, claiming the company covertly tried to enact an arbitration agreement during their employment. All four plaintiffs worked at Tinder, which Match Group owns, up until they filed the lawsuit. At that point, Match / IAC placed them on administrative leave. They all seemingly signed the arbitration agreement. In a comment to The Verge , Pambakian said: “Just months after cheating Tinder employees out of billions of dollars, IAC / Match tried changing its policies in an attempt to force all current employees out of a public courtroom before a jury and into secret arbitration. IAC / Match did this only after carrying out their scheme. Let me be very clear: IAC / Match will be held accountable and we will continue to support the lawsuit 100% as it unfolds in New York state court.” Match spokesperson Justine Sacco did not c...

Google has confirmed to Tom’s Guide that it has no plans to release its own smartwatch this year. Earlier rumors had pointed to a likely release of a so-called “Pixel Watch” and many were expecting it would be announced alongside the Pixel 3 , Pixel 3 XL , and whatever else Google has planned for an expected October 9th hardware event . If you are still holding out hope for some reason, Tom’s Guide didn’t leave much room for doubt in Google’s plans, confirming the news with the company after interviewing one of its executives: Miles Barr, Google’s director of engineering for Wear OS, said Friday during an interview that Google has no plans to release a smartwatch this year. “To think of a one-size-fits-all watch, I don’t think we’re there yet,” Barr said. “Our focus is on our partners for now.” After the interview, Google confirmed that it will not release a smartwatch this year. Back in May, Evan Blass tweeted that Google would be releasing the watch. Blass is usually relia...

Apple quietly announced the launch of a free repair program for the iPhone 8 this afternoon, revealing that a “very small percentage” of units need replacement logic boards due to a manufacturing defect. The logic board is essentially the main printed circuit board of a computing device, containing the CPU, device memory, and other integral components. Apple says its faulty logic boards may have been causing random restarts, screen freezes, and defective startup initiations that prevent the iPhone 8 from turning on properly. The defect does not affect the iPhone X or the iPhone 8 Plus, and Apple says the affected units include only those sold between September 2017 and March 2018 in Australia, China, Hong Kong, India, Japan, Macau, New Zealand, and the US. You can input your iPhone’s serial number into Apple’s repair page to see if you’re unit is eligible. The program covers iPhone 8 units sold up to three years after the first retail sale of the device in September 2017. Those aff...

Sara Haider, Twitter’s director of product management, tweeted a couple screenshots today showing off changes the platform is considering to make things more “conversational.” Their solution? Threaded conversations and status indicators. They make the app look a lot more like Facebook comment threads. hey Twitter. we've been playing with some rough features to make it feel more conversational here. presence and reply threading. still early and iterating on these ideas. thoughts? pic.twitter.com/3U3NvpHWPy — Sara Haider (@pandemona) August 31, 2018 The threading seems fine and like it could make following a conversation easier, just like threading within a user’s own tweets did when that feature launched back in December of last year . The status updates, however, don’t seem great. Imagine knowing President Donald Trump is online! But actually, because of Twitter’s harassment issues, a status update might not be a smart idea when you consider how trolls could use it to ensu...

The Jabra Elite 65t are our favorite truly wireless earbuds , and you can get them for $40 off right now at Best Buy. Regularly priced at $170, both the copper black and titanium black color options are available for $129 . We found Jabra’s Elite 65t to be a good match for those who want more noise isolation than what the Apple AirPods provide. They rest deeper in the ear canal, and the swappable tips let you customize the fit. In terms of sound quality, you’ll get a more bass-heavy sound than Apple’s option. If getting fit is important to you, the more-expensive Jabra Elite Active 65ts feature a motion sensor that can track your workouts, though this option isn’t currently discounted. What helps really set these apart is their durability. Aside from surviving plenty of sweat- and rain-filled workouts during our testing, it’s comforting that Jabra’s truly wireless earbuds are backed by a two-year warranty that protects against malfunction due to sweat or dust.

A victim of the Jacksonville shooting last week that left three dead and 11 wounded has filed a negligent-security lawsuit that targets both EA, the makers of Madden , the game featured in the video game tournament where the shooting took place, and the locale that hosted the qualifier. According to Kotaku , Jacob Mitich was shot twice during the event, and now he’s seeking damages on the basis that EA and the venue “failed to provide a safe and secure environment.” After the shooting, Jacksonville fire marshals shut down the game bar and the pizzeria where it is located , citing a failure to submit building plans that included the game bar as well as three fire code violations. These include blocked exits, using strip plugs as permanent wiring, and using extension cords as a substitute for permanent wiring. Fire Marshal Kevin Jones’ code violation report says that the tragedy “would not have occurred” if the pizzeria had followed the rules because the game room area would not exist....

This week, the New Zealand town of Omaui suggested banning cats to save the native birds . Though cat-lovers are unhappy, the suggestion isn’t as ridiculous as it seems at first glance. First, there are no plans to kill existing pets. Specifically, Omaui councilmembers want owners to neuter, register, and microchip their animals. Fair enough. Then, they’ll be allowed to live out their natural life. But then when they die, that’s it. Residents won’t be allowed to get a new cat to replace the old one, but Garfield is safe so long as he lives. Second, there’s a good reason for this policy. Cats kill birds, and sometimes those birds are endangered. As John Collins, a member of the Omaui Landcare Charitable Trust who suggests the ban put it: “We’re not cat-haters, but we want our environment to be wildlife-rich.” Of course, many local residents and cat-owning residents are displeased. Some say that they feel “ hoodwinked” and others add that they need the cats to get rid of other rode...

He’s a vigilante, a public menace and the star of more than three decades of absurd video games https://www.polygon.com/features/2018/8/31/17803068/a-brief-history-of-spider-man-video-games

“A new iOS update is now available. Please update from the iOS 12 beta.” If you’ve been running the latest version of Apple’s beta software for OS 12, you’ve likely been pestered by this notification a whole lot over the last 24 hours. Dozens of times? Potentially hundreds? Yesterday, it started showing up every time an iOS device was unlocked — or even if you just pulled down the notification tray a little bit. pic.twitter.com/eqr1V54km8 — Mark Gurman (@markgurman) August 31, 2018 Thankfully, just as we enter Labor Day weekend, Apple has shipped another iOS 12 update to restore sanity. If you open up your iPhone’s settings, iOS 12 public beta 10 (developer beta 12) is now available to download. Once you do, the obnoxious, constant alert — about an update that didn’t even exist — will go away. |￣￣￣￣￣￣￣￣￣￣￣ | | A NEW iOS UPDATE | | IS NOW AVAILABLE. | | PLEASE UPDATE FROM | | THE iOS 12 BETA. | | ＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿| (\__/) || (•ㅅ•) || / 　 づ — Mike Rundle (@flyosity) August 3...

Microsoft is officially unveiling the name for its next major Windows 10 update today. Previously codenamed Redstone 5, the “ Windows 10 October 2018 Update ” will arrive at some point in October. It will include a number of new features for devices, like a new cloud clipboard that syncs across machines, a dark File Explorer, an updated snipping tool, improvements to Microsoft Edge, and performance information in the Xbox Game Bar. Microsoft’s naming follows the Windows 10 April 2018 Update that was released earlier this year. Microsoft is expected to conclude development of the October update by the end of September, and it should be available to Windows Insiders by early October followed by regular consumers. Microsoft is now focusing on its next Windows 10 update, codenamed 19H1. This update will likely arrive in April 2019, and the company has not yet revealed which major features will be included. Testing for 19H1 begun in late July , and it’s possible we might see the return o...

YouTubers Logan Paul and KSI punched each other in the face in front of millions of people online and off last week. After weeks of drama and diss tracks , the much-hyped fight took place live in the UK’s Manchester Arena , while hundreds of thousands more either watched a YouTube pay-per-view or an illegal Twitch stream from home. Six days later, the entire fight is finally available for free on YouTube. The pair has already teased a rematch fight that will likely take place in the US. The first event reportedly drew in millions of dollars , both filling the Manchester Arena and scooping up over 800,000 views from users who paid $10 to watch the fight online. Younger siblings Deji and Jake Paul also squared off in the ring; you can watch their bout for free online now as well.

Labor Day is Monday, September 3rd, but you don’t have to wait until then to score some good deals. Major retailers have already started marking down prices on a variety of tech products, and the sales are set to pick up even more this weekend. We’ve listed the best promotions below, and we’ll add more as they surface. Best Buy Vizio 70-inch 4K HDR TV for $799 (usually $1,049) TCL 65-inch 4K HDR 6-series Roku TV for $872 with promo code TCLUPGRADE at checkout (usually $999) TCL 55-inch 4K HDR 6-series Roku TV for $539 with the same code at checkout (usually $599) Nintendo Switch comes with a free 64GB microSD card for $299 Philips Hue Starter Kit comes with $20 gift card and two Amazon Echo Dots for $199 eBay eBay is once again hosting a site-wide discount, but this time you’ll get 20 percent off of any purchase above $25, with a maximum savings of $100. Use the offer code JUSTRELAX at checkout until 3AM ET, September 4th. This one-time-use coupon can be used on pra...

This week, The Verge has been at IFA 2018 , Europe’s big tech event. There are a lot of new gadgets, so Nilay, Dieter, and Paul go through their favorites on The Vergecast. Also, Apple announced its September event this week, and immediately following the announcement, iPhone and Apple Watch leaks surfaced. The crew discusses. And, of course, we have our fan-favorite segments: Liz’s “ This week in Elon Musk ” and Paul’s “ Keyboard-in-the-front club: population 2 ” There’s a whole lot more in between that — like Sonos announcing a geeky new amp — so listen to it all, and you’ll get it all. 01:04 - The Internet of Garbage by Sarah Jeong 02:08 - Apple’s next iPhone event is September 12th 03:24 - Purported iPhone XS image shows gold color and Plus-sized display 15:03 - Leaked Apple Watch Series 4 image reveals bigger display, new complications 25:15 - “ This week in Elon Musk ” with Liz Lopatto 29:30 - IFA 2018: all the biggest news from Europe’s grand tech showcase 29:43 ...

Summer is over, which means it’s that special time of year when streaming services start loading up on scary movies because Halloween is coming. (To be clear, I mean the holiday, not the David Gordon Green-helmed sequel to John Carpenter’s 1978 classic horror flick — though that’s going to premiere in September at the Toronto International Film Festival, so we can get excited for that as well.) Netflix starts things strong, adding Robert Eggers terrifying feature debut The Witch , alongside more pulpy fare like The Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Beginning and The Most Assassinated Woman in the World . Hold the Dark , the new Jeffrey Wright thriller from Green Room director Jeremy Saulnier will be coming to the service in September, but Netflix is also daring to step outside the bounds of horror, adding Ryan Coogler’s Black Panther and the second season of the Marvel series Iron Fist . (Though, depending on your point of view, the latter could also be considered frightening.) The sec...

Well, it was bound to happen. After several consecutive weeks of leaks spilled nearly every detail about its larger Pixel 3 XL counterpart, the first real-world photos of Google’s Pixel 3 have been posted to the Pixel subreddit and republished by 9to5Google . And just as we’d anticipated, the front of the phone looks like a mini Pixel 2 XL; there’s no notch to be seen on this one. The photos also confirm stereo front-facing speakers, dual selfie cameras, and the same rear, all-glass design as the 3 XL (with a matte coating covering a good portion of it). Today’s leak reveals the 5.5-inch display will have a resolution of 2160x1080 and 2:1 aspect ratio. The battery capacity is said to be 2,915mAh. According to screenshots that came from the phone, the two front-facing cameras are each 8-megapixel sensors. One has an aperture of f/1.8, the other f/2.2; it’s believed that Google is taking this two-camera approach to allow for wide-angle shots — and maybe a more secure face authentica...

George Garofano — one of the four hackers who stole and leaked celebrity nudes in the 2014 event that came to be known as Celebgate (and on 4chan as “The Fappening”) — has been sentenced to eight months of prison time. Variety reports , he’ll also face three years of supervised release and 60 hours of community service after he gets out. In total, Garofano hacked more than 250 people, including Kate Upton, Jennifer Lawrence, and Kirsten Dunst. Three other hackers had already been sentenced for their roles in hacking the material that became Celebgate : Ryan Collins, 36, was sentenced to 18 months in prison after pleading guilty to felony hacking and violating the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act ; Edward Majerczyk, 28, pled guilty to the same and was sentenced to nine months in prison . Emilio Herrera, 32, also pled guilty and is still awaiting his sentencing . While the US Attorney’s Office says there’s no evidence that Collins, Majerczyk, or Herrera shared or posted the stolen images ...

It looks like Apple has some big changes in store for the Apple Watch. 9to5Mac seems to have caught an early video stream from Apple that revealed the design of the Apple Watch Series 4, and it looks to have the largest change to date. The Watch’s screen now appears to go nearly edge-to-edge, and the body of the watch seems to be thinner. The larger screen means there’s now room to show even more information, and there appears to be nine complications visible on the new watch face. It’s a ton to look at on a small screen, but the watch’s strength is in glanceable information. Apple has also seems to have tweaked how it denotes an LTE watch: rather than filling the digital crown with a red dot, it now just features a red ring, which is much subtler. 9to5 Mac also spotted what appears to be an additional microphone hole on the right side of the watch and pointed out that the button beneath the crown appears to be more flush with the body of the watch than before. And while the desig...

Garmin saved its reveal of the newest Vivosmart fitness tracker for IFA this year. For the Vivosmart 4, the company is adding a “pulse ox2 oximeter,” which measures the oxygen saturation in your blood. You may have tried an oximeter when a doctor or nurse clipped a little accessory to your finger. In Garmin’s case, the oximeter is trying to determine how well a person is sleeping. It could also figure out whether they stop breathing during sleep, meaning they have sleep apnea. That’s the biggest hardware addition to the tracker, although the company’s also updating its software to build out its sleep-monitoring system, so wearers can check in on their sleep quality once they’re awake. Sleep definitely seems like the focus of this launch. Of course, it measures the other typical things, like heart rate and activities. It should last up to seven days on a single charge, and it pairs with phones over Bluetooth. Wearers will be able to receive notifications and, with Android phones, re...

Bugatti is known for assembling super fast, mind-bogglingly expensive cars by hand. Of course, even if you have the cash, they’re rare enough that you’d probably be better off building your own. According to Lego, that’s apparently possible. The toy brick company announced on Thursday that it built a life-sized working replica of a $2.6 million Bugatti Chiron. Much like its counterpart, the Lego Chiron has some outrageous specs... they just happen to be outrageous in a much different way. The motor — which is also made of Lego — generates only 5.3 horsepower. The car reached speeds of a little more than 12 miles per hour (though it has a “theoretical” top speed of about 18mph ) during test runs, and the whole thing weighs over 3,000 pounds. It takes 20 people six months to put together the 1,800 parts that make up the real Bugatti Chiron . The Lego Chiron took around the same amount of time to build, but it’s comprised of over 1 million Lego Technic pieces, including 2,304 Power...

We present a brief history of the near future https://www.polygon.com/features/2018/8/30/17796680/cyberpunk-2077-history-blade-runner-neuromancer

In 2015, YouTuber Jack Douglass launched Yesterday I Asked You, a series in which he poses a question to his audience and reads the best answers on his channel. Over the past few years, Douglass has released more than 440 episodes of YIAY on his channel Jacksfilms to his 4.3 million subscribers. Now, he’s expanding the popular series into a live game show on Twitch . Douglass announced YIAY Live on his channel, adding that he has no interest in ending the show soon, especially with the 500th episode rapidly approaching. But he became “obsessed” with the idea of a live version that could be played with hundreds simultaneously — a free game that would also grant one winner a prize. The first episode streams on Friday, August 31st at 9PM ET. To play, users will need to create a Twitch account. YIAY Live will run a few times a week, Douglass says, and it operates in five rounds. Douglass will ask a question for participants to answer. He’ll then pick five of his favorites, then everyon...

Jaybird’s updating its X line of workout headphones today with the announcement of its new X4 Wireless Sport . They’re pretty similar to the X3 s, although this time around, the X4s are very much waterproof and sweatproof. The company says they’ve received an IPX7 waterproof rating, which means you can submerge them in a meter of water for up to 30 minutes without damage. You previously couldn’t submerge the headphones at all, but they were water resistant. Of course, you still wouldn’t want to take these swimming with you, and right now, Jaybird doesn’t sell any headphones that would work for that use case. Apart from that addition, there really aren’t any major changes to the product. Like its predecessor, it’ll last for up to eight hours of playtime. It’ll even cost the same as the X3 at $129.99. You can preorder the headphones now through Jaybird’s website , although they’ll go on sale at some point in September.

ZTE can’t resist its notch envy. The company introduced its newest flagship phone — the Axon 9 Pro — at IFA in Berlin today, and, of course, it features a notch along with a bezel at the bottom of the display. It also features vertically aligned dual, rear-facing cameras, a la the iPhone X. The phone looks like a 2018 flagship. Here’s the spec rundown: Snapdragon 845 processor 6.21-inch AMOLED display with 18.7:9 aspect ratio 4,000mAh battery 12-megapixel and 20-megapixel camera sensors in back and 20-megapixel camera sensor in front 6GB of RAM and 128GB of storage Android 8.1 Oreo OS USB-C connector This device is more of an update to the Axon 7 from 2016 as opposed to last year’s Axon M , which folded in half. It’s unclear if ZTE plans to return to the Axon M, or if that was just a random one-off experiment. This phone won’t be coming to the States, but it’ll cost €649 when it goes on sale in September in Europe. As an aside, ZTE also announced its plans for 5G devices a...

In the wake of the Jacksonville shooting , Electronic Arts is donating $1 million to those impacted by the event. The company will also set up a fund to allow others to make additional contributions, as well as hold a Jacksonville Tribute Livestream with members from the community on September 6th. On Sunday, August 26th, a gunman killed two and left 10 more wounded at a Madden tournament in Jacksonville, Florida, before committing suicide. Among those killed were Taylor Robertson and Elijah Clayton, two of the top Madden competitors. EA canceled the final three Madden Classic qualifier events in order to reexamine its safety protocols . “The events last weekend in Jacksonville will impact the gaming community forever,” Electronic Arts said on its site. “We can’t begin to understand the pain so many are going through, nor do we pretend to have all the answers that will help us through the healing process.” The company will release further details on its fund and stream soon. “We’v...

Sennheiser entered the truly wireless earbud market today with the debut of its new Momentum earbuds . They’re Bluetooth-enabled, as you’d expect, and are touch sensitive so wearers can access Siri or Google Assistant directly with a tap. They ship with a charging case that’ll power them for at least 12 hours of listening, according to Sennheiser. The case appears to require a USB-C cable. On their own, they have a four-hour battery life. They’ll be released in mid-November for £299.99. That’s all we know about these buds. They’re clearly at the top of the market in pricing. Even Bose’s SoundSport Free and B&O Play’s E8 cost less, both of which are priced between $250 and $300. Only the Bragi Dash Pro veer into the $300 territory, and those include additional features like activity tracking and live translation. Hopefully Sennheiser adjusts its US pricing to bring it down to its competitors’ price range. Otherwise, these earbuds better be great.

Google’s Titan Security Key is finally available to anyone who wants one. The two-factor token went live today in the Google store , with a full kit available for $50, shipping immediately. The kits include a USB key, a Bluetooth key, and various connectors. The key has been available to Google Cloud customers since July, when the project was first publicly announced . Built to the FIDO standard , the Titan keys work as a second factor for a number of services, including Facebook, Dropbox, and Github. But not surprisingly, they’re built particularly for Google account logins, particularly the Advanced Protection Program announced in October. Because the keys verify themselves with a complex handshake rather than a static code, they’re far more resistant to phishing attacks than a conventional confirmation code. The key was initially designed for internal Google use, and has been in active use within the company for more than eight months. According to Google, the production process...

Samsung is announcing its first commercial 8K TV, the Q900R, at IFA 2018 this week. The QLED panel will be available in 65-inch, 75-inch, 82-inch, and 85-inch sizes, and is capable of peak brightness of 4,000 nits. It also supports the newer HDR10+ format backed by Samsung and Amazon. Given that there is basically zero content available to watch in 8K, Samsung is leaning on upscaling technology for now. The company claims that the Q900R’s “8K AI Upscaling” feature uses artificial intelligence and a dedicated processor to bring images up “to a level compatible with 8K regardless of the original source quality or format,” which sounds somewhat optimistic. The Q900R will go on sale in at least some markets at the end of September, though Samsung isn’t yet saying where or for how much. I would expect the price to involve a number of dollars that is higher than the number of horizontal pixels.

Trump thinks he’s being censored President Donald Trump’s latest grievance is with Google, a company he thinks is censoring search results to favor left-wing media outlets. Over the course of the last two days and starting with Trump’s parroting of a Fox News segment about Google search result bias , the president has intensified his criticism of Silicon Valley — not just Google, but Facebook and Twitter as well. The ensuing news cycle has been befuddling to say the least, as reporters, White House staff and members of Congress scramble to make sense of Trump’s increasingly misleading and unfounded claims of persecution. Here’s the latest updates on Trump’s war against the tech platforms.

President Donald Trump intensified his criticism of Google today, posting a native video of unknown origin to his Twitter account this afternoon claiming the search giant stopped promoting the State of the Union (SOTU) address on its homepage after he took office. It turns out the video he posted is not only misleading, but also contains what appears to be a fake screenshot of the Google homepage on the day in question. In a statement given to The Verge , a Google spokesperson clarifies that the company promoted neither former President Barack Obama nor Trump’s inaugural SOTU addresses in 2009 and 2017, respectively. That’s because they were not technically State of the Union addresses , but “addresses to a joint session” of Congress, a tradition set back in 1993 so that new presidents didn’t have to immediately deliver SOTU addresses after holding office for just a few weeks. Google resumed promoting Obama’s SOTU address in 2010 and continued to do so through 2016, as he held offic...

Twitter tested a feature that suggests users to unfollow, as first spotted by TheNextWeb ’s Matt Navarra earlier today . The test lasted for only a few days, and it has since concluded. “We know that people want a relevant Twitter timeline. One way to do this is by unfollowing people they don’t engage with regularly,” reads a Twitter statement given to The Verge . “We ran an incredibly limited test to surface accounts that people were not engaging with to check if they’d like to unfollow them.” While seemingly innocuous at first glance, Twitter is currently embroiled alongside other social networks and technology companies in a controversy over perceived liberal bias. President Donald Trump and other right-leaning figures claim the platform unfairly persecutes conservative voices and news outlets through practices like shadow banning , verification removal and bans , and algorithmic de-ranking . (The claims have been wildly overstated, using thin evidence and skewed definitions of te...

LG announced a new line of gaming monitors this week at IFA in Berlin. These UltraGear 34-inch monitors have IPS displays with a 21:9 aspect ratio and 3440 x 1440 resolution. The new UltraGear monitors are pretty standard for top-of-line gaming displays, as they sport specs similar to Alienware and Acer offerings. But these screens do mark LG’s latest update in the gaming monitor market, support both Nvidia and AMD GPU display tech, and offer an even wider resolution than previous models. There are two monitors being introduced in the new line. The 34GK950G and 34GK950F are pretty similar, except that the G model has Nvidia G-Sync and a slower refresh rate (120Hz when overclocked) than the F model with Radeon FreeSync 2 and a refresh rate of 144Hz. The G-Sync model also has LG’s Sphere Lighting system, meaning RBG fans might prefer it over the other. Both monitors have borderless bezels and a 1,900R curvature with anti-glare. You can tilt and swivel the monitor to adjust it to the o...