Illustration by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge In March, Microsoft notified the US Department of Veterans Affairs that it was impacted by the security breach that enabled the Russian hacking group known as “Midnight Blizzard” to steal some of the company’s source code, reports Bloomberg. Already assigned blame for the earlier SolarWinds attack, the group has been accused of spying on email accounts of Microsoft’s senior leadership team and attempting to use the secrets obtained there to create additional security breaches.The VA department found that Midnight Blizzard used a single set of stolen credentials to access a Microsoft Cloud test environment around January. VA officials told Bloomberg that the account was accessed for just one second, presumably to see if the credentials... Continue reading…

Samsung makes some of the best smartphones, and if you're looking for a good smartwatch to pair with yours, you have quite a few options. The Apple Watch might be the best smartwatch overall, but some excellent wearables are on the market today for Android fans (a few of which are made by Samsung). Other brands like Garmin, Withings, and Google also offer fantastic smartwatches, so you don't have to limit yourself to the Galaxy Watch family. But no matter what style you prefer or which features you want, these are the best smartwatches to pair with your Samsung phone.

Just don’t expect it to rival an iPad in terms of functionality. | Image: Amazon Let’s face it: Apple’s slates seem to get all the attention when talking tablets (and understandably so). However, you don’t necessarily need to spend $1,000 on an iPad Pro or even $350 on an entry-level model if all you need is a cheap entertainment device for watching The Boys, reading, or burning through your latest audiobook. Amazon’s latest Fire HD 10 tablet will get the job done for a lot less — especially since it’s currently on sale for Amazon Prime subscribers for an all-time low of $74.99 ($65 off) in its ad-supported base configuration.The 2023 Fire HD 10 isn’t going to blow you away with an OLED display or a laundry list of premium features, though it is a step up from some of Amazon’s low-end models. The inexpensive tablet... Continue reading…

Image: Kristen Radtke / The Verge Roku has made my TV unusable.On June 6th, my TCL TV’s Roku OS was updated to version 13.0.0. Ever since, on everything I watch, there is motion smoothing — a TV and film purists’ deepest nightmare. There is no way to turn it off.In the updated OS, Roku added a feature called Roku Smart Picture, which, according to its release notes, “automatically improves picture quality dynamically as users stream.” While Roku doesn’t explicitly mention motion smoothing, or what Roku calls “action smoothing,” the update has made it so that I and many others with Roku TVs see motion smoothing, regardless of whether the picture setting is Roku Smart Picture or not. My TV didn’t even support motion smoothing before this. Now, I can’t make it go away.If... Continue reading…

Sunny. | Image: Apple Just like last year, the hot summer months of 2024 are turning out to be an excellent time for science fiction fans. There are a number of sci-fi series that either just wrapped up, are in the middle of a season, or are set to premiere soon. Perfect for ignoring the heat of the outdoors for the substantially cooler worlds of space and the future. And this is a lineup that could potentially grow even more, as Apple has been teasing the return of both Severance and Silo sometime soon. In the meantime, plan your next few months of streaming time accordingly with this list.Scavengers ReignStreaming on Max and NetflixThis animated series actually premiered on Max last year but made its way to Netflix on May 31st. It’s unlike anything else... Continue reading…

Photo by Sheena Vasani / The Verge An ongoing outage is preventing Amazon Kindle users from downloading both new and previously purchased books to their e-readers. According to moderators responding to users reporting the issue on Amazon’s support forums, the company is aware of the issue and is “currently working to resolve it.” Attempting other troubleshooting steps, like resetting the device, has not fixed the problems, so users may need to wait this one out for now.Good e-Reader reported the problem on Wednesday, noting a response from Amazon support saying it’s the result of “server issues” and that “it would be at least 48 hours before ebooks started downloading again, but it could be longer.”The Verge has contacted Amazon for details, and we will update this post... Continue reading…

It should be less of a farce to unlock the next generation of Google Pixel phones. | Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge Google’s upcoming Pixel 9 lineup will reportedly feature a faster, more reliable ultrasonic fingerprint scanner, according to Android Authority. It would replace the optical under-display fingerprint sensor that Google introduced on the Pixel 6 with the newer technology that’s capable of reading even wet or oily fingerprints.The switch could also address some of the widespread issues that users have experienced when trying to unlock their Pixel devices, with some people saying that light levels and finger dryness can impact the reliability of the previous optical reader. Optical scanners are the oldest method of reading fingerprints. They work by flashing light against the user’s finger and then visually detecting patterns and ridges... Continue reading…

In the consumer space, high-end PCs and their components are designed for gaming first and foremost. Server rigs, on the other hand, are built primarily for enterprises and are fine-tuned for industrial workloads. Although server-grade systems can cost thousands of dollars, even an affordable mainstream PC can surpass a premium server in gaming benchmarks.

You’re not getting enough for the $750. This is meant to be the best Polar’s got, but it has no business being this expensive. Continue reading…

After August 6, Nike Adapt owners won’t be able to download the accompanying mobile app any longer. | Photo by Felicia Shivakumar / The Verge Despite the ongoing popularity of the Back to the Future trilogy that inspired the self-lacing tech found in the HyperAdapt 1.0 and Air Mags, Nike has announced that it’s “no longer creating new versions of Adapt shoes.” Now, the Adapt BB mobile app used to control the $350 third iteration of Nike’s self-lacing sneakers will disappear from Google Play and the iPhone App Store next month.Without the app, owners can use the physical buttons on the sneakers to power them on and off, check battery status, tighten or loosen the laces, and save a single preset, but there will be no way to adjust the shoe’s lighting.The power laces on the Nike Adapt BB basketball shoes, which were worn by athletes like Jayson Tatum and Luka Doncic, were... Continue reading…

A USB hub can be an important accessory if you're frequently finding yourself running out of ports on your desktop, laptop, or other devices. Of course, if you're going to commit to such a device, it's always best to grab one that's compact and offers lots of ports. Now, while there are a variety of different options available, we think this one from Falwedi is going to suit your needs well, thanks to its 14 ports and alluring price point. For a limited time, this USB-C hub is now 49% off, driving the price down to its lowest ever for a limited time.

Samsung's Galaxy Watch 6 series has bigger batteries, larger screens, and even a better chipset, among other things, over the last-gen models. This particular series also marks the return of the Classic model with a rotating bezel. That's right, the Galaxy Watch 6 Classic comes with a rotating bezel, which was last seen on the Galaxy Watch 4 Classic a couple of years back.