Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge National Public Data (NPD), a company that resells collected personal data for background checks, has confirmed that a data breach leaked names, Social Security numbers, physical addresses, and more. As reported by Bleeping Computer, dark web forum posters have advertised and shared supposedly stolen data from a breach of the company’s systems for months without a statement or response from NPD.Finally, this week, it published a Security Incident page confirming a few details but leaving many other questions unanswered.The incident is believed to have involved a third-party bad actor that was trying to hack into data in late December 2023, with potential leaks of certain data in April 2024 and summer 2024.The information that was... Continue reading…

Image: Marvel After dismissing X-Men ’97’s former showrunner, Beau DeMayo, just before the show’s season 1 premiere, the studio seemed ready to move on with a new creative team. But following DeMayo’s recent claims that Marvel unfairly pulled his credits from X-Men ’97’s upcoming second season, the company says he was fired over the “egregious” findings of an internal investigation.Though DeMayo was fired before X-Men ’97 aired, his name was still going to be included in the show’s upcoming second season because of the preproduction work he contributed to the project. But in a thread posted to his X account on Thursday, DeMayo accused Marvel of stripping his season 2 credits away due to his posting fan art of himself. DeMayo, who is openly gay,... Continue reading…

The Wave 2 heat pump is very capable for its size, but EcoFlow’s absurd marketing sets unrealistic expectations. Continue reading…

Image: Cath Virginia / The Verge A federal judge in New York blocked the upcoming live sports streaming service from Disney, Fox, and Warner Bros. Discovery, siding with streamer Fubo that the package likely violates antitrust law. Fubo argued in an antitrust complaint that the partnership was the culmination of “a years-long campaign to block Fubo’s innovative sports-first streaming business.” The three entertainment companies had sought to create a new streaming service called Venu Sports that would launch this fall and charge $42.99 a month for access to networks across their portfolios, including ESPN, Fox Sports, and TNT. Bundling the sports content from all three companies would put other distributors like Fubo at “an extreme competitive disadvantage,” Fubo said... Continue reading…

Illustration by Cath Virginia / The Verge | Photos from Getty Images OpenAI has banned a string of ChatGPT accounts tied to an Iranian influence campaign that generated and shared content related to the US presidential election, among other topics. The operation mainly used ChatGPT to create longform articles and social media comments for platforms like Instagram and X, according to OpenAI.OpenAI linked the accounts to Storm-2035, a covert Iranian influence operation that has attempted to engage US voters by launching websites disguised as political news outlets. In addition to commentary about the US election on both sides of the political spectrum, OpenAI says the operation generated content about the Israel-Hamas war, Israel at the Olympic Games, politics in Venezuela, and “the rights of Latinx... Continue reading…

Handheld consoles are great, but if you play them for long periods of time, you may find that your arms get a little tired. Fortunately, some companies are working on ways to support your console while you game. Such is the case with the Mechanism Gaming Pillow, which aims to keep your console propped up so your arms don't have to.

Image: Walmart Walmart is ending drone deliveries made with partner DroneUp in Phoenix, Arizona, Salt Lake City, Utah, and Tampa, Florida, because the services in those cities weren’t sustainable, according to Axios. This is after Walmart and DroneUp announced in 2022 that they would be bringing drone delivery to those states as part of a broader expansion. Right now, it costs about $30 to use a drone to deliver a package, but DroneUp wants to bring the cost down so that it’s less than $7, DroneUp CEO Tom Walker told Axios.DroneUp will be closing 18 Walmart delivery hubs in the cities, and 17 percent of DroneUp’s workforce (70 staffers) will lose their jobs, Axios reports. Following the cuts, there will only be 15 Walmart locations — “11 in Dallas, 3... Continue reading…

Why does it look so mean? | Image: Acura Acura has a new EV concept debuting today at Monterey Car Week, featuring an all-new electric vehicle platform developed by parent automaker Honda. Dubbed the Acura Performance EV concept, the vehicle is a crossover SUV with a boat-like front end that resembles the Precision EV concept from 2022, but with a sportback-style rear.The new Acura concept is a representation of an upcoming electric model that is planned for production next year at Honda’s new manufacturing “EV hub” in Ohio. At a media event today, Honda’s global executive VP, Shinji Aoyama, told Motor1 that there’s also a new “NSX-type” electric sports car in the works for “2027 or 2028.”So far, Acura’s only EV in the market is the ZDX, which, like Honda’s Prologue, is built... Continue reading…

A new stipulation in the Team Pixel influencer program is causing a stir among creators. | Photo by Chris Welch / The Verge The tech review world has been full of murky deals between companies and influencers for years, but it appears Google finally crossed a line with the Pixel 9. The company’s invite-only Team Pixel program — which seeds Pixel products to influencers before public availability — stipulated that participating influencers were not allowed to feature Pixel products alongside competitors, and those who showed a preference for competing phones risked being kicked out of the program. For those hoping to break into the world of tech reviews, the new terms meant having to choose between keeping access or keeping their integrity. The Verge has independently confirmed screenshots of the clause in this year’s Team Pixel agreement for the new Pixel... Continue reading…

Image: Apple The multiverse of Apple TV Plus’ Dark Matter is about to get bigger as the show heads into its second season. Apple announced on Friday that Dark Matter, Blake Crouch’s adaptation of his own 2016 novel about a physicist who gets sucked into multiple alternate realities, has been renewed for a new batch of episodes. In a statement about the renewal, Crouch thanked the city of Chicago (where the series is set and was filmed) and described how “in the process of writing and filming season one, we discovered that there’s so much more story to tell.”Especially with more seasons of shows like Severance and Silo on the way, the renewal is yet another sign of Apple really leaning into science fiction for its streaming platform. Though Dark... Continue reading…

The Gaming Pillow features a cushioned base supporting a device mount on top. | Image: Mechanism Doomscrolling isn’t going away any time soon, but there’s no reason you can’t be comfortable while doing it. Mechanism’s $59 Gaming Pillow is designed to shift the weight of gadgets like handheld consoles, tablets, XL smartphones, and e-readers from your arms to your lap. With a 12-inch pillow made from lycra fabric filled with foam granules as its base, the Gaming Pillow looks like a miniature bean bag chair and should be malleable enough to stay upright even when plopped down on uneven surfaces.It’s primarily designed for use on your lap to keep an attached console in arm’s reach and playable, but if even lifting your arms feels like a Herculean task, you can prop the pillow up on its own next to you in bed and go truly hands-free to... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Instagram is testing a potentially major change to profile pages: making the squares in your profile grid vertical rectangles. Some users recently spotted the test, and there have been indications from at least 2022 that the company has toyed with a rectangular grid.“The vast majority of what is uploaded to Instagram today is vertical,” Mosseri says in an Instagram story from Friday discussing the test. “It’s either 4 by 3 in a photo or 9 by 16 in a video, and cropping it down to square is pretty brutal.”Mosseri notes that “squares are from way back in the day when you can only upload square photos to Instagram,” a limitation Instagram removed all the way back in 2015. Mosseri also knows that this profile change might be annoying for... Continue reading…