Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge Republican Commissioner Brendan Carr is calling on the Federal Communications Commission to investigate Apple’s response to Beeper Mini — the app that briefly brought iMessage to Android. During the State of the Net Conference on Monday, Carr said the FCC should look into whether Apple’s move “complies with the FCC’s Part 14 rules” about accommodating users with disabilities.Beeper Mini launched last year, allowing Android users to gain access to iMessage features, including blue message bubbles and the ability to send high-quality photos and videos. However, Apple quickly blocked Beeper Mini users and continued to shut down attempts to make the app work, leading its developers to eventually just give up.Today, I called for the @FCC... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge In an email sent to users Monday evening, Peloton revealed that starting February 27th, it will start transitioning Apple Watch users from GymKit to Peloton One-Tap tracking. GymKit integration was once marketed by Peloton as an exclusive perk of its more expensive Bike Plus, but it’s become less of a draw in recent years. The company launched an Apple Watch integration in 2022 that brought Apple Watch calorie and heart-rate tracking to any Peloton machine, similar to many other fitness apps.As a result, if you linked your Peloton to an Apple Watch more recently, you may not even notice the change. The company has been directing users to only use GymKit if they haven’t installed the latest software updates on their machines. ... Continue reading…

Image: The Verge Were you aware that the “.af” domain extension is administered by Afghanistan’s government? That’s a truth that the “queer.af” Mastodon instance is now reckoning with as the Taliban, which has controlled the country since 2021, has shut down the domain, according to 404 Media. And it may not be alone, given reports that other .af domains have abruptly gone dark, too.Erin Shepherd, the administrator of the instance and key ActivityPub developer, told the outlet they were already planning “to shut things down” instead of renewing in April, but that the early termination was a surprise. An email from the Afghanistan Ministry of Communications and IT that Shepherd posted said that the queer.af domain had been suspended and that websites or... Continue reading…

Image: NFL A crane shot slowly sweeps down toward a massive, billowing rose-red cape attached to someone playing an equally red grand piano. As the camera closes in on the figure, you realize it’s Alicia Keys, playing the descending triplets that begin “If I Ain’t Got You,” one of her earliest and biggest hits. Her voice, as smooth as ever, eases in with a shortened version of the hums that begin the original recording, then she starts belting out the chorus lyrics... and her voice cracks immediately.That’s how Keys’ surprising (and brief) cameo during Usher’s Super Bowl 2024 performance kicked off if you were watching live. But those who didn’t watch wouldn’t know it now without reading social posts about it or news stories like this AV Club one,... Continue reading…

Nothing’s last phone, the Phone 2. | Photo by Allison Johnson / The Verge Nothing has announced a March 5th launch date for its upcoming Phone 2A in a new video posted today, and has confirmed that it’ll be available in the US as part of a “Developer Program” rather than a widespread, official release. No specs, images, or pricing of the device were revealed — for that we’ll have to wait for the full announcement next month when we’ll also get full details of Nothing’s developer program. The event will take place at 11:30AM GMT (6:30AM ET), the company confirmed on X.The Developer Program sounds like a similar release approach to the one Nothing took with its original Phone 1, which came to the US as part of a “Beta Membership” that saw interested customers pay $299 to “test” the phone. In contrast, last... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Amazon has confirmed it’s not a mistake — your Amazon Prime Video subscription no longer includes Dolby Vision HDR or Dolby Atmos surround sound. That’s on top of the ads that Amazon injected into the service on January 29th. Now, when you pay $2.99 a month to remove those ads, you can get Dolby Vision and Dolby Atmos back as well. That’s the word from 4KFilme, which discovered that their smart TVs from Sony, LG, and Samsung were now displaying content in HDR10 with Dolby Digital 5.1 as opposed to the higher fidelity options they’d enjoyed previously. Amazon spokesperson Katie Barker confirms to The Verge that it’s a deliberate move: “Dolby Vision and Dolby Atmos capabilities are only available on the ad free option, on relevant... Continue reading…

The Halcyon is a sleek roadster with a lot of interesting things to say about Chrysler’s future | © 2024 Stellantis Chrysler, on the cusp of turning 100 next year, used to make a variety of models but is now a brand mostly known for its Pacifica minivans. But today, the company is attempting to make a bold statement about its future by introducing a concept car that is about as far from a minivan as you can get.The Chrysler Halcyon concept is a stunning, high-tech roadster with an electric powertrain and fully autonomous capabilities. And while the automaker doesn’t have any immediate plans to put it into production, the Halcyon is intended to demonstrate that the minivan company is doing more than just sitting around and thinking about, well, minivans. Image: © 2024 Stellantis “We want Chrysler to be advanced, for sure,”... Continue reading…

Lyft is expanding Women Plus Connect, an in-app feature that matches women and nonbinary drivers with women and nonbinary riders, to all US cities. The rideshare service initially launched the initiative in five cities last fall, with the goal of both improving safety and recruiting more female and nonbinary users. Over 2.4 million riders have activated Women Plus Connect since its rollout, according to Lyft’s press materials. Drivers aren’t required to participate in Women Plus Connect if they don’t want to, and if no nearby passengers matching the profile are available, the app will match with a male passenger. Nearly half of Lyft’s eligible pool of drivers in the eight cities have opted to use the feature. Female and nonbinary... Continue reading…

Image: Microsoft With rumors of some Xbox games coming to PS5 and Switch, Microsoft gets ready to lay out its vision for the future of Xbox. Continue reading…

Superlist is for tasks — and all the other stuff that comes with them. | Image: Superlist If you’re a lover of to-do list apps, there’s a good chance you miss Wunderlist. A decade ago — when apps that were both useful and delightful were even harder to come by — Wunderlist was both full of useful features and whimsical in a way few apps manage. The app had nice animations, beautiful backgrounds, worked across platforms, and offered all kinds of organizational features. It was The Verge’s favorite to-do list app.Then, long story short, Microsoft bought it in 2015, morphed it into Microsoft To Do (a very good and much less delightful tasks app), and killed Wunderlist forever. But a group of the folks who made Wunderlist in the first place, led by co-founder Christian Reber, set out to bring its spirit back to life.Three years... Continue reading…

AMD FreeSync is an adaptive synchronization technology designed to reduce screen tearing and stuttering in games by allowing a compatible monitor to dynamically adjust its refresh rate to match the frame rate output by the graphics card. This results in smoother gameplay and improved visual performance, particularly in fast-paced games. Nvidia's equivalent is called G-Sync, and you may be wondering whether FreeSync is compatible with Nvidia cards, and the short answer is yes, though there are caveats to that.

Collins spacesuit during the test | Collins Aerospace Collins Aerospace, a private company hired to create spacesuits for use outside the International Space Station (ISS), has tested its suit aboard a commercial microgravity flight, passing a milestone that lets engineers move forward toward critical design review. NASA outsourced the design of new spacesuits in 2022 after spending 15 years trying to develop new suits on its own. Collins Aerospace said the suit is lighter and has less volume than the “enhanced” Extravehicular Mobility Units that current NASA astronauts use. It can be modified when missions change and fit a much wider range of body types far more easily than the older suits that are based on designs that are decades old.During the test, the plane executed... Continue reading…