Twitter fined $350K for taking too long to hand over January 6th data Illustration by Alex Castro / The VergeElon Musk’s Twitter was fined $350,000 for refusing to comply with a search warrant on Donald Trump’s Twitter account earlier this year, according to new court documents released Wednesday. The warrant was issued as part of the Justice Department’s special investigation. In January, special counsel Jack Smi…

Cadillac’s Escalade IQ makes all other EVs look small 2025 Cadillac Escalade IQ Sport. | Image: CadillacCadillac’s $130,000 all-electric Escalade IQ is a completely new take on the larger-than-life luxury SUV. Continue reading…

Threads is getting some useful new features Illustration: The VergeThreads, Meta’s Twitter competitor, is getting some new features “this week,” according to a post from CEO Mark Zuckerberg. The new features include the ability to share a Threads post to your Instagram DMs, a way to add custom alt text to photos and videos that you include in posts, and a new “mention button” that lets yo…

It’s Tesla versus everyone else in the race for EV dominance Photo by INA FASSBENDER / AFP via Getty ImagesFor years, Tesla was synonymous with everything cool, high tech, and futuristic. But is it still today? “Teslas used to look cool and now they don’t,” said Jessica Resler, a Brooklyn resident recently shopping for an EV who eventually settled on a BMW i4. “And they’ve become the Uber car of the city….

YouTuber subjects the Galaxy Z Flip 5 to a week of continuous folding to see when it breaks After over 400,000 folds, the phone’s screen developed a pink line along its right side. | Image: MrkeybrdIf you’re wondering how many times Samsung’s latest foldable flip phone, the Galaxy Z Flip 5, might survive when subjected to the stresses and strains of the real world, YouTuber Mrkeybrd has an answer for you: 401,146. Between August 2nd an…

Slack’s biggest redesign ever tries to tame the chaos of your workday Illustration: Alex Castro / The VergeSlack is many things. Which is kind of the problem. The Salesforce-owned company has spent years building a team chat app alongside an alerts system, a file storage system, a knowledge base, and all the other things encompassed by Slack’s “digital HQ” motto. Over time, though, Slack ran out of space, and too …

Patreon podcasters can now use Spotify to distribute exclusive content Image: PatreonPatreon podcasters will now be able to put their premium content in front of millions of Spotify users. A new integration with Spotify is available starting today, allowing podcasters to distribute premium content on Spotify. The feature was first announced earlier this year and is now available to all creators and fans. When a cre…

The Game Boy’s Pokémon Trading Card Game is still unrivaled 25 years later Image: Hugo Herrera / The VergeThe Pokémon tabletop card game has radically evolved since its debut, but Nintendo’s Game Boy adaptation is still a phenomenal crash course in learning how to play. Continue reading…

Sony’s DualSense controllers for the PS5 are still on sale for just $49 The ongoing PlayStation promo drops the price of nearly every color, including the classic white model. | Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The VergeThe PlayStation 5 is fun to play by yourself, but nothing beats some local co-op with a friend. Like most gaming consoles, however, Sony’s next-gen offering only comes with a single controller — which is what…

Banks fined $549 million for hiding messages in iMessage and Signal Wells Fargo will pay the biggest fine in recent US regulatory enforcement actions. | Photo illustration by Rafael Henrique / SOPA Images / LightRocket via Getty ImagesSeveral US financial firms, including multiple Wells Fargo companies, will pay a combined $549 million in fines after admitting they couldn’t produce discussions about company busi…

Verizon is shutting down the videoconferencing app it bought for $400 million Illustration by Alex Castro / The VergeVerizon is shutting down BlueJeans, its Zoom competitor it acquired in the early days of the covid pandemic, as reported by 9to5Google. 9to5Google shared the text of an email received by BlueJeans customers that said that “we have made the difficult decision to sunset our suite of BlueJeans products.” BlueJ…

Barstool Sportsbook operator rebrands as ESPN Bet in a new $1.5 billion licensing deal ESPN Bet pitch and app mockup | Image: Penn EntertainmentAs ESPN’s future drifts in the direct-to-consumer wind, a deal with Penn Entertainment will let the sportsbook rename existing properties, like its Barstool Sportsbook, to ESPN Bet. In return, Penn is scheduled to pay ESPN $1.5 billion over the next ten years, as well as warrants to buy sh…

Google Messages now encrypts RCS conversations by default Photo by Chris Welch / The VergeRCS messages in Google’s Messages app will now be fully end-to-end-encrypted by default, Google announced on Tuesday. It’s a major change that keeps messages private from Google and the carriers, and it marks a big milestone in Google’s ongoing efforts with RCS. Alongside Tuesday’s announcement, Google announced t…

Hackers had access to UK voter data for over a year before anyone noticed Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The VergeA cyberattack that began in August 2021 exposed the personal data of people in the United Kingdom who registered to vote between 2014 and 2022. The attack wasn’t detected until October 2022, the UK Electoral Commission reported today. Attackers would have also had access to data from voters who’d opted …

Joe Biden’s new monument near the Grand Canyon stops some — but not all — uranium mining US President Joe Biden is greeted as he arrives at Grand Canyon National Park Airport in Grand Canyon Village, Arizona, on August 7th, 2023.  | Photo by JIM WATSON / AFP via Getty ImagesThe Biden administration announced the creation of a new national monument surrounding the Grand Canyon in the hopes of protecting it from mining and development…

Microsoft shortens its Xbox Game Pass trials just before Starfield’s release Illustration by Alex Castro / The VergeMicrosoft has shortened its $1 Xbox Game Pass Ultimate and PC Game Pass trials to just 14 days instead of a month, just weeks before the release of Starfield. After running for years, the $1 trial for new Xbox Game Pass Ultimate subscribers stopped in March before returning last month after Microsoft adjust…

Gizmodo editor-in-chief sues Apple over Tetris movie Image: Apple TV PlusGizmodo editor-in-chief Daniel Ackerman has sued Apple and other parties over the 2023 Apple TV Plus film Tetris, alleging it rips off his 2016 book The Tetris Effect. Ackerman claims Apple, Tetris rightsholder the Tetris Company, the Tetris film’s producers, and screenwriter Noah Pink copied “the exact same feel, tone, appro…

Google is picking up the pace of Chrome security update releases Image: The VergeGoogle’s “milestone” Chrome releases in the stable channel that come every four weeks will now be accompanied by weekly security updates (previously biweekly) to help close the “patch gap” between fixes appearing in Canary / Beta releases and when they go out to most users. Bad actors could potentially see what changes are made i…

Baldur’s Gate 3 patch fixes indecent exposure bug Image: Larian StudiosI love it when games give you the ability to choose your genitals. Not because of the glaringly obvious horny reasons but because, when games give you the ability to customize The Goods, it almost always leads to patch notes like the one we got in the latest Baldur’s Gate 3 hotfix. Warning, this will be slightly Not Safe For…

Valve is seemingly gearing up to sell refurbished Steam Decks Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The VergeValve might sell refurbished Steam Decks sometime soon. The creator of the SteamDB database tweeted Monday about “certified refurbished” Steam Decks in all three storage offerings, and deals maestro Wario64 tweeted screenshots of the listings soon after (via Gizmodo). Unfortunately, as I write this, Wario64’s lin…