It’s time to change how we cover Elon Musk Illustration by Kristen Radtke / The Verge; Getty ImagesThis is Platformer, a newsletter on the intersection of Silicon Valley and democracy from Casey Newton and Zoë Schiffer. Sign up here. Today let’s talk about a wild weekend of backtracking at the company formerly known as Twitter — and how it should inform the way we cover Elon Musk and hi…

EU joins threat to Adobe’s $20 Billion Figma acquisition with new probe The EU’s investigation joins similar assessments already underway in the US and UK. | Illustration by Kristen Radtke / The VergeThe European Union is launching an in-depth antitrust investigation into Adobe’s bid to acquire product design platform Figma, warning that the deal could “reduce competition in the global markets for the supply of inte…

Fortnite’s new Jujutsu Kaisen anime collab adds themed outfits and quests Image: Epic GamesFortnite’s new v25.30 update released Tuesday adds a new anime crossover with Jujutsu Kaisen. Alongside some themed outfits you can buy in the shop, the update adds a special series of quests you can complete to earn in-game rewards. And while you’re running around the island while the crossover is going on, you’ll be able to fi…

$5 billion Google lawsuit over ‘incognito mode’ tracking moves a step closer to trial Illustration: The VergeOn Monday, a California judge denied Google’s request for summary judgment in a lawsuit filed by users alleging the company illegally invaded the privacy of millions of people. The people suing Google say that occurred because Google’s cookies, analytics, and tools in apps continued to track internet browsing activity even…

Apple Music launches a Discovery Station to help you find new songs Illustration by Alex Castro / The VergeApple Music has a new station that’s designed to help you find songs you might like. The app’s Discovery Station will play a curated selection of music based on what you’ve been listening to lately but haven’t added to your library or heard before, as spotted earlier by Apple Insider and 9to5Mac. While Appl…

GM’s BrightDrop is bringing its electric delivery vans to Mexico Photo by Andrew Hawkins / The VergeBrightDrop, the electric delivery spinoff of General Motors, is bringing its battery-powered delivery vans to Mexico as its next market. The company now covers all of North America after expanding to Canada last year. The first two products that will be available to customers in Mexico will be the company’s Ze…

Sony is now reportedly streaming PS5 games at 4K over the internet in public beta No, not that Cloud. | Image: Square EnixSony said it was coming, and now it appears to be here. Several gamers say they’ve been invited to a public beta test of PS5 cloud gaming — one that streams games to a PS5 at up to 4K resolution. We didn’t previously know Sony would be streaming at 4K, and it could be a big deal no matter what that “4K” ac…

Apple’s M3 Max MacBook Pro rumored to have 40 GPU cores and up to 48GB of RAM The M2 Max model of the MacBook Pro 16. | Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The VergeOver the weekend, Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman dug into the specs of a Mac Mini in testing with the new generation of Apple Silicon, and today, he’s reporting that in the high-end 16-inch MacBook Pro, at least one version of the M3 Max chip seen in testing contains 1…

Ikea actually got a decent grade for its sustainable shipping goals Container ships moored off the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach in Long Beach, California, on November 16th, 2021, as a historic traffic jam started to ease. | Image: Bing Guan / Bloomberg via Getty ImagesReport cards are out for retailers’ climate goals, specifically when it comes to tackling the pollution from their shipping. Compared to ot…

The Pixel Tablet and Pixel 7 phones are just a few Google gadgets on sale The new Google Pixel Tablet is on sale for $60 off, which is a discount we’ve not seen before. | Photo by Dan Seifert / The VergeFor some inexplicable reason, Google has been discounting its products left and right this week — and other retailers are taking note by matching their prices. Maybe it has something to do with Google’s forthcoming 25t…

Movella brings professional motion tracking to virtual streamers Movella has launched a specialized streaming app for Vtubers alongside motion-tracking hardware that’s a fraction of the price of professional mocap kits. | Image: MovellaMovella, a provider of professional motion capture solutions, has launched Obskur, an all-in-one platform that provides virtual streamers (also known as “Vtubers”) with body tr…

We just lost 3TB of data on a SanDisk Extreme SSD The SanDisk Extreme Pro can shrug off dust and water, at least. | Image: SanDiskIf you’re thinking of buying a SanDisk Extreme Pro, Extreme Portable, Extreme Pro Portable, or WD MyPassport SSD, maybe just don’t. My colleague Vjeran just lost 3TB of video we’d shot for The Verge because the drive is no longer readable. Screenshot by Vjeran Pa…

The Red Cross lifts its blood donor restrictions for men who have sex with men A nurse draws blood from two people at an American Red Cross bloodmobile in Fullerton, California, on January 20th, 2022. | Photo by Paul Bersebach / MediaNews Group / Orange County Register via Getty ImagesThe American Red Cross has fully dropped its blood donor ban on men who’ve had sex with men (MSM) and, starting today, bases eligibility on …

Zoom wants its remote work company to come back to the office Illustration by Alex Castro / The VergeZoom, a company whose name has become synonymous with video chats that have allowed many to work remotely during the pandemic, has told staffers who work within 50 miles of a company office that they’ll have to come back in two days per week, according to Business Insider. “We believe that a structured hybr…

Here’s a collection of gifts you can give mom no matter the occasion Lego’s Wildflower Bouquet is a beautiful gift for mom, one she can easily put together herself. | Image: LegoWhat do you gift your mom? That’s a challenging question to answer, especially given mothers — the generous, unselfish beings they can be — are not likely to spill the beans when asked. Luckily, we’ve done the hard work for you. With th…

Zoom says its new AI tools aren’t stealing ownership of your content Illustration by Alex Castro / The VergeZoom doesn’t train its artificial intelligence models on audio, video, or text chats from the app “without customer consent,” according to a Monday blog post from Zoom’s chief product officer, Smita Hashim. She also writes that “our customers continue to own and control their content.” The company’s handli…

The Little Mermaid lands on Disney Plus in September Image: DisneyThe Little Mermaid is headed to Disney Plus. You can start streaming the live-action remake on the service starting on September 6th. First released in theaters in May, The Little Mermaid stars Halle Bailey as Ariel, Jonah Hauer-King as Prince Eric, Melissa McCarthy as Ursula, and Javier Bardem as King Triton. The movie revisits the…

The latest Call of Duty gets a November release date Image: ActivisionSurprising absolutely no one, Activision Blizzard has announced the latest Call of Duty game. Posts today from developer Sledgehammer Games and the official Call of Duty accounts confirmed Modern Warfare III (not to be confused with 2011’s Modern Warfare 3, of course) will launch on November 10th. The ultimate threat awaits #…

Now you can block OpenAI’s web crawler Image: OpenAIOpenAI now lets you block its web crawler from scraping your site to help train GPT models. In a blog post, OpenAI said website operators can specifically disallow its GPTBot crawler on their site’s Robots.txt file or block its IP address. “Web pages crawled with the GPTBot user agent may potentially be used to improve future model…

TikTok is launching a livestream music competition Illustration by Nick Barclay / The VergeTikTok will host a music contest similar to popular talent shows like The Voice, the company announced today. The competition, called Gimme the Mic, will be held on TikTok livestreams and will incorporate live voting from fans as part of the contest. The competition is split into three portions: audition, …