How the Trump administration could ‘ban’ TikTok

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

The Trump administration is apparently considering a ban on Chinese social media apps, including the popular video app TikTok. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo mentioned the possibility on July 7th, saying it was “something we’re looking at” in a Fox News interview with Laura Ingraham — and on July 31st, President Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One that he planned to personally ban the app using his own authority, instead of potentially forcing its Chinese owner to divest it.

The comments could easily have been bluster. But Pompeo also compared TikTok to Huawei and ZTE, two companies that have suffered very real consequences after drawing US government ire. With tension rising between the US and China, Trump trying to ban TikTok...

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Donald Trump claims he will ban TikTok in the US

Earlier today a report surfaced indicating the Trump administration may force TikTok’s Chinese owner ByteDance to sell the app to a US company.This evening, reporters in the White House press pool have said via Twitter, that the president told them o...

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OnePlus reclaims the throne in India’s premium smartphone market

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Oppo Reno 4 Pro launches in India: A tough sell for the price?

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Chrome’s autofill is getting more secure and convenient

You’ll be able to use security options like a fingerprint to enter credit card details. | Image: Google

Google is updating its Chrome browser to let you automatically enter saved passwords and credit card details into forms more easily and securely, the company has announced. The browser will now use biometric authentication like a fingerprint to autofill credit card details without having to ask for your three-digit CVC each time, and a new dialog box will let you pick from a list of saved account credentials to sign into a website without having to tap into individual form fields.

As well as offering convenience, both features are designed to make transactions more secure on the web. Biometric security makes it harder for someone to make an online purchase if they have access to your device. You’ll still need to enter your CVC the first...

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TikTok has a bold new plan to win over regulators

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

Programming note: It’s time for our summer vacation! The stretch between January and today is the longest uninterrupted period we have ever written The Interface, and so we’re taking a break to recharge. We return August 17th.

On any other day, the memo that Kevin Mayer published Wednesday might have been the talk of the tech world. TikTok’s new CEO, who was thrust into a crisis over the future of the Chinese-owned app from the moment he took the job, has quickly emerged as the company’s top diplomat.

In his blog post, he came bearing economic gifts for the country that is currently blocking his app from federal and military devices, and threatening to ban it completely — as India recently did. Mayer promised to expand a fund for...

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'Halo Infinite' team on graphics criticism: 'we do have work to do'

343 Industries has responded to fan concerns that Halo Infinite, the next instalment in the beloved shooter franchise, doesn’t look particularly ‘next-gen.’ In a blog post, community manager John Junyszek said the team in Redmond had “heard the feedb...

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The best smart shades: These luxurious window treatments blend high tech with high fashion

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We tested an eGPU in some of 2020's biggest games

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The Oppo Watch is a beautiful Apple Watch clone, and it’s launching globally

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Halo Infinite multiplayer will be free-to-play and up to 120fps, leaks reveal

An Irish retailer has revealed that Halo Infinite’s multiplayer mode will be free-to-play and support up to 120fps. Smyths Toys Superstores briefly posted details (Google Cache) about Halo Infinite multiplayer on a promotional page this week before quickly removing them once the internet discovered the references.

“The legendary Halo series returns with the most expansive Master Chief campaign yet and a groundbreaking free-to-play multiplayer experience,” read the listing. “Enjoy up to 120 FPS and greatly reduced load times creating seamless gameplay with Xbox Series X.”

The listing on Smyths Toys Superstores.

Klobrille, an Xbox leaker that accurately revealed previous Halo Infinite details, backed up the claims that...

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Twitter enforces its new hate policy by banning David Duke

Twitter has banned notorious white supremacist David Duke, enforcing a new policy against hate speech links it introduced earlier this month. “The account you referenced has been permanently suspended for repeated violations of the Twitter Rules on h...

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We asked, you told us: The iPhone SE cameras slap the OnePlus Nord

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Who wouldn’t want their Echo Dot to look like Baby Yoda?

Image: Otterbox

There are plenty of things I could tell you about Otterbox’s new stand for the third-generation Amazon Echo Dot smart speaker. I could tell you about its “durable materials” or how it’s designed to “securely” hold on to your Echo device. The Amazon listing even claims its “precision-fit, non-slip base” is “engineered for optimal audio output.”

But you and I both know that none of that really matters, because what’s really important here is that this base adds little tiny Emmy-nominated Baby Yoda* ears to the sides of your Echo Dot. If you want to pretend that you’re actually speaking to The Mandalorian character every time you ask Alexa to set a timer, then this is (probably) the easiest way to do it.

Image: Otterbox ...

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Oppo launches mid-range Reno 4 Pro for $470

Oppo has announced the Reno 4 Pro for international release. It’s a mid-range phone that isn’t a million miles away from sister company OnePlus’ new Nord in specs, design, and pricing.

The Reno 4 Pro has a matte back panel with a gradient design and a glossy finish on the quad camera bump. It feels very thin and light by today’s standards, at 7.7mm thick and 161g. The camera bump bears the legend “INNOVATIVE QUADCAM” in capital letters, which is a pretty amusing thing to write on a camera bump, but otherwise this is an attractive device.

The phone looks good from the front, too, with a 6.5-inch 90Hz 1080p AMOLED screen with the slightest of curves on the edges. Unlike other curved screens, this panel doesn’t stretch right...

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Google tightens Chrome's autofill security with biometric checks

Google has rolled out a couple of security tools to protect the financial info and passwords you saved with Chrome’s autofill feature. One of them will allow you to verify your identity using biometric information, such as your fingerprint, whenever...

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Amazon gets FCC approval for its Project Kuiper broadband satellites

The FCC has unanimously approved Amazon’s Project Kuiper, giving the tech giant the go-ahead to deploy and operate a constellation of 3,236 satellites. Amazon asked the FCC for permission to launch thousands of Low Earth Orbit satellites in July 2019...

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This could be our first look at the Redmi K30 Ultra

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Google is now making it easier to find Black-owned businesses

Google is launching a new tool that allows businesses to identify themselves as Black-owned through the company’s Maps and Search listings. The new feature is part of the company’s pledge announced last month to support the Black community with “initiatives and product ideas that support long-term solutions.”

When searching for a business through Google.com or Google Maps, you’ll now be able to see a new badge to represent Black-owned businesses — it’s a black heart over an orange three-striped background, like the one you can see in these images. They need to claim their business on Google and verify they own it by mail, phone or email before they can apply for the badge; it’s not clear how or whether Google can actually tell if...

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When should you expect to receive the Android 10 update? (Updated July 31)

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After Starship test fire Elon Musk expects 150m hop 'soon'

Elon Musk’s hopes for Starship to reach orbit before this spring didn’t quite pan out, but a recent test firing has the SpaceX CEO expecting to see the company’s new vehicle take flight shortly. On Thursday he tweeted that its new SN5 build completed...

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Twitter pins its July 15th breach on a phone spear phishing attack

Two weeks after a massive breach saw hackers take over some of the most prominent accounts on Twitter — including Barack Obama, Elon Musk, Joe Biden and Bill Gates — the company has published more details about how it happened. While a number of peop...

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Twitter says a spear phishing attack led to the huge bitcoin scam

Illustration by Grayson Blackmon / The Verge

Twitter provided an update about the unprecedented July 15th attack that allowed hackers to tweet from some of the most high-profile accounts on the service, in a blog post and a series of tweets published Thursday evening. Twitter now says that a few employees were targeted in a phone spear phishing attack. While Twitter doesn’t quite say, that presumably means hackers called up Twitter employees while posing as colleagues or members of Twitter’s own security team, and got them to reveal the credentials they use to access internal systems.

Twitter had previously said its own tools were compromised in the attack, but up until this point, the company hadn’t specified how that had happened. “This attack relied on a significant and...

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In the pandemic economy, tech companies are raking it in

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

From a pure entertainment perspective, I am genuinely sorry that the House’s antitrust hearing targeting the big four tech companies — Amazon, Apple, Facebook and Google — took place Wednesday instead of next week. Because literally a day after a meeting attempting to determine if Big Tech was too big, three of the four companies in the hearing got bigger. (Google’s parent company, Alphabet, had a decline in revenue of about 2 percent, mostly due to a decline in search ads — but this was still better than analysts predicted.)

None of these companies wanted their earnings numbers read aloud to them before questioning began

The hearing was about how tech companies have consolidated their power. The coronavirus seems to be making that...

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10 of the most relaxing games for Android

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Microsoft’s Edge browser is crashing if you have Google set as default search

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Microsoft’s new Edge browser is randomly crashing when users type into the address bar tonight. The issues appear to be affecting Edge users who have selected Google as the default search engine. Microsoft says it’s aware of the problems and the company’s Edge team is investigating.

Microsoft recommends turning off Search Suggestions in edge://settings/search. The Verge has tested this workaround and it solves the problem if you have Google set as your default search engine.

Are you seeing Edge crash when trying to type into the address bar? The team is looking into it! In the meantime, as a workaround, please turn off Search Suggestions here: edge://settings/search. We'll follow up once we have more!

— Microsoft Edge Dev (@MSEdgeDev) J...

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How to remedy these five annoying Android issues that a restart won't cure

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We asked, you told us: The OnePlus Nord is, indeed, hot

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Google One will backup iOS or Android devices for free

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Google One, the cloud storage service that Google launched back in 2018, will now backup your iOS or Android phone for free with your Google account. The iOS app will be able to backup your photos, videos, contacts and calendar events, consolidating what’s offered by different services like Photos and Drive into one place, Android Authority notes. Meanwhile the Android app, which could already backup a range of files from your phone, will now offer backups without a Google One membership.

Along with backing up your files, Google One is also being updated to make it easier to manage which files are being stored. This storage management feature is available from either the app or the web, and will let you manage files saved from Drive,...

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How to watch NASA launch its next rover to Mars today

On Thursday morning, NASA is scheduled to launch its next rover to Mars, the beginning of a years-long mission to figure out if the Red Planet ever hosted life. The rover, called Perseverance, is equipped with instruments to look for evidence of ancient Martian microbes, but its prime goal is to excavate samples and leave them on Mars — so that one day they can be returned to Earth for study. There’s even a tiny helicopter aboard named Ingenuity.

Perseverance’s ride to Mars is the Atlas V rocket, made and operated by the United Launch Alliance. Atlas V rockets have previously flown four NASA missions to Mars, including the Curiosity rover, which landed on the Red Planet in 2012. For this flight, the rocket is equipped with four small...

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Samsung Galaxy Z Fold2 leak shows improved hinge design

Samsung’s upcoming Galaxy Z Fold2 has leaked out in full, high-resolution glory with a more sophisticated design and robust-looking hinge. The renders, found by MySmartPrice (via Android Police) show that Z Fold2 has completely lost the original Fold...

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Apple Store app's 'For You' tab shows personalized shopping suggestions

Apple has updated its Store app for iOS and iPadOS with a new tab that shows all the devices linked to your Apple ID along with shopping suggestions based on that list. As 9to5Mac notes, tapping on the tab shows an overview of the iPhones, iPads and...

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From motion blur to audio zoom, here’s what Google could soon bring to Pixels

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Galaxy Z Flip 5G now up for preorder if you’d rather not wait for the Note 20

Image: Samsung

Samsung’s Galaxy Z Flip 5G, the 5G version of the foldable phone it released earlier this year, is now available for preorder as an unlocked device on Samsung.com. Prices start at $1,499.99, a $70 premium over the previous LTE version. Along with 5G connectivity, that price gets you a slightly upgraded Snapdragon 865 Plus processor. Otherwise, the two phones are almost identical.

Samsung is widely expected to announce a host of new devices at its Galaxy Note 20 Unpacked event on August 5th, including the new Galaxy Z Fold 2. The Z Fold is a tablet-sized device that folds to become the size of a smartphone, while the Z Flip is a more traditional flip phone device that folds in half to become more compact. The Z Fold 2 will reportedly also...

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Has the Nord made the OnePlus 8 irrelevant?

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Report: Huawei eclipses Samsung as the world’s biggest smartphone maker

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Qualcomm results suggests the 5G iPhone will be slightly delayed

Qualcomm reported its Q3 2020 earnings on Wednesday (PDF), and of course the company informed investors about how the transition to 5G may boost its business. Also, it’s signed a global patent licensing deal with Huawei that apparently isn’t affected...

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Playing 'Flight Simulator' at home feels like meditation

Hummm. That sound has been playing on a quiet loop at the base of my brain for the past few days, propping up all of my other thoughts with soothing white noise. It’s the background tone of Microsoft Flight Simulator, which I’ve been playing in previ...

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'Microsoft Flight Simulator' will support one VR headset this fall

Microsoft Flight Simulator is heading to VR devices, starting with a launch on the HP Reverb G2 this fall. The VR version will be free for anyone who owns the game and it’ll come to additional headsets in the future, but Microsoft hasn’t shared an ex...

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Xiaomi, Qualcomm could be bringing PC-like game settings to a future phone

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Samsung's unlocked Galaxy Z Flip 5G is now available for pre-order

The unlocked 5G version of Samsung’s Galaxy Z Flip is now available for pre-order on the company’s website, and you could score a pretty nice discount. For a limited time, you can get a credit worth up to $650 — instead of just up to $410 — towards a...

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Huawei overtakes Samsung as world’s biggest smartphone vendor, says report

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For the first time ever, Huawei has shipped more smartphones worldwide over a quarter than any other company, according to a new report from analyst firm Canalys. Huawei has long harbored ambitions to overtake Samsung as the world’s biggest smartphone seller, and going by the numbers from Canalys, that’s just what happened during the April-June period this year.

That doesn’t mean Huawei will hold onto the top spot for long, as the results were clearly influenced by the ongoing pandemic. Canalys’ figure of 55.8 million Huawei smartphones shipped is actually down 5 percent year-on-year, while Samsung slid 30 percent to 53.7 million. More than 70 percent of Huawei’s devices are now sold in China, which hasn’t been hit as hard by COVID-19 as...

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What Amazon, Google, Facebook and Apple have in common

On Wednesday, lawmakers squared off with the chief executives of the tech industry’s four most powerful players, Amazon, Apple, Facebook, and Google. Even though each company is under antitrust scrutiny for different reasons, the committee used this week’s hearing to point out similarities between all four, making the case for future regulatory reform.

Since last June, lawmakers have been engaged in a sweeping antitrust investigation into the tech sector, honing in on how some of the most notable names in the industry have grown too big by allegedly stifling competition. Lawmakers have heard hundreds of hours of testimony and obtained over one million documents throughout their investigation, a process that made it difficult for CEOs...

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Samsung’s profits are up despite COVID-19 pandemic

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Samsung posted better than expected earnings for the second quarter of 2020, with operating profit up 23 percent year-on-year to 8.15 trillion won ($6.84 billion) despite a 6-percent fall in revenue. The Korean conglomerate says it experienced a greater recovery from the impact of COVID-19 than it had initially forecast and managed to optimize its expenditure, even though sales of devices like smartphones were down from last year.

Samsung expects smartphone sales to rise next quarter due to the launch of the Galaxy Note 20 and an unnamed foldable phone, likely the leaked Galaxy Z Fold 2. Its display business, which supplies panels for other device makers, saw demand fall but had earnings boosted due to a “one-time gain.” This is...

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GMC teases its 1,000HP electric Hummer truck and SUV

Just as LeBron James is getting ready to take the court again for NBA games in Orlando, GMC has released a new advertisement featuring the basketball star teasing its upcoming EV. The video reveals both truck and SUV versions of the Hummer, which has...

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Samsung looks forward to quantum dot TVs, new game systems and phones

Samsung released its earnings results for between April and June and despite the pandemic, the company’s operating profit jumped 23 percent from the same time last year, reaching $6.81 billion even as its revenue dropped. As more people shifted to wo...

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Netflix is bringing back Black sitcoms Moesha and Sister Sister, and I cannot contain my excitement

Photo by Walt Disney Television via Getty Images Photo Archives/Walt Disney Television via Getty Images

Spread the word: Netflix has secured the rights to stream some of the best Black sitcoms from the 90s and 2000s — including my personal favorites Moesha, Sister Sister, and The Parkers, all of which I fondly remember watching as a little girl. I still remember running to my room to turn on the TV, singing the R&B theme songs for each show (they were so energetic and catchy that I memorized the lyrics word by word), and how amazing it was to see TV sitcoms targeted to my demographic. There weren’t a ton of black TV shows, with black female leads taking charge, that focused on things I personally struggled with growing up.

I was pretty young when these three shows had their initial runs (I was born in 1995), but thanks to reruns...

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The Emmys will be held virtually this year and may feature nominees in their homes

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The 72nd Primetime Emmy Awards will be an all-virtual event due to the COVID-19 pandemic, a representative confirmed to The Verge, and it sounds like the new format could lead to peeks inside the lives of some of your favorite television stars, according to a letter from the executive producers (and host Jimmy Kimmel) that was published by Variety. USA Today also obtained a copy of the letter.

“We are assembling a top notch team of technicians, producers and writers to work closely with Jimmy Kimmel and with you and your team to make sure that we can film with you (and loved ones or whomever else you choose to be with) at your home, or another location of your choice,” reads part of the letter, which was reportedly sent to nominees...

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Big Tech’s hearing in Congress didn’t provide any real answers

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WhatsApp could finally let you mute those pesky group chats forever

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