The EU is testing a prototype age verification app
The European Union is piloting a blueprint for age verification apps in Denmark, Greece, Spain, France, and Italy that aims to make it easier for online platforms to comply with rules that require them to protect minors. The app prototype was announced on Monday alongside guidelines that online platforms are recommended to adopt in order […]
Reddit is rolling out age verification in the UK
Reddit users in the United Kingdom will now be blocked from accessing “certain mature content” unless they complete the platform’s new age verification process. Reddit announced on Monday that UK users will need to upload a selfie or a photo of their government ID in order to view content that’s restricted for under-18s by the […]
Can Nextdoor overhaul itself to be useful?
In an era of social media-based restaurant reviewers, local neighborhood influencers, and an urgent need for trustworthy on-the-ground reports during moments of crisis, a crowdsourced hyperlocal platform like Nextdoor seems like a no-brainer. Yet something wasn’t clicking. Some people were installing Nextdoor and finding a flood of irrelevant updates and notifications. Others were realizing that, […]
Superman is a box office hit, but the hard part comes next
Over the weekend, DC Studios’ new Superman feature became this year’s third-biggest box-office debut in the US. The movie’s success is a sign that theatergoers might actually not be quite as tired of superheroes as people tend to think, and that’s particularly notable for Warner Bros., given the studio’s plan to build a new cinematic […]
Elon Musk’s AI bot adds a ridiculous anime companion with ‘NSFW’ mode
Ani, one of Grok’s AI companions. People who pay for access to SuperGrok can now try the AI chatbot’s new “Companions” avatars, xAI owner Elon Musk announced Monday morning. The companions available currently include Ani, an anime avatar, and Rudy, a cartoony red panda. Ani also has what TestingCatalog describes as an “NSFW” mode where […]
Wordpilled slangmaxxing: how incel language infected the mainstream internet — and brought its toxicity with it
This excerpt from Adam Aleksic’s Algospeak: How Social Media Is Transforming the Future of Language has been abridged for online publication. The book is out on July 15th. The modern-day incel is entirely an invention of the twenty-first century. Before the internet, lonely men simply didn’t have a way to gather and share ideas. That […]
Where are the iPhone’s WebKit-less browsers?
It’s been 16 months since a DMA ruling allowed iOS developers like Google and Mozilla to use their own browser engines in the EU, so… where are they? According to the Open Web Advocacy (OWA) — a nonprofit group of software engineers that advocates for the open web — Apple continues to place technical and […]
Now Jack Dorsey has built an app to track your vitamin D
Sun Day will estimate how long you can safely stay in the sun based on the UV index and your skin type. Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey has released a new app that tracks your sun exposure and vitamin D levels. It’s his second app in a week, after last weekend’s encrypted peer-to-peer messaging app Bitchat. […]
Google exec: ‘We’re going to be combining ChromeOS and Android’
Google’s head of Android has said that the company plans to combine its mobile operating system with ChromeOS, the software that currently runs across Google’s Chromebook laptops. Sameer Samat, president of Google’s Android ecosystem, told TechRadar that “we’re going to be combining Chrome OS and Android into a single platform.” Samat, who’s responsible for Android’s […]
Foldables are in and suddenly really thin
Hi! Welcome to Installer No. 89, your guide to the best and Verge-iest stuff in the world. My name is Jay Peters, and I will be taking care of Installer while David is on parental leave. All of us here at The Verge are very excited for him and his family, and he’ll be back […]
