Apple CEO Tim Cook sent out a memo to Apple employees this morning, thanking them for their support in the company's ongoing standoff with the FBI and reiterating its stance against granting backdoor access to an iPhone used by one of the San Bernardino terrorists. In the memo, o … | Continue reading
HSBC plans to use Touch ID and voice recognition software to verify the identity of its customers in the UK, as the bank looks to replace passwords and security questions with biometric technology. As the BBC reports, the services will launch in the next few weeks at First Direct … | Continue reading
Apple CEO Tim Cook has called on the FBI to withdraw its demand for backdoor access to an iPhone used by one of the San Bernardino terrorists, saying that the debate over encryption, privacy, and national security should instead be settled by a commission of experts. The company … | Continue reading
So, what did you do with your Sunday? We spent it in Barcelona covering the day 1 kickoff of the big Mobile World Congress show. MWC is already shaping up to be a gadget lovers paradise with the launch of the lovely 2-in-1 laptop from Huawei, and the 360-degree cameras and flagsh … | Continue reading
Taylor Swift has donated $250,000 to Kesha, after a New York judge rejected an injunction that would have allowed the singer to record music without Sony Music and longtime producer Dr. Luke. In a statement to Rolling Stone, a spokesperson for Swift said the money would help Kesh … | Continue reading
LG's G5 was only introduced yesterday, but I'm already convinced it is the most polished and complete smartphone that the Korean company has yet built. Unlike its forebears, the G5 grew smaller rather than larger, and LG added features judiciously rather than gratuitously. This c … | Continue reading
It appears that Airbus is working on new ways to make flying more comfortable for overweight passengers. As The Consumerist reports, the aircraft manufacturer has filed a patent application for a "Re-Configurable Passenger Bench Seat," which envisions airline seats not as individ … | Continue reading
Drones are developing so rapidly that the Federal Aviation Authority can't keep up, but most unmanned aerial vehicles are still hamstrung by a limited range, forcing pilots to keep them in view. AT&T and Intel are hoping to change that. The two companies are testing drones on AT& … | Continue reading
Sony's Xperia range of smartphones has always delivered fantastic design, and a new trio of devices announced at MWC today are no exception. The Xperia X, Xperia X Performance, and Xperia XA all have the same premium feeling cases and rounded glass fronts that have been the hallm … | Continue reading
Declassified audio of the Apollo 10 mission has brought attention to a moment when NASA astronauts heard strange "outer spacey" music during their trip around the Moon. While transcripts of these exchanges were released back in 2008, some of the new audio has made it into an upco … | Continue reading
Cyanogen announced a partnership with Microsoft last year to integrate the software giant’s consumer apps and services into the Cyanogen OS. Cortona, Microsoft’s digital assistant, will come pre-installed and "deeply integrated" on the next version of Cyanogen OS as a result. Whi … | Continue reading
Sony announced a line of new accessories at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona today, with the Xperia Ear, a new wireless earpiece, chief among them. The Xperia Ear is similar to Motorola's Moto Hint: it's a small Bluetooth device that provides "useful information such as your sc … | Continue reading
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has reportedly asked Volkswagen to manufacture electric cars in the US, as part of ongoing negotiations concerning the German automaker's diesel emissions scandal. As German newspaper Welt am Sonntag reports, the electric vehicles would b … | Continue reading
ZTE is announcing two new phones in its mid-range Blade line: the Blade V7 and Blade V7 Lite. The more interesting of the two is the Blade V7, which has a full-metal design that's quite attractive, if a bit derivative of other smartphones. It has a 5.2-inch, 1080p display with cu … | Continue reading
Earlier this year at CES we saw Remix OS — an Android fork with desktop features that you can load on to pretty much any x86 computer. Now, the company behind Remix OS, Jide, has announced the release of the software's beta for March 1st, adding support for older, 32-bit machines … | Continue reading
Facebook is now applying its significant computing muscle toward creating maps of where people live and how that affects their internet connections. The maps should help Facebook determine which types of connectivity solutions work best for the 10 percent of the world's populatio … | Continue reading
You can buy things with cash, a credit card, your phone, or even your watch, but the latest initiatives from Visa and MasterCard is to let you buy things with everything else you might carry around on you. At Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, both companies announced further pl … | Continue reading
The actual definition of 5G is likely to remain nebulous for a while, but that isn't stopping Verizon from announcing today at Mobile World Congress that it's already begun testing the tech for its next-generation networks, following through on a 2015 promise to carry out trials … | Continue reading
The image above looks like concept art for a new dystopian sci-fi film. A billionaire superman with a rictus grin, striding straight past human drones, tethered to machines and blinded to reality by blinking plastic masks. Golden light shines down on the man as he strides past hi … | Continue reading
An Uber driver who shot and killed six people on Saturday night in Kalamazoo, Michigan, was picking up and dropping off passengers between his attacks, local news reports. The perpetrator, identified as Jason B. Dalton, killed six and injured two at three locations across southwe … | Continue reading
Obi Worldphone, the company started by former Apple CEO John Sculley, is adding a new phone to its lineup for emerging markets. The MV1 is an unlocked, dual-sim LTE smartphone with a 5-inch display that can run either Android 5.1 Lollipop or Cyanogen OS.Recently, the tech industr … | Continue reading
FBI director James Comey has written a brief op-ed for Lawfare laying out the organization's thinking over Apple's resistance to unlocking an iPhone linked to the San Bernardino shootings. Comey attempts to allay fears that the FBI's request is designed to make it easier to gain … | Continue reading
Google, Microsoft, Facebook, and Twitter have come out against attempts by the FBI to force Apple to unlock an iPhone used by one of the San Bernardino shooters, but now the US government is getting its own heavyweight support. Some of the victims of last December's mass shooting … | Continue reading
Alcatel may be pushing into the high-end of the smartphone market with the new Idol 4 and Idol 4S, but it’s not abandoning the mid-range either. The company has announced a trio of new devices in its Pop series: the Pop 4, Pop 4+, and Pop 4S. The 4 and 4+ offer pretty similar spe … | Continue reading
That HTC A16 you might have heard of turns out not to have been a successor to the HTC One A9, but rather the codename for a pair of new lower-tier smartphones from the company. It denotes the shared industrial design of the new HTC Desire 530 and Desire 630 devices, both running … | Continue reading
You probably haven't heard of the W train. It was a local line that was part of New York City's subway system and ran between Queens and Manhattan (and initially down to Coney Island) from 2001 to 2010, when it was axed due to budget constraints. (The Z train was also scaled back … | Continue reading
Every time I log into Facebook lately I check the Trending tab on the right side of the screen, not because what’s displayed there is particularly interesting or timely — my feed is generally a mix of politics, celebrity microdrama, and incidents of local mayhem — but because the … | Continue reading
So, how much will the Samsung Galaxy S7 and S7 Edge cost you? Verizon, AT&T, T-Mobile, and Sprint have all announced the availability information for the new flagships. Pre-orders start on Tuesday, February 23rd, and the devices will be in stores (or on your doorstep) on March 11 … | Continue reading
The name Cat is usually associated with machinery, so it’s rather fitting that it has the world’s first smartphone with a built-in thermal camera. Announced earlier in the week, it’s on show at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona today, and it offers the first glimpse at this type … | Continue reading
If I had to choose between Garmin's pair of new fitness trackers — the Vivofit 3 and the Vivoactive HR — I'd definitely go for the former. Not just because I'm a persistent slouch, and the heart-rate tracking features on the Vivoactive HR would be wasted on me, but because the Vi … | Continue reading
Facebook has formed an internal team to work on virtual reality, and it's pushing its own 360-degree video technology onto the Gear VR. The company announced today that the new group will research "social VR," including "how people can connect and share using today's VR technolog … | Continue reading
Lenovo has three new budget Yoga notebooks at Mobile World Congress this year. After aiming for the premium crowd with the Yoga 900S at CES last month, the trio of refreshed Yogas today are designed to bring Windows 10 to the more budget conscious. Lenovo is catering for everyone … | Continue reading
Samsung is entering the nascent 360-degree imaging market with a new camera called the Gear 360. The camera was announced alongside the reveal of the Galaxy S7 and S7 Edge this evening at the company's Mobile World Congress event in Barcelona, and it will be available in the seco … | Continue reading
The feeling of silk is what HTC promises with its latest metal smartphone, the HTC One X9. And although no one is going to mistake the device’s body for fabric, its brushed metal back is soft and glossy, making the 5.5-inch 1080p screen feel manageable in the hand. The One X9 was … | Continue reading
Samsung had something to prove with last year’s Galaxy S6 and S6 Edge. It wanted to show the world that it too could make high-end smartphones with great design and premium materials, just like Apple and HTC have done for years. And it succeeded: the S6 models were by far the nic … | Continue reading
Join us as we see what Samsung has in store Continue reading… | Continue reading
After selling its phone business to Microsoft, Nokia had quite the identity crisis.The company remained Finland’s biggest and best-known company, but was a shell of its former self with disparate businesses in mapping, network equipment and patent licensing.CEO Rajeev Suri, who h … | Continue reading
Samsung's Mobile World Congress press event is an hour away, but a new leak has confirmed some of the rumored specifications for the company's new flagship phone. An image of what purports to be the official retail box for the Galaxy S7 Edge features a fairly complete specificati … | Continue reading
At a time when almost no one else is building Windows phones, HP is about to go all in on one: it's today unveiling the Elite x3, a high-end smartphone running Windows 10 that's designed to be your one and only device — smartphone, laptop, and desktop PC.With a 6-inch, quad HD di … | Continue reading
ZTE's Spro line of mini smart projectors have always been curiosities. Combining the functions of a smartphone, projector, mobile hotspot, and USB battery into one chunky device, the Spro (pronounced "ess-pro") units have always seemed like an interesting idea, but with really ni … | Continue reading
This column is part of a series where Verge staffers post highly subjective reviews of animals. Up until now, we've written about animals without telling you whether they suck or rule. We are now rectifying this oversight.There are two types of animals in this world: those that t … | Continue reading
The HTC Vive, which made its big debut at Mobile World Congress last year, returns to Barcelona today with an official $799 price and a February 29th preorder date. Announcing the price of the Vive Consumer Edition a day before MWC's official kickoff, HTC has detailed the full ki … | Continue reading
When he was looking to create a new game for the Famicom Disk System — an add-on for the NES that never launched outside of Japan — designer Shigeru Miyamoto built a prototype in which two players could make their own dungeons, and then explore their friend’s creation. The explor … | Continue reading
Samsung is ready to unveil two new phones at Mobile World Congress today. At its Unpacked event in Barcelona, Samsung is expected to launch the Galaxy S7 and Galaxy S7 Edge. We’ve seen both devices from every angle thanks to a variety of leaks over the past few weeks, but today w … | Continue reading
Mobile World Congress kicks off in Barcelona on Sunday, February 21st, with two flagship smartphone launches: Samsung's Galaxy S7 and LG's G5. Officially, MWC runs from Monday, the 21st of February, to Thursday, the 25th, but whatever else happens at the show in the coming week, … | Continue reading
Huawei has just announced its first 2-in-1 Windows 10 device here at Mobile World Congress, and it's called the MateBook. It's a slick 12-inch tablet that comes with a keyboard case, has really good battery life, and a great display.The MateBook is an excellent looking slab of a … | Continue reading
Today LG introduces its latest flagship Android smartphone, the G5. Launching alongside a raft of accessories and plug-in modules, the G5 will be defined in most people's eyes by its extras, but I think it will be one of the more memorable devices of MWC 2016 simply because it's … | Continue reading
Samsung is getting into the connected car business, but instead of building connectivity into new cars, it's providing a way for owners of older cars to add LTE connectivity to their vehicles. The Samsung Connect Auto dongle plugs into a car's OBD II diagnostic port (most cars bu … | Continue reading