Technology

A viral phishing scheme is targeting people across the country with scammy text messages claiming to be from the United States Postal Service (USPS). Now, QAnon conspiracy theorists have jumped into the fray, falsely claiming the scheme is tied to human trafficking, as reported by Insider. There’s no evidence to suggest this is true. The rumor has spread on Facebook and Instagram, echoing the Wayfair conspiracy theory that went viral earlier this summer. Unlike the Wayfair conspiracy, however, the USPS myth is obfuscating a real phishing threat. The scam involves text messages that claim to have information about a USPS delivery. To find out more, people have to click a link. On Twitter, security researcher Eric Ellason said the link goes to the domain m9sxv.info, which then redirects to j...

Apple’s next major software upgrades for the iPhone, iPad, Apple Watch, and Apple TV are almost ready. At today’s “Time Flies” event, the company announced that iOS 14 and iPadOS 14, along with the latest watchOS and tvOS updates, will start rolling out on Wednesday, September 16th. As of today’s event, app developers hadn’t yet received the completed golden master (GM) builds of these updates, so Apple’s software release schedule seems oddly rushed. But hey, new features are coming. iOS 14 brings widgets to the iPhone home screen for the first time, gathers all of your apps into a new App Library, and adds picture-in-picture mode (which had already been available on iPads). There’s also a new Translation app. iPadOS 14 won’t let you put widgets anywhere you want on the home screen, but it...

Apple revealed that it has sold more than 500 million iPads over the last 10 years. The announcement was made by CEO Tim Cook during Apple’s “Time Flies” live stream event, in which the company revealed a pair of new Apple Watch devices and an updated base model iPad and new iPad Air. This is the first time Apple has disclosed how many iPads it’s sold after the company said in November 2018 it would no longer reveal unit sales of iPhones, iPads, and Macs in its quarterly earnings reports. The new eight-generation base model iPad announced today sports a 10.2-inch screen and an A12 chipset, first seen in the iPad Air and iPad mini models released last year. The new iPad Air announced today comes with the new A14 Bionic chip and design more closely resembling that of the iPad Pro. You Deserv...

Apple announced two new Apple Watch models at its “Time Flies” online event today: the high-end $399 Series 6 and the more affordable $279 Apple Watch SE, which serves a step up from the $199 Series 3. Both will release this Friday, September 18th, and if you’re interested in buying one of them, you can place a preorder starting today. The Series 6 comes in a few new colorways and finishes, and it has more power with its S6 processor and an improved always-on display. Apple noted that this Watch is 20 percent faster than the Series 5 Watch, and it has more sensors than previous models. Notably, it can detect the blood oxygen levels in your body. The Apple Watch SE is a more affordable option that looks similar to the Series 6, but it doesn’t have brand-new sensors or features. It’s simply ...

Apple announced a new iteration of its popular baseline iPad, now in its eighth generation. It’s $329 and ships with the A12 Bionic processor. You can preorder that model today, and it will ship this Friday, September 18th. In terms of spec upgrades, the bump from the A10 with last year’s model to the A12 Bionic is a significant leap in speed. If you held out from buying the seventh-gen version, this new iPad seems fast considering its $329 price tag. It still ships with a minuscule 32GB of storage, and for $100 more, you can increase it to 128GB. You might also want to preorder the new Apple iPad Air. The one that looks more like an iPad Pro that features USB-C charging and is the first Apple product to ship with the A14 Bionic processor. It’s going to cost $599 when it launches sometime ...

Fortnite will hold its next in-game concert on Saturday, September 19th, with Anderson .Paak set to perform, Epic Games announced today. The show is the latest in its Spotlight concert series. Epic built a soundstage specifically for its series, the first of which took place last week with Dominic Fike. While Anderson .Paak will be performing live at the Party Royale Spotlight soundstage in Los Angeles, players can watch the concert in the game’s Party Royale social space. The live show will kick off at 5PM ET, with replays later that night at 11PM ET and on Sunday, September 20th at 1PM ET. Anderson .Paak is the latest in a growing lineup of artists who’ve performed in Fortnite, including Travis Scott and Marshmello. Epic plans to announce its next artist later this month, with more artis...

The next generation of game consoles is on the way, but the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X / S might not just be bringing better graphics and more advanced technology. The new consoles could also usher in a higher price for games themselves, with the $60 norm that’s been a standard since 2005 potentially going away. That’s not necessarily a problem, according to Take-Two Interactive CEO Strauss Zelnick, who defended the idea of a next-generation price increase in an interview with Protocol. “The bottom line is that we haven’t seen a front-line price increase for nearly 15 years, and production costs have gone up 200 to 300 percent. But more to the point since no one really cares what your production costs are, what consumers are able to do with the product has completely changed,” said Ze...

Disney has debuted the first look at The Mandalorian’s second season just days after announcing the show will return on October 30th. The trailer seems to pick up where the first season of The Mandalorian left off, with the Mandalorian and Baby Yoda (or “the Child”) traveling across the galaxy. A voice over ominously talks about “stories of eons past” describing great battles between the Mandalorian and “an orderer of sorcerers known as Jedi.” Exciting! Fans of The Star Wars live-action series have been concerned the show wouldn’t hit its previously announced October release date. The coronavirus pandemic shut down production on a plethora of TV shows and films around the world. But Disney CEO Bob Chapek has reiterated multiple times over the last few months that The Mandalorian was still ...

Razer’s Opus wireless, over-ear headphones with active noise cancellation are 10 percent off their usual price. Normally $199.99, this brings them down to $180. It’s the first time we’re seeing these headphones discounted, and Verge readers can get this exclusive deal over at Razer by adding the Opus to your cart, then putting the offer code VOXOPUS10 in at checkout. I reviewed the Opus, and for a company that doesn’t have much experience in the consumer headphones space, I was impressed with the performance and value. Their design is understated, and the sound quality was better than I expected. Their long battery life with USB-C charging is an extra perk. If you don’t want to spend upward of $400 on noise-canceling headphones, these are a solid place to start. The OnePlus 7T is $400 at W...

On the eve of the deadline for ByteDance to sell TikTok, there was much movement and little certainty. The whole thing seemed to come down to three words — “trusted tech partner” — and no one I’ve spoken to seems to know what they mean. The most recent events were set in motion on Sunday afternoon, when ByteDance announced that it had rejected Microsoft’s bid to acquire TikTok in favor of an extremely vague partnership with a 43-year-old enterprise software company. The gist seems to be that Oracle would store American TikTok users’ data and keep it secure, but the app itself would continue to be owned and operated by ByteDance. It could also include voting control over by TikTok by its US-based investors, the New York Times reported. Oracle and Walmart are both separately negotiating for ...

Adobe is updating both Premiere Pro and After Effects today with some pretty nice quality-of-life features, but the most exciting are the new 3D transform tools for After Effects. The new feature will combine position, scale, and rotation into one easy-to-use tool, mimicking what other professional 3D applications like Cinema 4E, Maya, and Blender have been providing users for years. Users can also focus on one type of property for greater precision. GIF: Adobe As someone who has worked in After Effects for over a decade now, these updated 3D tools (aka gizmos) are long overdue and appreciated. Having all three tools directly accessible in the viewport is fantastic. Besides being easier to use and more precise, matching the UI philosophy of other applications will make switching between pr...

Facebook today pledged to slash greenhouse gases and purchase enough renewable energy and offsets to cancel out carbon dioxide emissions from its global operations this year. Facebook is, however, still pumping out greenhouse gases. The social media giant is also setting a more ambitious target for 2030 The company’s new pledge to reach “net zero” carbon emissions puts it on track to offset its global power consumption and planet-heating pollution by investing in renewable energy projects and initiatives that capture and store carbon dioxide. The social media giant is also setting a more ambitious target of reaching net zero emissions for its supply chain, employee commuting, and business travel by 2030. That puts Facebook in the middle of the pack when it comes to climate commitments from...