Technology

Epic’s Fortnite has more than 350 million registered players, the game developer announced on Wednesday. That makes the free-to-play battle royale game one of the most popular titles ever made, ranking up there with the ubiquity of Minecraft and some of the most downloaded mobile and free-to-play PC games of the last 15 years. While we have no indication as to how many players log in every day or month, as Epic doesn’t release those stats, the studio did say that in April alone, players logged 3.2 billion hours of Fortnite. The last player count stat we heard from Epic was about 250 million in March 2019, indicating that the game is still growing a year later and more than two and a half years after its initial release. That’s partly due to the game being so readily available on all platfo...

Lawmakers have introduced a multibillion-dollar plan to fight child sexual abuse, particularly on the internet. The Invest in Child Safety Act would authorize spending $5 billion over 10 years to expand anti-child abuse divisions at the Federal Bureau of Investigation, let the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC) hire more investigators and therapists, and increase funding for the state- and local-level Internet Crimes Against Children task forces. The bill would also establish a White House anti-abuse office to oversee and coordinate the process, and it would double the length of time that tech companies need to preserve evidence of abuse, from 90 to 180 days. This bill is being sponsored by Sen. Ron Wyden (D-OR) in the Senate and Rep. Anna Eshoo (D-CA) in the House ...

The animals at the Oregon Zoo, like many of us, are taking life during coronavirus-induced lockdown one day at a time. The zoo closed to the public on March 17th, and since then, zookeepers have shared adorable and hilarious sneak peeks into life on the inside. We follow a lot of zoo and farm cams at The Verge — like these big cats and baby goats. But the critters at the Oregon Zoo, so far, have been the most relatable. Take this cub in a tub: This is me gracefully trying to keep my head above water, practice self-care, and prioritize my wellness in the time of coronavirus. It is also me in high school PE trying to be cool and look good in the pool (key word: trying). Then there’s Kaya the harbor seal who, like me, longs for the days before Mariah Carey memes when Carey’s classics were the...

Facebook is testing a new app to expand internet access in developing countries. The app, called Discover, provides users with a balance of free browsing data provided by several mobile partners. Facebook is running the first trial in Peru, but it plans to launch in a number of other countries in the future, including Thailand, the Philippines, and Iraq. Users will receive free data from their provider each day and will get a notification when it’s available. Discover only provides low-bandwidth browsing — so you can load text on a website but not video, audio, or other data-intensive elements. (If you want to stream, you can purchase additional data to do so.) You don’t need a Facebook account to use Discover. Facebook also claims that the app doesn’t collect users’ browsing histories “in...

Today’s best deals are, as usual, a mix of returning favorites and some new ones that we’ve picked up along the way. While we featured some big-ticket items yesterday, today’s roundup is focused more on practical additions to your home that won’t cost a whole lot. One such product is the Ring Peephole Cam, which is cheaper for readers of The Verge with an exclusive offer code from Daily Steals. Instead of $130, which is the current price at Amazon, you can snag one for yourself for $107 with the offer code VERGERBELL used at checkout. Compared to Ring’s video doorbells, this one has an actual peephole you can peek through when someone is at the door. Sometimes, this is just faster than trying to get the Ring app to load and show you who’s waiting outside. It’s really easy to install — that...

Along with the slew of other Surface-related announcements Microsoft made today — including the Surface Book 3, Surface Go 2, and more — the company is also introducing a new Surface Dock 2 docking station and a standalone USB-C travel hub. The Surface Dock 2 is not much of a design departure from Microsoft’s original model, which launched a handful of years ago; it’s basically a minimalist black slab. That said, it’s absolutely packed with USB-C ports — four of them, to be precise. Two replace the previous pair of Mini DisplayPort ports for transmitting video to a monitor, while the set on the opposite side of the Dock 2 can be used to connect or charge any other USB-C devices you have. Image: Microsoft In addition to its fleet of USB-C ports, the Dock 2 also has an Ethernet jack, a headp...

Microsoft is launching its Surface Book 3 today, with a big promise of 50 percent more performance than its predecessor from more than two years ago. There are no big design changes this time around, and there will still be two size options: a 13.5-inch model or the larger 15-inch version. It’s disappointing to not see any design tweaks, but there are some important changes under the hood that should improve performance all around. The Surface Book 3 will ship with Intel’s latest 10th Gen processors, with the base 13.5-inch model starting at $1,599 for a quad-core Core i5, and the 15-inch version using a quad-core Core i7 processor priced starting at $2,299. While the most basic 13.5-inch model will include Intel’s built-in Iris Plus graphics, there will be an option to move up to an Nvidi...

Microsoft’s new Surface Book 3 is here, with an update that keeps the design largely the same as the previous model but overhauls the internal specs up to the top standards of what you’d expect from a 2020 laptop. The new laptops — once again, available in 13.5-inch and 15-inch sizes — promise improvements of up to 50 percent compared to their predecessors, with options for discrete Nvidia GTX 1650 Max-Q graphics cards on the 13-inch model, and the GTX 1660Ti on the 15-inch. (Enterprise customers will also have the option of the Quadro RTX 3000.) The processors have also been upgraded to Intel’s 10th Gen Ice Lake chips for better performance and battery optimization. The new Surface Book 3 models also can charge faster and offer the option to configure with up to 32GB of RAM for more deman...

Microsoft has announced the Surface Go 2, an upgrade to 2018’s Surface Go, and this new version packs a lot of new features, including a larger 10.5-inch display, a camera app for the rear-facing camera, and improved battery life. The Surface Go 2 also starts at $399.99, making it affordable enough for people who may just want a cheap Windows computing machine without the more expensive bells and whistles of a Surface Pro or Surface Pro X. The Surface Go has a lot of competition, however, and its rivals have similar screen sizes and lower prices. Apple’s $329 entry-level iPad was updated last year with a 10.2-inch screen size and a connector that lets you attach a Smart Keyboard to it. Amazon refreshed the Amazon Fire HD 10 tablet in 2019 as well, and that costs just $149.99. Samsung annou...

The biggest story of today is the creeping sense that April was in many ways another lost month in the COVID-19 response, with the average number of new cases rising slightly throughout the month to around 29,500 per day. Large swathes of the country are preparing to re-open for business even as all signs point to the likelihood that, for all of our collective efforts to send the novel coronavirus into decline, it merely plateaued. Charlie Warzel raised the grim and yet wholly plausible prospect that Americans will simply normalize COVID-19 deaths the way they have normalized deaths from gun violence. A few hours later the president all but confirmed it. Around here we’re generally most interested in the push and pull between platforms and governments. But everything the platforms are work...

HyperX teamed up with popular mechanical keyboard maker Ducky to make a new limited edition colorway of its compact, 60 percent-sized Ducky One 2 Mini. In addition to splashing this keyboard with a matte black frame surrounding the keys and a glossy cherry red hosing on the bottom, it utilizes HyperX’s Red linear mechanical key switches. Each of those switches is covered in Ducky’s durable keycaps, which are said to maintain their grippy texture and their key label despite long-term use. This model costs $109.99, and you can pick it up through HyperX’s online store starting on Tuesday, May 12th. Only a total of 3,700 units will be made. Photo by Cameron Faulkner / The Verge In terms of niceties, the One 2 Mini has plenty of them. This keyboard plugs in via a USB-C to USB Type-A cable, so i...

Twitter is showing some iOS and web users a new interface to make it easier to follow threaded conversations, the company has announced. A gif published by Twitter’s Support account shows the new test interface in action, with lines and indents making it much easier to see who’s responding to who in a Twitter thread. The functionality first came to Twitter’s prototype app twttr last year, and builds upon the iOS update released back in January. The changes are an attempt to make back and forth conversations “easier to read and follow,” according to the company. Current Twitter conversations can quickly become crowded and difficult to understand, especially when dozens of users are responding to each individual tweet in a conversation. It means that even a high-profile interview with Twitte...