Marvel Snap is back online in the US after access was cut off Saturday night due to the law that banned TikTok and other ByteDance-owned apps. The game’s current publisher, Nuverse, is owned by ByteDance.
In a post published Monday evening, the game’s developer, Second Dinner, says that it plans to bring “more services in-house” and “partner with a new publisher” to prevent a similar situation from happening again. The same message is also showing up when you play the game, as shown in a screenshot posted on Reddit.
The game is still unavailable on the App Store or Google Play. The Steam listing is still live.
WHEW. MARVEL SNAP is back online in the U.S. But to make sure this NEVER happens again, we’re working to bring more services in-house and partner with a new publisher. This is the start of a new era for MARVEL SNAP.
TikTok restored service after about half a day of being offline, though the app is still absent from app stores. President Donald Trump signed an executive order on Monday refusing to enforce the law banning TikTok and other apps owned by ByteDance, The Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act, for 75 days, but companies still may face risks if they don’t follow the law.
President Donald Trump signed an executive order signaling his intention to eliminate the Biden administration’s electric vehicle policies, which he has falsely labeled a “mandate.” Trump also signed an order signaling his intent to weaken tailpipe emission standards, which would be a major blow to the environment.
The orders were among a barrage of executive actions taken by Trump in the immediate aftermath of his inauguration Monday, as he set to work undoing some of the accomplishments of the Biden administration. He also declared a “national energy emergency” in a move meant to weaken environmental standards and allow corporations to pollute more freely.
(e) to eliminate the “electric vehicle (EV) mandate” and promote true consumer choice, which is essential for economic growth and innovation, by removing regulatory barriers to motor vehicle access; by ensuring a level regulatory playing field for consumer choice in vehicles; by terminating, where appropriate, state emissions waivers that function to limit sales of gasoline-powered automobiles; and by considering the elimination of unfair subsidies and other ill-conceived government-imposed market distortions that favor EVs over other technologies and effectively mandate their purchase by individuals, private businesses, and government entities alike by rendering other types of vehicles unaffordable;
Later, he says he’ll stop funding for electric vehicle charging:
(a) All agencies shall immediately pause the disbursement of funds appropriated through the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 (Public Law 117-169) or the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (Public Law 117-58), including but not limited to funds for electric vehicle charging stations made available through the National Electric Vehicle Infrastructure Formula Program and the Charging and Fueling Infrastructure Discretionary Grant Program, and shall review their processes, policies, and programs for issuing grants, loans, contracts, or any other financial disbursements of such appropriated funds for consistency with the law and the policy outlined in section 2 of this order.
And he says he is directing his agency heads to identify regulations that “impose an undue burden” on “consumer choice of vehicles” — a likely reference to tailpipe emission standards:
Immediate Review of All Agency Actions that Potentially Burden the Development of Domestic Energy Resources. (a) The heads of all agencies shall review all existing regulations, orders, guidance documents, policies, settlements, consent orders, and any other agency actions (collectively, agency actions) to identify those agency actions that impose an undue burden on the identification, development, or use of domestic energy resources — with particular attention to oil, natural gas, coal, hydropower, biofuels, critical mineral, and nuclear energy resources — or that are otherwise inconsistent with the policy set forth in section 2 of this order, including restrictions on consumer choice of vehicles and appliances.
Trump routinely railed against an imaginary “EV mandate” during last year’s presidential contest, promising to reverse policies aimed at making electric vehicles less expensive for consumers. No such mandate exists, but he’s targeting regulations that incentivized EV sales while slashing greenhouse gas emissions.
Among the policies in Trump’s crosshairs are the federal tax credits for the purchase of a new or used EV. Biden also earmarked over $7 billion from the Inflation Reduction Act for the expansion of EV charging infrastructure, as well as billions in manufacturing credits for companies building EV factories and battery facilities.
In loosening tailpipe emissions, Trump is essentially giving the green light to automakers to produce more polluting vehicles. And it wouldn’t be the first time either. During his first term, Trump directed the Environmental Protection Agency to weaken emissions standards that were put in place by the Obama administration.
But the auto industry has already spent billions of dollars on EV development, and they are likely to continue to do so. EV sales have slowed down over the last few years, but EVs remain popular among shoppers. In 2024, US consumers bought 1.3 million EVs, an increase of 7.3 percent from the prior year, according to Kelley Blue Book and Cox Automotive. The figures do not include hybrids. EV market share was 8.1 percent of sales of US cars and light trucks, an increase of 0.3 percent.
While Trump starts the process of unwinding Biden’s EV policies, he also gestures at ramping up mining efforts, especially for “non-fuel minerals, including rare earth minerals.” Those materials are used in advanced weaponry, electronics, energy and transportation technologies, including electric vehicles — and is likely the reason Trump has shown interest in Greenland, with its abundance of rare earth minerals.
Burning fossil fuels like gasoline and diesel release carbon dioxide, a greenhouse gas, into the environment. These emissions have been proven to cause climate change, which supercharges extreme weather like wildfires, hurricanes, and flooding. Transportation, including personal vehicle usage, accounts for about 28 percent of all US greenhouse gas emissions, according to the EPA.
Illustration by Cath Virginia / The Verge | Photo from Getty Images
President Donald Trump has issued an executive order telling the Department of Justice to not enforce a rule that demands TikTok spin off from its Chinese parent company ByteDance or face a ban.
The order, issued on Trump’s first day of office, is meant to effectively extend the deadline established by The Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act for ByteDance to sell its stake by undercutting penalties on American companies like Apple and Google working with TikTok. It directs the Attorney General “not to take any action to enforce the Act for a period of 75 days from today to allow my Administration an opportunity to determine the appropriate course forward in an orderly way.” The AG is supposed to “issue a letter to each provider stating that there has been no violation of the statute and that there is no liability for any conduct that occurred.”
The order furthermore instructs the Department of Justice to “take no action to enforce the Act or impose any penalties against any entity for any noncompliance with the Act” and says they should be barred from doing so “for any conduct that occurred during the above-specified period or any period prior to the issuance of this order, including the period of time from January 19, 2025, to the signing of this order.”
President Donald Trump shared his views on TikTok as he signed executive orders in the Oval Office on inauguration day. #news#tiktokban#trump#donaldtrump
Trump, who issued an executive order banning TikTok during his first term in 2020, is now trying to circumvent a bipartisan law that took effect January 19th. He posted on Truth Social before taking office that he was “asking companies” to keep working with TikTok, a move that could mean risking hundreds of billions of dollars in fines if Trump’s assurances don’t stand up in court. TikTok briefly went down on Sunday but quickly came back online — though it was removed from Apple and Google’s app stores and has not come back.
It’s unclear whether Trump can legally pause the TikTok ban. The law allowed for a 90-day extension if ByteDance announced a sale to a non-”foreign adversary”-based company before the deadline, but not only has no such sale been announced, it’s legally ambiguous whether the extension can be used after the 19th. Trump, in any case, isn’t so far using the deadline — he’s just attempting to override the law.
Despite that reassurance, it still may not be enough to convince service providers covered by the law to reinstate TikTok. As many legal experts have pointed out, those companies could face up to about $850 billion in potential penalties for violating the law — which was passed by a bipartisan Congress, signed by former President Joe Biden, and upheld by the entire Supreme Court. The government could act on any potential violation even five years after it happens — and an executive order doesn’t change that, though it might help give the companies a slightly better due process defense to fight it. Companies still might not risk litigation over such a large potential fine, though they may also be wary of raising Trump’s ire by refusing to work with TikTok.
On top of all this, the rule the order says it’s “not intended to, and does not, create any right or benefit, substantive or procedural, enforceable at law or in equity by any party against the United States,” which makes it even less reliable as a defense for companies.
Trump also declared on Sunday that the US government will own 50 percent of TikTok through an unexplained “joint venture” with a private company. It remains unclear how this would work.
Donald Trump has once again taken the US out of the landmark Paris climate agreement, abandoning the global effort to limit climate change. Trump signed an executive order today to exit.
The Paris accord was adopted in 2015, committing nearly 200 countries including the US to working together to stop global average temperatures from rising much higher than they have already. 2024 was the hottest year on record, beating the previous record set in 2023.
Exiting the Paris agreement “is in clear defiance of scientific realities and shows an administration cruelly indifferent to the harsh climate change impacts that people in the United States and around the world are experiencing,” Rachel Cleetus, policy director and lead economist for the Climate and Energy Program at the Union of Concerned Scientists, said in an emailed statement.
Our planet’s climate has stayed relatively stable for the last 11,000 years or so, supporting the rise of agriculture and civilization as we know it, until the industrial revolution. The Paris agreement aims to keep global temperatures within roughly the same temperature range, preventing warming of more than 1.5 to 2 degrees Celsius.
Trump took the US out of the Paris accord the last time he was in office. Former President Joe Biden recommitted upon stepping into office in 2021. Now, the US will join Iran, Libya, and Yemen as the only countries not on board with the international agreement. It’ll take one year from the date the Trump administration sends notification to the United Nations before US withdrawal from the Paris agreement will be official.
Brendan Carr is now formally the chair of the Federal Communications Commission, giving him the power to set the agency’s agenda and usher through a host of regulations with major implications for the tech and media industries as soon as he has a Republican majority.
In a statement, Carr named a few areas of focus: “issues ranging from tech and media regulation to unleashing new opportunities for jobs and growth through agency actions on spectrum, infrastructure, and the space economy.”
Carr’s priorities might also be gleaned from a document you might have already heard about: Project 2025. That’s because he authored the FCC chapter of the Heritage Foundation’s wishlist for a Donald Trump presidency. In that chapter, Carr proposes actions including: limiting immunity for tech companies under Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, requiring disclosures about how platforms prioritize content, requiring tech companies to pay into a program that funds broadband access in rural areas, and more quickly approving applications to launch satellites from companies like Elon Musk’s StarLink.
Carr also wrote about protecting the US from security threats stemming from China, including by addressing “TikTok’s threat to national security.” Whether that’s something Carr takes up as chair now seems more in doubt, as Trump has changed his tune on the app’s danger to the US. While Trump was the first to try to ban TikTok from the US, he’s now positioning himself as its savior — putting China and TikTok hawk Carr in a tricky position.
The new FCC chair has also indicated that he could use his power to revoke spectrum licenses for networks over their decisions to host speech, when he deems it a violation of the equal time rule. This came up in a scuffle about NBC’s hosting of Kamala Harris on “Saturday Night Live” before the election — though the network seemed to comply with the rules for giving candidates similar time and placement on public airwaves by offering Trump an appearance on air later on.
Regardless, Carr will need a third Republican vote on the commission to approve any measures that are not bipartisan in nature. Trump has nominated Mark Meador, a former staffer to Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT), to join the commission, pending Senate confirmation.
Trump’s pick to lead the Federal Trade Commission is also now in place. Andrew Ferguson, who was already serving as a commissioner, has a reported agenda that echoes parts of Carr’s. It includes a desire to “hold big tech accountable and stop censorship,” and also to “protect freedom of speech and fight wokeness.”
Vivek Ramaswamy has stepped down from co-leading President Donald Trump’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), according to the Associated Press. The official line as to why Ramaswamy is moving on is that he plans to run for elected office — he reportedly intends to run for Ohio governor.
“Vivek Ramaswamy played a critical role in helping us create DOGE,” spokesperson Anna Kelly says in the statement to the Associated Press. “He intends to run for elected office soon, which requires him to remain outside of DOGE, based on the structure that we announced today. We thank him immensely for his contributions over the last 2 months and expect him to play a vital role in making America great again.”
People close to Musk have privately undercut Ramaswamy for weeks, frustrated with his lack of participation in the heavy lifting, according to sources familiar with the internal dynamics. There has been friction between the incoming rank and file DOGE staff and Ramaswamy, the sources said, and Ramaswamy has been subtly encouraged to exit.
Ramaswamy hasn’t said on X if he’s stepping away from DOGE, but he did post a picture today with Musk. A few days ago, he also quote-tweeted a parody account that “announced” Ramaswamy’s candidacy for Ohio governor, saying that it’s “not a bad idea.”
Fujifilm has added two new models to its Techno-Stabi binoculars line with stabilization and increased magnification. | Image: Fujifilm
Fujifilm has announced two new additions to its flagship Techno-Stabi line of binoculars featuring electronic stabilization, as spotted by PetaPixel. The new TS-L2040 and TS-L1640 deliver even more magnification than Fujfilm’s previous top-of-the-line offering — 20x and 16x, instead of just 14x — while also being smaller and lighter without sacrificing features like waterproofing. Both new models can survive a complete dunking to a depth of one meter for 30 minutes.
The Fujifilm TS-L2040, with 20x magnification, will be $1,299.95 when available for purchase starting on January 31st, 2025. The slightly cheaper TS-L1640, which offer 16x magnification, will be $1,199.95.
Using binoculars with more than 10x magnification without a tripod or stable support can result in blurred images because humans are simply incapable of holding them steady enough by hand. Even imperceptible hand movements are exaggerated through a pair of binoculars, making it hard to focus on a distant magnified subject.
Image: Fujifilm
Fujifilm’s new TS-L2040 Techno-Stabi binoculars (right) are smaller and lighter than the company’s previous flagship model (left) which weigh about a pound heavier.
Fujifilm’s new models rely on a gimbal-mounted prism with plus and minus three degrees of electronic stabilization. They’re also noticeably smaller and lighter than the company’s existing Techno-Stabi TS-X14x40 binoculars — weighing 1.88 pounds instead of 2.9 pounds — making them easier for birdwatchers to carry on a hike.
The two new models aren’t entirely replacing Fujifilm’s heavier and bulkier TS-X14x40 binoculars. Although the older model only offers 14x magnification for the same price as the company’s new 20x offering, they feature a more rugged design with plus and minus six degrees of electronic stabilization.
In a video comparing the old and new models, Fujifilm technical expert, Michael Bulbenko, says the older model is still a better choice for boaters given the extra movements while out on the water.
Image: Fujifilm
Fujifilm says both new models run on a pair of AAA batteries that offer up to 30 hours of stabilization.
Other features of the new TS-L2040 and TS-L1640 include 40mm objective lenses on the front that allow more light in to boost brightness. Fujifilm’s cheapest stabilized binoculars, the $749.95 TS12x28WP, feature much smaller front lenses that are just 28mm in size.
Both new binocular models are powered by a pair of AAA batteries that Fujifilm says will keep the image stabilization continuously powered for up to 30 hours. The binoculars will also automatically power themselves off after 60 minutes if you forget to, so if you’re headed out on a weekend birdwatching trip, you probably won’t need to pack an extra set of AAAs.
Donald Trump said today he’ll declare a “national energy emergency,” a move meant to speed the development of fossil fuel infrastructure. He signed an executive order doing so this evening.
The actions taken on his first day in office mark the start of President Trump’s attempts to boost oil and gas and retreat from global climate goals. He campaigned on promises to “drill, baby, drill,” and undo Biden-era policies to reduce pollution and stop climate change.
The US will “fill our strategic reserves up again, right to the top, and export American energy, all over the world,” Trump said in his inauguration speech.
Trump also repeated vague pledges he’s made to throw out environmental policies that haven’t actually been put in place. He said his administration would “end the green New Deal, and we will reverse the electric vehicle mandate, saving our oil industry.” It was initially unclear what policies he was referring to with that statement.
Biden signed the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) into law, the most significant piece of climate legislation to date that opened up $369 billion for climate action and clean energy. Trump has previously said that he’d rescind any unspent IRA funds.
“I’m not that worried about having an EV mandate since there isn’t one, but I am concerned that he might take steps to make EVs more expensive for American consumers,” Pete Buttigieg, Biden’s Secretary of Transportation, recently told The Verge. But Trump has said that he’ll eliminate subsidies and tax credits Biden introduced to make electric vehicles more affordable.
A new White House webpage says a priorities for the Trump administration include “streamlining permitting, and reviewing for rescission all regulations that impose undue burdens on energy production and use, including mining and processing of non-fuel minerals.”
There’s little detail on the page about what declaring a national energy emergency will entail outside of using “all necessary resources to build critical infrastructure.” It does say Trump wants to end federal leasing of areas for wind farms and take the US out of the Paris climate agreement, echoing promises he’s made in the past
Trump signed an executive order to exit the Paris agreement later in the evening at his inauguration eve rally.
Shortly after the rally, he signed other executive order declaring a national energy emergency that tells federal agencies to “identify and exercise any lawful emergency authorities available to them ... to facilitate the identification, leasing, siting, production, transportation, refining, and generation of domestic energy resources.”
Yet another executive action labeled Unleashing American Energy “encourag[es] energy exploration and production” — oil and gas drilling — on federal lands and waters including the outer continental shelf. That order directs agencies to review any policies that might hinder fossil fuels, hydropower, biofuels, critical mineral, or nuclear energy resources. It also creates roadblocks for electric vehicle adoption by telling agencies to consider “the elimination of unfair subsidies and other ill-conceived government-imposed market distortions that favor EVs.”
Trump also signed an executive order to rescind 78 of his predecessor’s executive actions, including mandates to tackle climate change. That included the executive order in 2022 implementing the energy and infrastructure provisions of the Inflation Reduction Act. A separate directive announced tonight tells executive departments and agencies to “deliver emergency price relief,” suggesting the Trump administration could lax energy efficiency requirements for appliances. It also says agencies should “eliminate harmful, coercive” climate policies. Yet another executive order is supposed to open up more of Alaska for energy projects.
EU Codes of Conduct are more of a suggestion than legally enforceable rules. | Image: Cath Virginia / The Verge, Getty Images
Meta, Google, TikTok, and X have each pledged to European lawmakers that they will do more to prevent and remove illegal hate speech on their platforms. The European Commission integrated a revised set of voluntary commitments into the Digital Services Act (DSA) on Monday that aim to help platforms “demonstrate their compliance” with DSA obligations regarding illegal content moderation.
Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, Twitch, X, YouTube, Snapchat, LinkedIn, Dailymotion, Jeuxvideo.com, Rakuten Viber, and Microsoft-hosted consumer services have all signed the “Code of Conduct on Countering Illegal Hate Speech Online Plus” — which is not a terribly named streaming service but an update to a 2016 Code. The revised code commits signatories to transparency around hate speech detection and reduction, to allowing third-party monitors to assess how hate speech notices are reviewed by the platforms, and to review “at least two-thirds of hate speech notices” within 24 hours.
“Hatred and polarisation are threats to EU values and fundamental rights and undermine the stability of our democracies. The internet is amplifying the negative effects of hate speech,” EU Commissioner Michael McGrath said in a statement. “We trust this Code of conduct+ will do its part in ensuring a robust response.”
These EU Codes of Conduct are voluntary commitments and companies face no penalties if they decide to back out of the agreement, as Elon Musk did with X (then known as Twitter) in 2022 when he withdrew the company from the Code of Practice on Disinformation.
Donald Trump has been officially sworn in as the 47th president of the US. Although we’ve already experienced a Trump presidency beginning in 2016, this term could look far different than the first one, particularly when it comes to tech regulation.
The heads of major tech companies have apparently come to learn how to deal with Trump, following an era of techlash that invited fury against them from both sides. The executives — who mostly stayed at arm’s distance during the beginning of Trump’s first term — have been quick to get into Trump’s good graces, be it with trips to Mar-a-Lago, attendance at the inauguration, changes to their company policies, or notices to millions of users thanking Trump for his (predicted) role in getting their popular social media app back online.
There’s good reason for the CEOs to cozy up to Trump. The next four years could see the president’s choices impact their companies and workers in a laundry list of areas. We’ll be looking at:
How Trump handles tariffs against countries including China, where tech companies like Apple assemble many of their goods
Whether Trump deploys the US surveillance state (as well as companies’ own data collection efforts) to carry out promises of mass deportations
The future of global attempts to fight climate change with likely reduced help from the US
Trump has said he’ll use his first afternoon back in the Oval Office to sign “dozens of executive orders.” They’re expected to cover border policy, the environment, trade, and possibly even a delay to the TikTok ban. If it’s anything like the first term, we’ll see many of those challenged in court — and the results will indicate just how much of a check Trump will have on his power this time around.
Canon’s Live Switcher Mobile app is free for iOS and iPadOS devices. | Screenshot: YouTube
Canon has announced a new live streaming app that can wirelessly connect to, and switch between, video feeds from three mobile devices. It’s currently limited to iPhones and iPads running at least iOS and iPad0S 16. Android isn’t supported, but an even stranger omission is that Live Switcher Mobile isn’t compatible with any of Canon’s digital cameras — that functionality will be added “in the future,” according to an FAQ.
The app is available for download now and can be used for free, but with some limitations. Video quality maxes out at 720p, the output is watermarked, and the app’s interface will occasionally be cluttered with ads — but those aren’t presented to viewers. For $17.99 per month (which is over $215 per year) output quality gets a bump to 1080p, while ads and the watermark are removed. There’s no option to increase the video resolution past HD.
Image: Canon
The mobile device serving as a live stream’s primary camera also provides the switching interface.
One device running the app is designated as the host which provides the switching interface and serves as the primary camera. Up to two additional devices can be connected providing video feeds from alternate angles, or a live screen capture of a video game being played.
Switching between feeds can be done manually, but if you’d like to avoid poking a device that’s serving as one of your cameras, the app can also be set to automatically switch between sources at set intervals of eight to 20 seconds. Multiple videos can be streamed simultaneously using a picture-in-picture effect, while text and image overlays can be added to personalize a livestream, add branding, or provide captioning.
Canon says the app supports live streaming to YouTube, Facebook, and other platforms that support RTMP, but its comment display function is limited to those first two platforms.
Although its functionality isn’t as robust as the free OBS Studio app that also allows mobile devices to be used as video sources, Canon’s Live Switcher Mobile is potentially an easier alternative for aspiring influencers just getting started with live streaming.
It may currently be limited to mobile devices, but the company has confirmed the app “will support Canon’s digital camera connection in the future.” With that added functionality, and maybe a bump to 4K streaming capabilities, its steep price tag could be easier to justify for those looking for a highly portable streaming solution.
Nvidia’s RTX 5090 vs. RTX 4090. | Photo by Tom Warren / The Verge
Nvidia’s GeForce RTX 5090 Founders Edition graphics card is arriving later this month, and we’ve managed to unbox one and compare its design to the RTX 4090. Just like our first look at the RTX 5090, this isn’t a review. Performance figures, benchmarks, and impressions beyond the hardware are coming later.
The first thing that’s notable about the RTX 5090 is the packaging design has totally changed since the Founders Edition RTX 40-series. Nvidia has switched to housing the RTX 5090 inside a smaller bone-shaped gray cardboard shell that sits inside a much larger brown cardboard box.
Photo by Tom Warren / The Verge
A dog and his RTX 5090 bone.
The outer box — which reads “Inspired by gamers. Enhanced by AI. Built by Nvidia.” — holds a new power adapter cable for the RTX 5090 that includes an updated version of the regular 12VHPWR connector. You’ll need to use four regular PCIe eight-pin power connectors with this adapter, or a new 12V-2x6 cable. The 12V-2x6 is almost identical to the existing 12VHPWR, as the new connector has shorter sensing pins and slightly longer conductor terminals. The slight variation means that existing 12VHPWR cables will work...
Rumors have been floating around for months that Apple might launch a brand-new iPhone model this year: the so-called iPhone Air, a new, super-thin iPhone that may mark the first big design shift for the line in many years.
More than a facelift, the iPhone Air is a different strategy altogether, being neither a more affordable base model nor a feature-packed Pro phone. Instead, rumors describe a phone that’s aimed to please people who are willing to sacrifice some function for a sleeker, slimmer design. Basically, it’s the iPhone version of the original MacBook Air.
Current rumors suggest the phone will debut as part of Apple’s iPhone 17 lineup this fall, giving it the name iPhone 17 Air. Of course, it’s not a done deal just yet. Apple could still change its plans or the rumors could turn out wrong. But enough reports have come out to suggest that something real is in the works. Here are all the rumors about the upcoming phone so far:
The thinnest iPhone yet
The 17 Air will be very thin, but the rumor mill hasn’t totally settled on the exact number.
Supply chain analyst Ming-Chi Kuo predicted a 5.5mm phone in January, which would make it slightly thicker than the 5.1mm M4 iPad Pro that debuted last May. Two days later, Bloomberg reporter Mark Gurman reiterated a claim he’d made in December: that the new phone would be “about 2 millimeters thinner” than the 8.25mm iPhone 16 Pro. Supply chain analyst Jeff Pu has suggested it would be around 6mm.
No matter who is closest, the 17 Air would be one of the thinnest Apple products ever, even more so than the iPhone 6, which currently holds the record for thinnest iPhone at 6.9mm — and was notably prone to bending. Encouragingly, Apple managed to make the M4 iPad Pro surprisingly sturdy.
Battery woes
Apple is said to be working on novel ways to fit enough battery to meet its ultra-slim phone goal. A November 2023 rumor from ETNews said Apple was attempting to create a new, denser kind of battery that uses carbon nanotubes and a mix of materials like nickel, cobalt, manganese, and aluminum for future devices.
But in November 2024, Korean leaker yeux1122 posted that Apple is using standard battery tech. They said the company had sought to get thinner internals to enable both more battery capacity and a slimmer phone but failed. The Information wrote later that month that Apple was having trouble finding space for the battery, SIM card, and thermal materials inside, limiting how thin it can be.
All signs right now are pointing to every iPhone 17’s OLED display using the same LTPO panel tech found in current Pro models. That could mean both higher refresh rates and less power consumption, as it enables the screens to raise their refresh rates to 120Hz and then drop as low as 1Hz. That’s part of why Apple’s always-on display feature works without a significant battery cost.
As for screen size, rumors generally agree it will measure about 6.6 inches. That’s a tad smaller than the 6.7-inch screen of the iPhone 16 Plus, which the 17 Air may be replacing this year. It’s expected that the phone will get a Dynamic Island with Face ID, like the rest of the flagship line.
In-house chips and Apple Intelligence
Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman recently said that Apple will outfit the iPhone 17 Air with in-house Wi-Fi and Bluetooth chips, as well as its own bespoke cellular modem. That’ll be a first for the company, which has been trying for years to develop its own modem in an effort to ditch Qualcomm. Apple is apparently confident it’s done that now, and well enough to start putting it in phones, possibly starting with the iPhone SE 4 within the next few months.
Apple will probably put a regular A19 chip in the 17 Air, reserving the A19 Pro chip for its Pro phones. The phone could also have 8GB of RAM and support Apple Intelligence AI features as a result.
Camera diet
Rumors have been steadfast that the iPhone 17 Air will only have one camera on the back. Citing supply chain analyst Jeff Pu in October, MacRumors wrote that it will be a 48-megapixel shooter and that the phone will feature a 24-megapixel shooter for the front-facing selfie cam.
How much will it cost?
The iPhone 17 Air could be expensive despite lacking the fancy camera array of the Pro phones or the dual-camera setup of the base model. The Informationeven wrote that it could cost more than the $1,299 iPhone 16 Pro Max does now.
Not every rumor agrees. The Wall Street Journal wrote in December that Apple is aiming for something cheaper than the Pro phones. That’d put it below $999, where the iPhone 16 Pro starts.
Why is Apple making the iPhone 17 Air?
Gurman reported in August that boosting sales is the big motivator for the Air redesign after years of Mini and Plus phone flops. Later, in his January 12th newsletter, he wrote that the company sees the Air strategy as “a tried-and-true winner” for getting sales.
The Journal’s December story echoed that, saying Apple is trying growth with the iPhone 17 Air following its years of “largely incremental upgrades.” Although the iPhone still makes up about half of Apple’s revenue, the outlet wrote, its “last big wave of sales gains was in 2021,” thanks to carriers’ subsidies amid their 5G push.
Apple has tried since 2020 to goose sales using four flagships, and the 17 Air approach is no different, CNBC wrote in November. Apple started with the iPhone 12, 12 Mini, 12 Pro, and 12 Pro Max, then swapped out the Mini models for “Plus” phones starting with the iPhone 14. But the Mini and Plus models haven’t clicked with buyers. Most recently, the iPhone 16 Plus only made up 10 percent of Apple’s screen orders in 2023 and 16 percent of them last year, Ross Young of display research firm DSCC told the outlet. The Air could theoretically replace the Plus as a slightly higher-end option.
Drumming up sales isn’t necessarily the whole story though, as Gurman also offered another explanation in January: Apple is using the phone as a testing ground for new technologies, including its in-house wireless and cell modem chips. But more than that, it’s a stepping stone toward the smaller tech needed to eventually build a folding iPhone.
TikTok may already be back online but Bluesky and X are quickly jumping on the vertical video train. | Image: Cath Virginia / The Verge
While TikTok is already crawling back online in the US, uncertainty around the video platform’s future has created an opportunity for Bluesky, X, and others to seize.
Over the last few hours, both social media platforms introduced new features — including dedicated tabs and feeds for video content — that make it easier for users to discover and watch vertical videos in their apps. Yesterday, Instagram announced a new rival to CapCut — the video editor owned by TikTok’s parent ByteDance — just after it went offline in the US.
“We had to get in on the video action too,” said Bluesky with the launch of customizable feeds for videos. Users can swipe up or down on these feeds to flip through videos and create targeted feeds that only pull video content from specific hashtags, such as this #BookSky feed that riffs on TikTok’s “BookTok” reading community.
We had to get in on the video action too — Bluesky now has custom feeds for video!
Like any other feed, you can choose to pin these or not. Bluesky is yours to customize.
“Like any other feed, you can choose to pin these or not,” the company said in its post. “Bluesky is yours to customize.”
The update has added a new video feed under the search tab that provides a timeline of videos that are trending on the platform. Bluesky says that the ability to swipe through a video-only timeline is specific to custom feeds.
Image: Bluesky / The VergeUsers may need to refresh their Bluesky app a few times before the new trending videos tab appears.
Bluesky also gave a shout-out to AT Protocol developers — the decentralized protocol that Bluesky relies on — who are using it to build video-only TikTok alternatives like Tik.Blue, Skylight.Social, and Bluescreen.Blue, which are currently in early development.
X similarly started rolling out a new “Video Tab” to users in the US on Sunday, which appears as a circular play button in the app’s bottom navigation bar. “From there, you can explore a personalized feed of recommended videos reflecting the real-time nature of X across sports, entertainment, news and more,” X said in its announcement.
you better not be making a dedicated video tab when I get home
The Find N5 is about half as thick as an iPhone 16 Pro Max when opened up. | Image: Oppo
Oppo’s upcoming Find N5 foldable phone is barely thicker than its own USB-C port when unfurled, according to photos released by the company. The flagship, which we’re expecting to be re-branded as the OnePlus Open 2 for its US release, will also feature best-in-class resistance to water.
Oppo has been steadily teasing the Find N5 on Chinese social network Weibo for the past week. Find series product manager Zhou Yibao has now shared photos that highlight its size, adding that the obstacle to making it any thinner is now “the limit of the charging port.”
The photos follow a video from last week, in which Zhou compares a hidden Find N5 to a series of everyday objects, demonstrating that it’s comparable in thickness to two Chinese yuan coins, a stack of four ID cards, or exactly 39 sticky notes.
The company claims the Find N5 is the thinnest foldable yet. That title is currently held by the Honor Magic V3, which is 4.35mm thick when open, meaning the Find N5 must be close to 4mm. That explains why it looks about half the size of the 8.25mm iPhone 16 Pro Max it’s shown next to in the photos. For reference, a USB-C port is 2.6mm at minimum.
In a separate post, Zhou teased the phone’s waterproofing, boasting that it’s IPX9-rated. That means it currently has no official dust protection (the ‘X’), but has been tested to withstand high-temperature and high-pressure jets of water. It’s also rated IPX8 for submersion in water, and IPX6 for lower temperature water jets. This month’s OnePlus 13 is IP69-rated, with dust protection as well.
Oppo’s previous foldable, the Find N3 (the N4 was skipped because of the number’s association with death in China), eventually launched in the West as the OnePlus Open. If the same happens again, it should pose some serious competition for Samsung and Google’s current generation of foldables. We’ll find out more when the Find N5 launches in China next month.
At a victory rally the day before being sworn into the presidency, Donald Trump extolled his plan to “save TikTok” from the law that banned it through a joint venture with the US.
On its face, the plan does not appear to comply with the law’s requirements for a qualified divestiture that TikTok’s service providers like Apple, Google, and Oracle could rely on to avoid hundreds of billions in potential fines. Even so, at least some of TikTok’s service providers seem to be relying on Trump’s flimsy promises, allowing TikTok to restore service to the app mid-day Sunday, on the first day of its ban.
Trump is proposing a joint venture where the US government owns 50 percent of TikTok. That raises a host of its own First Amendment issues since any content moderation whatsoever might be considered a government act, and the Constitution prohibits the government (not private companies) from infringing on speech.
It’s not entirely clear how Trump envisions this all playing out, but Trump says, essentially, that TikTok would have a “partner” in the US government, “and they’ll have a lot of bidders and the United States will do what we call a joint venture.” Trump claims there is “no risk” to the US because “we’re not putting up any money. All we’re doing is giving them the approval without which they don’t have anything. So, I don’t know, it sounds like that works.”
Trump also reinforced the idea that the whole reason he likes TikTok is because he thinks it helped his campaign. He credited his 21-year-old staffer, nicknamed “TikTok Jack,” for helping him get on the app that helped him win over young voters.
And though the stated purpose of forcing TikTok to divest from its parent company ByteDance (a move Trump himself first tried to do in his first term) was to remove a possible backdoor for the Chinese government to US data, he now says that “frankly, we have no choice, we have to save it — a lot of jobs. We don’t wanna give our business to China.”
Here’s Trump’s full comments on TikTok during the rally:
And as of today, TikTok is back. So, you know, I did a little TikTok thing we have a guy, TikTok Jack he’s a young kid, like 21 years old. And we hired this guy, and I went on TikTok; can you believe what I’ll do to win an election?And we went on TikTok and Republicans have never won the young vote, the youth vote. They win a lot of votes, but they never won the youth vote. We won the youth vote by 36 points. So I like TikTok. I like it. I had a slightly good experience wouldn’t you say?
Romney lost it by 40 points not so long ago. We won it by 36 points. That’s a very big spread.But I said, we need to save TikTok, because we’re talking about a tremendous — who, who in this audience goes with TikTok? Many? Yeah, very popular. And frankly, we have no choice, we have to save it — a lot of jobs. We don’t wanna give our business to China, we don’t wanna give our business to other people. And I said, you know, TikTok without my approval — meaning the president’s approval because Congress gave the president the right to make a deal to whatever he wants and uh… they did that a long time ago when they have a different president. They didn’t know that I was gonna be at the president, I guess.
So I said very simply, a joint venture. So, if TikTok is worth nothing, zero without an approval, you know you don’t approve, they’re out of business, they’re worth nothing.
If you do approve, they’re worth like a trillion dollars, they’re worth some crazy number. So I said, I’ll approve, but let the United States of America own 50% of TikTok.I’m approving on behalf of the United States.
So they’ll have a partner, the United States, and they’ll have a lot of bidders and the United States will do what we call a joint venture. And there’s no risk, we’re not putting up any money. All we’re doing is giving them the approval without which they don’t have anything. So, I don’t know, it sounds like that works. What do you think, good? So, whether you like TikTok or not, we’re gonna make a lot of money.
TikTok has returned — at least partially — in the US following a nationwide ban, but other popular ByteDance-owned apps, such as the digital card game Marvel Snap, video editing app CapCut, and the social platform Lemon8, are still blocked. None of these apps, including TikTok, are currently available to download on the Apple App Store or Google Play Store, either.
Though many users expected CapCut and Lemon8 to be affected by the law banning TikTok, Marvel Snap’s ban took some by surprise — including its own developer. On Sunday morning, the game studio Second Dinner said in a post on X, “This outage is a surprise to us and wasn’t planned. MARVEL SNAP isn’t going anywhere.” Marvel Snap is published by Nuverse, a game developer owned by ByteDance.
Screenshot: The Verge
Users trying to open MarvelSnap, CapCut, and Lemon8 will see a message similar to the one TikTok displayed when it went dark on Saturday night. “A law banning CapCut has been enacted in the U.S,” the pop-up inside CapCut reads. “Unfortunately, that means you can’t use CapCut for now. Rest assured, we’re working to restore our service in the U.S. Please stay tuned!”
TikTok, along with several other ByteDance-owned apps, shut down in the US just hours before the federal divest-or-ban law went into effect on January 19th. The ban also affects TikTok Studio, TikTok Shop Seller Center, Hypic, Lark - Team Collaboration, Lark - Rooms Display, Lark Rooms Controller, and Gauth: AI Study Companion.
Both Google and Apple display notices to users trying to search for ByteDance-owned apps. While the Play Store says, “Downloads for this app are paused due to current US legal requirements,” a banner on the App Store notes, “TikTok and other ByteDance apps are not available in the country or region you’re in.”
It’s still not clear when Marvel Snap, CapCut, or Lemon8 will start working again or when they’ll reappear in mobile app stores.
No matter what TikTok says in its laudatory pop-up messages, President-elect Donald Trump cannot simply declare an extension of the TikTok ban deadline and protect American companies that support it from billions of dollars in fines.
Trump seems to want TikTok available for his inauguration on Monday, because “Americans deserve” to see the event. But TikTok is officially banned starting today until it sells to a non-Chinese company, and there’s no deal in sight. Flouting that ban could get Apple and Google’s app stores, as well as service providers Akamai and Oracle, dinged for potentially $850 billion in penalties. Despite all this, Trump has reportedly assured companies they won’t face these fines if they let TikTok keep operating. Now, the question is simple: will Trump-friendly companies risk breaking the law to make the president happy?
TikTok’s status has been uncertain since last night. President Joe Biden said he wouldn’t enforce the law on the last day of his presidency, but TikTok declared it would go dark anyway. App stores removed it in accordance with the law. Then, Trump promised he’d extend the deadline, telling companies they wouldn’t face penalties — and TikTok...
