Category: Technology

Netflix is removing the last two shows listed on its Interactive Specials page: Black Mirror: Bandersnatch and Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt: Kimmy vs. the Reverend, reports What’s on Netflix. The two specials will be pulled on May 12th, 2025, according to the publication, so if you want to watch them, you’ll want to catch them soon.

Bandersnatch wasn’t Netflix’s first interactive special, but it was arguably the platform’s most famous. It was a dark, choose-your-own-adventure-style movie, and after it launched, Reddit detectives immediately went to work to decode the many choices throughout the film. (Though it didn’t work on every device that could play Netflix.)

As of late, however, Netflix has been moving in a different direction with its interactive experiences, focusing more on its mobile games library (which has a Black Mirror-themed game) and testing cloud-streamed games over TVs. The new design for Netflix on TVs was even created in part to help people better find games they might like.

The removals perhaps shouldn’t be surprising following Netflix’s decision late last year to pull all but four of its interactive specials from its catalog. “The technology served its purpose, but is …read more

The Roku smart TV platform is an accessible way to watch your favorite streaming content in a centralized location. You can either get a Roku TV with the platform built in, or add a miniature box or dongle to an older-model TV.

One big advantage of the Roku platform is that it’s always getting free software updates to keep it current, like the cool new feature that turns your TV into a virtual art museum by displaying famous paintings as a screensaver. There’s one feature missing right out of the box, though — the ability to watch shows and events inaccessible in your home country.

Using a VPN is a common way to tackle this issue, but unlike Fire TV, Apple TV and other rivals, Roku systems don’t have native VPN support. But that’s not the end of the story. You can still use a VPN to access a wider range of programming with your Roku — you just need to use a workaround. We’ll show you the simplest way.

The benefits of using a VPN

A VPN can change your IP address to make it look like you’re getting online from a different region. When …read more

When Adam Mosseri took over Meta-owned Instagram as CEO in 2018, the app was experiencing what he’d later call “concerning” drops and plateaus in user engagement, thanks partly to fierce competition from a new app: TikTok. Instagram estimated in 2019 that 23 percent of the decline in time spent on Instagram in the US was due to TikTok. Bytedance’s video app kept expanding through the onset of the covid-19 pandemic. “We can’t explain it all, but what’s clear at this point is that we need to adapt, and do so quickly,” Mosseri wrote to his team in March 2020. Instagram needed to recover, he testified Thursday in a DC courtroom, because “you’re either growing, or you’re slowly dying.”

Mosseri described the dire situation while testifying in the Federal Trade Commission’s antitrust trial against Meta, where the government alleges the company illegally monopolized the market for personal social networking services, a category that it says includes Snapchat but not more entertainment-focused apps like YouTube or TikTok. Mosseri’s testimony highlighted how much Instagram sees itself as in competition with TikTok, but it also showed that even as entertainment content becomes a larger port …

Read the full story at The Verge.

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Alex Mashinsky, the founder and former CEO of the collapsed cryptocurrency lending firm Celsius, has been sentenced to 12 years in prison for fraud that led to “billions in losses,” the Department of Justice announced on Thursday.

Celsius, which held $25 billion in assets at its peak, abruptly halted withdrawals and transfers during a broader crypto crash in 2022, locking up billions in customer funds. The firm filed for bankruptcy just weeks later.

The DOJ charged Mashinsky with securities fraud in 2023, accusing him of misrepresenting Celsius’s business and finances. It also claimed Mashinsky artificially inflated the price of the platform’s token, CEL, by “spending hundreds of millions purchasing it on the open market.” Mashinsky pleaded guilty to one count of securities fraud and one count of commodities fraud last December.

Mashinsky’s arrest comes as the Trump administration takes a softer stance on crypto regulation. Last month, a memo obtained by The Washington Post revealed the disbandment of a DOJ division dedicated to investigating crypto firms. The Securities and Exchange Commission has dropped several cases against companies in crypto, including Coinbase, Kraken, and Robinhood.

“Alexander Mashinsky targeted …read more

Apple is launching a new global Viral Chart playlist in Apple Music that consists of tracks people are discovering through the company’s Shazam service. The playlist, which is updated daily, shows the top 50 songs people have heard playing out in the real world and have logged through Shazam. You can see charts on Shazam’s website as well.

The playlists use “Shazam’s data to offer a comprehensive view of today’s fastest-growing songs across the globe, David Emery, who works for Apple Music in the UK, says on Threads. Emery notes that charts reflect songs going viral on Shazam in “real time” and then ranks them based on “their weekly growth in Shazam volume.”

As of writing, the top viral songs in the list include Shake It To The Max (FLY) [Remix] by Moliy, Nothing’s Gonna Stop Us Now by Starship, and Hot Together by The Pointer Sisters. On Shazam’s website, you can look at the rankings by country, if you’d like.

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Razer has announced three new products today, including an alternative to wireless headphones called the Clio that’s designed to attach to your gaming chair and double as a head cushion.

Powered by a 5,400mAh battery that Razer says is good for up to 14 hours of use, the Clio uses adjustable straps to attach to “most high-back gaming and office chairs” so that it’s positioned directly behind your head. Inside each of the cushion’s angled wings is a near-field speaker that uses a 43-millimeter driver paired with a passive radiator that work together to deliver “crisp, clear trebles and deep, punchy bass you can hear and feel.”

<img src="https://platform.theverge.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/05/razer2.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0,10.717271201674,100,78.565457596651" alt="The Razer Clio wireless head cushion speaker floating against a blue background." title="The Razer Clio wireless head cushion speaker floating against a blue background." data-has-syndication-rights="1" data-caption="Adjustable straps secure the Clio to most high-back office or gaming chairs. | Image: Razer” data-portal-copyright=”Image: Razer”>

The Clio speaker wirelessly connects to Bluetooth-compatible devices like smartphones, tablets, and handheld consoles, but is also compatible with Razer’s HyperSpeed Wireless protocol for a low-latency connection to a gaming PC. Support …read more