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Jess Weatherbed

Jess Weatherbed

News Reporter

Jess Weatherbed is a news writer, and part of The Verge UK-based team. While passionate about the future of technology, she originally trained as a prosthetics makeup and wig-making technician, fuelled by a love of animatronics and practical movie effects.

Jess started her career at TechRadar, covering news and hardware reviews across computing, PC gaming and streaming. Additional bylines can be found at GamesRadar, PCGamer, Creative Bloq and Space.com.

Northern lights may be visible across the US and UK tonight.

Weather services are reporting that people in northern Britain and as far south as the midwest in the US may see the aurora borealis on Monday night, as geomagnetic storms on the sun’s surface send particle streams toward Earth.

The best viewing time is between 10PM and 2AM (locally) according to the NOAA, in dark, north-facing locations away from city lights.


Forcast map of potential Northern Lights viewings provided by the Space Weather Prediction Center
Here’s a map showing the locations where the Northern Lights are most likley to be visible tonight.
Image: The Space Weather Prediction Center
Meet Jonathan Kanter, the man heading the antitrust charge against Apple.

This New York Times article provides an overview of Kanter’s career in criticizing competition, from representing Microsoft’s offensive against Google during the Obama administration to leading the DOJ’s Antitrust Division.

“In some ways, he’s still looking for that more prominent trophy to go on the mantelpiece,” said former FTC chair William Kovacic. “You win one of these monopolization cases, you can take the rest of the decade off.”


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“Photography itself is not really real.”

That’s according to portrait photographer Annie Leibovitz, who offered her hot take in the “what is a photo” debate on Wednesday while discussing how generative AI may impact the industry.

“That doesn’t worry me at all,” she told AFP, likening AI image generation to Photoshop. “With each technological progress, there are hesitations and concerns. You just have to take the plunge and learn how to use it.”


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Amazon and other retailers face FCC probe over signal jammers.

The investigation follows a report by NBC News on the sale of radio frequency jammers which are illegal in the US due to the risk they pose to public and emergency communication services.

NBC’s report found nine China-based Amazon sellers (and three on eBay) offering “jammer” devices that can be used to keep drones away, disable security cameras, and block Wi-Fi networks.


Spotify desktop has a new miniplayer.

Both video and audio-only formats are supported in the more discrete player that can be resized from small to very small to best suit your desired desktop layout. Spotify says it’s only available for Premium subscribers right now. You’ll see the miniplayer toggle at the bottom right of the desktop player when available.

Update March 14th, 4:20PM ET: We just saw this server-side change go live in our app.


Three examples of the new Spotify desktop miniplayer.

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The Spotify desktop miniplayer can be resized into a square, rectangle, or a bar, depending on your needs and what media you’re playing.
Image: Spotify