The New Jersey attorney general sued Discord over allegations that the company misled consumers about child-safety features.

New Jersey filed a lawsuit against Discord on Thursday, alleging that the social platform recklessly exposed children to “harassment, abuse, and sexual exploitation by predators who lurk on the platform.” The move makes it the first state to sue Discord. Founded in 2015, Discord is a platform where its millions of users can communicate in chatrooms and direct messages. It shot up in popularity during the COVID-19 pandemic, when many users were stuck at home and wanted to connect. Children, in particular, make up a “significant portion” of its global 200 million monthly active user base, per the suit. The New Jersey complaint alleges that Discord knew its safety features and policies wouldn’t actually protect its young user base and didn’t make changes. “Discord markets itself as a safe space for children, despite being fully aware that the application’s misleading safety settings and lax oversight has made it a prime hunting ground for online predators seeking easy access to children,” Attorney General Matthew Platkin said in a release announcing the lawsuit. “These deceptive claims regarding its safety settings have allowed Discord to attract a growing number of children to use its application, where they are at risk. We intend to put a stop to this unlawful conduct and hold Discord accountable for the harm it has caused our children.” Discord, for example, doesn’t allow users under the age of 13. However, the platform only requires users to enter their date of birth when creating an account and uses no other systems to verify age. The suit also alleged the platform made it simple for malicious actors to send children explicit content due to its default safety settings. “As a result of Discord’s decisions, thousands of users were misled into signing up, believing they or their children would be safe when they were really anything but,” Platkin said in the statement. The complaint cited a number of instances where adults in New Jersey were accused of using the platform to contact children and attempted to engage in conversation, solicit nude pictures and videos, and engage in sexual performance while video chatting. Discord, for its part, is reportedly denying the attorney general’s claims. In a statement shared with Fast Company, it said: “Discord is proud of our continuous efforts and investments in features and tools that help make Discord safer. Given our engagement with the Attorney General’s office, we are surprised by the announcement that New Jersey has filed an action against Discord today. We dispute the claims in the lawsuit and look forward to defending the action in court.” New Jersey has taken part in past lawsuits targeting social media platforms for alleged unlawful contact relating to children. It sued TikTok based on “features that keep children and teens online for ever-increasing amounts of time despite the harms that result” and Meta for similar alleged conduct.

Magnetic hooks are typically utilitarian objects, relegated to the workshop, basement or mudroom. A company called Ant Mag produces such hooks… …but also offers models with a more Modernist style, geared towards those with Instagrammable kitchens:This odd pawn-shaped one… …makes for an interesting rolling pin holder: The stainless steel hooks run $3.50 to $8.50 a pop and are sold in pairs and quartets. However, those prices are as of mid-April 2025. Ant Mag is a Chinese company, so once those tariffs kick in, these likely won't be a reasonable add to your shopping cart.

E-bikes are having their ‘Raspberry Pi’ moment, and I’m absolutely here for it. You know how the Raspberry Pi allowed pretty much anyone to build their own computing device? You didn’t have to rely on larger, bulky models – you could literally put together your own computer and configure it to be exactly the kind of device you wanted it to be – whether something as complex as a robot dog, or something as simple as a single-sensor IoT device. Verge is bringing that plug-and-play simplicty to electric bikes by practically open-sourcing its own e-bike framework. Their new B2B arm, titled Verge Next, will help pretty much any third-party (whether it’s a one-off hobbyist or a mobility company) build their own e-bikes directly on Verge’s open platform. If you’ve seen Verge’s bikes, you already know they don’t play by conventional rules. Their hubless rear wheel, powered by the company’s famed Donut engine, is both a visual showstopper and a functional revelation. By integrating the motor into the wheel rim, Verge eliminates traditional drive chains or belts, resulting in fewer mechanical losses, a cleaner design, and notably smoother torque delivery. And now Verge is making it available to everyone. Designer: Verge Motorcycles Verge Next is where this transfer of power happens, figuratively and literally. It’s a tech licensing arm that operates like a sandbox – a space where manufacturers can play with proven hardware and software stacks, build on them, tweak them, and get to market without reinventing the wheel. Quite literally. At the core is the Donut engine, developed by Verge’s partner company, Donut Lab. It’s scalable, adaptable, and designed for integration across a range of vehicle formats. Need a compact version for an urban commuter bike? Done. Want a higher-output variant for a sportier electric motorcycle? Also done. Verge has even demonstrated how the system integrates seamlessly into two-wheelers of multiple types, from sportsbikes to cafe racers to scooters and even more skeletal dirt bike-style riders. Verge has been fielding inquiries from companies around the world, all eager to tap into its tech. Instead of gatekeeping, Verge is choosing to be the bridge. Verge Next gives these manufacturers access to a constantly evolving ecosystem of performance tools, software integrations, safety enhancements, and drivetrain tech. Think better battery management systems, smarter traction control, and optimized chassis balance—all available as part of the Verge Next package. Verge Motorcycles CEO Tuomo Lehtimäki is pretty clear on the why. Verge paved the path with its own bikes, but now it’s time to expand the impact. While the parent company keeps pushing the envelope with its own electric motorcycles, Verge Next will focus exclusively on licensing and supporting integration across the industry. This isn’t Verge walking away from its core—it’s Verge scaling it. And if you’re wondering about Donut Lab’s role in all this, Marko Lehtimäki—Donut’s CEO and also Verge’s chairman—makes it clear. They’re not just handing over parts. They’re giving manufacturers the full blueprint for innovation, wrapped in a high-competence team and backed by years of road-tested experience. This isn’t about flooding the market with Verge clones. It’s about setting a new standard. So the next time you see an electric scooter zipping down your street, or a sleek e-bike carving through traffic, take a second look. That torque you feel, that silence, that seamless drive—it might just be powered by a Donut. The post Verge just open-sourced electric bikes the way Raspberry Pi did computers first appeared on Yanko Design.

The painstaking handcrafted work tells an old legend – and it's totally on brand.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau terminated the positions of 1,406 employees at the congressionally mandated agency.

Macworld The iPad: You either love it or you don’t give it much thought. On this show, we talk about why that is and what changes we may see in the iPad this year This is episode 930 with Jason Cross, Michael Simon, and Roman Loyola. Watch episode 930 on YouTube Listen to episode 930 on Apple Podcasts Listen to episode 930 on Spotify Get info  Click on the links below for more information on what was discussed on the show.  M5 iPad Pro: Everything you need to know  The iPad update of our dreams is finally coming (we hope)  iPadOS 18 superguide  iPad (A16, 11th gen) review: Who needs Apple Intelligence?  iPad mini (A17 Pro) review: A little faster, a little ‘smarter’  Subscribe to the Macworld Podcast You can subscribe to the Macworld Podcast—or leave us a review!—right here in the Podcasts app. The Macworld Podcast is also available on Spotify and on the Macworld Podcast YouTube channel.  Or you can point your favorite podcast-savvy RSS reader at: https://feeds.megaphone.fm/macworld To find previous episodes, visit Macworld’s podcast page or our home on MegaPhone. Apple

There’s a lot of finger-pointing going on between providers trying to explain this week’s two-hour outage of Zoom’s American service. On its website, Zoom says its zoom.us domain wasn’t available on Wednesday because of a “communications error” between Zoom’s domain registrar, Markmonitor, and GoDaddy Registry, “which resulted in GoDaddy Registry mistakenly shutting down zoom.us domain.” For its part, a spokesperson for GoDaddy said the problem was between Markmonitor and Zoom. “The GoDaddy registry team notified an account person at MarkMonitor of an inquiry, and Markmonitor failed to notify Zoom that we had made the contact about the inquiry,” Kristy Nicholas told Computerworld. “[It was] something that we noticed and wanted to bring their [Zoom’s] attention to.” She couldn’t clarify whether the communication was by phone or email. But, she said, GoDaddy waited several days to get a reply from Zoom. “MarkMonitor acknowledged our communication,” Nicholas said, “and so we presumed information had been relayed to Zoom. That presumption was incorrect, that information had not been relayed to Zoom.” She wouldn’t detail what the issue was, only that “we noticed something, we made contact with Markmonitor and Markmonitor failed to pass that information on to Zoom.” “GoDaddy followed its protocol for ‘if it makes contact and no action is taken’, and put the server block in place.”  This sort of communications problem is “not uncommon” with many customers, she added.. Asked for comment, Markmonitor’s parent company, Newfold Digital, which owns diverse providers offering web hosting, web design, and online marketing, sent this statement: “Markmonitor did include the client on our communications with GoDaddy Registry. That said, we believe there are opportunities to improve co-ordination and communication between GoDaddy Registry and Markmonitor, and we are committed to making that happen.” Computerworld emailed Zoom for a response to Nicholas’ statement that Markmonitor allegedly hadn’t passed its message to them. No answer was received by press time. “I think the lesson GoDaddy learned,” said Nicholas, “particularly with a customer the size of Zoom, is if we made contact with a registrar and we don’t know if that contact has been passed along to their customer, then we would go directly to Zoom and make contact with them before we put a server block in place. “We’ll definitely analyze this situation for opportunities to improve the process, to try to ensure this doesn’t happen again.”

A new report claims that the manufacturing cost of the 2nm processor expected in the iPhone 18 range may mean Apple having to raise prices.Render of a possible iPhone 18.It's bad enough that tariffs may still force Apple to raise prices, and it's bad enough that the expected iPhone Fold will cost over $2,000. Now a further report backs up previous claims that the whole iPhone 18 range may be costlier than its predecessors.Backing up a report from September 2024, leaker "Digital Chat Station" has now claimed on Weibo that there could be significant price increases for the 2026 iPhone models. Rumor Score: 🤔 Possible Continue Reading on AppleInsider | Discuss on our Forums

Autodesk has released its 2025 State of Design & Make report, offering a snapshot of the opportunities and obstacles facing industries across architecture, engineering, construction, manufacturing, and media. Based on input from 5,594 professionals across the Americas, EMEA, and Asia-Pacific, the report highlights both mounting pressures and emerging strategies shaping AEC sectors globally. At the heart of the findings is a growing recognition of the value of digital maturity. Organizations that have made significant progress on digital transformation journeys are seeing clear competitive advantages, including improved project delivery, faster innovation cycles, and increased resilience amid global volatility. Compared to less digitally mature companies, such firms are 41% more likely to diversify their supply chains and report a 22-point advantage in attracting and retaining talent. Related on Archinect: Five ways construction contracts can be re-designed for tariff uncertainty. Im...