The Verge

Illustration by Laura Normand / The Verge Amazon CEO Andy Jassy is pushing back on claims that his return-to-office mandate was a backdoor layoff." In a transcript of an all-hands staff meeting seen by Reuters and CNBC, Jassy said the move is very much about our culture and strengthening our culture."In September, Amazon announced that it would start making employees return to the office five days per week starting January 2nd, 2025. The e-commerce giant previously required employees to work in the office three days per week. Some speculated that the five-day-per-week mandate is a layoff in disguise," intended to push out employees who couldn't or wouldn't make the full return.A number of people I've seen theorized that the reason we were doing this is, it's a backdoor... Continue reading...

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge The Mozilla Foundation laid off 30 percent of its workforce and completely eliminated its advocacy and global programs divisions, TechCrunch reports.While Mozilla is best known for its Firefox web browser, the Mozilla Foundation - the parent of the Mozilla Corporation - describes itself as standing up for the health of the internet." With its advocacy and global programs divisions gone, its impact may be lessened going forward.Fighting for a free and open internet will always be core to our mission, and advocacy continues to be a critical tool in that work. We're revisiting how we pursue that work, not stopping it," Brandon Borrman, the Mozilla Foundation's communications chief, said in an email to The Verge. Borrman declined to... Continue reading...

Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge The iPhone could finally show you how long it'll take to finish charging. Code spotted in the second iOS 18.2 beta by 9to5Mac shows a new BatteryIntelligence" feature that will let you receive a notification with the iPhone's estimated charging time.Some Android phones already show how long it takes to charge - a feature that has become increasingly helpful considering the many different types of chargers, cables, and charging protocols that are available. The iPhone's BatteryIntelligence" feature still appears to be a work in progress, though, which means might have to wait a little longer until its official release, according to 9to5Mac.Newer iPhones already have some helpful battery health features. Last year, Apple added a new... Continue reading...

Cath Virginia / The Verge | Photo by Stephen Morton, Getty Images The technology that powers Election Day has hit some expected hiccups, but as of early afternoon on Tuesday, nonpartisan groups say that the voting system is mostly holding up. Where it has faltered, they stress, there are robust backup plans that will ensure voters can still cast their ballots and that their votes will be counted.Members of the nonpartisan Election Protection coalition, which runs a hotline for voters seeking information or help at the polls, said they're so far seeing reports of pretty standard tech issues. That includes spotty Wi-Fi connections impacting electronic poll books used to check voters in more efficiently, imprecise calibration on voting machine touchscreens, and ballot scanners that are down. These... Continue reading...

Illustration by Nick Barclay / The Verge It takes me a minute to figure out what's going on in this TikTok livestream happening on the morning of the US presidential election.The screen is split in two. On the top, a man is streaming himself from the chest up, shouting at viewers. On the bottom is an electoral map of the US, with each state colored red (Republican), blue (Democrat), yellow (third-party), or tan (unclaimed). The man appears to be auctioning off the Electoral College.Uh oh! Two Texas blues just came in, ladies and gentlemen!" he shouts, clicking to change the state of Texas from red to blue. A few seconds later, Texas goes red again. It's a neck and neck game right here!" he says. It's anybody's game right here! Oh! I just got an Arizona blue!" ... Continue reading...

Image: Swisspod About a year ago, I wrote a story with the headline The hyperloop is dead for real this time," based on the news that Hyperloop One, one of the biggest companies pursuing Elon Musk's dream of tube-based, 700mph travel, had shut down.Well, I stand corrected. The hyperloop, in fact, lives on - as a 1/12th scale model in Switzerland.Sure, this isn't exactly the full realization of Musk's 2013 white paper, in which he theorized that aerodynamic aluminum capsules filled with passengers or cargo could be propelled through a nearly airless tube at speeds of up to 760mph. These tubes, either raised on pylons or sunk beneath the earth, could be built either within or between cities. Musk called it a fifth mode of transportation" and argued... Continue reading...

Watch the game, set up a Halo 2 LAN party, or look at footage of other trucks. | Image: Toyota Toyota revealed a custom Tundra pickup truck that can pop out five big-screen TVs from its bed for a wild tailgating experience designed to let you watch football from any angle." The one-off vehicle is a prototype built for the 2024 SEMA show in Las Vegas, where it's on display alongside many other cool concepts, including Toyota's Jeepy open-air Land Cruiser.This Ultimate Tailgate Tundra," however, is unlike anything else at the show in terms of gadgety engineering:

Image: Cath Virginia / The Verge; Getty Images Swing state voters are being inundated with text messages seemingly designed to look like they're coming from supporters of Vice President Kamala Harris or even from her campaign itself. Some of the messages imply that Harris is misleading the public about her efforts to secure a ceasefire in the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza, while others say she has pledged to support Israel as they wage their war in Gaza." Although the texts are written to sound like standard campaign mass messaging, they contain no call to action or URL to a campaign site. But most bizarrely, the sender will reiterate and emphasize that Harris will always stand with Israel" if the recipient replies identifying themselves as pro-Palestinian.I want to make sure we set... Continue reading...

Image: The Verge Members of Reddit's r/ThatMysteriousSong community have finally identified what they call The Most Mysterious Song on the Internet," a new wave tune that a teenager recorded to cassette sometime around 1984, as reported yesterday by 404 Media.The mysterious song's digital trail goes back to 2004, when Darius S., the teenager who recorded it from a radio broadcast in Germany, posted it on a website along with other unknown songs, hoping others could help identify them. The search for its origins went viral back in 2019 when a Brazilian teen uploaded the song to YouTube.Now we know that the song is called Subways Of the Mind" by a band named FEX. Here's a recording provided by Michael Hadrich, a 68-year-old former band member.H... Continue reading...

The budget-friendly TV delivers good color and contrast for the price, with support for full-array local dimming and Dolby Vision HDR. | Image: Hisense To say the news is a lot right now might be the understatement of the year. Luckily, if you're looking for ways to distract yourself from the 2024 election in the days - or, god forbid, weeks - ahead, Hisene's 55-inch U6N Series TV is on sale at Amazon, Walmart, and Best Buy starting at $347.99 ($200 off), which is a new all-time low.The 4K-ready TV's got everything you need to unplug and comfortably stream your stress away, all without spending a fortune. Notably, it comes with Google's TV software built-in, so you can quickly find the perfect show and peruse content recommendations across a multitude of streaming services. The 55U6N also offers a slew of Gemini-powered AI features thanks to a recent software update - allowing you to... Continue reading...

Amazon's MK30 drone. | Image: Amazon Amazon is starting up drone delivery operations at its Tolleson, AZ, same-day delivery site. Customers who live in the West Valley Phoenix Metro Area are eligible to receive packages via Prime Air and will have access to the over 50,000 everyday essentials" that include household, beauty, and office/tech supplies - which Amazon claims is its largest selection yet for fast drone deliveries.The news came after Amazon announced it was shutting down its testing zone location in Lockeford, California. The new Tolleson location integrates drone deliveries into Amazon's delivery network for the first time, and the drones will deploy right next to the fulfillment center.Amazon is using its latest MK30 drones that can carry up to 5 pounds... Continue reading...

Image: Cath Virginia / The Verge; Getty Images A shorter-than-usual US presidential election season comes to a head. Continue reading...

Illustration by Kristen Radtke / The Verge; Getty Images Elon Musk's America PAC can move forward with its $1 million giveaways to voters after a Philadelphia judge declined an emergency petition from District Attorney Larry Krasner to block them.During a hearing earlier on Monday, a representative for the political action committee said prize winners are not randomly selected and are actually chosen to be paid spokespeople for the PAC, which supports former President Donald Trump, The Associated Press reported. Musk previously advertised the selection as random, but the fine print of the petition that applicants need to sign to enter the giveaway doesn't mention it.Krasner accused the PAC of running an illegal lottery and deceptively marketing the prize selections as random, even though... Continue reading...

Image: GM GM is claiming the number two spot in EV sales in the US for the third quarter of this year, selling 32,000 electric vehicles. The automaker produces EVs across multiple brands running on the same platform, like Chevy's Silverado, Blazer, and Equinox EVs, as well as the GMC Hummer EV and the Cadillac Lyriq.GM says it has sold a total of 370,000 EVs in North America since 2016, including 300,000 in the US specifically. Tesla is still the undisputed leader, with more than 5 million vehicles sold since 2008.In an email with The Verge, GM's executive director of finance and sales communications James Cain wrote that sales have accelerated since the company built a dedicated EV platform (formerly known as Ultium) and began producing battery... Continue reading...

Cath Virginia / The Verge Microsoft has been testing a new AI-powered Xbox chatbot, and now Xbox Insiders can try it out for the first time. I exclusively revealed the existence of this new Xbox Support Virtual Agent" earlier this year, and Microsoft now says it's designed to help Xbox players more efficiently solve their support-related gaming issues."Xbox Insiders in the US can start trying out this new Xbox AI chatbot at support.xbox.com, and it will answer questions around Xbox console and game support issues. We value the feedback from Xbox Insiders for this preview experience and any feedback received will be used to improve the Support Virtual Agent," says Megha Dudani, senior product manager lead at Xbox. Image: Microsoft This is... Continue reading...

Image: Nick Barclay / The Verge Meta will now allow US government agencies and contractors to use its open-source Llama AI model for national security applications." In an announcement on Monday, the company said it's working with Amazon, Microsoft, IBM, Lockheed Martin, Oracle, and others to make Llama available to the government.Under Meta's acceptable use policy," people can't use the latest Llama 3 model for military, warfare, nuclear industries or applications, espionage." However, as explained by Meta, this update opens the door for the US military to use Llama to do things like streamline complicated logistics and planning, track terrorist financing or strengthen our cyber defenses."Meta says Oracle has already started building on Llama to synthesize"... Continue reading...

Image: Amazon Amazon's Prime Video is getting a new generative AI-powered feature to help catch you up on a show. The new tool, called X-Ray Recaps, can create text summaries of of full seasons of TV shows, single episodes, and even pieces of episodes," the company says in a blog post.X-Ray Recaps will be accessible from the detail page of a show or in X-Ray while you're watching something. The tool analyzes various video segments, combined with subtitles or dialogue, to generate detailed descriptions of key events, places, times, and conversations," Amazon says. Amazon has also applied guardrails" to help the feature avoid sharing spoilers and to keep summaries concise. Image: Amazon X-Ray Recaps, which is are beta, are coming... Continue reading...

The Echo Spot is a smart alarm clock / speaker hybrid that's $5 shy of its all-time low price. | Photo by Jennifer Pattison Tuohy / The Verge The clocks have fallen back an hour for many of us, and if it all feels a bit disorienting, you're not alone. Thankfully, Amazon's versatile Echo Spot is on sale to help you adjust. Normally $79.99, right now you can buy the smart alarm clock at Amazon in black, blue, or white with a free Globe Electric smart bulb for $49.99, which equates to $41.99 in savings. That's just $5 shy of the all-time low we saw during Amazon's recent Prime Day event.Amazon's speedy smart speaker can be set up so that it gently wakes you up with music instead of typical alarm clock sounds, which can be jarring. The Spot is also a lot more useful than your run-of-the-mill clock, as it offers a customizable 2.83-inch screen that displays helpful info... Continue reading...

The machines that process mail-in ballots help count thousands of votes in a day - and Philadelphia officials know that every second matters. Continue reading...

The French-language app shows new movies like Terrifier 3 and Venom: The Last Dance. | Image: Thomas Ricker / The Verge Another illegal streaming app has made its way to the App Store - but it only surfaces pirated films for people in certain regions outside the US, including France, Canada, and the Netherlands.As shown in a post on Threads, the App Store listing for Univer Note" presents itself as a productivity platform that can easily help you record every day's events and plan your time." However, if you're a user in certain countries, like France or Canada, opening the app shows a collection of pirated movies, such as Venom: The Last Dance, Joker: Folie a Deux, and Terrifier 3. Options within the app are labeled in French, while films stream in their original language with French subtitles or dubbing.Anyone else who downloads the app in an... Continue reading...

Image: Nintendo For a character that's been around so long, Mario is in something of a golden period. Since last year his mustache has been spotted in theaters, theme parks, and the best (and weirdest) side-scrolling Super Mario game in a long time. But he's had a particularly strong run in role-playing games on the Switch, with recent remakes of both Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door and the original Super Mario RPG. Now we have Mario & Luigi: Brothership which keeps the streak alive with a blend of charm, humor, and clever gameplay.Brothership, once again, starts with the brothers getting whisked away to a fantasy realm in need of help. This time it's the oceanic world of Concordia, which has been broken apart into a series of islands. The bros end... Continue reading...