The Verge - All Posts

Women Plus Connect is a new feature in the Lyft app that lets women and nonbinary drivers and riders opt to prefer women and nonbinary drivers and riders. | Image: Lyft On Tuesday, rideshare service Lyft launched Women Plus Connect, an in-app feature that matches women and nonbinary drivers with more women and nonbinary riders." The move is an effort to improve safety and encourage more women and nonbinary drivers to work with the company. A report by The Verge found that female rideshare drivers frequently face harassment and sexual assault and feel unsupported by rideshare companies.The feature offers Lyft drivers an option to turn on a preference in the Lyft app to prioritize matches with other nearby women and nonbinary riders. It's not a guarantee, however, and if no riders that match that description are nearby, drivers will still be matched with men. Image: Lyft The... Continue reading...

The ringtones might be good enough to keep you from using that Action Button to turn off the ringer. | Photo by Nilay Patel / The Verge Apple's iPhone is finally getting some new ringtones with iOS 17. As reported by 9to5Mac, the iOS 17 release candidate (RC) has a bunch of additional ringtones, and assuming nothing changes between the RC and the update's official release, you're going to have a few additional sounds to choose from very soon.iOS 17 includes more than 20 new ringtone options and sound alerts," 9to5Mac says. I've installed the RC and listened to many of the new sounds, and I'm a big fan. I'm particularly drawn to the new Journey" ringtone, which sounds like something out of a classic RPG. If you want to hear a few of the new tones, 9to5Mac has a short video you can check out.Some older sounds have been slightly remastered" as well, according to 9... Continue reading...

The iPhone 15 and 15 Pro phones will be the first to support the Qi2 open charging standard, but they aren't Qi2-certified yet. | Image: Apple The iPhone 15 and 15 Pro are the first phones to ship with the new Qi2 magnetic wireless charging standard. Well, sort of: it turns out they aren't Qi2-certified yet. But neither is anything else.Qi2 is an update to the Qi wireless charging standard that adds a ring of magnets to ensure proper alignment of the charging coils. You know, like MagSafe. Unlike MagSafe, Qi2 is an open standard - Apple even contributed its magnetic power profile" to it - and Android phone makers are expected to adopt it as well. That's great. Few things are more frustrating than waking up to a dead phone because you plopped it on the charger a few millimeters off-center, and magnetic alignment fixes that. (So does plugging it in, but bear with me.)Qi2 a... Continue reading...

Apple brings satellite-powered Roadside Assistance to the iPhone 15 and iPhone 14 in a partnership with AAA. | Image: Apple During the iPhone 15 launch event in Cupertino, Apple announced it's adding satellite-powered Roadside Assistance to the iPhone in a partnership with AAA. Buying and activating a new iPhone 14 or iPhone 15 series device will include two years of Emergency SOS and Roadside Assistance access for free. The services they connect you to are covered under the AAA membership terms or available on a pay-per-use basis for non-AAA members.The Roadside Assistance service - which is US only - is an expansion of the Emergency SOS via satellite feature launched with iPhone 14 last year. If you have car trouble, you can text AAA for assistance for your emergencies, such as being locked out, running out of fuel, or a flat tire (you know, those times... Continue reading...

The noble Apple Polishing Cloth. | Image: Apple It's that time of year again - the time when millions around the world nail their eyeballs to the Apple Store website and wait, unblinking, to find out whether the new iPhones and Apple Watches are compatible with the $19 Polishing Cloth Apple launched in 2021. After all, you bought the cloth as soon as Apple announced it, and you know all about planned obsolescence. Did you waste 19 bucks two years ago?I did some digging, and I am pleased as punch to report that, no, you didn't. Even the brushed titanium-framed iPhone 15 Pro and Pro Max are supported. Apple updated its website this afternoon to add no less than six new devices to the cloth's diverse stable of compatible screen-having Apple products. That brings the grand total to... Continue reading...

Unity Popular video game engine Unity is making big changes to its pricing structure that's causing confusion and anger among developers. Today, Unity announced that on January 1st, 2024, it would be implementing a pay-per-download pricing scheme that would charge developers a flat fee any time a game using Unity software is installed.We are introducing a Unity Runtime Fee that is based upon each time a qualifying game is downloaded by an end user," the company shared on its blog. We chose this because each time a game is downloaded, the Unity Runtime is also installed. Also we believe that an initial install-based fee allows creators to keep the ongoing financial gains from player engagement, unlike a revenue share."Unity went on to... Continue reading...

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge T-Mobile is buying airwaves from Comcast in a deal valued at up to $3.3 billion. In a blog post on Comcast's site, the company explains that it will sell spectrum in the 600MHz band as it is unlikely" to need it.Comcast announced plans to build out a 5G network for its Xfinity Mobile service last year using spectrum in the 600MHz band and CBRS - an unlicensed spectrum in the 3.5GHz range that companies can use for free. However, Comcast says 5G field tests with CBRS spectrum exceeded" its expectations and that it's found the band to be highly efficient and a significant part of a 5G network."That's why Comcast no longer sees a use for its 600MHz spectrum, which it says T-Mobile will lease to purchase. As part of the deal, T-Mobile... Continue reading...

Image: Apple During its iPhone 15 event, Apple announced that the second-generation AirPods Pro will soon ship with a USB-C case. But it turns out the company quietly made other upgrades that go beyond swapping the case's charging port. For one, the USB-C AirPods Pro have tacked dust resistance onto their existing water and sweat resistance: they're rated IP54 versus the IPX4 of last year's Lightning model. But perhaps more interesting is that these USB-C AirPods Pro will support lossless audio when used with Apple's upcoming Vision Pro headset.This marks the first time that Apple's wireless earbuds have offered lossless playback. The H2 chip in the latest AirPods Pro and Apple Vision Pro, combined with a groundbreaking wireless audio protocol,... Continue reading...

The Flic Twist is a new smart home controller that works with Apple Home, Amazon Alexa and, according to the company, will soon work with Matter. | Image: Flic Buttons are the best. They can make your smart home just work" and don't require wiring, remodeling your home, or shouting at a speaker to make magic happen. Want the lights to dim, your TV to turn on, your thermostat to adjust, and your front door to lock with one tap? Get a button.The newest button from smart home button maker Flic, launching today, adds an exciting twist to the button concept. The Flic Twist ($88.88) is a button that you can push, double-push, twist, and push and twist to control any connected device.The twist feature, in particular, is well suited to dimming lights, adjusting speaker volume or thermostat temperature, and controlling shades - all functions that are hard to achieve with just a button press.As a... Continue reading...

Image: Getty Images Ford, BMW, and Honda are joining forces to create a new vehicle-to-grid company that aims to help EV owners save money by sending energy back to the electrical grid.The new company, ChargeScape, will create a single, cost-effective platform connecting electric utilities, automakers and interested electric vehicle customers." Through that platform, EV owners earn financial benefits through a variety of managed charging and energy-sharing services never before possible with traditional gasoline-powered vehicles."The three automakers will each own an equal share of the new company, which is expected to ramp up operations starting next year, pending regulatory approval.EVs are unique in their ability to send energy back to the grid,... Continue reading...

Get used to seeing this dongle everywhere for a while. | Image: Apple Apple just made a lot of people's Lightning cables and accessories suddenly redundant by introducing the new iPhone 15, 15 Plus, 15 Pro, and 15 Pro Max. Four phones, not a Lightning port in sight - Apple is all in on USB-C.To make the transition easier, Apple is now selling a bunch of predictably expensive new cables and dongles. Starting with the one you're almost certainly going to need to buy: the USB-C to Lightning Adapter, a $29.99 dongle into which you plug your Lightning device or cable and then plug the dongle into your new phone.If you're ready to live the USB-C life entirely, you can buy Apple's one-meter charging cable, which is $19 and will charge at up to 60 watts. Or, for $29, you can get a two-meter cable that supports... Continue reading...

Apple released its Apple Watch Series 9. | Image: Apple Apple announced its first-ever carbon-neutral products today, but don't get too excited about what that means for the planet. It's way more important to look at the company's environmental impact as a whole rather than fixate on any particular product it's selling as more sustainable.Some of Apple's new watches will be carbon neutral, but only based on select" combinations of cases and bands. Apple also said it plans to stop selling leather accessories like watch bands and phone cases to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.When it comes to climate commitments, boasts about a specific product's sustainability can distract from the far more important goal of reducing the company's overall environmental impact. Apple has a goal of becoming... Continue reading...

That there is an iPhone 15 Pro. We've just had our first chance to check out the new iPhone 15 Pro and Pro Max, which Apple just announced at its annual fall event in Cupertino. There are lots of new things about the devices - camera upgrades, the new A17 Bionic chip - but there are three things about the phone you notice right away. The thing is made of titanium; there's an Action Button on the left side; and that's a USB-C port on the bottom. Oh, and a fourth thing: the sides of the phones on display were instantly and immediately covered in fingerprints.At first glance, the 15 Pro looks just like the iPhones Pro before it. But pick one up, and the lighter weight due to the titanium frame is obvious, as are the curved edges. It's just nicer to hold. Apple says the... Continue reading...

Illustration by Nick Barclay / The Verge Here's the latest from Apple's iPhone 15 event. Continue reading...

The switch is gone. | Image: Apple Apple revealed the new iPhone 15 Pro today, and there's a brand-new button on the side that can be customized to trigger a specific function. This new Action Button" is similar to the one introduced on the Apple Watch Ultra, which can activate workouts, among other abilities.The Action Button, which replaces the ring / vibrate switch, can be programmed to do things like activating the camera, starting a recording, opening a note, or running your own custom shortcuts. The button switches the iPhone between ring and vibrate by default, which is vital since it has replaced the ring / vibrate switch that Apple has included on the iPhone since its debut in 2007. You can feel a haptic feedback when it changes.Those who would like to make... Continue reading...

Photo by Chris Welch / The Verge It'd be a little strange for Apple to transition the iPhone lineup over to USB-C only to leave its massively popular AirPods Pro stuck with Lightning charging ports. Predictably, that's not what's going to be happening: today, Apple announced that the AirPods Pro will now be shipping with a USB-C charging case. This will let buyers of the new iPhone 15 charge their earbuds using the same cable for both devices. You'll also be able to charge your AirPods from an iPhone, Apple said during the presentation.The AirPods' move to USB-C continues Apple's gradual embracing of the connector and follows the Mac, iPad, iPhone, and even accessories like the Apple TV 4K's remote control. During the presentation, Apple also announced a revised pair... Continue reading...

WatchOS 10 on the Apple Watch Series 9. | Screenshot: Wes Davis / The Verge Apple has announced that watchOS 10 will be ready to download starting on September 18th. The update may be the biggest change to watchOS since Apple released its massively popular smartwatch, overhauling the former honeycomb grid and adding widgets - er, glances, as Apple calls them - that you can swipe through and customize.The company also announced that, for the Apple Watch Series 9, Siri commands will be processed on-device. Apple says that the privacy-preserving nature of on-device processing means users can now ask questions related to personal health and fitness data from the Health app.The new watch will also get a new second-generation ultra wideband (UWB) chip that can detect when a HomePod is nearby so that when you come... Continue reading...

Apple has announced its newest flagship smartwatch, the Apple Watch Ultra 2. The Ultra 2's design looks quite similar to that of the first-generation Apple Watch Ultra, which means the most significant upgrade is on the inside.The Ultra 2, like the new Series 9, will be powered by Apple's S9 SiP, which has 5.6 billion transistors and a four-core neural engine as well as a U2 ultra wideband location chip. This will enable new advanced features, including on-device Siri processing and more precise location tracking.On the outside, the watch has an upgraded display from the previous Ultra model, rated for 3,000 nits, which Apple says is the brightest display an Apple Watch has ever had. Apple claims that users will get 72 hours to a... Continue reading...

The Dbrand Ghost case for the iPhone 15 Pro, exploded. | Image: Dbrand Dbrand has a new $50 clear case, called the Ghost Case, for several flagship phones - including the iPhone 15 Pro phones Apple will announce today. And Dbrand says it's literally impossible" for it to turn yellow. That's a tall claim, but Dbrand insists that the matte black that frames the case makes it so. The cases will start shipping in October, but you can preorder them now.Dbrand pins the anti-yellowing feature on the two-tone design. CEO Adam Ijaz told The Verge in an email that it's a blend of materials, post-processing, and - most importantly - deliberate industrial design choices." More on this later.Dbrand describes the cases as grippy and the buttons as clicky and tactile and claims it can withstand a 10-foot drop. The... Continue reading...

Illustration: The Verge We're on the ground in Cupertino for the launch of Apple's next phones and watches -and the big, long-awaited change from Lightning to USB-C. Continue reading...

Image: Bethesda Nvidia is rolling out an update that will improve Starfield performance for owners of RTX 30- and 40-series cards. Nvidia says its automatic over-the-air update will enable Resizable BAR and boost Starfield performance for its latest GPUs.Today, Nvidia is releasing a Resizable BAR profile for Starfield which increases performance on GeForce RTX 40 Series and GeForce RTX 30 Series desktop and laptop GPUs," explains Andrew Burnes, technical marketer at Nvidia, in a blog post. In our testing scenario, GeForce RTX 40-series desktop GPUs see on average a 5 percent increase in performance."The over-the-air update will be applied to the existing 537.17 drivers and the new 537.34 drivers Nvidia released today. The latest drivers also... Continue reading...

Executives hold shovels during a groundbreaking ceremony at the Occidental Petroleum and 1PointFive Direct Air Capture (DAC) plant in Ector County, Texas, on April 28th, 2023. | Photo by Jordan Vonderhaar / Bloomberg via Getty Images Amazon is the latest tech giant to buy into the idea of filtering carbon dioxide out of the air as a way to combat climate change. The company is backing an oil giant, Occidental Petroleum, to help it do just that. Amazon announced today that it plans to purchase 250,000 metric tons of carbon removal from Occidental subsidiary 1PointFive.This is the latest in a stream of announcements from Big Tech companies turning to emerging carbon removal technologies to help them meet their climate goals. Sucking CO2 out of the atmosphere is one way to try to undo the damage caused by pollution companies have already created. But much of the carbon removal industry has deep ties to oil and gas. And when companies like Amazon pay to deal with their... Continue reading...

Photo illustration by Alex Parkin / The Verge In the 1980s, NASA wanted space to become a booming business - and the first six women astronauts were meant to help get it off the ground. Continue reading...

Image: Netflix As has become a near-annual tradition, Mike Flanagan's next horror series is about to drop on Netflix just in time for spooky season. The latest is called The Fall of the House of Usher, and it's based on the works of Edgar Allan Poe - and if the first trailer is anything to go by, it could also be the darkest show yet from Flanagan. The eight-episode-long series starts streaming on October 12th.Flanagan's relationship with Netflix kicked off with The Haunting of Hill House in 2020 and has since expanded with series including The Haunting of Bly Manor, Midnight Mass, and last year's Midnight Club. In addition to being thematically similar, the shows also feature a number of recurring cast members who appear in multiple series as... Continue reading...

Drop's new tenkeyless Ctrl V2, with its high-profile case. | Image: Drop Fresh off being acquired by Corsair, Drop is overhauling its in-house mechanical keyboard lineup with the new Alt V2, Ctrl V2, and Shift V2. Like their 2018-era predecessors, the Alt V2 is a compact keyboard with a 65 percent layout, the Ctrl V2 is tenkeyless (so it doesn't have a numpad), and the Shift V2 has all the keys of a full-size keyboard but smushed into a more compact 1800 layout. There are also upgrade kits to let existing Ctrl, Alt, and Shift owners turn their keyboards into V2 models.Combined, the improvements should help bring the keyboards up to date with their modern competitors. Their PCBs now offer support for five-pin switches rather than three-pin, which means they're now compatible with the vast majority of... Continue reading...

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Amazon is bringing its advanced logistics capabilities to businesses that don't even sell on the marketplace. In an announcement on Tuesday, the e-commerce giant says its new Supply Chain by Amazon service lets sellers ship products directly from factories - whether it's going to Amazon or not.As part of the program, Amazon will pick up, ship, and deliver products to customers from manufacturing facilities across the globe. It will also manage customs clearance, ground transportation, bulk storage, and inventory replenishment. This means sellers shouldn't have to worry about the supply chain side of their business, letting them focus solely on marketing their products and taking care of sales.

Touch ID was a blessing for lazy teens like me who couldn't be bothered to set an unlocking PIN. | Photo by Lintao Zhang / Getty Images Every phone you pick up today has a fingerprint scanner, a face scanner, an option for PINs with four, six, or more digits, and often all of them at once. Phones prompt you to set up a scan and a passcode the first time you turn them on, and you'd be hard-pressed to find anyone who doesn't have some form of security set up.But go back just 10 years, and the story was very different. Back when our phones were still used almost entirely as phones and not teeny personal computers, most of the locking" features on mobile devices were designed more to prevent you from butt-dialing anyone than to protect your sensitive information.It wasn't until the iPhone 5S came along - 10 years ago this month - that everything changed. ... Continue reading...

Image: Intel Intel is making Thunderbolt 5 official today with promises of up to 120Gbps speeds, theoretical support for 540Hz gaming monitors, 240 watts of charging power, and much more. While the Thunderbolt 5 specification is now official, accessories and PCs won't debut with support for Thunderbolt 5 until 2024.Built on USB4 v2, Thunderbolt 5 will be compatible with previous versions of Thunderbolt and USB. While Thunderbolt 4 supported up to 40Gbps speeds, Thunderbolt 5 can transmit data at 80Gbps or up to 120Gbps in a Bandwidth Boost mode. This mode requires a high-bandwidth display; otherwise, Thunderbolt 5 supports 80Gbps bidirectional speeds. Image: Intel Thunderbolt 5 has some big bandwidth boosts. Thunderbolt 5... Continue reading...

Senator Scott Wiener on Friday, January 10th, 2020, in San Francisco, California. Wiener authored a newly passed bill that requires carbon footprint disclosures from big companies. | Photo By Liz Hafalia / The San Francisco Chronicle via Getty Images California legislators passed a bill Monday night that would force big companies doing business in the state to disclose how much planet-heating carbon dioxide pollution they create. It will be the first mandate of its kind in the nation if it's signed into law and comes as the SEC drags its heels on a similar federal mandate.The bill, SB 253, requires the California Air Resources Board to develop rules by 2025 for companies with annual revenues over $1 billion. By 2026, the companies would have to publicly report greenhouse gas emissions that come from their operations and electricity use. Crucially, they'll also be required to disclose how much pollution is generated by their supply chains and customers by 2027.Huge climate win in... Continue reading...

Jeff Ward as Buggy the Clown. | Image: Netflix You only need to take a casual glance at the new live-action One Piece adaptation to see that Netflix went all out when it came to translating Eiichiro Oda's vision of a wild world full of pirates to the small screen. A big part of what makes the live-action One Piece work so well are the massive ship and town sets that make the show feel like it's happening out in the real world rather than on a soundstage.But when you look a little more closely at many of the places Luffy and his fellow straw hats find themselves in as the series progresses, it becomes clear that One Piece's creative team poured their hearts and souls into stuffing the show with the finest details you can imagine.Though Netflix's One Piece is very much its own... Continue reading...

Photo by Andrew Hawkins / The Verge Rad Power Bikes, the largest e-bike manufacturer in North America, says that going forward, it will only produce bikes that comply with UL safety standards. The announcement comes after a series of deadly fires, mostly in New York City, were linked to malfunctioning e-bike batteries.UL Standards and Engagement (formerly Underwriter's Laboratory) is a nonprofit organization that develops safety standards for a whole host of consumer products, including e-bikes and e-scooters. (Its for-profit equivalent, UL Solutions, tests and certifies e-bikes.)Until now, these safety standards were entirely voluntary, but that could be changing after the New York City Council passed a law requiring all e-bikes sold in the city to comply with UL... Continue reading...

Illustration: The Verge If you've ever followed a lawsuit or criminal trial in the US, you may have come across the work of the Free Law Project. Its Recap database is one of the best ways to freely access documents typically stored in the paywalled Public Access to Court Electronic Records (PACER) system. And one of its cleverest uses of Recap is the Big Cases Bot: an automated account on X / Twitter and Mastodon that checks for updates to the most important cases in US federal courts, automatically downloads the associated files to the Recap database, and posts an update linking to them.The Big Cases Bot has been an excellent resource for The Verge over the years - I check it, and so do other writers and editors. But by design, it's a general-interest feed... Continue reading...

Illustration: The Verge Google is facing a threat to its core business as it turns 25. This is how it starts. Continue reading...

Did you buy any of these in your Apple ownership life? | Photo by Umar Shakir / The Verge Lightning cables will soon join the junk pile of dongles, adapters, and accessories that Apple has left behind over the years - for better or worse. Continue reading...

After releasing devices like the Nokia C32 (pictured) this year, HMD now plans to launch its own smartphone brand. | Photo by Joan Cros/NurPhoto via Getty Images HMD Global, the Finnish company best known for producing Nokia-branded smartphones, has revealed plans to launch its own line of mobile devices. On Monday, HMD Global CEO Jean-Francois Baril announced on Linkedin that the company will be expanding its portfolio with a new HMD brand that will co-exist alongside its Nokia phones and collaborations with exciting new partners" that have yet to be disclosed.It has been a great journey as HMD - the home of Nokia phones' - an exclusive position we have held for the past six years," said Baril. Now we are ready for the next step on our journey - to enter the market independently as a force to create a new world for telecommunications focused on consumer needs."HMD Global hasn't provided a... Continue reading...

Image: Hugo Herrera / The Verge A coalition of environmental, tech, and anti-hate speech groups sent a letter to Senator Chuck Schumer (D-NY) today demanding that the Democratic leader craft policy to address the growing impact AI could have on climate change.Companies should be required to disclose the environmental impact of developing energy-intensive AI models, the letter says. And legislation aimed at curtailing the misuse of AI should include measures to prevent disinformation about climate change from spreading with the help of AI, the coalition writes.The letter was signed by Amazon Employees for Climate Justice, Greenpeace USA, the Union of Concerned Scientists, the Center for Countering Digital Hate, and more than a dozen other groups.The letter was... Continue reading...

Photo by Omar Havana / Getty Images The shared electric scooter business has gone through a series of ups and downs over the last few years - mostly downs, if we're being honest - but now, one company is ready to claim the mantle of victor.Lime released a new set of financial figures that it says proves that last year's slim profits were no fluke. The company reported gross bookings of $250 million in the first half of the year, a 45 percent increase over the same period last year. And it's touting an adjusted EBITDA profitability of $27 million - the first time the company has achieved this for the first half of the year and a 45 percent margin increase over last year - and an unadjusted $20.6 million profitability.To say that Lime is feeling itself would be an... Continue reading...