The Verge - All Posts

Movella has launched a specialized streaming app for Vtubers alongside motion-tracking hardware that's a fraction of the price of professional mocap kits. | Image: Movella Movella, a provider of professional motion capture solutions, has launched Obskur, an all-in-one platform that provides virtual streamers (also known as Vtubers") with body tracking technology that's typically reserved for industries like film and game development.There are two parts to the Obskur platform: a free OBS-like streaming application built using Unreal Engine 5 and a $1,995 Mocap Box" that provides the actual tracking hardware for controlling a virtual avatar. Inside the box, you'll find nine upper-body Movella Xsens tracking sensors - a technology that's been used in animation across movies like The Avengers, Avatar, and Black Panther - alongside a customized pair of StretchSense" gloves for tracking hand movements.V... Continue reading...

Container ships moored off the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach in Long Beach, California, on November 16th, 2021, as a historic traffic jam started to ease. | Image: Bing Guan / Bloomberg via Getty Images Report cards are out for retailers' climate goals, specifically when it comes to tackling the pollution from their shipping. Compared to other retail giants, Ikea managed to get surprisingly high scores.With a B+ grade overall, Ikea stands out among the 17 other rated companies, which all received D or F grades. Apparently, the Swedish company has been more ambitious in its push for cleaner ships and ports, according to the coalition of environmental groups called Ship It Zero that rated the companies.Today, the ships that haul all the furniture, gadgets, and other consumer goods we buy are major sources of pollution. Maritime shipping is responsible for about as much of the world's greenhouse gas emissions as aviation. It also pumps... Continue reading...

Illustration: The Verge The next time you want a quick gut check on whether a sentence is grammatically accurate, Google Search might have the answer. 9to5Google has spotted a grammar check" feature that will offer suggestions on whether a given phrase is grammatically accurate. For example, type the quick brown fox jump over the lazy dog" into the search engine and Google will highlight that you probably meant jumps" instead of jump."Although most people probably don't care about the grammar of their search phrases, we suspect this tool is meant to be more general purpose. If one of your sentences looks off when you type it into a messaging app for example, Google's hope seems to be that you'll give it a check with Google Search - because anything that... Continue reading...

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Netflix is adding a way to give a thumbs-up, double thumbs-up, or thumbs-down to a show or movie while you're watching it on mobile, which could give you an easier way to teach the streaming service's algorithms about your viewing preferences.With this new change, when you tap the screen while watching something, you'll see the three different thumb buttons in addition to options you may be familiar with (like the skip forward / back buttons and changing the speed of a video). Image: Netflix The new thumb buttons will be available on Monday on iOS and later" on Android, according to spokesperson Layal Brown. (Brown had no other specifics to share" when I asked for a timeframe for the Android release.) And if you... Continue reading...

Sony Spider-Man 2 PlayStation 5 bundle and console covers | Image: Sony Preorders for Sony's upcoming limited edition Spider-Man PlayStation 5 console and some of its matching accessories are still available. The themed setup can be bought as a full bundle with a disc-equipped PS5, a digital code for Marvel's Spider-Man 2, and a matching controller for $599.99. Or, if you already own a PS5, you can get the same look via replaceable covers for $64.99, while the matching DualSense controller runs $79.99.While the next installment of Insomniac's Spider-Man game series isn't due out until October 20th, all this friendly neighborhood gear is set to ship on September 1st.Where to preorder the limited edition Spider-Man 2 PS5 console bundleIf you want the whole matching package, the limited edition PlayStation... Continue reading...

Image: OpenAI OpenAI now lets you block its web crawler from scraping your site to help train GPT models.In a blog post, OpenAI said website operators can specifically disallow its GPTBot crawler on their site's Robots.txt file or block its IP address. Web pages crawled with the GPTBot user agent may potentially be used to improve future models and are filtered to remove sources that require paywall access, are known to gather personally identifiable information (PII), or have text that violates our policies," OpenAI said in the blog post. For sources that don't fit the excluded criteria, allowing GPTBot to access your site can help AI models become more accurate and improve their general capabilities and safety."Blocking the GPTBot may be the... Continue reading...

Image: Activision Surprising absolutely no one, Activision Blizzard has announced the latest Call of Duty game.Posts today from developer Sledgehammer Games and the official Call of Duty accounts confirmed Modern Warfare III (not to be confused with 2011's Modern Warfare 3, of course) will launch on November 10th.

Image: Disney The Little Mermaid is headed to Disney Plus. You can start streaming the live-action remake on the service starting on September 6th.First released in theaters in May, The Little Mermaid stars Halle Bailey as Ariel, Jonah Hauer-King as Prince Eric, Melissa McCarthy as Ursula, and Javier Bardem as King Triton. The movie revisits the classic tale first shown in Disney's 1989 animated film, once again following Ariel as she trades her voice for the ability to walk on land.

Lego's Wildflower Bouquet is a beautiful gift for mom, one she can easily put together herself. | Image: Lego What do you gift your mom? That's a challenging question to answer, especially given mothers - the generous, unselfish beings they can be - are not likely to spill the beans when asked.Luckily, we've done the hard work for you. With the help of The Verge staff, we've curated a list of some of the best tech gifts you can treat your mom - or any mother figure, really - to year-round. Whether it's for her birthday, Mother's Day, or Christmas, here you'll find something that caters to all kinds of budgets and interests, ranging from smartwatches and Kindles to massage guns, robot vacuums, and more. You can rest assured that these are items we can personally vouch for as well, having tested and reviewed them ourselves.Peruse this list... Continue reading...

Image: Gigabyte Gigabyte has launched a new low-profile GeForce RTX 4060 OC graphics card that's designed to fit into mini PC builds, as spotted earlier by VideoCardz. Unlike many of the other GPUs meant for compact PCs, this one comes with three fans instead of just two or one.That three-fan setup might make it a bit difficult to fit into some small form factor cases, as the card measures 182mm long. But it makes up for that with its thin 40mm height and 69mm width. Despite its slender design, the chip comes outfitted with two DisplayPort and two HDMI ports as well. It also comes with a low-profile bracket, which is a nice touch. Image: Gigabyte While it's nice that Gigabyte has made a 40-series chip specifically for low-profile... Continue reading...

Photo by Dave Kotinsky / Getty Images for MrBeast Burger A week after YouTube star Jimmy Donaldson (aka MrBeast) sued his namesake virtual burger restaurant, the company behind MrBeast Burger has filed its own lawsuit against Donaldson and his Beast Investments. Virtual Dining Concepts, which handled the fulfillment and delivery of MrBeast Burgers, is seeking $100 million in damages. The news was first reported by Variety.VDC alleged that Donaldson didn't deliver on his contractual obligations, including publicity and promotional work, failing to publicly support MrBeast Burger, and making untruthful and disparaging statements. VDC says that Donaldson's actions have caused enormous financial harm" and that the burger restaurant's reputation was destroyed.This case is about a social media... Continue reading...

Red Dead Redemption 2. | Image: Rockstar Games Looks like Red Dead Redemption is moseying onto the Switch and PS4 (and the PS5 via backward compatibility). Rockstar Games announced today that the new conversion" is courtesy of Double Eleven, which was founded by former Rockstar developers in 2009.The game launches for the two systems on August 17th, more than a decade after it first showed its hide on the PS3 and Xbox 360. (That version is already compatible with newer Xbox consoles.) It was followed by a gigantic sequel in 2018. The releases will also include the noncanonical Undead Nightmare single-player campaign that pitted John Marston against hordes of zombies.Red Dead Redemption will cost $49.99 in the Nintendo eShop and the PlayStation Store, while physical releases are... Continue reading...

Image: The Verge Microsoft is bringing its AI-powered Bing Chat to mobile browsers soon. While Bing Chat has been available in separate Android and iOS mobile apps since late February, Microsoft is opening it up to all mobile browsers as part of the broader changes to stop blocking Bing Chat on third-party browsers.Bing Chat first launched in February, but it was restricted to Microsoft's own Edge browser. Microsoft started opening up to Chrome and Safari desktop browsers in late July as part of testing for full third-party browser support.With so many new, useful features now a part of Bing, we're excited to announce you can start experiencing the new AI-powered Bing in third-party browsers on web and mobile soon," says the Bing team in a blog post.... Continue reading...

Illustration: The Verge WhatsApp's latest beta has a new voice chat feature that lets groups of up to 32 people connect for a spoken session, according to beta notes published by WABetaInfo. WhatsApp beta version 2.23.16.19 is rolling out to testers on Android, adding features similar to Telegram and Discord chats, Slack's Huddles, and even Meta's own Messenger platform.If it's live in your version of the app, you'll notice a waveform icon within group chats - but only if the WhatsApp account has the feature enabled and includes compatibility with the group. Tapping the button immediately launches voice chat, along with its own interface. Then, anyone in the group, up to 32 people, can just jump in and start talking. Unlike the existing group calls feature,... Continue reading...

Image: PayPal PayPal is launching its own stablecoin: PayPalUSD (PYUSD). The company says the cryptocurrency token is fully backed by U.S. dollar deposits" and can be bought or sold on PayPal's app or website at $1.00 per PYUSD.With PYUSD, you can make person-to-person payments, fund purchases with the currency at checkouts, and transfer PYUSD between PayPal and other outside wallets. PayPal says that you can also convert the currencies supported by PayPal to and from PYUSD as well.Stablecoins take their name from the fact that they're centralized and backed by existing government-supported currencies like the US dollar or the Euro. The US government is still hashing out how to regulate stablecoin and other forms of cryptocurrency. After all,... Continue reading...

It's a big update year for Samsung's flip-style foldable - and a much larger cover screen makes all the difference. Continue reading...

Amazon, Best Buy, and Walmart are all slashing the price of the next-gen console for a limited time. | Image: Sony Earlier this week, we saw a rare deal drop on the PlayStation 5 - only for it to disappear as quickly as it arrived. Thankfully, if you missed out on the unexpected deal at Monoprice, you now have another chance at saving $50 on Sony's next-gen gaming console.Right now, the disc-based PS5 is on sale at Amazon, Best Buy, Walmart, and GameStop starting at $449, the lowest price we've seen on the standalone console since it launched at the tail end of 2020. Typically, we only see discounts on various bundles, which conveniently pair the console with titles such as God of War Ragnarok, Final Fantasy XVI, and Horizon Forbidden West but rarely dip below the $500 threshold.The PlayStation 5 is a fast, powerful console that's capable of... Continue reading...

Image: Gen Con A pair of thieves waltzed into Gen Con 2023 in Indianapolis and stole as much as $300,000 of gaming cards (via IndyStar). The cards, which were sitting in boxes on a pallet, were stolen using a pallet jack while vendors were setting up for the long-running yearly gaming convention that Dungeons and Dragons co-creator Gary Gygax started.As for what cards were taken, that's unknown. IndyStar reported that a worker at a local board game store thought the packaging resembled that of Magic: the Gathering, Pokemon Trading Card Game, and the unreleased Disney Lorcana. Ravensburger, the company that makes Disney Lorcana, tweeted that all of its product is accounted for. Convention-goers waited for as much as 16 hours for the card game, which... Continue reading...

Photo by Alexi J. Rosenfeld/Getty Images A massive gathering of people showed up on Friday afternoon at New York City's Union Square for a giveaway hosted by two social media influencers, mega-popular Twitch streamer Kai Cenat and another streamer, Fanum. Cenat is the most-subscribed streamer on Twitch, according to TwitchTracker. The giveaway was set to take place at Union Square Park at 4PM ET, and the park was full of people by 3PM.An earlier video posted by Cenat from the inside of a vehicle showed him talking about multiple PS5s he intended to give away while showing off a huge stack of $100 gift cards. The video quickly devolves into chaos when Cenat exits the vehicle, with the crowd immediately collapsing on Cenat and his group. Cenat also posted a nearly three-minute... Continue reading...

Illustration: The Verge The Google Pixel Watch 2 could get much better battery life thanks to a new, more efficient processor and may even gain ultra-wideband (UWB) support, according to the typically-reliable Kamila Wojciechowska, writing for Android Authority.The new leak says the rumored Pixel Watch successor will use the more efficient 4nm Qualcomm Snapdragon W5 Plus chip, backing up previous reports.The new chip could significantly improve its performance and potentially bring multi-day battery life to the platform. The first Pixel Watch used a much slower 10nm Exynos 9110, which got up to, at most, 15 hours of battery life in The Verge's Victoria Song's review last year.Apple uses UWB to enable precision-finding of its AirTags and newest AirPods Pro,... Continue reading...

Image: Lucid Motors Lucid Motors has announced it is reinstating original pricing across the full air lineup," dropping the price of two of its vehicles below $100,000, according to a press release the company shared with The Verge. The new base prices, while supplies last," will be $125,600 for the Air Grand Touring (down from $154,000), $95,000 for the Air Touring (down from $107,400), and $82,400 for the Air Pure (down from $87,400).You may have noticed those aren't quite the old prices for all three, as the Lucid Air Pure started at $77,400 previously - Lucid's director of press communications Andrew Hussey clarified in an email to The Verge that the new pricing only applies to the all-wheel drive version of the car, which he said totaled $82,900,... Continue reading...

With an electrified cargo bike, I can move faster and farther without straining under load. The conversion is tedious but not difficult if you have the right tools. Just expect the unexpected. Continue reading...

With sound quality worthy of Technics' name and unique three-way multipoint, the EAH-AZ80 are a comprehensive package worth their $300 price. Continue reading...

Image: The Writers Guild of America The Writers Guild of America (WGA) met yesterday with representatives of the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP) to confidentially discuss resuming talks, but the meeting ended without a definite agreement to resume negotiations (via Deadline). After the AMPTP withdrew to consult with their member studios," the WGA sent an email to its members disclosing the particulars of the discussion, saying studios had leaked details of the meeting to the press.In the Friday talk, according to WGA's letter to its members, the AMPTP said it was willing to offer more for a few writer-specific TV minimums," and was willing to discuss studio AI use, but wouldn't consider success-based residuals or preserving writers' rooms. (D... Continue reading...

Image: The Verge In news that isn't very surprising given the recent history of Twitter, which Elon Musk is currently rebranding to X, the company won't be able to make some promised payments on time. The X Support account says that because its Ads Revenue Sharing" program is so popular, We need a bit more time to review everything for the next payout and aim to get all eligible accounts paid as soon as possible."From the linked support page:

Threads.net, as of August 2023. | Image by Meta; Screencap by Sean Hollister / The Verge If you go to Threads.net to access Meta's popular Twitter clone, you'll still find a spinning placeholder galaxy - but that should change in the next few weeks, according to a new tweet from CEO Mark Zuckerberg.Search and web coming in the next few weeks," he tweets, saying he's excited about the team's pace of shipping."Meta took a gamble on launching a barebones Twitter alternative at breakneck speed while Twitter continued to crumble, and it may have paid off - my colleague Alex Heath recently wrote that Threads hit 100 million signups faster than any consumer software product in history.But more than half of those users didn't stick around, according to Reuters, and while that may be expected for any software product,... Continue reading...

Illustration: The Verge The government's antitrust case against Google just got significantly smaller. In a filing on Friday, a US district court judge dismissed several of the claims that the Department of Justice and a coalition of states brought against the company, including allegations that Google Search harms competing services.The decision stems from a pair of lawsuits that the DOJ and a group of 38 state attorneys general filed against Google in 2020. While the DOJ and states originally filed separately, the suit has since become mostly consolidated. The suit accuses Google of anti-competitive behavior on a number of fronts, including designing its search engine to disadvantage competitors like Yelp, Expedia, and Tripadvisor.However, Judge Amit Mehta... Continue reading...

Jon Hamm as Orson. | Image: Lionsgate Lionsgate's new dark comedy from director Joachim Back plays more like a lengthy ASMR video starring Jon Hamm. Continue reading...

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge YouTube's higher-quality 1080p option is now available for all Premium subscribers on desktop globally, spokesperson Paul Pennington confirmed to The Verge. The company officially launched the enhanced bitrate" 1080p in April on iOS after an earlier test.I don't pay for Premium, but I've seen the enhanced bitrate option on a handful of videos on Friday as I browsed YouTube in Chrome on my MacBook Air. When I try to click the enhanced bitrate, YouTube prompts me to subscribe to Premium to be able to use it. (If you decide to subscribe to Premium to get the better bitrate, you should know that the service is a bit more expensive than it used to be.) Screenshot by Jay Peters / The Verge An ad for the Meta Quest 3... Continue reading...

Image: Blizzard Callingreintroduces Overwatch fans to Sojourn, a central figure in Overwatch's expanding narrative. Continue reading...

Photo by Sjoerd van der Wal / Getty Images VanMoof, the e-bike company that declared bankruptcy in the Netherlands last month, is for sale. A number of buyers are rumored to be circling the popular Dutch brand, but the one potential bidder making the most noise is also the one least likely to be successful.The two administrators who were chosen by the Dutch court as trustees for VanMoof are telling the local press that several bids have been made. In the coming days, the bids will be compared with each other and discussed with the stakeholders," said curators Jan Padberg and Robin de Wit, according to Bright. The aim is to reach a final agreement within a few days.In the coming days, the bids will be compared with each other and discussed with the stakeholders."The... Continue reading...

Image: Canoo Ulrich Kranz, the Apple car executive who served as the former CEO of the EV startup Canoo, is facing some legal trouble. On Friday, the Securities and Exchange Commission filed a lawsuit against Kranz and former Canoo chief financial officer Paul Balciunas over claims they provided unreasonable revenue projections" to investors, as first reported by Bloomberg.As outlined in the lawsuit, the SEC states that Kranz and Balciunas told investors Canoo would make $120 million in 2021 and $250 million in 2022. However, the SEC alleges that the pair should have known that these projections were unreasonable" because the projects it used to calculate these amounts were unlikely to materialize." The SEC also claims that Kranz failed to... Continue reading...

Illustration: Samar Haddad / The Verge While my personal computers have mostly been Windows and my phones Android, I do use a Mac for work, and I've always been envious of the ease with which people in the Apple ecosystem can move files from one device to another using AirDrop. Google introduced a similar feature called Nearby Share in 2020, but it only shared files between Google products. Now, Windows has finally introduced its version of Nearby Share, allowing you to easily move files between Windows and Android systems.When it first appeared, I installed the beta of Nearby Share to a Windows 11 system and used it to move photos between that and my Pixel 6, and it worked like a charm. Now that it's official, here are some step-by-step instructions on how to set up Nearby... Continue reading...

That's right, my phone and I have had an important relationship talk. | Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Lately, I have been playing a game with myself, and I'd like to invite all of you to play with me. It's called the Phone Challenge.As readers of this fine blog establishment know, I spend all day reading the entire internet and writing some of it. During what I think of as the High Pandemic Era (2020-2021), I was surprised to discover that despite gazing at my laptop screen all day and rarely leaving the house, I was still somehow spending four hours a day on my phone.Seemed like a lot, to be honest.Since then, I've been trying to see how low I can go without sacrificing my social relationships. Sure, I have internet friends - or, as I think of them, the people who live inside my phone. But I also stare at a laptop all day! And yes, I... Continue reading...