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Updated 2024-11-26 08:45
Today I learned about these fantastic DIY mods that make modern gamepads one-handed
The mods put the gamepad's controls within reach of one hand. | Image: Akaki Kuumeri If you need to use a modern games controller with just one hand rather than two, then why not give Akaki Kuumeri's 3D-printed mods a try? We've written about the YouTuber's previous projects to add joysticks and throttles to controllers, but more recently, Kuumeri has created a range of one-handed controller mods, which we spotted via this Reddit post and could be helpful if you or someone you know has accessibility needs that prevent them from using both hands with a traditionally two-handed gamepad.Kuumeri's videos about the mods date back to early 2022. At the time, Microsoft was the only major console manufacturer to have announced a first-party accessibility controller. Microsoft has the Xbox Adaptive Controller, and Copilot mode,... Continue reading...
Leviton updates some smart switches with Matter
Four Leviton Wi-Fi products from the Decora Smart line are getting Matter today. They look... refreshingly nondescript! | Image: Leviton Leviton has added Matter support to four of its Decora smart lighting products: a switch, a dimmer, a smart plug, and a plug-in dimmer. All are from the Decora Smart Wi-Fi 2nd Gen product line; the company says more devices from that line will get Matter support in the future.Here are the specific products that now work with Matter:
Neckbuds never die
The happy face of a man who'll never lose a single expensive earbud. | Image: Beyerdynamic True wireless earbuds may rule the roost when it comes to portable listening, but Beyerdynamic hasn't forgotten about the other kind of wireless earbuds. Its new Blue Byrd ANC in-ear headphones are neckbuds, aka neckband earbuds, aka in-ear headphones with a wire running between your ears that are still technically wireless" because there's nothing physically connecting them to your phone.The new Blue Byrd in-ear headphones are an upgraded version of the second-generation model from 2021, now with support for active noise cancellation and a transparency mode. Turning on ANC drops the battery life from 14 hours to a bit over eight, and charging is still handled over USB-C, where a 10-minute charge gets you two hours of listening. ... Continue reading...
The PS5 game that was ‘impossible without SSD’ doesn’t need one on PC
Image: Sony Ratchet and Clank: Rift Apart was the poster child for the PlayStation 5's blazing fast solid-state drive - but on PC, it doesn't technically need one at all.In a blog post published early on Steam, then removed before showing up on Sony's PlayStation Blog, Sony, Insomniac, and lauded port developer Nixxes have revealed the game's PC system requirements, which show you can get away with the standard spinning magnetic platters of a traditional hard drive if you're satisfied with minimum spec (720p at 30fps). Image: Sony PC system requirements. Tap for larger image. Before you hold this up as the latest proof that the PS5's SSD was unnecessary, you should also know there's another technological innovation at... Continue reading...
Amazon’s in-van surveillance footage of delivery drivers is leaking online
According to Amazon's privacy policy, surveillance footage is uploaded to a secure portal and is only available to those with approved access. | Photo by Justin Sullivan / Getty Images An influx of videos taken from Amazon's in-van surveillance cameras has been published on Reddit in recent weeks, sparking fresh concerns about the privacy of delivery drivers being monitored for their entire shifts.As first reported by Vice, two off-camera voices can be heard on one video published to r/AmazonDSPDrivers on July 3rd, commenting on an Amazon driver interacting with a customer's dog. She had a little guest with her today," said one off-screen voice. The video is innocent enough, but it violates Amazon's own privacy policy regarding its in-vehicle camera technology.
USB 4 docks arrive with enough bandwidth for two 4K 120Hz displays
The dock offers 11 ports total. | Image: Plugable Plugable's latest USB 4 dock doesn't require compromises when using external monitors with your laptop. The USB4 Dual Monitor Docking Station (model number UD-4VPD) contains not one but two HDMI 2.1 ports, allowing compatible laptops to be connected to dual 4K displays running at a refresh rate of 120Hz. Plugable's press release notes that the UD-4VPD will be available starting today from Amazon for $199.95.I say compatible laptops'' because, in order to get the most out of the UD-4VPD, you'll need a USB 4 or Thunderbolt 4 port that offers the 40Gbps worth of bandwidth needed by the dock. (Thunderbolt 3 is supported, but Plugable's press release notes that, in some cases, it'll offer reduced display mode options.") The dock is also... Continue reading...
Billion Dollar Heist doc breaks down the Bangladesh Bank heist in its first trailer
Universal The story of how a group of security hackers managed to steal $81 million from the Bangladesh Bank while also accidentally letting a typo keep them from getting away with much more is almost too wild to believe. But Universal's upcoming documentary Billion Dollar Heist from director Daniel Gordon is a reminder of just how real the 2016 shakedown was and why it had cybersecurity experts across the world on such high alert.Billion Dollar Heist recounts how hackers were able to use the Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication banking system - the messaging network banks across the world use to execute transfers between one another - to illegally move $101 million from the Federal Reserve Bank of New York to an account at... Continue reading...
Thousands of Call of Duty fans are playing classic Xbox 360 titles thanks to a server fix
Photo by Tim Ireland / PA Images via Getty Images Activision has fixed matchmaking server issues in some older Call of Duty titles for the Xbox 360. Players have been complaining about matchmaking issues in classics like Call of Duty: Black Ops and the original Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 over the past few years, as they haven't been able to get into lobbies for multiplayer modes. Now that the servers are back and working, the player count in Call of Duty: Black Ops (which might not be totally accurate) stands at more than 100,000.That doesn't mean thousands of Xbox 360 consoles are suddenly being powered on. It's all possible thanks to Microsoft's backward compatibility support on Xbox, allowing Xbox One and Xbox Series S / X owners to play these classic Call of Duty games. All you... Continue reading...
VanMoof e-bikes is bankrupt
It's the end of the road for VanMoof as we know it. | Photo by Thomas Ricker / The Verge VanMoof - the independent e-bike maker that once bragged about being the most funded e-bike company in the world" - has been declared bankrupt in the Netherlands. The company had entered into a so-called suspension of payment" proceeding with court-assigned administrators just last week.According to a statement released by VanMoof, the court of Amsterdam withdrew the suspension of payment proceeding of the Dutch legal entities VanMoof Global Holding BV, VanMoof BV and VanMoof Global Support BV, and declared each entity bankrupt. VanMoof legal entities outside the Netherlands are not in insolvency proceedings. Two administrators have been appointed as trustees and are continuing to assess the situation at VanMoof and the possibility of... Continue reading...
Peacock’s prices are going up in August
Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge There are more streaming choices than ever before, and now Peacock has joined the list of services that are getting even more expensive.A media update reported by Variety, The Hollywood Reporter, and The Streamable confirmed prices for both of its streaming plans are going up, effective August 17th for existing customers, with the cheaper Premium plan going up by $1 each month, from $4.99 to $5.99, and the Premium Plus package that gets rid of ads on most content and adds downloads for offline viewing along with access to live, local NBC channels is going up by $2, from $9.99 to $11.99 per month.As of midnight ET, the annual pricing listed by Peacock changed as well, going from $49.99 / $99.99 for either package to $59.99 /$119.99... Continue reading...
Google and Taito’s AR Space Invaders game is out now on Android and iOS
Image: Google Google and Taito's new augmented reality game that lets you wave around your phone to destroy AR Space Invaders aliens is out now on Android and iOS. The two companies announced the game, Space Invaders: World Defense, at Google I/O in May.The release is coming at a time when many other AR games aren't doing so well. While Niantic's Pokemon Go has been a huge success, the studio has shut down games from big brands like Harry Potter, Transformers, and the NBA and laid off employees. And it hasn't just been Niantic that's struggled; Microsoft shut down a Minecraft AR game in 2021 and CD Projekt Red just shut down its The Witcher AR game.I'm not sure if World Defense is going to skyrocket into a Pokemon Go-sized hit, but the core concept... Continue reading...
Neopets is promising a ‘new era’ with an improved website and fixed Flash games
Image: Neopets Neopets, the beloved virtual pet website that launched in 1999, announced a new era" on Monday. The Neopets Team (TNT) said that it will be launching a new unified website" this week and fixing some of the old Flash games shortly after, per an extensive blog post on Medium.The new website, which will launch on July 20th, will serve as a one stop shop for all brand announcements, links to our different games and products, a repository of Neopets articles and related links, and anything else Neopian you can think of!" TNT says in the post. Neopets.com isn't going anywhere," TNT says, but the team will be giving the site some extra care" to fix up some issues with the site, including the Flash games."The team is bringing back some... Continue reading...
TikTok is now supporting passkeys on iPhone
Illustration by Nick Barclay / The Verge The next TikTok trend is passkeys on iPhones. The social media app is announcing support for the logins that try to make password-stealing phishing attacks impossible by allowing users to sign in with either Touch ID or Face ID instead of entering passwords. The initial launch includes iOS device support and uses Apple's native implementation of passkeys that saves them to the iCloud Keychain so that once it's set up, it will also work on your other Apple devices.Once the feature is available, TikTok users can enable a passkey for their account by going to the app's settings and selecting the new passkey menu item. Then users can follow a couple of steps: tap Set up, hit Continue on the iOS system prompt to save a passkey, and you're... Continue reading...
SEC is worried chatbots could fuel a market panic
The US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has expressed concern about generative AI's impact on financial markets.In a speech given to the National Press Club on Monday, SEC Chair Gary Gensler said recent advances in generative AI increase the possibility of institutions relying on the same subset of information to make decisions.Gensler said the large demand for data and computing power could mean only a few tech platforms may dominate the field, narrowing the field of AI models companies can use. If a model provides inaccurate or irrelevant information, financial institutions may end up using the same flawed data and making the same bad decisions - creating the risk of something like the 2008 financial crisis, where banks... Continue reading...
Reddit search was a little broken for hours, but it seems to be fixed
Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Reddit search had some issues for hours, according to posts from some frustrated Reddit users, but the problems appear to be addressed after Reddit implemented a fix.When the issues were happening, when doing a search while logged in, I didn't see any posts in the results. For example, if I searched iPhone" in r/Apple while logged in on Old Reddit, I would have expected to see a lot of posts about Apple's smartphones. But instead, I saw a message that there doesn't seem to be anything here." When I searched on the app, I didn't see any posts, either. Screenshot by Jay Peters / The Verge You'd think Reddit's Apple community would have some posts about iPhones. That said, searches weren't totally broken. When... Continue reading...
How to use the new StandBy mode on iOS 17
We love to see older phones learning new tricks. | Illustration by Samar Haddad / The Verge With iOS 17, your iPhone will learn a useful new trick: StandBy mode.It's simple - StandBy turns your iPhone screen into a little smart display while it's charging. We've only been using it for a little while, but it's already a staff favorite. It's especially handy with the iPhone 14 Pro models since it remains visible at all times thanks to that always-on display, but you don't need a top-of-the-line iPhone to make it work; it's supported by all models eligible for the iOS 17 update.Here's how to get started using StandBy - we followed these steps on an iPhone 14 running the iOS 17 public beta. Tap through an onboarding screen and you're on your way to StandBy mode.
The Chosen is reportedly still shooting during the SAG strike because it’s a ‘truly independent’ production
Jonathan Roumie as Jesus Christ. | Vidangel Studios While the Screen Actors Guild and Writers Guild of America's ongoing labor strikes have brought production on most of Hollywood's movies and shows to an indefinite stop, filming on the fourth season of The Chosen - Dallas Jenkins' historical drama series about Jesus Christ - is reportedly continuing because it is not associated with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers.Deadline - the entertainment industry trade that recently came under fire and subsequently apologized for aggressively misrepresenting an actor's thoughts about the strike - reports that SAG-AFTRA has granted The Chosen an exemption allowing it to keep shooting its forthcoming fourth season due to its being a truly independent" production.On Thursday,... Continue reading...
Apple can delay App Store changes to file Supreme Court plea
Illustration: The Verge On Monday, Apple was granted a motion putting a hold on the appeals court ruling that would push the company to undo its anti-steering" rules and let outside developers link to third-party payment mechanisms. The mandate is stayed for 90 days so Apple can file its request that the Supreme Court take up the case.Apple's anti-steering rules limit how developers can direct users to subscription or in-app purchase payments outside Apple's App Store ecosystem, where it takes a cut of revenue. A district court found that Apple had not generally violated antitrust law with its walled garden" approach to iOS, but it ordered it to drop rules against letting developers include calls to action" for outside payment methods.Once that petition is... Continue reading...
YouTube is testing a new way to let you easily watch videos at 2x speed
Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge YouTube is experimenting with a way to help sickos like me watch videos as fast as humanly possible. The test, which YouTube Premium subscribers can opt in to, lets you long-press on the video player to set the playback speed to 2x, according to YouTube's experiments page (via 9to5Google).To me, this sounds like a huge upgrade; currently, moving up the playback speed on YouTube can take a few annoying steps. On the mobile app, you need to tap the video, tap the three dots menu, tap playback speed, and then you can pick from the different options. It's a similar set of steps on the mobile and desktop web. (Though, on desktop, you can use Shift and the less than or greater than keys to speed up or slow things down without digging into the... Continue reading...
Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 hits Disney Plus in August
Image: Disney Guardians of the Galaxy: Vol. 3 is coming to Disney Plus. You can start streaming the movie on the service on August 2nd.The third and final installment in the Guardians series first came out in theaters in May. It follows Peter Quill (Chris Pratt) and co. in the aftermath of the events that took place in Avengers: Endgame. It joins the first and second films in the Guardians franchise already on Disney Plus, along with several Disney Plus-exclusive spinoffs, like The Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special.
Samsung’s Galaxy Buds 2 Pro flagship earbuds are comfy, light, and now $42 off
The Buds 2 Pro are small but mighty. | Photo by Chris Welch / The Verge After Samsung's entry-level Buds 2 wireless earbuds took center stage last week on a great deal, it's now the Pro's turn to shine with a deal of its own. The Samsung Galaxy Buds 2 Pro are selling for $187.99 ($42 off) at Amazon or $189.99 at Best Buy. The deals at both retailers have all three color options on offer, including that lovely bora purple color that really pops.While even the base model Buds 2 offer noise cancellation, the fancier Buds 2 Pro are better all around and feature various extras like 24-bit audio support with Samsung phones. Even though that higher bit-rate audio is limited to use with Galaxy devices, the Buds 2 Pro are great to use with any Android phone. They have excellent sound quality, and their stemless fit... Continue reading...
Facebook pivots back to video with more Reels and HDR
Illustration by Nick Barclay / The Verge Meta announced a bunch of new updates to its video features on Facebook, including improved editing tools, the ability to upload videos in HDR, and a new Video tab.Let's start first with that Video tab, the new name for the tab formerly known as Facebook Watch. Meta says that the tab is now the one-stop shop for everything video on Facebook, including Reels, long-form and Live content." You'll be able to scroll vertically through a personalized feed" of videos, and as you're scrolling, there will also be Reels sections with shortform video. The tab will begin appearing in the shortcut bar soon," Meta says. GIF: Meta Here's what the Video tab looks like. If you want to post a video, Meta says that it's... Continue reading...
‘Millions’ of sensitive US military emails were reportedly sent to Mali due to a typo
Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge For over 10 years, millions of emails associated with the US military have been getting sent to Mali, a West African country allied with Russia, due to a typo, according to a report from the Financial Times. Instead of appending the military's .MIL domain to their recipient's email address, people frequently type .ML, the country identifier for Mali, by mistake.Johannes Zuurbier, a Dutch entrepreneur contracted to manage Mali's domain, tells the Financial Times that this has been happening for over a decade despite his repeated attempts to warn the US government. When Zuurbier began noticing requests for nonexistent domains, like army.ml and navy.ml, he set up a system to catch these misdirected emails, which the Financial Times reports... Continue reading...
The birth of id Software
Before Wolfenstein and Doom, Commander Keen was id Software's breakthrough series -here's how it began. | Image: My Abandonware In 1990, John Romero, John Carmack, and Tom Hall were working at Louisiana software maker Softdisk. There, they had an idea that would change PC games forever. Continue reading...
Ford cuts F-150 Lightning prices, taking the cheapest model under $50,000
Image: Vjeran Pavic / The Verge Ford announced price cuts for its F-150 Lightning truck that will reduce the listed price on some trims by almost $10,000. The company's most affordable Pro" trim is reduced from its previous MSRP of $59,974 to $49,995, and its highest Platinum" with extended-range battery has dropped from $98,074 to $91,995.The new prices aren't the lowest the F-150 Lightning has been. At launch, the base Pro trim was announced at $40,000, but only a few were made at that price. And opting for an extended-range battery added $10,000 to the original $52,974 price of the XLT edition. Now, the same model's MSRP starts at $69,995.News of the price drops comes after we reported last month that many Ford F-150 Lightning reservation holders canceled their... Continue reading...
Corsair acquires mechanical keyboard specialist Drop
Image: Corsair Corsair is acquiring Drop, an online retailer best known for its lineup of mechanical keyboards and keyboard accessories like keycaps. Drop has been acquired by Corsair," wrote Drop CEO Jef Holove in a post announcing the deal. Corsair's press release specifies that the deal only includes certain assets" from Drop, but Corsair spokesperson Harry Butler confirmed to The Verge that the deal includes the Drop.com website, brand, business, community, and all its staff."Personalized Keyboards that can be modified by the consumer is one of the fastest growing trends in the gaming peripheral space," Corsair CEO Andy Paul said in a statement. Drop has proven to be one of the leaders in this space and with Corsair's global footprint, we... Continue reading...
Microsoft’s new Xbox Game Pass Core will replace Xbox Live Gold in September
Image: Microsoft Microsoft is launching a new Xbox Game Pass Core subscription to replace Xbox Live Gold. This new Game Pass Core offering will include the usual Xbox online console multiplayer support, deals and discounts, and a new small catalog of more than 25 games - including Gears 5, Forza Horizon 4, and Psychonauts 2.Existing Xbox Live Gold members will be automatically transferred across to Xbox Game Pass Core on September 14th, with the service priced at the same rate of $9.99 per month (or $59.99 per year) as Xbox Live Gold.As part of this replacement subscription, Microsoft is discontinuing Games with Gold on September 1st, the perk that has allowed Xbox owners to grab free games monthly for a decade and add them to their content library.... Continue reading...
The best thing about my Mac Studio is its mustache
Not to be all Marie Kondo about it, but my Mac Studio sparks joy in me every day, and it's not because it's the fastest computer I've ever owned. It's also not strictly about the front-facing ports Apple gave it, nor is it the village of ports that live in the back.It's the mustache.See, I found this mustache sticker in the back of a drawer in my house. I don't know where it came from, only that it was there, and the moment I found it, I knew immediately where to put it: smack-dab in the middle of my Mac Studio. I'd been thinking for awhile that the Studio has this goofy face on the front, and slapping a curly stache on it just drove that home. It delights me, and recently, I've been thinking about why this goofy twee addition to my... Continue reading...
Christopher Nolan wants Oppenheimer to be a cautionary tale for Silicon Valley
Christopher Nolan at a screening of Oppenheimer at The Whitby Hotel in New York City. | Image: Roy Rochlin / Getty Images for Universal Pictures Around the time J. Robert Oppenheimer learned that Hiroshima had been struck (alongside everyone else in the world), he began to have profound regrets about his role in the creation of that bomb. At one point, when meeting President Harry S. Truman, Oppenheimer wept and expressed that regret. Truman called him a crybaby and said he never wanted to see him again. And Christopher Nolan is hoping that when Silicon Valley audiences of his film Oppenheimer (out July 21st) see his interpretation of all those events, they'll see something of themselves there, too.After a screening of Oppenheimer at The Whitby Hotel yesterday, Nolan joined a panel of scientists and Kai Bird, one of the authors of American Prometheus, the book Oppenheimer is... Continue reading...
Those new M3-equipped iMacs may be coming in October
Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge Apple may do a new product launch in October, according to Bloomberg's Mark Gurman in his Power On newsletter today, and he speculates that the focus of the presumably-post-iPhone 15 launch will be new Macs, hinting the M3-powered iMac may be among them. Gurman has previously written that Apple is planning to release an M3-powered iMac at the end of this year.Gurman hedges pretty hard on this prediction, but the timing feels right. The last time we saw a new iMac was when Apple released its colorful redesign more than two years ago.That doesn't necessarily mean we'll see any changes to the form factor this time around. In last week's Power On, Gurman wrote that larger, potentially up to 32-inch iMacs won't show up until late 2024, so... Continue reading...
Sony agrees to 10-year Call of Duty deal with Microsoft
Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Sony has agreed to a 10-year deal for Call of Duty with Microsoft to keep the franchise on PlayStation after the proposed Activision Blizzard acquisition. Microsoft Gaming CEO Phil Spencer says Sony and Microsoft have agreed to a binding agreement" to keep Call of Duty on PlayStation.This ends a bitter battle between the companies that has been waged both privately and publicly over the past year after Microsoft announced its proposed acquisition of Activision Blizzard in January 2022.
There’s no wrong way to load this dishwasher
Bosch's PowerControl spray arm gives you control over where you want it to clean the hardest. | Image: Bosch Bosch is claiming its new 800 and Benchmark Series dishwashers could finally lay to rest the debate over the right way to load the dishwasher.The new thing is a PowerControl spray arm that can find the dirtiest dishes wherever you put them (as long as that place is on the bottom rack):
Reddit removed your chat history from before 2023
Image by Alex Castro / The Verge Reddit users have noticed the site unexpectedly removed everyone's chat history prior to January 1st of this year. Those asking why have been directed to a changelog update from June announcing feature updates to chats (via Mashable). The update's headline didn't say anything about data going away, and burying any reference to removal at the bottom with a vague, single line:
The Beats Studio Buds Plus are still available at an all-time low
The translucent pair of Beats Studio Plus are on sale this weekend, along with other shades. | Photo by Chris Welch / The Verge Technically, Amazon Prime Day ended a couple of days ago, but it appears Amazon and other retailers didn't get the memo. Quite a few of the best deals are still kicking around, including one on the Beats Studio Buds Plus that's available to Prime members and non-Prime members alike. Right now, you buy the terrific wireless earbuds at Amazon, Best Buy, and Target for just shy of $150 ($20 off).In addition to a unique translucent option, the Studio Buds Plus offer better sound and noise cancellation than their predecessor, the Beats Studio Buds. They also offer longer battery life and are designed to be platform-agnostic, so you can use Android features like Fast Pair. Of course, as Beats is an Apple-owned company, they can take... Continue reading...
I almost can’t believe it, but Google Tasks is finally kind of good
Tasks is still pretty basic - but at least it now has all your tasks! | Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge Google has spent the last half-decade cruelly teasing me with its to-do list app. Google Tasks first launched as a standalone app in 2018, and Google seemed to have big plans for its task manager tool. And then... nothing. Actually, worse than nothing: Google launched and developed so many disconnected reminder-setting products that it became nearly impossible to figure out where your tasks were, what they are, and how you were supposed to get anything done.But in the last couple of months, something miraculous happened: Google actually fixed it. The company spent this spring combining all its many Tasks and Reminders products into a single tool that is accessible almost everywhere and via almost any Google product. There are still some... Continue reading...
Kizazi Moto: Generation Fire is the next brilliant sci-fi anthology you’ve been looking for
Disney Plus' new anthology series is a wonderful showcase of the African animation industry's brilliance. Continue reading...
Infrared may no longer be a punchline, as IEEE approves 9.6Gbps wireless light
The Light Antenna One promises up-to-gigabit network connections with infrared light. We've known for over a decade that blinking light bulbs can transfer substantial quantities of wireless data, not just dumb infrared commands to your TV. Now, the IEEE standards body behind Wi-Fi has decided to formally invite Li-Fi" to the same table - with speeds of between 10 megabits per second and 9.6 gigabits per second using invisible infrared light.As of June 2023, the IEEE 802.11 wireless standard now officially recognizes wireless light communications as a physical layer for wireless local area networks, which is a fancy way of saying that that Li-Fi doesn't need to compete with Wi-Fi. Light can be just another kind of access point and interface delivering the same networks and/or the same internet to your device.In fact,... Continue reading...
Court denies FTC’s last-ditch attempt to stop Microsoft buying Activision Blizzard
Image: Getty Images The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has lost what may be its final attempt to block Microsoft from buying Activision Blizzard. It's the second loss for the FTC after a US federal judge denied its request for a preliminary injunction earlier this week to block Microsoft from acquiring Activision Blizzard until the conclusion of a separate FTC administrative case.The FTC appealed the decision by Judge Jacqueline Scott Corley, and now the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals has denied its request for emergency relief to prevent Microsoft from closing the deal until the result of the FTC's appeal is complete. Image: US Courts The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals filing. Microsoft welcomed the denial late on Friday. We... Continue reading...
The Biden administration can talk to social media sites again — for now
Ten days after a federal judge in Missouri barred the Biden administration from contacting tech companies about posts protected by the First Amendment, the White House is temporarily no longer under that ban. Today, the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals paused that judge's order - at least until the higher court has time to weigh in more fully itself.Originally, Judge Terry Doughty suggested that the Biden administration may be suppressing millions of protected free speech postings by American citizens," writing that the government had already used its power to silence the opposition" by suppressing speech opposed to covid-19 vaccines and the validity of the 2020 election, among other things.(It's true that, for a time, social networks... Continue reading...
Microsoft’s Xbox Game Pass Friends & Family plan ends in August
Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Microsoft is ending its Xbox Game Pass Friends & Family plan. The plan had already spread to eight countries as of February, allowing Xbox Game Pass members to share benefits with up to four other friends or family members. There's no sign if it will ever return.A Microsoft spokesperson has now confirmed to Eurogamer that the Xbox Game Pass Friends & Family plan will come to a close on August 15th:
Xbox’s Major Nelson is leaving Microsoft after 22 years
Xbox's Larry Major Nelson" Hryb at the Xbox One launch event in New York City. | Photo by Chris Welch / The Verge Larry Hryb, an Xbox employee perhaps better known by his Major Nelson" alias, is leaving Microsoft, he announced on Friday. Hryb has been a major face for many of Xbox's marketing activities since the days of the original Xbox and Xbox Live online service, through the launch of the Xbox 360 and all of the years since.After 20 incredible years, I have decided to take a step back and work on the next chapter of my career," he tweeted. As I take a moment and think about all we have done together, I want to thank the millions of gamers around the world who have included me as part of their lives."In January, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella said coming changes would reduce the company's workforce by 10,000 employees, or about 5 percent of... Continue reading...
The unions of Hollywood are trying to save it from itself
Illustration by William Joel / The Verge With both writers and actors on strike, the future of Hollywood is at stake. Continue reading...
Samsung’s new 83-inch TV is its first one with an OLED panel that’s probably made by LG
Samsung's 83-inch S90C OLED TV. | Image: Samsung At first glance, Samsung's new 83-inch S90C OLED TV doesn't look too different from the company's existing 2023 OLED TV range. But keen-eyed observers at Forbes and HDTVTest have spotted that the $5,399.99 TV, which has the model number 83S90C, appears to have a screen size larger than any of the QD-OLED panels produced by Samsung Display.That means we're almost certainly looking at the first Samsung OLED TV to use a panel produced by the display division of its South Korean rival LG.There is no doubt whatsoever in my mind that this 83-inch Samsung OLED TV will be equipped with a white OLED panel also known as WRGB OLED panel from LG Display," HDTVTest's supremely knowledgeable Vincent Teoh said in a video last month after news of... Continue reading...
Bob Iger’s big ideas for Disney involve cost-cutting at Marvel
Image: CNBC Bob Iger has a lot to say about Disney's future. During a 40-minute interview with CNBC, the CEO talks about what the company could look like over the next four (or more) years under his control - and it could drastically change some of Disney's biggest brands.One of those changes includes slashing the company's spending on Marvel and Star Wars-related content. As for why, Iger says the influx of Marvel TV shows diluted focus and attention," on its films, resulting in disappointing performances at the box office.Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania was one of those films. It raked in just $463 million, making it one of the lowest-grossing Marvel movies of all time. Although that performance improved with the release of Guardians of the... Continue reading...
Summer of spam
Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge Feels like the spam calls are picking up," my editor said to me today. Yes, it does. A glance through my call log from this week showed one incoming real call and 10 incoming spam calls.We wrote a bunch about this in 2019 - here are some ideas for protecting yourself, and yes, I have chosen the nuclear option - and if anything, the situation has gotten worse. The FCC has made some idle threats against carriers, but I have yet to see any real action. At this point, I despair. The FCC doesn't care; the carriers don't care; the cost of spam is low for spammers, and the fact that they are ripping apart networks? Doesn't seem to matter.It feels like a tide of bullshit is risingI didn't use to avoid the phone. As a teenager, I spent hours... Continue reading...
Microsoft has at least one more big Windows 11 update coming up
Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge As rumors mount for a Windows 12" release for next year, Microsoft confirmed and named a new Windows 11 23H2 update planned for the fourth quarter of 2023.Microsoft hasn't yet revealed what's in it, but the company does have many unreleased features in the beta testing pipeline that could be included. One of the big new items is Windows Copilot, which takes the GPT generative AI tech being used in Bing and Microsoft (Office) 365 and gives users an OS-wide personal assistant - and is available to test now.Another feature to look out for is the release of the next File Explorer: it includes tabs, favorites, and a modernized look. Meanwhile, gamers may enjoy native RGB lighting settings coming to Windows 11 to make clunky... Continue reading...
Studio Ghibli’s mysterious new film will be out in North America later this year
Image: Studio Ghibli / GKIDS The mysterious new film from legendary animation studio Studio Ghibli and filmmaker Hayao Miyazaki will be titled The Boy and the Heron in North America, according to an announcement from distributor GKIDS. The movie came out on Friday in Japan under the title Kimitachi wa Do Ikiruka (translated as How Do You Live?), but GKIDS is only saying that it will be out in theaters later this year."Ahead of the film's release, Studio Ghibli only shared the Japanese title and a couple of images of some kind of bird-like creature - there hasn't even been a trailer - so there are a lot of unknowns about what the film might actually be about. That was an intentional strategy.A poster and a title - that's all we got when we were children," Studio... Continue reading...
How to put widgets on your desktop in macOS Sonoma
Widget, widget, widget, weee. | Illustration by Samar Haddad / The Verge The macOS Sonoma public beta is now live, and if you fancy being an early adopter, you can go ahead and download it.A whole bunch of new features are baked into this release, several of which are essentially ported over from iOS and will make your Mac computer look a heck of a lot more like an iPhone while you're using it. One of these is widgets. You can now place a variety of interactive widgets right on your desktop, including Podcasts, Weather, and Calendar, and it's very easy to do.There are a couple ways to do it, but I'm going to show you the easiest one. Seriously, it will take you maybe two minutes.How to add desktop widgets in macOS Sonoma
Almost 90 percent of classic games are ‘critically endangered,’ say archivists
Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge It is impossibly hard to play games released before 2010. Continue reading...
Editing photos on Google’s Pixel Fold has totally sold me on the form factor
Yes, that burger was as good as it looks. I don't particularly love editing my photos on a regular old slab phone anymore. Even on something large like the iPhone 14 Pro Max, the aspect ratio demands more zooming and panning than I'd like. Slapping on a quick filter or making some light tweaks is fine, but anything more than that and I'm itching for my Mac or an iPad. None of this is the fault of software, mind you; Adobe's been on a run of some phenomenal Lightroom updates this year, and indie developers like the team behind Pixelmator are impressively keeping pace. That aspect of editing has never been better or more capable; it's having to work within the confines of a small screen that's the real limitation.So as I was helping with our Google Pixel Fold review last month,... Continue reading...
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