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The Meta Quest 2 is about to get performance enhancements (and not a new strap). | Image: The Verge Mark Zuckerberg announced the Meta Quest 3 VR headset at the beginning of this month, which should bring enhanced capabilities for those who want to upgrade their Quest 2. But that more performant Quest 3 won't be here until September, so in the meantime, Meta promised a future update will boost the Quest 2's (and Quest Pro's) performance and keep the hardware supported for much longer.Meta is now rolling out those changes in the v55 update. The Quest 2 will get a 19 percent GPU speed increase while Quest Pro owners will get an 11 percent jump. Both of the VR headsets are also getting up to 26 percent performance increases in CPU power as well, according to Meta.The performance upgrades should give users overall smoother game... Continue reading...

Lead claimant Rikki Held, 22, confers with members of Our Children's Trust legal team before the start of the nation's first youth climate change trial at Montana's First Judicial District Court on June 12th, 2023, in Helena, Montana. | Photo by William Campbell / Getty Images A landmark US climate trial over whether the state of Montana is violating young people's right to a healthy environment came to an early close on Tuesday. Its outcome could shift policy in a state with one of the biggest coal reserves in the nation and might even influence a slew of other suits outside of Montana.The case, Held v. Montana, was filed by a group of 16 youths ranging from five to 22 years old. They say they have been and will continue to be harmed by the dangerous impacts of fossil fuels and the climate crisis," according to the complaint filed in March 2020. Similar suits have been filed by young people across the US. But last week, the Montana case became the first in the nation to make it to trial.Its outcome could... Continue reading...

Warner Bros. Discovery dropped the HBO" from HBO Max" in May. | Image: Jeff Kravitz / Warner Bros. Discovery After more than a year of brutal cancellations and layoffs at HBO, it looks like Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav's devotion to quick revenue is as strong as ever. Warner Bros. Discovery may be licensing HBO Original Series to Netflix, Deadline reported yesterday. Deadline's sources claim it's a financial move HBO's old guard disagreed with but that it's necessary to shore up the bottom line. They also say it's possible the deal may not see the light of day.The show rumored to be the subject of the agreement is Issa Rae's Insecure, which lived on HBO for five seasons until it ended in December 2021. Other shows would follow that. The deal wouldn't be exclusive; WBD would still be able to show the series on its own platform, Max.... Continue reading...

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Reddit is cracking down on the latest form of community protest: switching to Not Safe For Work (NSFW). Some subreddits had switched to NSFW to protest Reddit's recent treatment of moderators and upcoming API pricing changes, but a Reddit admin - that is, an employee - said Wednesday that doing so is inappropriate" and against the rules.Changing a previously SFW community to a NSFW community in order to protest Reddit policies is inappropriate for the members of your community and not acceptable overall," the admin, ModCodeofConduct, wrote on Wednesday. ModCodeofConduct said that moderators may be violating Reddit policies by incorrectly marking your community," which can lead to warnings or removal.Switching a community to NSFW... Continue reading...

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Being able to watch multiple things on TV at the same time is obviously a huge convenience for sports fanatics. So it makes sense that YouTube TV focused exclusively on sports when launching its multiview feature. It's been several months since then, and today, the company says it's (slowly) expanding multiview to also feature news, business, and weather programming. That's the good news.The bad news is that for now, one frustrating catch remains: you're limited to the preselected multiview groupings that YouTube TV chooses itself and can't yet customize any of this yourself.

Image: Samar Haddad / The Verge Anyone old enough to have used a typewriter knows that a major advantage of word processors is that nothing is permanent - if you make a mistake, you can easily fix it. However, sometimes the fix is worse than the mistake: you may accidentally delete a word, a phrase, a paragraph, or an entire section and then realize minutes, hours, or even days later that you should have kept it. What do you do?Not a problem - just go back and check the previous versions of the document. While Google Docs automatically saves your documents every few minutes, it also keeps a record - a version history - of what has been done in the document since it was created.It's very simple to find your version history:

Foam earplugs are convenient and cost virtually nothing. But with ticket prices these days, it's worth spending a bit more on earplugs that preserve the fidelity of live music. Continue reading...

AST SpaceMobile is working on space-based cellular signals. | Image: AST SpaceMobile A Texas company called AST SpaceMobile managed to successfully transmit a 4G LTE signal from space that was picked up by everyday, off-the-shelf smartphones," the company announced this morning. The satellite AST used, called BlueWalker 3 (BW3), will try a 5G connection for its next major test. The company says its recent test was a world first."Testing was conducted in Hawaii on AT&T's spectrum using Nokia RAN technology, and the signal, which was beamed from AST's satellite in low Earth orbit, reached speeds of up to 10.3Mbps. That's fast enough for some video streaming, general internet use, and more ordinary cell phone usage.

Image: Apple While Apple imagines users wearing its Vision Pro headset to do a variety of things, like watch movies, capture videos, and multitask, it still hasn't mentioned one pretty major application: fitness. But now, a report from The Information suggests that Apple had been planning workout apps for the mixed reality headset, but they just weren't ready in time for its June reveal.Former Apple employees tell The Information that staff members explored partnering with Nike to create workouts for the Vision Pro and also looked into creating face cushions designed for sweaty, high-intensity workouts." Apple employees even reportedly weighed the idea of letting Vision Pro wearers interact with content while on a stationary bike.Although Apple... Continue reading...

Screenshot by Barbara Krasnoff / The Verge The other day, I was going through a bag full of old tech - I mean, really old tech - trying to convince myself to finally get rid of phones that I hadn't used for 10 years or so when I came across a battery. One of the batteries that I used to carry around in case my phone ran out of juice.You see, once upon a time, smartphones had replaceable batteries. Instead of having to carry around a portable charger or search desperately for a wall socket so you could charge up your failing phone (assuming you had a power cord with you), you could pull off the back of your phone, replace the out-of-power battery with a fully charged one, and proceed happily on your way. This Samsung Galaxy Note phone from 2012 had a back that... Continue reading...

I'm not ready to have my rudimentary product design skills humbled by a five-year-old. | Image: Figma Figma is expanding its partnership with Google for Education in a bid to introduce more school-age students to its product design and collaboration platforms. Announced during the Config event on Wednesday, June 21st, all K-12 students across the US can now access Figma for free on education Chromebooks. Figma is also expanding its educational partnership with Chromebooks outside of the US, starting with Google schools in Japan.Today's announcement effectively opens up the beta program that Figma released last year, which was initially limited to select US high schools. As with the beta, students will have access to both Figma (the company's flagship product design platform) and FigJam, Figma's collaborative whiteboarding app. Figma's... Continue reading...

Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge Microsoft is increasing its Xbox Series X prices in most countries in August apart from the US, Japan, Chile, Brazil, and Colombia. The Xbox maker is also increasing the monthly prices of its Xbox Game Pass and Xbox Game Pass Ultimate subscriptions for the first time next month, which will see the base Game Pass subscription for console move up to $10.99 a month from $9.99.We've held on our prices for consoles for many years and have adjusted the prices to reflect the competitive conditions in each market," says Kari Perez, head of communications for Xbox, in a statement to The Verge.Xbox Series X console pricing will largely match the price hike Sony announced for the PS5 last year, with the Xbox Series X moving to 479.99 in the... Continue reading...

Super Mario Bros. Wonder. | Image: Nintendo Prior to Nintendo's second big Direct presentation of the year, the company's holiday 2023 calendar was pretty sparse. But that's no longer the case. Nintendo announced a handful of major releases heading to the Switch over the coming months, including a pair of Super Mario titles and new WarioWare and Detective Pikachu games. We also got a better look at the upcoming expansions for Pokemon Violet and Scarlet, and Nintendo even teased new Luigi and Princess Peach games for next year.If you missed the showcase live, here are the five biggest announcements.A new side-scrolling Super Mario gameA busy year for the plumber continues when Super Mario Bros. Wonder hits the Switch on October 20th. The game looks like it retains the style and... Continue reading...

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer gives a thumbs up after Senate passes debt limit deal. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer is launching a new all-hands-on-deck" effort Wednesday to regulate artificial intelligence, aiming to strike a balance between economic competitiveness and safety.Schumer laid out his vision in a speech at a Washington think tank on Wednesday, calling on his Senate colleagues to create new rules regulating the emerging AI industry. The plan, the SAFE (Security, Accountability, Foundations, Explain) Innovation Framework, doesn't provide specific policy requests or define the boundaries of AI." Instead, it asks lawmakers to work together to address a variety of AI's potential risks, from national security and job loss to misinformation, bias, and copyright.AI could be our most spectacular... Continue reading...

Image: Patreon Patreon built a user base with creators who wanted to charge a fee for the content they create. Now, the company is pulling down the paywall, allowing fans to subscribe to their favorite creators for free.It's the first time Patreon has offered a free subscription option for creators who want to give fans a taste of their content before having them pay for access. Patreon's expansion into free content comes at a time when other platforms like TikTok and Instagram are increasingly adding paywalls and subscription features - with the idea being that, eventually, the free audience might level up and start to pay.There's a lot of interest from fans [with paid membership], but subscribing to the paid membership right out the gate is a... Continue reading...

Image: Nintendo Mario's big year continues. Following the debut of a theme park and an animated movie, 2023 will also be getting the next Super Mario Bros. game. It's called Super Mario Bros. Wonder, and is a return to the 2D side-scrolling action of the original games and the New Super Mario Bros. series. It has some weird new abilities, including the ability to turn into an elephant. It launches on October 20th.The last mainline Super Mario game was Odyssey, which hit the Switch back in 2017. Since then we've had spinoffs like Super Mario Maker 2, the retro collection Super Mario 3D All-Stars, and the 3D World expansion Bowser's Fury.Of course, even without a new game, this would've been an incredibly successful year for Nintendo's plumber. The S... Continue reading...

Illustration: Alex Castro / The Verge The Federal Trade Commission is suing Amazon for enrolling customers in its Prime program without their consent and making it difficult for them to cancel their subscriptions.In its complaint filed Wednesday, the FTC accuses Amazon of knowingly" deceiving millions of customers into subscribing to Amazon Prime through the use of dark patterns." Specifically, the FTC describes how Amazon's checkout process would allegedly present customers several options to subscribe to Prime, making it difficult to locate the option to simply finish a purchase. The commission also alleges that Amazon required customers to go through multiple unnecessary steps before successfully unsubscribing from the program.Amazon tricked and trapped people into... Continue reading...

Image: Square Enix The game is hindered by its reliance on tropes inspired by Game of Thrones, but its combat and character performances more than make up for a ho-hum story. Continue reading...

DPReview has found a new home under Gear Patrol, sparing it from being shut down by Amazon's cost-cutting measures. | Image: DPReview / Gear Patrol DPReview has been acquired by Gear Patrol - a publisher focused on varied product reviews and buying guides. Scott Everett, general manager for DPReview, announced the acquisition on Tuesday, saving the beloved camera reviews website from closure almost three months after the site announced it was being shut down by its former parent company, Amazon. The price of the acquisition was not disclosed.Gear Patrol is a natural home for the next phase of DPReview's journey, and I'm excited to see what we can accomplish together," said Everett. Thank you for your continued support of our team and legacy. We appreciate it and can't thank you all enough."DPReview will continue to operate as it did before the acquisitionEverett says in his... Continue reading...

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge This is Platformer, a newsletter on the intersection of Silicon Valley and democracy from Casey Newton and Zoe Schiffer. Sign up here.After a bruising week of protests and locked-down forums, things started to get back to normal Tuesday on Reddit, as - oh wait, what's this?

With Dash, you can search all your files everywhere, all at once. | Image: Dropbox Dropbox is launching two different but related AI-powered services into its platform. The first is simple and obvious: a tool for summarizing and querying documents. This is neat and useful and the sort of feature you'll see in most tools in this category over time.The other thing Dropbox is launching is much more ambitious and interesting. It's a universal search engine that can access your files in Dropbox but also across the entire web. It's called Dash and comes from Dropbox's 2021 acquisition of a company called Command E. The idea behind Dash, Dropbox CEO Drew Houston tells me, is that your stuff isn't all files and folders anymore, and so Dropbox can't be, either. What used to be 100 files or icons on your desktop," he says, is... Continue reading...

The Lunar System's main home battery unit contains cells and an inverter, with add-on battery modules stacked underneath. | Image: Lunar Energy Lunar System - from Tesla's former head of energy - is a solar energy backup system with modular battery units that can power your whole home. It might even make you some money... eventually. Continue reading...

Otter Chat AI can generate copy based on what has been discussed, such as drafting an email with action points from the meeting. | Image: Otter.ai Automated transcription service Otter.ai is launching a new chatbot feature that can attend" online meetings to help users summarize information and recall details they may have missed, like dates or figures. Otter Chat - described by the company as an AI meeting genius/participant" - can answer questions and generate content like to-do lists based on what's being discussed in a call. The feature is rolling out worldwide to all Otter users today, June 21st.Otter Chat can be used on recorded conversations that have already been transcribed and during live meetings on Zoom, Google Meet, or Microsoft Teams that the platform is actively transcribing. The feature will be available to all Otter users at no additional cost, though free... Continue reading...

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Nintendo is holding its second Direct showcase event of the year, and it sounds like it'll be a big one. Back in February, the company showed off Tears of the Kingdom, released a remastered Metroid Prime, added Game Boy games to Switch Online, and gave us a release date for Pikmin 4. This time around, the focus will be on Switch games coming out through the rest of 2023.That includes the next Pikmin, which launches in July, but it's also likely we'll see what big game or games Nintendo has in store for the always-important holiday season. Right now, the only major release on the calendar is the first expansion for Pokemon Violet and Scarlet, which is due out in the fall. The Nintendo Direct showcase is expected to last around 40... Continue reading...

Image: Google I woke up at 7AM yesterday and discovered that two of my Nest cameras were showing as offline. After hours of troubleshooting and hard resetting the cameras to get them working again, I realized the problem was a peculiar issue on Google's end. Hundreds of Nest Cam owners have reported their cameras showing as offline over the past week or so, but Google hasn't notified owners or even posted the issue on its Nest service status page.Reddit users in the UK started reporting Nest Cam outages yesterday with similar reports on Google's own support forums. Twitter is littered with complaints about offline Nest Cams. 9to5Google even reported on the issues earlier this month, but over the past day the problem has affected a lot more Nest Cam... Continue reading...

Spotify's new desktop interface. | Image: Spotify Spotify has officially announced a redesign for its desktop app that aims to offer easier access to details on the song or podcast you're currently listening to, and give you new ways to organize your playlists and other content. According to a blog post published yesterday the changes - which Spotify calls one of its biggest revamps yet" - are rolling out to all Desktop users worldwide" from this week.The biggest change you're likely to notice after the update is the Your Library sidebar on the left of the screen. Rather than showing a simple text list of playlists, the interface now includes colorful icons. It also shows recently played artists and albums to quickly jump back into, alongside playlists. You can minimize the sidebar... Continue reading...

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Discord plans to give creators a new way to make money from their communities by selling digital products via one-time purchases. These new Downloadables" can be things like a recipe ebook, a gaming guide, or a digital wallpaper, and the company plans to begin experimenting with them over the coming months," Discord's Derek Yang wrote in a Tuesday blog post. Downloadables will be available to purchase from a Server Shop, which is also in testing.The new Downloadables and Server Shop add to Discord's server subscriptions as ways for creators to monetize their servers. Server subscriptions are getting an improvement, too: the company is adding tier templates to make it easier to decide what subscriptions to offer to your community.... Continue reading...

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Update June 20th, 10:31PM ET: Since we published this story, the mods of r/mildlyinteresting report their accounts have been reinstated. We've updated the story below to reflect the change.Reddit has started removing moderator teams managing subreddits that switched the labeling on their communities to Not Safe For Work (NSFW) in the latest protests against the site.With subreddits tagged NSFW, in addition to applying an age gate for desktop viewers and restricting access on mobile devices to logged-in users in the Reddit app, Reddit also doesn't show ads. This cuts into its ability to monetize them, which is a major part of Reddit's disputed push to charge apps for using the API. On Thursday, r/MildlyInteresting was one that had gone... Continue reading...

Apple IDs now support passkeys, but only in betas for iOS 17, iPadOS 17, and macOS Sonoma. | Illustration: The Verge It appears that passkeys are now supported for Apple IDs, but only if you have the first beta for iOS 17 (or iPadOS 17 or macOS Sonoma). Beta users of Apple's operating systems then have the ability to sign in anywhere that supports signing in with your Apple ID - covering not only Apple.com and icloud.com, but also anywhere else your Apple account is linked to - sans passwords, using just the biometrics on their iPhone or MacBook and a dream.It works anywhere that supports signing in with your Apple ID. For example, if I want to sign in to Reddit and look at my favorite John Oliver-themed subreddits, I can tap the Continue with Apple" button on the sign-in screen, and I'll be given the option to sign in by scanning a QR code with my... Continue reading...

Normal Autopilot and Full Self-Driving beta settings menu (FSD version 10.8). | Image: Umar Shakir / The Verge Tesla CEO Elon Musk might have his very own supersecret driver mode that enables hands-free driving in Tesla vehicles.The hidden feature, aptly named Elon Mode," was discovered by a Tesla software hacker known online as @greentheonly. The anonymous hacker has dug deep into the vehicle code for years and uncovered things like how Tesla can lock you out of using your power seats or the center camera in the Model 3 before it was officially activated.

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Microsoft is sending CEO Satya Nadella, Xbox chief Phil Spencer, and many other Xbox executives to defend against its Federal Trade Commission (FTC) case for its proposed Activision Blizzard acquisition.Both Nadella and Activision CEO Bobby Kotick will appear in court this week to defend against a potential preliminary injunction against Microsoft's giant $68.7 billion deal to acquire Activision Blizzard. If the FTC is successful in winning an injunction, then Microsoft has admitted in court filings that the deal could well be over.The list of Microsoft and Xbox executives also includes Sarah Bond, head of Xbox creator experience; Microsoft CFO Amy Hood; Matt Booty, head of Xbox Game Studios; and Microsoft Gaming CFO Tim Stuart. Lori... Continue reading...

Photo by Jakub Porzycki / NurPhoto via Getty Images Gas stoves release worrying amounts of benzene, a chemical linked to leukemia and other blood cell cancers, according to a new study from Stanford researchers. Benzene that gas-burning stoves release inside homes can reach concentrations even higher than what's typical in secondhand smoke, according to the paper published last week in the journal Environmental Science & Technology.The study adds ammunition to efforts to phase gas connections out of homes and buildings. There's a growing body of evidence on the risks gas stoves pose to public health and the environment. The fossil fuel industry, however, has pushed back hard against policies to shift to clean energy by playing on people's attachment to gas stoves.Seeing the... Continue reading...

Illustration: The Verge Gannett filed a federal lawsuit against Google and parent company Alphabet on Tuesday, alleging that Google has monopolies on the ad tech market that have hurt local news. The lawsuit seeks to restore competition in the digital advertising marketplace and end Google's monopoly, which will encourage investment in newsrooms and news content throughout the country," Gannett wrote in a press release.In its lawsuit, Gannett argues that although the digital ad market has exploded, publishers do not see as much of that money because Google and Alphabet have acquired and maintain monopolies" for ad tech used to buy and sell ads by linking Google Ads (formerly known as AdWords) with the AdX exchange where publishers sell their inventory.... Continue reading...