The Verge

Image: Alex Parkin / The Verge Over the course of 88 pages of surprisingly readable legalese, the US Department of Justice attempted to make the case that Apple is a problem. Apple, the DOJ alleges in its sweeping antitrust complaint, has systematically crushed innovation in the smartphone world, robbing not only competitors but also iPhone users of the opportunity to get better software and use better hardware.The argument is complicated, but it has an awful lot in common with another big antitrust trial, one the government won more than two decades ago: US v. Microsoft. That case was about a huge corporation ruthlessly working to neutralize any company that threatened to open up its walled gardens, make it easy for people to build and use cross-platform software,... Continue reading...

Cath Virginia / The Verge | Photos from Getty Images, The Verge Nintendo might not need to individually sue emulators out of existence to drive them deeper underground. Today, GitLab cut off access to Nintendo Switch emulator Suyu, and disabled the accounts of its developers, after receiving what appears to be a scary email in the form of a DMCA takedown request.GitLab received a DMCA takedown notice from a representative of the rightsholder and followed our standard process outlined here," spokesperson Kristen Butler tells The Verge.Suyu was a fork of Yuzu, the emulator that Nintendo successfully sued, but this isn't about Nintendo now having the rights to Yuzu's code - or maybe even Nintendo at all? Nintendo didn't necessarily win the rights to Yuzu's code in its settlement, and GitLab didn't... Continue reading...

Image: Qualcomm Can Qualcomm replicate Apple's feat and finally create Arm-based laptops worth buying, 15 years after its first attempts? Here's one incredibly promising sign it might: Qualcomm is telling game developers their titles should already work on a wave of upcoming Snapdragon-powered Windows laptops - no porting required.In a 2024 Game Developers Conference session titled Windows on Snapdragon, a Platform Ready for your PC Games," Qualcomm engineer Issam Khalil drove home that the unannounced laptops will use emulation to run x86/64 games at close to full speed.Those laptops may be coming fast. Qualcomm has confirmed it will launch Snapdragon X Elite systems this summer, and unannounced consumer versions of the Surface Pro 10 and Surface... Continue reading...

Dark clouds gather over the Baltic Sea on November 8, 2023. | Photo by Stefan Sauer/picture alliance via Getty Images Brightening Earth's clouds so that they reflect more sunlight just might cool the planet - that is if we can figure out how to do it without causing any unintended harm. To test the theory out, a group of over 30 leading scientists have written up a research road map that was published in the journal Science Advances yesterday.The paper focuses on how to approach attempts to artificially shade Earth's surface with marine clouds by spraying saltwater into the air from ships, a strategy called marine cloud brightening (MCB). They'll need to be really careful with any future experiments, which would fall into the controversial category of solar geoengineering. The idea is to counteract some of the effects of climate change by finding ways... Continue reading...

The Music Frame comes with room to hold a physical art print or photo while integrating with voice assistants like Amazon Alexa. | Photo by Chris Welch / The Verge Samsung's just opened up preorders for its 2024 TV and audio lineup, which includes everything from the latest version of The Frame TV to Samsung's glare-free OLED TV. However, the real star of the show here is the Music Frame smart speaker, which was one of our favorite audio products from this year's CES and now comes with $50 in Samsung credit when you preorder it for $399.99 for arrival on April 1st.There are a few caveats to keep in mind, though. First, you won't be able to use the $50 to offset the cost of the smart speaker itself, but you can spend it on other Samsung devices. Second, you won't see the credit for a while. Samsung will only email details about how to redeem it after the speaker is delivered, and it may take up to... Continue reading...

Image: The Verge Threads is rolling out a beta of its fediverse integration in the US, Canada, and Japan. In a post on Thursday, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced that toggling on the feature will let you cross-post and view likes from other federated platforms, like Mastodon.Threads previewed its fediverse integration earlier this week during the FediForum. As outlined on its support page, Meta says that you must have a public account to turn on fediverse sharing, which will allow users on other servers to search for and follow your profile, view your posts, interact with your content, and share your content to anyone on or off their server." Image: Meta There are still a few limitations, though. The beta currently doesn't let... Continue reading...

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Your PS5, PS4, PS3, and Vita might look normal - but if you're having issues, it's because Sony's PlayStation Network is not completely healthy right now. Sony's Network Service Status page is all red, and a spike at Downdetector suggests the partial outage began roughly two hours ago at around 12PM ET.Personally, we're still seeing our friends online, can play games that require network authentication, download updates, and access the PlayStation Store, but there are a lot of Can't load data" error messages under player profiles, and the web version of the PlayStation Store isn't loading.And when I tried to fire up multiplayer in Hot Wheels Unleashed, I got this communication error: Photo by Sean Hollister / The... Continue reading...

Image: The Verge / Android Google's second developer preview for Android 15 has arrived, bringing long-awaited support for satellite connectivity alongside several improvements to contactless payments, multi-language recognition, volume consistency, and interaction with PDFs via apps.These developer-focused betas are a proving ground for features that will likely make it into the final public release scheduled for later this year. According to Google, public beta releases should be available to test between April and July. Image: Google Here's Google's release timeline for Android 15, which may see a full release between August and October this year. The latest developer preview addresses some nuisances and security concerns... Continue reading...

Incorrect spelling will be a thing of the past in Notepad soon. | Image: Microsoft Microsoft is bringing the spellcheck feature to its Notepad app on Windows 11. Testers can now access the new spellcheck support in Notepad, which will be available to all Windows 11 users later this year.Spellcheck in Notepad works much like it does in Microsoft Word or inside the Microsoft Edge browser. Misspelled words are automatically underlined in red, and you can fix mistakes with a right-click to see suggestions for spellings. Microsoft has even added autocorrect, so mistakes are fixed as you continue typing. Spellcheck in Notepad will also support multiple languages, and you can ignore words in documents and add them to a dictionary.This feature is enabled by default for some file types but is off by default in log files and... Continue reading...

The new Surface Pro 10 for Business is easier to repair. | Image: Microsoft Microsoft is making it easier to service and repair its new Surface Pro 10 and Surface Laptop 6 devices. The software giant is adding QR codes on the internal components of both new Surface devices, alongside internal markings on the Surface Pro 10 for Business, to make it easier to identify the screws and driver types for certain components.They have easy serviceability with clear visual icons and built-in repair instructions," explains Nancie Gaskill, general manager of the Surface business, in an interview with The Verge. These changes make the Surface Pro 10 and Surface Laptop 6 the most easily serviceable Surface devices ever," according to Gaskill.On the Surface Pro 10, you'll be able to replace the following components:

ED MILLER/NETFLIX Check out all of The Verge's coverage of Netflix's upcoming 3 Body Problem series based on Cixin Liu's epic sci-fi novel. Continue reading...

We could've had it all, Motorola. There are some phones that just feel nice to pick up, and the 2024 Moto G Power is one of them. It's sitting on my desk and even though I don't need to do anything with it right now, I pick it up anyway. That soft-touch back! The flat-yet-slightly-contoured edges! I turn it to look at the headphone jack on the bottom edge, just to remind myself if it's there. If the battery is even a little low, I set it on my wireless charging stand just for the thrill. All this on a $300 phone! Imagine!But after spending a little more time with the Moto G Power, I come crashing back down to reality. The LCD panel isn't as nice and contrast-y as an OLED (that's forgivable). The camera is underwhelming and suffers from Motorola's unusual image... Continue reading...

Neuralink's N1 implant. | Image: Neuralink Elon Musk's brain-computer interface company has released a video purporting to show the first human patient using Neuralink's brain implant to control a mouse cursor and play a game of chess.The patient, identified as 29-year-old Noland Arbaugh, said he was injured in a diving accident eight years ago that paralyzed him below the shoulders. Arbaugh describes using the Neuralink implant as like using the Force from the Star Wars franchise, allowing him to just stare somewhere on the screen" and move the cursor where he wants.Elon Musk, who founded Neuralink in 2016, retweeted the video of Arbaugh and said it demonstrated telepathy."

Photo by John Moore / Getty Images Customs and Border Protection (CBP) just released updated data on migrant deaths at the US-Mexico border, and the results are staggering. At least 895 people died at the border during the 2022 fiscal year - a 57 percent increase from the previous fiscal year. This grim statistic makes 2022 the deadliest year on record for migrants attempting to come to the US, and it's possible that the figure is an undercount.For years, CBP has blamed the persistent rise in deaths on three factors: the summer heat, the ruggedness of the desert terrain, and the cruelty of smugglers who leave migrants to die there.Climate change has indeed made summers hotter and drier, which means migrants who spend days or weeks trekking through remote stretches of... Continue reading...

C'mon, how cute is that little ghost in the window? | Image: Sago Mini / The Verge Kids entertainment can be a special kind of hell if you're not a kid. For every Bluey - a show that's thoughtful, funny, and thoroughly watchable if you're over the age of five - there's a Blippi. If you're not familiar, he's a kind of MrBeast for toddlers. But he's hardly alone: YouTube Kids is littered with low-grade, algorithm-optimized videos of colorful trucks and Cocomelon knock-offs. It's weird out there.While prepping for our first cross-country flight with our toddler, I stumbled across a true gem: a collection of iPad games that aren't just tolerable, they're actually good.They're made by Sago Mini, and every one of its games is just so goddamn cute. Some of them are structured as play sets," which are little interactive,... Continue reading...

Illustration: The Verge Apple is not living up to the letter or spirit of an order issued by a California federal judge in its trial against Epic Games. That's what Meta, Microsoft, Match Group, and X told the court in an amicus brief on Wednesday.Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers told Apple in 2021 that it could not prevent app developers from using buttons, external links, or other calls to action" informing users of payment options outside of their apps. Epic and other developers have taken issue with Apple's 15 to 30 percent fees on in-app purchases, which Apple makes difficult to avoid by also preventing them from directing users to payment options at a lower price outside of the iOS ecosystem. Apple has defended the fees as reasonable compensation for its... Continue reading...

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge YouTube TV subscribers can now watch several programs at once on smaller devices - not just big TV screens. As noted by 9to5Google, the service's multiview feature has rolled out on iOS and iPadOS, although the Android crowd will have to wait for it to arrive in the coming months." So, Google's leaving its own crowd out of watching several March Madness games while on the go. Ouch.Multiview lets you watch four different things at the same time. The feature started out focused squarely on sports, and... that very much remains the case. YouTube TV has made it slightly more flexible and customizable, but you still can't just pick any four cable channels you'd like to have on-screen together, which would be my preference.If you're using... Continue reading...

Image: Epic Games At GDC last year, Epic launched a robust new creative tool called the Unreal Editor for Fortnite (UEFN). And this year, the company announced some major new features that are on the way for it. To start, the company's MetaHumans - hyperrealistic human characters that can be animated using only an iPhone - will be available in UEFN beginning today. Epic says that users can import any characters made using the MetaHuman Creator tool and the MetaHuman Animator into UEFN, where they can then be used as NPCs in player-made games.While MetaHumans are the highlight, a couple of other notable features are coming as well. Epic says that UEFN will be getting more camera options later this year, including a much-requested first-person perspective.... Continue reading...

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge From Fortnite to UE5. Continue reading...

Photo by Kevin Carter / Getty Images The Biden administration announced new automobile standards aimed at slashing greenhouse gas emissions in half by 2032 while also allowing automakers to meet their targets at a slower pace than originally proposed.The new standards were not as strict as the proposal laid out by the Environmental Protection Agency last year, in which automakers would have been required to reduce emissions by over two-thirds by 2032. Car companies and the autoworkers union opposed the plan, citing recent slower sales growth of electric vehicles and the popularity of some hybrid vehicles as proof that customers were still not ready to make the full switch to fully electric vehicles.The new standards were not as strict as the proposal laid out by the... Continue reading...

The Municipal Water Authority of Aliquippa, PA (pictured) was targeted by a cyber attack last year. | Image: AP Photo / Gene J Puskar The Biden administration is asking states to bolster security for water and wastewater systems, warning that utilities across the country are being targeted by disabling cyberattacks."In a letter sent to all US governors on Tuesday, the White House and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) cited ongoing threats from hackers linked with Iranian and Chinese governments, warning that similar attacks could disrupt access to clean drinking water and impose significant costs on affected communities."Environmental, Health, and Homeland Security secretaries have been invited to a meeting on March 21st to discuss safeguarding requirements to protect critical water infrastructure against cyber attacks. The EPA is additionally forming a... Continue reading...

Photo courtesy of: Becca Farsace We know how much you'll miss the icy streets, freezing temperatures, and misbehaving radiators that the winter season brings, but spring is right around the corner, which means that while you no longer have to worry about shoveling snow off your driveway, it is time to start thinking about plants - whether it's in your garden or on your windowsill. We asked the staff members of The Verge what they are planning to grow over the coming spring and summer months and how they are planning to care for those flowers, vegetables, and other flora. Here's what they told us about starting new plants and caring for the seedlings - although some are using rather unusual gardening tools.Rare heirloom seedsMia Sato, reporterThere are some fruits,... Continue reading...

Image: Beeper Beeper needed a fresh start. Late last year, the company bet big on a hacked-together iMessage app for Android, only to be shut down by Apple within days. Beeper tried to fight back, but it ultimately threw in the towel just weeks later in a widely covered defeat.December was a wild ride," Eric Migicovsky, the co-founder of Beeper, tells The Verge.With dreams of an iMessage app dead, Beeper went back to square one to figure out its next steps. And the answer was to stop fighting Apple and return to its original goal: bringing every chat app - iMessage excepted - into a single place. We've refocused on our primary mission," Migicovsky says, which is to build the best chat app on earth."The new Beeper app launched in beta last week,... Continue reading...

Patch 1.6 gives Stardew Valley players masses of new content, including this new Meadowlands" farm biome. | Image: Stardew Valley / @pearblossoms_ Stardew Valley's massive 1.6 update has been out on PC for less than 24 hours, and it's already taken the game's popularity to staggering new heights. The cozy farming simulator hit 146,159 concurrent players on Steam according to SteamDB data, smashing the game's previous record as players flock to enjoy new content - including a new farm, festivals, and pets.Stardew Valley's previous peak of 94,875 concurrent Steam players was achieved back in January 2021, shortly after the 1.5 update was released. By contrast, its new record is higher than any of the concurrent player stats reported for Palworld this week - which is pretty impressive for a near-decade-old indie RPG. Developer Eric Concerned Ape" Barone had teased some of the new... Continue reading...

The Cowboy Cross in mushroom" with the inverted front suspension fork clearly visible. | Photo by Thomas Ricker / The Verge Cowboy - the independent and financially healthy maker of sophisticated and highly advanced e-bikes - just took the wraps off its first all-roader that lets riders more easily escape cobblestoned city streets for greener pastures.To do that, Cowboy's new Cross e-bike features fatter 60mm tires and suspension systems built into the front fork and seat post to soak up bumps along the way. It's also fitted with grippier pedals to avoid foot slips when bouncing around, a large 540Wh removable battery for a 120km (75 miles) max range, and an integrated rear rack to carry more stuff.I spent some time test riding the Cross e-bike on a variety of surfaces, and it's truly a beast in all the best possible ways. To start, the seat suspension is... Continue reading...

Illustration: The Verge Threads is coming to the fediverse - and we just got our first official look at how that might work from Meta itself. During the FediForum conference on Tuesday, Meta's Peter Cottle showed off a brief demo of how users will eventually be able to connect their accounts and posts to the fediverse. The integration will let users share their posts across different platforms through Threads, letting them reach multiple audiences at once. Meta is just one of the many platforms aiming to join the fediverse, a group of decentralized social networks aiming to become interoperable with one another.As you can see in the video below, which FediForum shared with The Verge, Cottle can navigate to his Threads account settings and toggle on an option... Continue reading...

Cath Virginia / The Verge | Photos from Getty Images This is Hot Pod, The Verge's newsletter about podcasting and the audio industry. Sign up here for more.The common wisdom goes that video is the key to podcast discovery: you take the juiciest clips from your show, hope one goes viral every now and then on TikTok, and then that wider (and younger) audience becomes your new listeners. Uncah jamz is the prime example of this, sending a bunch of new attention to Call Her Daddy. But even podcasters who have cracked the code on TikTok have found the relationship between on-app engagement and actual listening to be weak, at best.That issue may soon be moot. Last week, seemingly out of nowhere, the US House of Representatives passed a bill that would force Chinese company ByteDance to sell... Continue reading...

Some of the heroes added to Overwatch | Image: Blizzard Overwatch 2 heroes will no longer need to be unlocked through Battle Pass or via purchase, taking some of the grind out of the now free-to-play team FPS. Starting in Season 10, players will be able to unlock all existing and future heroes for free. This will include Venture, the latest hero joining Overwatch's roster next season.New players to the game will still need to complete the first-time user experience. Only when novice players have unlocked the heroes from the first Overwatch roster will all Overwatch 2 heroes then be at their disposal, , as game director Aaron Keller explains in the latest Developer's Update video.Free heroes are a return to form for the game, as that heroes were automatically granted in Overwatch 1. But... Continue reading...

Segway's new Navimow i robot lawn mower is now available in the US on Amazon. | Image: Segway Following its launch in Europe earlier this month, Segway's Navimow i series robot lawn mower is now available in the US. As one of the first robotic mowers under $1,000 that can navigate autonomously without a boundary wire, its arrival could be the beginning of the robot lawn mower going mainstream.The Navimow i series has two models: the i105N costs $999 and covers 0.125 acres, and the $1,299 i110N can manage up to 0.25 acres. It uses Segway's Exact Fusion Locating System 2.0, a vision-enhanced real-time kinematic (RTK) GPS system with a camera for outdoor mapping. It can also avoid obstacles and navigate around trees, shrubs, garden borders, and even animals and people as it cuts your lawn.According to the company, the new lawn... Continue reading...