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by Victoria Song on (#67RXA)
The Wear OS 3 update is rolling out to Skagen Gen 6 owners. | Photo by Victoria Song / The Verge Fossil has started rolling out the Wear OS 3 update to its Skagen Falster Gen 6 smartwatches. The only catch is that doing so removes many watchfaces that were previously available — yet another factor you’ll have to weigh when deciding whether to upgrade to Wear OS 3.The disappearing watchfaces were first noted on Reddit (via 9to5Google), and The Verge was able to confirm that the number of available Skagen watchfaces dwindles from roughly 20 to 5 once you upgrade. This might not faze some people, but fashion is one of Fossil’s strengths as a smartwatch maker, so it’s a little disappointing to see.Otherwise, Wear OS 3 on the Falster Gen 6 is very similar to what you’ll find on Fossil’s newly released Gen 6 Wellness Edition. That... Continue reading…
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The Verge - All Posts
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| Updated | 2024-11-27 12:45 |
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by Patrick George on (#67R5Y)
Apple’s AirPods Pro, AirPods, and an iPhone. | Photo by Chris Welch / The Verge There are rumors of more affordable AirPods on the way as Apple’s Music and TV apps come to Windows. Continue reading…
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by Patrick George on (#67RXB)
Image: Horacio Villalobos#Corbis/Corbis via Getty Images Well, that was quick.After just a few years on the market, Mercedes-Benz’s “EQ” brand for electric vehicles — which currently includes the EQS, EQE, and a host of others coming soon — may be on the way out. The news was first reported by Germany’s Handelsblatt daily newspaper and has since been confirmed by Reuters and other outlets.While it may seem abrupt, this doesn’t mean Mercedes is giving up on electric cars — very much the opposite. The outlets report that since Mercedes’ goal is to go fully electric by 2030 with no new internal combustion engines or platforms released after 2025, the different branding has become unnecessary.While it may seem abrupt, this doesn’t mean Mercedes is giving up on electric carsJan Weber, a... Continue reading…
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by Mitchell Clark on (#67RXC)
A soldier wearing an IVAS headset. | Image: US Army Congress has denied the Army’s request to buy up to 6,900 headsets based on Microsoft’s HoloLens technology, according to a report from Bloomberg. The military was apparently asking for around $400 million — instead, it’s getting around a tenth of that to go toward improving the system, as previous versions reportedly caused “mission-affecting physical impairments,” such as headaches and nausea during tests.It was those results that reportedly led to the budget for new headsets, called Integrated Visual Augmentation Systems or IVAS by the Army, not being included in the government’s $1.75 trillion spending bill. The Army says it plans to fix those, though, with a version 1.2 that will include “a new form factor” meant to address the... Continue reading…
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by Alex Cranz on (#67RXD)
I think you can guess what Minx was about from this image. | Image: HBO Max If you’ve been irritated by all the shows and films HBO Max has been dumping from its service, here’s some silver lining: at least one of them has been saved. Minx, which is produced by Lionsgate, has been picked up by Starz, which is owned by Lionsgate.The show, starring Jake Johnson and Ophelia Lovibond, followed the creation and making of a feminist porn magazine in the 1970s. The first season aired on HBO Max, where the few people who saw it liked it (I was one of them). But unfortunately, not enough people watched it for HBO Max’s taste.In December, HBO Max canceled the second season of the show — which had already been shot — and pulled the first season from its streaming service. While some shows have been canceled and are no... Continue reading…
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by Justine Calma on (#67RXE)
The American multinational oil and gas ExxonMobil Corporation headquartered is seen on December 29th, 2022, in Diegem, Belgium. | Photo by Thierry Monasse / Getty Images ExxonMobil predicted rising global temperatures with remarkable accuracy even as it attempted to downplay the existence of climate change, new research shows. It comes with damning data visualizations that put hard numbers on just how much ExxonMobil knew about the climate crisis it was creating.There’s been a litany of evidence about how ExxonMobil rejected mainstream climate science, even though the company’s own research and internal communications acknowledged that burning fossil fuels would cause global warming. Now, a paper published today in the journal Science gives us the first comprehensive review of decades of ExxonMobil climate models. And the company’s projections for how much global temperatures would rise over the years... Continue reading…
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by Jay Peters on (#67RRQ)
Joe Burrow in Madden NFL 23. | Image: EA Madden NFL 23’s newest title update briefly locked players out of the game on Thursday, EA confirmed on Twitter. It’s the latest in a string of issues to plague the popular football title over the past few weeks.At 11:43AM ET Thursday, EA’s Madden NFL Direct Twitter account shared that “we are aware of players being unable to access the game after downloading the latest Title Update.” Many players reported problems on Downdetector, while fans on the Madden Reddit posted threads expressing their frustrations with the issues. At 12:12PM ET, the Madden NFL Direct account said the issue had been resolved.
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by Sheena Vasani on (#67DF5)
Samar Haddad / The Verge At the year’s biggest tech show, we’ll see next-gen TVs, stylish laptop updates, questionable smart home tech, and a lot of strange and surprising gadgets. Continue reading…
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by Andrew Webster on (#67RRR)
Idris Elba in Luther: The Fallen Sun. | Image: Netflix Idris Elba is jumping back into one of his most iconic roles for the upcoming Netflix film Luther: The Fallen Sun. Today, the company revealed that the movie will start streaming on March 10th but will also be available in select theaters starting February 24th.For the uninitiated, Luther was a psychological crime thriller that ran for five seasons between 2010 and 2019 and starred Elba as the titular detective. The new movie will pick up where the series left off, which means that Luther is in, let’s say, a bad spot. Here’s the premise:
by Allison Johnson on (#67RRS)
Switching phones? Here’s how to make sure you keep getting all of your texts. | Image: Samar Haddad; Allison Johnson / The Verge If you recently switched from an Android phone to an iPhone and suddenly stopped receiving texts from your Android phone-owning friends, don’t panic. It’s a nerve-racking but easily solvable problem, and it’s one that we’re all too familiar with at The Verge since some of us tend to switch phones a lot.The likely culprit is the protocol called RCS, which is short for Rich Communication Services. There are a lot of reasons to like RCS in Google’s Messaging app. It provides read receipts and emoji reactions and enables higher-quality media sharing than the older SMS protocol it replaces. But as much as Google would like it to be, RCS isn’t a universal standard — Apple uses its own iMessage protocol, so if you’re switching between Android... Continue reading…
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by Jay Peters on (#67RKH)
But you’re paying a little more for a lot less than you used to. | Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge HBO Max is the next streaming service to get a price increase, its first one since launching in 2020. Starting Thursday, the cost of a new subscription to HBO Max will increase from $14.99 to $15.99 per month. Existing subscribers will pay the new price with their next billing cycle “on or after” February 11th.“This price increase of one dollar will allow us to continue to invest in providing even more culture-defining programming and improving our customer experience for all users,” HBO Max wrote in a press email.While Netflix’s creeping price hikes have accumulated over several years, in recent months, many streaming services raised prices as they try to prove to investors that they can build viable businesses.But with HBO Max’s... Continue reading…
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by Georgina Torbet on (#67RKJ)
This illustration reflects that exoplanet LHS 475 b is rocky and almost precisely the same size as Earth based on new evidence from NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope. | Illustration: NASA, ESA, CSA, Leah Hustak (STScI) The James Webb Space Telescope has discovered its first new exoplanet, an Earth-sized rocky planet called LHS 475 b. Located just 41 light-years away, the planet orbits very close to a small, dim star, completing a full orbit in just two days.The discovery, presented at the American Astronomical Society (AAS) meeting on Wednesday, January 11th, is notable as most exoplanets discovered are typically large gas giants similar to Jupiter. It is harder for most telescopes to detect Earth-like planets because they are much smaller, at less than a tenth of the diameter.The planet orbits very close to a small, dim starPrevious research with NASA’s Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite, another space-based telescope that was launched in 2018... Continue reading…
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by Alice Newcome-Beill on (#67RKK)
TCL’s 6-Series QLED TV is equipped with a 120Hz refresh rate in addition to the Google smart platform. | Photo by Chris Welch / The Verge If your New Year's resolution was to get a big 4K TV, we’re here to make quick work of that less than two weeks into 2023. Currently, you can pick up the 65-inch model of TCL’s 6-Series QLED 4K TV at Best Buy for $699.99 (normally $999.99). There are, of course, pricier models available with more bells and whistles, but what this model has makes it a great value for the price. It has a Mini LED-backlit panel that gets brighter and has more contrast than most similarly priced TVs. Plus, it has two HDMI 2.1 ports that can output 4K at a 120Hz refresh rate to consoles and PC. It also comes standard with the Google TV smart platform baked in, giving you access to all major streaming services plus screen mirroring via Chromecast. Read our... Continue reading…
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by Jennifer Pattison Tuohy on (#67RKM)
The LG Artcool Gallery AC unit adds some style to your smart home. | Photo by Jennifer Pattison Tuohy / The Verge The smart home at CES wasn’t all Matter, Matter, Matter. At The Verge, we covered the launch of literally dozens of new products at the big consumer tech show. From innovations in smart lighting and exciting products in smart home energy management to flying cameras and wirelessly charging smart locks, there was a lot of great new tech to see.But there were a few that we didn’t highlight during the show, as well as a couple of genuine surprises we discovered roaming the show floor. Here’s a round-up of some of the other innovations, gadgets, and new products that caught our eye in Las Vegas. And in case you missed it, catch up on all our smart home coverage from the show floor here.GE Lighting solves the under-cabinet lighting... Continue reading…
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by Richard Lawler on (#67RKN)
The Verge / Getty Images Almost until the moment of his arrest in the Bahamas a month ago, Sam Bankman-Fried’s (SBF) post-FTX collapse media tour included days of back-to-back Twitter Spaces and Zoom calls. Now, top executives of companies in his crypto empire have pleaded guilty to criminal fraud charges of fraud and money laundering and are cooperating with the prosecution, while Bankman-Fried — free on a $250 million bond and still giving interviews — pleaded not guilty to eight similar charges and has followed up by launching a newsletter while he awaits trial.Published this morning on Substack, the “FTX Pre-mortem Overview” message from the former CEO says, among other things, that “I didn’t steal funds, and I certainly didn’t stash billions away.”
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by Andrew J. Hawkins on (#67RKQ)
Image: WENDELL TEODORO/AFP via Getty Images Airbus is testing out a suite of new automated technology that it says has the potential to improve the safety and efficiency of flying.The automated technology, which has been branded as the company’s DragonFly project, includes “automated emergency diversion in cruise, automatic landing, and taxi assistance,” Airbus says.The company is testing out the new features using an A350-1000 aircraft at the Toulouse-Blagnac Airport, which is a test site for Airbus. The experimentation is being conducted by Airbus UpNext, a subsidiary of the aerospace giant that validates new technology before rolling it out to the wider fleet.Airbus says the technology is meant to mimic the insect’s ability to recognize certain locationsThe name... Continue reading…
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by Andrew Webster on (#67RKP)
M. Night Shyamalan at the season 4 premiere of Servant in NYC. | Photo by Kristina Bumphrey/Variety via Getty Images ‘It is terrifying. But I don’t know if there is any other way to go through life.’ Continue reading…
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by Tom Warren on (#67RE8)
Intel’s latest 13th Gen CPU breaks the 6GHz barrier. | Image: Intel Intel is launching its fastest desktop processor to date, breaking the 6GHz barrier at stock speeds for the first time. The new Core i9-13900KS is based on the 13th Gen Core i9-13900K that came close to the 6GHz barrier with its 5.8GHz turbo frequency last year. The new i9-13900KS will be available in stores today, priced at $699.The 13900KS is the first CPU to reach 6GHz without overclocking, using Intel’s Thermal Velocity Boost technology to reach that 6GHz barrier and improve PC gaming performance. It does it by using more electricity, though. The base power of the 13900K was 125 watts, and Intel has bumped this up to 150 watts on the 13900KS. At max turbo power, it will hit slightly above 250 watts — just like the 13900K.Other... Continue reading…
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by Jess Weatherbed on (#67RE9)
The mission, if successful, will deploy three radio frequency monitoring satellites into low orbit. | Image: Rocket Lab Private spaceflight company Rocket Lab has announced the launch window of its debut Electron rocket mission from US soil. The “Virginia Is For Launch Lovers” mission is set to take off on January 23rd, 2023, from NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia from 6PM to 8PM ET.If successful, the mission will deploy three radio frequency monitoring satellites into low orbit for Virginia-based company HawkEye 360, the first of 15 to be deployed by Rocket Lab by 2024. This first mission was initially scheduled to launch in December 2022 but was pushed back due to unfavorable weather conditions.
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by Monica Chin on (#67REA)
AMD CEO Lisa Su announces the new Ryzen 7040 chip at CES 2023. | Image: David Becker/Getty Images The PC market is in rough waters, and it was for much of last year. Worldwide PC shipments fell by 16 percent in 2022, according to recent analysis by Canalys, while Gartner reported a 28.5 percent year-over-year drop in Q4 — the largest quarterly shipment decline since Gartner began tracking the PC market. Every PC maker except Apple saw year-over-year decline. Laptop sales are said to have suffered the most.This all made for a somewhat uncertain backdrop heading into CES 2023, the annual conference where tech companies show off the products they’ll be releasing in 2023. Throughout the show, executives and representatives from various PC manufacturers acknowledged that the industry has a big task ahead of it this year: keep the laptop... Continue reading…
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by Chris Welch on (#67REB)
Samsung uses the microphone in each earbud to record sound just as your ears hear it. | Photo by Chris Welch / The Verge Samsung is bringing a nifty new trick to its Galaxy Buds 2 Pro starting today: whenever you’re recording video, the earbuds will now be able to capture more lifelike binaural 3D audio. “The feature picks up 360-degree sound using a microphone in each earbud, placing viewers at the center of a roaring festival crowd or beside a bubbling brook in the middle of a forest,” Samsung wrote in a press release today.If you share those clips on social media and other platforms, listeners will be placed right in the middle of the sound field and able to hear the audio just as you did; it can make for a more immersive, lifelike experience compared to the standard stereo audio recorded by most smartphones and earbuds. 3D audio sounds as through... Continue reading…
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by Jess Weatherbed on (#67R5X)
The four color options are listed as Phantom Black,” “Botanic Green,” “Mystic Lilac,” and “Cotton Flower.” WinFuture has plenty of additional images available to view in its report. | Image: WinFuture Samsung’s Galaxy S23 series is expected to be unveiled for the first time at the upcoming Galaxy Unpacked event on February 1st, but we already have a solid idea of what the device will look like. Leaked renders posted by WinFuture reveal both the design and color options available for the base model Galaxy S23 handset.According to WinFuture’s Roland Quandt, these are official marketing images from Samsung, and not fan-made renders based on previous models or design predictions. If you want a better look at the new handset, WinFuture has other images listed on its report.Available in four colors: black, white, green, and a pinkish-lilacIf legit (WinFuture has an excellent track record), then the Galaxy S23 will rid itself of the... Continue reading…
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by Jon Porter on (#67R5Z)
Apple’s third-generation AirPods, released in 2021. | Photo by Chris Welch / The Verge The next generation of Apple’s popular AirPods headphones could launch in the second half of 2024, or first half of 2025, according to a new prediction from noted Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo. The lineup will reportedly include a more affordable pair of AirPods priced at $99, as well as a new model of Apple’s over-ear AirPods Max headphones (released in 2020).The rumored $99 AirPods would undercut the price of Apple’s current most affordable AirPods (its second-generation model) by $30. Meanwhile, the third-generation AirPods currently sell for $169 for a model that charges via a wired Lightning cable only, or for $179 with a case that can charge wirelessly via MagSafe. Reducing the price of the entry-level AirPods model mirrors what... Continue reading…
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by Mitchell Clark on (#67PXB)
An unofficial render of Samsung’s Galaxy S23. | Image: OnLeaks / Digit Plus, problems at Parler, and rumors of Apple-designed MicroLED displays. Continue reading…
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by Mitchell Clark on (#67QTH)
Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Apple’s Music and TV apps for Windows have made an appearance, with preview versions of the apps being spotted on the Microsoft Store by The Verifier (via MacRumors). Last October, Microsoft announced they were coming to the platform, letting users finally ditch the old iTunes app and Apple TV web player for native software that is closer to the experience embedded in macOS.There’s also a third preview of an app called Apple Devices, which is meant to let you manage and sync things like iPods and iPads — functionality that’s currently handled by iTunes on Windows and Finder on the Mac. It also, apparently, contains some references to Reality OS and xrOS, two codenames that have reportedly been associated with Apple’s virtual reality... Continue reading…
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by Georgina Torbet on (#67QTJ)
Photo by Natalia Kolesnikova / AFP via Getty Images A Russian Soyuz spacecraft docked to the International Space Station (ISS) began leaking coolant early last month, leading to concerns about whether the vehicle would be safe to transport ISS crew members back to Earth.NASA and Russian space agency Roscosmos have now announced they will be sending a replacement spacecraft for NASA astronaut Frank Rubio and Roscosmos cosmonauts Sergey Prokopyev and Dmitry Petelin in which to travel home. A SpaceX Crew Dragon is also available as a contingency option should it be required.Roscosmos will send a replacement Soyuz called MS-23 to the ISS, launching on February 20th so it can be used to return the astronauts to Earth. This mission had been scheduled to launch in March carrying new crew... Continue reading…
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by Alice Newcome-Beill on (#5X80P)
The 128GB configuration of the 2021 12.9-inch iPad Pro is currently discounted to $800.99 at Best Buy. | Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge Tablets exist in a space between phones and laptops that is becoming increasingly muddled. As phones become more powerful and gain larger displays, laptops continue to get lighter. Tablet manufacturers haven’t been resting on their laurels, though. Many of the more recent tablets we’ve seen are looking to bridge the gap in terms of performance and, in select cases, handle some tasks more efficiently than both phones and laptops.The tablet spectrum is varied, too. Inexpensive models like the Amazon Fire HD 10 make for excellent media streaming devices, while those in Microsoft’s versatile Surface lineup can easily serve as ad-hoc laptops when paired with an optional folio-style keyboard. Then there’s the ubiquitous iPad, a slate that has... Continue reading…
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by Adi Robertson on (#67QQ5)
Illustration: The Verge Courts have unsealed Google’s motion to dismiss an antitrust lawsuit over its search engine — one that could fracture a core Google service in order to increase online competition. In a motion for summary judgment filed on December 12th, the company argues that the complaint misrepresents its agreements with browser developers and Android phone makers, unfairly punishing its success. “Requiring Google not to compete vigorously — or requiring browser developers to alter their product designs and provide a worse experience for their customers,” it says, “would turn competition law on its head.”The US Department of Justice and a coalition of state attorneys general sued Google in 2020, part of a multi-pronged approach to limit the web... Continue reading…
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by Emma Roth on (#67QQ6)
Emoji reactions on Google Meet float up the left side of the screen and “burst” when multiple are used. | Image: Google Meet Google is finally rolling out emoji reactions for Meet, something myself and other colleagues have been patiently waiting for since Google announced the feature last year. Now the video conferencing platform will let you silently send out reactions to colleagues during calls.The emoji don’t stay static like they do on Zoom, though. A line of reactions used during the call will instead float up the left side of the screen and will burst if multiple people use the same ones. Small emoji badges will also appear in the upper-left corner of your video tile, so you’ll get to see who reacted with what. While I haven’t gotten the chance to try it out myself yet, it seems like a fun way to liven up typically routine meetings. I... Continue reading…
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by Jay Peters on (#67QQ7)
A photo of a Verily building. | Image: Verily Verily, the health-focused company housed under Google parent Alphabet, is laying off staff and announcing a sweeping reorganization, as shared in an email from CEO Stephen Gillett posted on Verily’s blog. “Approximately 15 percent of Verily roles” have been cut, Gillett said, which translates to more than 200 employees, according to The Wall Street Journal.As part of Verily’s changes, the company will be discontinuing development on its Verily Value Suite (which you can read more about on this jargon-filled page) and some “early-stage products,” Gillett wrote. It will be shifting to a centralized product organization with “increasingly connected healthcare solutions.” Gillett also detailed the new leadership team, though noted that the... Continue reading…
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by Mitchell Clark on (#67QQ8)
An M2 MacBook Air with a screen that doesn’t respond to touch. | Photo by Becca Farsace / The Verge Apple is working on Macs with touchscreens, according to a report from Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman. While it’s uncertain whether the devices will actually come to market, Gurman says in a tweet that we could see a touchscreen MacBook Pro as early as 2025. The report also notes that the screens may use OLED technology, as opposed to the Mini LED displays that are currently in the 14- and 16-inch models.The project seems to be in relatively early stages, with engineers being “actively engaged,” according to the report. Gurman says that there are no final plans for launching touchscreen Macs and that plans could always change — we’ve seen Apple scrap projects before, and the company has made prototype Macs with touchscreens that never saw the... Continue reading…
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by Victoria Song on (#67QQ9)
Both heart rate and Android workout tracking integrations are necessary for VR fitness to become popular. | Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge Meta is adding two new fitness-related features to the Meta Quest. The first is Health Connect integration, meaning Android users can finally sync their Quest workout data automatically. Perhaps more exciting for VR fitness buffs: you’ll now be able to pair Bluetooth heart rate monitors and view your stats in real time.Health Connect is Google’s health API, which allows Android users to share health and fitness data between multiple apps and consolidate that information in one place. The integration means you can now link your Quest Move VR workouts to Google Fit without having to do anything. Meta enabled a similar integration with Apple Health for iOS users last year. Image: Meta You’ll have to enable syncing... Continue reading…
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by James Vincent on (#67HW1)
Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge A database posted online claims to reveal more than 200 million associated Twitter usernames and email addresses. Now, several days after the initial reports, Twitter says the “dataset could not be correlated with the previously reported incident or any data originating from an exploitation of Twitter systems.”According to reports from security researchers and media outlets including BleepingComputer, the credentials in the leak were compiled from a number of earlier Twitter breaches dating back to 2021. According to Twitter, however, there is “no evidence that data recently being sold was obtained by exploiting a vulnerability of Twitter systems.”Its statement addresses the information in the datasets only by saying, “The data is... Continue reading…
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by Ash Parrish on (#67QKP)
Image: Ubisoft Skull and Bones is quickly becoming the Duke Nukem of the ‘20s as Ubisoft has announced, in response to poor overall sales and an economic downturn, that it is yet again postponing the pirate simulator.In a press release and subsequent investor call, Ubisoft said it was “surprised” that Mario + Rabbids Sparks of Hope and Just Dance 2023 underperformed. As a result, Ubisoft said it would push the release of Skull and Bones to 2024.Delays and Skull and Bones are becoming synonymous with the game being pushed back almost every year since 2018. This latest delay, the game’s fifth overall, will put Skull and Bones — that, according to Kotaku, started in 2013 as Assassin’s Creed DLC — in its 11th year of development. Ironically, Skull and... Continue reading…
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by Alice Newcome-Beill on (#67QKQ)
At least 20 signed, full-time job offers were withdrawn by Meta | Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge According to a report by TechCrunch, Meta confirmed reports it has revoked full-time job offers that were extended to some candidates. Meta hasn’t commented on how many people or departments were affected by this action, but TechCrunch quotes a company spokesperson saying, “While this decision did not come lightly, it allows us to remain thoughtful as we readjust our hiring through 2023 to align with our highest-priority work.”A tweet from writer and software engineer Gergely Orosz claims that this action from Meta has affected at least 20 people that initially had offers to start in February. The tweet also points to a statement from Meta recruiters from last October to not rescind full-time job offers, with only part-time offers being... Continue reading…
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by Mitchell Clark on (#67QF2)
Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge The Royal Mail says it’s suffered from a disruption to its ability to ship packages or letters internationally, which the BBC says is because of a “cyber incident.” The courier is advising customers to “hold any export items” until it solves the issue.At the moment, it’s unclear whether the incident is an actual attack from hackers or some other technical error, though the UK’s National Cyber Security Centre says it’s working with the Royal Mail “alongside the National Crime Agency, to fully understand the impact.” The BBC also says that regulators have been told about the issue.
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by Tom Warren on (#67QF3)
Illustration: The Verge Microsoft is giving its US employees unlimited time off. The announcement was made in an email to employees from Kathleen Hogan, Microsoft’s chief people officer, today in a memo seen by The Verge. Microsoft is calling its unlimited time off “Discretionary Time Off,” and it will apply to all salaried US employees.“How, when, and where we do our jobs has dramatically changed,” explains Hogan in the internal memo. “And as we’ve transformed, modernizing our vacation policy to a more flexible model was a natural next step.”The changes will start on January 16th and mean even new Microsoft employees don’t need to wait to accrue vacation time anymore. Microsoft will offer 10 corporate holidays, leaves of absence, sick and mental heath time... Continue reading…
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by Victoria Song on (#67QF4)
Movano’s Evie Ring has been in the works for a while. It’s currently going through trials to get FDA clearance. | Image: Movano Every year at CES, you’ll see a lot of fascinating health tech concepts and prototypes — at-home urinary scanners, smartwatches that can noninvasively monitor blood sugar, and a wearable patch to prevent sexual dysfunction. And then, nothing ever seems to make it to market. Or if it does, it only happens years later, and often, the final product isn’t nearly as capable as the initial pitch.There are three letters why: FDA.The Food and Drug Administration is meant to protect public health. One of the many ways it does that is by regulating medical devices. This is a good thing. When human health is on the line, you want medical technology to be accurate, safe, and reliable. You want these devices to have gone through the appropriate... Continue reading…
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by Emma Roth on (#67QF5)
Illustration by Kristen Radtke / The Verge Apple will soon start displaying more detailed and accurate business listings, all thanks to the company’s new Business Connect tool.The feature, which Apple announced on Wednesday, lets businesses claim and edit their listings across Apple’s services, similar to Google’s method for allowing businesses to make changes to the way their information appears on the search engine and Google Maps or Twitter’s recent addition of a Location Spotlight for business profiles.The tool gives businesses the ability to tweak store hours and fill out their listings by adding header images and other photos to their place cards, which appear on Maps, Messages, Wallet, Siri, and other apps. Through Business Connect, companies can encourage customers to... Continue reading…
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by Jay Peters on (#67QHA)
It’s a small but notable step into livestreaming. | Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Netflix will live stream the Annual Screen Actors Guild (SAG) Awards beginning in 2024, the company announced on Wednesday. The news marks another push from Netflix into livestreaming, an effort that already includes a live Chris Rock comedy special on March 4th.The annual SAG Awards recognize actors in movies and TV shows. While you won’t catch this year’s ceremony, the 29th iteration, directly on Netflix this year, Netflix is still involved with streaming it. Instead, you’ll be able to watch the show, which takes place on February 26th at 8PM ET, on the company’s YouTube channel. (You can see the full list of nominees on Deadline.) Next year, the show will be on Netflix, and presumably for many years after, as Netflix and the SAG... Continue reading…
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by Sheena Vasani on (#67Q9W)
Illustration by Samar Haddad / The Verge Tired of comparing your behind-the-scenes with everyone else’s highlight reel on Instagram? (To quote Steven Furtick.) The social network has its charms, but for many, it can be a place that’s littered with envy-inducing photos and videos of everybody else’s “perfect” lives. If you’re not careful, it can trigger all sorts of insecurities — sometimes even to the detriment of your mental health.That’s why it’s important to be mindful of the type of Instagram content you’re consuming on a daily basis. While it’s easy to unfollow accounts from influencers, though, you can’t exactly unfollow or full-on block a friend or a family member without hurting some feelings. That’s where Instagram’s “mute” feature comes in handy: it lets you mute... Continue reading…
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by Andrew Webster on (#67Q9X)
Kaina of the Great Snow Sea. | Image: Crunchyroll Fans of Tsutomu Nihei — the creator of manga and anime series like Blame! and Knights of Sidonia — generally know what to expect from his works. There’s usually a sliver of humanity living perilously in some dark future, an alien or technological force they have to overcome, and all kinds of incredible ships, weapons, and architecture for design nerds to ogle over. They’re the kinds of bleak sci-fi tales that can make you feel small and insignificant. But his latest, called Kaina of the Great Snow Sea, softens things up a little bit.The series, which is on Crunchyroll, once again sees Nihei team up with Polygon Pictures, the animation studio that worked on the Knights of Sidonia series and Blame! film (along with my personal favorite... Continue reading…
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by Antonio G. Di Benedetto on (#67Q9Y)
Image: LG If you love digital window shopping and you’re in the market for a TV, a gaming console, or a new monitor, then we’ve got a great deal for your perusal. At eBay, you can get an additional 20 percent off a wide range of tech products when you use code NEWYEARTWENTY on a qualifying item at checkout until 11:59PM PT January 15th / 2:59AM ET January 16th.This deal can knock a significant chunk of change off some big-ticket items, like getting LG’s 65-inch C2 OLED for $1,437.59 (normally $1,796.99), the Nintendo Switch OLED for $294.80 (normally $349.99), the LG DualUp monitor for $646.08 (regularly $699.99) or the Logitech G502 X Plus Lightspeed wireless mouse for $127.99 (regularly $159).Now, you’ll notice that those last two aren’t... Continue reading…
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by Aude White on (#67Q9Z)
Land of the Giants, the Vox Media Podcast Network’s award-winning narrative franchise, today announced the launch of its seventh season, Dating Games. Marking a collaboration between two of Vox Media’s editorial brands, The Cut and The Verge, the six-episode series will examine the multi-billion dollar dating app industry and explore whether the business goals of the companies behind them are aligned with users’ romantic aspirations. Hosted by Sangeeta Singh-Kurtz (senior staff writer, The Cut) and Lakshmi Rengarajan (host, Paired by the People), the season will feature interviews with the founders of apps like Tinder and Bumble, Match Group executives, as well as former Tinder engineers, data scientists, neuroscientists, psychologists,... Continue reading…
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by Charles Pulliam-Moore on (#67QA0)
Angela Bassett holding her Golden Globe at the 80th Golden Globes. | Photo by Matt Winkelmeyer / FilmMagic After concerns about the Hollywood Foreign Press Association’s ethics and egregious lack of diversity led to the Golden Globes not being televised in 2022, the long-running awards show returned last night with host Jerrod Carmichael headlining an evening of surprising wins. While the atmosphere in the room appeared to be a bit awkward and, at times, tense as the ceremony unfolded, it was also punctuated by a number of moving, poignant speeches from some of the industry’s brightest stars.While Martin McDonagh’s The Banshees of Inisherin and Steven Spielberg’s The Fabelmans took home the most awards on the film side of things this year, it was Everything Everywhere All at Once’s Michelle Yeoh and Ke Huy Quan who moved the Globes audience... Continue reading…
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by Jay Peters on (#67QA1)
The new Hub is starting to roll out now. | Image: Roblox Roblox is officially completing its rollout of the Creator Hub, a new hub that gives developers more tools and centralizes things like documentation and a developer forum into one place. Making the information easier to find seems like it could be quite helpful for developers, and that has an important aftereffect for Roblox, too: Roblox makes its money by taking a cut of what its developers earn, so it’s incentivized to make things better for the creators on its platform.Creator Hub aggregates five Roblox resources, Nick Tornow, Roblox’s VP of engineering, tells The Verge:
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by Emma Roth on (#67QA2)
The NFL star once served as an ambassador for FTX. | Photo by Alex Slitz/Getty Images Tom Brady’s weighty investment in FTX is on the verge of evaporating. New bankruptcy filings show that the Tampa Bay Buccaneers quarterback holds over 1.1 million common shares in the defunct cryptocurrency exchange, while his ex-wife and fashion model Gisele Bündchen holds around 680,000, as reported earlier by Bloomberg and Insider.The NFL star and his then-wife have served as brand ambassadors for FTX since 2021 and even appeared in a series of commercials for the exchange (which really haven’t aged well). According to an estimate from Forbes, Brady’s investment was valued at around $45 million, while Bündchen’s was worth about $25 million. In its report, Insider notes, “During typical bankruptcy proceedings, only bond holders are... Continue reading…
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by Jess Weatherbed on (#67Q7A)
The Texas Gigafactory, constructed last year, serves as the Tesla global headquarters and is the “equivalent to three Pentagons,” according to Tesla CEO Elon Musk. | Image: Brandon Bell/Getty Images Electric vehicle manufacturer Tesla has notified the state of Texas of its plans to spend upward of $770 million expanding its already immense Austin-based factory.According to registration documents filed on January 9th with the Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation (via CNBC and the Austin Business Journal), Tesla intends to construct additional facilities for what appears to be a battery cell testing lab, cathode and drive unit manufacturing facilities, a die shop, and an undisclosed 693,093-square-foot facility called Cell 1.Some of these projects are due to start construction within a matter of weeks. Image: Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation The Texas Department of Licensing and... Continue reading…
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by Patrick George on (#67Q51)
Image: CFOTO/Future Publishing via Getty Images No matter what language you speak or what part of the world you call home, one thing is certain: no one wants to miss out on a good deal.This has proven especially true in China for existing Tesla customers, who are so unhappy about recently announced price cuts to the cars — discounts they missed out on when they bought their cars — they’ve been staging protests across the country for several days now.Reuters and other outlets have reported that hundreds of Tesla owners gathered at showrooms and delivery centers in Shanghai on Saturday to express their anger over major price drops to the Model 3 and Model Y. Moreover, videos posted on social media platforms show protests in other Chinese cities like Chengdu, Henan, Wuxi, Hangzhou, and... Continue reading…
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by Jon Porter on (#67Q13)
Photo by DANIEL SLIM/AFP via Getty Images A critical Federal Aviation Authority (FAA) system suffered an overnight glitch, grounding flights across the US. The FAA posted an advisory notice early Wednesday which notes that the United States NOTAM (Notice to Air Mission) system “failed,” but just before 9AM ET, said, “Normal air traffic operations are resuming gradually.”NOTAM is a critical system that keeps pilots and other flight personnel informed of the status of airports across the country, Reuters reports. It can offer information on runway closures, bird hazards, and other obstacles.At 7:19AM ET, the agency said it had “ordered airlines to pause all domestic departures” until 9AM ET to give it time to “validate the integrity of flight and safety information.” At least... Continue reading…
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