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by Mitchell Clark on (#67DBX)
I feel threatened by the breadth of this monitor. | Image: Samsung Remember the Samsung Odyssey Ark? Of course you do — it was released last year, had a monstrous 55-inch display that towers over you in portrait mode, and used Mini LED tech. In his review, my colleague Cameron Faulkner said that using it “feels like being in VR,” and called its presence “magnetic.” In short, it’s a monitor dialed (literally) so far past 11 that its Multi View mode was barely able to keep up.So of course Samsung went and made something even bigger, with even higher-end specs, and is announcing it at CES. Enter the new Odyssey Neo G9 (ignore the fact that new and neo mean the same thing), a follow-up to Samsung’s $2,499 49-inch Mini LED display of the same name, released in 2021. This time, it has a 57-inch “super... Continue reading…
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The Verge - All Posts
| Link | https://www.theverge.com/ |
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| Updated | 2024-11-27 14:30 |
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by Cameron Faulkner on (#67DBW)
Samsung claims that the 49-inch Odyssey G95SC is the world’s first 32:9 aspect ratio OLED gaming monitor. | Image Credit: Samsung OLED gaming monitors are everywhere at CES 2023, and Samsung’s lineup is no exception. The company revealed the Odyssey G95SC monitor today, a 49-inch model that it claims is the world’s first 32:9 aspect ratio OLED gaming monitor. It also reminded us that its Odyssey 34-inch G8 QD-OLED monitor that debuted in the fall during IFA 2022 will be releasing “very soon.”What sets these two models apart from what LG recently announced is that they use Samsung’s own QD-OLED tech, not LG Display’s latest panels. Below I’ve embedded a sidebar explaining how QD-OLED differs from OLED, but the TL;DR is that it’s able to produce a more contrast-rich picture at higher brightness levels — one of the few limitations of conventional OLED tech.I have a... Continue reading…
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by Chris Welch on (#67DBV)
The ViewFinity has an aluminum stand and enclosure. | Image: Samsung Samsung’s 2023 monitor plans don’t just include Odyssey gaming screens and a new version of its Smart Monitor: the company is also directly coming after Apple and LG with a 27-inch, color-accurate 5K monitor called the ViewFinity S9. Samsung says the 5120x2880 IPS display has a matte finish to reduce glare and covers 99 percent of the DCI-P3 wide color gamut.The ViewFinity S9 will support a wide mix of I/O including HDMI, Thunderbolt 4, USB-C, and DisplayPort. It can charge laptops at up to 96 watts. The S9’s sleek design and metal enclosure are in keeping with Apple’s Studio Display and LG’s higher-end OLED monitors. Unfortunately, I couldn’t get an answer at press time as to whether Samsung’s latest monitor includes local dimming. I’m... Continue reading…
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by Mitchell Clark on (#67DBY)
If you need a new battery, now might be the time. | Photo by Sean Hollister / The Verge Apple is raising the price of getting a new battery installed in most iPhones, iPads, and Macs, starting on March 1st. The company made the announcement on the devices’ repair pages, in small text under its price estimators, which was noticed by 9to5Mac.How much the price hike is depends on what device you have. For iPhones, it’s simple — Apple’s site says “the out-of-warranty battery service fee will be increased by $20 for all iPhone models prior to iPhone 14.” For phones with a home button, that means the price will be going from $49 to $69, and for Face ID phones that means it’ll be going from $69 to $89. Those prices, by the way, were put in place in 2019, after Apple ran a year-long promotion where you could get a new battery for... Continue reading…
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by Andrew J. Hawkins on (#67CRR)
Photo by Andrew J. Hawkins / The Verge As of January 1st, 2023, a bunch of electric vehicles became newly eligible for the $7,500 tax credit, which passed into law as part of the $430 billion Inflation Reduction Act a year ago.Some models new to the list had lost their eligibility when their manufacturer hit the previous credit’s sales cap of 200,000 vehicles (Tesla models, Chevy Bolts). Others have recently shifted their production to North America, meeting one of the crucial requirements (VW ID.4).There’s still a lot in the air right nowThere’s still a lot in the air right now — the Treasury Department has set a March deadline for releasing guidance on some of the thornier issues surrounding battery material sourcing and other rules that could drastically reduce the... Continue reading…
by Emma Roth on (#67CH4)
Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Telegram’s latest update includes an overhauled media editor outfitted with a bunch of new tools to decorate — or conceal — parts of your image or videos. In an update on its blog, Telegram says it’s introducing a new blur tool that lets you block out certain areas of a photo or video, allowing you to hide sensitive information, or blur the faces of passersby who appear in the background.To make the blurred portion of your photo blend in, Telegram says you can use the eyedropper tool to match the color of the blur brush to your image. Additionally, Telegram’s adding a way to change the size, font, and background of text (sort of like Instagram or Snapchat) when adding it to photos or videos. Image: Telegram T... Continue reading…
by Antonio G. Di Benedetto on (#67CH5)
Sony has pioneered many state of the art features in modern cameras, but it still feels like you’re wielding something not quite meant for human hands. There’s only so much that really needs to be said about Sony’s A7R V mirrorless camera. Sony made so many right decisions with this new model, that it’s easily one of the best cameras money can buy right now. The new AI autofocus system is an excellent jump forward. The improved built-in image stabilization is excellent for hand-holding slower shots. The new articulating display is so good it should just be copied by all other manufacturers as soon as possible. And the 61-megapixel sensor yields some of the best image quality you can get today without jumping to medium format — trusting your computer and storage are up to the task of processing these beefy files.But while Sony has made some recent strides to offer quality-of-life... Continue reading…
by Andrew Webster on (#67CEG)
Giancarlo Esposito and Tati Gabrielle in Kaleidoscope. | Image: Netflix On the surface, Kaleidoscope is a straightforward, albeit generic, heist story. It hits all of the beats you’d expect: the revenge-filled backstory, the complex process of finding a team and forming a plan, and the satisfaction of watching that plan unfold. And since Kaleidoscope’s story spans around 25 years, you get plenty of all of those things over the course of its eight episodes. But that’s not what makes the show interesting. Kaleidoscope is also a fascinating experiment, an attempt to tell the kind of drama most viewers are familiar with — but designed so that you can watch episodes in any order. As a nonlinear story, it’s a success — but as a fun crime caper, Kaleidoscope leaves a lot to be desired.The series is centered on Leo... Continue reading…
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by Emma Roth on (#67C3G)
Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Tesla’s accused of violating national labor laws by allegedly telling employees at its Orlando, Florida location not to talk about pay and working conditions, as first reported by Bloomberg. In a complaint filed in September, the National Labor Relations Board’s (NLRB) regional director in Tampa claims Telsa “told employees not to complain to higher level managers about their pay or other conditions of employment” and said “not to discuss their pay with other persons.”The complaint goes on to accuse Tesla of instructing employees not to discuss the hiring, suspension, or termination of employees with others. These incidents occurred from December 2021 to January 2022, the complaint alleges, and violates laws that prevent companies from... Continue reading…
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by Emma Roth on (#67BZ3)
Grubhub has been ordered to pay $3.5 million to settle a lawsuit from the District of Columbia that claims the company misled customers by tacking on hidden fees to their orders. According to a press release, Grubhub must pay $800,000 to DC as a civil penalty, while the remaining $2.7 million “will be paid back to affected customers.”In March, DC Attorney General Karl Racine filed a lawsuit against Grubhub, accusing it of falsely promising “free” online orders to customers, as well as “unlimited free delivery” for those who subscribe to Grubhub Plus. The lawsuit alleges this practice is “deceptive” since Grubhub still takes a service fee for non-pickup orders made by Grubhub Plus customers, and charges both delivery and service fees for... Continue reading…
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by Mitchell Clark on (#67BZ4)
It’s no more. It’s well and truly curtains for 3G, one of the key technologies that helped usher in the age of the smartphone. Throughout December, Verizon has been disconnecting its customers who were still using the tech, cutting off their phones’ ability to use data, make calls, and send texts. It was the last major US carrier to do so — AT&T turned off its 3G service in February, and T-Mobile started winding its old networks down the month after.Verizon customers with 3G devices have had plenty of warning. It previously said the network would be going offline in 2019, but with one delay after another, the date has slowly been pushed back to December 31st, 2022. In the meantime, it’s sent people new, LTE-capable phones, as well as letters... Continue reading…
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by Emma Roth on (#67BWA)
Photo by Tom Warren / The Verge A new leak could confirm rumors that Nvidia’s planning on releasing the “unlaunched” 12GB RTX 4080 graphics card as the RTX 4070 Ti. The company briefly posted the specs for its upcoming RTX 4070 Ti GPU on its website, but Twitter user @momomo_us managed to snag a screenshot before Nvidia pulled the page down.So far, the leaked specs look identical to that of the 12GB RTX 4080, with the chip sporting 7,680 CUDA cores, a 2.61 GHz boost clock, and 12GB of memory. It also says the GPU could run 4K at up to 240Hz or 8K at 60Hz with DSC and HDR, while an included chart indicates that the RTX 4070 Ti could outperform the RTX 3080 by about 3.5 times when playing Cyberpunk 2077 with its new Ray-Tracing: Overdrive mode.
by Alice Newcome-Beill on (#67BSK)
Micha Huigen / The Verge If you’re the proud owner of a shiny new Steam Deck, here are some of The Verge’s favorite games to enjoy on Valve’s handheld. Continue reading…
by Emma Roth on (#67BE4)
Illustration by Nick Barclay / The Verge Meta’s throwing more money into the metaverse with its acquisition of Luxexcel, a Netherlands-based company that specializes in 3D-printing prescription lenses for smart glasses. The news was first reported by Dutch outlet De Tijd (via TechCrunch), but Meta has since confirmed to The Verge that it purchased the company.“We’re excited that the Luxexcel team has joined Meta, deepening the existing partnership between the two companies,” Meta says in a statement provided by Ryan Moore, the company’s head of financial communications. While the terms of the deal are unknown, Meta CTO and Reality Labs head, Andrew Bosworth, revealed in a blog post earlier this month that the company’s pouring “about half” of the metaverse-focused division’s... Continue reading…
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by Emma Roth on (#67BBV)
Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Twitter will soon let you swipe to switch between different views containing recommended and followed tweets, trends, topics, and more. In a tweet, Elon Musk announced that support for the navigation feature will arrive in January.Musk first hinted at the feature earlier this month, noting the “main timeline should allow for an easy sideways swipe between top, latest, trending and topics that you follow.” The platform already lets users swap between a chronological timeline that shows the latest tweets in order, and the Home timeline, which displays recommended tweets, by tapping the stars icon in the upper right corner of the screen.
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by Justine Calma on (#67B8A)
Comet C/2022 E3 (ZTF) was discovered by astronomers using the wide-field survey camera at the Zwicky Transient Facility this year in early March. This fine telescopic image was taken on December 19th. | Dan Bartlett via NASA Here’s something to look forward to in the new year: 2023 could give us a once-in-a-generation chance to see a new comet grace our skies.Stargazers can keep their eyes peeled for Comet C/2022 E3 (ZTF) throughout January and early February, although they’ll need a telescope or binoculars to spot it at first. As the comet races closer to Earth, however, there’s a chance the comet could become visible to the naked eye under dark skies. If that happens, it’ll be the first comet to reveal itself to the unaided eye since NEOWISE passed us by in 2020.This new comet was discovered last March while it was within Jupiter’s orbit. The comet’s current trajectory should bring it closest to the sun by January 12th. On February 2nd, according to... Continue reading…
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by Mitchell Clark on (#67B19)
Photo by Thilina Kaluthotage/NurPhoto via Getty Images The time has come: Dark Sky, the (mostly) beloved weather app for iOS is going to stop working on January 1st, according to in-app warnings. The sunsetting has been in the forecast for a while — Apple announced it was planning on shutting down the service last year after acquiring it in 2020, and it removed Dark Sky from the App Store a few months ago, according to 9to5Mac. But if you’ve been putting off finding a new weather app, now’s the time to finally get around to it.As for what alternatives iPhone users have available (the Android app was axed in 2020), perhaps the most obvious is Apple’s own built-in Weather app. The company even has a support document titled “How Dark Sky users can use the Apple Weather app,” which talks about... Continue reading…
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by Sean Hollister on (#67B1A)
Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge From pirates to spies to kid detectives, it’s a common Hollywood trope: hold a simple spyglass or binoculars up to your eyes, and you’ll get a crystal-clear cylindrical picture of what’s going on.That’s horseshit, of course. Unless you’ve got the hands of a surgeon, it’s surprisingly hard to line up eyeballs, multiple pieces of glass, and a faraway subject. Kid Sean was sad to learn that fact. But I’ll never forget the day Teen Sean pressed the magic button that made all the difference: the button atop the image-stabilized binoculars that Canon still sells today. Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge The binoculars come in many different magnifications, from 8x to 18x, and with varying grades of glass. ... Continue reading…
by Cameron Faulkner on (#67B1B)
Micha Huigen / The Verge There are plenty of great games on Android to play, whether you’re using a phone, tablet, or a dedicated Android handheld. Some of them even work on your Google TV-equipped television with a Bluetooth controller connected. And in 2022, it became much easier to play Xbox and PC games over the cloud if you don’t mind paying a subscription fee to do so.For Android veterans and newcomers alike, jumping into the Google Play Store to find a new game may be overwhelming. (It’s not your fault, the shop’s curation is hard to navigate.) Instead of leaving you alone to find what’s good from the immense selection, we’ve pulled out a couple handfuls of recommendations. All of these games should support touch controls and some may also be compatible... Continue reading…
by Alex Cranz on (#67AZ7)
Micha Huigen / The Verge Apple TV Plus is one of the best bangs for your subscription buck. It started with a limited number of shows back in 2019, but the offerings have steadily increased, the shows that have ended have ended super satisfyingly, and there’s just a whole lot of stuff you can binge on there.The problem is that, unless it’s Ted Lasso, you might have problems finding other people in your friend group to watch these shows with. But there are probably dozens — dozens! — of us watching Apple TV Plus. Below are some of the best shows you can watch. I excluded Ted Lasso from this list because I’m positive you’ve already watched it.SeveranceYou know it’s been a long year when you realize Severance premiered this same year. The show is about people... Continue reading…
by Richard Lawler on (#67AJ3)
A still image from Andrew Tate’s Twitter profile promoting his Hustler’s University program. | Image: Andrew Tate / Twitter Andrew Tate — an “alpha male” influencer / podcaster of sorts who has described himself in videos as “absolutely a misogynist” and has been banned from TikTok, Facebook, and Instagram — and his brother Tristan were detained in Romania by police investigating organized crime, human trafficking, and rape.He was led away from his home in Romania by police one day after his Twitter dustup with young environmental activist Greta Thunberg went viral, as he targeted her with a boast about his 33 cars and their “enormous emissions” while she remained unimpressed by the size. In a now-deleted YouTube video, Tate, who was born in the US and is a British citizen, said “40 percent” of his reason for moving to Romania was “because in Eastern... Continue reading…
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by Mitchell Clark on (#67AFY)
Google says it’s using “advanced artificial intelligence” to determine if a call is legit. | Image: Google Google has announced that it’s adding a red “suspected spam caller” warning to Google Voice calls if it doesn’t think they’re legitimate. In a post on Thursday, the company says it’s identifying spam “using the same advanced artificial intelligence” system as it does with its traditional phone app for Android.If the spam label appears, you’ll also have the option of confirming that a call was spam — in which case any future calls will be sent straight to your voicemail — or clarifying that it wasn’t, which will get rid of the label for future calls.Google Voice has had the ability to automatically filter calls identified as spam to voicemail for years, and has also allowed you to screen calls before actually picking them up, but those... Continue reading…
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by Umar Shakir on (#67AE2)
I just want a rolling battle station. | Image: Tesla Steam, the PC gaming platform, is making its way around town as part of Tesla’s latest holiday update. It fulfills a promise Tesla CEO Elon Musk made almost two years ago: that you’ll be able to play The Witcher 3 using the car’s built-in hardware. But unfortunately for me, I won’t get to play it, and it doesn’t look like there will be any easy path toward upgrading.I have a 2018 Tesla Model 3, and I think I should mention it’s received plenty of upgrades over the years, including overhauled user interface, Autopilot visualizations, streaming apps, and arcade games. But in my car, all of Tesla’s fancy new software is running on the Intel Atom — a processor designed for cheap netbooks from the previous decade (Remember the Eee PC?). So... Continue reading…
by Allison Johnson on (#67ABB)
Alleged renders of the Samsung A34 show a silver, pearlescent color option that’s way more fun than awesome black. | Image: The Tech Outlook A fresh batch of leaked renders allegedly show an upcoming Samsung device in a range of flashy colors. The leak is courtesy of The Tech Outlook (spotted by XDA-Developers) and features the Galaxy A34 with some healthy midrange specs: a 6.5-inch 1080p OLED, 48-megapixel main camera, and an Exynos chipset. But what’s really exciting are the color options: Lime! Purple! Pearlescent! If these renders are accurate, then we could see a more colorful outlook for budget phones in 2023, and it’s about damn time.Sometime in recent history, phone makers decided that people in the US — particularly those on a budget — only wanted black phones. A quick turn through Samsung’s current A-series options shows most models in exactly one color choice:... Continue reading…
by Jess Weatherbed on (#67A8B)
Rejoice gamers: 240Hz OLED gaming monitors are finally a reality, and many are being showcased during CES 2023. | Photo by Cameron Faulkner / The Verge CES 2023 is now just days away, and there’s already a standout category that we’re particularly excited about: 240Hz OLED gaming monitors.Generally speaking, OLED panels can achieve better picture quality and a faster response time than their LED or IPS equivalents but have historically lacked the ability to match them in providing high-refresh rates. There have been some exceptions — such as the Alienware AW3423DW, a QD-OLED running at 175Hz — but now, OLED gaming displays have finally achieved the optimal 240Hz refresh rate prized by gamers who specialize in eSports and FPS titles.There are several 240Hz OLED displays (that we’re aware of) being showcased at the CES 2023 conference. One of the more innovative offerings is the... Continue reading…
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by Justine Calma on (#67A4N)
Crowds watch as Mexican free-tailed bats are released by Mary Warwick, Wildlife Director at Houston Humane Society at the Waugh Bridge Bat Colony in Houston, Texas, on December 28, 2022. | Photo by MARK FELIX/AFP via Getty Images Hundreds of bats rescued from the winter storm that struck the US over the past week were finally able to return to their homes in Texas last night. The bats nearly froze to death as the storm brought a blast of cold Arctic air down to the Lone Star State and much of the continental US.Mexican Free-tailed bats started dropping from their roosts as temperatures dipped below freezingMexican Free-tailed bats started dropping from their roosts as temperatures dipped below freezing on the evening of December 22nd, according to the Houston Humane Society. At one colony under Waugh Bridge in Houston, the tiny bats plummeted 15 to 30 feet to the pavement. Suffering hypothermic shock, the bats might have perished on the pavement. Weighing in... Continue reading…
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by Cameron Faulkner on (#67A4P)
New York governor Kathy Hochul signed the Digital Fair Repair Act on December 28th, 2022, and the law will go into effect on July 1st, 2023 — a full year after it was originally passed by the NY State legislature. The bill establishes that consumers and independent repair providers have a right to obtain manuals, diagrams, diagnostics and parts from original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) in order to repair their own devices. However, the bill was meaningfully compromised at the last minute by amendments that give OEMs some convenient exceptions and loopholes to get out of obligations that many right to repair advocates had been hoping for.One of the most controversial adjustments in the signed law is that it allows OEMs to sell... Continue reading…
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by Sheena Vasani on (#67A30)
LG’s Gram 16 laptop is on sale for $799 at BuyDig. | Image: LG If you’re tired of constantly relying on a second monitor or resizing windows for work because your laptop’s screen isn’t spacious enough, today’s deal on LG’s latest Gram 16 is one you’ll want to consider. Regularly $1,396.99, you can currently buy it with 16GB of RAM, 512GB of storage, and an Intel i5-1240P processor for just $799 from BuyDig until December 31st.This is the 16-inch version of LG’s new Gram 17 we reviewed in October, which is our favorite laptop for fans of big screens. While this model’s display is one inch smaller, both still share a large, high-resolution screen so you can easily open up multiple windows and apps. Yet despite its size, the laptop’s also light enough to carry around while traveling or commuting.... Continue reading…
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by Chris Welch on (#67A31)
Photo by Becca Farsace / The Verge I can’t be the only one that’s had this experience: I’ll be passing time scrolling through my Instagram feed when all of a sudden, my iPhone’s screen cranks the brightness up to 11 for a random video clip or reel. It’s worse if you’re in a dark environment or dimly lit bar when this happens because these bursts ignore your brightness settings and can get pretty unpleasant for your eyes.The reason this happens is that people are increasingly sharing HDR (high dynamic range) videos on social platforms — whether they know it or not — and when your fancy smartphone plays them, the display goes into overdrive to showcase, in Apple’s words, the “true-to-life color and contrast” made possible by HDR. But the thing you’ll notice most of all,... Continue reading…
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by Andrew Webster on (#67A0S)
Micha Huigen / The Verge There are plenty of good games to download right now in Apple’s regular App Store — hello, Marvel Snap — but the fact remains that if you’re going to play on your iPhone or iPad regularly, Apple Arcade is the best deal. For $4.99, you get unlimited access to a growing library that now includes not only exclusives like Fantasian but also many of the best releases from the iPhone’s gaming glory days. And none of the games feature ads or microtransactions, so you can just enjoy them without having to worry about forking out extra cash.Since its debut in 2019, the library of games has steadily expanded, and Apple has settled into a nice rhythm of releasing a game almost every week. Here are the eight best additions to the service from 2022.... Continue reading…
by Victoria Song on (#67A0T)
Micha Huigen / The Verge HBO Max, as we currently know it, is not long for this world. In 2023, the app will merge with Discovery Plus, and that’ll become its own thing. But that’s later. Now is the time to catch up on all the shows from the past year before the inevitably messy transition begins.The premium network has a little bit of everything for everyone. There are stripped-down stand-up specials, screwball dramedies, irreverent animated series, CGI dragons, and everything in between. It’s a lot to take in at once. Lucky for you, we’ve compiled a handy list of shows to get you started.HacksHacks is a series about an unlikely pair of comediennes — a legendary stand-up diva in need of a new act and a young, disgraced TV writer trying to salvage her... Continue reading…
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by Patrick George on (#679VK)
Remember when this guy was in charge of a car company? | Photo by FREDERIC J. BROWN/AFP via Getty Images Layoffs, lawsuits, delays, Twitter chaos, stock in free fall, factory shutdowns — What happened to America’s favorite electric car company? Continue reading…
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by Jess Weatherbed on (#679VM)
India is following in the EU’s footsteps and will require all mobile devices to support USB-C charging by 2025. The country is also looking into a standardized charger for wearables. | Photo by Vlad Savov / The Verge Mobile devices in India will be required to adopt USB Type-C as the standard charging port for electronic products by March 2025, according to a report by Business Standard. This follows similar legislation being passed by the European Union which requires new smartphones and other portable devices sold within the EU to use USB-C charging by December 28th, 2024 in a move meant to combat e-waste.The Indian government is also exploring the possibility of enforcing a standardized charger for wearables such as smartwatches and fitness trackers. “The government will come up with two common types of charging ports for mobiles and wearable electronic devices,” said Rohit Kumar Singh, Secretary to the Department of Consumer Affairs. No details... Continue reading…
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by Jess Weatherbed on (#679SW)
The Samsung Bespoke Refrigerator Family Hub Plus features a large vertically-oriented touchscreen display, ideal for making shopping lists and watching TikTok content. | Image: Samsung Samsung has unveiled the Bespoke Refrigerator Family Hub Plus, a fancy name for its latest fridge with a built-in touchscreen display. At 32 inches, it features a much larger display than the 21.5-inch screen found on previous generations of the Samsung Family Hub refrigerators, which can be used to control SmartThings-compatible smart home devices, display Google Photos images, make digital shopping lists for Amazon delivery, and watch videos.Introduced via a Korean-language press release, the Family Hub Plus includes the free Samsung TV Plus service, allowing users to watch 190 TV channels in the US or around 80 channels in South Korea via the Samsung TV Plus app. The display’s vertical orientation also makes it suitable for watching... Continue reading…
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by Mitchell Clark on (#679FX)
Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Twitter appears to be recovering after users spent hours on Wednesday evening reporting various errors, with the app and site throwing up errors about exceeded rate limits, failing to fetch new tweets, or appearing to be completely broken.DownDetector.com showed a spike of around 10,000 outage reports noted for Twitter, with reports starting just after 7:30PM ET. By around 10:30PM ET, that number had dropped to less than 1,000 reports.It’s unclear what caused the issues — the Twitter Support account hasn’t mentioned the glitchiness, though, at around midnight ET, Musk tweeted that the company had rolled out “significant backend server architecture changes” to make the site feel faster.It’s possible the downtime was caused by some... Continue reading…
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by Mitchell Clark on (#679AX)
Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge Last week, just before Christmas, LastPass dropped a bombshell announcement: as the result of a breach in August, which lead to another breach in November, hackers had gotten their hands on users’ password vaults. While the company insists that your login information is still secure, some cybersecurity experts are heavily criticizing its post, saying that it could make people feel more secure than they actually are and pointing out that this is just the latest in a series of incidents that make it hard to trust the password manager.LastPass’ December 22nd statement was “full of omissions, half-truths and outright lies,” reads a blog post from Wladimir Palant, a security researcher known for helping originally develop AdBlock Pro, among... Continue reading…
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by Sheena Vasani on (#679AY)
Image: Amazon Amazon is now delivering orders by drones in California and Texas with the aim to ultimately fly out packages to customers’ homes within an hour, Ars Technica reports.The retail giant’s drone delivery service, Amazon Prime Air, already dropped a small number of packages via drone in the backyards of customers in the run-up to Christmas in Lockeford, California, and College Station, Texas.“Our aim is to safely introduce our drones to the skies. We are starting in these communities and will gradually expand deliveries to more customers over time,” Amazon Air spokesperson Natalie Banke told KTXL Fox 40.The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) gave Amazon Part 135 approval to send packages by drone in 2020, as well as filing Final... Continue reading…
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by Umar Shakir on (#6795F)
The new beta version of Waze, shown running in Israel, turns roads red if it has a history of crashes. | Screenshot by Geektime Waze is one of the preferred navigation apps for many due to its live community-driven traffic incident information — but what if the app warned you where a crash could likely occur? A new beta version of the Google-owned app, as reported by Israeli tech news site Geektime, can alert users about roads that have statistically high crash occurrences based on Waze community data.While using this new beta version of Waze, nearby roads deemed to be high-risk are colored red on the map. Although, Geektime points out that it may not do this for roads that the user often travels on. The feature also only pushes just one pop-up notification about the dangerous roads around the driver, perhaps in an effort to keep precaution from turning into... Continue reading…
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by Mitchell Clark on (#6795G)
Image: Disney Disney will release a documentary about comic book titan Stan Lee in 2023 as an original title for its Disney Plus streaming service. In a Marvel.com post, the company said the news is being announced today because it would’ve been his 100th birthday (Lee died in 2018 at the age of 95).Lee famously had cameos in pretty much every Marvel Cinematic Universe movie, some of which are shown in Disney’s announcement trailer. Of course, before the movies, he was known as the person who helped write the stories they were based on; Disney’s post lists him as the co-creator of characters like Spider-Man, Iron Man, Thor, Black Widow, Scarlet Witch, Ant-Man, and the Avengers.Disney has often used its streaming service to release content that ties... Continue reading…
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by Justine Calma on (#6795H)
A man walks towards a bus station as heatwave hits London, United Kingdom on August 14, 2022. | Photo by Rasid Necati Aslim/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images 2022 will go down as the warmest year in the books yet in the UK, according to provisional figures from the Met Office national weather service. A record-smashing summer heatwave was the burning cherry on top of 11 months of unusually toasty weather in the UK.That makes this year the hottest across the UK since annual record-keeping began 139 years ago. Zooming in on England specifically, 2022 will also top the list of warmest years in the world’s oldest instrumental record of temperature — the Central England temperature series that started 364 years ago.Records set this year might not hold for very longUnfortunately, because of climate change, the records set this year might not hold for very long. The UK’s top ten warmest years... Continue reading…
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by Ariel Shapiro on (#6795K)
Kristen Radtke / The Verge; Getty Images I hope you all had a happy holiday weekend and, with any luck, are off this week. Last week, I dug into the wonky, rocky economic outlook for podcasting in 2023. This week, I am keeping it light (plus, nothing much happens in the liminal space between Christmas and New Years, anyway).There have been a number of thorough, expert rankings of the top podcasts of the year – this is not one of them. This is a purely subjective list of episodes I really enjoyed during my free time that had nothing to do with writing this newsletter. If your taste is anything like mine, I hope you like them, too.Normal Gossip, “Steampunk-Ass Murder Mystery”I am not original, and like most people connected in some way to the podcasting industry, I am... Continue reading…
by Jess Weatherbed on (#67920)
An internal memo from the US House of Representatives has ordered staff to delete the TikTok app from mobile devices issued by the House. | Illustration by Nick Barclay / The Verge The US House of Representatives has ordered staff to delete TikTok from any House-issued mobile phones, according to an internal memo obtained by NBC News. The directive was reportedly issued by Catherine L Szpindor, the chief administrative officer of the House, and also bans the popular social media app from being downloaded on House-issued devices going forward.The CAO’s Office of Cybersecurity believes TikTok to be a “high risk to users” due to a lack of transparency regarding how its Chinese parent company, ByteDance, handles customer data. “House staff are NOT allowed to download the TikTok app on any House mobile devices,” the memo said. “If you have the TikTok app on your House mobile device, you will be contacted to remove it.”... Continue reading…
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by Chris Welch on (#67921)
Just click behind the notch and you’ll get a webcam preview. | Image: Hand Mirror We’ve covered Hand Mirror before. It’s a simple, free Mac utility that lives in your menu bar. Whenever you click it, you see a small preview of your selfie camera. If you’re prepping for a video call with colleagues or just want to check how disheveled you appear to other coffee shop goers at 8AM, it’s a perfect little tool.Hand Mirror’s developer Rafael Conde recently introduced a paid add-on to the app that unlocks some bonus features. (The main video preview feature is still completely free and works as well as ever.) One of those new tricks — called “notch trigger” — caught my eye. When enabled, Hand Mirror will bring up the selfie camera preview whenever you click behind the notch area on Apple’s 14-inch and 16-inch MacBook Pros... Continue reading…
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by Alice Newcome-Beill on (#678XW)
Micha Huigen / The Verge Although the tech surrounding VR headsets has stagnated somewhat, there are still plenty of fantastic titles that make great use of the technology available, and we’ve chosen some of our favorites for you to try now and over the coming year. You might notice that several of our top picks are a bit long in the tooth, but we still consider them to be some of the best experiences for the greatest variety of headsets — that is, until the release of the PlayStation VR 2 in February.While there are plenty of options for enjoying VR, the Meta Quest 2 remains the most popular by far, even with this year’s $100 price hike and the release of the Meta Quest Pro. As a result, that is the headset that we used to try out all the games listed... Continue reading…
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by Cameron Faulkner on (#678XX)
Sony calls this color of the XM5s “silver,” but they appear as off-white in person. | Photo by Chris Welch / The Verge Previous price cuts on Sony’s WH-1000XM5 over-ear, noise-canceling headphones took off $50 or so, but this new one at Amazon is a whopping $121 off (note: your purchase will ship in mid-January). Whether you’re keeping track or not, this is the biggest price cut to date. Today’s deal is on the silver (more like off-white) color scheme only, which may be a disappointment if you prefer black. However, you’d be smart to try to get a price match from a different retailer, which may help you get the color you want, and get it from a store where you might have some holiday gift cards to spend. We have a whole article with all of the price-matching details.At $279, you won’t find a set of headphones that are better than the XM5 at drowning... Continue reading…
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by Barbara Krasnoff on (#678XY)
Micha Huigen / The Verge Amazon started out as a bookseller in the 1990s before developing into the commercial behemoth it is today. One of the features it uses to encourage membership is its Prime video service, which features original series and movies along with existing shows and films that it has made available. And no matter what your opinion is of Amazon, it’s hard to argue against the idea that some of its Prime productions are pretty impressive.If you’re looking for something to stream during the holiday season — or after — and you have a Prime membership, here are some suggestions that you may want to try out.Night SkyNight Sky is one of the best least-known science fiction series around. The eight episodes star Sissy Spacek and J.K. Simmons as... Continue reading…
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by Andrew J. Hawkins on (#678TR)
Photo by Kelsey McClellan for The Verge Will car prices start to stabilize? Which startups will go bust? What will happen with the Cybertruck? Will this be the year of the cargo bike? Our experts offered their predictions on these topics and more. Continue reading…
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by Jess Weatherbed on (#678TS)
An update for the Aqara M2 smart home hub (pictured far left) was initially planned for December 2022, but has since been delayed until 2023. | Photo by Thomas Ricker / The Verge A free Matter software update for the Aqara M2 smart home hub has been delayed until January 2023. A statement from an Aqara representative to HomeKit Authority claims that the maker of affordable smart home devices “needed more time to ensure the customer experience was right.”The update will make over 40 of Aqara’s existing Zigbee devices Matter compatible and was originally scheduled to roll out sometime in December 2022. While the short delay may be disappointing, it may not be a bad thing — our own early review of the Matter smart home network saw mixed results regarding connectivity and setup, so a bit more time in the oven couldn’t hurt.There’s no word if the delay impacts Aqara’s overall timeline for its transition to Matter.... Continue reading…
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by Jess Weatherbed on (#678S6)
Image: Arduboy | The Verge The Arduboy Mini is the latest Game Boy-inspired handheld game console from creator Kevin Bates, the man behind the original Arduino-based 8-bit Arduboy. Measuring in at around two quarters in length (as shown in Gizmodo’s early review), this tiny gaming handheld offers many of the same benefits as the larger Arduboy despite its compact size, such as an OLED display, hundreds of open-source games, and an exposed design that encourages users to explore hardware hacking and coding.In fact, tinkering is so encouraged that the Arduboy Mini doesn’t come with a speaker or a battery built-in. Instead, the gadget comes with clearly labeled solder contacts for both a battery and speaker located on the exposed rear of the device. Otherwise, the... Continue reading…
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by Mitchell Clark on (#678G9)
Image: Getty Old US military equipment being sold on eBay contained what appears to be biometric data from troops, known terrorists, and people who may have worked with American forces in Afghanistan and other countries in the Middle East, according to a report from The New York Times. The devices were purchased by a group of hackers, who found fingerprints, iris scans, peoples’ pictures, and descriptions, all unencrypted and protected by a “well-documented” default password. In a blog post, the hackers called getting at the sensitive data “downright boring,” given how easy it was to read, copy, and analyze.Matthias Marx, who lead the group’s efforts in researching the devices, doesn’t think that the data itself is boring, though, calling the fact... Continue reading…
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