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by Victoria Song on (#67334)
Mobvoi is just the latest wearable company to start charging users for “premium” features. | Photo by Victoria Song / The Verge One thing that’s guaranteed to rile up consumers? Tacking on a monthly fee where there was once none. Mobvoi, which is known for making affordable Wear OS smartwatches, is the latest to join the subscription bandwagon. The company will start rolling out new sleep features to its TicWatch lineup this week, but if you want ‘em all, it’ll cost you $4.99 a month.In a tweet, Mobvoi announced the new features would include sleep aid songs, AI sleep insights like sleep cycle reminders, historical sleep data, and more sleep-related metrics like maximum and minimum heart rate and SpO2. Of these new features, in-depth data like SpO2, min / max heart rate, and sleep trends will be available to subscribers only. Members will also get 50 sleep aid... Continue reading…
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| Updated | 2024-11-27 16:15 |
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by Victoria Song on (#67335)
Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Netflix is taking a page from Peloton’s playbook. Starting December 30th, you’ll be able to stream classes from Nike Training Club on the platform. In total, Netflix subscribers will have access to 30 hours of content in multiple languages and exercises.For the uninitiated, Nike Training Club is a popular fitness app where users can take strength, yoga, and high-intensity interval training led by Nike trainers. It’s geared toward improving your strength, endurance, and mobility across all fitness levels. While some classes require equipment, many don’t. It’s very much in the vein of Apple Fitness Plus or Peloton, albeit without any Nike-branded hardware.According to Netflix, the episodes will be released in two batches. While the... Continue reading…
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by Jay Peters on (#67336)
The fine would be the FCC’s largest ever. | Photo by Chris Welch / The Verge The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is proposing a $299,997,000 fine against a massive auto warranty scam robocall campaign, the agency announced on Wednesday. The fine, which would be the FCC’s largest ever, targets a huge operation; in just three months in 2021, it made more than 5 billion calls to more than a half-billion phone numbers using just over 1 million caller ID numbers. As the FCC put it, that’s “enough calls to have called each person in the United States 15 times during just those three months.”According to the FCC, the operation is run by Roy Cox Jr. and Michael Aaron Jones via “their Sumco Panama company, other domestic and foreign entities, and a host of international cohorts located in Panama and Hungary... Continue reading…
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by Alice Newcome-Beill on (#67337)
Samsung used nostalgia trip. It’s super effective. | Image: Samsung Samsung is launching a new line of Pokémon-themed accessories on December 26th for its Galaxy Buds, Z Flip 4, as well as the Galaxy Watch 4 & 5. The collection is mostly what you would expect, with a new strap for the Galaxy Watch and a themed case for the Z Flip 4, but the real star of the show, however, is the case for the Galaxy Buds, which just looks like a poké ball.This case was initially made available in limited quantities for South Korean markets and was priced around $105 USD. This new lineup, though, will be available globally and won’t cost nearly as much. Image: Samsung The poké ball case also comes with a small lanyard The case is perfectly round, save for a small flat edge on the bottom that... Continue reading…
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by Mitchell Clark on (#67338)
And they come in 27 and 31.5-inch varieties. | Image: Lenovo Lenovo has announced two 4K monitors using Mini LED tech, and they seem like very interesting choices for someone who wants a nice display but won’t be doing any hardcore gaming. The 27-inch ThinkVision P27pz-30 and 31.5-inch P32pz-30 come packed with 1,152 dimming zones, a bevy of ports, and even the potentially unprecedented ability to send 140W of power to a laptop — and despite the high price points of many Mini LED monitors, they’re both expected to cost well under $2,000 when they arrive in August 2023.You can connect to the monitors with a single USB-C cable, which Lenovo’s press release says can handle “40Gbps of data and video transfer.” That’s plenty for a 4K monitor running at 60Hz — in fact, Lenovo says you can even... Continue reading…
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by Alice Newcome-Beill on (#66VF6)
You can still gift the Apple Watch Series 8 in time for Christmas. | Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge The holiday shopping window is closing fast, but there’s still time to pick up a few things that will arrive in time for your favorite nondenominational gift exchange. Whether you’re looking for stocking stuffers or still have a few names on your list you need to cross off, we’ve rounded up our favorite fire-and-forget gift ideas for all the procrastinators out there.The collection we’ve put together here includes small-ish gifts that will travel well, like the Apple Watch Series 8, as well as presents that don’t even need to be gift-wrapped, such as a subscription to Xbox Game Pass Ultimate. If you’re looking for more gift suggestions, our deals team has also put together a vast selection of thoughtful ideas for everyone on your... Continue reading…
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by Andrew Webster on (#672Z2)
Image: Netflix Current AI concerns revolve mostly around art and chatbots, but in the future of Jung_E, things are a little more intense. The first teaser for the sci-fi film features a company called Kronoid Lab introducing what it describes as the “most advanced AI combat warrior.” We don’t actually get to see it in action — it’s just a brief teaser, after all — but it seems pretty clear that things aren’t going to go as planned. I mean, this is the premise:
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by Adi Robertson on (#672TP)
Twitter has gotten just a little chaotic lately, and several of us here at The Verge are exploring the alternatives. One of the more popular options so far is Mastodon, a decentralized microblogging (yes, I will call the Twitter format “microblogging” till my dying day) network that’s exploded since November. It’s a service with lots of rough edges, but it’s gotten more useful as some of my favorite Twitter accounts have jumped ship.The Verge doesn’t have an official Mastodon presence right now, but we’ve gotten requests for a list of individual members to follow on the platform. So here’s a collection of Verge staff active to varying degrees on Mastodon; we’ll update it periodically as people join.
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by The Verge Staff on (#672TQ)
Micha Huigen / The Verge Nobody can say that 2022 was an uneventful year. But if you wanted to escape reality occasionally by playing a really great game, enjoying a fantastic movie, or marathoning an exciting series, there were plenty of options to be found.Now that the end of the year is approaching, we thought we’d share our recommendations and thoughts from 2022. We’ve got roundups of our favorite movies and series from Netflix, Disney Plus, Amazon Prime, and a variety of other streaming services, along with our best-loved games for the Switch, Xbox, PC, and other devices. We also offer our thoughts on some of the best and worst tech that the year brought — including that strange phenomenon known as crypto — and an account of some of the most exciting space... Continue reading…
by Victoria Song on (#672TS)
Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge We may have reviewed the Apple Watch Ultra back in September, but you didn’t think we were done, did you? The $799 Ultra was billed as the Apple Watch for outdoor adventurers and triathletes. So we spent the last three months devising a series of mini-reviews targeting several of the Ultra’s marquee features.For starters, we wanted to see how well the Ultra’s revamped Compass app and 86db emergency siren worked on an off-the-grid hike. So, my colleagues Becca Farsace and Vjeran Pavic got lost with the Ultra in Yosemite National Park to test the limits of the Ultra’s navigational capabilities and its Backtrack feature. Plus, we pitted the Ultra’s Siren against a $4 safety whistle to see which had the wider range.While I got to splash... Continue reading…
by Monica Chin on (#672TR)
Illustration by Micha Huigen / The Verge It has been difficult to find great laptops this year. That’s partially because 2022 has been a bit of a building year for some companies, especially on the consumer side. It’s also because of the Intel P-series.I reviewed a number of laptops in 2022 across consumer, workstation, gaming, business, Chromebook, and everywhere else. I touched all of the major brands. But I had a particular focus on ultraportables this year — that is, thin and light devices that people buy to use, say, on their couch at home — because, with Apple’s MacBooks in such a dominant position, many eyes have been on their competitors on the Windows side.For many of these models, I found myself writing the same review over and over and over. They were generally... Continue reading…
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by Sheena Vasani on (#672RB)
LG’s brilliant C2 OLED is on sale in the 42-inch configuration for just $796.99 right now. | Image: LG We may be only a few days out from Christmas, but you still have time to save on popular presents without paying extra for expedited shipping. Right now, for example, you can buy LG’s 42-inch C2 OLED at Amazon, Best Buy, B&H Photo, and Target for around $797 ($500 off), which eclipses the TV’s previous low.The C2 is a terrific 4K TV that touts many of its predecessor’s impressive specs, like a speedy 120Hz refresh rate, Dolby Vision support, and variable refresh rate with AMD FreeSync Premium and Nvidia G-Sync. At the same time, it boasts better performance and a brighter display than the prior C1 model, not to mention great contrast and the kind of black levels for which OLED is known. It even touts a few new features, including the... Continue reading…
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by Justine Calma on (#672RC)
Illustration by Micha Huigen / The Verge Lawmakers cracked down on the industry’s greenhouse gas emissions, and one major cryptocurrency cleaned up its emissions big time. Continue reading…
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by Jess Weatherbed on (#672MA)
Users will need to unlock the ability to write notes by increasing their “Rating Impact,” a ranking system that indicates how often a contributor has rated other notes on the platform. | Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Twitter has announced that its recently released Community Notes feature will now require all contributors to rate a sufficient number of notes before they can unlock the ability to write notes themselves.Rating notes on the platform will increase a user’s “Rating Impact,” a ranking system that reflects how often a contributor’s ratings have helped notes to be identified as “Helpful” or “Not Helpful” by the Twitter community. The ability to write Community Notes will be unlocked when a contributor has achieved a Rating Impact of at least five. Notes in need of ratings can be found under the “Needs your help” section of Community Notes in order to boost your Rating Impact.
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by Andrew Marino on (#672M9)
Illustration by Kristen Radtke / The Verge Happy holidays! Here is our gift for you: over an hour of audio content dedicated to Bluetooth.If you’re lucky this holiday season, you may be given a brand-new phone, tablet, or gadget equipped with the short-range wireless standard we’ve dealt with for decades. Though it has improved significantly since its introduction in 1998, it still has a lot of room to grow. Will Bluetooth get better next year? That’s the impetus for today’s Vergecast.Naturally, we start the show with a game. The Verge’s Nilay Patel, Alex Cranz, and Chris Welch sit in for a round of Bluetooth Jeopardy! — hosted by senior editor Sean Hollister. We’ll refresh your mind on the basics of Bluetooth and perhaps teach you a few interesting facts too. How well do... Continue reading…
by Allison Johnson on (#672MB)
Micha Huigen / The Verge I had the privilege of using lots of incredible new phones in 2022, packed with the latest hardware and capable of impressive performance. But there’s one app I turned to again and again when I was using each of those devices, and it’s far from new or cutting-edge: Google Maps.As in-person events (both professional and personal) resumed over the course of the year, I found myself with a lot more opportunities to get out of the house. From navigating unfamiliar transit systems to finding toddler-friendly playgrounds, Google Maps was the app I opened up when it was time to go somewhere. But even beyond that, Google Maps has become more than a “get me from point A to point B” service. It’s become a kind of everything app for me, and I’ve... Continue reading…
by Jon Porter on (#672J7)
Illustration by Nick Barclay / The Verge Only nine percent of new Netflix subscribers in the US opted for the streaming service’s new ad-supported streaming tier last month, according to data from analytics firm Antenna. That’s compared to the 15 percent of new signups that reportedly opted for competitor HBO Max’s ad-supported subscription during its launch month in 2021. Netflix’s “Basic with Ads” plan launched on November 3rd at $6.99 a month, compared to between $9.99 and $19.99 per month for an ad-free subscription.The figures aren’t surprising after Digiday reported that Netflix has returned money to advertisers after failing to meet viewership guarantees by as much as 20 percent. But the new data is more evidence that Netflix’s transition from a solely subscription... Continue reading…
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by Jess Weatherbed on (#672J8)
Starlink terminals have provided essential satellite internet service to Ukraine as the Russian invasion targets Ukraine’s communications infrastructure. | Photo by Metin Aktas/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images Ukraine’s deputy prime minister Mykhailo Fedorov has announced that over 10,000 additional Starlink terminals will be sent to Ukraine in the coming months, confirming that issues regarding how to fund the country’s critical satellite internet service have been resolved.The governments of several European Union countries are ready to share payment said Fedorov (who is also Ukraine’s minister for digital transformation) in an interview with Bloomberg, affirming that “As of now all financial issues have been resolved.” Fedorov did not publicly identify which governments are contributing towards the payments but confirmed that there’s currently no contract in place and that Ukraine will need to find additional funding by spring 2023. ... Continue reading…
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by Jon Porter on (#672EJ)
A close up of the Raspberry Pi logo on a Pi 3 Model B. | Photo by Olly Curtis/Future via Getty Images The twinned impacts of the pandemic and subsequent supply chain problems mean that Raspberry Pi is unlikely to update its flagship miniature computer next year, its CEO Eben Upton has said. Upton made the comments during an interview with Explaining Computers (via Ars Technica), in which he referred to 2023 as a “recovery year” for the company.“Don’t expect a Pi 5 next year. Next year is a recovery year,” the CEO said. “There’s merit, I think, in us spending a year before we look at introducing anything new, spending a year recovering from what just happened to all of us.”“Next year is a recovery year”While there have been supply chain problems across much of the technology sector, Raspberry Pi has been a particularly high profile... Continue reading…
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by Mitchell Clark on (#6724G)
Instead, he’ll run other teams at the company. | Kristen Radtke / The Verge; Getty Images Elon Musk said Tuesday that he’ll still be in charge of Twitter’s software and server teams after he resigns his CEO seat to “someone foolish enough to take” it. He broke the news in a response to a poll he ran earlier this week, where around 58 percent of respondents said that he should step down as CEO.Given that the social networking site is mainly made up of software and servers (especially after the massive layoffs), it’s clear Musk will still have direct control over the company, even if he doesn’t have the explicit CEO title. That’s not necessarily a surprise; Musk has de-facto control over product at most of his companies, and he’s still Twitter’s owner at the end of the day. But the announcement likely means disappointment for... Continue reading…
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by Jay Peters on (#6724H)
George Hotz is moving on from his Twitter internship. | Photo by Michael Zelenko / The Verge George Hotz, known for being the first person to carrier-unlock an iPhone and jailbreaking the PS3, both under his hacker alias “geohot,” has resigned from his Twitter internship, he announced Tuesday evening on Twitter.“Appreciate the opportunity, but didn’t think there was any real impact I could make there,” he wrote. He also said it was “sad” to see his GitHub “withering.”
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by Sean Hollister on (#67228)
Image: Eufy On the last episode of “Will Anker ever tell us what’s actually going on with its security cameras rather than lying and covering its tracks,” we told you how Eufy’s customer support team is now quietly providing some of the answers to the questions that the company had publicly ignored about its smart home camera security.Now, Anker is finally taking a stab at a public explanation, in a new blog post titled “To our eufy Security Customers and Partners.” Unfortunately, it contains no apology, and doesn’t begin to address why anyone would be able to view an unencrypted stream in VLC Media Player on the other side of the country, from a supposedly always-local, always-end-to-end-encrypted camera.What it does contain is a clear... Continue reading…
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by Patrick George on (#67229)
Photo by Andrew J. Hawkins / The Verge Besides its more obvious stated goal of reducing inflation, the Biden administration’s Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) was designed to force profound changes in the electric vehicle market. The legislation revises EV tax credit rules as it seeks to build up domestic battery manufacturing so that the US doesn’t cede the supply chain to China.It’s also profoundly confusing, hinging new EV tax credits not just on where the cars are built but also where batteries are assembled and where battery materials are sourced from. These rules were all supposed to take effect on January 1st, 2023 — that’s next weekend for anyone keeping track.Now, however, it’s going to take a little longer for all of the new provisions to be in place. On Monday,... Continue reading…
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by Verge Staff on (#65J7N)
Photography by Joel Goldberg for The Verge Check out our top gift ideas for the tech-savvy and non-techies alike. Continue reading…
by Andrew J. Hawkins on (#6722A)
Kristen Radtke / The Verge; Getty Images Police are looking to question a member of Elon Musk’s security team after he allegedly hit the car of a person who Musk later claimed was a threat to his family.The December 13th incident took place at around 9:51PM on the 700 block of Mission Street in Pasadena, California, according to a police report. The victim, who is only identified as a 29-year-old from Connecticut, was the only one at the scene when the police arrived.The Connecticut man said that he had exited the 110 freeway and stopped to use his telephone when another car “pulled directly in front of him, blocking his path,” the police report states. The driver exited the car and accused the Connecticut man of following him on the freeway. Both men apparently recorded... Continue reading…
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by Mitchell Clark on (#6722B)
Photo by Dan Seifert / The Verge Two men have been accused of hacking into Ring doorbells and using their cameras to livestream swatting attacks, according to the Department of Justice. Kya Christian Nelson, 21, James Thomas Andrew McCarty, 20, and unnamed others allegedly spent a week using stolen Yahoo email addresses and passwords to access video from a dozen security systems before calling the police to each residence, according to the indictment, which you can read below.The DOJ says the scheme worked like this: the alleged perpetrators would get the info for the Yahoo accounts and then figure out if the owner also had a Ring account. If they did, Nelson, McCarty, and the others would allegedly “gather information” about the people before calling the police on... Continue reading…
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by Allison Johnson on (#671Z6)
The Pixel 7 used the same camera sensor as the previous generation, but that might be changing. | Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge The Pixel 8 is a long ways off, but some snippets of camera app code identified by developer Kuba Wojciechowski are giving us an early glimpse into what Google might be planning. The code in question refers to “staggered HDR,” which isn’t a technique that Google’s Pixel camera currently uses. The company was one of the first to refine mobile HDR and computational photography, taking them mainstream. Now, it appears to be evolving its tech for the next generation in a significant way.Staggered HDR is a method of capturing short and long exposures of scenes nearly simultaneously. Google currently employs HDR Plus Bracketing, which takes individual photos in rapid succession and uses them to create a final image with a wide dynamic range —... Continue reading…
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by Ariel Shapiro on (#671Z7)
Illustration by Samar Haddad / The Verge A very happy holidays to you all! The news is slow, and the food is fried. I made the best latkes of my life (of anyone’s life?) this weekend and also ate four Peter Pan jelly donuts in the span of 24 hours. It really is the most wonderful time of year.On that note, we have a modified Hot Pod schedule for the next two weeks. We’ll have a Thursday issue for HP Insiders and be off Friday. Next week, we’ll only be publishing on Wednesday. And I am not saying that I hope you don’t read any of them, but I do hope you take some well-deserved time with loved ones and away from the internet.Today, Spotify flirts with an Anchor rebrand, and Angela Merkel loves true crime. Who knew?Anchor may be getting a rebrandSpotify simply loves a user... Continue reading…
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by Verge Staff on (#66PYZ)
Photography by Joel Goldberg for The Verge From toddler-friendly tech to analog items that have stood the test of time, we’ve collected a host of gift ideas fit for kids of all ages. Continue reading…
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by Mitchell Clark on (#671Z8)
Who doesn’t like free Wi-Fly? | Photo by Urbanandsport/NurPhoto via Getty Images Delta Air Lines is reportedly planning to make in-flight Wi-Fi free on a “significant portion” of its planes starting early next year, according to a report from The Wall Street Journal. The company has reportedly been running tests where anyone who’s a member of its free-to-join SkyMiles rewards program gets free access to the internet while in the air, but it seems as if that perk may become much more widely available soon.Delta is expected to roll out the free Wi-Fi to an increasing number of planes in its fleet throughout 2023, according to the Journal. If it does, it could solve one of the major pain points of trying to stay connected while flying: inconsistency — not in the sense that in-flight Wi-Fi can often be unreliable or... Continue reading…
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by Chris Welch on (#671TY)
Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge Apple’s self-service repair program has just been expanded to include the company’s lineup of M1-powered desktop Macs. As noted by Six Colors, customers in the US can now order genuine repair parts for the iMac, Mac Mini, and Mac Studio. The Studio Display has also been added to the program.You can browse the collection of repair manuals for all of these products on Apple’s website; in fact, you must go through the manual if you want to take advantage of the self-service repair program.The program is only recommended for people comfortable with carrying out these repairs, which involve dozens of steps, require the use of advanced tools, and can be very time-consuming. If you’re not intimidated by what you see in the manuals, the cost... Continue reading…
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by Jay Peters on (#671TZ)
Image: Krafton PUBG Mobile’s latest major addition isn’t a new weapon, map, or crossover but an entire music label made just for the game. The new label is called “Beat Drop,” and while that’s an admittedly clever pun, we still don’t know much about what it will actually mean for artists or players.Big live service games are increasingly using in-game music to encourage players to hop in. PUBG Mobile hosted its first virtual concert this year with the K-pop girl group Blackpink. Roblox has hosted concerts with artists like Royal Blood and Lil Nas X. Fortnite is famous for its elaborate in-game shows featuring people as big as Marshmello and Ariana Grande, and the game even lets you listen to real-world music when you hop in a car and flip on the... Continue reading…
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by Ash Parrish on (#671V0)
Image: Blizzard From now until January 3rd, Overwatch 2 players can get a pretty sweet (heh) Gingerbread Bastion skin for the low, low, low price of one Overwatch coin. While the skin is yet another example of the Overwatch design team really nailing it, players might find themselves balking at the price. Not because it’s so cheap but because the offer seems like a poke in the eye, given the ongoing conversation regarding the game’s new monetization system.Before Overwatch 2 took the game free to play, players had the opportunity to win new skins via loot box. And, if luck wasn’t on their side, loot boxes also spat out fair chunks of premium currency that players could use to purchase a skin outright. In Overwatch 2’s new monetization scheme, players... Continue reading…
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by Andrew J. Hawkins on (#671V1)
Image: Getty Cruise is delivering on its promise to expand its robotaxi service to two new markets before the end of the year. For years, Cruise has operated its autonomous ridehail service exclusively in San Francisco. But earlier this year, the GM-backed company said it would launch in Phoenix, Arizona, and Austin, Texas, before the end of 2022.On Tuesday, Cruise CEO Kyle Vogt tweeted a short video of passengers from those two cities raving about its fully driverless vehicles as proof of a promise delivered. “Folks, we are entering the golden years of AV expansion,” he added.
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by Mitchell Clark on (#671V2)
The award he’s holding pales in comparison to the internet clout he just got. | Photo by Marcelo Endelli / Getty Images In addition to a World Cup and a full set of other soccer (aka football) awards, Lionel Messi has taken another crown: the person with the most-liked post on Instagram. The pictures he posted after the Argentine team won the 2022 men’s World Cup have racked up almost 64 million likes. That’s enough to beat the former record-holder, a stock photo of an egg on a white background with a caption that starts, “Let’s set a world record together and get the most liked post on Instagram.”The egg’s record has stood since early 2019 after it beat out a post from Kylie Jenner by racking up 19 million likes. At time of writing, it has around 57 million likes.
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by Nilay Patel on (#671V3)
Image illustration by William Joel / The Verge We dive into managing the relationships between designers, engineers, and PMs. Continue reading…
by Patrick George on (#671V4)
Image: Hyundai More weird cars? Yes. More weird cars, please.The Hyundai Kona is a small crossover that could never really be described as “weird.” But practical and economical? Certainly, even in all-electric form where it undercut the larger Hyundai Ioniq 5 EV by tens of thousands of dollars.Now, it’s getting some downright cyberpunk looks to go with all of that pragmatism. Hyundai just unveiled the all-new 2024 Kona, and a “futuristic design” is on the menu for this otherwise humble car that currently starts in the low $20,000 range. And it’s yet another design win from Hyundai, which is outdoing a lot of other car companies in that department as of late.It’s yet another design win from HyundaiLike the outgoing car, the new Kona comes in four... Continue reading…
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by Umar Shakir on (#671NX)
The USPS’s “Next Generation Delivery Vehicle” built by Oshkosh | Image: USPS The United States Postal Service said that it will add 66,000 fully electric delivery vehicles to its aging and polluting fleet of trucks. The mail agency agreed to spend $9.6 billion on 106,000 “next generation delivery vehicles,” which includes $3 billion secured through the Biden administration’s Inflation Reduction Act. After 2026, USPS will only purchase EVs.It’s a significant shift from the USPS’s previous proposal, which included only 40 percent EVs out of a full order of 84,000 delivery vehicles. And that deal came after an even less climate-friendly one that would have only seen 10,019 EVs being added to the fleet. But the constant pushback from Democrats and the Biden administration, which is requiring all federal vehicle... Continue reading…
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by Victoria Song on (#671NY)
All of the 2022 models will use built-in GPS sensors 100 percent of the time, even if you have your iPhone on hand. If you’re thinking of buying a new Apple Watch, there’s something you should know about the GPS tracking. Apple has confirmed that the Apple Watch Series 8, second-gen SE, and Ultra won’t piggyback off your iPhone’s GPS signal if your phone is nearby. Instead, all three will rely on their built-in GPS sensors. Older models, however, will still use your iPhone’s GPS when possible.While this change wasn’t a secret, it flew under the radar because of flashier updates like Crash Detection, temperature sensors, and, well, the Ultra’s entire existence. However, DC Rainmaker — a well-respected sports and endurance tech reviewer — spotted that Apple made it official by adding a line to an Apple Watch support page.
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by Justine Calma on (#671NZ)
A 3M plant during the pilot installation of a PFAS purification method in Antwerp on September 27th, 2022. | Photo by Nicolas Maeterlinck / BELGA / AFP via Getty Images 3M plans to phase out “forever chemicals” over the next few years, the manufacturing giant announced today. The announcement comes as the company faces a slew of lawsuits over its toxic legacy with per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, also known as PFAS or forever chemicals.Specifically, 3M says it will discontinue the use of forever chemicals in its portfolio of products and “exit all PFAS manufacturing by the end of 2025.” Currently, 3M nets around $1.3 billion in annual sales of PFAS it manufactures. The chemicals have gone into many of its most iconic products over the years, including Scotchgard fabric protector. In the 1960s, the company also worked with the Navy to develop firefighting foam using PFAS.“PFAS are critical in the... Continue reading…
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by Dan Seifert on (#66SYX)
Logitech’s Combo Touch keyboard case and USB-C Crayon stylus for the 10th Gen Apple iPad. Apple’s 10th-gen iPad is a bit of an enigma, a mix of newer design and technology with older features and limitations. Nowhere is this more apparent than with the accessory situation, where the 10th-gen iPad uses Apple’s older Pencil instead of the model used with the iPad Air, iPad Mini, and iPad Pro and the bafflingly expensive and limited Magic Keyboard Folio.Fortunately, where there are frustrations, there are opportunities, and Logitech has swooped in to grab them. The company has released a Crayon stylus and Combo Touch keyboard case for the 10th-gen iPad that manage to do a better job than Apple’s devices while costing considerably less money to boot.Logitech Crayon vs. Apple Pencil (first gen) The Logitech... Continue reading…
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by Adi Robertson on (#671P0)
Within makes popular fitness app Supernatural. | Image: Supernatural / Within Meta has delayed its acquisition of virtual reality studio Within by a month, agreeing not to close the deal until January 31st. The agreement was noted in a court filing reported on by Reuters this morning, extending a temporary restraining order agreed to in August. The news comes as the two sides face off in court over whether Meta is unlawfully monopolizing the nascent VR industry.The FTC sued Meta in July to stop the acquisition of Within, which makes the popular VR fitness service Supernatural. It argued that Meta’s acquisition reduced competition in the potential “killer app” category of fitness apps, a claim Meta denies. Meta has previously acquired several other VR studios, including the developers of Beat Saber, a game with... Continue reading…
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by Andrew J. Hawkins on (#671P1)
Illustration by Laura Normand / The Verge That poll that Elon Musk posted to Twitter Sunday evening? Asking whether he should stay on as CEO of Twitter or appoint someone else? The one where he said he would “abide by the results” no matter how it turned out? The one where nearly 58 percent of participants said, yes, please step down already?It was probably mostly meaningless. According to CNBC’s David Faber, whose reporting is pretty reliable on this kind of stuff, Musk has been actively searching for a replacement even before posting the poll. In fact, that search has been “ongoing,” Faber writes. How ongoing? Faber doesn’t say, but Musk hasn’t been exactly shy about describing his tenure at Twitter as only temporary.Musk hasn’t been exactly shy about describing his tenure... Continue reading…
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by Victoria Song on (#671P2)
Unlike Bane, no one cared who I was, even after I put on the mask. I channeled my inner Bane, but not a single jaded New Yorker gave Dyson’s wearable air purifier a second glance. Continue reading…
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by Jess Weatherbed on (#671EA)
The new bilingual search function is available in India first and will display search results in both English and Hindi in certain regions. | Illustration: The Verge Google is improving how Google search presents information in two languages, alongside developing its voice search feature to understand inquiries that use a mix of languages.Search results in the knowledge graph box and some sections like “Top stories” and “People also ask” will be displayed in both English and Hindi in Hindi-speaking regions of India, regardless of which language the user used to make the search. The new bilingual search function is available in India first with plans to add Tamil, Telugu, Marathi, and Bengali sometime next year. The feature is location-based, which means you may already have access to it if Google recognizes you’re located in a region of India where Hindi is a dominant language. I... Continue reading…
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by Andrew Webster on (#671EB)
Image: Bandai Namco Bandai Namco is looking to adapt another major work from Dragon Ball creator Akira Toriyama. The company has announced a push to develop Sand Land, a manga written by Toriyama in 2000, into what it describes as “a full IP.”That will start with an animated film adaptation. No other specific projects were announced, but given the company’s history — both with Dragon Ball and the massive success of titles like Elden Ring — it’s safe to say that video games are likely to be part of the project as well.You can get a sense of the world of Sand Land in the brief teaser above. Here’s the official description:
by Jessica Lucas on (#671EC)
Kristen Radtke / The Verge; Photos: Getty Images A popular niche risks running afoul of the site’s rules against ‘sexually gratifying’ content. Continue reading…
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by Alice Newcome-Beill on (#671ED)
The 8BitDo Pro 2 is the best pro controller for the Nintendo Switch and a number of other consoles. | Image: Sam Byford If you’re in the market for a versatile controller that doesn’t cost a grip, 8BitDo currently has a couple of models on sale you might be interested in. On sale for $39.99 at Amazon and Best Buy (normally $49.99), we consider the 8BitDo Pro 2 to be the best pro controller for the Nintendo Switch, even though it performs just as well with a variety of platforms, including Windows, macOS, and mobile devices.The Pro 2 is modeled after the classic SNES controller but includes a pair of grips for enhanced comfort. It also includes an additional pair of front triggers to support modern controller layouts and two back paddles as well. All of the inputs on the Pro 2 can be remapped using the 8BitDo app. You can learn more about it in our full... Continue reading…
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by Jon Porter on (#671EE)
The Centerpiece’s screen appears to dynamically respond to keypresses. | Image: Finalmouse Boutique gaming mouse manufacturer Finalmouse has big plans for its first foray into the mechanical keyboard market. Its Finalmouse Centerpiece is an eye-catching $349 keyboard that has a screen embedded underneath its transparent keycaps and switches. The effect is that it looks like you’re typing on the screen directly, while (hopefully) maintaining the feel and tactility of traditional mechanical switches.There’s been at least one similar attempt at this idea made in the past: the Optimus Popularis. But while the Popularis used its screen (which was only visible through its individual transparent keys) to display useful information like keyboard shortcuts, Finalmouse’s seems to be far more cosmetic.
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by Jon Porter on (#671EF)
Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Amazon and European Union regulators have reached an agreement over two long-running antitrust cases, the European Commission has announced, which it’s hoped will help make third-party sellers more competitive on Amazon’s marketplace. The agreement means Amazon will avoid fines that had the potential to stretch into the billions of dollars, but it has agreed to make a series of legally binding commitments that it will have to abide by for up to seven years.The commitments come in three broad parts that are consistent with those that were made public in July this year. First, Amazon has agreed not to use nonpublic data from independent sellers on its Marketplace platform to make decisions like which products to launch or what prices to... Continue reading…
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