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Get a new game every day until January 5th. | Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Epic Games is once again giving away a bunch of free games over the course of the holiday season. Technically, the company will be giving 15 free games on the Epic Games Store, but since the sale kicked off on Thursday, if you missed the first freebie (Bloons TD 6), you won’t be able to claim it.As I write this on Friday, the current free game is Horizon Chase Turbo, which typically costs $19.99. Epic isn’t revealing what the next game is until it’s available at 11AM ET Saturday. If you want to grab the rest of the free games over the course of the promotion, you might want to set a daily reminder to visit the Store’s homepage at that time.The freebies are part of the Epic Games Store’s annual holiday sale. In a blog post, Epic says... Continue reading…

Silver Surfer stars in the game’s current season. | Image: Second Dinner Marvel Snap is finally getting a way to battle against your friends sometime soon. In a roadmap for the game shared Friday, developers Second Dinner provided details about the mode, titled Battle Mode vs. Friends, and said it aims to launch it in “the next month or two.”Currently, Marvel Snap pits you against a random opponent every time you press the play button. But in Battle Mode, you’ll play a series of games with a friend to see who can outlast the other. Both players will start a match with 10 health, and whoever wins a game does damage to the other based on the number in the glowy cube at the top of the screen you typically hit when you want to Snap and up the stakes. To pair up with a friend, you’ll either create a match or join... Continue reading…

As cars add more and more automated driving features, how can car companies be certain these systems won’t be misused to wreak havoc on our roads?They can’t, actually. That’s why more and more cars with driving-assistance systems are keeping an eye on the human behind the wheel, as well as what’s ahead on the road.Volvo and Geely’s electric car venture Polestar has announced that audiences at CES will get a taste of the newest driver-monitoring system from Swedish technology company Smart Eye. That technology will be found on the upcoming Polestar 3, the company’s upcoming mass-market electric crossover and ostensibly its most important vehicle to date.More importantly, driver-monitoring Smart Eye technology will be a standard... Continue reading…

A Eufy camera in the rain. | Image: Eufy It’s been two weeks since we reported that Anker’s Eufy lied to us about the security of its security cameras, and we’ve been pushing the company for answers ever since. But the company hasn’t answered a single one of our questions — in fact, I haven’t gotten a single reply since December 1st.Today, on a whim, I thought I’d take a peek at Eufy’s website... maybe find some answers there? Instead, I found that Anker has quietly scrubbed all of its most promising privacy promises from its “privacy commitment” page. It got nerfed — hard.Here are 10 things that were written on Eufy’s privacy commitment page as of December 8th, 2022, that are no longer there today:

I can’t wait to take on some robot dinos with my friends. | Image: Sony Interactive Entertainment Horizon Zero Dawn developer Guerrilla Games is working on a new Horizon online multiplayer game, according to a tweet about jobs at the studio (via Kotaku).“A new internal team is developing a separate Online Project set in Horizon’s universe,” an image in the tweet reads. “Featuring a new cast of characters and a unique stylized look, friends will be able to explore the majestic wilds of Horizon together.”

Seems like we’ll be waiting a little bit longer to hear about the next home for NFL Sunday Ticket. | Photo by Christopher Mast / Getty Images Apple’s long-rumored deal for NFL Sunday Ticket may not happen this year after all. NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell said this summer that the NFL expected to pick where the lucrative broadcasting rights would land by the fall. But with less than a week until winter and a little over two weeks left in the year, it seems increasingly unlikely that an NFL Sunday Ticket deal will be done before 2023.A new report from Sportico has some updates about the status of the next deal. Negotiations are at “a very critical point” for the NFL, Goodell apparently said Wednesday, though he also noted that “our decisions are not based on timelines.” Apple is still expected to get the rights, but one of its requests would be a giant ask: the company... Continue reading…

Lenovo’s Smart Clock 2 with its wireless charging dock has fallen to $24.99, which is a screaming deal that saves you $65. | Photo by Jennifer Pattison Tuohy Once December gets going, it starts to feel like time quickly accelerates, and before you know it, your remaining holiday gift shopping starts bumping up against shipping deadlines. But if you’re in need of some simple and easy gift recommendations that don’t cost too many pennies, you’re in luck. In addition to our extensive collection of holiday gift guides, we’re also keeping a watchful eye out for great gifts that are currently on sale.So to help you “win” this year’s holiday gift exchange, we’ve hand-picked a collection of gadgets and tech-adjacent deals under $25 that may make a great present for all types of people in your life. Some of these discounts may even make it seem like you spent more than you actually did, but we’ll... Continue reading…

Image: Getty The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has launched an investigation into General Motors’ Cruise, citing incidents in which the company’s autonomous vehicles have blocked the road or caused rear-end collisions.NHTSA is examining incidents in which Cruise’s vehicles “engage in inappropriately hard braking or become immobilized.” There are three incidents that the agency is probing in which Cruise vehicles were struck from behind after braking suddenly. In each incident, a safety driver was present in the vehicle.“Although the two types of incidents appear to be distinct, they each result in the Cruise vehicles becoming unexpected roadway obstacles,” NHTSA states in its report. “This may introduce multiple potential hazards... Continue reading…

This image shows off the white Beam, but today’s deal loops in the black-colored Beam. | Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge A nice rug can really tie a room together, but I think a good soundbar has similar powers. Sonos’ refurbished outlet is offering two color schemes of the first-generation Beam soundbar for $80 off its usual selling price. The plain black and shadow black Beam are $239 each. Unlike most soundbars, there’s no wireless subwoofer that comes with the Beam; all of the sound (and a surprising level of punchy bass) emanates from the soundbar itself. It’s easy to set up, and it can be incorporated into a larger set of Sonos speakers connected via Wi-Fi for a fuller sound. Here’s our review from 2018.You may know that Sonos has a newer second-generation Beam that has some minor design refinements plus Dolby Atmos support. It’s a better soundbar... Continue reading…

An abandoned and melting pint of ice cream along a city street on June 27th, 2021, in Portland, Oregon. | Photo by Nathan Howard / Getty Images Heat spells and downpours are serious mood killers, a huge analysis of Twitter conversations confirms. The international study is part of efforts to understand how climate change affects mental health around the world.Scrutinizing tweets from 190 countries, nearly every one on Earth, researchers looked at how “positive” and “negative” expressions shifted during extreme heat and rainfall events. Unsurprisingly, they found that during bad weather, negative sentiments became noisier and positive expressions became few and far between in each region. While it might seem obvious that bad weather can put people in bad moods, researchers see the consistency of the findings as a warning that people might be struggling to adapt to climate... Continue reading…

This Echo Show on the wall is the fairest smart display of them all. Updates to support Fire TV, new widget options, and a better Photo Frame mode make the flagship Echo a winner. Continue reading…

Chris Putnam/Future Publishing via Getty Images It’s payday for some of music’s biggest names: Bruce Springsteen sold the rights to his catalog for a reported $550 million last year. Bob Dylan struck a similar deal for an estimated $300 million in late 2020. Paul Simon’s catalog changed hands for $250 million. And in early 2022, David Bowie’s estate secured at least $250 million in a deal encompassing titles from nearly 30 albums.This music rights gold rush is due to both the explosion of music streaming and tunes on TikTok as well as an ever-growing need to supply global video services like Netflix with soundtracks to their shows and movies. Now, Duetti, a stealthy startup co-founded by two former streaming execs, wants to flip the practice on its head. Instead of giving big-name... Continue reading…

Henry Cavill. | Photo by Axelle/Bauer-Griffin/FilmMagic Noted Warhammer nerd Henry Cavill is set to do a little something more than paint elaborate figures: he’s going to feature in a new Warhammer live-action project on Amazon. Reports of the project first surfaced last night, and this morning, Cavill confirmed the news on his Instagram account.“For 30 years I have dreamt of seeing a Warhammer universe in live action,” he wrote. “Now, after 22 years of experience in this industry, I finally feel that I have the skill set and experience to guide a Warhammer Cinematic Universe into life.” He added that “having a home like Amazon will give us the freedom to be true to the massive scope of Warhammer,” perhaps alluding to the very expensive The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power series, which... Continue reading…

The yet unnamed HTC headset. | Image: HTC HTC plans to introduce a new flagship AR / VR headset next month that will reestablish its presence in the consumer virtual reality space. The company isn’t planning to release full details until CES on January 5th. But HTC global head of product Shen Ye spoke exclusively with The Verge about what it’s trying to achieve with its new design: a small, light all-in-one headset that promises full-featured virtual and augmented reality.“It’s about taking all of these advances that we made in not only the design aspects, but also the technology aspects, and building it into something that’s meaningful and that’s appealing for consumers,” Ye says.Based on an image shared with The Verge, the unnamed headset has a goggles-like look with front-... Continue reading…

Image: Epic Games The world of Fortnite is about to get even more anime. Starting at 7AM ET today, the battle royale game will kick off its latest anime crossover, this time with My Hero Academia.The collab will include four characters from the series available to purchase in the item shop — Izuku Midoriya, Katsuki Bakugo, Ochaco Uraraka, and All Might — as well as a Hero Training Gym to mess around on in creative mode and quests to complete to earn items like a cape and MHA emotes. Perhaps most notable, the Deku smash move from the show will become a power-up to use in the game.Here’s a look at the new character skins:This is the second major anime crossover for Fortnite, following an elaborate Dragon Ball event in August. Developer Epic Games has... Continue reading…

Image: The Tech Outlook Have you always wanted the same carbon fiber Lenovo ThinkPad design in a phone? Well you might be in luck soon because leaked images of a “ThinkPhone by Motorola” over at The Tech Outlook (spotted by Android Police) show a handset with the exact carbon-fiber styling of Lenovo’s ThinkPad laptops. Motorola owner Lenovo is even using the traditional ThinkPad font on the ThinkPhone.The leaked specs suggest the ThinkPhone will use a Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Plus Gen 1 chip inside with 8GB or 12GB of RAM and up to 512GB of storage. That’s not Qualcomm’s latest Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 flagship chip that’s just starting to appear in new devices, but the same chip announced in May that’s been shipping in handsets from Honor, Oppo, and Xiaomi ever since.... Continue reading…

The Verge Valve’s big Steam winter sale starts next week. Thousands of titles will be discounted between December 22nd and January 5th, with the winter sale beginning at 10AM PT / 1PM ET on the 22nd.There are usually some good deals, too. We’ve seen 50 percent off Halo: The Master Chief Collection in the past, as well as 50 percent off Control Ultimate Edition. This year Valve is teasing deals on Fallout 76, SD Gundam Battle Alliance, Ready or Not, Two Point Campus, Persona 5 Royal, Sonic Frontiers, F1 Manager 2022, and thousands more. As always, tis the season to buy things you’ll probably forget to play.Valve is also replacing its Luna New Year sale with an annual spring sale starting in 2023. The first spring sale will take place between... Continue reading…

It’s not as easy to share where you might go next. | Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Twitter is blocking users from tweeting links to many major servers for Mastodon, one of the most notable Twitter alternatives. The ban was enacted sometime during what’s been a chaotic Thursday evening on the platform after journalists and Mastodon’s own account were unexpectedly suspended.Attempting to tweet many Mastodon links will result in an error message saying, “We can’t complete this request because this link has been identified by Twitter or our partners as being potentially harmful.” Twitter is currently blocking links to the original mastodon.social server and more than 10 other domains The Verge tested.The ban on Mastodon follows the recent controversy around @ElonJet, an account that tracks the whereabouts of Twitter CEO... Continue reading…

Illustration: The Verge Meta, Amazon Web Services (AWS), Microsoft, and mapping company TomTom have launched a new mapping initiative in partnership with The Linux Foundation that could challenge the dominance Google holds in the mapping world, TechCrunch reports.The recently launched Overture Maps Foundation aims to encourage the development of new map products with openly available databases members can contribute to and reuse across companies and apps. It will additionally use open data that already exists from city planning departments as well as open-source projects like OpenStreetMap.While there are only four companies at the moment driving the initiative, the foundation intends on inviting other businesses and communities to join as well.“Mapping the... Continue reading…

An illustration of the SWOT satellite in orbit. | Image: CNES Early tomorrow morning, a new Earth monitoring instrument called the Surface Water and Ocean Topography mission, or SWOT, will launch into space on a SpaceX rocket. The satellite will take the first global survey of Earth’s freshwater systems from space, observing not only the oceans but also lakes, rivers, and coastal regions. It will be able to measure the height of water in these systems for the first time.“It will help us understand where water is, where it’s coming from, and where it’s going,” Katherine Calvin, chief scientist and senior climate advisor at NASA, explained in a press conference.Understanding Earth’s water and how it moves is crucial for both modeling climate change over the long term and dealing with urgent events... Continue reading…

Work work! Once the resigned cry of orcs in Warcraft will now be Chris Metzen’s new mantra as he emerges from retirement to rejoin the team at Blizzard. Today, John Hight, senior vice president and general manager of World of Warcraft, announced that longtime WoW veteran Metzen, also known for his work across Diablo, StarCraft, and Overwatch, would return to the company.

Agent 47 is really going to miss Stadia. | Image: IO Interactive Ahead of the impending shutdown of Google Stadia, Hitman developer IO Interactive has detailed how Stadia players will be able to bring their progress from Hitman — World of Assassination to other platforms. Players will be able to do a one-time transfer, what IO Interactive is calling the Stadia Progress Carryover, to any of the platforms where Hitman 3 is available, including PlayStation, Xbox, and PC.IO Interactive expects to launch the transfer tool a week before Stadia shuts down on January 18th, but you can prepare now by linking your Stadia account to your IOI Account. If you don’t do this before Google shuts down the Stadia servers, IO Interactive warns that you won’t be able to bring your progress over. You’ll have until... Continue reading…

Scientists, engineers and administrators from the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratories following the announcement of a breakthrough in fusion research on December 13th, 2022, in Washington, DC. | Photo by Chip Somodevilla / Getty Images Scientists need better targets to shoot and even more advanced lasers. Continue reading…