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by Adi Robertson on (#66KXR)
Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge District of Columbia Attorney General Karl Racine has sued Amazon for using drivers’ tips to pay their standard wages, attempting to exact a punishment that federal consumer protection agencies couldn’t.Amazon settled with the Federal Trade Commission last year after a lawsuit asserted it had withheld more than $60 million (or about one-third of total customer tips) from Amazon Flex drivers over the course of two and a half years. But while the FTC took that money to distribute back to drivers, it had no mechanism to issue greater penalties. “Amazon has thus far escaped any other consequences,” Racine’s complaint says. The new suit asks for a DC court to assess further financial damages, aiming to “hold Amazon to full account for its... Continue reading…
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The Verge - All Posts
| Link | https://www.theverge.com/ |
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| Updated | 2024-11-27 18:00 |
by Jess Weatherbed on (#66KXS)
This isn’t some unofficial recreation — overnight bookings are available for the genuine Hobbiton movie set in New Zealand for the first time ever. | Image: Larnie Nicolson / Airbnb In celebration of the 10th anniversary of The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey, Tolkien fans can finally book to stay at the genuine Hobbiton Movie Set via Airbnb. The Hobbiton set was initially built by Lord of the Rings director Sir Peter Jackson on Buckland Road in New Zealand in 1999 and features in both of his Middle-earth movie trilogies. While the location has since become an active tourist destination in New Zealand, this announcement marks the first time that guests will be able to stay overnight.Russell Alexander, whose family owns the farmland on which Hobbiton is built, will host guests on behalf of Airbnb, granting them access to all 44 Hobbit Holes, The Millhouse, and The Green Dragon Inn. “For more than two decades, we’ve... Continue reading…
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by Richard Lawler on (#5NB60)
Apple ‘s plan to scan iOS devices for CSAM imagery has proven controversial | Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Why privacy experts are concerned Continue reading…
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by Mitchell Clark on (#66KVD)
Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Apple’s new iOS and iCloud security initiative includes a new way for iMessage users to verify that they’re talking to the person they think they’re talking to. The company claims the new iMessage Contact Key Verification will let people who “face extraordinary digital threats,” such as journalists, activists, or politicians, make sure that their conversations aren’t being hijacked or snooped on.According to a press release on Wednesday, if both people in an iMessage conversation have the feature enabled, they’d get an alert if “an exceptionally advanced adversary, such as a state-sponsored attacker, were ever to succeed breaching cloud servers and inserting their own device to eavesdrop on these encrypted communications.” They’ll also... Continue reading…
by Richard Lawler on (#66KVE)
Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Apple has ended the development of technology intended to detect possible child sexual abuse material (CSAM) while it’s stored on user devices, according to The Wall Street Journal.That plan was unveiled last fall with an intended rollout for iOS 15, but backlash quickly followed as encryption and consumer privacy experts warned about the danger of creating surveillance systems that work directly from your phone, laptop, or tablet.
by Mia Sato on (#66KVG)
Illustration by Kristen Radtke / The Verge Instagram will now tell you if your posts are too edgy to be recommended to other users. Creators and businesses will be able to see if their posts are being blocked from appearing in certain parts of the app, Instagram head Adam Mosseri announced today.In the settings menu, under account and then account status, professional accounts can now check to see if any of their posts are banned from being recommended to users who don’t follow them. Recommendations appear in places like the Explore page and home feed and have become increasingly central to the platform as parent company Meta attempts to take on TikTok. By the end of 2023, Meta plans to more than double the amount of recommended content users see on their feeds.
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by Antonio G. Di Benedetto on (#66KVH)
The 2022 ROG Zephyrus G14 is a bit of a looker, not to mention an excellent value. | Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge The days for holiday shopping are slowly ticking away, but thankfully there are still plenty of great deals to take advantage of — including a few Verge faves. First off, the Asus ROG Zephyrus G14 gaming laptop is on sale at Best Buy for $1,199.99. This is the latest entry-level model of Asus’ 14-inch laptop — which normally runs $1,649.99 — and Best Buy is currently offering a $450 discount until December 9th.We’ve espoused much praise over the years for the Zephyrus G14, and rightfully so, as it’s a great laptop with solid gaming specs that doesn’t forget about all the other stuff a laptop should do. This entry-level configuration of the latest G14 incarnation packs an AMD Ryzen 9 CPU, Radeon RX 6700S GPU, 1TB SSD, and 16GB of RAM to... Continue reading…
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by Jay Peters on (#66KVJ)
Apple announced some big new security features on Wednesday. | Illustration by Nick Barclay / The Verge Apple will finally be adding end-to-end encryption to iCloud backups, the company said as part of a major set of security announcements on Wednesday. Under what it calls Advanced Data Protection, Apple will expand the number of “data categories” protected by end-to-end encryption from 14 to 23, with backups, Notes, and Photos now covered.Based on a screenshot from Apple, these categories are covered when you flip on Advanced Data Protection: device backups, messages backups, iCloud Drive, Notes, Photos, Reminders, Safari bookmarks, Siri Shortcuts, Voice Memos, and Wallet Passes. Apple says the only “major” categories not covered by Advanced Data Protection are iCloud Mail, Contacts, and Calendar because “of the need to interoperate with... Continue reading…
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by Sean Hollister on (#66KRN)
The Skydio Dock with a Skydio X2 drone. | Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge Skydio is the only company making drones that can largely fly themselves, able to sense and avoid objects so seamlessly you can hand a toddler the controls. But legally and practically, they need a lot of human oversight. Who’s going to charge the drone, update it, download its footage, and be the oft legally required visual observer to make sure it doesn’t crash into anything nearby?But for years, Skydio has been working on the gadget that could eliminate pesky humans from the equation. It’s called the Skydio Dock, and it’s a 72-pound motorized box that can let these drones operate completely autonomously. I drove to Skydio’s headquarters in San Mateo, California, this week to check it out, watch it fly an autonomous mission, and used... Continue reading…
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by Lewis Gordon on (#66KRP)
Dwarf Fortress got a new look for its debut on Steam and Itch. | Image: Kitfox Games The subterranean settlement sim has been a cult favorite since it was first released in 2006. Now, a graphically updated version of the game is hitting Steam and Itch, the perfect entry point for the ‘Dwarf Fortress curious.’ Continue reading…
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by Justine Calma on (#66KNT)
Little remains but stumps and puddles in what was once a bottomland hardwood forest on the banks of the Roanoke River in northeastern North Carolina. The trees were turned into wood pellets for burning in power plants in Europe. | Photo by Joby Warrick / The Washington Post via Getty Images Forests are more valuable alive than dead, at least according to the more than 670 scientists who signed a letter urging world leaders to quit burning trees for energy. The plea comes as delegates gather for the United Nations Biodiversity Conference that begins today in Montreal.The scientists want to stop to the industrial burning of wood for electricity and heat, referred to as forest bioenergy. The practice needs to be replaced by wind and solar energy, they write, to protect forests and creatures that make a home there.“The goal to halt and reverse the global loss of nature could fail due to the growing pressure on forests from this industry,” the letter says. It’s addressed to the heads of government of China, the US, Canada,... Continue reading…
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by Jess Weatherbed on (#66KNV)
Soundscapes based on the Sea of Thieves and Halo Infinite video games are now available for Calm premium subscribers. | Image: Microsoft Microsoft has announced a partnership between Xbox and Calm, a popular sleep, meditation, and relaxation app, that will bring video game-themed soundscapes to the Calm app for the first time. Available from today, Calm Premium users can access two new soundscapes based on Sea of Thieves and Halo Infinite which can be used as background audio for sleeping, or general relaxation.According to a press release for the collaboration, Calm premium users can “enjoy the meditative sounds of whirling waves and chattering birds from the ocean expanse of Sea of Thieves and the ambient alien sounds of Zeta Halo from Halo Infinite.”A Calm Premium subscription typically costs $69.99 per year (or a one-time lifetime membership fee of $399.99), but... Continue reading…
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by Jess Weatherbed on (#66KJR)
Google’s Threat Analysis Group discovered that an Internet Explorer zero-day vulnerability was used to lure victims using Microsoft Office documents referencing the Itaewon Halloween crowd crush tragedy. | Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge A new blog post from Google’s Threat Analysis Group (TAG) reveals that an Internet Explorer zero-day vulnerability was actively exploited by North Korea in October 2022. The attack targeted South Korean users by embedding malicious malware into documents that reference the recent Itaewon crowd crush tragedy in Seoul.The Internet Explorer web browser was officially retired back in June earlier this year and has since been replaced by Microsoft Edge. However, as TAG’s technical analysis explains, Office is still using the IE engine to execute the JavaScript that enables the attack, which is why it worked on Windows 7 through 11 and Windows Server 2008 through 2022 machines that haven’t installed new November 2022 security updates.TAG... Continue reading…
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by Jon Porter on (#66KJS)
Google will show the top searches from your part of the US. | Image: Google Let’s jump straight to the chase: “Wordle” was Google’s most searched term globally in 2022. The stat was revealed as part of Google’s annual Year in Search report, which highlights the top trending search terms in both individual countries as well as globally. This year, Google is offering an even more granular look at searches in the USA with a new hub that lets you type in your city or ZIP code and see what people in your area specifically are searching for.As you might expect, the year’s top searches were dominated by terms relating to 2022’s big news events, with “Ukraine” and “Queen Elizabeth” both featuring in the top five. But there were also a surprising amount of searches for specifically Indian (and presumably cricket)... Continue reading…
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by Casey Newton on (#66KG6)
Illustration by Nick Barclay / The Verge Today, let’s talk about a new opinion from Meta’s Oversight Board that attempts to square a tension at the heart of any big social network: on one hand, a desire to treat its users with equality; and on the other, an acknowledgement that in practice some groups of users deserve special treatment.I.No company wants to say outright that some of its customers matter more than others. But in practice, on social networks in particular, some customers do — at least when it comes to how their accounts and posts are treated. If the president of a country regularly communicates with their citizens on a platform (particularly a country that might ban or otherwise restrict your business), you want to be extra careful with any steps you take to... Continue reading…
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by James Vincent on (#66KDS)
An upgraded version of ElliQ — a robot designed to act as a companion for older adults — is now available for anyone to buy. The bot has been under development by Israeli startup Intuition Robotics for years, but a first version (launched in March) was only built in limited capacity. The new ElliQ 2.0 comes with upgraded features including new conversation prompts, virtual experiences, and an app for family members and carers.ElliQ consists of a digital display and a light-up “bobble head” that moves and reacts to users’ conversation. Intuition Robotics describes the bot as a way to combat many nations’ “loneliness epidemic,” or the increasing number of older adults living alone. The company says ElliQ can act as a proactive tool to... Continue reading…
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by Tom Warren on (#66KDR)
Communities inside Microsoft Teams. | Image: Microsoft Microsoft is launching a new communities feature for Microsoft Teams today, designed for consumers to use the best parts of Teams free of charge to create and organize groups. The new community feature will allow groups to use the calendar, meeting, and chat features of Teams.Features like group chat, calling, and file / photo sharing are all supported, and groups will also be able to use a shared calendar (which includes Google Calendar integration) to organize community events.This new community integration is really aimed at groups like sports clubs or even virtual community groups for small businesses and simple groups like a carpool for co-workers to organize transportation. Facebook, Reddit, Discord, WhatsApp, Twitter, and many... Continue reading…
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by David Pierce on (#66KDQ)
Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Augmented reality isn’t really a thing yet. But you know what is? Face lenses. Millions of users across Snapchat, Instagram, Zoom, TikTok, and countless other apps are already used to tapping a button and having dog ears suddenly attached to their skull, rainbows fired out of their mouth, or their makeup subtly — or not so subtly — transformed into a new style. Most users don’t think of this as AR or view these features as evidence of some revolutionary new technology. But whether you call it lenses, filters, or something else, it’s all augmented reality.At its Lensfest developer event this week, Snap announced that it now has more than 300,000 developers building AR products for its platform and that together, they’ve built more than 3... Continue reading…
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by Patrick George on (#66KBE)
Photo by Robert Nickelsberg / Getty Images A new patent from BMW may unlock the energy-generating potential of one of America’s most defining modern features: a woefully inadequate and underfunded road infrastructure.Car enthusiast news site CarBuzz unearthed a document from the German national patent office that reveals a new suspension design, which, if developed and put into production, would allow a car to gather electricity generated from bumps in the road.The patent, which was independently located and verified by The Verge, could represent a new way to charge an electric vehicle’s battery through normal, everyday driving whenever things get bumpy — which, for a lot of us, is basically all of the time. Image: Audi Audi had a similar idea that it... Continue reading…
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by Andrew J. Hawkins on (#66KBD)
Image: GM General Motors is working with its dealers to install Level 2 electric vehicle charging stations that have “triple the power” of typical L2 stations, the company said today.Last year, the automaker announced a new program to help fund the installation of Level 2 chargers in collaboration with Chevy, Cadillac, and GMC dealers. The chargers would be built in the communities in which the dealers operate, casting a positive sheen on both GM’s brands and its dealer network that it needs in order to facilitate the transition to electric vehicles. Image: GM Now the company has selected Flo, a Quebec-based EV charging company, as one of its partners in the effort to install 40,000 chargers across the country. Flo will... Continue reading…
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by Jon Porter on (#66KBF)
SpaceX has quietly announced a new government-focused service on its website — Starshield — which it says offers a “secured satellite network for government entities.” The page, which appeared on the SpaceX website earlier this week, says that while its satellite internet service Starlink is aimed at end users and businesses, “Starshield is designed for government use.”The announcement of Starshield follows work that SpaceX has already done with the US and other governments around the world. In August SpaceX signed a $2 million deal with the US Air Force to provide satellite internet access, and Starlink has also proved crucial to Ukrainian forces as they defend themselves against Russia’s invasion of the country (though the technology... Continue reading…
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by Jess Weatherbed on (#66K99)
Proton Drive is an end-to-end encrypted cloud storage service that can be used to access files and securely share them with others — even if they’re not a Proton customer. | Image: Proton Proton, a privacy startup best known for its Proton Mail encrypted email service, has just announced that its end-to-end encrypted cloud storage service is available starting today as an Android and iOS app. Proton Drive is available in both free and paid tiers, offering users a way to securely upload, store, and share files directly from their mobile devices.Proton Drive’s end-to-end encryption ensures that only the user and the people they share with can access files — not even Proton itself can access the data without your permission. Users can send folders and files to anyone via sharing links (including non-Proton users) with options for passwords and expiration dates. Access can be revoked at any time, and metadata is encrypted,... Continue reading…
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by James Vincent on (#66K9B)
The policy allowed the SFPD to arm bomb disposal robots similar to the one seen here with explosives to incapacitate and even kill suspects. | Photo by Peerapon Boonyakiat/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images San Francisco officials have voted against allowing the police to kill suspects with remote-controlled robots. The city’s board of supervisors reversed the policy it approved last week, following outcry and protests from citizens and civil rights groups. However, as reported by the San Francisco Chronicle, the new ban is not necessarily permanent, and the issue has been sent “back to a committee for further discussion.”The board originally approved the policy to let the San Francisco Police Department (SFPD) use remote-controlled robots “as a deadly force option when risk of loss of life to members of the public or officers is imminent and outweighs any other force option available.”A spokesperson for the SFPD said that the... Continue reading…
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by Andrew J. Hawkins on (#66K7H)
Uber now has robotaxis available for its customers to hail in Las Vegas.The vehicles are operated by Motional, a joint venture between Hyundai and Aptiv, and will feature safety drivers behind the steering wheel, though the vehicles will be operated by Motional’s autonomous driving system. Motional says it intends on launching a public fully driverless service without safety drivers in 2023.It’s the first time that autonomous vehicles have been made available to customers on Uber’s app. The company signed a 10-year deal with Motional to deploy AVs on its ride-hailing and delivery platforms earlier this year.It’s the first time that autonomous vehicles have been made available to customers on Uber’s appThe deal isn’t exclusive:... Continue reading…
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by Jon Porter on (#66K7J)
Laura Normand / The Verge Ads for around 40 high-profile brands and organizations have been spotted on the Twitter pages of white nationalists, according to a report from The Washington Post. Ads from brands including Amazon, Uber, Snap, and GoDaddy, media companies like USA Today and Morning Brew, and even one government organization, the US Department of Health and Human Services, were seen on the offending Twitter pages.The ads were spotted on the profiles of Andrew Anglin and Patrick Casey. Anglin is the editor of neo-Nazi website The Daily Stormer, while Casey previously led white nationalist group Identity Evropa (later rebranded as the American Identity Movement). The two were banned from Twitter in 2013 and 2019 respectively. After Elon Musk’s takeover... Continue reading…
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by Tom Warren on (#66K54)
Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Microsoft says it has reached a 10-year agreement with Nintendo to make Call of Duty available on Nintendo consoles if the Activision Blizzard acquisition closes. The deal is similar in length to what Microsoft has offered Sony, and the Xbox maker has also committed to continue to offer new versions of Call of Duty on Steam at the same time they launch on Xbox.The deal is clearly designed to put pressure on Sony to accept a similar offer, just days after Microsoft president Brad Smith said “Sony has emerged as the loudest objector” to Microsoft’s proposed $68.7 billion acquisition and that “it’s as excited about this deal as Blockbuster was about the rise of Netflix.”
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by Jon Porter on (#66K3M)
The 3D characters can be sent as one of 36 stickers. | Image: Meta Avatars, the customizable characters that are already available across Meta services like Facebook and Instagram, are officially launching on WhatsApp. Meta has announced that they can be used as a profile picture on the messaging service or sent in the form of one of 36 custom stickers. The feature “will be rolling out to users everywhere from today,” according to Meta’s press release.WhatsApp’s avatars feature has been steadily rolling out to beta testers for a couple of months now. They’ve been available to some (but not all) beta users on both Android and iOS since at least October, according to WABetaInfo, but they’re expected to become available for all users on mobile over the coming weeks.Meta’s avatars are one of a number of... Continue reading…
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by Andy Blye on (#66JY6)
Tim Cook joined other tech leaders in touting the advantages of buying chips made in the US. Apple plans to start using processors made in America following the opening of an advanced new chip factory in Phoenix, Arizona.For the plant’s customers, which also includes AMD and NVIDIA, the new facility means a more secure supply of chips and quicker production timelines. The chip fabricator, TSMC, also said today that it would start construction on a second factory in Phoenix next year, increasing the site’s annual output.“These chips will power iPhones and MacBooks, as Tim Cook can attest,” President Joe Biden said at an event outside the Arizona factory on Tuesday. “Apple had to buy all the advanced chips from overseas. Now we’re going to do more of their supply chain here at home.”Biden and Apple CEO Tim Cook were on hand in... Continue reading…
by Richard Lawler on (#66HXF)
Europeans, this could soon be you. | Image: Apple And Meta faces off with regulators over news... again. Continue reading…
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by Umar Shakir on (#66JSQ)
Image: Google Chrome tab jockeys and bookmark hoarders, rejoice: you can now quickly swift through your whole browser mess with a new simple “@” shortcut in the address bar. Available on the latest Chrome version 108 for desktops, the feature will help simplify tasks like getting to that article tab you know you left open somewhere without needing to conduct another web search.If you’re like me, you might have a whole lot of troubleshooting articles saved as bookmarks, but when someone needs help with some specific problem, you just Google it again instead of looking for what you’ve saved. Now, you can type “@bookmarks” or just “@,” then hit the space bar and click “Search Bookmarks,” and start typing some key terms. Screenshot: The... Continue reading…
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by Jennifer Pattison Tuohy on (#66JSR)
A new Alexa Shopping List widget could make those trips to the grocery store run more smoothly. | Screenshot by Jennifer Pattison Tuohy / The Verge Adding an item to your shopping list with just your voice is a modern convenience you quickly get used to. But the pain of wrangling the app you added it to on your smartphone while wheeling a shopping cart through a crowded store can have you yearning for simpler days — and paper.A new homescreen widget for Amazon’s Alexa’s shopping list feature makes it easier to keep an eye on your items while making a beeline for the produce aisle. The widget is available on iPhone and Android and shows your list right on your homescreen. Now the convenience of adding items to your shopping list using Alexa smart speakers doesn’t have to end when you leave the house.To install the widget, you need to have the latest Alexa app on your phone, then... Continue reading…
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by Richard Lawler on (#66JNH)
Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Just days ago, Elon Musk took aim at Apple’s App Store policies while dragging it into the political and culture war crosshairs, highlighting how important the storefront is to so many developers and services. Today, Apple announced it’s changing long-standing App Store policies that put tight restrictions on what developers are allowed to charge their customers, following up on a pledge made last year while settling a class-action lawsuit.At the time, developers were restricted to fewer than 100 possible price points in the App Store, which Bloomberg reports previously started at a minimum of 49 cents for subscriptions and 99 cents for apps, with a max price of $999.99. Image: Apple App Store price flexibility... Continue reading…
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by Patrick George on (#66JNJ)
Photo by Eric Thayer / Getty Images Many barriers are holding up the automotive industry’s wide-scale transition to electric vehicles. Getting battery costs down, getting range up, and convincing car buyers to break up with gasoline for good are just some of the more commonly known ones. But there’s also one very powerful group that hasn’t been much help so far: the car dealers.Increasingly, car companies are giving their dealership partners an ultimatum: get on board or get out. And at least some of Ford’s dealers seem to be taking the message.At the Automotive News Congress this week, an event put on by the eponymous industry publication, Ford Motor CEO Jim Farley said that 1,920 of America’s roughly 3,000 Ford retailers have agreed to sign up for the company’s EV... Continue reading…
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by Ariel Shapiro on (#66JNK)
Illustration by Laura Normand / The Verge I hope you all had a good weekend. We have a surprisingly newsy week, so let’s get into it: the former Twitter Spaces team looks for a new gig, Meghan Markle and Prince Harry’s audio producer leaves on a high note, and Wondery’s subscription strategy pays dividends.Former Twitter Spaces team looks for a new homeGiven that Twitter has about one-third of the staff it did before Elon Musk took over, it is no surprise that the Spaces team would be among those who were laid off or chose to resign during the “hardcore” reset. As the future of Spaces at Twitter seems increasingly murky, members of the team that built the audio vertical are advertising themselves as a package deal to other tech companies.Last week, former senior engineering... Continue reading…
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by Jay Peters on (#66JJX)
“Hey zombie!” | Image: Deep Silver We already knew that Dead Island 2 will let you taunt zombies with your voice with Amazon’s new Alexa Game Control technology, and during Tuesday’s Dead Island 2 showcase on Tuesday, developer Deep Silver gave us a better idea of how the feature might work in practice.In a prerecorded and staged skit (the conceit is that the people in the video are actually on the run from zombies and just so happen to find a working copy of Dead Island 2), the video showed how certain voice commands will activate certain actions in the game. “Hey zombie” gets the attention of a nearby zombie in-game. “Get me my ax” has the player draw an ax that is shooting fire for some reason. “Time to go loco” activates some kind of super mode.Those aren’t the only... Continue reading…
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by Barbara Krasnoff on (#66JJY)
Image: Google Last Saturday, I discovered two things: I needed to buy a doorbell for my mother’s apartment, and Google Lens could be a really useful time-saver.Here’s what happened: my mother lives in a large apartment complex that was built in the 1970s — and I suspect the doorbells on the apartment doors are the same that were installed then. They click more than they actually ring. I’ve got perfectly good hearing, and I have trouble hearing when somebody presses the doorbell; for my mother, who wears hearing aids, it’s nearly impossible. Recently, I finally decided to do something about it. The photo isn’t great, but Google Lens was able to identify the bell on the neighbor’s door. I spent a couple of hours shopping online.... Continue reading…
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by Jay Peters on (#66JJZ)
You’re still going to want to start saving your pennies. | Illustration by Nick Barclay / The Verge Apple’s long-rumored car could cost less than $100,000 when it’s finally available to buy, according to Bloomberg. But the car may have less ambitious self-driving capabilities than first planned and arrive a year later than originally expected.While the car had been reported to be a fully autonomous car like prototypes from EV startup Canoo, the current design for the car will have more conventional car features like a steering wheel and pedals, Bloomberg reports. This new version won’t be fully autonomous; instead, users will apparently only be able to activate the self-driving features on highways, closer to driver-assist options like GM’s Super Cruise and Ford’s BlueCruise. (Perhaps Apple is wary of running into the issues Tesla has... Continue reading…
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by Mitchell Clark on (#66JK0)
There are about to be new buttons on Google. | Image: Google Google is going to start adding recommended keywords beneath the search bar to help you filter down results, according to a Tuesday blog post from the company. It calls the feature “topics” and says it’ll make it easy to add and remove qualifiers to your query without having to do an entirely new search.As an example of how this system will work, Google shows a search for dinner ideas. In the filters section, where you usually see buttons that let you switch to an Images or Shopping search, are new buttons that let you add modifiers like “easy,” “healthy,” “vegetarian,” and “high protein.” Tapping them narrows your results down, and you can add several of them at once if you want to get really specific. It’s similar to adding more words... Continue reading…
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by Sheena Vasani on (#66GXX)
Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Also, we got some new trailers for Gen V, The Witcher: Blood Origin, and the upcoming The Last of Us series. Continue reading…
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by Jay Peters on (#66JGM)
Not seeing any vampires in this screenshot... | Image: Poncle Despite the name, Vampire Survivors currently doesn’t have any vampires among its 41 playable characters and hordes of enemies, but that could change with the game’s first DLC expansion. On the Steam page for the newly announced expansion, Legacy of the Moonspell, developer Poncle is hinting that we might finally see vampires in the game.“Legacy of the Moonspell is the first DLC for Vampire Survivors, and introduces a brand new stage, new characters, new monsters, and new weapons to slaughter them with,” Poncle writes. “There might even be some hidden mysteries for those of an inquiring mindset, but we can neither confirm nor deny the presence of vampires…”Regardless of whether vampires show up, the DLC looks to be a good expansion. In... Continue reading…
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by Justine Calma on (#66JE1)
Recently installed solar panels at the Defence School of Transport on September 29th, 2021, in Leconfield, England. | Photo by Christopher Furlong / Getty Images Right now, there’s “unprecedented momentum behind renewables,” the International Energy Agency says. Renewable power growth has been “turbocharged” by countries scrambling to tackle a global energy crisis spurred on by war in Ukraine, according to new analysis from the agency. Over just the next five years, as much renewable power is expected to come online globally as was added over the past two decades.Renewables will make up a whopping 90 percent of electricity capacity expansion in that five-year span, according to a new report by the International Energy Agency (IEA). By 2025, renewable energy is expected to topple coal to become the world’s biggest electricity source.Solar and wind power make up the vast majority of that... Continue reading…
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by Makena Kelly on (#66JB3)
Illustration: The Verge The Federal Trade Commission is investigating multiple crypto companies over allegations of deceptive conduct, as first reported by Bloomberg on Monday.“While we can’t comment on current events in the crypto markets or the details of any ongoing investigations, we are investigating several firms for possible misconduct concerning digital assets,” an FTC spokesperson said in a statement to The Verge Tuesday. “We cannot comment on the nature of the investigations.”On top of several civil suits, the FTC is just the latest US agency to probe the crypto industry following the sudden implosion of popular trading exchange FTX last month. The Justice Department, Securities and Exchange Commission, the Commodities Future Trading Commission, and... Continue reading…
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by Mia Sato on (#66JB4)
Nick Barclay / The Verge TikTok’s roundup of the biggest moments of 2022 is here — there’s a giant chocolate giraffe, musician Rosalía chewing gum, and a viral remix of Tariq, aka “Corn Kid.” But one thing stands out: the view count on TikTok’s top clips is a lot smaller than in years past.The videos in TikTok’s FYFaves list all have millions of views and are supposed to represent the most viral content on the app. The list is curated, though, and leaves out other videos with high views and engagement, so it isn’t a direct representation of the top-performing clips on the platform this year.Still, the list offers some insight into what’s been successful on TikTok, and over the past three years, views on the No. 1 spot have been trending downward.
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by Antonio G. Di Benedetto on (#66J8N)
The second-gen Nest Hub makes a handy bedside display. | Photo by Dan Seifert / The Verge We’re getting well beyond Black Friday, but the deals are still coming up strong. First off, the latest Google Nest Hub has fallen to a new all-time low price of just $39 at Walmart. And in addition to being a $70 discount, this deal comes with a WiZ smart bulb for free.The second-gen Nest Hub is the most recent seven-inch smart display from Google. This little portal to the Google Assistant gives you the weather, news updates, and access to music streaming, and it makes a great digital picture frame if Google Photos is your preferred cloud photo platform. It’s also a handy smart home controller since you can use your voice to set timers, pull up videos on a Chromecast-connected TV, or turn smart lights on or off. If you snag this deal... Continue reading…
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by Umar Shakir on (#66J8P)
Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Good news for those who hate switching apps on their TVs: HBO is making a return to Amazon’s Prime Video Channels in the US. Customers who subscribe to Prime Video can add HBO Max for $14.99 per month and get access to all the Warner Bros. Discovery content like House of the Dragon in the same place they watch The Boys.Both Amazon and Warner Bros. Discovery were reportedly in talks this summer to get their relationship rolling again. In 2020, WarnerMedia, the former AT&T-owned iteration of HBO’s parent company, launched the standalone HBO Max service that eventually replaced the previous HBO Go and Now streaming-only services. When Max went live, HBO began its attempt to transition to its new sovereign platform by removing its service... Continue reading…
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by Andrew Webster on (#66J8Q)
Image: Crunchyroll Suzume, the next feature from the director behind Weathering With You and Your Name, is releasing internationally next April. Crunchyroll announced the news today, revealing that Makoto Shinkai’s next feature will be in theaters outside of Asia starting on April 12th (it debuted in Japan last month).Here’s the full schedule:
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by Ash Parrish on (#66J8R)
Image: CD Projekt Red In a video outlining Gwent’s 2023 roadmap, the developers at CD Projekt Red shared an important if sad update: no more new cards will be released post 2023 and active support for the game will be ending.The game’s final batch of 72 cards will be released in three groups in April, July, and September 2023. In the video, the developers said they’ll take time after the final batch of cards is released to monitor cards and ensure the meta is balanced before handing over balance decisions to the players themselves.“We want to give you, the Gwent community, the right tools and opportunities to drive the balance changes of the game going forward,” said one of the developers in the roadmap video. They also said that they’re working on an... Continue reading…
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by Nilay Patel on (#66J8S)
Photo Illustration by Will Joel / The Verge The best of Bobs, the worst of Bobs. Continue reading…
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by Jay Peters on (#66J8T)
Perfect for the holidays. | Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Apple on Tuesday announced Apple Music Sing, a karaoke experience that will be built right into the Apple Music app. With Apple Music Sing, you’ll be able to follow along with Apple Music’s real-time lyrics and adjust the volume of the vocals so that you can better hear your singing voice. (I’ll personally be keeping the vocals up as loud as possible to hide my imperfections.)There are a few features designed to make it easier to sing with others, too. Background vocals can appear independently of main vocals, according to Apple, and there will be a duet view as well if you want to sing along with a friend. Apple will have more than 50 “dedicated companion playlists” featuring karaoke-ready songs that you can pick from. ... Continue reading…
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by Cameron Faulkner on (#66J8V)
You can use your spirit ash summons to help you in battle against other players. | Image: Bandai Namco As if there weren’t enough stuff to do already in Elden Ring, Bandai Namco announced that the open-world fantasy game is getting a multiplayer update that adds a new colosseum environment made expressly for player versus player (PvP) bloodbaths. This update will arrive on December 7th for every platform the game is on (PC, PlayStation, Xbox).While you can already engage in PvP battles across many memorable Lands Between locales, there’s nothing like a flat, circular arena to do your bidding. And in the colosseum, you’ll be able to use your spirit ash summons in battle, as you can against the game’s many bosses.The trailer above doesn’t share many details about this new colosseum, like where it is or how you’ll get there and assemble... Continue reading…
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