The Verge

The 8.3-inch iPad Mini is like a tiny version of the latest iPad Air. | Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge As we highlighted yesterday, a bunch of Google gadgets are currently on sale, likely in celebration of the tech giant's upcoming anniversary. Chief among these is the Pixel Tablet, which is down to $439 ($60 off) for the first time. However, although it's a good tablet, it may not be the best option if you use your tablet largely for reading or aren't heavily invested in Google's ecosystem. Instead, you might want to take a look at Apple's latest iPad Mini, which is on sale at Amazon in its base configuration with 64GB of storage and Wi-Fi for $399.99 ($100 off). That's $20 shy of its all-time low and its second-best price to date.Apple's 8.3-inch tablet is oft-considered the middle child" in Apple's lineup. It's got the smallest... Continue reading...

Illustration by Samar Haddad / The Verge You may have heard about this new smart home standard Matter and how it will make it easier to buy and set up connected gadgets. Not only that, but those gadgets should now work with any phone, voice assistant, or smart speaker, using any smart home platform - Apple Home, Google Home, Amazon Alexa, Samsung SmartThings, or any other Matter-compatible option. If you got excited and went out and bought a new smart plug or smart light bulb to give this a whirl, you may have picked up one that uses Thread, one of the two wireless protocols Matter uses (the other is Wi-Fi). So, now what?While Matter is supposed to make everything about the smart home easier, there are still some growing pains, especially regarding Thread - hey, the smart... Continue reading...

One of ChargePoint's EV chargers. | Image: Getty ChargePoint, which bills itself as the world's largest and most open" charging network for electric vehicles, is announcing a series of new initiatives to improve the reliability of its 245,000-strong network of chargers. We expect these multimillion dollar investments to deliver network reliability of nearly 100 percent once fully implemented," the company writes in a press release.The announcement comes as US drivers of electric vehicles continue to have issues finding reliable places to charge their cars when away from home. One study from last year found that one in five respondents were not able to charge their vehicle after arriving at a station, with the majority blaming chargers that are malfunctioning or out of service.... Continue reading...

Illustration: The Verge On Monday, a California judge denied Google's request for summary judgment in a lawsuit filed by users alleging the company illegally invaded the privacy of millions of people. The people suing Google say that occurred because Google's cookies, analytics, and tools in apps continued to track internet browsing activity even after users activated Incognito mode Chrome, or other similar features like Safari's private browsing expecting a certain level of privacy. However, the truth is, as we wrote in 2018, What isn't private: private browsing mode."Judge Yvonne Gonzalez-Rogers pointed to statements in the Chrome privacy notice, Privacy Policy, Incognito Splash Screen, and Search & Browse Privately Help page about how incognito mode limits... Continue reading...

No, not that Cloud. | Image: Square Enix Sony said it was coming, and now it's here. Sony is now confirming it's launched a public beta test of PS5 cloud gaming - one that streams games to a PS5 at up to 4K resolution, according to gamers who are now receiving invitations.We didn't previously know Sony would be streaming at 4K, and that could be a big deal no matter what that 4K" actually means.

Photo by Andrew Hawkins / The Verge BrightDrop, the electric delivery spinoff of General Motors, is bringing its battery-powered delivery vans to Mexico as its next market. The company now covers all of North America after expanding to Canada last year.The first two products that will be available to customers in Mexico will be the company's Zevo 400 and Zevo 600 delivery vans. The Zevo 600 sports a 165 kWh battery pack for 250 miles of range. The Zevo 400 is smaller and nimbler - though we're still waiting for more specific specs when it starts production later this year. Customers in Mexico will be able to place orders for the vans through BrightDrop's website also starting later this year.BrightDrop EVs are built at GM's CAMI Assembly plant in Ontario, Canada,... Continue reading...

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Apple Music has a new station that's designed to help you find songs you might like. The app's Discovery Station will play a curated selection of music based on what you've been listening to lately but haven't added to your library or heard before, as spotted earlier by Apple Insider and 9to5Mac.While Apple hasn't officially announced the Discovery Station, it's currently live on Apple Music's mobile, desktop, and web apps for most users. You can find the option by heading to Listen Now and then looking beneath the Stations for You section. The Discovery Station works alongside the [Your name's] Station, which plays a selection of songs that you already have in your library. Screenshot by Emma Roth / The Verge Some... Continue reading...

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Zoom, a company whose name has become synonymous with video chats that have allowed many to work remotely during the pandemic, has told staffers who work within 50 miles of a company office that they'll have to come back in two days per week, according to Business Insider.We believe that a structured hybrid approach - meaning employees that live near an office need to be onsite two days a week to interact with their teams - is most effective for Zoom," Colleen Rodriguez, Zoom's head of global PR, said in a statement. As a company, we are in a better position to use our own technologies, continue to innovate, and support our global customers." The company's new hybrid work approach will roll out over August and September, The New York... Continue reading...

A nurse draws blood from two people at an American Red Cross bloodmobile in Fullerton, California, on January 20th, 2022. | Photo by Paul Bersebach / MediaNews Group / Orange County Register via Getty Images The American Red Cross has fully dropped its blood donor ban on men who've had sex with men (MSM) and, starting today, bases eligibility on individual risk factors, per updated FDA guidance. The nonprofit now asks blood donor hopefuls the same eligibility questions regardless of gender or sexual orientation."While the Red Cross has removed limits specific to men who have sex with men, it will require a three-month waiting period for anyone to donate blood from last anal sex contact." The Red Cross will also continue to refuse donations from people who are HIV-positive, even if their viral load is undetectable. Look at the nonprofit's full FAQ page for other disqualifying factors.The FDA's new policy was announced earlier this year,... Continue reading...

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Zoom doesn't train its artificial intelligence models on audio, video, or text chats from the app without customer consent," according to a Monday blog post from Zoom's chief product officer, Smita Hashim. After we first published this article, Zoom updated its terms of service with a similar statement. In her post, Hashim also writes that our customers continue to own and control their content."The company's handling of customer data for AI training has come under scrutiny after a Stack Diary article reported on March changes to the company's terms of service that appeared to give the company broad control over user data for AI work.The new sections appear to merge descriptions of Zoom's license to show the content users want to... Continue reading...

The SanDisk Extreme Pro can shrug off dust and water, at least. | Image: SanDisk If you're thinking of buying a SanDisk Extreme Pro, Extreme Portable, Extreme Pro Portable, or WD MyPassport SSD, maybe just don't.My colleague Vjeran just lost 3TB of video we'd shot for The Verge because the drive is no longer readable. Screenshot by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge The disk you attached was not readable by this computer." This isn't a drive he purchased many months or years ago - it's the supposedly safe replacement that Western Digital recently sent after his original wiped his data all by itself. Remember when we warned you about that?SanDisk issued a firmware fix for a variety of drives in late May, shortly after our story. They sent out Vjeran's replacement in early June. He'd just begun... Continue reading...

Movella has launched a specialized streaming app for Vtubers alongside motion-tracking hardware that's a fraction of the price of professional mocap kits. | Image: Movella Movella, a provider of professional motion capture solutions, has launched Obskur, an all-in-one platform that provides virtual streamers (also known as Vtubers") with body tracking technology that's typically reserved for industries like film and game development.There are two parts to the Obskur platform: a free OBS-like streaming application built using Unreal Engine 5 and a $1,995 Mocap Box" that provides the actual tracking hardware for controlling a virtual avatar. Inside the box, you'll find nine upper-body Movella Xsens tracking sensors - a technology that's been used in animation across movies like The Avengers, Avatar, and Black Panther - alongside a customized pair of StretchSense" gloves for tracking hand movements.V... Continue reading...

Container ships moored off the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach in Long Beach, California, on November 16th, 2021, as a historic traffic jam started to ease. | Image: Bing Guan / Bloomberg via Getty Images Report cards are out for retailers' climate goals, specifically when it comes to tackling the pollution from their shipping. Compared to other retail giants, Ikea managed to get surprisingly high scores.With a B+ grade overall, Ikea stands out among the 17 other rated companies, which all received D or F grades. Apparently, the Swedish company has been more ambitious in its push for cleaner ships and ports, according to the coalition of environmental groups called Ship It Zero that rated the companies.Today, the ships that haul all the furniture, gadgets, and other consumer goods we buy are major sources of pollution. Maritime shipping is responsible for about as much of the world's greenhouse gas emissions as aviation. It also pumps... Continue reading...

Illustration: The Verge The next time you want a quick gut check on whether a sentence is grammatically accurate, Google Search might have the answer. 9to5Google has spotted a grammar check" feature that will offer suggestions on whether a given phrase is grammatically accurate. For example, type the quick brown fox jump over the lazy dog" into the search engine and Google will highlight that you probably meant jumps" instead of jump."Although most people probably don't care about the grammar of their search phrases, we suspect this tool is meant to be more general purpose. If one of your sentences looks off when you type it into a messaging app for example, Google's hope seems to be that you'll give it a check with Google Search - because anything that... Continue reading...

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Netflix is adding a way to give a thumbs-up, double thumbs-up, or thumbs-down to a show or movie while you're watching it on mobile, which could give you an easier way to teach the streaming service's algorithms about your viewing preferences.With this new change, when you tap the screen while watching something, you'll see the three different thumb buttons in addition to options you may be familiar with (like the skip forward / back buttons and changing the speed of a video). Image: Netflix The new thumb buttons will be available on Monday on iOS and later" on Android, according to spokesperson Layal Brown. (Brown had no other specifics to share" when I asked for a timeframe for the Android release.) And if you... Continue reading...

Sony Spider-Man 2 PlayStation 5 bundle and console covers | Image: Sony Preorders for Sony's upcoming limited edition Spider-Man PlayStation 5 console and some of its matching accessories are still available. The themed setup can be bought as a full bundle with a disc-equipped PS5, a digital code for Marvel's Spider-Man 2, and a matching controller for $599.99. Or, if you already own a PS5, you can get the same look via replaceable covers for $64.99, while the matching DualSense controller runs $79.99.While the next installment of Insomniac's Spider-Man game series isn't due out until October 20th, all this friendly neighborhood gear is set to ship on September 1st.Where to preorder the limited edition Spider-Man 2 PS5 console bundleIf you want the whole matching package, the limited edition PlayStation... Continue reading...

Image: OpenAI OpenAI now lets you block its web crawler from scraping your site to help train GPT models.In a blog post, OpenAI said website operators can specifically disallow its GPTBot crawler on their site's Robots.txt file or block its IP address. Web pages crawled with the GPTBot user agent may potentially be used to improve future models and are filtered to remove sources that require paywall access, are known to gather personally identifiable information (PII), or have text that violates our policies," OpenAI said in the blog post. For sources that don't fit the excluded criteria, allowing GPTBot to access your site can help AI models become more accurate and improve their general capabilities and safety."Blocking the GPTBot may be the... Continue reading...

Image: Activision Surprising absolutely no one, Activision Blizzard has announced the latest Call of Duty game.Posts today from developer Sledgehammer Games and the official Call of Duty accounts confirmed Modern Warfare III (not to be confused with 2011's Modern Warfare 3, of course) will launch on November 10th.

Image: Disney The Little Mermaid is headed to Disney Plus. You can start streaming the live-action remake on the service starting on September 6th.First released in theaters in May, The Little Mermaid stars Halle Bailey as Ariel, Jonah Hauer-King as Prince Eric, Melissa McCarthy as Ursula, and Javier Bardem as King Triton. The movie revisits the classic tale first shown in Disney's 1989 animated film, once again following Ariel as she trades her voice for the ability to walk on land.

Lego's Wildflower Bouquet is a beautiful gift for mom, one she can easily put together herself. | Image: Lego What do you gift your mom? That's a challenging question to answer, especially given mothers - the generous, unselfish beings they can be - are not likely to spill the beans when asked.Luckily, we've done the hard work for you. With the help of The Verge staff, we've curated a list of some of the best tech gifts you can treat your mom - or any mother figure, really - to year-round. Whether it's for her birthday, Mother's Day, or Christmas, here you'll find something that caters to all kinds of budgets and interests, ranging from smartwatches and Kindles to massage guns, robot vacuums, and more. You can rest assured that these are items we can personally vouch for as well, having tested and reviewed them ourselves.Peruse this list... Continue reading...

Image: Gigabyte Gigabyte has launched a new low-profile GeForce RTX 4060 OC graphics card that's designed to fit into mini PC builds, as spotted earlier by VideoCardz. Unlike many of the other GPUs meant for compact PCs, this one comes with three fans instead of just two or one.That three-fan setup might make it a bit difficult to fit into some small form factor cases, as the card measures 182mm long. But it makes up for that with its thin 40mm height and 69mm width. Despite its slender design, the chip comes outfitted with two DisplayPort and two HDMI ports as well. It also comes with a low-profile bracket, which is a nice touch. Image: Gigabyte While it's nice that Gigabyte has made a 40-series chip specifically for low-profile... Continue reading...

Photo by Dave Kotinsky / Getty Images for MrBeast Burger A week after YouTube star Jimmy Donaldson (aka MrBeast) sued his namesake virtual burger restaurant, the company behind MrBeast Burger has filed its own lawsuit against Donaldson and his Beast Investments. Virtual Dining Concepts, which handled the fulfillment and delivery of MrBeast Burgers, is seeking $100 million in damages. The news was first reported by Variety.VDC alleged that Donaldson didn't deliver on his contractual obligations, including publicity and promotional work, failing to publicly support MrBeast Burger, and making untruthful and disparaging statements. VDC says that Donaldson's actions have caused enormous financial harm" and that the burger restaurant's reputation was destroyed.This case is about a social media... Continue reading...

Red Dead Redemption 2. | Image: Rockstar Games Looks like Red Dead Redemption is moseying onto the Switch and PS4 (and the PS5 via backward compatibility). Rockstar Games announced today that the new conversion" is courtesy of Double Eleven, which was founded by former Rockstar developers in 2009.The game launches for the two systems on August 17th, more than a decade after it first showed its hide on the PS3 and Xbox 360. (That version is already compatible with newer Xbox consoles.) It was followed by a gigantic sequel in 2018. The releases will also include the noncanonical Undead Nightmare single-player campaign that pitted John Marston against hordes of zombies.Red Dead Redemption will cost $49.99 in the Nintendo eShop and the PlayStation Store, while physical releases are... Continue reading...

Image: The Verge Microsoft is bringing its AI-powered Bing Chat to mobile browsers soon. While Bing Chat has been available in separate Android and iOS mobile apps since late February, Microsoft is opening it up to all mobile browsers as part of the broader changes to stop blocking Bing Chat on third-party browsers.Bing Chat first launched in February, but it was restricted to Microsoft's own Edge browser. Microsoft started opening up to Chrome and Safari desktop browsers in late July as part of testing for full third-party browser support.With so many new, useful features now a part of Bing, we're excited to announce you can start experiencing the new AI-powered Bing in third-party browsers on web and mobile soon," says the Bing team in a blog post.... Continue reading...

Illustration: The Verge WhatsApp's latest beta has a new voice chat feature that lets groups of up to 32 people connect for a spoken session, according to beta notes published by WABetaInfo. WhatsApp beta version 2.23.16.19 is rolling out to testers on Android, adding features similar to Telegram and Discord chats, Slack's Huddles, and even Meta's own Messenger platform.If it's live in your version of the app, you'll notice a waveform icon within group chats - but only if the WhatsApp account has the feature enabled and includes compatibility with the group. Tapping the button immediately launches voice chat, along with its own interface. Then, anyone in the group, up to 32 people, can just jump in and start talking. Unlike the existing group calls feature,... Continue reading...

Image: PayPal PayPal is launching its own stablecoin: PayPalUSD (PYUSD). The company says the cryptocurrency token is fully backed by U.S. dollar deposits" and can be bought or sold on PayPal's app or website at $1.00 per PYUSD.With PYUSD, you can make person-to-person payments, fund purchases with the currency at checkouts, and transfer PYUSD between PayPal and other outside wallets. PayPal says that you can also convert the currencies supported by PayPal to and from PYUSD as well.Stablecoins take their name from the fact that they're centralized and backed by existing government-supported currencies like the US dollar or the Euro. The US government is still hashing out how to regulate stablecoin and other forms of cryptocurrency. After all,... Continue reading...

It's a big update year for Samsung's flip-style foldable - and a much larger cover screen makes all the difference. Continue reading...

Amazon, Best Buy, and Walmart are all slashing the price of the next-gen console for a limited time. | Image: Sony Earlier this week, we saw a rare deal drop on the PlayStation 5 - only for it to disappear as quickly as it arrived. Thankfully, if you missed out on the unexpected deal at Monoprice, you now have another chance at saving $50 on Sony's next-gen gaming console.Right now, the disc-based PS5 is on sale at Amazon, Best Buy, Walmart, and GameStop starting at $449, the lowest price we've seen on the standalone console since it launched at the tail end of 2020. Typically, we only see discounts on various bundles, which conveniently pair the console with titles such as God of War Ragnarok, Final Fantasy XVI, and Horizon Forbidden West but rarely dip below the $500 threshold.The PlayStation 5 is a fast, powerful console that's capable of... Continue reading...

Image: Gen Con A pair of thieves waltzed into Gen Con 2023 in Indianapolis and stole as much as $300,000 of gaming cards (via IndyStar). The cards, which were sitting in boxes on a pallet, were stolen using a pallet jack while vendors were setting up for the long-running yearly gaming convention that Dungeons and Dragons co-creator Gary Gygax started.As for what cards were taken, that's unknown. IndyStar reported that a worker at a local board game store thought the packaging resembled that of Magic: the Gathering, Pokemon Trading Card Game, and the unreleased Disney Lorcana. Ravensburger, the company that makes Disney Lorcana, tweeted that all of its product is accounted for. Convention-goers waited for as much as 16 hours for the card game, which... Continue reading...

Photo by Alexi J. Rosenfeld/Getty Images A massive gathering of people showed up on Friday afternoon at New York City's Union Square for a giveaway hosted by two social media influencers, mega-popular Twitch streamer Kai Cenat and another streamer, Fanum. Cenat is the most-subscribed streamer on Twitch, according to TwitchTracker. The giveaway was set to take place at Union Square Park at 4PM ET, and the park was full of people by 3PM.An earlier video posted by Cenat from the inside of a vehicle showed him talking about multiple PS5s he intended to give away while showing off a huge stack of $100 gift cards. The video quickly devolves into chaos when Cenat exits the vehicle, with the crowd immediately collapsing on Cenat and his group. Cenat also posted a nearly three-minute... Continue reading...

Illustration: The Verge The Google Pixel Watch 2 could get much better battery life thanks to a new, more efficient processor and may even gain ultra-wideband (UWB) support, according to the typically-reliable Kamila Wojciechowska, writing for Android Authority.The new leak says the rumored Pixel Watch successor will use the more efficient 4nm Qualcomm Snapdragon W5 Plus chip, backing up previous reports.The new chip could significantly improve its performance and potentially bring multi-day battery life to the platform. The first Pixel Watch used a much slower 10nm Exynos 9110, which got up to, at most, 15 hours of battery life in The Verge's Victoria Song's review last year.Apple uses UWB to enable precision-finding of its AirTags and newest AirPods Pro,... Continue reading...

Image: Lucid Motors Lucid Motors has announced it is reinstating original pricing across the full air lineup," dropping the price of two of its vehicles below $100,000, according to a press release the company shared with The Verge. The new base prices, while supplies last," will be $125,600 for the Air Grand Touring (down from $154,000), $95,000 for the Air Touring (down from $107,400), and $82,400 for the Air Pure (down from $87,400).You may have noticed those aren't quite the old prices for all three, as the Lucid Air Pure started at $77,400 previously - Lucid's director of press communications Andrew Hussey clarified in an email to The Verge that the new pricing only applies to the all-wheel drive version of the car, which he said totaled $82,900,... Continue reading...