The Verge

The first wireless earbuds from Sony's PlayStation unit have unique planar magnetic drivers and an equally unique style. Continue reading...

Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge As large swaths of gaming history have become endangered, researchers and fans all over the world are fighting to turn back the clock. Continue reading...

Illustration by Samar Haddad / The Verge When I ask Frank Cifaldi, the founder and director of the Video Game History Foundation, to explain the importance of preserving and maintaining old video games, he answers with a movie analogy. Imagine, he said, if movies were only released on, like, VHS, ever. You want to watch Back to the Future? All right, you have to go on eBay, and you have to find an antique VHS copy that's degraded a bit from use. You have to find a VCR that works, a TV that it plugs into - or the external scalers that make it look correct on your modern TV - and you might need a time-base corrector because the magnetic flux signal is out of sync."For too many games, this is the state of the industry. For the most part, decades' worth of games now exist only... Continue reading...

Illustration: The Verge Google is suing scammers who are trying to use the hype around generative AI to trick people into downloading malware, the company has announced. In a lawsuit filed today in California, the company says individuals believed to be based in Vietnam are setting up social media pages and running ads encouraging users to download" its generative AI service Bard. The download actually delivers malware to the victims, which steals social media credentials for the scammers to use.Defendants are three individuals whose identities are unknown who claim to provide, among other things, the latest version" of Google Bard for download," the lawsuit reads. Defendants are not affiliated with Google in any way, though they pretend to be. They have... Continue reading...

Illustration: The Verge Many Threads users are now saying they have the ability to opt out of having their posts shown on Instagram and Facebook. To keep Threads posts from showing up Meta's other platforms, tap the two lines in the top right of the Threads app > Privacy > Suggesting posts on other apps - two switches let users turn off suggestions on Instagram or Facebook. Meta tends to roll out Threads features slowly, so if you don't see the new toggles yet, give it time.Instagram and Facebook each got a For you on Threads" carousel in the last few months. Responding to user grumpiness, Threads said in October it was listening to feedback" shortly before testing the opt-out switch that's rolling out now.The feature was clearly intended to drive... Continue reading...

Image: William Joel / The Verge Hi, friends! Welcome to Installer No. 14, your guide to the best and Verge-iest stuff in the world. (If you're new here, welcome, you're my favorite, so happy you're here, and also, you can read all the old editions at the Installer homepage.)This week, I've been traveling a bunch, so I've watched Mission: Impossible - Fallout, Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves, and most of Rick and Morty. I've also been reading about life as an OnlyFans star and the insane growth of WhatsApp, doing some holiday meal planning in Mela, nodding vigorously at how bonkers tipping culture has become, and trying to make a dent in Barack Obama's very good AI reading list.I also have for you a rundown of the best tools for managing money, new gadgets... Continue reading...

Image: Supergiant Games Oh damn: Netflix is bringing Hades to its gaming service in 2024.We've known Netflix is serious about its gaming library. Ever since it added the Oxenfree series and, arguably, going all the way back to Hextech Mayhem, Netflix has shown its gaming offerings weren't going to be just silly, time-wasting waiting room games but solid mobile versions of indie games with name recognition, including the announcement of Braid earlier this week. Never has that idea been more expressed than in this latest announcement that Supergiant Games' Hades will debut exclusively on mobile via Netflix.Hades is an isometric dungeon crawler roguelike in which you play the seriously hot Zagreus, prince of Tartarus and son of Hades, as he tries to escape his... Continue reading...

The Witcher: Sirens of the Deep. | Image: Netflix Avatar: The Last Airbender, Scott Pilgrim Takes Off, Devil May Cry, Stranger Things, and 3 Body Problem are all showing out at Netflix's Geeked 2023 showcase. Continue reading...

Illustration by William Joel / The Verge The Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (SAG-AFTRA) reached a tentative deal with Hollywood studio executives, effectively ending the 118-day actors strike. Yesterday, SAG-AFTRA announced that its national board has approved the agreement, 86 percent to 14 percent, and recommended union members vote to ratify it.The deal is still technically pending until union members' vote is tallied on December 5th, though the guild says some of its features will go into effect during the ratification process, such as certain pay raises. SAG-AFTRA offered a summary of the deal in its announcement:

Panera's tip prompts are slightly better because you can choose a dollar amount, and there's a disclosure that your tip may" be distributed to eligible employees. | Photo by Victoria Song / The Verge Tipping is an age-old American debate. How much do you pay and when? Is it a choice or an obligation? Generally, tech has at least made it easier over the years. Smartphones made it a breeze for friends to whip out a calculator to figure out tip and split the bill. And now, checkout screens everywhere, from in-person stores to delivery apps, have added buttons designed to make it easier for you to tip.That's convenient, until it's not. According to a new Pew Research Center report, tipping culture in America has seen a shift in recent years. Seventy-two percent of Americans say tipping is expected in more places than five years ago. Not all of that is tech-related, but it's hard to deny the role checkout screens have in tipflation. Even... Continue reading...

The M3 Pro is not as midrange as you'd expect. | Image: Apple Apple's new M3 Pro chip is looking like an odd duck in an otherwise solidly improved MacBook Pro laptop. For most people who need a computer with a bit of oomph over dreary office tasks and need multiple external monitors, the M3 Pro will serve their needs and have great battery to boot. But year-over-year computer upgraders who might already have a Mac with an M2 Pro chip or even an M1 Pro might not see many (if any) performance improvements unless they shell out more dough for an M3 Max.When you put the 12-core M2 Pro and M3 Pro head-to-head, you'd expect the latter to perform much better. In reality, the M3 Pro isn't running away from the older chips. That's because of an interesting design choice: Apple gave it an equal split of six... Continue reading...

The black version of the light and airy LinkBuds S can be had for just $108.80. | Photo by Chris Welch / The Verge You might think that two weeks before Black Friday is a bad time to get the best prices on tech, but with so many deals dropping early it doesn't hurt to be shopping ahead of schedule. For example, the Sony LinkBuds S wireless earbuds have once again dropped down to their lowest prices. You can get Sony's ultra-lightweight and comfy buds in black for just $108.80 ($90 off) at Newegg. Or, if you prefer brighter color options, Amazon, Target, and Sony also have them in white and blue for around $128 ($72 off).The LinkBuds S are all about comfort, with each earbud weighing in at under five grams. These noise-canceling buds are great for wearing for long stretches, like a lengthy commute - especially since they can automatically switch... Continue reading...

Both keycaps are made of metal and are available in a choice of three colors. | Image: Dbrand Love or hate its irreverent branding, you have to give props to Dbrand for its consistency. The company best known for its range of skins and cases for consumer tech gadgets is releasing its mechanical keyboard keycaps today, and they're remarkably on-brand.The Pyramid keycap is a pointy escape key that the company says stabs whoever presses it (lawyers advised that we soften the tip a little bit, but rest assured you're never more than one firm key press away from drawing blood") and a replacement enter key called The Enter that simply reads fuck off."Rather than full keycap sets that are designed to replace all the keys on a keyboard, these novelty keycaps are designed to just replace a couple of keys. The company says they're... Continue reading...

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Meta is starting to prompt users to sign up for the paid no ads" version of Facebook and Instagram that's launching in Europe. It's rolling out as Meta responds to new EU privacy regulations by positioning the use of its services with targeted ads as a choice by users. Of course, that choice is also the only alternative available to paying around $20 per month to disengage from ads on Facebook and Instagram.The new prompt clarifies that people using both Facebook and Instagram will eventually need to pay an additional fee to cover both profiles. The pop-up appeared on one of our editor's Instagram accounts (and Matt Navarra mentions people are seeing them on Facebook as well), so you can see what it looks like right here. ... Continue reading...

Image: Warner Bros. Discovery Warner Bros. Discovery just canned Coyote vs. Acme, a live-action and animated film featuring John Cena and the classic Looney Tunes hijinks of Wile E. Coyote. Director Dave Green confirmed that the nearly completed film will not be released shortly after Deadline and The Hollywood Reporter broke the news.Coyote vs. Acme is the third almost finished film that CEO David Zaslav has shelved for financial reasons. Like Batgirl and Scoob! Holiday Haunt, Coyote vs. Acme got sent to the vault so Warner Bros. Discovery could get a tax write-off as part of its efforts to cut billions in costs following last year's megamerger. The Coyote vs. Acme film cost around $72 million to make, according to The Hollywood Reporter, making for a $30 million... Continue reading...

One big wiper, or three wipers in a trench coat? | Image: Parker Ortolani / The Verge As Vergecast listeners know, I am deeply and forever fascinated by the Tesla Cybertruck's wiper - it is one of the silliest design compromises in automotive history on a vehicle that is itself a rolling design compromise. I love it so much.Anyway, I've been asking listeners to send in detailed shots of the wiper to confirm a rumor I've been hearing - my thanks to the dozens of people who've passed along photos. I didn't have anything worth running until today, though: our own Parker Ortolani spotted a Cybertruck in NYC and took several photos that appear to show that the single wiper" is actually multiple wiper blades stacked in a row.The idea, I've been told, is apparently to make replacements easier - one assumes sourcing... Continue reading...

The stylish black-and-white version of the Switch OLED is on sale. | Photo by Cameron Faulkner / The Verge It's been a good week for console deals. Earlier this week, the Asus ROG Ally fell to a new all-time low and the PlayStation 5 bundle with Marvel's Spider-Man 2 dropped to $499 ($70 off). Now, Dell's offering the black-and-white Nintendo Switch OLED console for $349.99 with a $75 Dell gift card, effectively dropping the price tag to $275. You also can use the gift card to pick up various games and accessories, like the Nintendo Switch Pro Controller or Mario Kart 8 Deluxe.But that's not all. If you already own the Switch OLED, Dell is also selling the Xbox Series X for $449.99 ($50 off) and adding the same $75 gift card. That means you can also save on games like Star Wars Jedi: Survivor or controllers like Microsoft's Xbox Elite... Continue reading...

Photo by Leon Neal / Getty Images In the grand scheme of history, Elon Musk's full story feels like it has many more chapters left to go, but that isn't stopping A24 from making a big, flashy biopic about him with The Whale director Darren Aronofsky helming the camera.Puck reports that a new Muck biopic based on Walter Isaacson's recent biography of the South African billionaire is in the works.Currently, no writer or other members of the movie's creative team have been announced, but the news comes in the wake of The Whale garnering critical acclaim and Brendan Fraser winning a best actor Oscar for his performance as the film's central character. Director Danny Boyle's 2015 Steve Jobs drama, also based on a biography penned by Isaacson, was similarly well received... Continue reading...

These $100 earbuds offer good sound and impressive noise cancellation for the price, and they bring back the wing tip design of the Galaxy Buds Plus. Continue reading...

Cheaper bundles could result in fewer customers canceling their subscriptions when they're finished watching exclusives like Netflix's One Piece (pictured). | COURTESY OF NETFLIX Verizon is planning to offer its customers a discounted bundle of streaming services that includes the ad-supported tiers of both Netflix and Warner Bros. Discovery's Max. People familiar with the situation" told The Wall Street Journal on Thursday that the bundle will cost $10 a month instead of the roughly $17 per month you'd pay for the services separately.It's unusual for two rival streaming services to agree to a bundle, but there are benefits to doing so via distributors like Verizon, Comcast, Apple, and Amazon. Bundles can attract more customers to both streaming services, and reduce the number of people canceling their subscriptions when they are done watching a specific show. Earlier this week, Sowmyanarayan Sampath, chief... Continue reading...

Photo by Drew Angerer / Getty Images Google CEO Sundar Pichai is set to testify on Tuesday in Epic's lawsuit against Google. Epic plans to call Pichai as a witness as it makes its case alleging that Google Play is an unlawful monopoly.In court documents, Google requested to use a podium in the courtroom on Tuesday, which suggests that Pichai may indeed appear to testify; last month, when he testified in US v. Google, Pichai stood behind a podium instead of sitting because of apparent back issues. (Judge James Donato granted the request for the podium Thursday evening.)Pichai's appearance isn't a total surprise, as the CEO appeared as one of 53 witnesses Epic said it may or may not call before the trial kicked off. But what he says might be a big deal given his... Continue reading...

Valve's Steam Deck and its carrying case. | Image: Valve Catch up on our coverage of PC gaming handhelds, starting with Valve's category-defining Steam Deck. Continue reading...

Illustration: The Verge Apple has agreed to pay up to $25 million to settle claims that it engaged in hiring discrimination. On Thursday, the Department of Justice announced that $18.25 million will go toward creating a backpay fund for affected victims, while the remaining $6.75 million is in civil penalties.The DOJ found that Apple violated the Immigration and Nationality Act when recruiting through a permanent labor certification program (PERM), which lets companies hire foreign workers permanently in the US. When recruiting workers for this program, the DOJ says Apple didn't advertise openings on its website even though its standard practice was to post other job positions on this website."The DOJ also found that Apple only accepted PERM position... Continue reading...