The Verge

The OnePlus 11 5G. | Photo by Allison Johnson / The Verge Specs for the OnePlus 12 have leaked, showing some key incremental changes including faster charging and a bigger battery but with a design that's not a lot different from the OnePlus 11 5G, reported Smartprix in collaboration with prominent leaker OnLeaks.According to Smartprix, the phone is getting a new Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 SoC, a 5,400mAh battery, and a 64-megapixel telephoto camera, all upgrades from the OnePlus 11 5G. The battery capacity is a slight boost over the OnePlus 11's 5,000mAh battery, as is the faster 100-watt wired charging. Smartprix says OnePlus is reintroducing 50-watt wireless charging, too, which fans of the phones will likely welcome back after the company dropped wireless charging entirely with the 11 5G.... Continue reading...

The NYPD conducted its test on Sunday following weeks of heavy rain and flooding across the city. | Photo by James Carbone / Newsday RM via Getty Images The New York City Police Department is testing new drones that are designed to transmit audio messages to the public, such as announcements warning of dangerous weather or nearby emergencies. On Sunday, NYC's emergency notification system announced on Twitter that the NYPD would be conducting a test of remote-piloted public messaging capabilities" that day, following several weeks of heavy rain and rare flash flood warnings impacting the city.A police spokesperson later confirmed to AM New York that these tests took place at Hook Creek Park in Queens, ahead of further downpours expected to hit the city this week, but refused to share the results of its test with the publication. One example of how these audio drones may be utilized is... Continue reading...

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Twitter is working on a feature that will let you publish articles on the platform, according to owner Elon Musk. The feature will allow users to post very long, complex articles with mixed media," Musk said in a reply to a user tweeting about the in-development tool, which is apparently now called Articles" instead of Notes." You could publish a book if you want."The feature will further expand the ways you can write on the platform, which, under Musk's ownership, is starting to move beyond its microblogging roots. Twitter Blue subscribers can already publish tweets with 10,000 characters, which is far above the 280-character limit imposed on non-Blue subscribers. Whenever the articles feature launches, it sounds like it will let... Continue reading...

Mobileye's system can detect illustrated signs as well as regular speed limit signs. | Image: Mobileye Driverless car tech developer Mobileye has a new vision-only system designed for one job: figure out the proper speed limit. The company's new product is a type of Intelligent Speed Assist (ISA) solution that not only automatically reads numbers on speed signs but can also decipher illustrated signs like ones that show children at play - communicating proper speed adjustments to vehicles accordingly.Mobileye's new ISA system is certified by 27 EU countries, plus Israel, Norway, Switzerland, and Turkey. It comes as the EU is launching new General Safety Regulation (GSR) standards that call for all new vehicles to include live speed limit sensors.Many cars on the road today can tell you the current speed limit on your instrument cluster... Continue reading...

Illustration: The Verge This is Platformer, a newsletter on the intersection of Silicon Valley and democracy from Casey Newton and Zoe Schiffer. Sign up here.I.On July 5th, Meta released Threads into the world. Its arrival came after months of anticipation, but ultimately a bit earlier than Meta had planned. Elon Musk's characteristically self-defeating move to limit free users to viewing a small number of tweets each day had given Meta an unusually opportune moment to strike, and it seized the moment.The outsized success that followed - Threads was the fastest app to hit 100 million downloads, and later blew past 150 million - came as a surprise to almost everyone involved. That includes the app's makers at Meta, who hadn't built a homegrown hit this big... Continue reading...

Image: Microsoft Microsoft Teams users will be able to get access to a new AI-powered Microsoft 365 Copilot feature during calls and inside chat messages. Microsoft is announcing an expansion of Copilot into the calls interface of Teams and in regular chats, beyond the meeting experience it outlined earlier this year. It's all part of Microsoft 365 Copilot, which Microsoft put a steep price point on today.Copilot for Teams phone calls will add a generative AI experience for real-time summarization or the ability to generate dates, names, and key points during calls. I can imagine this will be super useful for salespeople who have to deal with multiple clients and track key dates and numbers that are being discussed on these types of calls. ... Continue reading...

The Amazon Smart Thermostat offers a lot of bang for your buck, especially if you're embedded in Amazon's ecosystem. | Photo by Jennifer Pattison Tuohy / The Verge Amazon Prime Day brought some incredible deals on Amazon devices that have sadly since disappeared. If you don't mind buying a refurbished device, you can still save a lot of money on some of Amazon's best gadgets, ranging from smart displays to smart speakers. However, one of the best and most relevant deals - given how hot it is in much of the US - is on the Amazon Smart Thermostat. Right now, Amazon is selling it refurbished for $39.99 from Amazon. That is $15 cheaper than the Prime Day discount we saw on the new model, as well as $40 less than the cost of the smart thermostat new at its full retail price.Amazon's Smart Thermostat offers a lot of value for your money. Not only can it help reduce your energy consumption and (as a... Continue reading...

Rocket Lab's Electron rocket took off from New Zealand. | Image: Rocket Lab Rocket Lab successfully retrieved the first stage of its Electron rocket during its Baby Come Back" mission on Monday - but it didn't catch it with a helicopter this time around. When Electron lifted off from New Zealand's Mahia Peninsula on Monday, its first stage separated about two and a half minutes later and splashed down into the Pacific Ocean, where Rocket Lab's team recovered the reusable booster.After separation, the booster began its descent toward Earth at over 9,000kmph (5,592mph), reaching a temperature of 2,400 degrees Celsius (4,352 degrees Fahrenheit) along the way. The rocket deployed its main parachute about eight minutes after liftoff, allowing it to safely splash down into the ocean, where Rocket Lab brought it onto... Continue reading...

Four layers of modular components - including a swappable discrete GPU - right at your fingertips. Continue reading...

The mods put the gamepad's controls within reach of one hand. | Image: Akaki Kuumeri If you need to use a modern games controller with just one hand rather than two, then why not give Akaki Kuumeri's 3D-printed mods a try? We've written about the YouTuber's previous projects to add joysticks and throttles to controllers, but more recently, Kuumeri has created a range of one-handed controller mods, which we spotted via this Reddit post and could be helpful if you or someone you know has accessibility needs that prevent them from using both hands with a traditionally two-handed gamepad.Kuumeri's videos about the mods date back to early 2022. At the time, Microsoft was the only major console manufacturer to have announced a first-party accessibility controller. Microsoft has the Xbox Adaptive Controller, and Copilot mode,... Continue reading...

Four Leviton Wi-Fi products from the Decora Smart line are getting Matter today. They look... refreshingly nondescript! | Image: Leviton Leviton has added Matter support to four of its Decora smart lighting products: a switch, a dimmer, a smart plug, and a plug-in dimmer. All are from the Decora Smart Wi-Fi 2nd Gen product line; the company says more devices from that line will get Matter support in the future.Here are the specific products that now work with Matter:

According to Amazon's privacy policy, surveillance footage is uploaded to a secure portal and is only available to those with approved access. | Photo by Justin Sullivan / Getty Images An influx of videos taken from Amazon's in-van surveillance cameras has been published on Reddit in recent weeks, sparking fresh concerns about the privacy of delivery drivers being monitored for their entire shifts.As first reported by Vice, two off-camera voices can be heard on one video published to r/AmazonDSPDrivers on July 3rd, commenting on an Amazon driver interacting with a customer's dog. She had a little guest with her today," said one off-screen voice. The video is innocent enough, but it violates Amazon's own privacy policy regarding its in-vehicle camera technology.

The dock offers 11 ports total. | Image: Plugable Plugable's latest USB 4 dock doesn't require compromises when using external monitors with your laptop. The USB4 Dual Monitor Docking Station (model number UD-4VPD) contains not one but two HDMI 2.1 ports, allowing compatible laptops to be connected to dual 4K displays running at a refresh rate of 120Hz. Plugable's press release notes that the UD-4VPD will be available starting today from Amazon for $199.95.I say compatible laptops'' because, in order to get the most out of the UD-4VPD, you'll need a USB 4 or Thunderbolt 4 port that offers the 40Gbps worth of bandwidth needed by the dock. (Thunderbolt 3 is supported, but Plugable's press release notes that, in some cases, it'll offer reduced display mode options.") The dock is also... Continue reading...

Photo by Tim Ireland / PA Images via Getty Images Activision has fixed matchmaking server issues in some older Call of Duty titles for the Xbox 360. Players have been complaining about matchmaking issues in classics like Call of Duty: Black Ops and the original Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 over the past few years, as they haven't been able to get into lobbies for multiplayer modes. Now that the servers are back and working, the player count in Call of Duty: Black Ops (which might not be totally accurate) stands at more than 100,000.That doesn't mean thousands of Xbox 360 consoles are suddenly being powered on. It's all possible thanks to Microsoft's backward compatibility support on Xbox, allowing Xbox One and Xbox Series S / X owners to play these classic Call of Duty games. All you... Continue reading...

It's the end of the road for VanMoof as we know it. | Photo by Thomas Ricker / The Verge VanMoof - the independent e-bike maker that once bragged about being the most funded e-bike company in the world" - has been declared bankrupt in the Netherlands. The company had entered into a so-called suspension of payment" proceeding with court-assigned administrators just last week.According to a statement released by VanMoof, the court of Amsterdam withdrew the suspension of payment proceeding of the Dutch legal entities VanMoof Global Holding BV, VanMoof BV and VanMoof Global Support BV, and declared each entity bankrupt. VanMoof legal entities outside the Netherlands are not in insolvency proceedings. Two administrators have been appointed as trustees and are continuing to assess the situation at VanMoof and the possibility of... Continue reading...

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge There are more streaming choices than ever before, and now Peacock has joined the list of services that are getting even more expensive.A media update reported by Variety, The Hollywood Reporter, and The Streamable confirmed prices for both of its streaming plans are going up, effective August 17th for existing customers, with the cheaper Premium plan going up by $1 each month, from $4.99 to $5.99, and the Premium Plus package that gets rid of ads on most content and adds downloads for offline viewing along with access to live, local NBC channels is going up by $2, from $9.99 to $11.99 per month.As of midnight ET, the annual pricing listed by Peacock changed as well, going from $49.99 / $99.99 for either package to $59.99 /$119.99... Continue reading...

Image: Google Google and Taito's new augmented reality game that lets you wave around your phone to destroy AR Space Invaders aliens is out now on Android and iOS. The two companies announced the game, Space Invaders: World Defense, at Google I/O in May.The release is coming at a time when many other AR games aren't doing so well. While Niantic's Pokemon Go has been a huge success, the studio has shut down games from big brands like Harry Potter, Transformers, and the NBA and laid off employees. And it hasn't just been Niantic that's struggled; Microsoft shut down a Minecraft AR game in 2021 and CD Projekt Red just shut down its The Witcher AR game.I'm not sure if World Defense is going to skyrocket into a Pokemon Go-sized hit, but the core concept... Continue reading...

Image: Neopets Neopets, the beloved virtual pet website that launched in 1999, announced a new era" on Monday. The Neopets Team (TNT) said that it will be launching a new unified website" this week and fixing some of the old Flash games shortly after, per an extensive blog post on Medium.The new website, which will launch on July 20th, will serve as a one stop shop for all brand announcements, links to our different games and products, a repository of Neopets articles and related links, and anything else Neopian you can think of!" TNT says in the post. Neopets.com isn't going anywhere," TNT says, but the team will be giving the site some extra care" to fix up some issues with the site, including the Flash games."The team is bringing back some... Continue reading...

The US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has expressed concern about generative AI's impact on financial markets.In a speech given to the National Press Club on Monday, SEC Chair Gary Gensler said recent advances in generative AI increase the possibility of institutions relying on the same subset of information to make decisions.Gensler said the large demand for data and computing power could mean only a few tech platforms may dominate the field, narrowing the field of AI models companies can use. If a model provides inaccurate or irrelevant information, financial institutions may end up using the same flawed data and making the same bad decisions - creating the risk of something like the 2008 financial crisis, where banks... Continue reading...

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Reddit search had some issues for hours, according to posts from some frustrated Reddit users, but the problems appear to be addressed after Reddit implemented a fix.When the issues were happening, when doing a search while logged in, I didn't see any posts in the results. For example, if I searched iPhone" in r/Apple while logged in on Old Reddit, I would have expected to see a lot of posts about Apple's smartphones. But instead, I saw a message that there doesn't seem to be anything here." When I searched on the app, I didn't see any posts, either. Screenshot by Jay Peters / The Verge You'd think Reddit's Apple community would have some posts about iPhones. That said, searches weren't totally broken. When... Continue reading...

We love to see older phones learning new tricks. | Illustration by Samar Haddad / The Verge With iOS 17, your iPhone will learn a useful new trick: StandBy mode.It's simple - StandBy turns your iPhone screen into a little smart display while it's charging. We've only been using it for a little while, but it's already a staff favorite. It's especially handy with the iPhone 14 Pro models since it remains visible at all times thanks to that always-on display, but you don't need a top-of-the-line iPhone to make it work; it's supported by all models eligible for the iOS 17 update.Here's how to get started using StandBy - we followed these steps on an iPhone 14 running the iOS 17 public beta. Tap through an onboarding screen and you're on your way to StandBy mode.

Jonathan Roumie as Jesus Christ. | Vidangel Studios While the Screen Actors Guild and Writers Guild of America's ongoing labor strikes have brought production on most of Hollywood's movies and shows to an indefinite stop, filming on the fourth season of The Chosen - Dallas Jenkins' historical drama series about Jesus Christ - is reportedly continuing because it is not associated with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers.Deadline - the entertainment industry trade that recently came under fire and subsequently apologized for aggressively misrepresenting an actor's thoughts about the strike - reports that SAG-AFTRA has granted The Chosen an exemption allowing it to keep shooting its forthcoming fourth season due to its being a truly independent" production.On Thursday,... Continue reading...

Illustration: The Verge On Monday, Apple was granted a motion putting a hold on the appeals court ruling that would push the company to undo its anti-steering" rules and let outside developers link to third-party payment mechanisms. The mandate is stayed for 90 days so Apple can file its request that the Supreme Court take up the case.Apple's anti-steering rules limit how developers can direct users to subscription or in-app purchase payments outside Apple's App Store ecosystem, where it takes a cut of revenue. A district court found that Apple had not generally violated antitrust law with its walled garden" approach to iOS, but it ordered it to drop rules against letting developers include calls to action" for outside payment methods.Once that petition is... Continue reading...

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge YouTube is experimenting with a way to help sickos like me watch videos as fast as humanly possible. The test, which YouTube Premium subscribers can opt in to, lets you long-press on the video player to set the playback speed to 2x, according to YouTube's experiments page (via 9to5Google).To me, this sounds like a huge upgrade; currently, moving up the playback speed on YouTube can take a few annoying steps. On the mobile app, you need to tap the video, tap the three dots menu, tap playback speed, and then you can pick from the different options. It's a similar set of steps on the mobile and desktop web. (Though, on desktop, you can use Shift and the less than or greater than keys to speed up or slow things down without digging into the... Continue reading...

Image: Disney Guardians of the Galaxy: Vol. 3 is coming to Disney Plus. You can start streaming the movie on the service on August 2nd.The third and final installment in the Guardians series first came out in theaters in May. It follows Peter Quill (Chris Pratt) and co. in the aftermath of the events that took place in Avengers: Endgame. It joins the first and second films in the Guardians franchise already on Disney Plus, along with several Disney Plus-exclusive spinoffs, like The Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special.

The Buds 2 Pro are small but mighty. | Photo by Chris Welch / The Verge After Samsung's entry-level Buds 2 wireless earbuds took center stage last week on a great deal, it's now the Pro's turn to shine with a deal of its own. The Samsung Galaxy Buds 2 Pro are selling for $187.99 ($42 off) at Amazon or $189.99 at Best Buy. The deals at both retailers have all three color options on offer, including that lovely bora purple color that really pops.While even the base model Buds 2 offer noise cancellation, the fancier Buds 2 Pro are better all around and feature various extras like 24-bit audio support with Samsung phones. Even though that higher bit-rate audio is limited to use with Galaxy devices, the Buds 2 Pro are great to use with any Android phone. They have excellent sound quality, and their stemless fit... Continue reading...

Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge For over 10 years, millions of emails associated with the US military have been getting sent to Mali, a West African country allied with Russia, due to a typo, according to a report from the Financial Times. Instead of appending the military's .MIL domain to their recipient's email address, people frequently type .ML, the country identifier for Mali, by mistake.Johannes Zuurbier, a Dutch entrepreneur contracted to manage Mali's domain, tells the Financial Times that this has been happening for over a decade despite his repeated attempts to warn the US government. When Zuurbier began noticing requests for nonexistent domains, like army.ml and navy.ml, he set up a system to catch these misdirected emails, which the Financial Times reports... Continue reading...

Image: Vjeran Pavic / The Verge Ford announced price cuts for its F-150 Lightning truck that will reduce the listed price on some trims by almost $10,000. The company's most affordable Pro" trim is reduced from its previous MSRP of $59,974 to $49,995, and its highest Platinum" with extended-range battery has dropped from $98,074 to $91,995.The new prices aren't the lowest the F-150 Lightning has been. At launch, the base Pro trim was announced at $40,000, but only a few were made at that price. And opting for an extended-range battery added $10,000 to the original $52,974 price of the XLT edition. Now, the same model's MSRP starts at $69,995.News of the price drops comes after we reported last month that many Ford F-150 Lightning reservation holders canceled their... Continue reading...

Image: Corsair Corsair is acquiring Drop, an online retailer best known for its lineup of mechanical keyboards and keyboard accessories like keycaps. Drop has been acquired by Corsair," wrote Drop CEO Jef Holove in a post announcing the deal. Corsair's press release specifies that the deal only includes certain assets" from Drop, but Corsair spokesperson Harry Butler confirmed to The Verge that the deal includes the Drop.com website, brand, business, community, and all its staff."Personalized Keyboards that can be modified by the consumer is one of the fastest growing trends in the gaming peripheral space," Corsair CEO Andy Paul said in a statement. Drop has proven to be one of the leaders in this space and with Corsair's global footprint, we... Continue reading...

Image: Microsoft Microsoft is launching a new Xbox Game Pass Core subscription to replace Xbox Live Gold. This new Game Pass Core offering will include the usual Xbox online console multiplayer support, deals and discounts, and a new small catalog of more than 25 games - including Gears 5, Forza Horizon 4, and Psychonauts 2.Existing Xbox Live Gold members will be automatically transferred across to Xbox Game Pass Core on September 14th, with the service priced at the same rate of $9.99 per month (or $59.99 per year) as Xbox Live Gold.As part of this replacement subscription, Microsoft is discontinuing Games with Gold on September 1st, the perk that has allowed Xbox owners to grab free games monthly for a decade and add them to their content library.... Continue reading...

Not to be all Marie Kondo about it, but my Mac Studio sparks joy in me every day, and it's not because it's the fastest computer I've ever owned. It's also not strictly about the front-facing ports Apple gave it, nor is it the village of ports that live in the back.It's the mustache.See, I found this mustache sticker in the back of a drawer in my house. I don't know where it came from, only that it was there, and the moment I found it, I knew immediately where to put it: smack-dab in the middle of my Mac Studio. I'd been thinking for awhile that the Studio has this goofy face on the front, and slapping a curly stache on it just drove that home. It delights me, and recently, I've been thinking about why this goofy twee addition to my... Continue reading...

Christopher Nolan at a screening of Oppenheimer at The Whitby Hotel in New York City. | Image: Roy Rochlin / Getty Images for Universal Pictures Around the time J. Robert Oppenheimer learned that Hiroshima had been struck (alongside everyone else in the world), he began to have profound regrets about his role in the creation of that bomb. At one point, when meeting President Harry S. Truman, Oppenheimer wept and expressed that regret. Truman called him a crybaby and said he never wanted to see him again. And Christopher Nolan is hoping that when Silicon Valley audiences of his film Oppenheimer (out July 21st) see his interpretation of all those events, they'll see something of themselves there, too.After a screening of Oppenheimer at The Whitby Hotel yesterday, Nolan joined a panel of scientists and Kai Bird, one of the authors of American Prometheus, the book Oppenheimer is... Continue reading...

Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge Apple may do a new product launch in October, according to Bloomberg's Mark Gurman in his Power On newsletter today, and he speculates that the focus of the presumably-post-iPhone 15 launch will be new Macs, hinting the M3-powered iMac may be among them. Gurman has previously written that Apple is planning to release an M3-powered iMac at the end of this year.Gurman hedges pretty hard on this prediction, but the timing feels right. The last time we saw a new iMac was when Apple released its colorful redesign more than two years ago.That doesn't necessarily mean we'll see any changes to the form factor this time around. In last week's Power On, Gurman wrote that larger, potentially up to 32-inch iMacs won't show up until late 2024, so... Continue reading...

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Sony has agreed to a 10-year deal for Call of Duty with Microsoft to keep the franchise on PlayStation after the proposed Activision Blizzard acquisition. Microsoft Gaming CEO Phil Spencer says Sony and Microsoft have agreed to a binding agreement" to keep Call of Duty on PlayStation.This ends a bitter battle between the companies that has been waged both privately and publicly over the past year after Microsoft announced its proposed acquisition of Activision Blizzard in January 2022.

Bosch's PowerControl spray arm gives you control over where you want it to clean the hardest. | Image: Bosch Bosch is claiming its new 800 and Benchmark Series dishwashers could finally lay to rest the debate over the right way to load the dishwasher.The new thing is a PowerControl spray arm that can find the dirtiest dishes wherever you put them (as long as that place is on the bottom rack):

Image by Alex Castro / The Verge Reddit users have noticed the site unexpectedly removed everyone's chat history prior to January 1st of this year. Those asking why have been directed to a changelog update from June announcing feature updates to chats (via Mashable). The update's headline didn't say anything about data going away, and burying any reference to removal at the bottom with a vague, single line:

The translucent pair of Beats Studio Plus are on sale this weekend, along with other shades. | Photo by Chris Welch / The Verge Technically, Amazon Prime Day ended a couple of days ago, but it appears Amazon and other retailers didn't get the memo. Quite a few of the best deals are still kicking around, including one on the Beats Studio Buds Plus that's available to Prime members and non-Prime members alike. Right now, you buy the terrific wireless earbuds at Amazon, Best Buy, and Target for just shy of $150 ($20 off).In addition to a unique translucent option, the Studio Buds Plus offer better sound and noise cancellation than their predecessor, the Beats Studio Buds. They also offer longer battery life and are designed to be platform-agnostic, so you can use Android features like Fast Pair. Of course, as Beats is an Apple-owned company, they can take... Continue reading...

Tasks is still pretty basic - but at least it now has all your tasks! | Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge Google has spent the last half-decade cruelly teasing me with its to-do list app. Google Tasks first launched as a standalone app in 2018, and Google seemed to have big plans for its task manager tool. And then... nothing. Actually, worse than nothing: Google launched and developed so many disconnected reminder-setting products that it became nearly impossible to figure out where your tasks were, what they are, and how you were supposed to get anything done.But in the last couple of months, something miraculous happened: Google actually fixed it. The company spent this spring combining all its many Tasks and Reminders products into a single tool that is accessible almost everywhere and via almost any Google product. There are still some... Continue reading...

Disney Plus' new anthology series is a wonderful showcase of the African animation industry's brilliance. Continue reading...