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Image: World’s Edge / Xbox Game Studios It’s time to get your “wololo” on the go go go. To accompany today’s Age of Empires 25th anniversary broadcast (man, a lot of games are turning 25 this year) World’s Edge and Xbox Game Studios announced Age of Empires is going from PC to iOS and Android.This is the latest attempt by Microsoft to break into the mobile gaming market, and it’s already got a leg up with its acquisition of Activision Blizzard King, which is slated to complete in 2023. Age of Empires has been brought to mobile before, but this seems to be the most faithful adaption of the game yet. In 2015, Age of Empires: Castle Siege, a tower defense game, and Age of Empires: World Domination, a real-time strategy game, both arrived on mobile. Both games were short-lived,... Continue reading…

You’ll be able to store a lot more stuff in your Workspace account. | Illustration: The Verge Google is about to give Workspace Individual subscribers a whole lot more storage. Soon, every account will be upgraded from 15GB to 1TB of storage, the company announced on Tuesday, meaning people on that tier will be able to store a lot more than before.Google launched Workspace Individual in July 2021 as a way for one-person businesses to use some of the company’s more premium Workspace perks without having to pay for higher-priced options designed for larger enterprises. While this increased storage will make it easier to store more documents and assets, it also means individuals might have a lot more stuff to move if they ever want to take things from Google to another platform. That could make it harder to switch, which is... Continue reading…

Image: Microsoft Microsoft announced during a 25th-anniversary celebration of Age of Empires that the latest game, Age of Empires IV, is coming to consoles next year. It will launch on day one on Xbox Game Pass, and it will be playable via Xbox Cloud Gaming for those who prefer to play on portable devices. The game launched in late 2021 for PC, and it has been available since then for PC Game Pass subscribers, but this is a great opportunity for console gamers to check it out.In case you missed out on the PC release or you’ve just been waiting patiently for news on this port, my colleague Mitchell Clark has some fun coverage from last year on the impressive lengths that Microsoft and World’s Edge (the studio focused on Age of Empires) went to give... Continue reading…

Photo by Chris Welch / The Verge Sony is bringing multipoint connectivity to its entire current lineup of premium wireless earbuds this fall. Just as with other headphones and earbuds, the feature will let you connect to two Bluetooth audio sources at the same time. So if you’re listening to music on your laptop and a call comes in on your phone, you can answer and switch over to it seamlessly. Sony plans to add multipoint to the LinkBuds and LinkBuds S “by November of 2022.” In a somewhat surprising turn, even the WF-1000XM4s will gain multipoint this winter.Those have been on the market for well over a year, and Sony never so much as hinted that multipoint was in the cards. Once the update is released, you’ll need to update the firmware for your earbuds through the... Continue reading…

Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge Apple says that it’s fixed the iMessage and FaceTime outage that was causing “message not delivered” errors on Tuesday for about half an hour starting at 11:48AM ET (8:48AM PT). According to the company’s system status page, the issue affected “some” users, which lines up with our experience; while one Verge staff member did have issues sending messages, a few others were able to do so during the outage.But there were thousands of reports that the service wasn’t working on Downdetector. That makes sense, as any small outage for a service as widely used as iMessage will affect a lot of people. The big three carriers also got a flood of outage reports, which is also not necessarily surprising. If people can’t send messages, they’re going... Continue reading…

Image: Chris Sweda / Chicago Tribune / Tribune News Service via Getty Images Uber and DoorDash will deliver prescriptions for the covid antiviral Paxlovid filled through Walgreens for free to underserved neighborhoods, the companies announced Monday. The partnership is part of new pandemic response efforts from the White House.“This partnership is yet another way in which Uber’s technology can help Americans recover from the pandemic and make lifesaving healthcare more accessible,” Caitlin Donovan, general manager of Uber Health, said in a statement.Paxlovid reduces the risk of hospitalization and death from covid. It has to be taken within a few days of symptoms first appearing to be most effective, so getting the pills quickly is important.This initiative, which will launch in the coming weeks, is... Continue reading…

Photo by Nilay Patel / The Verge Last week, Rivian CEO RJ Scaringe confirmed what many of us already knew: the buzzy automaker was exploring the possibility of making its own electric bikes.If it follows through — and there’s no reason to assume it won’t; an electric mountain bike would fit in nicely with the company’s specific brand of outdoor adventure vehicles — Rivian will face a challenge that many other automakers have also faced, which is how to build a successful micromobility business.I think there’s no question that Rivian could build a really cool-looking e-bike. The company has certainly made a mark for itself by designing beautifully made and incredibly fun to drive products. But I do think it’s questionable as to whether people would want an e-bike... Continue reading…

Illustration by Samar Haddad / The Verge There are many reasons why you might want to factory reset your smartwatch. Perhaps an update got borked during download and no amount of troubleshooting has helped. Maybe you want to upgrade to a new model and plan to gift your current watch to a friend. Apple requires you to do it if you happen to forget your passcode. Or, it’s possible that smartwatches just aren’t your thing and you’re ready to sell.Whatever the reason, it’s important that you wipe the data from your device. Wearables are personal devices and store a ton of sensitive data — especially if you primarily use your smartwatch for health and fitness tracking. As a general reminder, if you’re not totally throwing in the towel on smartwatches, it’s a good idea to back up... Continue reading…

Image: BBC The BBC is partnering with Disney to bring upcoming episodes of Doctor Who to the Disney Plus streaming platform for global audiences, complete with a brand-new logo inspired by Tom Baker’s era as the galaxy-traveling timelord. But it’s also going to make it way harder to binge-watch the show.New episodes of the timey-wimey TV show will air on the BBC for the UK and Ireland, with Disney Plus becoming the exclusive home for new seasons of Doctor Who for global audiences. Doctor Who will return to screens in November 2023 to coincide with the 60th anniversary, premiering exclusively on the BBC for the UK and Ireland.In case you missed the recent finale that ended Jodie Whittaker’s run as the Thirteenth Doctor, David Tennant will be... Continue reading…

Arkane Studios With Halloween right around the corner, Redfall has a new trailer that really bares its fangs. This new trailer shows another side of the game, eschewing the quirky and quippy heroes in favor of some of the scares you’ll get investigating the titular town of Redfall, Massachusetts. There are a couple of neat jump scares featuring a stalking vampire — although the moment makes heavy use of a strobing effect, so photo-sensitive viewers beware. Redfall also shows off that monstrous bloodsucking nosferatu aren’t your only enemies. A human faction of zealots that promises protection from the creatures is also running around anointing people in blood. Sticky!It’s been a minute since we’ve heard any peep about Redfall, a survival horror... Continue reading…

Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge It’s a pretty good day for deals on Samsung displays (and other deals, too). Starting off, the Samsung 32-inch M8 Smart Monitor is on sale for $529.99 in white at Amazon and Best Buy or in any of its four airy colors direct from Samsung. This $170 discount is around the best price you can get for this unique monitor. It may not be the outright best at any one thing, but its 4K resolution and long list of features make it a convenient display for combining work and play on one screen. It’s kind of ideal for apartment living, where you may not have the room for a big TV and a monitor, especially if you work remotely and find yourself using your laptop for everything from Slack to Netflix.The M8 has built-in speakers and a microphone, and... Continue reading…

Emma D’Arcy as Queen Rhaenyra Targaryen. | Image: HBO House of the Dragon’s season 1 finale pulled the series together by becoming what Game of Thrones was at its best Continue reading…

Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge Bose’s Sport Open wireless earbuds hit the market in early 2021, and less than two years later, the company has decided to phase them out of its lineup. The earbuds are marked with a status of “final sale” and are being steeply discounted on Bose’s online store, and Bose spokesperson Joanne Berthiaume confirmed to The Verge that this is the end of the line for the product.The $199.99 earbuds — now available for $119.99 while supplies last — were marketed as “a truly different kind of sport headphone” upon their release. They don’t actually go into your ear canals or even block them in any way. But rather, the unique open-style design lets them rest above your ears and allows for total situational awareness while listening to music. ... Continue reading…

Image: Motorola Motorola’s third-gen Razr foldable has finally arrived in Europe (via Android Police). The device was first released in China back in August and will cost £949 or €1,199 (about $1,080 or $1,185 USD) once it goes on sale.Unfortunately, Motorola still hasn’t provided us with the exact European release dates in each country, but we’ll update this article if we hear back. We also don’t know when or if it will go on sale in the US.The latest iteration of the Motorola Razr has a slightly larger 6.7-inch OLED display with a 144Hz refresh rate when unfolded. It retains the same 2.7-inch FHD Plus display when closed shut, but it’s still bigger than the 1.9-inch outer screen on the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 4, leaving room for a full-size clock and... Continue reading…

The new Wyze Cam v3 Pro adds 2K resolution and local processing for person detection. | Image: Wyze Smart home company Wyze has released the latest generation of its popular budget security camera. The $49.99 Wyze Cam v3 Pro adds 2K resolution and on-device AI for faster processing of smart alerts for person detection. Wyze also says the Pro camera has a faster CPU, an improved speaker and microphone, and a better Wi-Fi connection with two antennas compared to the $29.99 Wyze Cam V3. Although it still only works over 2.4 GHz networks.Another new feature is Smart Focus. Part of a new app interface for Wyze’s cameras, Smart Focus adds a smaller view of the livestream while the main view focuses on the person detected, giving you more information in a single glance. Image: Wyze The new Wyze Cam has the same look... Continue reading…

Friend finally pay you back for picking up burritos? Now you can buy something on Amazon. | Image: Venmo Amazon’s adding a new payment option: Venmo. Starting on Tuesday, some customers in the US will be able to pay for orders using the popular money sending and receiving service, with availability in the country rolling out by Black Friday, or November 25th.Using Venmo to pay for an Amazon order is relatively simple; to set it up as a payment method, tap “Select a Payment Method” during checkout and then “Add a Venmo account.” From there, you’ll be prompted to authorize Amazon to use your Venmo account and to choose where you want it to pull money from your balance, linked bank account, or eligible debit card. After agreeing, Amazon will ask you if you want to set it as your default payment method, and you can choose to pay with it... Continue reading…

Samar Haddad / The Verge An IP (internet protocol) address is a unique string of numbers assigned to every device that can connect to the internet. That includes your phone, laptop, desktop computer, game consoles, and more.Here, we’ll tell you a little about your IP address, as well as how to find your IP address on Mac, Windows, Android, and iOS.What is an IP address?All devices use a public IP address to connect to the internet and a private IP address to connect to your local network. While each individual device has its own private IP address, they also use the public address assigned to your network’s router. Your internet service provider (ISP) typically allocates one public IP address to your router, which means all your devices in the network should... Continue reading…

A robot wields a paintbrush — but AI artwork is created with algorithms not oil paints. | Photo by Hollie Adams/Getty Images Getty Images CEO Craig Peters has criticized companies “racing” to commercialize AI art generators, saying firms aren’t thinking through the potential legal and ethical hazards of the technology.In an interview with The Verge, Peters reiterated Getty Images’ rule against selling AI content (which it banned in September), while announcing a new partnership between the company and Israeli firm Bria to offer AI-powered image editing tools. Getty Images’ stance on AI-generated content marks a clear difference with rival Shutterstock, which announced today it will be integrating AI art generator DALL-E directly into its site’s offerings.“I don’t think those questions have been answered.”“We took a step around AI-generated imagery to... Continue reading…

The store is due to open soon in London’s Soho district. | Image: Nothing Nothing plans to open its first physical retail location in London’s Soho district before Christmas this year, the company has announced. The store will be located at 4 Peter Street, between Gosh! Comics and the London outlet of fashion brand Supreme. News of the store comes a day before Nothing is due to announce its latest pair of earbuds, the Ear Stick, which it will sell at the store alongside its other devices.In the past, Nothing has used pop-up locations to promote and sell products, but this is the first time the company will have a permanent retail presence. Nothing CEO Carl Pei has said in the past that his ambition is for Nothing to compete with Apple, which has long operated a global network of stores to offer sales and... Continue reading…

From left to right: the new River 2 Max, River 2, and River 2 Pro family of portable batteries from EcoFlow. | Image: EcoFlow Big-ass battery maker EcoFlow is announcing the redesigned River 2 series today fitted with long lasting LFP (LiFePO4) batteries and lots of ports to power your AC and DC devices. These are batteries sized to power your weekend away or a music festival.The River 2 series consists of three batteries that vary by storage capacities, maximum AC power (pure sine wave) output, and charging ports:

Photo by Sam Byford / The Verge Nvidia says it’s investigating two reports of RTX 4090 cards that have had power cables burn or melt. Reddit user reggie_gakil was the first to post details about their Gigabyte RTX 4090 issues yesterday, showing burn damage on the new 12VHPWR adapter cable that Nvidia ships with the RTX 4090. The connection on the actual card was also damaged and melted.A second Reddit poster replied to the same thread showing off similar damage to an Asus RTX 4090 graphics card power connector.“We are investigating the reports,” says Nvidia spokesperson Bryan Del Rizzo in a statement to The Verge. “We are in contact with the first owner and will be reaching out to the other for additional information.” Image: reggie_gakil (Reddit)... Continue reading…

Photo by Abigail Bassett for The Verge Toyota may have finally announced an electric vehicle strategy last year, but new reporting suggests that the automaker could be headed back to the drawing board. According to Reuters sources, an internal group at Toyota is tasked with working out plans to improve its current e-TNGA flexible EV platform or for developing a new EV architecture.The e-TNGA platform is already in use in the all-electric bZ4X crossover SUV and is (for now) planned to underpin the upcoming 2023 Lexus RZ 450e.As these changes remain under discussion, Toyota reportedly is also suspending development on certain other EV projects, including a compact electric cruiser (inspired by the FJ Cruiser) and the Toyota Crown hybrid sedan. The existing strategy called... Continue reading…

Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge Best Buy’s new MacBook upgrade program locks you into three years of monthly payments before giving you the option to upgrade to the latest and greatest machine (via Apple Insider). Called Upgrade Plus, it lets people with approved credit finance either a MacBook or MacBook Air via Citizens Bank.As an example, Best Buy says you can purchase the $999 M1-powered MacBook Air for as low as $19.99 for 36 months and then pay out the remaining $280.35 in month 37 to keep the device. That is, assuming you qualify for a zero-percent APR offer — the program’s FAQ indicates offers may carry interest of up to 29.99 percent, depending on creditworthiness.But if you don’t want to pay the higher amount on that last payment, Best Buy says you will... Continue reading…

Currently, there’s no explanation for why the election’s being called off. | Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge The Amazon Labor Union has withdrawn its petition to hold an election at an Amazon fulfillment center in Moreno Valley, California, according to Kayla Blado, a spokesperson for the National Labor Relations Board. It’s a sharp-turn around for organization efforts at the facility, known as ONT8; the petition was filed on October 12th, and the NLRB had confirmed that there was a sufficient showing of interest to proceed with the election, according to The Los Angeles Times’ Suhauna Hussain.It’s unclear why the petition was withdrawn or if it has any relation to the ALU’s recent loss in Albany, New York. The withdrawal request isn’t currently publicly available, but petitioners don’t have to tell the NLRB why they’re withdrawing, according... Continue reading…

The final update for Chome on Windows 7 and 8.1 is scheduled to be released in early February. | Illustration: The Verge Google will release the final version of Chrome for Windows 7 and Windows 8.1 sometime next year. Chrome 110, which is tentatively scheduled to be released on February 7th, 2023, will be the last version that supports the two older Microsoft operating systems, according to a Google support page (via Android Police).This could be a bigger deal than you might think. Despite Windows 7 first being released in 2009 and Microsoft officially ending support for it in 2020, data suggests that the operating system is still running on a whole lot of devices: as recently as last year, that number was estimated to be at least 100 million PCs. That means a lot of people could soon be both an unsupported operating system and an unsupported web... Continue reading…

The Wikipedia logo | Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Wikipedia is one of the sturdiest survivors of the old web, as well as one of the most clearly human-powered ones, thanks to a multitude of editors making changes across the globe. But after celebrating the site’s 20th birthday last year, the Wikimedia Foundation is turning to new — and more heavily automated — tools in search of its next wave of contributors. It’s adding features designed to ease users into making their own edits, including suggestions for easy first steps like cross-linking different articles. It’s doing so while trying not to weaken the bonds of its individual communities — and, the Wikimedia team hopes, possibly even making them stronger.Wikimedia has been testing extra features for newcomers since 2019, and it’s... Continue reading…

Illustration by Samar Haddad / The Verge At a staff meeting this afternoon here at The Verge, several people started complaining about the problem of keeping their fabric-covered tech clean. It turned out that this is definitely a problem in search of a solution.For example, if you are keeping an Apple HomePod Mini, a Google Assistant speaker, or an Amazon Echo in your kitchen, the device is going to start accumulating crumbs and grease really quickly. Not to mention the pet hair that the fabric is going to attract or what it will look like after being carried from room to room by grubby little four-year-old hands.So how do you keep them clean?I looked it up in various sources, and most agreed: there are a few things you can do to try to keep the surface of your... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge The Justice Department has announced charges against two Chinese intelligence officers, accusing them of attempting to obstruct a US investigation into the telecommunications giant Huawei.In charging documents made public on Monday, defendants Guochum He and Zheng Wang were accused of working on behalf of the Chinese government to obtain confidential information and trial evidence related to a Justice Department investigation into Huawei. US law enforcement officials declined to name the company, but both CNN and The Wall Street Journal reported that the case concerns Huawei, which is the subject of an ongoing trade secrets prosecution.“This case exposes the interconnection between PRC intelligence officers & Chinese companies, and it... Continue reading…

Image: Microsoft The Microsoft Surface Duo and Duo 2 are getting Windows-like UI tweaks, as well as the improvements that come with Android 12L, an operating system built specifically for devices with larger screens. In an update on its blog, Microsoft shared some of the changes coming to its folding phone, which include revamped icons, colors, and controls made to look as if they’re on a Windows device.We first heard Android 12L’s coming to the Surface Duo back in March, and after some testing, the update is rolling out on Surface Duo devices now. According to Microsoft, the refreshed look extends to the Duo’s Quick Settings and System Settings menus, as well as the Pen menu that appears when using the Surface Slim Pen 2.Just like on a standard... Continue reading…

Plastic, Styrofoam, and other trash drain down from storm channels and wash up along the banks of Ballona Creek after the first major rain of the season in Los Angeles, California. | Photo by: Citizen of the Planet / UCG / Universal Images Group via Getty Images We’ve known for years that plastic recycling rates are low, but they’ve managed to get even worse. The state of plastic recycling in the US is so abysmal that no plastic packaging can even be considered recyclable, according to a new report published today by environmental group Greenpeace.Households in the US tossed out 51 million tons of plastic waste in 2021, says the new report. Just 2.4 million tons of that plastic was recycled, or just under 5 percent — compared to 8.7 percent in 2018.With so little of the waste recycled, no type of plastic used in the US meets an industry-backed standard for what’s considered “recyclable,” says GreenpeaceWith so little of the waste recycled, no type of plastic packaging used in the US meets an... Continue reading…

The microSD card slot is located on the bottom of the Steam Deck, beneath the right speaker. | Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge If you get a Steam Deck, slide in a microSD card, format it, and begin installing a game, you might notice something: incredibly slow download speeds. Like “Is my internet broken?” speeds. There seems to be something happening for some Deck owners, including myself, that prevents your removable microSD storage from being able to operate at full speed.There is a fix for it that doesn’t take too long, but note that you’ll need to reformat your microSD card during this process, so you will lose your game installs and anything else you have stored on your card.But first, a disclaimer that it’s possible that your microSD card is, in fact, what’s slowing things down. My colleague Alice Newcome-Beill tells me that you should buy one that has... Continue reading…