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Illustration by Kristen Radtke / The Verge; Getty Images Elon Musk has big plans for Twitter, and they include people paying money to tweet, bots getting the boot, and a social media network that doesn’t care what you say as long as it’s legal. Continue reading…

Illustration by Nick Barclay / The Verge Meta is rolling out updates to the Facebook Feed that give users additional ways to tell the company what kind of content they want to see.“Show more” and “show less” buttons will begin appearing below posts from friends and recommended content on users’ news feeds, Meta announced today in a blog post. Clicking the options temporarily increases or decreases how similar content is ranked, resulting in a more fine-tuned feed of content users actually want to see so they spend more time on the platform. Image: Meta “Show more” and “show less” buttons will appear below posts and in the three-dot menu. “By offering more ways to incorporate direct feedback into Feed ranking, we’re making our artificial intelligence... Continue reading…

Intel’s GPU effort is impressive but early Continue reading…

Jamie Clayton as Pinhead. | Image: Hulu David Bruckner’s new Hellraiser is a high-fashion nightmare that gets surprisingly preachy and almost too gruesome at times Continue reading…

Kristen Radtke / The Verge; Getty Images Elon Musk has changed his mind again: he does want to buy Twitter, actually. This, after months of drama! He signaled his intent in a new filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission — but there’s a catch: Twitter has to drop its lawsuit.We understand if you have questions about the whole situation; honestly, we do too. So we talked to some legal experts in hopes that would give us at least a fighting chance at providing some answers. Let’s get into it.First of all, how did we get here?Sigh. This all started after Musk announced that he purchased a 9.2 percent stake in Twitter in April 2022. Twitter promptly offered Musk a seat on the company’s board of directors, an offer Musk initially accepted before changing his mind about a... Continue reading…

Mercy in Overwatch 2. | Image: Blizzard Overwatch 2 launched today — in theory, at least. The game’s servers clicked on this afternoon, but for the last few hours, many people trying to check out its removed 5v5 team shooter action are seeing nothing but this screen. Image: Richard Lawler Overwatch 2 “server connection failed...retrying” error screen At least some of the issues can likely be chalked up to a “mass DDoS attack” targeted at Blizzard’s servers. “Teams are working hard to mitigate/manage,” Blizzard president Mike Ybarra said on Twitter. “This is causing a lot of drop/connection issues.” Ybarra hasn’t shared an estimate for when the problems may be resolved.

Illustration by Kristen Radtke / The Verge; Getty Images Elon Musk will actually buy Twitter — for real this time — at $54.20 a share. Musk confirmed the offer in a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. In the SEC filing, he says he will “proceed to closing of the transaction” on the terms he negotiated with Twitter in April, as long as the lawsuit Twitter brought against him to force him to close the deal is adjourned.The filing follows reporting from Bloomberg that suggested Musk would close the deal under the original terms he proposed in April before trying to back out of it.On Tuesday evening, Musk tweeted as though he is once again intrigued by the idea of owning Twitter — bots and all. “Buying Twitter is an accelerant to creating X, the everything app,” he wrote.

Rivian’s positive production report could be overshadowed by a bad court ruling in Georgia. | Image: Rivian Rivian made over 7,000 electric vehicles over the last three months and reaffirmed its goal to produce 25,000 vehicles by the end of the year. It was a sign that the company is continuing to rise above its early stumbles as it seeks to dominate the EV market with its beautifully designed emissions-free, adventure-themed trucks and SUVs.The positive production report came on the heels of a less-than-positive update about the buzzy EV startup’s plans to build a $5 billion factory in Georgia. A judge ruled last week that the state’s economic development authority failed to justify the use of taxpayer-funded money to subsidize the project, throwing the whole project into question.A judge blocked a $1.5 billion tax subsidy plan for Rivian... Continue reading…

The platform will shut down “by early 2023.” | Nick Barclay / The Verge Meta will be shutting down its newsletter platform, Bulletin, “by early 2023,” according to a statement emailed to The Verge by spokesperson Morgan White. A report from The New York Times says that Meta sent creators on the platform an email letting them know that the service would be going away.Meta announced Bulletin in June 2021, pitching it as a platform “focused on empowering independent writers, helping them reach new audiences and power their businesses.” The idea was similar to Substack; readers could subscribe to newsletters from writers they liked, and writers could charge money for their work and other perks. Some of the writers that were signed onto the service (Meta manually added people; there wasn’t a signup process)... Continue reading…

Blizzard Second verse, same as the first Continue reading…

This year’s iOS update will make a bigger difference to most people than a new system status indicator. | Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge For the past couple of weeks, I’ve been carrying one of the new iPhone 14 models with me as my daily driver. When I’ve met up with friends — blissfully unaware of consumer tech goings-on — they’ll ask how work is going, as a matter of etiquette. At that point, my eyes gleam, and I pull the phone out of my tote bag.“Well,” I say, “I’m testing the new iPhones.” I pause for dramatic effect, and my friend nods politely as I continue.“It has this new feature called Dynamic Island. Here, let me start a timer and show you...” nodding continues but eyes glaze over at this point.“And because the sub-pixel array...” At this point in the presentation, my friend is glancing desperately around the room for a convenient out as I explain how it’s... Continue reading…

Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge Today, the European Parliament voted overwhelmingly in favor of new legislation that would eventually require all mobile phones sold in the EU to use a USB-C port for wired charging. The proposed rules, which lawmakers reached an initial agreement on back in June, mean that Apple is likely to have to remove the decade-old Lightning connector from its phones and switch to USB-C if it wants to continue selling them in one of its most lucrative global markets.The EU’s aim is to reduce e-waste. If more devices are interoperable with the same cables, then the EU thinks fewer electronic devices and chargers will get thrown away. According to its estimates, every year, 11,000 tonnes of disposed of and unused chargers end up in landfill, which... Continue reading…

The new Spark app wants you to spend way less time looking at your inbox. | Image: Readdle / David Pierce Spark has long been one of the best and most popular third-party email apps. Its developer, Readdle, managed to build a tool that is clean, fast, and simple in a market where very few apps check all three of those boxes. It works across multiple platforms, handles multiple accounts with ease, and is free for practically everyone.But Spark’s new app, which is available now for Mac (though the App Store version is still behind), Windows (for the first time), iOS, and Android, takes a completely different approach. It asks — and sometimes forces — you to be more thoughtful about how often you look at your inbox. The new desktop app no longer also includes a calendar view and focuses entirely on email. It has very specific ideas about where... Continue reading…

Photo illustration by William Joel / The Verge. How CEO Pat Gelsinger changed the culture at Intel and bet big on the silicon heartland Continue reading…

Nick Barclay / The Verge A Russian court fined TikTok 3 million rubles (about $51,000) for failing to delete content on the platform that violates the country’s anti-LGBTQ “gay propaganda” law, Reuters reports.The fines are based on charges that TikTok was promoting “non-traditional sexual values, videos featuring LGBT, feminism, and distorted representation of traditional sexual values,” according to Russian news outlet Interfax. The 2013 law restricts individuals and entities from discussing and promoting LGBTQ rights and has been used to crack down on content online. Russia warned TikTok of the fines in August.Along with the fine on TikTok, Russia also issued a 4 million rubles ($68,000) penalty on Twitch for hosting an interview with Ukrainian adviser to... Continue reading…

Illustration by Nick Barclay / The Verge The Facebook Oversight Board announced Tuesday that it was reviewing a company decision to remove a post calling for the death of Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei in the wake of nationwide protests in the country.In its Tuesday announcement, the board describes the July post as depicting a caricature of Khamenei grasping “a woman wearing the hijab” with his beard. The image is captioned calling for death to the “anti-women Islamic government” and its “filthy leader Khamenei.” While Facebook removed the post for encouraging violence against a political leader, the company later reinstated it in August once the board chose to review the decision, the announcement said.“As we cannot hear every appeal, the Board prioritizes... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Researchers at Kaspersky have found malware hidden in a modified version of the anonymity-preserving Tor Browser, distributed in a way that specifically targets users in China.According to details published in a blog post on Tuesday, the malware campaign reaches unsuspecting users through a Chinese-language YouTube video about staying anonymous online. During the research period, the video was the top result for the YouTube query “Tor浏览器,” which translates to “Tor browser” in Chinese. Beneath the video, one URL links to the official Tor website (which is blocked in China); another provides a link to a cloud-sharing service that hosts an installer for Tor, modified to include malicious code.Once the file is executed, it installs a... Continue reading…

It’s been nearly 10 years since Windows 8 launched to the world as part of Microsoft’s big tablet push. While we’ve seen two heads of Windows since then, former Windows chief Steven Sinofsky has shared some early concept images for Windows 8 in a new video. The images show concepts for the Start menu, multiple monitor support, File Explorer, Internet Explorer, and lots more.Windows 8 development began in the spring of 2010, and Microsoft held an all-team event for the Windows org (around 5,000 people) at the Seattle Convention Center. “This video was played as the meeting ended and the team departed the Seattle Convention Center,” explains Sinofsky. “It is a highlight or sizzle reel of the many months we spent planning the release and... Continue reading…

The Nest Doorbell (wired, 2nd gen) comes in four colors. | Image: Google Google has finally released its long-awaited successor to the Nest Hello video doorbell. The new Nest Doorbell (wired, 2nd gen), which was first teased last year, costs $179.99 and is available now at retailers such as Best Buy and at the Google Store.A wired version of Google’s Nest Doorbell (battery), the new Nest Doorbell is meant for homes with existing doorbell wires. A wired doorbell doesn’t need to be recharged frequently, although if the power goes out, it won’t record video, unlike its battery-powered counterpart.The design of the new doorbell is almost identical to the existing battery version; it’s just slimmer and, at 5.2 inches tall, about an inch shorter. It comes in the same four colors as the Nest Doorbell (battery):... Continue reading…

Google says that “color was an important consideration when designing the Nest Wifi Pro.” | Image: Google Google’s beefing up its mesh networking offerings. On Tuesday, it announced the Nest Wifi Pro, a router that supports tri-band Wi-Fi 6E for faster potential speeds and that can connect 100 devices per router for a maximum of 300 devices. In terms of speed, it’s a big upgrade compared to the regular Google Nest Wifi, which was released in 2019 and is equipped with dual-band 802.11ac capabilities (nowadays known as Wi-Fi 5).If you do have one of those previous systems, though, you should know that you won’t just be able to add a Wifi Pro node or two to it. In a briefing, Google Nest solutions lead Ben Brown called the new devices “a self-contained system” that “doesn’t have that hybrid backwards compatibility with Nest Wifi, and Google... Continue reading…

The Ava Remote smart home controller | Photo by Jennifer Pattison Tuohy / The Verge Last week, I visited the world of the professionally installed smart home. This is the promised land. Everything just works, your voice assistant doesn’t try to sell you toilet paper, and you can control your whole home with just one app. Of course, you pay a hefty price and have to give up lots of control for the privilege.The Ava smart remote could be the love child of an iPhone and a Logitech Harmony remoteI was at CEDIA Expo 2022, the annual trade show of the Custom Electronics Design and Installation Association (think CES, but less weird stuff and more stuff you — or someone with more money than you — can actually buy).Here, I got to hold the almost perfect smart home controller: a sleek touchscreen, wrapped in a smooth... Continue reading…