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The Verge Google’s “Results about you” tool, meant to simplify the process of removing search results that contain personally identifying information, is starting to roll out to some users, according to a report from 9to5Google. Google announced the feature earlier this year during its I/O conference, saying that it’d be coming to the Google app.Google already had a way to remove search results that contained your home address, email address, or phone number, along with a host of other types of potentially dangerous or damaging information. That system wasn’t necessarily the easiest to access or use, though. If you found a search result that linked to your sensitive information, you’d have to go to a support page and fill out a form containing... Continue reading…

The company making the VM2 plans to release white- or black-colored models. | Image: Dreamware Enterprises You can find all sorts of strange tech on Indiegogo, but this fundraiser for an improved version of the virtual memory unit (VMU) for the Sega Dreamcast is one of the zanier gadgets I’ve heard about this year (via Notebookcheck). The company, Dreamware Enterprises, is in the process of developing the VM2, which it calls a “next-gen VMU for the Dreamcast.” It’s a one-to-one recreation of a niche accessory made for a failed console that it plans to release in black or white in the summer of 2023.Some of the improvements seem great, like a higher-resolution LCD screen with backlighting, microSD card storage for offloading and injecting saves, a rechargeable battery with USB-C charging, and mini-game support. It’ll ship with PC... Continue reading…

I can hear the sound in my head just by looking at the console. | Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge I really like my Xbox Series X. It’s a nice-looking, quiet console that puts hundreds of games at my fingertips thanks to Xbox Game Pass. But every time I turn my Xbox on, I scramble to turn down the volume so that the console’s startup sound doesn’t alert everyone in a 50-mile radius that I want to play some Fortnite.Thankfully, Microsoft is testing an Xbox software update that will let you mute the console’s startup sound, so I hopefully won’t have to worry about the sound sometime soon. The new preview update will be rolled out to Alpha ring members of the Xbox Insider program beginning on Wednesday. If you have the preview, you can mute the startup sounds by going to Settings > General > Volume & audio output > Additional options.W... Continue reading…

Here’s how to best use one of the iPhone 14’s new camera features. | Samar Haddad / The Verge One of the new camera features offered by the iPhone 14 and 14 Pro is a somewhat self-explained Action mode. It’s a feature you can enable in video mode to supercharge stabilization for very intense motion, like running behind someone and recording their workout or chasing your kid around a playground, which is its own kind of workout. It’s easy to use, but there are a couple of things to know so you can get the most out of it.I followed these steps on an iPhone 14 Pro running iOS 16.0, but they’re the same on the standard iPhone 14.How to start using Action modeGetting started with Action mode is easy:

Illustration by Samar Haddad / The Verge A lot of people work remotely these days, which makes work apps like Slack crucial for good communication. Slack status updates provide a particularly helpful and easy way to let colleagues know you’re busy — for example, when you’re in a meeting and can’t see each other in person.You can manually update your status with a few clicks of a button, but that takes time and is easy to forget. Alternatively, you can sync your Slack status to your online calendar, and Slack will automatically update your status for you. In this article, we’ll show you how to connect it to Google Calendar, though you can sync it to other calendars like Microsoft Outlook as well.How to sync your Slack status to Google calendar from your desktop or laptop

New Surface devices are on the way. | Photo by Tom Warren / The Verge Microsoft is holding a Surface event next month. The software giant is officially labeling the event “Microsoft Fall 2022 Event,” where it says it plans to “talk about devices.” The Microsoft event will kick off at 10AM ET on October 12th, just before Microsoft’s Ignite conference begins.Microsoft’s invite to the event includes a wallpaper-like image with watercolors and “save the date” written by what is likely a Surface Pen. The invite comes just hours after rumors of Surface Pro 9 and Surface Laptop 5 devices emerged. Microsoft is reportedly planning to offer a Surface Pro 9 with the option of Arm or Intel processors, potentially meaning the end of the Surface Pro X line. Image: Microsoft Microsoft’s devices... Continue reading…

The Verge Hackers have really been targeting the gaming industry this week — and seem to have focused on companies linked to Take-Two Interactive.On Tuesday, game publisher 2K Games notified the public that an “unauthorized third party” had compromised its help desk platform and used it to send malicious links to customers. The disclosure came just one day after Rockstar confirmed that development footage from GTA VI was stolen and leaked by a hacker who had broken into its network and downloaded confidential data.There’s no sign (yet) that the 2K hack is linked to the earlier breach of Rockstar, but both Rockstar and 2K are owned by Take-Two Interactive, making it an especially damaging week for the parent company’s security record.

The Litra Beam sitting above a monitor. | Photo by Jon Porter / The Verge Logitech is introducing a new key light for streamers with a low-profile design that almost makes it look like a regular desk lamp. Rather than using a circular design like Elgato’s popular Ring Light or a square shape like the Key Light Air or Logitech’s own Litra Glow, the new $99.99 Litra Beam has a long, thin shape. The PC accessory manufacturer is announcing the light alongside a new $349.99 XLR microphone called the Blue Sona.I could see the Litra Beam’s low-profile form factor appealing to anyone who’s streaming, podcasting, or making video calls in a communal part of their home. Although devices like Elgato’s Ring Light are excellent at keeping you illuminated while broadcasting, they take up a lot of space. In contrast, the... Continue reading…

The A30 has an onboard mic, letting you chat on phone calls without bringing along its long, detachable boom mic. | Image: Logitech Logitech has announced a new iteration of the Astro A30 wireless gaming headset, a product that’s gone without an update for several years. It’ll cost $229.99 when it releases in October. The new A30 looks like a modern take on the previous version (thankfully, it’s far less shiny), with the return of its customizable speaker tags that magnetically attach to each side as well as the square-ish shape of the speaker housings. The A30 will be available in matte navy or matte white, and each colorway has a cool (or chintzy, depending on your taste) chrome design effect beneath the replaceable speaker tags.It’ll release with two models: one that includes a USB-A wireless transmitter that works with Xbox consoles, PC, macOS, and mobile, and... Continue reading…

Look familiar? Yep, these are practically identical to the UE Fits. | Image: Logitech Logitech thinks that console and PC gamers, not just audiophiles, might appreciate having custom-molded ear tips for enhanced bass and sound quality. The $229.99 G Fits, releasing in October, borrow the same party trick from the 2020 UE Fits: a one-time, 60-second setup that uses LEDs to heat and morph the ear tips to the shape of your inner ear.It’s identical to how we laid it out in the UE Fits review, where Chris Welch notes that the companion mobile app will remind you to firmly hold each earbud in your ear and to stay calm with a relaxed jaw. “During molding, the tips warm up, which is an unusual sensation for something in your ears,” Chris says. It’s far from your average setup process for earbuds, but it leads to a custom (and... Continue reading…

NTSB wants cars that can detect drunk driving and automatically manage speed limits. | Photo by Tayfun Coskun / Anadolu Agency via Getty Images The National Transportation Safety Board, the federal agency responsible for investigating vehicle and aviation crashes, called on the government to require all new vehicles to include technology that would detect drunk or impaired driving.The recommendation was made in light of a horrific crash that took place in Fresno County, California, on New Year’s Day 2021 that killed nine people, including seven children. The crash was caused by an impaired driver who was speeding.​“Technology could’ve prevented this heartbreaking crash — just as it can prevent the tens of thousands of fatalities from impaired-driving and speeding-related crashes we see in the US annually,” said NTSB Chair Jennifer Homendy in a statement. “We need to... Continue reading…

Photo by Roberto Baldwin for The Verge Kia is planning to manufacture its electric vehicles in the US, according to South Korean media sources Maeil Business and SBS (via The EV Officials). The automaker currently builds its flagship electric car and North American sales hit, the Kia EV6, in South Korea at its Hwasung plant. But now, Kia will shift some of its EV assembly to the US by 2024, according to the report.Manufacturing EVs in the US would allow Kia to qualify for new incentives that were included in the recently passed Inflation Reduction Act, which requires automakers to build EVs in North America to qualify.Kia and Hyundai combined hold the second-highest EV market share after TeslaKia and its parent company, Hyundai, had threatened legal action against the US... Continue reading…

NASA paused observations with one of the JWST modes. | Photo Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge There’s a kink in one of the instruments in NASA’s powerful James Web Space Telescope, the agency said Tuesday. After around two months of sending back beautiful, precise photos from deep in space, the team behind the telescope detected an issue with one of the four observing modes on JWST’s Mid-Infrared Instrument (MIRI). Observations using that mode are on pause while the team learns more.MIRI, the telescope’s mid-infrared instrument, can see wavelengths of light invisible to the human eye. It’s good for seeing clear details of things like newly forming stars. It was used to take the image of the galaxy group “Stephan’s Quintet,” for example. NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI/Handout via Xinhua Images of Stephan’s... Continue reading…

The bag itself is a Timbuk2 Vert Backpack in two-tone light blue / black. | Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge Superman and Batman. Cable and Deadpool. Spider-Man and Wolverine. These are some of the most storied and treasured — if sometimes unlikely — team-ups the world has ever seen. Well, we’ve got another one to add to the list because The Verge and The Strategist are teaming up to offer you a chance to win a backpack filled with nifty tech toys and gadgets.This is one of the biggest sweepstakes we’ve ever offered before, which is only fitting when you’ve got two publications that run the gamut of coverage for tech, culture, and savvy internet shopping. We’ve compiled a bunch of swag and free tech and jam-packed them into a sleek, light blue Timbuk2 Vert Backpack. The value of this giveaway totals out to about $937, including the bag, which... Continue reading…

People relax underneath a blossoming tree during a warm spring day in Central Park in Manhattan. | Photo by Tim Clayton/Corbis via Getty Images Thanks to a couple satellite images from NASA, we can see how cool it is to be green — literally. The maps below show that the greenest parts of the Northeastern US with the most lush vegetation have lower surface temperatures. Conversely, the least green regions align almost perfectly with the hottest areas.That’s because trees and plants are crucial for calming down the phenomenon called the urban heat island effect. All the asphalt and big buildings in an urban jungle trap heat. As a result, cities tend to be several degrees hotter than surrounding areas. Within a city, more industrial areas tend to be even hotter. That tends to make heatwaves even more dangerous for low-income households and communities of color, particularly... Continue reading…

Gyms may have reopened, but Ring Fit Adventure remains a good excuse to stay in. | Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge Are you, like me, wanting to get fit but don’t want to, well, actually leave the comfort of your home for the gym? Thankfully, Ring Fit Adventure poses a fun alternative for us lazy energetically challenged folks. The fitness-based RPG encourages you to work out as you explore, fight enemies with exercise reps, and collect items without ever stepping foot outside of your home. What’s more, the clever Nintendo Switch title allows you to adjust the difficulty and track your form, thus ensuring you’re working out correctly.Right now, you can buy the game with a Ring-Con controller and a leg strap at Amazon, Walmart, and Best Buy for $54.99 instead of $79.99, which matches the title’s all-time low. Just note the game doesn’t work... Continue reading…

The Nvidia RTX 6000 ADA professional GPU isn’t your run-of-the-mill gaming card. | Image: Nvidia Nvidia has announced the RTX 6000 48GB graphics card, the latest model to join its family of workstation-focused GPUs designed for content creators and enterprise-grade graphics. Nvidia describes the RTX 6000 as the perfect tool for creating content for the metaverse alongside Nvidia Omniverse Enterprise, thanks to its Ada Lovelace generation AI, massively increased raytracing and CUDA cores, and programmable shader technology.While the recently announced GeForce RTX 4090 is the top-end Ada Lovelace generation card for most consumers, the Lovelace-powered RTX 6000 dominates it in regards to raw power. It has 18,176 CUDA cores compared to the RTX 4090’s 16,384, and will ship with 48GB of GDDR6 ECC memory — double that of the RTX 4090’s... Continue reading…

Last year’s Surface Pro 8. | Image by Becca Farsace / The Verge Microsoft is widely expected to launch its next generation of Surface devices at an event next month, and over the past week an increasing number of rumors have shed light on what form they could take. Top of the list is a new 2-in-1 device — the Surface Pro 9 — as well as the latest Surface Laptop 5.WinFuture reports that both are expected to be available with 12th Gen Intel CPUs, up from the 11th Gen models seen in last year’s Surface Pro 8 and Surface Laptop 4. Specifically, it expects to see an Intel Core i5-1235U in the entry level models and a Core i7-1255U at the higher end, which should offer single-core performance increases of up to 22 percent and 12 percent respectively. Storage is expected to top out at 1TB, while up to 16GB... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge A Tesla Megapack battery caught fire this morning at the local utility company PG&E’s Elkhorn Battery Storage facility in Monterey County, California, as reported by local news stations KSBW Action News 8 and KRON4.The fire started at around 1:30AM this morning, according to PG&E’s operations comm manager, Jeff Smith. No injuries were reported at the scene.Around 7PM PT / 10PM ET, the North County Fire Department and Monterey County Sheriff’s Office lifted the advisory and reopened the roads. In a tweet from the Public Information for Monterey County account, officials reported on the Megapack battery fire at the Elkhorn facility, saying, “While the fire is considered fully controlled, smoke may still occur in the area for several... Continue reading…

Image: Blizzard Overwatch 2 lead hero designer Geoff Goodman has left Blizzard. First reported by PC Gamer, the long-time Blizzard employee decided to leave the company “earlier this year,” according to a statement from Blizzard to The Verge. Blizzard’s full response reads:“We thank Geoff for his many years of service at Blizzard and wish him all the best. His ability to bring to life Overwatch’s diverse hero roster through gameplay has been incredible, and the mark he’s left on the Warcraft and Overwatch teams will be felt for years to come.”The loss of Overwatch 2’s lead hero designer is an ironically timed blow, as a few short days ago, Kiriko, the game’s 35th hero, was revealed.

Razer’s Leviathan V2 X PC soundbar. | Image: Razer Razer’s new Leviathan V2 X PC soundbar is a smaller, stripped-down version of its full-featured sibling that Razer released earlier this year. The 15.7-inch soundbar comes at a cheaper $99.99 price point but still offers a decent amount of features for the cost.In terms of audio, you can expect two full-range drivers and two passive radiators with a maximum volume output of 90dB when one meter away. It’s missing the subwoofer and THX Spatial Audio that the standard $249 Leviathan V2 comes with, so you might miss out on more immersive, bass-rich audio that my colleague Cameron Faulkner said “sounds pretty fantastic” in his review. Image: Razer Just look at that RGB. Like its more expensive counterpart, the... Continue reading…

Share your sick gameplay footage without actually making people ill. | Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge Meta is rolling out the v44 software update for Quest headsets, and its big new feature is good news for anyone who likes sharing videos of themselves in virtual reality. There are new advanced camera settings that let you manually adjust how much stabilization is added and record 16:9 videos (or 9:16 vertical videos, which are perfect for TikTok) in addition to square ones — something that used to only be available through third-party software.The settings are currently listed as experimental for reasons that are about to become obvious, but they do provide a decent amount of control; alongside the aspect ratio and stabilization controls are options that let you pick your frame rate and compression quality, though Meta’s blog post... Continue reading…

Mizkif / YouTube The fallout regarding a Twitch streamer’s gambling scam has taken a dramatic and disturbing turn as one streamer involved has been accused of “covering up” a sexual assault.Yesterday, news broke that ItsSliker scammed fellow streamers out of hundreds of thousands of dollars in order to support a sports gambling addiction. That news, in turn, prompted several prominent streamers, including Pokimane, Asmongold, and HasanAbi, to call for the banning of slot gambling on Twitch despite the fact Sliker’s gambling wasn’t slots. One of the streamers calling for the Twitch gambling ban and a potential boycott of Twitch to further the issue was Mizkif, owner of OTKNetwork, a popular streaming network that counts content creators like Emiru and... Continue reading…

Google rolled out new features in Google Travel | Illustration: The Verge Google announced a new feature that will allow you to buy train tickets through search in select countries, including Japan, Germany, Italy, and Spain. The company says this could make it easier for users to choose more emission-conscious travel options when booking travel.According to Google, simply searching two destinations, such as “Berlin to Vienna trains,” will give you access to various listings in a Google search. From there, you can click on a direct link that will take you to the partner website to buy your ticket. Image: Google Users can book train tickets via Google search. Google is also rolling out a new search tool that will allow you to narrow down flight and hotel options that have lower... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge YouTube is working on a new program to let creators monetize their longform videos that use licensed music.At its Made on YouTube event today, the company announced Creator Music, opening up a catalog of popular music for content creators to use in their videos without getting their monetization dinged. Creators have a few options: they can either license tracks directly and keep all of the revenue (besides the 45 percent cut YouTube takes) or share revenue with the license holders. According to Billboard, that share is 27.5 percent each to the video creator and artists.Using music has been a challenge for YouTube creators, who have generally had to use royalty-free music in order to keep their videos from being demonetized. Using even... Continue reading…

Illustration by Samar Haddad / The Verge Your lock screen can do a lot more in iOS 16: this platform update provides a level of lock screen customization that iOS has never offered before, including widgets and wallpaper options. Even better, you’re not stuck with just one lock screen — you can create several to reflect the time of day, the weather, or your mood.It’s an amount of personalization that’s uncharacteristic of an Apple device. But beyond the entertainment value of turning your wallpaper into a grid of poop emoji, iOS 16 makes it possible to get useful information at a glance that once required you to unlock your phone — and that deserves a thumbs-up emoji for sure.Here’s how to completely design your new lock screen.

Iman Benson and Igby Rigney in The Midnight Club. | Netflix The seven terminally ill youths at the center of Netflix’s upcoming horror mystery series The Midnight Club from Mike Flanagan and Leah Fong all know they’re probably going to die before any of them are ready. But in the show’s first full trailer, the thing that has all of the kids at Brightcliffe hospice running scared isn’t the prospect of meeting their ends naturally — it’s how something from the great beyond seems intent on hastening their deaths.Though Brightcliffe is technically a facility where young people go to spend their final days, the new trailer establishes it as the kind of remote, occasionally scenic boarding school situation that residents could find almost charming. Under the watchful eye of Dr. Georgina Stanton... Continue reading…

The Motorola e22 embraces a more modern look. | Image: Motorola Motorola announced a couple of new budget phones — spotted by Phone Arena — for markets outside the US. That’s not notable — it does that all the time — but the Motorola e22 and e22i caught my eye because, damn, they look pretty good. Budget Motorola phones — particularly the ones sold in the US over the past couple of years — have all looked very much the same, with curved edges and pill-shaped camera bumps crammed with as many lenses as the price point allows. But these new e-series phones look a little different, and I hope it’s a sign of things to come.Right off the bat, you can see the flat back panel and side rails on the two devices that set it apart from other recent Motorola phones. Ever since Apple brought back the flat design... Continue reading…

The accounts were compromised as the result of a phishing campaign. | Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge American Airlines is alerting some of its customers to a data breach, where an “unauthorized actor” got access to names, birthdays, mailing and email addresses, phone, driver’s license and passport numbers, and “certain medical information” by compromising employee email addresses (via Bleeping Computer). According to a sample letter from the company, dated September 16th, the airline discovered the breach in July and began an investigation with a third-party security cybersecurity firm.I asked the company if it knew how long the attackers had access to the email accounts before the breach was discovered. In response, spokesperson Andrea Koos sent the airline’s statement, which contains a few details about what happened but doesn’t... Continue reading…

An intricate puzzle box in the Hellraiser film reboot. | Image: Spyglass Media Group Halloween is a little over a month away, which means spooky season is upon us — and that means it’s time for some horror movies. One of the new flicks due out in time for the big day is Hulu’s reboot of Clive Barker’s classic Hellraiser. Based on the first trailer, the new iteration looks to retain the mixture of seduction and scares that made the original so distinct, with some very satisfying puzzle box scenes thrown in as well.The reboot is directed by David Bruckner and will feature Sense8 star Jamie Clayton taking on the role of Pinhead. According to the official description, the new Hellraiser will follow “a young woman struggling with addiction” who “comes into possession of an ancient puzzle box, unaware that its purpose is to... Continue reading…