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The Reno 8 Pro comes to more markets starting September 1st. | Image: Oppo Oppo is launching its Reno 8 series — previously announced for China and India — in Europe and the UK. The Reno 8 Pro sits at the top of the range with almost-flagship features and pricing: £599, or about $698. One of its key spec points is the inclusion of Oppo’s Marisilicon X neural processor (or NPU), which the company says enables better high-res video capture in very low light. The Reno 8 comes next, with a smaller screen and different processor, and the Reno 8 Light is the most basic model with a lower IP rating and reduced fast charging.The Reno 8 Pro ranks just below Oppo’s flagship Find X5 series, which also includes the Marisilicon X processor. Oppo says the NPU enables 4K video capture in very low light situations that... Continue reading…

Image: Bang & Olufsen Today at IFA 2022, Bang & Olufsen introduced the Beosound Theatre Dolby Atmos soundbar, a soundbar that doubles as both a stylish speaker and a TV stand.The Beosound Theatre is an all-in-one sound system, containing 12 speaker drivers, including two custom-made long-stroke 6.5” woofers. If you have grander plans for your audio setup, however, the Theatre can also form the heart of a Dolby Atmos 7.1.4 surround system thanks to its seven built-in outputs and support for up to 16 external loudspeakers.The interface bracket is motorized, allowing the TV to rotate so that users can find the best possible viewing angle, though if you have no need for it you’ll be able to buy the soundbar separately from the stand. The bracket itself also... Continue reading…

Image: OBS Popular open-source streaming software OBS Studio is getting some new features, including AI-powered virtual backgrounds from Nvidia Broadcast that allow you to change your virtual environment without using a green screen.The feature is far from perfect and won’t replace the quality of a physical green screen, but we can attest that it does a decent job. There’s a bit of flickering and feathering when you move, but for streamers who scale down their webcams to a small corner of their broadcast, these problems won’t be very noticeable. The quality can also be improved further with strong lighting and a clear background environment.Those who use an Nvidia RTX graphics card could probably already have the software installedStreamers... Continue reading…

Dashlane’s password manager is ready to support passkeys. | Image: Dashlane Passwords are dying, long live passkeys. Practically the entire tech industry seems to agree that hexadecimal passwords need to die, and that the best way to replace them is with the cryptographic keys that have come to be known as passkeys. Basically, rather than having you type a phrase to prove you’re you, websites and apps use a standard called WebAuthn to connect directly to a token you have saved — on your device, in your password manager, ultimately just about anywhere — and authenticate you automatically. It’s more secure, it’s more user-friendly, it’s just better.The transition is going to take a while, though, and even when you can use passkeys, it’ll be a while before all your apps and websites let you do so. But Dashlane is... Continue reading…

watchOS 9 will bring new running metrics, which hints that a “Pro” Apple Watch is on the way. | Photo by Victoria Song / The Verge 2022 is a big year for smartwatches. Samsung just refreshed its Galaxy Watch lineup with a new “Pro” model, Google is finally releasing a Pixel Watch, Qualcomm launched a new wearable chip, and some Wear OS 2 watches will finally get the upgrade to Wear OS 3. And over in Apple’s camp, the Apple Watch lineup is about to see its biggest overhaul in years. This year, we’re expecting to see not one, not two, but potentially three new Apple Watch models. A new Series 8, a new SE, and a never-before-seen rugged “Pro” model — a new high-end option that could potentially shake things up in the smartwatch world.That’s because an Apple Watch Pro would mean Apple’s entering a whole new wearable category: multisport fitness watches. This is a... Continue reading…

It’s a 17-inch foldable that actually works Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Portal 2 will be the last Xbox 360 game available free to Xbox Live Gold subscribers through Microsoft’s Games with Gold program. Microsoft announced last month that Xbox Games with Gold will no longer include Xbox 360 games in October, simply because the company has “reached the limit of our ability to bring Xbox 360 games to the catalogue.”The Games with Gold for September, spotted by Ars Technica, lists Portal 2 for Xbox 360, the last title before the October 1st cutoff point. Valve’s classic puzzle-platform game was released more than 10 years ago on Xbox 360, so it’s a fitting end to the nearly decade-long program of free Xbox 360 games for Xbox Live Gold subscribers.Games with Gold is a monthly benefit for subscribers of Xbox... Continue reading…

Image: LG LG has announced its first bendable OLED TV which works either completely flat or as a curved display. The LG OLED Flex (model LX3) is a 42-inch OLED TV that bends into a curved (900R) TV thanks to LG’s latest display technology. Curved displays are suited for a more immersive gaming experience, while flat screens are better for watching TV broadcasts or streaming services.LG OLED Flex owners can automatically bend and adjust the TV into its curved mode using a dedicated button on the TV remote. (As opposed to some morphing monitors which have to be manually adjusted). There are two presets or owners can adjust the curve of the display in five percent increments through 20 different levels. Image: LG LG is... Continue reading…

NASA/Ben Smegelsky Clear your plans on Saturday: NASA says we’re going to have a rocket launch.The space agency moved the date for the next Artemis I rocket launch attempt to Saturday, September 3rd, after determining that the initial plan for Friday was going to run into bad weather.There was a 60 percent chance that the launch would have been delayed for weather on Friday, officials said during a media briefing. The two-hour launch window opens at 2:17PM.This will be NASA’s second attempt this week at launching its massive next-generation rockets. The first attempted launch on Monday was scrubbed after one of the four RS-25 engines failed to reach the appropriate temperature to allow for liftoff.This will be NASA’s second attempt this week at... Continue reading…

Image: Samsung Samsung’s bringing more content to TV Plus, its free, ad-supported streaming package that’s built into a range of Samsung devices and available on the web. The update introduces several new shows, such as Top Gear, Law & Order Special Victims Unit, NCIS, and Chicago Fire.In addition to the new shows, TV Plus is getting two exclusive Samsung-owned channels: Ride or Drive, a station geared toward car fans, and Samsung Showcase, a channel dedicated to “concerts, events, and special programming.” It’s also partnering with A&E to launch a new home improvement-focused channel, called Home.Made.Nation.And while Samsung already offers several local and nationwide news channels, including ABC News Live, CBS News, NBC News Now, and more, Samsung... Continue reading…

Illustration by Nick Barclay / The Verge Netflix has found an executive to lead its plan for an ad-supported tier: Snap’s chief business officer and top ad exec, Jeremi Gorman.Gorman on Tuesday told colleagues at Snap that she was leaving to join Netflix along with Peter Naylor, Snap’s vice president of ad sales for the Americas, according to two people familiar with the matter. Russ Caditz-Peck, a Snap spokesperson, confirmed the departures.Both Gorman and Naylor are leaving Snap amid a restructuring of its ads team and layoffs hitting the social media firm this week. Snap plans to cut roughly 20 percent of its workforce starting Wednesday, The Verge earlier reported.Netflix has had its own rounds of layoffs this year, cutting hundreds of employees and paring back... Continue reading…

The typewriter might be a reference to Hanx Writer, another app from Tom Hanks that emulates writing with a typewriter. | Image: Blueline Studios Hanx101 Trivia, a trivia game that is narrated by actor Tom Hanks, will soon be one of the games exclusively available on the Apple Arcade subscription service (via Variety). Despite the name, it’s not a game dedicated to quizzing you about Hanks’ career — a press release from the game’s developer, Blueline Studios, says it’ll feature “tens of thousands of questions” about subjects like history, math, geography, and food. (I’m hoping the later set contains at least one question about a box of chocolate.)The game will feature a head-to-head competition mode, a team mode, and a “Hanx101 mode” where you apparently try to get a high score while answering 101 questions. There will also apparently be “unique formats such as ‘Word Jam’ and ‘I... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Snap is planning to lay off approximately 20 percent of its more than 6,400 employees, according to people familiar with the matter.The layoffs, which Snap has been planning for the past several weeks, will begin on Wednesday and hit some departments harder than others, the people said. For example, the team working on ways for developers to build mini apps and games inside Snapchat will be severely impacted. Zenly, the social mapping app Snap bought in 2017 and has since run separately, will also see deep cuts.Another team that will see layoffs is Snap’s hardware division, which is responsible for its AR Spectacles glasses and the Pixy camera drone that was recently canceled after being on sale for just a few months. The company’s ad... Continue reading…

Photo by Lars Niki / Corbis via Getty Images A Virginia judge has dismissed an unusual case that could have banned selling two books to children in the state. Following a hearing on Tuesday, Virginia Beach Circuit Court Judge Pamela Baskervill found that Maia Kobabe’s Gender Queer: A Memoir and Sarah Maas’ A Court of Mist and Fury failed to meet the standard for obscenity under Virginia law — and, more consequentially, that the obscenity law itself was unconstitutional.Republican State Delegate Tim Anderson and former congressional candidate Tommy Altman instigated the dispute earlier this year, exploiting a little-used rule that allows anyone to launch obscenity proceedings in the state. Altman and Anderson objected to what they characterized as sexually explicit material in both... Continue reading…

Photo by Scott Olson / Getty Images Truth Social is strapped for cash and facing a mountain of tech and legal troubles that could doom the future of former president Donald Trump’s personal social media platform.The most immediate problem is the platform’s stalled SPAC, initially planned as a way to publicly trade shares in the new company without the diligence of an IPO. But the SPAC has been delayed, leaving the Digital World Acquisition Corp., which was projected to take ownership of Truth Social, in an awkward position. SEC filings show that the company has lost over $6 million in the first half of this year, hasn’t generated any revenue, and holds only $293 million in a trust that houses most of its assets.DWAC’s stock price has shed nearly 75 percent of its value... Continue reading…

You can currently find the Sony WF-1000XM5 headphones at Woot for just $340. | Photo by Chris Welch / The Verge Our Tuesday deals begin with the first substantial discount we’ve seen on the Sony WH-1000XM5 noise-canceling headphones. The original price for the XM5 headphones was $399.99, but Woot has discounted them to just $339.99. If you’re okay with settling for Woot’s 90-day limited warranty instead of the one-year warranty offered by Sony, this is definitely a deal worth looking into. While the XM5 headphones don’t offer any sweeping changes over the previous iteration, the XM4, they still include some of the best noise cancelation capabilities you’ll find in a pair of headphones, in addition to improved sound quality and better performance on voice calls. Read our review.Hot on the heels of some of our Xbox Series S deals from last week,... Continue reading…

An important and sometimes overlooked part of security | Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge Google has introduced a new vulnerability rewards program to pay researchers who find security flaws in its open-source software or in the building blocks that its software is built on. It’ll pay anywhere from $101 to $31,337 for information about bugs in projects like Angular, GoLang, and Fuchsia or for vulnerabilities in the third-party dependencies that are included in those projects’ codebases.While it’s important for Google to fix bugs in its own projects (and in the software that it uses to keep track of changes to its code, which the program also covers), perhaps the most interesting part is the bit about third-party dependencies. Programmers often use code from open-source projects so they don’t continuously have to reinvent the... Continue reading…

Photo by Sina Schuldt / picture alliance via Getty Images This is the last week to order free COVID-19 rapid tests from the United States government. The program will be suspended on Friday, September 2nd, “because Congress hasn’t provided additional funding to replenish the nation’s stockpile of tests,” the program’s website reads.The White House launched COVIDTests.gov in January of this year, soon after the omicron variant first started burning through the US. Every US household is eligible for three sets of tests from the website, so if you still haven’t gotten all of your tests, now’s the time to place the order. Here’s our how-to guide.An unnamed White House official told CNN that the Biden administration didn’t have enough funding from Congress for all its COVID-19 response programs... Continue reading…

Illustration by Kristen Radtke / The Verge; Getty Images After Elon Musk tried to get out of his $44 billion deal to buy Twitter and the company sued to hold him to it, his lawyers unsuccessfully tried to hold off the trial until next year, and now they’re pushing for another delay. The Musk team’s proposing a new timeline that would push the week-long trial’s start from the currently scheduled October 17th date until some time in mid- to late-November.This time, they cite the testimony of former Twitter security head Peiter “Mudge” Zatko, who has filed a whistleblower claim against the company accusing it of security flaws, making “false and misleading statements” to users and the FTC, and hiring agents of foreign governments. His lawyers also submitted an amended filing adding more... Continue reading…

Image: Netflix Cyberpunk: Edgerunners is coming very soon. Netflix announced today that the anime spinoff will start streaming on September 13th. As part of the announcement, the company also released a new “NSFW” trailer ahead of the show’s debut next month. The series will consist of 10 episodes, each 30 minutes long.Edgerunners has been in the works for some time. It was first announced back in 2020 in the lead-up to Cyberpunk 2077’s launch (which didn’t go quite as planned — though the game ended up being a hit eventually). While TV and film adaptations of games are increasingly common, Edgerunners is particularly exciting, mostly for the talent behind it — it’s being created by Studio Trigger, the famed anime studio behind the likes of Kill la... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Instagram is testing new settings for users to control what kind of content they see on the platform.In a blog post, Meta says its tests include the ability to select multiple posts and mark them using the “not interested” button, which is supposed to flag to the app that a user doesn’t want to see similar content. Currently, users can click into an individual post to flag it, but there’s no way to do that at scale.Instagram will also soon start testing a way for users to make a list of keywords, phrases, emojis, and hashtags in recommended posts that they’re not interested in and that they don’t want to see. TikTok rolled out a similar keyword-based feature in June — it already gave users the ability to “dislike” videos to steer... Continue reading…

An employee moves a used lithium-ion electric vehicle battery under a Nissan Leaf electric vehicle at a factory in Namie Town, Fukushima Prefecture, Japan, on Mar. 26, 2018. | Photo by Akio Kon / Bloomberg via Getty Images The Department of Energy just took a first step toward launching new lithium-ion battery recycling programs in the US. It issued a Request for Information (RFI) yesterday to ask for public input on how to spend $335 million in federal investments for battery recycling that was included in the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law passed last year.Lithium-ion batteries used to power electric vehicles and store renewable electricity are a major building block for a clean energy economy. Recycling could ease the impending squeeze on materials needed to meet rapidly rising demand for those technologies — especially as the Biden administration tries to keep the US on track to meet pollution-cutting goals it’s agreed to under the Paris climate... Continue reading…

Cox Communications had planned to launch the service in October. | Image: Cox Communications Cox announced on Monday that it is launching a pilot for Cox Mobile that will be available to Cox’s internet customers. This will be the company’s second major attempt to get into the mobile industry, after its effort launched in 2010 shut down after less than two years, citing an inability to offer “iconic phones” (like Apple’s iPhone, for example) along with its suite of feature phones and Android handsets.Under the new Cox Mobile, customers will have access to both 4G and 5G coverage with access to “on-the-go wifi hotspots.” They will also have access to high-speed data plans “Pay As You Gig” that will let customers pay for needed data and an unlimited data plan called “Gig Unlimited.” The Wall Street Journal reported that prices... Continue reading…

Illustration by Samar Haddad / The Verge Whether you’re trying to quickly record ideas, an interview, or even a song idea, a voice recording app on your iPhone can come in useful. While Apple’s App Store is filled with third-party apps that can do that for you, Apple’s built-in Voice Memos app is particularly easy to use, given there’s no need to download anything — and it’s totally free. Plus, once you’re finished recording your voice note, you can also easily share it — and even edit the recording if need be. Below, we’ll guide you through just how to do so.How to record your voice on an iPhone

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Peiter “Mudge” Zatko’s whistleblower disclosure contained a lot of alarming claims about Twitter — from confusing bot measurements to executive misconduct — but one of the most alarming claims was that the company was actively infiltrated by agents of the Indian government. For a platform that has always presented itself as a haven for journalists and activists, it’s a troubling claim and one that the company has not directly confronted in responses given to US media.But the allegations are less outlandish than it seems — and part of a much larger issue for international tech platforms.Zatko’s SEC filing claims that, in the course of his time as Twitter’s head of security, he was informed that the Indian government forced Twitter to... Continue reading…

IFA’s entrance as seen in 2020 | Photo by Fabian Sommer / picture alliance via Getty Images All the product announcements in one place Continue reading…

Photo by PATRICK T. FALLON / AFP via Getty Images A Tesla owner from San Francisco filed a proposed class action lawsuit against the electric vehicle company over a phantom braking problem that he claims has turned “a safety feature into a frightening and dangerous nightmare.” The lawsuit was first reported by Reuters.The lawsuit was filed by San Francisco resident Jose Alvarez Toledo in federal court in the Northern District of California. In the complaint, Toledo estimates that there are “hundreds of thousands” of Tesla customers that could seek to join his class action suit against the company.The lawsuit accuses Tesla of fraudulently hiding the safety risks associated with the company’s Autopilot driver assist system, breaching its warranties, unfairly profiting from Autopilot,... Continue reading…

Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge California has passed a sweeping law regulating how sites operate for minors. AB 2273, the California Age-Appropriate Design Code Act, passed the state senate and now proceeds to Governor Gavin Newsom, who has not yet indicated whether he’ll sign it. If he does, the bill could raise legal challenges and major questions about the future of anonymity online.AB 2273 was one of several online regulations floated by California lawmakers. Aimed at making online platforms safer for children, it requires web services “likely to be accessed by children” to conduct a survey assessing the potential risks for users under 18. Among many other measures, the sites must limit using personal information from minors and avoid collecting geolocation data... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge The event is set for September 7th Continue reading…

You can currently find the Sony WF-1000XM5 headphones at Woot for just $340. | Photo by Chris Welch / The Verge Our Tuesday deals begin with the first substantial discount we’ve seen on the Sony WH-1000XM5 noise-canceling headphones. The original price for the XM5 headphones was $399.99, but Woot has discounted them to just $339.99. If you’re okay with settling for Woot’s 90-day limited warranty instead of the one-year warranty offered by Sony, this is definitely a deal worth looking into. While the XM5 headphones don’t offer any sweeping changes over the previous iteration, the XM4, they still include some of the best noise cancelation capabilities you’ll find in a pair of headphones, in addition to improved sound quality and better performance on voice calls. Read our review.Hot on the heels of some of our Xbox Series S deals from last week,... Continue reading…

The Sense75 has RGB lighting that illuminates the desk underneath it. | Image: Drop Mechanical-keyboard-focused retailer Drop has opened preorders for its latest keyboard, the Sense75. Unlike the retailer’s other recent keyboards like the Icon collection, where it sold pre-existing models in new configurations, the Sense75 is an all-new design — at least for Drop.The Sense75 incorporates a number of recent keyboard design trends popularized by models like the GMMK Pro and Keychron Q1. It has a compact 75 percent layout that’s similar to what most modern laptops use, there’s a volume knob at the top right, and it uses a gasket-mount design. This means the switches are mounted to a circuit board that’s sandwiched between two gaskets, allowing it to flex slightly as it’s typed on. The design has proved popular with... Continue reading…

Photo by Monica Chin / The Verge Some early adopters of the new, beautiful, and undoubtedly polarizing Dell XPS 13 Plus have reported issues with its screen. Dell has confirmed to The Verge that it is aware of a screen issue on some OLED models of the device. The company is reaching out to impacted customers and appears to be recalling some products.The issue being reported (which is among several that buyers and reviewers have complained of since the Plus’ release) may be that the screws connecting the screen to the chassis appear to be coming loose. A video has been circulating for weeks now of an XPS 13 Plus’ screen falling off in a Best Buy demo area (the video is incorrectly labeled as being of the larger XPS 15). Other users have reported XPS 13 Plus screens... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro Facebook’s Gaming app for iOS and Android is shutting down a little over two years after it launched. In a notice sent to users, Facebook says the app will no longer work or be available to download starting on October 28th, 2022.Facebook launched Gaming in 2018 as a way to compete with Twitch, YouTube, and Mixer (at the time) and later rolled out an accompanying app on mobile in 2020. To help attract users in a market largely dominated by Twitch and YouTube, Facebook Gaming added a creator program, along with additional features to help build out its platform, such as the ability to co-stream. In 2020, Facebook Gaming absorbed Mixer, Microsoft’s failed streaming platform that had the company recruiting streamers like Ninja and Shroud.... Continue reading…

Health information can’t go in the dumpster. After the Supreme Court decided to end federal protection for abortion in June, many abortion advocates and lawmakers started agitating for the Biden administration to make changes to the medical privacy law HIPAA. That’s because HIPAA has many, many gaps and doesn’t actually keep information around abortion safe in many situations.Here’s something HIPAA does do, though — govern garbage! It’s a HIPAA violation for someone to do what the New England Dermatology and Laser Center (NEDLC) did last year: throw away containers with patient labels on them in a parking lot dumpster. The labels had patient names and birthdays on them, and a security guard found them. The Department of Health and Human Services did an investigation, and NEDLC... Continue reading…

Emergency SOS via satellite would be a first. | Photo by Victoria Song / The Verge If you’re the type to read into Apple Event taglines, next week’s “Far Out” event certainly feels... space-y. It’s led Apple prognosticators to revive theories that Apple may be working on satellite features for emergency communications — both for the iPhone and perhaps the rumored Apple Watch Pro. Since the Apple Watch Pro is meant to be a Garmin competitor, satellite features could make it a real contender in the multisport GPS watch space.There’s a lot that Apple needs to do in order to truly compete in this space. Multiday battery life and beefing up durability are numbers 1 and 2 on the list. The competition — Garmin, Polar, Coros — can run laps around the Apple Watch in these two areas. But if there’s one area where Apple already... Continue reading…

The new controller will be available in wired, 2.4Ghz, or Bluetooth wireless flavors 8BitDo is taking a stab at the pro controller market with the release of the 8BitDo Ultimate Controller, which is currently available for preorder on Amazon and begins shipping on October 28th. 8BitDo’s older controllers like the SN30 Pro and Pro 2 have boasted a broad array of compatibility options thanks to their Bluetooth connectivity, but the Ultimate Controller will be available in three different configurations — Bluetooth ($69.99), 2.4Ghz ($49.99), or wired ($34.99) — based on your preferred console and connectivity method.The Bluetooth model will also come packaged with a 2.4Ghz wireless adapter and, along with the wired model, is compatible with the Nintendo Switch, Windows, Android, and iOS devices. The 2.4Ghz exclusive model... Continue reading…

The Summoner’s Cup is arguably the most iconic trophy in all of esports — and now it has a totally new look. The trophy is the prize for the annual world champion in League of Legends, and developer Riot Games teamed up with jewelry brand Tiffany & Co. to refresh its look. The trophy is made of a combination of sterling silver, fine silver, stainless steel, brass, and wood and weighs in at 44 pounds. It also features a new section with the names of previous champions engraved on the bottom, sort of like the video game equivalent of the Stanley Cup.The new design is much more streamlined compared to the original, which looked like a heavy piece of medieval weaponry. You can check it out in the image below. Photo by... Continue reading…

Photo by VALERIE MACON / AFP via Getty Images Hello! I am back in NYC after a whirlwind couple of days in Dallas last week. It was really great to meet so many people from the industry in person. My biggest takeaway from Podcast Movement week is how much the podcast format has evolved (for better or worse). Video podcasts were the hot topic, with lots of discussions on how to pivot to video and whether it’s necessary to do so. As one exec told me, video is not for everyone! It’s much easier to produce professional-quality audio than video, and a lot of podcast genres don’t actually lend themselves to video. I will be curious to see if it’s as big of a topic next year — maybe by then, creators will have tried and abandoned the practice.After a big newsy week last week, with Twitter... Continue reading…

Photo illustration by Will Joel / The Verge Facebook is figuring out what a new generation wants from social media Continue reading…

Users in your Circle will see a notice highlighted in green beneath your tweet. | Image: Twitter Twitter Circle, a feature that lets you limit your tweets to a smaller audience, is now available to everyone. The platform first started testing the feature among “select people” in May ahead of a wider rollout.Twitter Circle is a lot like Instagram’s “close friends” feature, which lets you share your posts with a smaller group of people. On Twitter, you can add up to 150 people to your Circle, whether they follow you or not. When you want to send out a tweet that you might not want the entire Twitterverse to see, you can choose to share it with your Circle instead. Image: Twitter You’ll see the option to share to your Circle when you open the tweet composer. Choose the dropdown menu at the top of the composer, and... Continue reading…

Image: Sony Sony’s rounding out its A-series of soundbars with today’s introduction of the $699 HT-A3000. It’s a 3.1-channel bar with virtualized Dolby Atmos or DTS:X surround sound, and it joins the steeply priced HT-A7000 (7.1.2 channels) and mid-level HT-A5000 (5.1.2). At the very top of the lineup is the wireless, four-speaker HT-A9 system, which retails for $1,999.So while you naturally shouldn’t expect the cheapest soundbar in the series to eclipse those on audio performance, none of Sony’s bars slouch in the sound department. And the company is including many of the same features and software capabilities across all of them. They include support for Chromecast, AirPlay 2, Spotify Connect, and Bluetooth audio playback.Taken by itself, the... Continue reading…

Kristen Radtke / The Verge; Getty Images Internal documents and Twitter employees reveal the need for massive investment to remove illegal content — but executives haven’t listened Continue reading…

Millie Bobby Brown in Enola Holmes 2 | Image: Netflix It’s almost September, which means the holidays are creeping up on us — and for Netflix, that means a lot of movies. The streamer just released its schedule for holiday film releases in 2022, and it’s led by a pair of big sequels in Enola Holmes 2 on November 4th and Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery on December 23rd.Elsewhere, the streamer has some notable animated features, like Guillermo del Toro’s take on Pinocchio (December 9th), Henry Selick and Jordan Peele’s Wendell & Wild (October 28th), Drifting Home (September 16th) from Studio Colorido, and My Father’s Dragon (November) from the studio behind Song of the Sea and Wolfwalkers. Other titles to watch out for include Noah Baumbach’s post-apocalyptic White Noise (December 30th)... Continue reading…

The JBL Tour Pro 2 wireless earbuds feature a touchscreen charging case that reminds us of a smartwatch interface. | Image: JBL JBL has just announced the Tour Pro 2 wireless earbuds, featuring adaptive noise cancellation and customizable ANC alongside a charging case with a 1.45-inch LED touchscreen control panel.The display on the charging case allows you to flick through multiple screens where you can manage your music and make adjustments to your earbuds, as well as receive calls, messages, and social media notifications without having to first grab your phone. It’s being advertised as a productivity feature, and that does appear to hold some weight if you don’t already own a smartwatch or if you don’t tend to keep your phone in an easily accessible pocket. Image: JBL The JBL Tour Pro 2 wireless earbuds are available in either black... Continue reading…

The JBL Bar 1000 with detachable wireless rear speakers that include their own upward-firing speakers | Image: JBL JBL is launching a quartet of new Atmos-capable soundbars for the fall, and two of them have battery-powered wireless rear speakers that quickly deploy for a tidy home theater setup. When not watching a movie, the speakers can be docked into the sides of the new soundbars to recharge.The flagship JBL Bar 1000 is an 11.1-channel performer that includes four upward-firing speakers for Dolby Atmos 3D sound. It also has a wireless subwoofer and supports DTS:X 3D surround sound.JBL built a very similar version of the soundbar called the Bar 9.1 in 2020 that also had the cool removable rear speaker hat trick. But the new JBL Bar 1000 adds two more drivers for a 7.1.4 arrangement and bumps the power output to 880W compared to 820W in the Bar... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Uber is overhauling its four-year-old app safety toolkit, adding a new feature for riders to contact security company ADT during rides. The company is also expanding the availability of a feature enabling customers to text 911.The safety toolkit is a section of Uber’s app through which customers can contact emergency services, report a safety issue to the company, or share their location with a family member or friend. It was first rolled out in 2018 as a way to address the company’s abysmal record on safety. Uber claims its rides are getting safer, and today’s announcement is meant to reflect these improving conditions.“With so many safety features, it is time for an upgrade,” Rebecca Payne, the company’s lead safety product manager,... Continue reading…

Photo by Antonio G. Di Benedetto / The Verge Overengineered arthouse tech from a tiny microbrand Continue reading…

Starlink RV installed on a beach house. | Photo by Thomas Ricker / The Verge Starlink users around the world complained on Tuesday that Elon Musk’s internet from space service was down. My own Starlink RV service in the Netherlands went down for about 30 minutes. It’s now reporting “Degraded Service” which the SpaceX company is investigating, according to the Starlink app.My outage began at 3AM ET which coincides with initial reports found on Twitter and Reddit. Starlink users from the US, New Zealand, Mexico, the UK, and beyond all reported outages. Access returned to most as of 7AM ET, although many are still reporting degraded throughput. My own speeds have dropped from around 200Mbps / 30Mbps to 32Mbps / 17Mbps (down / up) at publication time.Last week SpaceX lowered the monthly subscription prices for... Continue reading…