by Georgina Torbet on (#6GWB9)
Illustration by Sisi Kim for The Verge If we want to go to Mars, we need a better way to reliably relay messages through space. The solution could be optical communication, or lasers. Continue reading...
The Verge
| Link | https://www.theverge.com/ |
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| Updated | 2026-03-22 16:34 |
by Chris Mills Rodrigo on (#6GWBA)
Illustration by Sisi Kim for The Verge The promised wave of autonomous big rigs never materialized. But 2024 could prove to be a pivotal year for the technology. Continue reading...
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by Jess Weatherbed on (#6GWBB)
Media files sent as documents don't display a preview in WhatsApp, but you can view them in-app by tapping on them. | Illustration: The Verge WhatsApp is rolling out a new feature on iOS that allows users to share photos and videos as a document to preserve their original quality. As spotted by WABetaInfo the official changelog provided alongside WhatsApp's 23.24.73 update on iOS notes that users can now easily send original quality media as a file," as an alternative to the compressed approaches the communications app defaults to.This feature was spotted being tested by a small subset of users in November, but is now releasing to all iOS users. The changelog notes that this is rolling out over the coming weeks" so it may take a while to appear on your device, but when it does you can access it by tapping the +" in chat, selecting Document" and then Choose Photo or... Continue reading...
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by Jon Porter on (#6GW74)
Image: Nick Barclay / The Verge Spotify is laying off 17 percent of its employees in an attempt to cut costs, its CEO Daniel Ek announced to staff today. Based on its total headcount of 9,241 revealed during its last earnings release, the cuts are expected to impact over 1,500 people.In a memo sent to staff, Ek said slowing economic growth and rising costs were to blame for the cuts, which he said would make Spotify a leaner company. Today, we still have too many people dedicated to supporting work and even doing work around the work rather than contributing to opportunities with real impact," Ek wrote. As we've grown, we've moved too far away from this core principle of resourcefulness," he later added.As we've grown, we've moved too far away from this core... Continue reading...
by Wes Davis on (#6GW04)
Image: Pophouse Entertainment Kiss has been on a really, really long tour. The biggest glam rock band of all time has been playing its End of the Road tour for the last four years, and just wrapped the final show of its final farewell tour in New York City at Madison Square Garden on Friday. Kiss has done several farewell tours, but this time might be for good.At the end of the show, after Kiss finished playing its last song (Rock and Roll All Nite"), they disappeared in a hail of fire and smoke. After the smoke faded away, the lights went down, and on the screen behind the stage, a camera zoomed across a spooky lake on some fantastic planet toward the silhouettes of four figures: the new digital avatars of Kiss, in what I suppose must be their final form. Then... Continue reading...
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by Wes Davis on (#6GVV6)
Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge I know you've been waiting all year to hear this: You can use Zoom on your 2nd gen or later Apple TV 4K. Yesterday, AppleInsider spotted a post from Sigmund Judge about the Zoom - for Home TV" app that quietly showed up in the tvOS App Store.Earlier this year, Apple's tvOS 17 update enabled Continuity Camera for the Apple TV, making it possible for anyone with a 2nd-generation-or-later version of the streaming box to use their iPhone or iPad as a webcam for FaceTime on a TV. The iPhone can do the same thing for meetings on macOS. Image: Wes Davis / The Verge Zoom on an Apple TV. Using Zoom's new app is fairly straightforward. Logging into it is a lot like signing into most third-party video streaming apps -... Continue reading...
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by Victoria Song on (#6GVQT)
While the Venu 3 series ticks off a lot of the right boxes, it's a little pricey considering the competition. But at least you'll finally get credit for your naps. Continue reading...
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by Andrew Webster on (#6GVNC)
Image: Epic Games Fortnite is heading underground. Following The Big Bang event on Saturday, which led to the destruction of the Chapter 4 island, some big changes are coming to the battle royale in a new season dubbed Underground." That includes a new island, gameplay features like boss battles, Lego skins, and of course more licensed characters like Metal Gear's Solid Snake and Peter Griffin from Family Guy.Let's start with the island. In the update - which brings the game to Chapter 5: Season 1 - the battle royale island has been completely changed, which means a number of new locations. There's a railway - complete with a train you can actually travel on - as well as marinas, mansions, and an all-new grassland area. There's also quite a bit of snow.... Continue reading...
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by David Pierce on (#6GVND)
Illustration: William Joel / The Verge Hi, friends! Welcome to Installer No. 16, your guide to the best and Verge-iest stuff in the world. (If you're new here, welcome to our delightful corner of the internet, sorry about all the productivity apps, and also, you can read all the old editions at the Installer homepage.)Hope you all had a great holiday, or at least a great week with one fewer email in your inbox. This week, I've been testing Supernotes as a daily diary app, reading about what it takes to make an iPhone in India and whatever gamified theater" is, unsubscribing to every brand that sent me a Happy Holidays!" email, hunting for games to play on my new Backbone controller, watching Mike Birbiglia's excellent The Old Man and the Pool special (and listening to his... Continue reading...
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by Wes Davis on (#6GVCB)
Master Chief, the Spartan hero from Halo, will continue his live-action adventures with two episodes of its second season premiering worldwide on February 8th next year. Paramount Plus announced the date, along with a teaser trailer, during CCXP in Brazil.The teaser trailer doesn't reveal much about the story, of course. But Paramount Plus says in its release that the new season will see Schreiber's Master Chief trying to prove that the Covenant (the alien antagonists from the show and the games) are preparing to attack Reach - the humans' military stronghold that fell prior to the story's beginning in the first Halo game.If you've played that game, you know where this goes, and Paramount Plus hints at it in the release. The Master... Continue reading...
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by Andrew Webster on (#6GVB0)
Image: Epic Games Fortnite's latest virtual concert was more than just Eminem stomping across a destroyed city - it also teased a number of experiences coming to the game in the future.The Big Bang Event, as it was called, lasted around 10 minutes and whisked players through a variety of spaces. At first, everyone was gathered on the Fortnite OG island to witness a few moments from the game's past happen again: a rocket launched, a meteor crashed, and then everything was sucked into a black hole.From there, players were sucked into a number of portals, each with a different theme. First, there was an island full of Lego characters running around, fighting and building things. Then there was a futuristic race. Finally, Eminem appeared, and while he... Continue reading...
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by Andrew Webster on (#6GVB1)
The next chapter of Fortnite will introduce a new island - but it's also adding a Lego-themed game experience. Following The Big Bang event, which marked the conclusion of Fortnite OG (and also starred Eminem), developer Epic Games revealed a new in-game experience called Lego Fortnite. It's described as a new survival crafting game" that will be available within Fortnite starting on December 7th.
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by Andrew Webster on (#6GV7J)
Fallout. | Image: Prime Video War never changes - and neither do the vibes in Fallout. After a bit of teasing, Amazon just released the first teaser trailer for its live-action adaption of Fallout, and it starts out a lot like the games: a vault dweller leaves the comfort of their home to explore the dangerous postapocalyptic wasteland outside. And boy, are things dangerous.This time around, the vault dweller is named Lucy (Yellowjackets' Ella Purnell), and she experiences a lot of the series' key moments in the short trailer. That means horribly mutated animals, slapped-together cities, the militant Brotherhood of Steel, vault uprisings, some Wild West shootouts, and a very good dog who is also a killer. And of course, there are the classic tunes - in this case,... Continue reading...
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by Wes Davis on (#6GV5G)
This is decidedly not evidence of the existence of parallel realities. | Image: Tessa Coates / Crop: The Verge Depending on how online" you are, you may have seen a picture floating around socials with a strange quirk: a woman - comedian Tessa Coates - is standing in front of two mirrors in a bridal gown and, somehow, holding three poses at once. Coates insisted in her Instagram post that the picture wasn't altered; it just came out that way.So what happened? Was it a glitched iOS Live Photo (the iOS feature that takes short videos and picks out the best one)? A faked image manipulated with Photoshop? A brief glimpse into three different, parallel realities?Nope, it's simpler than all of that. Faruk from the iPhonedo YouTube channel posted a short video to Threads explaining exactly what happened, and it's much more straightforward than you... Continue reading...
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by David Pierce on (#6GV5H)
It's a good-looking desk accessory - but is it a good mug? | Image: Ember My coffee routine is needlessly fussy but fairly predictable. I wander bleary-eyed into the kitchen, add some water to the kettle, and start heating it to 200 degrees Fahrenheit, grind some coffee beans, get out the Chemex, add and rinse a new filter, put the whole thing on a scale, add 40 grams of beans, slowly pour in 600 milliliters of hot water, pour it into my trusty silver Yeti Rambler, and pad into the living room to either play with my son or look at TikTok on my phone. It's a life, you know?For the last few weeks, the Ember Tumbler has wormed its way into that routine. The $199 Tumbler is Ember's newest product but carries the same promise as the company's popular mugs: it can keep your drink at the exact temperature you want... Continue reading...
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by Sean Hollister on (#6GTVD)
Google chief legal officer Kent Walker. | Photo By Alex Zea/Europa Press via Getty Images Judge James Donato is overseeing Epic v. Google, a case that could determine the future of the Android app store - but testimony in this case may have more repercussions for Google too.On Friday, Judge Donato vowed to investigate Google for intentionally and systematically suppressing evidence, calling the company's conduct a frontal assault on the fair administration of justice." We were there in the courtroom for his explanation.I am going to get to the bottom of who is responsible," he said, adding he would pursue these issues on my own, outside of this trial."Testimony in the Epic v. Google trial - and in a parallel DOJ antitrust suit against Google in Washington, DC - revealed that Google automatically deleted chat messages... Continue reading...
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by Umar Shakir on (#6GTST)
Leaked images of the new Samsung S24 Ultra and standard S24. | Image: Windows Report This is the time of year when Samsung unwillingly has major details of its flagship Galaxy S line of phones leaked out months before they launch. So it will come as no surprise that we've now got details on the S24 and S24 Ultra - or at least the phones we assume will carry that name.Today, Windows Report got a hold of new official Samsung images that include the Galaxy S24 Ultra with a new flattened screen design. It confirms an earlier leak by Twitter / X user David Martin, who posted handheld images of the purported new S24 Ultra. The images clearly showed sharper screen edges akin to the changes made with the regular S23 from earlier this year, instead of the gentle curve, and a new gray color finish.As reported last month, Samsung... Continue reading...
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by Emilia David on (#6GTSV)
Illustration: The Verge We still don't know the whole story around the conflict between OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and the company's board, but more and more is leaking out. A new report, from The New Yorker, alleges that OpenAI's old board deliberately excluded Microsoft after initially voting to expel Sam Altman as CEO, and they actually believed the company would back them.In the sprawling story, New Yorker reported Microsoft executives were blindsided by the decision to oust Sam Altman, possibly to prevent Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella from warning Altman what was about to happen.Altman has a reputation for being a shrewd business person, and part of the decision not to inform Microsoft was to ensure that he would be surprised.When OpenAI announced Altman's... Continue reading...
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by Emma Roth on (#6GTQ4)
Image: Amazon Amazon is enlisting the help of one of its biggest rivals to shuttle its Project Kuiper internet satellites into space. The company will use SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket for three launches beginning in 2025, Amazon announced on Friday.Project Kuiper is Amazon's low Earth orbit satellite program that could eventually provide users across the globe with internet connectivity. Amazon launched its first two Project Kuiper test satellites into space in October, where it managed to connect to the internet and conduct a two-way video call. However, it still has to do some serious catching up to SpaceX's Starlink, which has already deployed around 5,000 satellites.Despite the rivalry between the two companies, it doesn't exactly come as a surprise... Continue reading...
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by Jay Peters on (#6GSN6)
Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Gmail experienced some issues with delayed emails twice this week: on Thursday and again on Friday.On Thursday at 12:31PM ET, Google wrote on Gmail's Workspace Status Dashboard that customers impacted by this issue may see delay in sending the emails," but at 5:03PM ET, the company posted an update that indicates things were fixed.The Thursday issues affected at least two of us here at The Verge. Earlier that day, emails sent from our personal emails to our work accounts took a while to show up. Weirdly, emails from our work emails to our personal Gmails sent just fine. 9to5Google reported the opposite, finding that personal emails worked as expected while Workspace account emails weren't arriving as expected.On Friday, Google... Continue reading...
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by Ash Parrish on (#6GTQ5)
Image: Amazon Well this friggin' sucks.If you have a Fire TV product of some kind, you've probably noticed in the last few weeks that every time you turn on the device, a full-screen ad plays instead of displaying the homescreen.At first, I thought it was some kind of mistake on my part. That I somehow hit a button during my TV's startup that triggered the ad to play, but then my husband started noticing this phenomenon on his Fire TV, too.Unfortunately, this is a feature, not a bug.As Elias Saba over at AFTVnews recently reported, apparently a new update changed the default location of the Fire TV cursor. Now, instead of the cursor starting on the navigation menu, it starts on the big-ass banner ad that always takes up half of any Fire TV home... Continue reading...
by Emilia David on (#6GTKW)
Image: OpenAI OpenAI's GPT store will be delayed until next year, the company said in an email to people who signed up for its GPT Builder.In the email, OpenAI said that unexpected things have been keeping us busy," which pushed back the GPT store's rollout. The company said it had planned to release the store in December, which itself is slightly later than originally promised; at its developer conference in November, OpenAI said the store would launch later that month. OpenAI email to custom GPT builders. To be fair to OpenAI, it did have a very eventful past week dealing with the ouster of CEO Sam Altman, the open revolt of hundreds of its employees, the exodus and heart emoji social media campaign of its senior executives,... Continue reading...
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by Emma Roth on (#6GTG8)
Image: Analogue Three years after its announcement, Analogue is finally shipping the Analogue Duo: a modern reimagining of NEC's systems that can play games made for the TurboGrafx-16, PC Engine, SuperGrafx, TurboGrafx CD, PC Engine CD-ROM, and Super Arcade CD-ROM. In an update on Friday, Analogue says the Duo will start shipping on December 11th and is on track to be delivered before Christmas.The Duo was initially set to launch in 2021, but that date kept getting pushed back until the company finally started taking preorders in May. Priced at $249.99, the machine supports both wired and Bluetooth controllers and is capable of running games in up to 1080p with zero lag." Just like the Analogue Pocket, the Duo relies on the actual game cartridges and... Continue reading...
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by Andrew J. Hawkins on (#6GTG9)
Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge Now that the first few customers have taken delivery of their Tesla Cybertrucks, it's probably worth taking a closer look at how the price and specs have changed since the original announcement in 2019. After all, a lot has happened since then!While the truck looks remarkably similar to how it did four years ago, almost nothing else about the production versions is the same. The price, range, and performance have all shifted dramatically - and probably not in the direction most customers would prefer.A lot has happened since 2019First of all, the price is more expensive. We've known for a while that Tesla wasn't going to be able to keep to its 2019 price estimates. Tesla CEO Elon Musk himself admitted in 2022 that the Cybertruck's... Continue reading...
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by Jennifer Pattison Tuohy on (#6GTGA)
The Amazon Alexa mobile app has a new design and new features. | Image: Amazon It's been 87 years ... (okay, three), but Amazon has finally updated its Alexa app. The revamp is rolling out fully this week to iOS and Android devices, but it started this summer with some small changes you may have already spotted. The end result is an app that's more streamlined and more tailored to smart home control. And while it's not appreciably faster (boo), it is considerably more intuitive and easier to use (yay).I've not been quiet about my disdain for the Alexa app's (lack of) capabilities. But this new app and the new Map View feature that launched last month, combined with the increased smart home control capabilities of the Echo Show 8 and the new Echo Hub, could convince me to try it again as my smart home daily... Continue reading...
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by Charles Pulliam-Moore on (#6GTGB)
Warner Bros.' animated features based on DC Comics characters have always had that fascinating X-factor that the studio's live-action projects tend to lack. The new trailer for director Eri Osada and writer Tappei Nagatsuki's Suicide Squad Isekai makes it look like the studio's keeping that tradition alive.Set in a continuity outside of DC's core canon (much like an Elseworlds comic), Suicide Squad Isekai follows Harley Quinn (Anna Nagase), Deadshot (Reigo Yamaguchi), Peacemaker (Takehito Koyasu), Clayface (Jun Fukuyama), and King Shark (Subaru Kimura) into an alternate reality as the team is sent on yet another risky, covert mission by the US government. Though the super-felons are all used to working together as Task Force X in their... Continue reading...
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by Lewis Gordon on (#6GTD8)
The Next World forum in Riyadh was hosted by the Saudi Esports Federation. | Photo by FAYEZ NURELDINE/AFP via Getty Images With avowed massive gamer' Mohammed bin Salman at the helm, the kingdom's insatiable appetite and bottomless riches are already remaking the global video game industry. Continue reading...
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by Mia Sato on (#6GTD9)
Illustration: Nick Barclay / The Verge In a blog post published today, Meta says it's expanding and updating its child safety features aimed at protecting kids - even as reports pile up about how its platforms recommend content sexualizing children.Over the course of several months, The Wall Street Journal has detailed how Instagram and Facebook serve up inappropriate and sexual child-related content to users. In June, a report detailed how Instagram connects a network of accounts buying and selling child sexual abuse material (CSAM), guiding them to each other via its recommendations algorithm. A follow-up investigation published today shows how the problem extends to Facebook Groups, where there's an ecosystem of pedophile accounts and groups, some with as many as 800,000... Continue reading...
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by Antonio G. Di Benedetto on (#6GTDA)
A new all-time low for Microsoft's obelisk of a console. | Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge It's the best time to buy an Xbox right now, as the Xbox Series X is selling for just $349. You can get Microsoft's flagship console at eitherAmazonor Walmart and save $150.Xbox may not have all the heavy-hitter console exclusives these days like Sony's PlayStation and its cadre of AAA single-player experiences, but it's a great 4K-capable gaming machine with handy features like Quick Resume to get you back into your game in a near instant. Plus, if you subscribe to Xbox Game Pass, there are all kinds of great and unique games to enjoy for just $16.99 per month - like sleeper hits Hi-Fi Rush, Cocoon, and Remnant 2 (the last of which just stealth-dropped on the service within the last few days).Best Buy is discounting a whole slew of... Continue reading...
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by Jess Weatherbed on (#6GT75)
Now free users can transcribe up to two messages per week. | Image: Telegram Telegram has introduced a bunch of new features to its Android and iOS messaging apps this week, including easier ways to find channels to join and giving non-paying Telegram users access to voice transcriptions. In its latest update released on Thursday, Telegram said it was opening up the voice-to-text transcription feature instead of keeping it locked behind a $4.99 subscription to Telegram Premium, allowing anyone to transcribe voice and video messages, or translate audio into another language.There is one important caveat: only Premium Telegram subscribers have unlimited access to transcriptions - free users will be limited to converting just two messages per week. Still, that's better than nothing, and could prove useful in rare... Continue reading...
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by Jon Porter on (#6GT4V)
In iA Writer's traditional minimalist interface, AI text shows up in grey, while your own words an in black. | Image: iA Writer iA Writer 7, the latest version of the minimalist multi-platform writing software, has a new feature that's designed to clearly mark text contributed by generative AI systems like ChatGPT. While your own words appear in black, you can choose for AI-generated text copied into your iA document to be greyed out. Then, as you tweak and edit the AI additions you can easily keep track of how much text is your original work and how much is artificially generated.In its blog post about the feature, the company outlines its philosophy about using AI-generated text in writing. Rather than letting AI become a ghostwriter" that takes over" and makes you lose your voice," iA Writer's feature is designed to encourage you to use AI as a dialog... Continue reading...
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by Charles Pulliam-Moore on (#6GSW7)
Image: Warner Bros. Mad Max: Fury Road had a lot of fantastic things going for it, but few shined quite as brilliantly as Charlize Theron's tough-as-nails take on Imperator Furiosa. The character was a testament to how many more fascinating stories George Miller could dream up for his beloved apocalyptic franchise. And while Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga's eponymous antihero might look a bit different in the Fury Road spin-off's first trailer, it seems like the movie is going to over-deliver on everything Miller's fans have been waiting for.Set in a hellish future where traditional societies have collapsed, and precious natural resources like water are scare, Furiosa tells the story of how a much younger version of Furiosa (Anya Taylor-Joy) is forced to fight... Continue reading...
by Ash Parrish on (#6GSTP)
Image: Capcom The Resident Evil 4 remake will soon get a change in perspective. On December 8th, the PS5 version of RE4 will get a free update adding VR mode to the game.Resident Evil 4 VR Mode supports the full main story campaign and delivers an added level of immersion to Leon S. Kennedy's harrowing rescue mission," read the press release. The experience lets players see the terrifying world directly through Leon's eyes and soak in his surroundings with the 4K HDR display of PlayStation VR2."If the prospect of gunning down zombies in VR feels a bit too challenging to you as it does to me, RE4VR will feature a shooting range game mode that lets you acclimate to the controls and test the kinds of weapons Leon will use. And if that still proves... Continue reading...
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by Justine Calma on (#6GSTQ)
COP28 logo on the opening day of the United Nations Climate Change Conference COP28 in Dubai, United Arab Emirates on November 30, 2023. | Photo by Jakub Porzycki/NurPhoto via Getty Images Will there be a future for fossil fuels? How much money do the most polluting countries owe the rest of the world? That's all on the table at the United Nations Climate Change Conference underway in Dubai. Continue reading...
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by Umar Shakir on (#6GSTR)
A newer showcase model of the Cybertruck in New York City. | Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge The Cybertruck is here - for real this time - and for those who haven't reserved one already, Tesla has a new ordering process. Today, you can preorder the visually perplexing, low-poly pickup truck on Tesla's website with a refundable deposit of $250.A small batch of early preorder holders took delivery of the first production Cybertruck models at an event in Texas. Since reservations went up on Tesla's website in 2019, the automaker happily accepted $100 deposits to get in line to buy a non-configured Cybertruck model. During the last earnings call, Tesla CEO Elon Musk confirmed there were over 1 million preorders.For a short while earlier this week, the price to hold a place in line for the Cybertruck went up to $250. Afterward,... Continue reading...
by Andrew J. Hawkins on (#6GSR8)
Image: Tesla Tesla announced a new Powershare" vehicle-to-load charging capability, only available on the new Cybertruck.The feature will allow Cybertruck owners to power their camping equipment, power tools, or even their entire home during a blackout, just by using their electric truck as a mobile generator. The truck also features a 240-volt outlet in the rear bed that can be used to charge other EVs. An image on Tesla's website shows the Cybertruck charging a Model Y.The Cybertruck can put out as much as 11.5kW, which is more than the Ford F-150 Lightning's 9.6kW of onboard power or the GMC Sierra Denali EV's 10.2kW. Tesla has been talking about manufacturing vehicles with bidirectional charging capabilities... Continue reading...
by Emma Roth on (#6GSR9)
Photo by Antonio G. Di Benedetto / The Verge With stick drift plaguing so many controllers these days, it's nice to see Sony making faulty thumbsticks a bit easier to repair on the PlayStation Portal. In a teardown video posted by iFixit, the team finds that only a little tinkering is required to access and remove the joysticks.The iFixit team first removes the device's plastic frame and pries off its backing. It then takes off the panel containing the Portal's D-pad and button controls, allowing iFixit to disassemble the thumbsticks in about three steps using just a screwdriver. The only downside is that if you need to replace the Portal's rumble packs, you'll need to take out your soldering iron because they're attached to the motherboard.But still, that's already more... Continue reading...
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by Thomas Ricker on (#6GSN7)
The Verge / Photo by Bloomberg, Getty Images The long-delayed delivery event is over after Tesla CEO Elon Musk revealed a few details about the new truck. Continue reading...
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by Andrew J. Hawkins on (#6GSRA)
Four years after its debut, the Tesla Cybertruck has finally reached its first batch of customers. The truck was delivered to about a dozen people during a lavish event at the company's headquarters in Austin, Texas, at which Elon Musk predicted the truck would usher in a new, more exciting future.The company also provided updated details about the pricing, range, and features for the truck, much of which has changed significantly from the originally announced numbers. The rear-wheel drive version of the electric truck will start at $60,990 - up from the original price of $39,900 in 2019 - and will get 250 miles of range on a full charge. That version won't be available until 2025.Coming sooner - 2024, Tesla's order page states... Continue reading...
by Ash Parrish on (#6GSN5)
Image: Larian Studios Christmas miracles are rare, they are beautiful, and with Patch 5 of Baldur's Gate 3 out now, they have come early. Patch 5 is a massive update that adds new difficulty modes, patches a notorious slowdown bug, lets you wear armor that gives the Wavemother's Robe a run for its money, and gives the adventurers of Faerun what they've been clamoring for: a big-ass party with all their friends.I could jump right into the biggest changes coming with Patch 5, but with one specific quality-of-life update, the addition of new game modes or new epilogue scenes feels inconsequential in comparison.Patch 5 introduces a huge quality of life update in the form of improved inventory access," read the community update for Baldur's Gate 3. Now while... Continue reading...
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by Justine Calma on (#6GSN8)
DUBAI, UNITED ARAB EMIRATES - NOVEMBER 30: COP28 President Sultan Ahmed Al Jaber during the opening day of the United Nations Climate Conference. | Sean Gallup/Getty Images Tens of thousands of negotiators, activists, and corporate execs have descended upon Dubai to wrangle over the future of fossil fuels. Namely, should they even have a future? Can governments broker a deal to phase out the oil, coal, and gas causing climate change? Countries have already suffered deep losses as a result of the fires, floods, and other disasters intensifying with climate change. They want the biggest, heaviest-polluting nations to do something about it. And they'll be making their case at a conference presided over by an oil baron.Those are some of the hot topics on the table at the United Nations climate conference that kicks off in Dubai on November 30th. It's called COP28, because it's the 28th annual Conference of... Continue reading...
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by Jay Peters on (#6GSN9)
Photo: David Pierce / The Verge Valve's Steam Link app, which lets you stream games from your Steam library to another device, is out now for the Meta Quest 2, 3, and Pro headsets, according to a news post from Valve. Having Steam Link available on Quest devices means that you can more easily play your VR games wirelessly, so it might finally be time to play Half-Life: Alyx on your Quest if you've been putting it off. (It's possible to do that now, but it takes a little work.)To stream your games to your headset from Steam Link, Valve says you'll need a router with a wired connection to your PC" and a 5GHz WiFi network for your headset." Steam and SteamVR will need to be installed and running on your PC (which needs to be a PC on Windows 10 or newer). The company... Continue reading...
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by The Verge Staff on (#696FJ)
Godzilla Minus One. | Image: Toho Right now, we are absolutely spoiled for choice when it comes to entertainment. TV shows, movies, and games all come out at such a fast and furious pace that it's hard to keep up. Not all of them are worth your time, of course - which is where we come in.Our team spends a lot of time immersed in the various realms of pop culture so that we can handpick our favorites for you. That could mean a hot new indie game you might've otherwise missed or the streaming series that will become your new obsession. Either way, if you're finding it hard to sort through the flood, this is the place to find a curated selection of the best stuff.And like last year, this page will be updated regularly throughout the year - so make sure to check back in... Continue reading...
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by Charles Pulliam-Moore on (#6GSHC)
Image: Toho Toho's latest Godzilla film from writer / director Takashi Yamazaki takes the kaiju king back to its roots to tell a sobering story about reckoning with the present. Continue reading...
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by Allison Johnson on (#6GSHD)
A handful of playful new RCS messaging features are debuting in open beta today. | Image: Google November has been a big month for RCS - the mobile messaging protocol championed by Google - and now, the company is capping it off with the announcement of a milestone and some festive new features. First, the number: according to Google, over 1 billion monthly active users are using RCS in Google Messages. That's huge, considering support was scarce just a handful of years ago, though not entirely surprising since it's been the default messaging service on Android phones for a few years now.As for the new messaging features, a couple of them might sound familiar to iOS users. There's a new feature that ties into your Google account to create a Contact Poster-like profile with your name and photo. Google is adding something called... Continue reading...
by Sheena Vasani on (#6GSED)
Sennheiser's Momentum True Wireless 3 earbuds offer some of the best sound quality on the market. | Image: Sennheiser Many of the best deals are gone now that Black Friday and Cyber Monday are done and dusted, but if you look hard enough you'll still find some gems. Right now, for example, the Sennheiser Momentum True Wireless 3 are down to $119.99 ($160 off) in white at Woot, which is a new all-time low price. They're also on sale in other shades directly from Sennheiser, albeit for $50 more.Sennheiser's wireless earbuds offer lush, detailed sound that bests almost all others on the market, which is why they're among our favorites. They come with other useful features, like optional wing tips in various sizes for a more secure fit along with support for wireless charging. The earbuds also offer good noise cancellation, even if it doesn't quite drown... Continue reading...
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by Andrew Webster on (#6GSB3)
The Boy and the Heron. | Image: GKIDS Everything you need to know about Studio Ghibli's latest feature. Continue reading...
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by Emma Roth on (#6GSB4)
Illustration: The Verge WhatsApp is introducing a new way to keep your locked chats away from prying eyes. Instead of having your locked chats folder visible with all your other conversations, you can now hide the chats behind a secret code of your choosing.As shown in the below example provided by Meta, you can use letters, numbers, special characters, and even emoji in your secret code. All you have to do is type that password into the WhatsApp search bar to find your locked chats. This should hopefully keep people from knowing you have a locked chat folder in the first place in case they sneak a peek at your phone. Image: WhatsApp WhatsApp also notes you can choose to have your locked chats appear in your chat list instead at any time. T... Continue reading...
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by Umar Shakir on (#6GSB5)
The Cybertruck prototype was first revealed onstage in 2019. | Photo by Sean O'Kane / The Verge Tesla is about to deliver the first Cybertrucks to buyers at an event on Thursday, November 30th, starting around 3PM ET / 2PM CT / 12PM PT in Austin, Texas.The electric pickup truck, with a jarringly polygonal design, was first revealed in November 2019 by Tesla CEO Elon Musk. The Cybertruck's unique design helped it make its mark, and many people immediately plunked down $100 to hold a place in line to get one. Even the botched armor glass" demonstration, in which Tesla's lead designer smashed the driver side window with a metal ball, did little to deter interest.Little did the reservation holders know that key Cybertruck targets would keep shifting, well after Musk's original delivery goal of late 2021. The Cybertruck is difficult... Continue reading...
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by Sheena Vasani on (#6GSB6)
Illustration by Nick Barclay / The Verge TikTok on Thursday launched artist accounts. These accounts can be activated by any musician and come with tools to help artists reach new fans and increase engagement with existing ones.One of the new features, the Music tab, curates catalogs for artists and automatically adds new music so fans can more easily discover their work. Meanwhile, features like Behind the Song" offer fans a glimpse into the artist's creative process, revealing what inspired the song and the story behind it.The accounts also offer new ways for artists to call attention to their work. Musicians can now pin a preferred post to the top of the discovery page, while the new Artist" tag lets users verify their status as musicians.Another tag, New Release,"... Continue reading...