The Verge - All Posts

Lights, heatsink, action. | Image: Samsung Samsung has announced a new version of its flagship PCIe SSD, dubbed the 990 Pro. Not only does the PCIe 4.0 M.2 storage device get even closer to being as fast as it can theoretically be, but there’s also the option of getting it with a heatsink that comes complete with RGB lighting (though, if you get that version to upgrade a PlayStation 5, which requires add-on SSDs to have a heatsink, those lights will likely get lost behind a layer of textured plastic).The 990 Pro’s big selling point over its predecessor is that it’s even faster: in sequential reads and writes, it can do up to 7,450 MB/s and 6,900 MB/s, respectively, and it can achieve 1,400K random read input / output operations per second (or IOPS). That’s compared to the 980... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge This summer, the SEC conducted an active review of Twitter’s user numbers in response to concerns of bot activity, as revealed in new filings made public on Wednesday. The review came in the weeks after Elon Musk raised concerns over the same user figures and suggests federal regulators took Musk’s allegations seriously.Notably, the review began more than a week before the full whistleblower report by Peiter “Mudge” Zatko, although it deals with many of the same concerns he reported to the SEC.“please disclose the methodology used in calculating these figures”“We note your estimate that the average number of false or spam accounts during fiscal 2021 continues to represent fewer than 5% of mDAU,” the commission wrote to Twitter in a... Continue reading…

Photo by Pat Greenhouse/The Boston Globe via Getty Images One of the major barriers to mass adoption of electric vehicles is cost. EVs are just way too expensive, with the average price hitting an all-time high earlier this summer of $66,000. That’s disappointing because the auto industry has always promised that prices would come down as EV battery packs became more efficient to manufacture.But even more disappointing is the rate that EV prices are increasing as compared to their gas equivalents. According to a recent analysis by car shopping database iSeeCars, electric car prices saw a year-over-year increase of 54.3 percent while gas-powered cars were up just 10.1 percent.The reason EV prices have shot up at such a staggering rate is multilayered. There’s a global chip shortage, which... Continue reading…

As The Last of Us slowly becomes Naughty Dog’s Grand Theft Auto V or Skyrim, there’s now a trailer to go with the PlayStation 5 remake of the game.The launch trailer of The Last of Us Part 1 retreads old ground covered by the 2013 and 2014 PlayStation hit with prettier, grittier graphics. We can now see individual bits of gray matter when Ellie brains a guy with an arrow, and blood splatters so detailed it’d make Dexter very, very happy.The arrival of the launch trailer neatly coincides with the first glimpse of the HBO adaptation of The Last Of Us starring Pedro Pascal, who’s quickly making a name for himself as TV’s favorite found family dad who will wreck your shit. Starring opposite Pascal’s Joel is his Game of Thrones co-star B... Continue reading…

Psilocybin is the compound in hallucinogenic mushrooms. A combination of psychedelics and therapy appears to help people with alcoholism cut down on the number of days per month they drink heavily, according to a new study. Researchers used psilocybin, the psychedelic compound found in magic mushrooms, to treat patients over eight months and saw a dramatic improvement in participants’ drinking habits.Using psychedelics as treatments for alcoholism was a popular idea in the 1960s and 1970s, and studies on LSD found that it reduced alcohol misuse. But the approach went quiet in the decades after, according to an editorial published in the journal JAMA Psychiatry alongside the new study.The new research marks a “rekindling of interest,” the authors of the editorial wrote. The study included... Continue reading…

Nazi German warships scuttled in 1944 to prevent them from falling into the hands of the Soviets have emerged following droughts across Europe. | Image: Reuters Drought conditions around the world are so extreme this summer that rivers are drying up, exposing previously inaccessible or undiscovered relics. This week, the treasures include a bevy of Nazi ships, an entire lost island, and dinosaur tracks.A fleet of over 20 wrecked Nazi warships laden with explosives has been exposed near Prahovo in eastern Serbia as water levels fall in the Danube, Europe’s second-longest river. The ships had remained undisturbed on the riverbed for almost 80 years and are believed to be among hundreds that formed a flotilla between Nazi Germany and the Black Sea Fleet in 1944. When escaping from the Red Army’s advancements became impossible, the entire fleet was intentionally sunk to prevent them from falling... Continue reading…

The Stream Deck doesn’t do anything new, but it does a lot of it better. | Photo by David Pierce / The Verge I initially bought a Stream Deck for one purpose: to control the lights in my home office. There’s just one light switch in there, and that switch controls the light… and also every outlet in the room. Lights off, everything off. So that switch now has a piece of tape on it, and I bought a smart bulb and a Stream Deck so I could still control the lamp in the corner.The Stream Deck isn’t a smart home controller device, at least not the way its creators at Elgato originally conceived it. (It’s also not a Steam Deck, the game console from Valve.) They built and marketed the $150 device toward streamers (hence the name) who need to be constantly switching scenes and camera inputs, moderating a fast-moving chat, and grabbing clips to use for... Continue reading…

The Happy Ring wants to differentiate itself as a “mood” ring to help track your mental health. | Image: Happy Health Startup Happy Health is looking to give the mood ring a “smart” makeover. Instead of dubious color-changing stones, it has created the Happy Ring, which aims to alert users about their mental health using biometric sensors and artificial intelligence.The Happy Ring, which just received $60 million in funding, features a custom electrodermal activity (EDA) sensor that monitors changing stress levels in real time. Essentially, the device works by detecting when your sympathetic nervous system — the thing that regulates your fight or flight response — starts raring up.“As we start to have difficult thoughts or experience strong emotion, our brain responds to help us respond to that stimuli,” says Dustin Freckleton, a medical doctor and... Continue reading…

Can’t tell the Versa 4 or Sense 2 apart? Squint, and you might see the Sense 2’s sensor on the edges of the display. | Image: Fitbit After several leaks and a not-so-subtle teaser yesterday, Fitbit officially announced what we all knew was coming: the Sense 2, the Versa 4, and the Inspire 3. And while Fitbit is introducing new software alongside the new hardware, this update is more about incremental improvements and refining what you already know rather than launching anything revolutionary. Oh, and yes, the Sense 2 and Versa 4 have physical buttons!The $299.95 Sense 2 and $229.95 Versa 4 both have minor design tweaks. For starters, both are thinner and lighter. The button on both devices also sits higher up, as does the area where you attach straps. Meanwhile, the Sense 2 incorporates its health sensors into the device’s display using “vaporized electrodes.” That... Continue reading…

Image: Nintendo Following the mid-August Nintendo Direct that showed off what to expect with Splatoon 3, fans of the game speculated that Shiver, one of the faces in the new game, might identify as nonbinary. So we asked Nate Bihldorff, Nintendo’s SVP of development and publishing, who confirmed to The Verge that Shiver identifies as female. And that while Shiver’s she/her pronouns weren’t mentioned in the Direct, they are used in the game.Viewers hoping that Shiver would be a nonbinary character had some convincing clues to go off from the video showcase linked above. As The Gamer notes, the Deep Cut hype group that Shiver belongs to rocks a lot of purple, yellow, black, and white — the colors of the nonbinary flag. The publication also speculated... Continue reading…

Image: Nintendo Despite feeling uncannily similar to play as past installments, Splatoon 3 is packed with smart changes and updates that will likely lead to people — or at least, me — keeping the game in rotation for much longer than before. I got to play over an hour of the game’s various modes ahead of its September 9th launch, including just a few levels of the main story, a few rounds of Salmon Run (the game’s surprisingly difficult but rewarding horde mode), and Turf War (Splatoon’s take on a four-versus-four deathmatch).You’ll notice a welcome quality-of-life change right when you boot it up. Instead of being forced to sit through an intro presentation of the latest announcements for in-game activities each time you restart the game, as past S... Continue reading…

Windows 8 was released nearly 10 years ago. A former Microsoft employee has revealed what the missing Windows 8 startup sound was supposed to be. Microsoft has used unique startup sounds in Windows versions for decades, but Windows 8 ended that tradition with a silent bootup process. While startup sounds eventually returned for Windows 11, the missing Windows 8 sound has been hiding in Windows 10 and Windows 11 for years now.Jensen Harris, the former director of program management for the Windows user experience team at Microsoft, was behind the original startup sound removal in Windows 8. In a new YouTube video, Harris reveals what the missing Windows 8 sound is. (See video below.) It’s actually the same as the startup sound in Windows 10 and Windows 11, which isn’t enabled by... Continue reading…

Photo by: Weiss Eubanks/NBCUniversal/NBCU Photo Bank via Getty Images Well, we didn’t know this one was coming: they’re making a film about former-mobile-titan BlackBerry, and it’s going to star Glenn Howerton of It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia as the company’s co-CEO, Jim Balsillie. According to The Globe and Mail, production wrapped this week, though when exactly the film will hit cinemas is unknown.The film, simply titled BlackBerry, is based on the 2015 book Losing the Signal: The Spectacular Rise and Fall of BlackBerry, by journalists Sean Silcoff and Jacquie McNish. According to its blurb, the book focuses on “an unlikely partnership between a visionary engineer, Mike Lazaridis, and an abrasive Harvard Business school grad, Jim Balsillie” — the two founders of Research in Motion (RIM), which... Continue reading…

Image: Samsung Samsung is introducing four new gaming monitors at Gamescom today, and they’re the first Odyssey models to have Samsung’s Gaming Hub built in. This gaming hub provides quick and easy access to Xbox Cloud Gaming, Google Stadia, Amazon Luna, and Nvidia GeForce Now game streaming services.The Samsung Odyssey G70B and G65B are both designed primarily for PC gaming, with the G70B available in both 27- and 32-inch flat IPS options with 4K support at 144Hz and 1ms gray-to-gray (GtG) response times. The G65B is a curved monitor (1000R) with the same 1ms GtG response times, and it’s available in 27- and 32-inch sizes with 1440p support at 240Hz. Samsung doesn’t mention whether the G65B is IPS, VA, or TN, but given its history with curved panels... Continue reading…

Streaming media platform Plex sent out an email to its customers earlier today notifying them of a security breach that may have compromised account information, including usernames, email addresses and passwords. Although there is no sign that the encrypted passwords were exposed, Plex nevertheless is advising all users to change their passwords immediately.Plex is one of the largest media server apps available, used by around 20 million people to stream video, audio and photos they upload themselves, in addition to an increasing variety of content the service provides to paid subscribers.“A third-party was able to access a limited subset of data that includes emails, usernames, and encrypted passwords”The email states, “Yesterday,... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Facebook experienced a bizarre bug on Wednesday morning that filled user feeds with endless posts from celebrity accounts. Multiple Verge staffers who attempted to use the social media network experienced the same issue, where their main News Feed was flooded with minor posts sent to pages for artists like Lady Gaga, Nirvana, and The Beatles. As of 5:15AM ET the issue appears to have been resolved after creating three hours of chaos.Writing on Twitter, Meta spokesperson Alexandru Voica blamed an unspecified “configuration change” for the problem, and said it had since been resolved.

Image: Disney Avatar: The Way of Water is set to release this December, but it has a pretty major problem: it’s a sequel to a film that came out 13 years ago. Meanwhile, most of us can barely remember what happened on last week’s episode of She-Hulk — when Avatar 2 hits theaters, there could be a lot of confusion if characters start talking about unobtanium, Toruks, RDA, or the Noble Clyde Boudreaux. (One of those things isn’t actually in the movie — see if you can guess which one.)James Cameron and crew, however, have come up with a solution: rerelease the first Avatar in theaters. According to a trailer released on Tuesday, the 2009 movie is coming back to theaters for two weeks starting September 23rd and will be shown in “all formats,” including... Continue reading…

Deep Silver / Dambuster Games To kick off Gamescom this week, Geoff Keighley hosted his Opening Night Live event, a two hour-long gauntlet featuring announcements and trailers of video games, including many that aren’t made in the US. Here’s a not-at-all-exhaustive list of some of the most interesting games — if you want that, check out the full video here. We also covered some of the biggest news from the show in other articles, including Hideo Kojima’s new Spotify podcast, the release date of Return to Monkey Island, Sony’s new Edge controller, and even a Pokémon concept car.EverywhereEverywhere — a game that’s either going to have awesome or terrible search engine optimization — kicked off the program. In the featurette, the developers at Build a Rocket Boy,... Continue reading…

Photo by Roy Rochlin / Getty Images The lawsuits are piling up for Pandora, which has been accused by comedians, including Lewis Black and Andrew Dice Clay, of streaming their works without the proper license. Now, George Lopez is joining the fray, seeking $5.5 million from the streamer.Lopez filed suit on Tuesday, claiming that Pandora streamed two of his comedy albums, Right Now Right Now and Team Leader, without paying him royalties or obtaining the proper licenses from him. “[Pandora] decided it would infringe now to ensure it had this very valuable intellectual property on its platform to remain competitive, and deal with the consequences later,” the filing said. “Later is now.” A representative for Pandora’s parent company, SiriusXM, did not immediately respond to... Continue reading…

Photo Illustration by Grayson Blackmon / The Verge The best ways to carry around a Switch in style Continue reading…

Image: Apple Yesterday, Apple revealed it would expand its Self Service Repair program to let you fix your own MacBooks, and today the program is here. You can now download full repair manuals for your 2021 14-inch and 16-inch MacBook Pros and the 2020 13-inch M1 MacBook Pro and M1 MacBook Air — and shop for parts you might need.But what will Apple actually let you buy, and how much will you really have to pay? That’s not obvious until you enter your serial numbers and root around the company’s entire store — so we did it for you.Many prices seem (relatively) generous! Others, not so much. You can’t just replace your own battery or keyboard on a MacBook Pro, for example! You have to buy the entire top lid that comes with that and other parts... Continue reading…

A zombie in Dead Island 2 | Image: Deep Silver Amazon is launching a new tool called Alexa Game Control that’s designed to let gamers use natural language voice commands so they can accomplish actions in video games. The first game to feature the technology will be the zombie-filled Dead Island 2, which was just re-revealed at Gamescom’s Opening Night Live event.With Alexa Game Control, Amazon says you’ll be able to do things like interact with NPCs and switch weapons just by using your voice. You won’t need to use a wake word like “Alexa” or even have one of Amazon’s Echo devices, and the company says that the feature will work with “any microphone or headset connected to their PC or console.” However, you will be able to use Alexa features like controlling smart home devices and... Continue reading…

Samar Haddad / The Verge Bad stuff happens — and occasionally, it happens to your Google account. One nightmare for those who depend on their Gmail, Google Photos, and other Google apps is to lose access to all that data. This is what happened to a father who sent photos of his child to a doctor using his Android phone and found himself suddenly without access to the years of personal data — contacts, family photos, you name it — that were in his Google accounts.There are other good reasons to have a local backup of your Google info. You may be switching jobs, or maybe you’ve decided to stop using a specific email account, or you just want a copy of all your emails just in case. Whatever your reasons, it’s not a bad idea to back up and export your Gmail and... Continue reading…

Mini meets Pokémon in this unusual mashup. | Image: Mini / Pokemon Mini teamed up with Pokémon to develop a Pikachu-themed concept car that’s, fittingly, all-electric. The automaker showcased the car during the Gamescom Opening Night Live event, which lets you hook up your game console and project your gameplay from the front of the vehicle.Mini used its Aceman concept for this collaboration, which it previously revealed in July. With the “Pokémon mode” that comes installed on this particular car, Pikachu takes over the vehicle’s main display when the vehicle’s turned on, while digital lightning bolts travel across the entire dashboard.But the coolest part about this concept is that you can actually plug in your game console and then use the vehicle’s exterior projector to display your gameplay on... Continue reading…

Image: Spotify Have you ever wanted to know how in the hell a man like Hideo Kojima comes up with some of the outlandish stuff you see in his games? Well, you’re about to, as he’s coming soon to earholes near you.During Opening Night Live, otherwise known as Geoff Keighley’s European Adventure, the maestro of video game marketing announced that his friend, Hideo Kojima, would be making an appearance. And whenever Kojima deigns to show his face, the gaming world pauses with bated breath, waiting to see what bonkers-ass game that man has cooked up now. But unfortunately (or fortunately, depending on where in the Kojima fandom you fall), his newest announcement isn’t a new game or even a port of an old game but a podcast.Brain Structure, Kojima’s new... Continue reading…

Harley Quinn in Gotham Knights. | Image: WB Games Gotham Knights, an open-world RPG set in the Batman universe, will be available just a little bit sooner than we originally knew. The game was set to be released on October 25th, but now it’s coming out on October 21st, according to a trailer that debuted at Gamescom’s Opening Night Live show.In Gotham Knights, you’ll play as Nightwing, Batgirl, Robin, and Red Hood to protect Gotham City from many famous Batman villains. The trailer’s description mentions Mr. Freeze, Harley Quinn, Clayface, and the Court of Owls, and I wouldn’t be surprised if you run into more in the course of the game. The game is playable solo or with one other person.Gotham Knights, from Warner Bros. Games Montreal, was originally set to be released in 2021 but... Continue reading…

Laura Normand / The Verge Listen, I’m sure there will be a lot of sturm und drang about what the whistleblower disclosures mean for Elon Musk’s Twitter deal, but I want to focus on something dumber and pettier: Jack Dorsey.Twitter had serious vulnerabilities that Russian and Chinese governments might try to take advantage of, according to the whistleblower complaint from Peiter “Mudge” Zatko, the former Twitter security chief. (Zatko refers to himself as “Mudge” in the complaint, but I will be calling him Zatko because that’s his government name.) Zatko also alleges that Twitter had no incentive to count bots correctly. I can’t help but notice, though, that all of these allegations suggest that Dorsey was an incompetent leader.The first time Dorsey was CEO, he... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Congress is investigating new whistleblower claims made by Twitter’s former head of security following two bombshell reports published on Tuesday — and some are calling on top federal law enforcement officials to follow suit.This morning, The Washington Post and CNN published dual reports into alarming new safety and security allegations raised against Twitter by Peiter “Mudge” Zatko, who was fired as the company’s head of security earlier this year. Zatko alleges that Twitter makes little effort to fight spam accounts and has shockingly insufficient cybersecurity defenses.Responding to the new reports, several top lawmakers said that their committees and staff were currently investigating Zatko’s accusations. Sen. Richard Durbin... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Snapchat users in Illinois who used filters or lenses may be eligible for a payout. Illinois reached a $35 million settlement with Snap this month, according to the Chicago Tribune, in a class action lawsuit over how user data was collected.The suit alleges that Snapchat’s filters and lenses violated the state’s Biometric Information Privacy Act (BIPA) by collecting and storing biometric data without users’ consent. Illinois has some of the most stringent laws when it comes to companies collecting residents’ biometric information, including fingerprints, iris and retina scans, and face scans. The state law requires companies to tell people in writing why their biometric data is being collected and how long it will be kept and prohibits... Continue reading…

Photo by Matt McClain/The Washington Post via Getty Images Peiter “Mudge” Zatko, the former Twitter security chief who has alleged that the company covered up negligent security practices and lied to regulators about data management, was a credible, capable, and brutally honest security expert, according to peers and colleagues.The assessment of Zatko’s work and character — culled from public messages of support and recollections shared directly with The Verge — is at odds with statements made by current Twitter CEO Parag Agrawal, who has claimed that Zatko is presenting a false narrative of the inner workings of the company after being terminated for poor performance in January.The assessment of Zatko’s work and character is at odds with statements made by current Twitter CEO Parag AgrawalI... Continue reading…

Photo by Jens Kalaene/picture alliance via Getty Images An Ohio judge has ruled that a Cleveland State University’s virtual scan of a student’s room prior to an online test was unconstitutional. The ruling marks a victory for digital privacy advocates around the country, who have spoken loudly against the practices of online test proctoring for many years.Chemistry student Aaron Ogletree sat for an online test in the spring 2021 semester. Ogletree was asked to show the virtual proctor his bedroom through his webcam prior to the beginning of the test. A recording of the room scan as well as the testing process that followed was retained by Honorlock, the university’s third-party vendor.Ogletree sued the university on the grounds that the practice violated his rights under the Fourth... Continue reading…

During Gamescom’s Opening Night Live event, Sonic Frontiers got a release date and a new trailer. What was previously announced as winter 2022 now has a firm date of November 8th, making it yet another unfortunate game that has to share a release month with God of War: Ragnarok.The trailer features Sonic rescuing a cute stone creature that seems reminiscent of the vacant-eyed but adorable Chao from Sonic Adventure. Sonic’s then confronted by a glowing, malevolent-looking child that seems to dislike the hedgehog running all over the place. Though the trailer shows new gameplay footage, there isn’t much new on offer aside from a confirmed release date and a bigger look at the story.Sonic Frontiers’ developers say this latest entry in... Continue reading…

Three characters from New Tales from the Borderlands. | Image: Gearbox via Xbox Wire Gearbox’s new Tales from the Borderlands game, which is just called New Tales from the Borderlands, will be released on October 21st, the studio announced Tuesday at the Gamescom Opening Night Live event. The game will be available on PlayStation, Xbox, Nintendo Switch, and PC.The original Tales from the Borderlands is a narrative adventure game that was originally made by Telltale Games. This sequel will have a new storyline and new characters, and some of the team that worked on the first Tales from the Borderlands are back for this entry, Gearbox Entertainment founder Randy Pitchford said onstage at Opening Night Live.Gearbox had revealed earlier this year that a Tales from the Borderlands follow-up was in the works for sometime in... Continue reading…

A screenshot from Return to Monkey Island | Image: Terrible Toybox Return to Monkey Island, the new entry in the popular point-and-click series from Ron Gilbert, will be released on September 19th, which just so happens to be International Talk Like a Pirate Day, according to a trailer shown at the Gamescom Opening Night Live event. The game will be available on PC and Nintendo Switch.Gilbert first teased the game this year in what appeared to be an April Fools’ joke, but a few days later, it turned out that he actually wasn’t kidding. The new game is a direct follow-up to The Secret of Monkey Island and Monkey Island 2: LeChuck’s Revenge, though, in an interview with The Verge, Gilbert and Dave Grossman hinted the game could include canon from other games in the series.Those who preorder the game... Continue reading…

Narrator lives on Windows laptops, such as the Lenovo Yoga 9i. | Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge There are numerous third-party screen readers available for Windows 11. The most popular ones include Job Access With Speech (JAWS) and NonVisual Desktop Access (NVDA). (Microsoft has a full list on its website.)But Windows also has a free, built-in screen reader called Narrator. Given the wealth of options that are out there, the majority of people don’t use it as their primary screen reader. But if you’re in that majority, it can be useful if you’re borrowing someone else’s device and can be there in a pinch if you can’t use your preferred software for whatever reason.If you want to turn on Narrator, there are a couple ways to do it.How to turn on Narrator with the keyboardAssuming you’re not using a remapped keyboard, you can turn... Continue reading…

Image: Sony Sony has just announced a new DualSense Edge Wireless Controller. The “high performance” controller is fully customizable, much like the Xbox Elite controller. Sony appears to have the best features from the Scuf and Elite controllers, with removable analog thumbsticks, rear buttons, changeable stick caps, and multiple control profiles.The DualSense Edge allows owners to change out stick caps for three types: standard, high dome, and low dome. There are also two swappable back buttons (half-dome or lever) that can be mapped to any other buttons, much like typical paddles. You can even replace the stick modules, which is a great advantage over the Xbox Elite. These will be sold separately. Image: Sony The two new... Continue reading…

The little midrange phone that could. | Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge We already know that the midrange Pixel 6A has the right stuff on the inside, and based on the results of JerryRigEverything’s 6A durability test, it looks like it has an equally solid build quality to match. As the 6A goes under the knife in the video below, you’ll see it stand up well to scratches on the glass screen cover and camera housing, as well as surviving the flex test — not all recent midrange phones have been so fortunate.Google put its flagship-grade chipset in this affordable $450 device, and not surprisingly, the result is flagship-grade performance. It has excellent software support, too, with its clean Android implementation and monthly security updates that it’s scheduled to receive for five years.Sure, the screen... Continue reading…

The iPad and iPhone are growing apart. | Photo by David Pierce / The Verge Apple has confirmed that iPadOS 16.0 won’t be getting a public release and that the tablet-centered OS won’t be coming out until after iOS starts hitting phones. In a statement to TechCrunch, attributed only to “the company,” it said: “we have the flexibility to deliver iPadOS on its own schedule. This Fall, iPadOS will ship after iOS, as version 16.1 in a free software update.”Despite Apple traditionally releasing iPadOS and iOS together, it’s always felt like this decoupling was a possibility ever since Apple split out the iPad’s operating system as a separate entity in 2019. (And indeed, the first version of iPadOS released as 13.1, less than a week after iOS 13’s messy initial rollout.) Still, it’s a pretty big change of pace for... Continue reading…

Adi Robertson using the Quest 2. | Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge Meta will now allow users of its Quest VR headsets to log in with a new Meta account instead of a Facebook account, the company announced on Tuesday. The company had said in July that this change would be rolling out in August, and it marks a shift from an unpopular policy announced in 2020 that required users to log in to their headsets with a Facebook account instead of a separate Oculus account.Users can create Meta accounts through the Meta mobile app using an email address, Facebook account, or Instagram account. Once you create a Meta account, you’ll need to set up a linked Meta Horizon social profile that will be used in VR. As with Facebook accounts before, you’ll need one of these accounts to use a Quest headset.“Our new Meta... Continue reading…

Image: Amazon The latest trailer for Amazon’s The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power series gives us the best look yet at the mysterious, raggedy dude from the previous teasers. He’s not officially confirmed to be Gandalf, but I’m calling it: that’s Gandalf. That’s Gandalf, ahead of schedule for once, coming to Middle-earth one Age early to hang out with hobbits while the rest of the cast is busy yelling, climbing ice cliffs, swinging swords, forging rings, and getting absolutely bamboozled by hot Sauron. And that’s why the show could be great.

Image: Fitbit Fitbit teased a new wearable that it’ll reveal tomorrow during a special product event. The company posted a shadowy close-up of what looks like a new Fitbit Sense or Versa device on Twitter, and lo and behold: there’s a physical button again.Back in May, a photo of a smartwatch made the rounds online that was purportedly a leaked Fitbit Versa 4. Verge resident wearables tech reviewer Victoria Song laid out why so many athletes and athleisure-wearing workout cosplayers believe it was a mistake on Fitbit’s part to remove the physical buttons on the Sense, Versa 3, Charge 5, and Inspire 2 in favor of confusing touch-sensitive ones. Deputy editor Thomas Ricker had a higher opinion of the Garmin Epix 2’s touchscreen approach, but that... Continue reading…

“Not actual gameplay footage,” unfortunately. | Image: Tilt Five Catan, one of the most critically acclaimed board games ever made and one that averages over a million copies sold per year, is about to leap off the tabletop thanks to a unique augmented reality gaming system that’s been in development for over a decade now. Tilt Five, a startup founded by a former Valve engineer, has just announced that a 3D holographic version of the game, dubbed Catan — Tilt Five AR, will arrive in spring 2023.Unfortunately, the video below doesn’t really give us a look at the game, but the company says you can play it around a table, solo against “classic AI opponents,” or online with other players around the world. And you’ll be able to “interact with the Catan island in new ways using the Tilt Five Wand and... Continue reading…

Kristen Radtke / The Verge; Getty Images Hello! I am back from my travels and am in New York only for a bit before flying off to Dallas for Podcast Movement (I just got an “on time” notification from American Airlines, but I am not holding my breath). There will be a fair amount of star power at the conference (Mark Cuban! Audie Cornish!), but I am most looking forward to getting some face time with Hot Pod readers. Also, the gossip — you know I live for the gossip.Today, YouTube is making some podcast moves, and Meghan Markle finally debuts her Spotify podcast.Exclusive: (another) study shows YouTube is the most-used podcast platformI am aware I sound like a broken record, but we really need to be keeping an eye on how YouTube could wield its power in the podcasting space.... Continue reading…

Image: Yelp Following the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade, Yelp announced Tuesday that it would add a new consumer notice to crisis pregnancy centers to better distinguish them from clinics that provide abortion services.Starting today, Yelp’s new notices will appear at the top of faith-based and non-faith-based crisis pregnancy center listings in the app, as first reported by Axios. The new feature prominently displays an alert notifying users that these centers “typically provide limited medical services and may not have licensed medical professionals onsite.”Since 2018, Yelp says it has recategorized “thousands” of business listings that may mislead abortion seekers searching for care online. Crisis pregnancy centers often... Continue reading…

Heads Up! is arriving on Netflix, with exclusive decks based on shows like Stranger Things. | Image: Netflix Ellen’s popular mobile charades app Heads Up! is coming to Netflix today as an exclusive version of the game, set to feature 28 new card decks from popular series like Stranger Things, Bridgerton and Squid Game.More general entertainment decks are also available for genres like anime, true crime, and baking shows, so chances are if you watch any exclusive Netflix content on the regular, you’ll find a category that takes your fancy. The announcement of the new game also states that it will be available to play in 13 new languages on both Android and iOS devices.“Doubling our catalog to over 50 games by the end of the year”Today’s news comes a few weeks after it was revealed that Netflix’s games only see 1.7 million daily users, meaning... Continue reading…

The Home Bridge Hub has been discontinued. It was designed to connect Liftmaster and Chamberlain smart garage door openers with myQ technology — such as this Liftmaster Secure View opener — to Apple’s HomeKit platform. | Image: Liftmaster Chamberlain Group, makers of myQ connected garage door openers, is discontinuing its myQ Home Bridge Hub, a device whose sole purpose was to connect myQ-enabled garage doors to Apple’s HomeKit smart home platform.myQ is a smart garage door controller technology that is built into a garage door opener or a separate retrofit wireless hub and connects your garage door to Wi-Fi. This lets you open and close it from anywhere using the myQ smartphone app.The myQ Home Bridge Hub, which extended that control to the Apple Home app, has been out of stock on Chamberlain’s website for a few weeks, and the company confirmed to The Verge that it’s been discontinued.“As our products continue to evolve, we have decided to discontinue production of... Continue reading…

Image: NASA An early look at the view of Jupiter captured by NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope, or JWST, hinted at how precise and detailed our new view of the planet would be. But this week, NASA released another set of photos showing the cloud cover, rings, and moons of Jupiter in remarkable detail — and it was even better than scientists were hoping for.“We hadn’t really expected it to be this good, to be honest,” said planetary astronomer Imke de Pater, professor emerita of the University of California, Berkeley, in a press release. “It’s really remarkable that we can see details on Jupiter together with its rings, tiny satellites, and even galaxies in one image.”The telescope uses a camera with three filters that translate infrared light... Continue reading…

Image: Bungie Bungie is teaming up with Epic Games for a Destiny 2 crossover with Fortnite and Fall Guys. The collaboration will see Bungie and Epic Games create skins for Destiny 2 and Fortnite, along with gliders, pickaxes, back blings, and even a Destiny-inspired creative map for Fortnite. Destiny skins will also be available in Fall Guys.Three Fortnite-inspired skins will appear in Destiny 2, and three Destiny-inspired armor ornaments will appear in Fortnite. The Destiny 2 ornaments will be based on Fortnite’s Drift, Oblivion, and Black Knight skins. In Fortnite, players will be able to run around as Zavala, Exo Stranger, or Ikora thanks to new skins. Image: Bungie Destiny 2 characters in Fortnite. The collab goes even... Continue reading…

Masahiro Sakurai’s final daily screenshot from Super Smash Bros. Ultimate. | Image: Masahiro Sakurai on Twitter Masahiro Sakurai will no longer be posting a daily screenshot of Super Smash Bros. Ultimate on Twitter, he announced Monday evening. He’s already teasing another project of some kind, though it apparently won’t be something we’ll see daily.“This concludes the daily Smash Ultimate screens I’ve been posting since Dec. 2019. Thank you for your support!” he said in a tweet. “However...I’ve been thinking about starting something new. (This time it won’t be daily, though.)” He encourages fans to check back “around this time tomorrow” for more information, so if you want to be the first to learn what’s in the works, you might want to keep an eye on his feed at about 11PM ET.

Image: Bungie Destiny 2 is arriving on the Epic Games Store today. The latest expansion of Bungie’s looter shooter comes just as Epic and Bungie announce a special Destiny 2 and Fortnite crossover that will involve skins, maps, and more. The expansion to the Epic Games Store will also see Destiny 2’s recent 30th Anniversary go free on the Epic Games Store.Bungie will also make The Witch Queen, Beyond Light, and other DLCs free for a week across all available Destiny 2 platforms. Stadia, Xbox, PlayStation, and PC players will all be able to access previous DLCs for the week to coincide with the Epic Games Store launch.Bungie’s move to the Epic Games Store is part of a broader expansion for Destiny 2 across digital game stores and platforms. Destiny 2... Continue reading…