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A teaser for Samsung’s August 10th event. | Image: Samsung Samsung’s annual summer launch event is almost here. The company will hold its August Galaxy Unpacked event on August 10th at 9AM ET, one year and one day after last year’s foldable-focused event. And, if rumors are to be believed, we’re set for a very similar lots of announcements consisting of a pair of foldables — the Galaxy Z Fold 4 and Galaxy Z Flip 4 — a new lineup of smartwatches with the Galaxy Watch 5, and most likely some new earbuds.We know there are foldables on the way because Samsung’s basically showed them to us in its promotional images and official trailer for its August 10th launch, and Samsung’s smartphone boss teased “new Samsung Galaxy foldables” in a blog post about the launch. The sheer quantity of Watch 5 leaks... Continue reading…

Vampire Survivors. | Image: Poncle Vampire Survivors’ new 0.10.0 update adds a cheats menu, and after using it to unlock some things I had been stuck on, I dearly wish that more games included one.Vampire Survivors, if you haven’t heard of it, is a delightful game about leveling up and destroying literally thousands of monsters in a single run. I’d describe it as roguelike-ish; you pick a starting character with certain attributes and a specific weapon, and you’ll level up that weapon, other weapons, and other items as you collect gems by defeating enemies. Your weapons fire automatically, so you mostly just have to worry about picking up experience and items while avoiding baddies.The game launched in Early Access on Steam late last year, and has received regular... Continue reading…

Photo by Zach Roberts/NurPhoto via Getty Images A jury has ordered conspiracy broadcaster Alex Jones to pay $4.1 million to the parents of a child killed in the 2012 Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting. The decision followed a trial that saw Jones and his counsel break courtroom protocol and — at one point — accidentally send copies of Jones’ phone records to the opposing legal team. The fine marks one of the first concrete legal consequences for Jones’ false claims that the shooting was a staged “false flag,” which led to years of harassment for parents. But it represents only a fraction of the money Jones has made in the years since.Scarlett Lewis and Neil Heslin, whose son Jesse Lewis was one of the 20 children killed at Sandy Hook, had requested $150 million in compensation for... Continue reading…

Image: Mark Zuckerberg (Instagram) Other than “turning up the heat a little bit” on Meta employees who shouldn’t be there and hitting the metaverse runway, Mark Zuckerberg is highlighting Instagram’s expanded NFT support. The founder and CEO took the opportunity of announcing expanded NFT support on Instagram to tell everyone his custom-made 1992 Little League baseball card is going on sale soon, with an NFT included as part of the deal.I thought he was minting it himself, but as the Metropolis Comic Collect profile linked in his post explains, that is not the case. This card is one Zuckerberg custom-made for a camp counselor who kept it, and now it has been authenticated and put up for sale as an actual collectible, in addition to the digital blockchain receipt. If you... Continue reading…

Twitter admits that Musk is a Twitter user | Kristen Radtke / The Verge; Getty Images So I don’t know entirely what’s in Elon Musk’s counterclaims against Twitter — they are still under seal — but I did get an inkling today, when Twitter dropped its response. It’s spicy! Rather than let Musk get his complaints out first, Twitter went ahead and released a blow-by-blow response, the better with which to dunk on Elon along the way.I do love this:

You can currently buy the AirPods Max for around $449 instead of $549. | Photo by Becca Farsace / The Verge With more people working from home than they used to, owning a good pair of noise-canceling headphones has become more appealing than ever. However, they can be expensive and difficult to shop for due to the range of available models, many of which cater to different lifestyles and priorities. Some are better suited for long-haul flights, for instance, while others are ideal for multitasking and marathon listening sessions.That’s why we’ve curated this list of the best deals on noise-canceling headphones. Here, you’ll find sales on all kinds of on-ear and over-ear headphones, all of which are designed to eliminate outside noise but come with their own strengths and weaknesses. And if you want to do even more research before making a... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge HBO Max isn’t dead...yet. But come the summer of 2023 it will be, and there will be a new service replacing both HBO Max and Discovery Plus, Warner Bros Discovery CEO David Zaslav said on an earnings call today.“HBO Max has a competitive feature set, but it has had performance and customer issues,” Zaslav said, being much more polite than I would be about the app, which regularly struggles to stream when people tune in for big appointment shows like Euphoria and Succession. He went on to claim Discovery Plus has a better tech stack and would become the core of the new service which will combine the content of HBO Max with the content and tech of Discovery Plus.“We think that product is going to be superb,” Zaslav said later in the... Continue reading…

APE not pictured | Image: The Verge You may remember our friends at AMC, the theater chain with the pantless CEO, who’ve leaned all the way in on the meme stock thing. Hordes of enthusiastic retail investors maybe rescued AMC from crushing debt. Now AMC is hoping to tap them again to create more shares of the company.This quarter, AMC announced a dividend for shareholders: AMC Preferred Equity units, which will trade as APE on the New York Stock Exchange. One of these babies will exist for every common share, and can be converted to common stock if the company and investors vote for that to happen.That “if” is kind of sticky though. See, AMC wanted to sell more shares and was shot down by investors. Maybe those investors didn’t want to be further diluted — AMC sold a lot... Continue reading…

SoundCloud’s CEO sent out a memo on Wednesday | Photo Illustration by Rafael Henrique/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images Streaming company SoundCloud is cutting about 20 percent of its global workforce. Billboard reported on August 3rd that SoundCloud CEO Michael Weissman told the staff in a company memo that the change is mostly due to the current economic climate. Employees affected would be notified over the next several days.“Today’s change positions SoundCloud for the long run and puts us on a path to sustained profitability,” Weissman wrote in the memo. “We have already begun to make prudent financial decisions across the company and that now extends to a reduction to our team.” In a statement to Billboard, a SoundCloud representative confirmed the news, and said: “During this difficult time, we are focused on providing the support and resources to... Continue reading…

A Ford Argo AI test vehicle, being tested, drives through the downtown area in Detroit, Michigan on July 12, 2019 | Photo credit should read JEFF KOWALSKY/AFP via Getty Images As autonomous vehicle testing ramps up, Argo AI announced the formation of a panel of outside experts to oversee the safe deployment of its technology.The startup, which is backed by Ford and Volkswagen, will “provide feedback on Argo’s safety and security practices and policies, including maintaining a world-class safety culture, scaling safely across multiple cities and countries, and responsibly launching and operating commercial driverless services,” the company said.The announcement comes as public opinion seems to be turning on autonomous vehicles (AVs), with recent surveys suggesting nearly half of Americans think that AVs would be a “bad idea” for society. And it comes as the Biden administration continues to scrutinize... Continue reading…

VoiceOver has been part of every Mac since macOS X | Photo by Monica Chin / The Verge Starting with macOS X, Apple has included a native screen reader called VoiceOver on its Macs and MacBooks. The feature is designed to help low-vision or blind users navigate their computers — and the internet — more easily. It works by reading aloud text descriptions of everything that appears on the screen, as well as reading any displayed text. The technology also allows users to interact with elements on the screen.While VoiceOver is primarily meant for those with visual impairments, it can be helpful in many different scenarios — for example, if you’re someone who has a learning disability and prefers to listen to text rather than read it.Apple has a whole user guide that gets into the nitty-gritty of how to use VoiceOver with... Continue reading…

Photo by Becca Farsace / The Verge Apple has released a new software update for the Studio Display following reports of audio problems like sound dropouts and choppy playback (via MacRumors). The new update, which Apple only says “resolves an audio issue”, is a revised version of update 15.5, and to download and install it, your Mac will need to be on macOS Monterey 12.4 or later.MacRumors reported this week on a memo indicating that Apple was aware something was going on. In the memo, Apple apparently said that the audio problems were not due to the Studio Display’s hardware, and to fix the issues, the company recommended that customers unplug the display from power, disconnect any accessories or devices, and then plug it back in after waiting 10 seconds.It’s not clear... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge YouTube is testing a new mobile app feature with its premium subscribers that allows them to zoom in on any video. As noted by 9to5Google, the latest opt-in experimental feature enables a pinch-to-zoom gesture for videos — and it works both in portrait and full-screen landscape view.According to the company, the zoom feature will remain in testing until September 1st, giving YouTube about a month to gather user feedback and refine things before potentially rolling it out more widely. Screenshot: Richard Lawler / The Verge You can opt in through the “try new features” section of YouTube’s settings. To enable pinch to zoom, open YouTube’s settings menu either on your phone or from the website. As long as... Continue reading…

Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge Microsoft is giving Xbox Series S game developers more control over memory on the console. A new Xbox software development kit has been released to developers recently, and it frees up more memory for developers to access for Xbox Series S games and boosts performance in certain titles.“Hundreds of additional megabytes of memory are now available to Xbox Series S developers,” says Microsoft’s Game Dev team in a video detailing the updates. “This gives developers more control over memory, which can improve graphics performance in memory-constrained conditions.”The $299 Xbox Series S launched as a console capable of 1440p gaming at up to 120fps, but many games have only hit 1080p and without the higher frame rates of the more powerful... Continue reading…

Photo by Mario Tama/Getty Images The monkeypox outbreak is a public health emergency in the United States, Xavier Becerra, the secretary of health and human services, said today. The disease has been spreading in the US since May, and cases have been rising around the world.“We urge every American to take monkeypox seriously,” he said in a press briefing today.The decision to declare a public health emergency follows the World Health Organization’s declaration in late July that monkeypox is a Public Health Emergency of International Concern. A number of states, including New York and California, have also declared health emergencies.A public health emergency opens up funding for disease response and could help accelerate access to existing treatments for the... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Microsoft is starting to test an Xbox Game Pass family plan that will allow subscribers to share their benefits with other people. A preview of this Xbox Game Pass family plan is available in Colombia and Ireland today, and testers will be able to add up to four people to their subscription as long as they’re in the same country.“Starting today in Colombia and Ireland, Xbox Insiders can begin to preview a plan that allows multiple people to share Game Pass Ultimate benefits,” explains Tyler Mittleider, a senior technical program manager at Microsoft. “This makes it even easier to play the best Game Pass games with friends and family across console, PC, and cloud by enabling you to add up to four people to your subscription, all with... Continue reading…

Photo by Spencer Platt/Getty Images After two years of COVID-19, the conversation around monkeypox testing gives off an unnerving sense of deja-vu. The similarities are right there: painful swabs, the struggle to even find a test, bottlenecks, and a long wait for results. But the diseases are different enough that experience with COVID-19 didn’t give researchers much of a leg up in their efforts to improve the monkeypox testing process.In the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, experts bemoaned the lack of investment in rapid, at-home testing for various diseases in the United States. The thought was that if the infrastructure had been in place before the coronavirus emerged, it would have been easier to scale up testing — and maybe help control the pandemic.... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Did you know you can search for an exact word or phrase on Google by putting quotation marks around it? It’s a great way to get specific about something you’re looking for. And on Thursday, Google announced what I think will be a nice improvement: the small snippets underneath a search result link will now be created based on where the quoted term appears on the page.Google’s blog post about the change has a good image that illustrates how this will work in practice, which I’ve included below. Google googled “google search,” and the two snippets shown in the example both include the bolded phrase “Google Search.” Image: Google The Google search results for “google search.” Previously, Google would show you... Continue reading…

Player First Games Player First Games, developer of MultiVersus, the arena brawler that pits Warner Bros. and DC Comics characters against each other in battles to the death, has announced it’s delaying the start of season 1 and the release of the Morty character.

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge And with it goes some of the good TV Continue reading…

TuSimple is in trouble.Last April, a semi-trailer truck operated by the San Diego-based company that was traveling down I-10 in Tucson, Arizona, suddenly lurched left, slamming into a concrete divider, according to dashcam footage leaked to YouTuber Asian Mai. TuSimple blamed “human error,” but a report in The Wall Street Journal says that’s a major oversimplification.An internal report viewed by the Journal says that the crash occurred because “a person in the cab hadn’t properly rebooted the autonomous driving system before engaging it, causing it to execute an outdated command.” The left-turn command was 2.5 minutes old and should have been erased but wasn’t, according to the internal report.The left-turn command was 2.5 minutes... Continue reading…

Joaquin Phoenix in Joker. | Screenshot: Joker The sequel to 2019’s Oscar-winning Joker is planned for release on October 4th, 2024. Deadline reported the news Thursday, and director Todd Phillips confirmed the release date in an Instagram post. Joaquin Phoenix, who won the Oscar for Best Actor for his portrayal of the character in the first movie, is returning, and Lady Gaga will be joining the cast.

Going offline. | Photo: Becky O’Bryan It’s been a really stressful few years. We’ve all been living through pandemics (plural!), political upheaval, economic awfulness — you name it. And this isn’t even mentioning the normal pressure of work and family. So how do you deal?We asked the staff of The Verge to let us know how they cope with the anxiety and pressures of living in today’s world (including having to write about these problems on a day-to-day basis). We got a variety of answers, ranging from running and meditation to pulling weeds and creating chain mail.In other words, here’s how some of us here at The Verge relieve our stress. Perhaps one of these will work for you — or you can let us know any strategies that have worked for you.In the garden P... Continue reading…

The Pixel 6A in its multitone sage colorway. | Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge The Pixel 6A from Google is just a week old, but there’ve been notable promotions running on it since before it came out. Now, you can get the Pixel 6A for an outright discount of $50 off at Amazon, knocking the price of the sage and charcoal colors down to $399 — no included gift card or earbud stipulations to worry about. This is a moderately priced phone, now priced even better for a limited time. Be sure to click the on-page coupon to get the full discount at Amazon, so each color becomes $399 at checkout, and don’t be fooled by any third-party sellers that may appear with a similar deal that lacks the coupon.While the Pixel 6A is a bit of a departure from previous A-series phones from Google, it’s an exceptional midrange option... Continue reading…

There’s no headphone jack present in purported CAD renders of the upcoming iPad. | Renders: MySmartPrice Apple has gradually removed the headphone jack from its entire iPhone lineup and several iPads like the iPad Pro, iPad Air, and iPad Mini. And now, the company seems poised to eliminate it from the iPad altogether: according to purported renders of an upcoming redesign of the entry-level model, the 3.5mm connector is about to be a goner there as well. It’s nowhere to be found on either the top or bottom of the device.MySmartPrice says the CAD renders are sourced from a case maker working on accessories for what will be the 10th-generation iPad. It’s a substantial redesign from the classic iPad design that has been left largely untouched for years; Apple increased the display size slightly in 2017 and has made other internal hardware... Continue reading…

Volkswagen announced that the 2023 ID.4 electric crossover SUV, which the automaker just started producing at its factory in Chattanooga, Tennessee, will start at the suggested price of $37,495 — making it one of the more affordable plug-in crossovers on the market today.Combined with the federal EV tax credit of $7,500 — which may be renewed under the Senate Democrat’s new reconciliation package that’s currently under debate — the ID.4’s price could come down even more.The ID.4 is VW’s most popular EV, having delivered 190,000 vehicles to customers globally since its release in 2021. VW CEO Herbert Diess, who is stepping down in September, said in May 2022 that the company was “basically sold out on electric vehicles in Europe and... Continue reading…

Twitter has a new feature useful to brick-and-mortar businesses that can put crucial information near the top of their Twitter profiles. The new Location Spotlight feature, launching widely today, lets businesses add information like store hours and address, a Google Map with directions, and a quick tap option to contact a business via phone or Twitter direct messaging.Location Spotlight could make it easier and quicker for customers to, say, decide if there’s enough time to walk three blocks for coffee before a shop closes. While it may be faster to search a business directly on a map app, if the pandemic has taught us anything, it’s that information may not be correct or up to date.Part of a broader business-centric feature set... Continue reading…

A male killer whale breaching in the Icy Strait, southeast Alaska. | Photo by: Francois Gohier/VW Pics/Universal Images Group via Getty Images There are thousands of species on Earth that we still don’t know much about — but we now know that they are already teetering on the edge of extinction. A new study used machine learning to figure out just how threatened these lesser-known species are, and the results were grim.Some species of animals and plants are labeled “data deficient” because conservationists haven’t been able to gather enough information about them to understand how they live or how many of them are left. It turns out that those “data deficient” species are unfortunately even more threatened than other species that are more well known (to scientists, at least). The data from this study came from the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), which... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Earlier this week, thousands of crypto wallets connected to the Solana ecosystem were drained by attackers who used owners’ private keys to steal both Solana (SOL) and USD Coin (USDC). Solana now says that, after an investigation “by developers, ecosystem teams, and security auditors,” it’s linked the attack to accounts tied to the Slope mobile wallet app.A chart set up on Dune to track the attacks tallies the amount of crypto stolen at just over $4 million, taken from over 9,000 unique wallets.Slope Finance, which calls itself “the easiest way to discover web3 applications from one secure place,” has issued a statement advising all Slope users to create “a new and unique seed phrase wallet, and transfer all assets to this new wallet.”... Continue reading…

The word “aquamorphic” was used more than once. There’s nothing minimalist about the scene at OnePlus’ 10T launch event, and at a venue called Gotham Hall, how could it be? The ceiling and walls are lit up in bright red, and the audience is blanketed in a blue glow. There’s also a chandelier in the middle of the ceiling giving real The Phantom of the Opera vibes.OnePlus hasn’t left much to the imagination leading up to its launch event. For one, a couple of 10Ts are embedded in the wall where attendees walk in, so the jig is up. As it tends to, OnePlus has also dripped out specs ahead of time, from the chipset to the controversial missing alert slider. It’s a color-by-numbers picture of the phone with almost every bit shaded in except for one key spec: the price.Like just about... Continue reading…

Kristen Radtke / The Verge The bulbous, gas-free car from Nissan helped prove electric vehicles have a place in the automotive industry Continue reading…

It offers a full array of features aimed squarely at gamers Continue reading…

General Motors is racing to electrify its vast lineup of vehicles in a concerted bid to outpace Tesla as the No. 1 seller of EVs in the world. But it’s also competing with Tesla on a whole other front: autonomous vehicles.On this front, GM feels like it has an edge. It’s hands-free advanced driver-assist system, Super Cruise, will double its coverage area to 400,000 miles of highways and routes later this year. Next year, the automaker will unveil the next iteration, Ultra Cruise, which GM has said will cover “95 percent” of driving tasks. And its robotaxi division, Cruise, is currently picking up and dropping off passengers in San Francisco as part of the city’s first real commercial autonomous ridehail service.But at present,... Continue reading…

Illustration by Samar Haddad / The Verge You were working. Things were just fine. A landscaper puts a shovel through your buried internet cabling or tree limbs drop and kill a neighborhood’s internet. Or the inexplicable happens, and the little green light on the cable modem goes red. You are, as the sailors say when a ship’s engine becomes quiet, dead in the water. What now?Most remote work depends on access to a reliable internet connection, and for lots of people, especially for hourly or clocked workers, no internet means no pay. That means finding a way to get back online quickly, either at home or elsewhere. The goal, given the interruption, is to stay in business, be employed, and have a reliable backup plan after the internet outage swear words are spoken. It’s for... Continue reading…

Illustration by Samar Haddad / The Verge | Photography by Robert Nickelsberg / Getty Images I’ve been working from home for close to 15 years. I also have ADHD. And a lot of streaming subscriptions. And a PlayStation. And hundreds of books. And a partner who also sometimes works from home and is equally aware of the presence of said streaming subscriptions, PlayStation, and books.The point is that my home is full of distractions. Yours probably is, too. Maybe different distractions from mine, but distractions nonetheless. And, like many workers, it may have taken you a pandemic to discover that it can be hard to avoid these distractions when working from home. (Work itself provides plenty of distractions already, if you’re not careful— the continuous pings of emails and Slacks can make you feel like you’re working all the time... Continue reading…

While a largely iterative upgrade, the new Rotom Phone gets a couple new features. | Image: The Pokémon Company The Rotom Phone is getting a big upgrade. Following its introduction in the Galar region three years ago, the updated version of the smartphone-that’s-inhabited-by-a-Pokémon is finally making the jump from one back camera to two. The handset will soon be available in the new Paldea region as well.It’s difficult to tell exactly what kind the second lens is for — all I can really see is that the main lens remains blue while the new second lens is black. I don’t think that’s enough information to make an informed guess about whether this new lens is a telephoto, an ultrawide, or something else, though I’m hoping I’ll be able to use that second camera to take pictures of the new best boy Fidough.

Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge Valve is expanding Steam Deck shipments to some regions that could take the handheld PC-meets-console to new heights. The company just announced that reservations are now open in Japan, South Korea, Hong Kong, and Taiwan through Komodo, a site that also sells Valve’s Index VR headset for PC among other games and gaming merchandise. If you visit steamdeck.com in one of those regions, you should be rerouted to Komodo’s site soon, or you can click here and select your language.Valve spokesperson Kaci Aitchison Boyle tells The Verge that the first batch of new reservations will be fulfilled later this year; a press release adds that shipments will begin in Japan, “with additional units planned to ship to customers in Korea, Hong Kong, and... Continue reading…

Ever heard of the Streisand effect? It’s when someone tries to suppress information only to wind up spreading it even further than it might have otherwise traveled.For example: last week, I might have been skeptical if you told me a podcaster got their hands on a casting script for the next Tomb Raider game — one that reveals that an older, lonely Lara Croft may dodge lasers in a “gravity tomb” and engage in a romance with another female character.But if you also told me that the head lawyer at Tomb Raider studio Crystal Dynamics immediately sent a DMCA takedown notice — one where he attested under penalty of perjury that the podcast infringed on the studio’s intellectual property — I would absolutely think that script and those... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge NBC’s long-running soap opera Days of Our Lives will be leaving broadcast television after 57 years on to stream exclusively on Peacock, the network announced on Wednesday. The change means that fans who previously have been able to watch the show for free on broadcast will now have to pay for a streaming service to learn what happens next in the show’s fictional town of Salem. New episodes of Days of Our Lives will debut beginning September 12th.“With a large percentage of the Days of Our Lives audience already watching digitally, this move enables us to build the show’s loyal fanbase on streaming while simultaneously bolstering the network daytime offering with an urgent, live programming opportunity for partners and consumers,” ... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Facebook is shutting down live shopping, its QVC-like livestream feature that lets creators broadcast and sell products to an audience (via TechCrunch). The feature will officially shut down on October 1st, and Facebook says it’s part of the company’s initiative to shift focus to Reels.“As consumers’ viewing behaviors are shifting to short-form video, we are shifting our focus to Reels on Facebook and Instagram, Meta’s short-form video product,” Facebook explains. Although live shopping’s going away on Facebook, it will still be available on Instagram.First rolled out in 2018 in Thailand, live shopping opens up another revenue stream for creators on Facebook. It lets influencers host their own live shopping sessions where they can show... Continue reading…

At a press conference last week, Spain’s Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez urged the country to conserve energy in every way possible, including taking off ties to stay cool. | Photo By Eduardo Parra/Europa Press via Getty Images As Europe grapples with a scorching summer and skyrocketing energy prices, Spain has become the latest government to tell its citizens to turn down the AC.A decree published on Tuesday morning in the official state gazette and scheduled to go into effect next week mandates that air conditioning in public places be set at or above 27 degrees Celsius (about 80 degrees Fahrenheit) and that doors of those buildings remain closed to save energy.Those public places include offices, shops, bars, theaters, airports, and train stations. The decree is being extended as a recommendation to all Spanish households. The rules include maintaining heating at or below 19 degrees Celsius (about 66 degrees Fahrenheit) in the winter and will remain in... Continue reading…

Photo by Andrew Hawkins / The Verge Luxury electric vehicle maker Lucid Motors is slashing its production forecast for 2022 for the second time this year. The Newark, California-based company announced it was revising its production expectations to between 6,000 and 7,000 vehicles.Lucid originally said it would make 20,000 vehicles in 2022, but that number was revised in February to 12,000–14,000 vehicles. It was another disappointing turn for the EV maker, which is strongly angling to capture some of Tesla’s market share with its ultra-premium, ultra-long-range Lucid Air sedan. Last quarter, Lucid announced a 10 percent price increase for the single model it has in production.“We’ve identified the primary bottlenecks”“Our revised production guidance reflects the... Continue reading…

Photo by PATRICK T. FALLON/AFP via Getty Images Here’s how a research study to test for antibodies might normally go: participants who sign up go to a medical office and get their blood drawn. Depending on the type of study, they might have to go back and forth multiple times over a few months. It takes logistics, scheduling, and too much time in probably too cold waiting rooms.But a new COVID-19 vaccine booster study tried a new — and more badass and / or gross, depending on how squeamish you are — approach. The study didn’t ask anyone to take time out of their day to go to a doctor’s office to test their blood for antibodies. Instead, the process was DIY: people drew their own blood at home.The study, done by Moderna researchers, was checking the antibody levels of people who... Continue reading…

Marvel’s Spider-Man Remastered launches August 12th for PC and will be verified on Steam Deck. | Image: Sony Marvel’s Spider-Man Remastered swings onto PC next week, and developer Insomniac Games just announced that the game has been verified for Steam Deck. Games that are verified should play great on the handheld gaming PC without having to make any major tweaks, meaning that you’ll likely be able to jump right into the action when Spider-Man Remastered is released.

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Microsoft’s first new Windows 11 widget should make it even easier to find out which games are coming to PC Game Pass. The widget is only available to Windows Insider testers for now and is supposed to provide a “window” into the service’s game library, allowing you to check out recent additions and the games leaving soon.Microsoft currently has a fairly limited selection of widgets in Windows 11, but a Game Pass widget indicates that Microsoft is trying out other applications (that aren’t so boring as the weather, a calendar, and the news). Windows 11 is supposed to support third-party widgets eventually, but adding Game Pass could be a good way to shake the widgets board up for now and might even help promote the subscription service.... Continue reading…

Illustration by Samar Haddad / The Verge When The Verge’s Richard Lawler reported that Google was rolling out its newly stylized version of Gmail for the web, I decided I wanted to take a look as well. Since my Gmail page hadn’t yet switched over, I clicked on the cog-like Settings icon in the upper-right corner of my page and then on the link labeled Try out the new Gmail view and refreshed my page.As Richard writes, the change isn’t radical. There is a new color scheme that I rather like and a few other interface tweaks. The main change, however, is the left-hand side panel — now, the two side panels.Previously, you had a single panel that gave you access to a menu of your various Gmail categories and labels (such as the Inbox, Starred, Trash, etc.). By clicking on the... Continue reading…

Demi Lovato, OneRepublic, and Usher can now sell concert tickets through TikTok. | Photo by Xavi Torrent/Redferns Performers can reach some fans even more directly now that Ticketmaster is selling tickets inside the TikTok app. The partnership means Ticketmaster can take advantage of TikTok’s recommendation feed that helps get artists — and now their event tickets — in front of fans.Bringing Ticketmaster to TikTok makes sense, based solely on how big a role music plays on the app, but it could also indicate broader plans to delve into the industry. Last month, a report from Insider revealed that TikTok’s parent company, ByteDance, filed a trademark for “TikTok Music.” The filing describes it as a platform that would allow users to purchase, play, share, and download music. Image: TikTok / Ticketmaster Only “select” creators... Continue reading…

A photo of an 11-inch iPad running iPadOS 16. | Photo by David Pierce / The Verge Apple is making big changes to multitasking and collaboration in iPadOS 16, asking users and developers to get used to its ambitious new Stage Manager user interface. Now, based on anonymous sources, Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman reports that, unlike in previous years when new versions of iOS and iPadOS have come out at the same time, the company will delay the launch of iPadOS 16. That would mean we can expect new iPhone software in September as usual, followed by an iPadOS update in October.Gurman said the delay is due in part to Stage Manager, which, in our preview of iPadOS 16, The Verge’s David Pierce didn’t like very much:

For a little spare change, this logo could be all yours | Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Robinhood is trading just above $10 a share as of this publication, which is about a 73 percent decrease from its price at IPO, $38. The market cap is now under $10 billion. Friends, it’s possible. The more the shares fall, the easier it is for the memestonkers to snatch. How would a bunch of retail investors seize Robinhood? Why not use a DAO?It’s time to seize the means of investingThere’s been a lot of speculation this year — especially after the first round of layoffs, when Robinhood cut 9 percent of its staff — that the app-based trading service is an attractive takeover target. Yesterday, Robinhood cut further: almost a quarter of its remaining staff, including its showy chief product officer hire they got from Google. It also r... Continue reading…