The Verge

You can order the Studio Pros beginning today. | Image: Beats For the first time since 2017, Beats is announcing a brand-new pair of flagship headphones. Today, the Apple-owned company is introducing the $349.95 Beats Studio Pros. They're available to order beginning today and will be in Apple retail locations (and other stores) on July 20th.As recent leaks have given away, the external design is largely a carryover from the prior Studio 3 headphones. But looks can be deceiving, and Beats has made a number of upgrades to the Studio Pros focusing on sound, noise cancellation, comfort, and more. Technically, these are the first Apple headphones to support lossless USB-C audio playback. And they continue Beats' efforts to appeal to both iPhone and Android users by including support for native... Continue reading...

They look like a lazy refresh from the outside, but the noise-canceling Studio Pros include a ton of new features like transparency mode and lossless USB-C audio. And they solidify Beats' unique appeal as a dual-ecosystem brand. Continue reading...

Nothing CEO Carl Pei knows better than most how hard it is to make a dent in the hardware world. | Image: Nothing Nothing wants to invent the future. But you don't get to invent the future if you can't first make it in the smartphone biz. Continue reading...

Image: Nintendo If you haven't played a Pikmin game before, you might be surprised to learn that the series can get quite dark. Sure, it stars a bunch of adorable plant-like beings - the titular pikmin - who navigate a huge world full of similarly cute creatures. It's bright and colorful in the way that Nintendo games tend to be. But it's also pretty creepy at times, with unsettling enemies to go up against, dark caverns to explore, and the way the pikmin will throw themselves into battle, with hordes able to overwhelm and kill larger creatures, whose corpses they then cart off to be repurposed. Pikmin is light on the surface but darker the more you think about it - and the latest entry takes things a step further with a survival mode and some ghostly... Continue reading...

Photo by Hakan Nural / Anadolu Agency via Getty Images Microsoft and Activision Blizzard have agreed to extend their merger agreement pending the outcome of negotiations with UK regulators. Both parties will now have until October 18th to finalize the transaction, after missing yesterday's original deal deadline.The recent decision in the US and approvals in 40 countries all validate that the deal is good for competition, players, and the future of gaming," tweeted Lulu Cheng Meservey, Activision Blizzard's CCO and EVP of corporate affairs. Given global regulatory approvals and the companies' confidence that CMA now recognizes there are remedies available to meet their concerns in the UK, the Activision Blizzard and Microsoft boards of directors have authorized the companies not to... Continue reading...

ME GRIMLOCK. How much would fans pay for the ultimate action figure? A company named Robosen seems determined to find out - with Transformers toys that transform themselves like they do in the classic cartoon.First, it was a $750 self-transforming Optimus Prime robot, then a $750 transforming trailer to go with it - $1,500 total to bring the leader of the Autobots to life.Now, Hasbro and Robosen are introducing Grimlock so you can own the king of the Dinobots, too, for a cool $1,700 all by itself.

ByteDance hasn't yet announced when TikTok Music will be launching to US markets. | Image: TikTok / The Verge / Canva TikTok is rolling out its new subscription-based music streaming platform - aptly named TikTok Music - to new markets, almost two weeks after the service first debuted in Indonesia and Brazil. According to a press release shared with The Verge, TikTok is inviting select users from Australia, Mexico, and Singapore to join a closed beta test starting today, providing participants with a three-month free trial for the TikTok Music service.TikTok Music is a new kind of music service that combines the power of music discovery on TikTok with a music streaming service offering millions of tracks from thousands of artists," the company said via its press release. Participating users can join the beta by downloading the TikTok Music app, either... Continue reading...

Image: Intel Intel announced earlier this week that its compact and upgradable NUC computers were being discontinued, but now Asus is stepping in to manufacture and develop future NUC systems instead. While Intel won't be making its cute small form factor PCs anymore, Asus will receive a non-exclusive license to Intel's NUC (Next Unit of Computing) product designs.As we pivot our strategy to enable ecosystem partners to continue NUC systems product innovation and growth, our priority is to ensure a smooth transition for our customers and partners," says Sam Gao, general manager of Intel Client Platform Solutions. I am looking forward to ASUS continuing to deliver exceptional products and supporting our NUC systems customers." P... Continue reading...

Illustration: The Verge I am not big on blurring out or replacing my office background with premade images, but then again, I'm fortunate enough to have a small environment I'm completely in control of at my disposal, and I want people to see the Doctor Zhivago DVD on the shelf behind me. I could, however, see myself using the new AI-generated backgrounds Google is now testing in its Workspace Labs (via XDA-Developers / 9to5Google).The feature was spotted by Artem Russakovskii, who tweeted about it this afternoon. For those who already have the feature enabled on their account, activating it is as simple as either clicking on the effects icon in the bottom right of your preview video prior to joining a meeting, typing in a prompt describing what you'd like,... Continue reading...

Illustration: The Verge Roblox is developing tools that will let developers offer subscriptions within their experiences, according to a blog post published Tuesday, which could prove to be a major new way for developers to make money in their experiences.Roblox already offers developers a lot of ways to monetize their experiences, including the ability to sell virtual items in an experience or on the Roblox marketplace, offering in-experience passes to certain content and gating experiences behind paid access. However, those examples are all one-time fees, and Roblox argues that subscriptions would offer a way for developers to establish a recurring economic relationship with their users and potentially increase the predictability of their earnings." (Other... Continue reading...

Capcom Dinos in crisis. Continue reading...

If you're not a fan of the new pixelated Reddit icon on your iPhone, I have some bad news: unless you want to switch to an icon themed around the Dogecoin dog or WallStreetBets, you'll have to subscribe to Reddit Premium to be able to use an icon that just features the regular Reddit logo, as spotted by 9to5Mac's Benjamin Mayo.Below are the current options. (I put them together side by side so that you won't have to scroll through a giant vertical image.) The free ones are OrangeRed" (the pixelated one), Doge," and Wall Street," while the icons with regular Reddit logos are at the bottom of the list. Screenshot by Jay Peters / The Verge Reddit acquired Alien Blue, a third-party app, in 2014. If I paid... Continue reading...

Image: The Verge Threads is getting a follows" tab, but it's not the following-only feed that users have been asking for. As outlined in this post from Threads developer Cameron Roth, the new tab lives on the app's activity page and only lets you see a list of users who recently followed you.Threads previously listed your recent followers in its all" tab on the activity page, so this isn't that big of a change - it just makes your new followers easier to find. There are also two other filters for quotes" and reposts," letting you filter recent activity by who reposted or quoted your thread.Additionally, Threads is rolling out translations, which should come in handy if you follow people from different countries. While I'm not seeing the option... Continue reading...

It's a basic-looking Xbox controller with a basic-ass name, but what's on the inside makes it unique. | Image: GameSir Stick drift can plague any controller still using wear-and-tear-prone potentiometers, and unfortunately for us, that includes all current first-party gamepads from Nintendo, Sony, and Microsoft. However, after years of notoriously drift-prone Joy-Cons, third-party accessory makers like 8BitDo and GuliKit have been slowly stepping up to offer alternatives that utilize drift-free Hall effect sensors. The latest is the GameSir G7 SE, the first licensed Xbox controller with Hall effect sticks.GameSir's G7 SE is a new model based on the G7 it released earlier this year, which is a solid gamepad I gave a small nod in our Xbox controller buying guide. Like the standard G7, the SE is a wired-only controller for Xbox Series X / S and PC with a... Continue reading...

The OnePlus 11 5G. | Photo by Allison Johnson / The Verge Specs for the OnePlus 12 have leaked, showing some key incremental changes including faster charging and a bigger battery but with a design that's not a lot different from the OnePlus 11 5G, reported Smartprix in collaboration with prominent leaker OnLeaks.According to Smartprix, the phone is getting a new Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 SoC, a 5,400mAh battery, and a 64-megapixel telephoto camera, all upgrades from the OnePlus 11 5G. The battery capacity is a slight boost over the OnePlus 11's 5,000mAh battery, as is the faster 100-watt wired charging. Smartprix says OnePlus is reintroducing 50-watt wireless charging, too, which fans of the phones will likely welcome back after the company dropped wireless charging entirely with the 11 5G.... Continue reading...

The NYPD conducted its test on Sunday following weeks of heavy rain and flooding across the city. | Photo by James Carbone / Newsday RM via Getty Images The New York City Police Department is testing new drones that are designed to transmit audio messages to the public, such as announcements warning of dangerous weather or nearby emergencies. On Sunday, NYC's emergency notification system announced on Twitter that the NYPD would be conducting a test of remote-piloted public messaging capabilities" that day, following several weeks of heavy rain and rare flash flood warnings impacting the city.A police spokesperson later confirmed to AM New York that these tests took place at Hook Creek Park in Queens, ahead of further downpours expected to hit the city this week, but refused to share the results of its test with the publication. One example of how these audio drones may be utilized is... Continue reading...

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Twitter is working on a feature that will let you publish articles on the platform, according to owner Elon Musk. The feature will allow users to post very long, complex articles with mixed media," Musk said in a reply to a user tweeting about the in-development tool, which is apparently now called Articles" instead of Notes." You could publish a book if you want."The feature will further expand the ways you can write on the platform, which, under Musk's ownership, is starting to move beyond its microblogging roots. Twitter Blue subscribers can already publish tweets with 10,000 characters, which is far above the 280-character limit imposed on non-Blue subscribers. Whenever the articles feature launches, it sounds like it will let... Continue reading...

Mobileye's system can detect illustrated signs as well as regular speed limit signs. | Image: Mobileye Driverless car tech developer Mobileye has a new vision-only system designed for one job: figure out the proper speed limit. The company's new product is a type of Intelligent Speed Assist (ISA) solution that not only automatically reads numbers on speed signs but can also decipher illustrated signs like ones that show children at play - communicating proper speed adjustments to vehicles accordingly.Mobileye's new ISA system is certified by 27 EU countries, plus Israel, Norway, Switzerland, and Turkey. It comes as the EU is launching new General Safety Regulation (GSR) standards that call for all new vehicles to include live speed limit sensors.Many cars on the road today can tell you the current speed limit on your instrument cluster... Continue reading...

Illustration: The Verge This is Platformer, a newsletter on the intersection of Silicon Valley and democracy from Casey Newton and Zoe Schiffer. Sign up here.I.On July 5th, Meta released Threads into the world. Its arrival came after months of anticipation, but ultimately a bit earlier than Meta had planned. Elon Musk's characteristically self-defeating move to limit free users to viewing a small number of tweets each day had given Meta an unusually opportune moment to strike, and it seized the moment.The outsized success that followed - Threads was the fastest app to hit 100 million downloads, and later blew past 150 million - came as a surprise to almost everyone involved. That includes the app's makers at Meta, who hadn't built a homegrown hit this big... Continue reading...

Image: Microsoft Microsoft Teams users will be able to get access to a new AI-powered Microsoft 365 Copilot feature during calls and inside chat messages. Microsoft is announcing an expansion of Copilot into the calls interface of Teams and in regular chats, beyond the meeting experience it outlined earlier this year. It's all part of Microsoft 365 Copilot, which Microsoft put a steep price point on today.Copilot for Teams phone calls will add a generative AI experience for real-time summarization or the ability to generate dates, names, and key points during calls. I can imagine this will be super useful for salespeople who have to deal with multiple clients and track key dates and numbers that are being discussed on these types of calls. ... Continue reading...

The Amazon Smart Thermostat offers a lot of bang for your buck, especially if you're embedded in Amazon's ecosystem. | Photo by Jennifer Pattison Tuohy / The Verge Amazon Prime Day brought some incredible deals on Amazon devices that have sadly since disappeared. If you don't mind buying a refurbished device, you can still save a lot of money on some of Amazon's best gadgets, ranging from smart displays to smart speakers. However, one of the best and most relevant deals - given how hot it is in much of the US - is on the Amazon Smart Thermostat. Right now, Amazon is selling it refurbished for $39.99 from Amazon. That is $15 cheaper than the Prime Day discount we saw on the new model, as well as $40 less than the cost of the smart thermostat new at its full retail price.Amazon's Smart Thermostat offers a lot of value for your money. Not only can it help reduce your energy consumption and (as a... Continue reading...

Rocket Lab's Electron rocket took off from New Zealand. | Image: Rocket Lab Rocket Lab successfully retrieved the first stage of its Electron rocket during its Baby Come Back" mission on Monday - but it didn't catch it with a helicopter this time around. When Electron lifted off from New Zealand's Mahia Peninsula on Monday, its first stage separated about two and a half minutes later and splashed down into the Pacific Ocean, where Rocket Lab's team recovered the reusable booster.After separation, the booster began its descent toward Earth at over 9,000kmph (5,592mph), reaching a temperature of 2,400 degrees Celsius (4,352 degrees Fahrenheit) along the way. The rocket deployed its main parachute about eight minutes after liftoff, allowing it to safely splash down into the ocean, where Rocket Lab brought it onto... Continue reading...

Four layers of modular components - including a swappable discrete GPU - right at your fingertips. Continue reading...

The mods put the gamepad's controls within reach of one hand. | Image: Akaki Kuumeri If you need to use a modern games controller with just one hand rather than two, then why not give Akaki Kuumeri's 3D-printed mods a try? We've written about the YouTuber's previous projects to add joysticks and throttles to controllers, but more recently, Kuumeri has created a range of one-handed controller mods, which we spotted via this Reddit post and could be helpful if you or someone you know has accessibility needs that prevent them from using both hands with a traditionally two-handed gamepad.Kuumeri's videos about the mods date back to early 2022. At the time, Microsoft was the only major console manufacturer to have announced a first-party accessibility controller. Microsoft has the Xbox Adaptive Controller, and Copilot mode,... Continue reading...

Four Leviton Wi-Fi products from the Decora Smart line are getting Matter today. They look... refreshingly nondescript! | Image: Leviton Leviton has added Matter support to four of its Decora smart lighting products: a switch, a dimmer, a smart plug, and a plug-in dimmer. All are from the Decora Smart Wi-Fi 2nd Gen product line; the company says more devices from that line will get Matter support in the future.Here are the specific products that now work with Matter:

According to Amazon's privacy policy, surveillance footage is uploaded to a secure portal and is only available to those with approved access. | Photo by Justin Sullivan / Getty Images An influx of videos taken from Amazon's in-van surveillance cameras has been published on Reddit in recent weeks, sparking fresh concerns about the privacy of delivery drivers being monitored for their entire shifts.As first reported by Vice, two off-camera voices can be heard on one video published to r/AmazonDSPDrivers on July 3rd, commenting on an Amazon driver interacting with a customer's dog. She had a little guest with her today," said one off-screen voice. The video is innocent enough, but it violates Amazon's own privacy policy regarding its in-vehicle camera technology.

The dock offers 11 ports total. | Image: Plugable Plugable's latest USB 4 dock doesn't require compromises when using external monitors with your laptop. The USB4 Dual Monitor Docking Station (model number UD-4VPD) contains not one but two HDMI 2.1 ports, allowing compatible laptops to be connected to dual 4K displays running at a refresh rate of 120Hz. Plugable's press release notes that the UD-4VPD will be available starting today from Amazon for $199.95.I say compatible laptops'' because, in order to get the most out of the UD-4VPD, you'll need a USB 4 or Thunderbolt 4 port that offers the 40Gbps worth of bandwidth needed by the dock. (Thunderbolt 3 is supported, but Plugable's press release notes that, in some cases, it'll offer reduced display mode options.") The dock is also... Continue reading...

Photo by Tim Ireland / PA Images via Getty Images Activision has fixed matchmaking server issues in some older Call of Duty titles for the Xbox 360. Players have been complaining about matchmaking issues in classics like Call of Duty: Black Ops and the original Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 over the past few years, as they haven't been able to get into lobbies for multiplayer modes. Now that the servers are back and working, the player count in Call of Duty: Black Ops (which might not be totally accurate) stands at more than 100,000.That doesn't mean thousands of Xbox 360 consoles are suddenly being powered on. It's all possible thanks to Microsoft's backward compatibility support on Xbox, allowing Xbox One and Xbox Series S / X owners to play these classic Call of Duty games. All you... Continue reading...

It's the end of the road for VanMoof as we know it. | Photo by Thomas Ricker / The Verge VanMoof - the independent e-bike maker that once bragged about being the most funded e-bike company in the world" - has been declared bankrupt in the Netherlands. The company had entered into a so-called suspension of payment" proceeding with court-assigned administrators just last week.According to a statement released by VanMoof, the court of Amsterdam withdrew the suspension of payment proceeding of the Dutch legal entities VanMoof Global Holding BV, VanMoof BV and VanMoof Global Support BV, and declared each entity bankrupt. VanMoof legal entities outside the Netherlands are not in insolvency proceedings. Two administrators have been appointed as trustees and are continuing to assess the situation at VanMoof and the possibility of... Continue reading...

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge There are more streaming choices than ever before, and now Peacock has joined the list of services that are getting even more expensive.A media update reported by Variety, The Hollywood Reporter, and The Streamable confirmed prices for both of its streaming plans are going up, effective August 17th for existing customers, with the cheaper Premium plan going up by $1 each month, from $4.99 to $5.99, and the Premium Plus package that gets rid of ads on most content and adds downloads for offline viewing along with access to live, local NBC channels is going up by $2, from $9.99 to $11.99 per month.As of midnight ET, the annual pricing listed by Peacock changed as well, going from $49.99 / $99.99 for either package to $59.99 /$119.99... Continue reading...

Image: Google Google and Taito's new augmented reality game that lets you wave around your phone to destroy AR Space Invaders aliens is out now on Android and iOS. The two companies announced the game, Space Invaders: World Defense, at Google I/O in May.The release is coming at a time when many other AR games aren't doing so well. While Niantic's Pokemon Go has been a huge success, the studio has shut down games from big brands like Harry Potter, Transformers, and the NBA and laid off employees. And it hasn't just been Niantic that's struggled; Microsoft shut down a Minecraft AR game in 2021 and CD Projekt Red just shut down its The Witcher AR game.I'm not sure if World Defense is going to skyrocket into a Pokemon Go-sized hit, but the core concept... Continue reading...

Image: Neopets Neopets, the beloved virtual pet website that launched in 1999, announced a new era" on Monday. The Neopets Team (TNT) said that it will be launching a new unified website" this week and fixing some of the old Flash games shortly after, per an extensive blog post on Medium.The new website, which will launch on July 20th, will serve as a one stop shop for all brand announcements, links to our different games and products, a repository of Neopets articles and related links, and anything else Neopian you can think of!" TNT says in the post. Neopets.com isn't going anywhere," TNT says, but the team will be giving the site some extra care" to fix up some issues with the site, including the Flash games."The team is bringing back some... Continue reading...