The Verge - All Posts

Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge You know, I didn’t want to join Instagram, but I had adopted a kitten with an internet following, and the following wanted to know how the kitten was doing. For a while, I dutifully updated once a week. But then Instagram started to change.Two big things happened in 2016. First, there were the changes to the feed. Algorithmic. Well, all right. Then, the Snapchat imitation: the Story. It was whatever. I didn’t mind it. After a while, I stopped posting photos in favor of posting Stories because more people looked at the Stories. There started to be more ads clogging the Stories, so I stopped watching as many. And I stopped posting photos or Stories as often.Come now the Kardashians, who have said that the new Instagram sucksThen came... Continue reading…

Everrati and Irvine, California-based Aria Group take apart a Porsche 911 to begin its EV rebirth. | Image: Everrati When we last spoke with Everrati CEO Justin Lunny, his UK-based restomod company that converts iconic cars to electric vehicles was expanding into the US market. Since then, the company set up headquarters in Calabasas, California, and in April, it partnered with Irvine-based manufacturer Aria Group to work on state-side electric conversions of Porsches and other prestige vehicles. Now Aria Group is helping build the first Everrati Porsche in California, and the owner of that car is a major investor: former Nest CEO Matt Rogers.Rogers’ car is a Porsche 911 (type 964) wide body, similar to his father’s that he has fond memories of riding in as a kid. Since then, he promised himself that he’d get one, too, but only if it were electric.... Continue reading…

Photo by Araya Doheny/Getty Images for NightFly Entertainment, Ltd. On Tuesday, the White House officially threw its support behind a bill pushed by Tiger King star Carole Baskin to restrict exotic animal ownership.In a statement, the Biden administration said that the Big Cat Public Safety Act “would build on existing laws that protect big cats like tigers, cheetahs, jaguars, and other wild animals living in captivity in the United States” and “limit ownership of these animals to zoos, sanctuaries, universities, and agencies.”The measure — introduced by Rep. Mike Quigley (D-IL) and Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) — would formally ban the cub petting industry of lions, tigers, and other big cats featured in Netflix’s hit Tiger King documentary released in 2020. As highlighted in the show, private zoos... Continue reading…

Photo by AMY OSBORNE / AFP via Getty Images Mark Zuckerberg believes that Apple and his company are in a “very deep, philosophical competition” to build the metaverse, suggesting the two tech giants are ready to butt heads in selling hardware for augmented and virtual reality.The Meta CEO told employees earlier this month that they were competing with Apple to determine “what direction the internet should go in,” according to a recording of his comments during an internal all-hands meeting obtained by The Verge. He said that Meta would position itself as the more open, cheaper alternative to Apple, which is expected to announce its first AR headset as soon as later this year.“This is a competition of philosophies and ideas, where they believe that by doing everything themselves... Continue reading…

The company’s profits are lower for another quarter. | Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Profits are down at Google parent company Alphabet for the second quarter in a row, even as it brings in more money. Alphabet brought in around $16 billion in profit during its second quarter of 2022, down from $18.5 billion during the same period last year, the company reported in its Q2 2022 earnings report this afternoon.As with last quarter, it seems like rising expenses have played a part; the company actually brought in more revenue than it did in Q2 2021. This quarter, its revenues were almost $69.7 billion, up from last year’s $61.9 billion. However, compared to this time in 2021, Google’s spending around $3 billion more on both research and development and sales and marketing.Google’s working towards a “sharper focus”As for... Continue reading…

A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket delivers a new batch of Starlink satellites into orbit. | Image: SpaceX SpaceX is pulling out all the stops to prevent Dish and other wireless companies from using the same radio frequencies as its internet-from-space Starlink satellites. Today, in a rare media call with reporters, SpaceX representatives reiterated how damaging they believe it would be for Starlink users if the Federal Communications Commission were to open up the 12GHz frequency band — which SpaceX’s satellites currently use — to other terrestrial uses like 5G.“Essentially, the band would become unusable,” David Goldman, senior director of satellite policy at SpaceX, said during the press call. “It would potentially end services for customers.”Dish hopes to use the spectrum to build out its new 5G network and has argued the deployment... Continue reading…

Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge Meta just made the surprising announcement that it will be raising the price of its Quest 2 virtual reality headsets by $100 next month. If you did a double take upon seeing that news, we commiserate — it’s weird for a two-year-old consumer tech product to suddenly go up in price.We’re conditioned to expect the price of tech products to go down over time thanks to the relentless advancement of technology and more efficient manufacturing processes. But here, the same product you could buy in September 2020 will cost 33 percent more in August 2022.The official reason Meta is upping prices is that “the costs to make and ship our products have been on the rise,” according to a company blog post credited only to the “Oculus Blog.” “By... Continue reading…

NPM has more than 11 million users worldwide. | Image: NPM/GitHub Developers who use NPM, the popular JavaScript package manager, will now be able to connect their Twitter and GitHub accounts to the software as a recovery method.The move was announced Tuesday along with a handful of other features meant to combine enhanced security with usability for the GitHub-owned package manager.In a blog post, GitHub said that the changes would make it easier for users to secure their accounts, while also streamlining some security features that users had found burdensome.“The JavaScript community downloads over 5 billion packages from npm a day, and we at GitHub recognize how important it is that developers can do so with confidence,” wrote GitHub product managers Myles Borins and Monish Mohan. “As stewards... Continue reading…

Photo by Sam Byford / The Verge Microsoft posted the fourth quarter of its 2022 financial results today, reporting revenue of $51.9 billion and a net income of $16.7 billion. Revenue is up 12 percent, and net income has increased by just 2 percent. But while revenue was up, Microsoft saw some of its core businesses, including Windows and Xbox, start to slip.The PC market had been thriving throughout the pandemic, but PC shipments experienced a big decline in the recent quarter — nearly 13 percent according to Gartner. It’s the sharpest decline in nine years, thanks to geopolitical tensions, inflation, and continued supply chain challenges.Microsoft’s Windows OEM revenue, the price PC manufactures pay Microsoft to put Windows on machines, fell 2 percent in Q4, driven... Continue reading…

Discord voice calls on Xbox | Screenshot: Tom Warren / The Verge Discord and Microsoft announced Discord voice chat last week, making it available initially to invite-only Alpha and Alpha Skip-Ahead Xbox testers. The new feature is now available to Xbox Insiders in the Beta ring, which doesn’t require an invite.Microsoft is releasing a new Xbox dashboard update for beta testers at 5PM ET / 2PM PT today that will include Discord voice integration. The voice chat works by first linking Xbox and Discord accounts and then connecting to a Discord voice call using the mobile app and transferring the call to an Xbox console using the Xbox mobile app.The process is a little involved, but once the initial setup is complete, it’s relatively easy to connect to Discord voice calls and transfer them to an Xbox... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Uber’s decision to not offer wheelchair-accessible service in every US market does not violate the federal law prohibiting discrimination against disabled individuals, a federal judge ruled this week.The ruling represents a win for the ride-hailing service, which has been criticized by disability advocates for providing only limited wheelchair-accessible service in a handful of cities.Two motorized wheelchair users, one in New Orleans, Louisiana, and the other in Jackson, Mississippi, sued Uber over the lack of accessible service in either city. Both plaintiffs use wheelchairs that can’t be folded and placed in a trunk. They claimed that Uber was in violation of the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990, which prohibits businesses... Continue reading…

Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge While a PlayStation 5 is still not yet a thing you can find on every store shelf any day of the week, availability has certainly gotten better in recent weeks. Sony has been dropping public restocks with some velocity of late, and today is another chance. You can hop in a public queue on Sony’s site to virtually line up for a PS5 console right now.The recent restocks have been fairly easy to score a console from, though you’ll still want to be attentive to your listed wait time until you hear the chime sound that signals it’s your turn. If you get through the queue, you may have a few options for PS5 consoles to pick between, including the regular $499 model that has a disc drive, the $399 Digital Edition that doesn’t, or the Horizon... Continue reading…

Games that can’t be played may have an exclamation point icon. | Image: Eden Marie on Twitter Scrolling through your Xbox game library, it can be difficult to tell which games you can actually play at the moment — perhaps you downloaded something from Game Pass, but it’s no longer on the service, or your friend came over to play a game and took the disc it was on home with them. Microsoft is currently testing a solution to this problem, with badges that will warn you that a game can’t be launched, according to Xbox engineering lead Eden Marie.In a Twitter thread, Marie explains that the feature adds two badges on screens where you see games, like the homescreen or game library. If you can’t play a game because of licensing issues — say, it was taken off of Game Pass, or you’re currently not logged into the Xbox Live account... Continue reading…

Photo by Cindy Ord / Getty Images for SiriusXM I hope you all had a good weekend. As you can tell, I did not get eaten by a shark, though that is because my husband forgot to register for a beach pass. Next time’s the charm, Evan!!On tap for today: cable news rogues turn to podcasting, pornographic content on Spotify, and earnings previews (that last one is a little less spicy than the first two).Chris Cuomo and Keith Olbermann return from cable news exile with new podcastsWhy try to reason with cable news execs when you can just launch your own podcast? In the past week, both Keith Olbermann and Chris Cuomo announced new shows that will put them back in the limelight (maybe).Olbermann, who was fired from MSNBC in 2011 for donating to a few Democratic campaigns (2010 scandals... Continue reading…

The Meta Quest 2 is arguably the default VR headset, but it’s getting more expensive soon. | Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge The incredibly popular Meta Quest 2 VR headset will have its price increased starting in August, with the 128GB configuration getting a price hike to $399.99 and the 256GB model being inflated to $499.99. However, you can still find both models on sale for their original price of $299.99 and $399.99 at multiple retailers, giving you some time to grab one before the price goes up.To be clear, Meta isn’t adding any new features or hardware once the price goes up — the Meta Quest 2 will be the exact same console, just $100 more expensive. Anyone that purchases a Meta Quest 2 within 30 days of the price hike will get a free copy of Beat Saber (a $30 value). If you’ve been on the fence about owning one of these VR headsets, now would be a... Continue reading…

Photo by Drew Angerer / Getty Images A volunteer on Andrew Yang’s 2020 presidential campaign is suing for discrimination and retaliation, alleging that after she spoke up about misogyny in campaign Facebook groups, she was denied opportunities for advancement. Now, Yang’s lawyers are trying to get the case thrown out, arguing that because the volunteer, Erica Lee, was never hired as a paid staffer, she doesn’t have the labor protections she’s claiming.“If their argument prevails, any volunteer anywhere can be horrible sexually harassed, or the victim of horrible discrimination, and there would be no recourse,” says Lee’s lawyer, Vincent P. White. “I don’t know if anyone wants to live in that world. It’s a horrific world that they’re describing.”Andrew Yang’s lawyers... Continue reading…

The headsets were some of the least expensive out there. | Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge The Meta Quest 2 (formerly known as the Oculus Quest 2) is about to get $100 more expensive, bringing the price for the 128GB model to $399.99 and the 256GB model to $499.99. According to a post from Meta, the price change for the almost two-year-old headset will take effect “starting in August.”As much as I hate to recommend buying things under pressure, you should probably act fast if you’re hoping to get your hands on one before then. It seems likely that scalpers and their armies of bots are about to have a heyday with the models that are currently for sale at the old price. You can pick them up from places like Meta’s official store, Best Buy, Amazon, GameStop, Target, or Walmart.This is a hefty price jump for what was one of the... Continue reading…

Illustrations by Alex Castro / The Verge It’s easier than it has ever been to add someone as a friend on your Nintendo Switch account with just your phone now that you can input a friend code into the Switch Online mobile app and send a request. An update in March made it simple for people to copy their code from the app to share it with others. Now you can more easily expand your friends list when you don’t happen to have your Switch handy.The updated version of the mobile app on iPhone / iPad or Android (version 2.2 or higher) also allows you to share your friend code as a URL for someone else to click on so they can send a request or a QR code so they can get there just by using their camera. Image: Richard Lawler The Nintendo Switch Online app on... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase is reportedly facing an investigation from the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) over whether it allowed users to trade unregistered securities, according to a report from Bloomberg. The SEC’s probe hasn’t yet been made public.Sources close to the situation told Bloomberg that the SEC started taking a closer look at Coinbase’s practices after the exchange added over 100 additional tokens to its platform, including Dogecoin, the joke cryptocurrency based on the Shiba Inu meme. These types of coins typically do well after they’re first listed, but they’re very volatile, and their value typically evaporates over time.This investigation is separate from the SEC’s case against former Coinbase... Continue reading…

A woman wipes her forehead at the top of the stairs to the Lincoln Memorial during a heatwave on July 22nd, 2022, in Washington, DC. | Photo by Anna Moneymaker / Getty Images Summers are now so brutally hot that the US government created a new website, heat.gov, to help Americans stay safe during dangerous heat spells. It features maps that show current heat conditions across the country and provides other tools and resources to help people beat the heat.The main goal of the website is to prevent heat-related illness and death by sharing up-to-date information on extreme heat. Heat kills more people in the US than any other weather disaster. Often, it disproportionately harms vulnerable pockets of people, including children, older people, and communities of color who live in urban and formerly redlined neighborhoods designed in a way that traps heat.“We don’t have to accept this. Right? This doesn’t have... Continue reading…

A chaotic battle in MultiVersus. | Image: WB Games MultiVersus, Warner Bros. Games’ free-to-play fighting game starring characters from many WB universes, launched in open beta in the Americas, Europe, Australia, and New Zealand on Tuesday. The game is available on PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X / S, and PC, and it has crossplay and cross-progression across all platforms.Technically, the open beta went live at 12PM ET, but there have been issues right from the start — I personally haven’t been able to get past the title screen at all. The developers have since put in the game in maintenance mode and are promising that “servers will be back online soon.”

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Michael Alan Stollery, the CEO of blockchain company Titanium Blockchain Infrastructure Services (TBIS), has pleaded guilty to securities fraud over a $21 million cryptocurrency scam. The California man admitted to falsifying details around the BAR coin, a crowdfunding token that should have — but wasn’t — registered with the US Securities and Exchange Commission.The TBIS scam was one of many dodgy initial coin offerings, or ICOs, in the late ‘10s. According to the complaint, between 2017 and 2018, Stollery introduced TBIS as a new company and hyped its coin with a string of elaborate false claims. TBIS touted nonexistent links with companies like Apple, Boeing, and IBM. Some of the “partners” complained, to which Stollery apparently... Continue reading…

Faraday Future’s first car is still a far way off in the future, according to recent regulatory filings.The California EV company that has flirted with bankruptcy more times than I can count said this week that it needs more cash in order to launch its debut electric vehicle, the FF91. As such, the company is pushing back customer deliveries to the third or fourth quarter of 2022.That may not seem so far off, but Faraday Future is not exactly known for its ability to meet deadlines. The company was late reporting its first quarterly earnings after going public through a merger with a “blank-check” company. And, of course, Faraday Future has missed several self-imposed deadlines for the launch of the FF91, which has been in... Continue reading…

The 6A’s Tensor chipset makes all the difference in this midrange phone Continue reading…

Ryan Gosling in The Gray Man. | Image: Netflix The Gray Man just debuted on Netflix last week, but the streamer already has some big plans for it as a budding franchise. Today, Netflix announced not just a sequel for the thriller but also a spinoff, instantly turning The Gray Man into the company’s next cinematic universe. The company says its plan is to turn it into “a major spy franchise.”Netflix says that the currently untitled sequel is in development and that star Ryan Gosling and directors Joe and Anthony Russo are all set to return alongside co-writer Stephen McFeely. There’s no word on when it might debut. As for the spinoff, Paul Wernick and Rhett Reese, best known for their work on the Deadpool movies, will serve as writers. According to Netflix “the logline is being kept... Continue reading…

Oura’s adding two new metrics that make use of its SpO2 sensors: average blood oxygen and breathing regularity. | Image: Oura SpO2 sensors, which enable blood oxygen monitoring, were one of the marquee upgrades when Oura announced its third-generation smart ring. The only catch was that, even though the new Oura Ring had the necessary hardware, the feature itself was still in the works. Now, roughly nine months after launch, Oura says blood oxygen sensing will finally start rolling out to users this week.Blood oxygen metrics have become increasingly popular when it comes to sleep tracking. It generally works by shining a red LED onto your skin. The amount of light that’s then reflected back is used to estimate how much oxygen is in your blood. The feature works similarly on the Oura Ring Gen 3, which uses a combination of red and infrared LED sensors. But... Continue reading…

Your phone has a way to turn your voice into text. IssueSometimes a word can be so hard to spell that any attempts are too garbled for autocorrect to offer helpful suggestions.Quick fixUse your device’s built-in dictation.The Full StoryWhenever I find myself struggling to spell a word, I double-tap the Command key on my Mac to activate dictation mode. From there, I can say the word out loud, and most of the time, the word I’m looking for will appear on my screen. I can then double-tap Command again to tell my computer to stop listening.Being a terrible speller, I do this trick at least once a week, and it’s the only reason I’m able to spell the word “guarantee” because my brain just cannot retain it.Most devices have a built-in way of doing voice-to-text, but there’s often a tiny... Continue reading…

Samsung’s The Frame TV starts at $739.99 instead of $997.99 today only. | Image: Samsung It’s too hot to go outside (at least here in California), so if you – like me – are spending a lot of quality time with the TV while feeling guilty about the lack of culture in your life, you might appreciate today’s deal. Samsung’s latest version of The Frame is a unique 4K TV like no other that, in a way, brings a little bit of the museum experience home that you can enjoy in between binging on your favorite shows. That’s because – when you’re not using it – the gorgeous screen displays artwork that, thanks to the new anti-glare, low-reflection matte coating, bears a remarkable resemblance to an actual canvas painting you see hanging in museums. When turned on, however, it transforms into a QLED TV with a speedy 120Hz refresh rate and... Continue reading…

Shopify CEO Tobi Lütke made the announcement in a memo to employees. Shopify is laying off 10 percent of its workforce, a move that affects about 1,000 of its employees, as first reported by The Wall Street Journal. In a memo posted on Shopify’s website, CEO Tobi Lütke says the company “has to go through a reduction in workforce” that mostly affects those working in recruiting, support, and sales.Lütke notes that the e-commerce company is also cutting down on “over-specialized” and duplicate roles as well as “groups that were convenient to have but too far removed from building products.” He attributes the layoffs to a miscalculated bet that the e-commerce industry would continue to grow beyond the COVID-19 pandemic.As pointed out by the WSJ, Shopify’s workforce jumped from 1,900 in 2016 to around... Continue reading…

Photo by Gabe Souza / Portland Portland Press Herald via Getty Images Warning letters from the Food and Drug Administration aren’t enough to push potentially dangerous weight loss supplements off the market, according to a new analysis published in JAMA.Dietary supplements fall into a regulatory grey area in the United States. They don’t have to be reviewed or approved by the FDA before going on the market, but the agency is still responsible for overseeing the supplements that are sold in the country. To be classified as dietary supplements, these products have to be things like vitamins, minerals, or enzymes — ingredients that are actually part of people’s diets.If groups are making supplements that contain things that aren’t dietary ingredients, the FDA can crack down and issue warning letters,... Continue reading…

The Razer DeathStalker V2 Pro. | Image: Razer Razer has announced a trio of new mechanical keyboards today that revives its decade-old DeathStalker range. Unlike the original DeathStalker models, which had laptop-style membrane switches, the new DeathStalker V2, V2 Pro, and V2 Pro Tenkeyless feature low-profile optical mechanical switches, which should be longer lasting, feel more tactile, and respond quicker than the old model. You can read my colleague Alice Newcome-Beill’s in-depth, hands-on review of the DeathStalker V2 Pro right here, or read on for a summary of the whole range.The wireless, full-size DeathStalker V2 Pro is available today for $249.99, while the two other models will follow in the third quarter of this year. The DeathStalker V2 Pro Tenkeyless maintains the... Continue reading…

Old ideas shouldn’t cost this much Continue reading…

Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge Did you know that Verizon sells game consoles? The carrier has stocked the PlayStation 5 on its online store at times, and today, it announced a partnership with Microsoft that will see Verizon offer both the Xbox Series X and Series S through the All Access monthly financing program.Both will be available starting July 28th, and Verizon is offering deals like 50 percent off an Xbox Elite 2 controller to sweeten the somewhat strange notion of buying an Xbox subscription from your phone company.To Verizon, none of this is strange at all. If you’ll mostly be playing from the couch, the company says its home internet offerings — Fios and 5G Home — are the perfect solution for multiplayer gaming. And if you want to take advantage of Xbox... Continue reading…

Illustration by Kristen Radtke / The Verge; Getty Images Elon Musk’s lawyers have filed a letter to the Delaware Chancery Court saying, essentially, that Twitter isn’t playing nice in the pretrial process and should be forced to do so. The letter, which you can read in full below, is addressed to Chancellor Kathaleen McCormick — who will ultimately decide the case over whether Musk can get out of his contract to buy Twitter for $44 billion — and also requests that the trial should be scheduled to begin on October 17th.Last week, McCormick decided that the trial will start in October. Twitter had pushed for proceedings to commence as early as possible, arguing that the ongoing shenanigans are hurting the company and that things should be resolved as quickly as possible. (Twitter, of course,... Continue reading…

The 12S Ultra features Leica branding and a bigger than usual sensor. Bringing better hardware to the computational photography fight Continue reading…

Photo illustration by William Joel / The Verge The company’s roller-coaster journey from COVID crash to wedding boom Continue reading…

Image: Sony Sony is teasing some more details about its upcoming PlayStation VR2 headset today. After detailing the design of PS VR2 earlier this year and some games that will support it, Sony is now confirming that the headset will include a see-through view to see your surroundings, a broadcast mode for filming yourself while you play, and a cinematic mode where you can display non-VR games and media content on a virtual cinema screen.Sony’s PS VR2 see-through view will let players keep the headset on, thanks to cameras embedded in the front of the headset. “It comes in handy when you want to easily check where the PS VR2 Sense controllers are in your room without taking the headset off,” explains Yasuo Takahashi, senior staff product manager at... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Another one of Meta’s social experiments is shutting down. It’s called Tuned, and if you’re like me, this is probably the first and last time you’ll ever hear of it (via TechCrunch).Tuned launched in 2020, back when Meta was still Facebook, as an app designed for couples looking to connect even when they’re apart. The app comes from Meta’s New Product Experimentation (NPE) team, which develops experimental apps and services. Through Tuned, couples can privately share their thoughts and moods as well as send notes to one another. There are also games that couples can play to get to know each other better, in addition to Spotify integration for exchanging music.As noted by TechCrunch, Meta has started notifying Tuned users that the app... Continue reading…

Russia announced it has decided to withdraw from the International Space Station partnership after 2024, the Russian state news site TASS reported. Yuri Borisov, the new head of Russia’s state space corporation Roscosmos, reportedly told President Vladimir Putin the news during a meeting on Tuesday.“Vladimir Vladimirovich, you know that we are working within the framework of international cooperation at the International Space Station,” Borisov said, according to a translated report from TASS. “Of course, we will fulfill all our obligations to our partners, but the decision [on] leaving this station after 2024 [has] been made.”“Of course, we will fulfill all our obligations to our partners”The decision seemingly reaffirms statements... Continue reading…

Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge Instagram’s leader wants you to know that the company is going to keep leaning into video. In a short video this morning that seems like it’s aimed at No. 2 Instagram user Kylie Jenner, Instagram head Adam Mosseri lays out bluntly that the app is going to keep shifting away from its photo roots.“I need to be honest. I do believe that more and more of Instagram is gonna become video over time,” Mosseri said.

Prepare to spend considerable time and brain power playing this game Continue reading…

Photo by Gabe Ginsberg/Getty Images Since 1972 there have been 27 leap seconds: additional seconds added to the world’s common clock — Coordinated Universal Time or UTC — to account for changes in the Earth’s rate of rotation. Historically, our concept of time is defined as a fraction of the length of the solar day, but as the Earth’s rate of spin is somewhat irregular (slowing and speeding based on various factors) it means solar time and universal time tend to drift apart. So, in order to compensate, we add leap seconds. And this really confuses computers.I mean, just imagine you’re a computer. You have a very clear sense of time. You know that there are 24 hours in a day, 60 minutes in an hour, and 60 seconds in a minute: all neat and tidy. Then, on some random day as... Continue reading…

General Motors needs a lot of cathode active materials (CAM) if it’s to reach its goal of making enough electric vehicles to become a completely carbon neutral company by 2040. How much is enough? How about 950,000 tons of the stuff.GM now says it’s reached a deal with LG Chem, one of South Korea’s premier battery making firms, to lock down a supply of CAM starting later this year. CAM is basically what makes a battery a battery, consisting of components like processed nickel, lithium and other materials, and representing about 40 percent of the total cost of a battery cell.CAM is basically what makes a battery a batteryThe majority of EV battery cathodes are made with NCM — nickel, cobalt, and magnesium. Cobalt is a key component in... Continue reading…

The Galaxy S22, now in purple. | Image: Samsung Samsung’s Galaxy S22 is launching in a new purple color today, which is officially called “Bora Purple.” As the company’s press release helpfully points out, “Bora” is the Korean word for “purple,” meaning that the new color is effectively called “purple purple.” It goes on sale on August 10th for $799.99, the same price as the original Galaxy S22.Since launch, the base model of Samsung’s latest flagship series has been available in a very similar color the company calls “violet.” But this previous color was a lot lighter, verging on pink, and was also two-tone, with gold detailing on the camera bump and around the phone’s frame. The new purple is entirely uniform, with more or less the same color across the phone’s back, camera bump,... Continue reading…

VW The Volkswagen ID.4 electric crossover SUV is now being built at the German automaker’s vehicle factory in Chattanooga, Tennessee. It’s the company’s first EV to be manufactured in the US and signals that a more affordable version of the ID.4 is on the horizon.VW says it plans on ramping up production at its Chattanooga facility to 7,000 vehicles per month “later this year,” with the goal of making even more vehicles per month in 2023. The first customer deliveries are expected in October 2022.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... Continue reading…

From left to right, the RedMagic 7S Pro’s Supernova, Obsidian, and Mercury colors. | Image: Nubia If you’re the kind of gamer who won’t rest until every last component is equipped with RGB lighting, right down to the case fans in their PC, then do I have a smartphone for you. Nubia has just launched its RedMagic 7S Pro gaming smartphone internationally and, much like last year’s RedMagic 6S Pro, some models feature transparent backplates to let you see their internal RGB-equipped fans. These fans aren’t just for show, and can spin at up to 20,000rpm to keep the phone’s internals cool as part of what Nubia calls a “ten-layer multi-dimensional cooling system.”The phones are a mid-year refresh of the RedMagic 7 released in February, indicating there’s enough interest in these handsets to warrant multiple releases per year. Like Asus’s... Continue reading…

Photo: Amelia Holowaty Krales and Alex Castro / Sculpture: Okamoto Studio Custom Ice As Meta’s growth slows, Mark Zuckerberg is pushing even harder. Will his employees melt under the pressure? Continue reading…