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Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Uber has settled with the Department of Justice over allegations that it discriminated against disabled passengers, the DOJ announced in a press release on Monday. As part of the agreement, Uber will credit double the total wait fees issued to the 65,000 disabled riders already identified by Uber’s programs and commit more than $2 million to funds for other affected individuals.The claims center on Uber’s wait fee policy, which adds additional fees when a passenger takes more than two minutes to board the car. Disabled riders have long objected to the policy, claiming the fees disproportionately affect riders with physical disabilities.While the fees themselves are typically under a dollar, plaintiffs argued they contributed to a... Continue reading…

Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge Sony is acquiring the esports tournament platform Repeat.gg, marking the PlayStation maker’s latest investment into esports. Repeat.gg has put on more than 100,000 tournaments with over 2.3 million participants, reports GamesIndustry.biz, featuring popular games like Fortnite, League of Legends, and Call of Duty: Warzone.“Together with the talented Repeat.gg team, we’re excited to explore more ways for players to engage in competitive gaming and expand the breadth of our esports offerings,” Sony Interactive Entertainment’s Steven Roberts said to GamesIndustry.biz. “This is just the start of our journey and we look forward to sharing more updates with our community in the future.”Because of the acquisition, Repeat.gg will have access to... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Congressional Democrats are preparing to relaunch their fight to restore net neutrality, according to a new report from The Washington Post on Monday. Lawmakers in both the House and Senate are expected to introduce a new bill codifying the Obama-era internet rules in the coming weeks.The Net Neutrality and Broadband Justice Act — spearheaded by longtime Senate internet advocates Ed Markey (D-MA) and Ron Wyden (D-OR) — would reclassify broadband as a telecommunications service under Title II. This would give the Federal Communications Commission new enforcement powers over the internet, including the power to set rules against throttling, blocking, or paid prioritization.“It is more clear than ever that broadband internet is an... Continue reading…

The new Prime Video experience starts rolling out this week. | Image: Amazon New navigation, a top 10 list, and a very familiar look and feel Continue reading…

We’ll see the other half later this week... | Image: Cadillac Cadillac is offering one final teaser of the Cadillac Celestiq ahead of its full reveal later this week. The ultra-luxe EV will soon join the Lyriq and become the second full EV to ship out of GM’s luxury division, although the Celestiq is expected to be in a class of its own with a price that could start around the $300,000 range with a 500-units-per-year production target.“Every Celestiq will be instantly identifiable as one of a kind, giving each client a personal connection to Cadillac’s newest flagship,” said Cadillac’s design director for the Celestiq, Erin Crossley. The EV will be hand-built at GM’s global technical center in Warren, Michigan, with “globally sourced parts.”The Celestiq is built on GM’s flexible Ultium EV... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Instagram shoppers in the US will be able to pay for products directly in messages, the company announced today. Buyers will also be able to ask questions about products and track orders in the same message thread with merchants. Image: Instagram Payment through messages on the buyer side. Many small businesses on Instagram already field questions about products, arrange payments, and offer customer support via DMs. Payments in messages will only be available to qualified accounts that have set up a business account on Instagram.The option to request a payment directly through messages cuts out the additional step of sending an invoice via other apps. By offering this step — along with tracking and customer... Continue reading…

Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge Apple Arcade, Apple’s $5 per month subscription service for games, will be losing 15 titles sometime soon. As reported by TouchArcade, there’s a new section at the bottom of the Arcade tab in the App Store titled “Leaving Arcade Soon,” and it lists the games that will be removed.When I checked the new section on my iPhone, there was no specific indication as to when the games will be gone (beyond “soon”). Games have left Apple Arcade before, according to TouchArcade, but this is apparently the first time Apple has spelled out which titles will be going away. Apple didn’t immediately reply to a request for comment.As of this writing, here’s the list of games that will be leaving:

18 July 2022, Great Britain, London: The sun rises over skyscrapers. | Photo by Sebastian Gollnow / picture alliance via Getty Images For the first time on record, parts of the UK are sweltering in temperatures that could soon reach 40 degrees Celsius (that’s over 104 degrees Fahrenheit for American readers). It’s the first time those temperatures have ever been forecast in the UK, according to the Met Office, which also issued its first-ever “Red Extreme” heat warning for parts of England. The warning kicked in today and lasts through tomorrow.The level of risk the UK now faces from extreme heat is unprecedented. But this isn’t a one-off event. The nation is going to have to brace for dangerous heat much more often, forecasters warn.“We hoped we wouldn’t get to this situation”“We hoped we wouldn’t get to this situation,” Met Office climate attribution scientist... Continue reading…

A change in perspective is just what the genre needed Continue reading…

Image: Alex Castro / The Verge A new study measuring mobile network performance in the US indicates an increase in network problems, with slow performance or the inability to load content cited as the most common complaints. That’s according to research firm JD Power, which attributes the dip in network quality to increased usage.JD Power conducted the study from January to June 2022 and ranks each mobile carrier based on the number of problems per 100 connections. The results consistently show Verizon as the carrier with the least number of issues, with AT&T only beating Verizon in the Southwest and tying with the company in the Northeast. Meanwhile, T-Mobile trailed behind the two carriers across every region in the US.Issues apparently decreased in areas where... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge There’s been another twist in the saga of Meta’s attempt to buy GIF-sharing service Giphy, Bloomberg reports. Judges with the Competition Appeal Tribunal have told the UK’s competition regulator, the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA), to reconsider its previous ruling telling Meta to sell Giphy. “We have agreed to reconsider our decision in light of this finding,” the CMA told Bloomberg in a statement. It hopes the process will take no longer than three months.The ruling comes a month after the same tribunal largely sided with the regulator after Meta appealed its order to unwind the deal and sell Giphy. The tribunal found in favor of the CMA on five out of the six claims, but, crucially, on the remaining claim, it ruled that the... Continue reading…

The original Surface Duo. | Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge Microsoft was reportedly planning to launch a more affordable plastic version of the Surface Duo 2, and images appear to have leaked on eBay of the device. Windows Central reports that Microsoft canceled this mysterious midrange version of the Surface Duo 2 in late 2021 after reportedly originally planning to launch it as a cheaper model later this year.The leaked images on a now-deleted eBay listing reveal the device would have shipped with a more rounded design, a plastic matte finish, and a slightly smaller camera bump. Microsoft was reportedly making changes to the form factor of the Surface Duo 2 to position this as a lower-cost model. Image: eBay The leaked Surface Duo 2 plastic device. ... Continue reading…

Image: Nvidia Corsair is integrating Nvidia’s Broadcast audio and video features into its iCue and Elgato software this week. All you’ll need is a compatible headset, microphone or camera, and an Nvidia RTX GPU. The integrations in iCue, Elgato Wave Link, and Elgato Camera Hub are all seamless for features like noise removal and virtual camera backgrounds, so you no longer have to use the separate Nvidia Broadcast app.Nearly every Corsair headset that works with iCue will now be able to enable noise removal and room echo removal thanks to the Nvidia Broadcast integration. The Nvidia Broadcast features also include video integration for Elgato’s Camera Hub, allowing Elgato Facecam owners to easily enable a virtual background feature that eliminates... Continue reading…

Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge The best iPad deal during Prime Day was on the 2020 iPad Air, selling for $379 at Walmart ($220 off). But the newer, faster iPad Mini has taken its place with a $100 price drop at Best Buy that brings it down to $399.99. While you’re technically getting less tablet for your money — the Mini has an 8.3-inch screen compared to the Air’s 10.9-inch display — it features a slightly faster A15 Bionic chipset than what’s in the 2020 Air. It’s also similar in design, boasting a revamped look that includes slick, flat edges, a Touch ID-equipped power button, and a USB-C charging port. Read our review.Apple unveiled the 2021 iPad Mini at its fall hardware event last year, so it’s possible that there may be a new version on its way soon. If the... Continue reading…

Image: Snap Snapchat features like snapping, chatting, and video calling are coming to desktop through a new web app, marking the first time the company has made its service available beyond smartphones.With Snapchat for Web, you can log in with your Snapchat account and send private messages or call friends on desktop. Initially, the web platform will be available exclusively to Snapchat Plus subscribers, and it’s the first major feature launch since Snap announced its paid tier in June. Subscribers in the US, UK, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand will get access first. Snapchat will only be compatible with Google’s Chrome browser and not Apple’s Safari.Though Snapchat was created as a visual-first messaging app, its head of messaging product,... Continue reading…

The apparent leaked imagery. | Image: @evleaks Samsung will reportedly hold its next major “Unpacked” launch event on August 10th, according to a promotional image leaked by Evan Blass. The picture shows the date, alongside what appears to be a blurred image of the unannounced Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 4 foldable, leaked earlier this month by Blass and 91Mobiles.The Galaxy Z Flip 4 foldable is expected to be one of a handful of devices being launched at the event. Also rumored is a new Galaxy Fold device called the Galaxy Fold 4, renders for which leaked in May. Between it and the Galaxy Flip 4, it doesn’t look as though Samsung’s foldable lineup is set to receive any major design overhauls this year.

Lily-Rose Depp and the Weeknd in The Idol. | Image: HBO HBO has released the first teaser trailer for The Idol, a new show co-created by Sam Levinson, creator and primary director of Euphoria, as well as Abel Tesfaye, better known by his stage name The Weeknd. The Idol stars Tesfaye as a Los Angeles club owner and modern-day cult leader as he embarks upon a “complicated relationship” with a rising pop idol played by Lily-Rose Depp.As you’d expect from a show that shares its creator with Euphoria, The Idol’s trailer is a debauched affair that promises the series will tell “the sleaziest love story in all of Hollywood.” Levinson is directing each of the show’s six episodes after director Amy Seimetz stepped away from the project in April, Deadline reported at the time. News of the change in... Continue reading…

Image: Hyundai Hyundai’s attempting to keep car culture alive with its two performance-focused electric vehicle (EV) concepts it calls “rolling labs.” The RN22e features a modified Ioniq 6 body, and the N Vision 74 is modeled after the never-released 1974 Pony Coupe concept — but both feature a refreshing sporty design that doesn’t look like some sort of futuristic pod (or, well... this thing).The two concepts come from Hyundai’s “N” sub-brand, which focuses on high-performance vehicles. The N Vision 74 is the most striking of the two, and features a design that draws elements from the 2025 Hyundai N Vision Gran Turismo and the 1974 Pony Coupe concept that was originally designed by the iconic Giorgetto Giugiaro — the same man who went on to make the... Continue reading…

Chris Evans as Lloyd Hansen in The Gray Man | Image: Paul Abell/Netflix Fans of buttons can count on Captain America for support, as Chris Evans notes that even after a few weeks with a newer phone, he still prefers his old iPhone 6S and its button. The topic came up in an interview with Collider (via iMore) while doing a press tour for Netflix’s $200 million+, Russo brothers-directed spy flick The Gray Man, which he stars in along with Ryan Gosling.Evans is far from the only person still stuck on the missing button (he and Donald Trump agree on at least one thing), which Apple swapped for a solid circle with taptic engine feedback on the iPhone 7, and eventually dropped entirely from the iPhone X onward. Evans’ other big complaint is that it’s just too heavy. Like many people who struggle with bulkier... Continue reading…

Photo by James Bareham / The Verge Tesla’s apparently looking to expand its collection of in-car games... by adding Steam. In a reply to a tweet, Tesla CEO Elon Musk said the company’s “making progress with Steam integration” and that we can expect a demo “probably next month.”Tesla already offers a number of games through the built-in Tesla Arcade, like Cuphead and Sonic the Hedgehog 1, but adding Steam’s digital storefront could give users access to a whole lot more. We still don’t know if the integration will go so far as to allow users to make purchases on Steam while sitting in their cars, or if there will be any games Teslas can’t support.

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Last week, Congresswoman Anna Eshoo (D-CA) and Senator Ron Wyden (D-OR) wrote a letter urging the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) to address deceptive practices in the Virtual Private Network (VPN) industry. Eshoo and Wyden’s letter comes as people look to hide their digital footprint following the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade.A VPN allows a user to establish an encrypted connection between their device and a private server, making it harder for third parties to access their online activity. With abortion becoming illegal or restricted in several states, more people are looking to conceal their messages and search history, as police can use this information to prosecute someone seeking the procedure.In their letter,... Continue reading…

Image: Google Earlier this year, the Google Play Store launched a new data privacy section that relies on developers to disclose the information their apps collect. But as pointed out by Esper senior editor Mishaal Rahman (via Ars Technica), this may mean that Google will no longer display a verified list of permissions it automatically gathers from each app, giving developers full control over what they choose (or don’t choose) to disclose to users.When Google first announced the new data privacy section last year, the company made it clear that its system would rely on information provided by developers. On a support page, Google states that developers have until July 20th to fill out a data privacy form for their apps, noting developers “alone”... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge If you have a flip phone that you haven’t used in over a decade, or maybe even a broken tablet, Amazon will pay for a shipping label that you can use to send it in to get recycled. Apparently, this recycling program has been a thing for a while now, but several of us at The Verge never even knew about it until we saw this tweet from journalist Dave Zatz, and thought it might be a good idea to spread the word.Amazon’s recycling program lets you ship your small electronics for free from any UPS dropoff point (you just have to provide the packaging). Amazon then transfers the devices it receives to a licensed recycling facility, and notes that it will remove or destroy any “identifying marks or personal information” during the process.... Continue reading…

Image: Intel Intel’s tempering expectations for its upcoming Arc A750 Limited Edition GPU. In a new video that’s just three minutes long, the chipmaker gives us the briefest of glimpses at the card’s pretty average on-paper performance.Before we dive in, it’s important to note that the A750 is supposed to be one of Intel’s top-of-the-line GPUs, as indicated by the “7” at the front of its name. Intel’s naming conventions have the Arc 5 and Arc 3 sitting below the Arc 7, which are supposed to offer midrange and entry-level performance, respectively.During the video, Intel’s Ryan Shrout boots up Cyberpunk 2077 on a PC with the A750 chip installed, and instead of giving us a long look at gameplay, Shrout skips straight to performance. With the game set... Continue reading…

For a first effort, there’s a lot to like about Beyerdynamic’s $250 buds Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge TikTok’s global chief security officer (CSO), Roland Cloutier, is stepping down as the company transitions to using Oracle’s US-based servers to store Americans’ data (via The Wall Street Journal). The company shared an internal memo about the shift in a post on its newsroom, which states Cloutier will assume an advisory role, with TikTok’s head of security risk, vendor, and client assurance, Kim Albarella, taking over temporarily.“With our recent announcement about data management changes in the US, it’s time for me to transition from my role as Global Chief Security Officer into a strategic advisory role focusing on the business impact of security and trust programs, working directly with Shou, Dingkun and other senior leaders,”... Continue reading…

Hybrid analog watches aren’t meant to do everything Continue reading…

Image: Evo Evo, the shorthand name for the prestigious Evolution Championship Series fighting game tournament, will be an in-person event again for the first time since 2019. Evo was just one of many events that had to do things differently because of COVID-19, and even though the upcoming Evo will be at a convention center once again, general manager Rick Thiher tells The Verge that things are just different now.“The market is not the same as it was when we went on hiatus in respect to COVID,” Thiher said. “Having COVID not really fully passed at this time, that hiatus has created new concerns, new needs, and has really restructured expectations both for the workforce and even the endemic tournament organizers that we work with to help put Evo... Continue reading…

The waterproof speaker is small enough to throw in a beach bag. | Image: JBL It’s been a busy week here at The Verge, with the recent reviews of the new M2 MacBook Air and Nothing Phone 1 as well as non-stop coverage of Amazon Prime Day. I’m sure all of us are ready for a relaxing weekend to rest and recoup. But first, more deals!This first one is actually perfect for R&R time, as it’s a Bluetooth speaker you can take with you to the beach or poolside for some sunbathing. The JBL Flip 5 is on sale for $84.99 at Woot. This discount of about $45 on the waterproof speaker is the best we’ve seen in quite a while, and lower than anything offered during Prime Day. The Flip 5 comes in a variety of colors and offers good sound, with enough volume to fill a room or really annoy the couple sitting under the umbrella next... Continue reading…

Workers install a new row of Bitcoin mining machines at the Whinstone US Bitcoin mining facility in Rockdale, Texas, on October 9, 2021. | Photo by MARK FELIX/AFP /AFP via Getty Images On Friday, Elizabeth Warren and other Democratic members of Congress sent a letter to two federal regulators, urging them to take action on the explosion of Bitcoin mining in the US.Sent to the heads of the Environmental Protection Agency and Department of Energy, the letter was spurred by preliminary investigation from lawmakers, which found that just a handful of cryptominers use an enormous amount of energy. In response, the lawmakers ask the agencies to require that crypto-mining companies share data on their energy use and emissions.Seven of the biggest crypto-mining companies in the US have the collective capacity to use over 1 gigawatt of electricity, according to the letter. That’s the equivalent of two standard coal plants... Continue reading…

Illustration by Kristen Radtke / The Verge; Getty Images Elon Musk’s legal team has responded to Twitter’s lawsuit against him, saying that the company is demanding an unreasonably fast trial. In response, Musk’s team asks that the case not be heard until next year, according to Bloomberg.Twitter has pushed for the trial to take place in mid-September, justifying the request to expedite things given that Musk and Twitter’s merger agreement has an October 24th “presumptive drop-dead date.” However, Musk’s team is asking that the trial not be held until February 13th, 2023 trial at the earliest, Bloomberg reports.Twitter declined to comment on the matter, and pointed to its initial complaint filed Tuesday.Twitter sued Musk earlier this week after he officially tried to bail on his $44... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge A few of us at The Verge have noticed something new about Twitter’s iOS app: when you pull down to refresh your feed, you might hear a couple of new noises. One is a little windup trill that plays when you first pull the feed, and after your feed is done refreshing, you might hear a short confirmation chirp. (Though the sounds are more robotic than any real-life bird I’ve heard.)I made a recording so you can hear what I’m hearing. It’s a little different from the short “pop” you might have heard when refreshing before.

Photo by Becca Farsace / The Verge Previously, a number of reviewers have reported that Apple’s entry-level M2 MacBook Pro’s SSD is significantly slower than that of the M1 MacBook Pro due to the configuration of the storage models in the computer. Apple confirmed to The Verge that the base M2 MacBook Air has the same storage configuration as the Pro, so, naturally, we’ve been wondering if it would suffer from the same issue. Well, we’ve finally gotten our hands on a base model (including 256GB of storage and 8GB of memory) and the answer is: yes, it does.Going by the results we’re seeing in Blackmagic’s Disk Speed Test app, the base model of the M2 MacBook Air has write speeds that are generally 15 to 30 percent slower than those of the 512GB model Apple sent The Verge... Continue reading…

Photo by Araya Doheny/Getty Images After two years of being canceled due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, San Diego Comic-Con’s coming back this year with a vengeance and a sizable stack of announcements, trailer drops, and early screenings of some of the entertainment industry’s most hyped projects.While there’s almost no way to see absolutely everything that’s going down during this year’s SDCC, knowing where and when some of the convention’s biggest panels are taking place is a solid way to get the most out of your time if you’re on the con floor (or just following along from home). Here are all of the biggest film and television panels happening at SDCC 2022 that news-hungry fans are going to want to keep an eye on.Thursday, July 21stDungeons & Dragons: Honor... Continue reading…

The test runs until August 1st. | Image: 343 Industries Halo Infinite’s network campaign co-op test flight is finally live, developer 343 Industries announced Friday. As part of the test, you’ll be able to play the campaign with up to three of your friends, and the game supports crossplay across Xbox One, Xbox Series X / S, and PC. The test also includes a mission replay feature, which wasn’t included with the game at launch.Before you jump onto Zeta Halo with your friends, you should know that you’ll be starting the campaign from scratch in this test. Any progress you’ve made in the retail build of the game won’t carry over, and anything you accomplish in the test won’t show up in your retail build, either. But if it’s been a while since you played through Halo Infinite’s campaign, starting... Continue reading…

Image: Disney ESPN is raising the price of its standalone ESPN Plus streaming service from $6.99 per month to $9.99 per month, a nearly 43 percent increase, beginning August 23rd, as reported earlier by Sports Business Journal. The price of the annual plan is also going up from $69.99 to $99.99.If you get your streaming ESPN service as a part of the Disney bundle, however, which packages Disney Plus, ESPN Plus, and ad-supported Hulu for $13.99 per month (including Hulu without ads takes the price to $19.99 per month), that will remain at the same price as before. The service’s website and support pages haven’t been updated to reflect the increase yet, but a statement sent over by Disney spokesperson Paul Melvin indicates subscribers will be notified... Continue reading…

Image: EA / Maxis The Sims 4 is making it easier for players to create Sims that better reflect their lived experiences. As a free update coming at the end of the month along with the High School Years expansion, players can now choose their Sims’ sexual orientation and romantic / sexual attraction.It works like this: within the “Create a Sim” function, you’ll be able to fiddle with how your Sim experiences sex and romance. First, you can choose if your character is attracted to men or women. The Sims 4 team is aware that making this choice based on binary options isn’t ideal.“I understand that there will be concerns here around the initial options being gender binary,” SimGuruJessica, the design lead on the High School Years expansion wrote in the... Continue reading…

Amazon to begin testing drones in College Station, Texas. | Image: Amazon Amazon’s Prime Air delivery drones will begin testing in Texas soon. The drone delivery tests are happening in College Station, Texas, along with a test area announced last month located in Lockeford, California.The current MK27-2 design (shown above) has a hexagonal shape that Amazon says increases stability as well as propellers that the company claims will minimize high-frequency soundwaves.The company originally announced plans to create a 30-minute drone delivery service in 2013 and showed off this now-dated video (embedded above) as a demonstration of what the future might be like. Amazon showed off redesigned drones with hybrid VTOL (vertical takeoff and landing) capabilities in 2019 and received approval from the Federal... Continue reading…

In yet another reminder of just how flexible Valve’s Steam Deck handheld gaming PC can be, an enterprising Redditor has gotten the Playdate Simulator running on their Steam Deck, as shared on Twitter by Valve designer Lawrence Yang.The Playdate, if you’re not familiar, is Panic’s tiny yellow handheld with a crank, but similar to the long reservation queue for the Steam Deck, Playdate preorders are backed up for months. If you place a Playdate preorder right now, it isn’t expected to ship until 2023. If you already have a Steam Deck and want to mess around with the Playdate’s old-school vibes, though, it looks like it’s possible to do that by installing the free Playdate Simulator.You can see a video of the simulator running on Steam... Continue reading…

Bungie, the developer of Destiny 2, is now officially a part of Sony. The PlayStation maker had announced its intent to acquire the gaming studio in January, and now, that acquisition is complete. At the initial announcement, Sony said (pdf) the deal was worth $3.6 billion, but in an SEC filing on Friday, it said the deal was worth “approximately” $3.7 billion.

The first full-color image released from the JWST. | Image: NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI Stars in the new images from the James Webb Space Telescope look sharper than they did before. And I’m not just talking about the image quality, which is astounding. I’m talking about the fact that many of the bright stars in the images have very distinct Christmas-ornament-looking spikes or, as one of my colleagues put it, “It looks like a J.J. Abrams promo poster, and I love it.”But this isn’t a case of too much lens flare. Those are diffraction spikes, and if you look closely, you’ll see that all bright objects in the JWST images have the same eight-pointed pattern. The brighter the light, the more prominent the feature. Dimmer objects like nebulae or galaxies don’t tend to see quite as much of this distortion.This pattern of... Continue reading…

Some fans are a little louder than others. | Photo by Sean Hollister / The Verge The last time iFixit tried to offer replacement kits for the fans on Valve’s Steam Deck, they sold out so quickly most people didn’t even get a chance to stick a kit in a cart. In June, iFixit had a fan fix kit “drop” limited to just 100 kits. Now they’re back, and they seem like they’re sticking around. Even better, iFixit finally has a solution for replacing your Steam Deck battery.The Steam Deck is a tinkerer’s dream device. A powerful PC in a tiny design that you can crack open relatively easily when you want to swap out parts. Two days after my Steam Deck arrived, I was replacing the offensively slow 64GB eMMC drive with a 512GB SSD I picked up on eBay.But I’m also the kind of nerd that has a kit hanging around just to open up... Continue reading…

You can see Jupiter, its Great Red Spot, its moon Europa, and Europa’s shadow next to the Great Red Spot | Image: NASA After dazzling the world with the first images from the powerful James Webb Space Telescope this week, NASA released even more photos from the observatory yesterday, this time pictures from within our own Solar System. The space agency revealed the telescope’s images of the planet Jupiter, as well as an asteroid, used as reference targets when engineering teams were calibrating the observatory’s instruments.The pictures serve as a small teaser of the images we should be getting from our Solar System in the months and years to come. The James Webb Space Telescope, or JWST, may be known for its ability to peer into some of the deepest recesses of the Universe, but scientists will also be using the telescope to study our own cosmic... Continue reading…

A dust plume over the eastern Mediterranean, shrouding parts of Greece, Turkey, and Cyprus. The June 2020 image has been cropped and enhanced to improve contrast, and lens artifacts have been removed. NASA’s EMIT mission will help scientists better understand how airborne dust affects climate. | Image: NASA A payload making its way to the International Space Station could help researchers back on Earth finally solve a climate mystery that’s stymied scientists for years. NASA launched a key instrument for its climate research, called the Earth Surface Mineral Dust Source Investigation (EMIT), aboard a SpaceX Dragon spacecraft Thursday night from the Kennedy Space Center.Dust is a surprisingly powerful force up in the atmosphere, which is why NASA is determined to better understand it. The tiny particles waft up from deserts and other arid regions, and depending on many different factors, they can have a cooling or heating effect on our planet. Which scenario is actually playing out across the globe, however, continues to elude scientists.... Continue reading…

Carrie Underwood’s Apple Music Sessions performance is available now. | Image: Apple This morning Apple announced Apple Music Sessions, a series of live performances that will be available exclusively to subscribers of the company’s music service. Carrie Underwood and Tenille Townes are the first two artists to be featured, and for now, the sessions will mostly be geared toward country.That’s likely because they’re being recorded from Nashville, Tennessee, in what Apple describes as a “state-of-the-art” studio. The company plans to tap into other genres (and other recording studios around the world) “in the future,” according to today’s press release.For each session, artists will perform original songs as well as “creative” covers. Carrie Underwood went with Ozzy Osbourne’s “Mama, I’m Coming Home,” with Townes... Continue reading…

Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge Starting Saturday, people in a mental health crisis will be able to call or text 988 to reach the Suicide and Crisis Lifeline (formerly known as the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline). It’ll connect people with mental health counselors 24 hours a day, seven days a week.The Lifeline is a network of over 200 local call centers. If local centers are busy, callers are redirected to a national backup center.Officials have billed the new number as the “911” for suicide prevention and mental healthcare. It replaces the old National Suicide Prevention Lifeline number — 1-800-273-8255 (TALK). One goal is to reduce the number of mental health crisis calls that go to 911, which often sends people to busy emergency rooms or puts them in... Continue reading…

The 16-inch MacBook Pro is $2,249. | Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge If you need something more powerful than the new M2-powered MacBook Air, last year’s 16-inch MacBook Pro is available on Amazon right now for its lowest price to date. Regularly $2,499.00, Amazon is selling the M1-powered model with a 10‑core CPU, 16‑core GPU, 16GB of RAM, and 512GB SSD for $2,249 — a price Best Buy is currently matching. We were very impressed with the 16-inch machine, which offers a Mini LED display that the new MacBook Air lacks and fantastic performance that makes it the most powerful laptop we’ve ever tested for content creation and creative work. The laptop also boasts some of the longest battery life we’ve seen. Plus, the port selection is terrific; whereas the MacBook Air only allows for one external display, you... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Update July 15th, 10:55AM ET: Looks like Amazon has pulled the invite requests at this time. Hopefully this is a sign of more console deal opportunities to come, especially as the Xbox Series X continues being more readily available.The console restock scene has been slowly improving over the course of a few months, with the Xbox Series S on sale just about anywhere, the Xbox Series X available without nearly as much trouble as in the past, and even the PlayStation 5 getting more reliable restock windows. What’s still rare on those last two are any discounts or savings. But right now, if you act quickly, you may be able to get a deal on the Xbox Series X from Amazon.During its Prime Day hangover, the e-commerce giant is allowing you... Continue reading…

Photo by Pavel Pavlov/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images Dmitry Rogozin, the blustering head of Russia’s state space corporation Roscosmos, is out of the position following a big shake-up in the Russian government. He is being replaced by Yury Borisov, Russian deputy prime minister of space and defense, bringing an end to Rogozin’s dynamic reign as general director of the country’s space program.Rogozin has been in charge of Roscosmos since his appointment as director general in 2018, though prior to that, he was deputy prime minister since 2011, overseeing space and defense. He’s been a controversial figure for most of that tenure, resulting in strained relations with NASA — Russia’s largest partner in space. Rogozin was sanctioned by the United States in 2014 and barred from entering the... Continue reading…