The Verge

Samsung’s new sensor, the ISOCELL HP2. | Image: Samsung The Samsung ISOCELL HP2 is a new 200-megapixel camera sensor whose specs precisely match what’s rumored to be in the Galaxy S23 Ultra. These include a size of 1/1.3” and 0.6-micrometer (μm) pixels. It’s been announced just weeks before the Galaxy S23 Ultra is widely expected to be unveiled on February 9th.Samsung has been producing 200-megapixel sensors for years, but so far it’s yet to include such a high resolution sensor on its own flagship smartphones. Last year’s Galaxy S22 Ultra, for example, included a 108-megapixel sensor for its main camera, but its new sensor almost doubles the resolution. Here’s my colleague Allison Johnson on why this matters:

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Plus new rumors about the fifth Galaxy Fold. Continue reading…

“I know it’s just a hunk of plastic, but there’s just so much you can tell from it.” | Dave2D YouTuber Dave2D posted a video with a plastic mockup of the rumored Pixel foldable. The details are consistent with earlier leaks. Good news for foldables nerds! Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge If you’ve searched for external SSDs on Amazon.com recently, you may have noticed something weird: mixed in with the 1TB and 2TB drives from brands like Samsung and SanDisk are a bunch of listings for 16TB SSDs, mostly around $100, and with surprisingly high user ratings. Every single one is a scam, even if they’re shipped by Amazon.Josh Hendrickson — Editor-in-Chief of Review Geek — bought one of the “16TB SSDs” and tore it down to reveal a generic 64GB microSD card on a USB 2.0 card reader. Adrian Kingsley-Huges, writing for ZDNet in May 2022, found the exact same thing. Different packaging and different case colors, but the same trick.The Verge confirmed that several fake 16TB drives showed up on the first page of results for... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge A judge has ordered a group of laid-off Twitter employees to drop their class action lawsuit against the company, which accuses Twitter of not following through on its promised severance pay package, as reported earlier by Bloomberg and Reuters. In a ruling on Friday, US District Judge James Donato states that the workers must make their case in private arbitration instead, citing the employment contract they signed with Twitter.According to the ruling, Twitter’s contract “expressly” states that arbitration isn’t mandatory, and also provides an option for employees to opt out of the procedure. The judge says employees failed to opt out of arbitration, which would’ve given them a chance to settle things in court. Twitter’s contract also... Continue reading…

Way back before the tudum sound, it was just the sweet sweet sound of a disc spinning up. | Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Netflix streaming is getting into its angsty teenage years, as today marks 15 years since it launched its streaming services. It’s easy to forget what things were like before the age of streaming, but a decade-and-a-half ago, if you had a Netflix subscription, that meant paying a monthly subscription for a rotation of DVDs mailed to your door.But while things are vastly different today, and Netflix has grown into a juggernaut in the entertainment world, the chatter even then was all about Netflix’s competition — though, in this case, instead of Amazon, Apple, and Warner Discovery: it was Blockbuster.Perusing this New York Times article about Netflix “delivering movies to the PC” at the launch of the service back in 2007 is like peering... Continue reading…

The new AirPods Pro look just like the first-gen model, but what counts are the improvements on the inside. | Photo by Chris Welch / The Verge Apple’s latest generation of the AirPods Pro are back down to their lowest price, compliments of Verizon. The noise-canceling wireless earbuds are on sale for $199.99 when you click “continue” on Verizon’s site, where the $50 discount is reflected in your cart. This is a great deal for one of the best pairs of wireless earbuds you can buy, but don’t fret if you’re not a Verizon service subscriber — just click “checkout as guest” and anyone can take advantage of this deal.The second generation of AirPods Pro look nearly identical to the original model, but Apple made some significant changes to their performance and handling. They may not be the current noise cancellation champs, but the ANC is much improved over the previous model.... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Have you ever wanted to be woken from a dreamy slumber by the sound of your partner screaming at you to get out of bed, or perhaps your parents nagging you to get up for school? Well, Google has just the app update for you. The latest Android Clock app on Pixel devices now lets you record your own alarm and timer sounds. Ideal if you want to be woken slowly to the calming sounds of whales or something a lot more chaotic.XDA-developers reports that Google has made it easier to set custom audio as your alarm sounds with the latest Clock app. While you could set custom audio recordings before, you’d have to copy the files over using a file manager app and then add them using the alarm sound settings. Now you don’t have to do all of that... Continue reading…

A total of $2,642,493 was raised over AGDQ 2023 for the Prevent Cancer Foundation. | Image: Games Done Quick Games Done Quick has raised more than $2.6 million for the Prevent Cancer Foundation at its first video game speedrunning event of 2023. While falling short of matching the $3.4 million raised during AGDQ 2022 last year, the cash raised at AGDC 2023 brings the total amount raised for charity to date by Games Done Quick to $43 million (seen via Kotaku).The organization, which holds two charity video game marathons each year — Awesome Games Done Quick in January, and Summer Games Done Quick (SGDQ), usually held in late June or early July — announced the total sum raised on Twitter, alongside the hashtag “#ThankYouMike.” Games Done Quick founder Mike Uyama announced last week that he would be stepping down from the charity after 13 years... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Tweetbot is down again. The Twitter client briefly became available in the midst of an outage that locked users out of major third-party Twitter clients.While users could sign in to Tweetbot and browse through tweets, some said they couldn’t post anything to Twitter through the service without getting an error message stating they’ve reached a “data limit.” But now users say they can’t sign in at all.“And now dead again, along with some old unused API keys, which proves that this was intentional and we and others were specifically targeted,” Tweetbot co-creator Paul Haddad writes on Mastodon. “I wouldn’t have swapped out the keys in the first place if there was even a shred of communication.”The client didn’t come back online... Continue reading…

The crease is still pretty noticeable on the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 4. | Photo by Allison Johnson / The Verge The upcoming Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 5 could come with a much less visible crease thanks to a potential design change. According to a report on the Korean site Naver, Samsung could adopt a “droplet”-style hinge that allows the display to form a teardrop shape when closed, making for a much gentler curve that leaves less of a crease (via SamMobile).While Samsung has certainly made improvements to the crease over the years, it’s still pretty noticeable on its fourth-gen foldables. Both the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 4 and Galaxy Z Flip 4 use a “U”-shaped hinge design that puts the display at a sharper angle when closed. This creates a more prominent crease and also puts more stress on the display.Other folding smartphones have already... Continue reading…

There was a problem accessing your account. | Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge It’s been a few days since pretty much every major third-party Twitter client broke, and developers say they still haven’t heard anything from the company about what’s going on. The issues seemed to begin on Thursday evening, with some users reporting that they were getting errors related to authentication.The silence from the company has been pretty much complete. “Still no official/unofficial info from inside Twitter,” said Tweetbot co-creator Paul Haddad in a Mastodon post. “We’re in the dark just as much as you are,” read a Friday blog post from Iconfactory, the company behind Twitterific.As of Sunday afternoon, there haven’t been any tweets about the plight of third-party apps from either the official Twitter account, the T... Continue reading…

England already has restrictions on plastic straws, drink stirrers, and cotton swabs. | Photo By Paul Chinn/The San Francisco Chronicle via Getty Images England’s taking its single-use plastics ban even further by restricting the sale of plastic cutlery, plates, bowls, trays, balloon sticks, as well as certain kinds of polystyrene cups and food containers (via Engadget). According to an announcement on the English government’s website, the new ban will go into effect in October of this year.Once the ban comes into force, people will no longer be able to buy or obtain these single-use plastics from businesses, including retailers, restaurants, food vendors, and other locations.The ban won’t affect the plastic plates, trays, or bowls that come with pre-packaged food items, though, as they’re already included in the country’s Extended Producer Responsibility Scheme. This initiative... Continue reading…

Nova’s H1 Audio Earrings come with an equally stylish charging case. | Image: Nova These may look like your typical pair of earrings outfitted with — rather large — pearls, but they’re more than just jewelry: they actually double as ultra-discrete earbuds (via Gizmodo). The clip-on or stud H1 Audio Earrings from Nova Audio feature two speakers behind both pearls (which are real, by the way) that use directional sound to transmit audio up and into your ears.Nova says the technology adds “a layer of sound” to your environment, allowing you to hear what’s going on around you while still enjoying your audio, similar to Sony’s open-style LinkBuds or Aftershokz’s bone-conduction headphones. That means they don’t have any noise-cancellation properties, which could come in handy for athletes who want to remain aware of their... Continue reading…

Can Tesla remain the leader in the modern electric vehicle market it effectively created?That question has been on the mind of EV buyers, investors, analysts, industry watchers, and Elon Musk stans for months now. That’s especially been the case as questions over demand in China and the US — not to mention the Twitter drama — seemed to cast a shadow on the electric automaker’s success story.On Thursday night, Tesla revealed its answer to this problem, at least for now: steep price cuts on its lineup of cars, which in some cases amount to as much as 30 percent off when the latest EV tax credits are applied as well.Can Tesla remain the leader in the modern electric vehicle market it effectively created?Moreover, some of the price... Continue reading…

House Financial Services chair Patrick McHenry (R-NC) announced the new subcommittee on Thursday. | Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images Republican lawmakers announced a new panel on Thursday that will oversee the cryptocurrency industry, as reported earlier by Politico and CNBC. Led by Representative French Hill (R-AR), the Subcommittee on Digital Assets, Financial Technology and Inclusion aims to provide “clear rules of the road” for federal regulators.Some other duties include promoting financial technology to underserved communities, as well as strengthening “diversity and inclusion” in the crypto industry, which has been subject to increased scrutiny following the stunning implosion of FTX. Representative Patrick McHenry (R-NC), the chairman of the House Financial Services Committee, tells Politico that he created the panel to address a “big hole” in how the... Continue reading…

Saving on a gift card is an easy way to get a slight discount on games that aren’t actually on sale. | Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge Happy Saturday! It’s time to take a load off, and what better way is there than some sweet savings? If you’re in the market for some digital games or DLC for your console of choice, Eneba is running some handy promos that shave a little off the cost. Right now, for example, you can get a digital gift card for either the PlayStation, Xbox, or Nintendo Switch digital storefront for up to 20 percent off. Here are the details:

The 27-inch smart TV part is merely adequate, especially for $999, but the elegant stand could make it worth it for some people. Continue reading…

A Tesla Model Y at a recent trade show. | Photo by Vernon Yuen/NurPhoto via Getty Images Plus more information on Royal Mail’s ongoing cybersecurity incident, and a neat new Nvidia feature. Continue reading…

Neither of these AE86s take gas. | Image: Toyota The “E” in the name of Toyota’s legendary AE86 was there to designate it as a Corolla, but wouldn’t it be awesome if it stood for “electric” instead? Apparently someone at the company thought so; Toyota is showing off a concept version of what the 80s icon would look like if it were powered by batteries (or hydrogen). The two cars are being exhibited at the Tokyo Auto Salon show, which runs from January 13th to the 15th.The AE86 BEV Concept uses “electrification technologies cultivated by Lexus,” according to Toyota’s website, with parts from a hybrid Tundra and Prius. Mated to the truck motor is something you don’t usually see in electric cars — a manual transmission. I can’t say I’m exactly sure what driving stick with a motor that... Continue reading…

A crew works to replace older EVgo fast charging stations through its new ReNew program. | Image: EVgo When electric vehicle owners take longer trips, they often rely on nationwide fast charging providers like EVgo, Electrify America, and ChargePoint to reach their destinations. So it can be more than a minor inconvenience for EV drivers if they arrive at a station with problems like damaged cables, disconnected modems, or annoying error codes.This year, EVgo is looking to leave behind broken and unreliable EV chargers with its ReNew program that bolsters site maintenance efforts across its more than 850 fast charging stations with 1,700 or so charging stalls. It’ll also upgrade older stations with new hardware that enables up to 350kW charging for capable vehicles like the GMC Hummer EV.The backbone of the ReNew program is,... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge On Friday afternoon, Microsoft wrote it’s fully deployed a fix for an issue in Windows that caused application shortcuts in the Start menu or taskbar to disappear. Multiple IT admins detailed the problem on Twitter and Reddit this morning, and Microsoft confirmed it was related to a recent update to the Microsoft Defender threat detections.The problem is affecting businesses and organizations using Microsoft 365 and Defender for protection against malware, viruses, and other threats. In a note to customers, Microsoft said it received reports that a certain attack surface reduction (ASR) rule is causing the problems. Earlier in the day, IT admins tried to work around the issue by setting the “Block Win32 API calls from Office macro” rule... Continue reading…

A promo still for Netflix’s Agent From Above. | Image: Netflix The upcoming Netflix show Agent From Above tried to film its star up close with a drone — and Taiwanese actor Kai Ko got stitches, and possibly worse, when things went wrong (via DroneDJ).We don’t have many confirmed details on what happened during the December 27th shoot other than that they were filming an action scene close-up when the drone hit him in the face, slashing his cheek.“Standard safety guidelines”Ko’s manager told Taiwanese media that the star suffered “serious disfigurement” and needed up to 30 stitches after the drone exploded. Production companies mm2 and Good Films say “there was no explosion or blades shattering as reported in some articles,” claim it was operating “within standard safety guidelines,” and say that... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge YouTube is testing free ad-supported TV channels that show content from certain media companies, according to a report from The Wall Street Journal. The concept is similar to services like Pluto TV, Roku’s Live TV channels, or the experiences built into TVs from companies like Samsung, LG, and Vizio — there will be a “hub” that lets you pick what you want to watch.The concept has been part of a profitable business model for some of the other companies in the space, as earnings reports from Vizio and Roku show that they make more profit from advertising and commissions on subscriptions than they do from selling hardware. The most recent reports showed Vizio (PDF) pulls in an average of $27 annually per user, while Roku (PDF) manages to... Continue reading…

Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge Stadia will shut down on January 18th, 2023. Here, you’ll find the latest developments on the service as its winds down as well as pieces from our writers on its impact (or lack of it) on the gaming and tech industry. Continue reading…

Strava, an official price chart would be nice. | Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge No one likes price hikes, but Strava’s messy rollout has left many customers wondering what’s happening to their subscription. Here’s what’s actually happening: the company is raising prices for the first time in more than a decade, and the new price everyone pays depends on the region they live in, whether they are a monthly or annual subscriber, and whether they purchased their subscription prior to November 23rd, 2022. (Customers who subscribed after that date aren’t affected.) But Strava didn’t make this easy to understand.As spotted by sports blogger DC Rainmaker and r/Strava Redditors, things got confusing when customers started comparing notes on Strava’s price bump. Customers on r/Strava say emails were sent to some, while... Continue reading…

Image: Google Google is launching its final Stadia game today and is promising to release a tool next week to enable Bluetooth connections on its Stadia Controller. The last Stadia game to launch on the service is Worm Game, a test game that was technically available on Stadia before Stadia launched publicly in November 2019. Developers at Google have decided to release the game just before the streaming service disappears next week.“Worm Game is a humble title we used to test many of Stadia’s features, starting well before our 2019 public launch, right through 2022,” says Google in its listing for the newly published title. “It won’t win Game of the Year, but the Stadia team spent a LOT of time playing it, and we thought we’d share it with you.... Continue reading…

The company claims that a version of the license that leaked last week was a draft and that controversial restrictions in it will not be present in the final release. | Image: Wizards of the Coast Dungeons & Dragons (D&D) publisher Wizards of the Coast (WotC) has issued a statement addressing outrage from the tabletop gaming community in regard to the company’s upcoming Open Gaming License update. A leaked draft of the new license that applied greater restrictions was badly received by fans of the franchise, resulting in a call from some community members to boycott the Hasbro-owned gaming company.The Open Gaming License (OGL) is a public copyright license that outlines how fans and third-party publishers are permitted to make and monetize their own D&D content. The current version of the license allows third-party publishers relative freedom to create and / or sell content containing elements from the D&D tabletop roleplaying... Continue reading…

Collector containers at the “Orca” direct air capture and storage facility, operated by Climeworks AG, in Hellisheidi, Iceland. | Image: Arnaldur Halldorsson/Bloomberg via Getty Images Microsoft, Stripe, and Shopify are officially the first companies in the world to pay to filter their carbon dioxide emissions out of the air, store those emissions underground, and have that service verified by a third party. Climate tech company Climeworks announced yesterday that it had completed the service, and its third-party verification of the carbon removal marks a first for the emerging industry.In 2021, Climeworks opened up the world’s largest direct air capture (DAC) plant, called Orca, which essentially filters carbon dioxide out of the ambient air. That captured carbon is then supposed to be trapped in basalt rock formations permanently, keeping the greenhouse gas from lingering in our atmosphere and heating up the planet.... Continue reading…

You can currently buy the AirPods Max for $479.99 instead of $549. | Photo by Becca Farsace / The Verge With more people working from home than they used to, owning a good pair of noise-canceling headphones has become more appealing than ever. However, they can be expensive and difficult to shop for due to the range of available models, many of which cater to different lifestyles and priorities. Some are better suited for long-haul flights, for instance, while others are ideal for multitasking and marathon listening sessions.That’s why we’ve curated this list of the best deals on noise-canceling headphones. Here, you’ll find sales on all kinds of on-ear and over-ear headphones, all of which are designed to eliminate outside noise but come with their own strengths and weaknesses. And if you want to do even more research before making a... Continue reading…

The new tabs are here. | Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Twitter’s new For You tab, which rolled out to iPhones and iPads on Tuesday, is now appearing on desktop web browsers.The For You tab is the TikTok-inspired name for Twitter’s algorithmically curated “Home” tab, and on iOS, it’s now the default tab you see when you close and reopen the app. You can still access the reverse-chronological list of the latest posts from the people you follow on the “Following” tab (previously “Latest”), though Twitter has removed the star icon to switch between the timelines.For some, this change is now even more annoying since major third-party Twitter apps just stopped working, blocking people’s escape from features or changes they don’t like. As of Friday afternoon, developers of those apps are still... Continue reading…

Don’t put this article in your video’s thumbnail. | Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge At exactly 18 seconds into his video “YouTube is Run by Fools,” ProZD makes his feelings on the platform’s recent restrictions on foul language crystal clear: “That’s the dumbest fucking shit I’ve ever heard.”The tirade’s timing was deliberate, meant to test the company’s updated “approach to profanity” that it announced in November: YouTube will now limit ads or completely demonetize a creator’s video if they swear within the first 15 seconds. That may not seem like a huge deal on its own, but it also seems to apply to every video YouTubers have ever created — and they’ve done a whole lot of swearing.ProZD is far from the only creator speaking out about the changes, as YouTube is seemingly on a demonetization spree that’s affecting... Continue reading…

A leaked rendering of the Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra shared by Nieuwe Mobiel. | Image: Nieuwe Mobiel Leaked renders posted by Dutch publication Nieuwe Mobiel reveal the cameras, design, and colors of the Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra and Plus. The news comes shortly after similar leaks shared by WinFuture gave us a glimpse into the base Galaxy S23.Like Samsung’s Galaxy S23, the Ultra and Plus seem to share a metal frame and glass cover design that closely resembles the iPhone and pretty much every other slab smartphone from the last few years. Unlike the Galaxy S22 series, all will be available in four of the same colors: black, white, green, and light pink.The images of Samsung’s S Pen-equipped Galaxy S23 Ultra reveal few differences from the rest of the lineup.Like the other S23s in these rendered images, the Ultra’s back appears... Continue reading…

Christina Ricci and Elijah Wood in season 2 of Yellowjackets. | Image: Showtime Showtime hasn’t been shy with teasing the return of Yellowjackets, but now, we finally have a good look at season 2 of the show thanks to a fresh teaser. It’s brief, clocking in at just over a minute, but there’s a lot to dig into: both old and young Misty (Christina Ricci and Samantha Hanratty) crying, Natalie (Juliette Lewis) talking about bringing “darkness” back, and a new character played by Elijah Wood questioning some complicated friendships that revolve around kidnapping and death. It doesn’t give much away about what to expect, though, so don’t worry too much about spoilers.The first season of Yellowjackets wrapped up nearly a year ago and told the story of a high school soccer team that was stranded in the wilderness after a... Continue reading…

Illustration by Samar Haddad / The Verge To quote a worn — but occasionally true — saying from Joseph Heller’s novel Catch-22, “Just because you’re paranoid doesn’t mean they aren’t after you.” The popularity of Airbnb and other informal rentals has coincided with the increased production of cheaper hidden cameras, making it increasingly likely that your stay could be viewed by the person who rented the place out to you.Want to make sure your privacy is being respected? There are a couple of ways you can kinda, sorta find out if there are any hidden cameras in your space.Use your phone to find an IR-equipped camera Photo by Barbara Krasnoff / The Verge You can use your camera app to make an infrared light visible; this one is from a Roku remote. If... Continue reading…

Neil Druckmann on the set of The Last of Us with an actor portraying a clicker. | Image: HBO HBO’s The Last of Us is a faithful adaptation, but co-creator Neil Druckmann and showrunner Craig Mazin say that the game’s story was truly made for TV. Continue reading…

Photo by Stella Kalinina for The Verge Anna* was looking forward to a trip to the US. But this isn’t what she had in mind.Early this year, Anna was living in Kyiv, Ukraine, where she spent years building a life and career in the tech industry. When her boyfriend moved to the Los Angeles area last fall, she chose to stay behind — she, like millions of others, had plans for her future in her home country. Still, they video chatted every day and made plans to visit each other. Anna was set to fly to the US in March 2022 for her next visit.But by the end of February, the world had changed completely. The trip to Los Angeles did happen — but not anywhere near as planned. After spending the night in a bomb shelter in the city center, Anna grabbed a backpack and her cat, escaping... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Samsung’s next Unpacked event will kick off on February 1st, when we expect it to launch the Galaxy S23 and a new Galaxy Book laptop. As usual, the company has opened up some promotions that can earn you free credit to use in its online store. From now through the day of the event, simply placing a free reservation for either the Galaxy S23 or the Galaxy Book will set you up to get a $50 gift card, or $100 if you choose to reserve both. The catch is that, to get this credit, you have to follow through with preordering them once the floodgate opens on February 1st.Actually, there’s more than one catch. You must spend the complimentary gift card at the same time you put money down for your preorder — and you can’t use it to make your new... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Bit by bit, text generated by artificial intelligence is creeping into the mainstream. This week brought news that the venerable consumer tech site CNET, where I worked from 2012 to 2013, has been using “automation technology” to publish at least 73 explainers on financial topics since November. While the site has refused to answer any questions, it’s hardly the first news organization to explore replacing human labor with robots: the Associated Press has been publishing automated stories since 2014.This week the New York Times’ Cade Metz profiled Character A.I., a website that lets you interact with chatbots that mimic countless real people and fictional characters. The site launched last summer and for the moment leans heavily on... Continue reading…