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by Ash Parrish on (#6EFTQ)
Larian Studios The companions in Baldur's Gate 3 have redefined the term player-sexual," or the idea that a character's romantic and sexual orientation are firmly and solely fixed on the player. Usually, in a game that allows you to romance other characters, it takes a moment for the sparks to really start flying. There's a general buildup of flirtations before you get to have a romantic interlude with your chosen somewhere around a game's climax. (See what I did there?)In Baldur's Gate 3, there is so little time between the initial I like you" and visiting Boning's Gate that a whole speedrun category has been developed around getting to a sex scene as quickly as possible, with the world record currently sitting at two minutes and four seconds.... Continue reading...
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The Verge
| Link | https://www.theverge.com/ |
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| Updated | 2026-03-23 11:20 |
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by Andrew J. Hawkins on (#6EFQG)
Photo by Win McNamee/Getty Images On the heels of the Labor Day weekend, United Airlines briefly issued a nationwide ground stop order, citing a systemwide technology issue." The order was lifted around 10 minutes later.We are experiencing a systemwide technology issue and are holding all aircraft at their departure airports. Flights that are already airborne are continuing to their destination as planned. We will share more information as it becomes available," the airlines said in a tweet on X (formerly Twitter). Thank you for your patience as we work on a resolution to get you on your way as soon as possible."United did not immediately provide any details about why it issued a ground stop and how it was able to lift it so quickly.
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by Allison Johnson on (#6EFQH)
That's Android with a capital A, sir. | Image: Google Google is releasing a grab bag of updates to its mobile apps and services, including an At a Glance Google Assistant widget, enhancements to its Lookout visual accessibility app, and Zoom calls in Android Auto. This comes with a side of branding updates designed to remind us that Android is fun but also a serious Google product. It all arrives as we anticipate Android 14's imminent release, which is a slightly less exciting milestone when you realize that most new Android features come throughout the year in updates like this rather than in one big OS platform upgrade. Image: Google At a Glance surfaces useful things like current weather updates and travel info. The new At a Glance widget takes a useful Pixel... Continue reading...
by Antonio G. Di Benedetto on (#6EFQJ)
Clive, much like this deal, is on fire. | Image: Square Enix With so many major game releases happening this year - and even this week - you could almost forget that a new mainline Final Fantasy dropped just a couple of months back. Well now, it's already on a sizable sale. Final Fantasy XVI is selling for $49.99 ($20 off) at both Amazon and Best Buy, its lowest price yet.Final Fantasy XVI is the most gritty and blood-soaked installment of the series to date, taking a chapter or three from George R.R. Martin's Game of Thrones when it comes to sex and political intrigue. It may be rote to describe it as this ain't your daddy's Final Fantasy," but once you hear main protagonist Clive drop some f-bombs, it will be clear. The game also brings some interesting new twists on series mainstays, like... Continue reading...
by Andrew J. Hawkins on (#6EFQK)
Image: VW How do you tweak a classic hot hatch for the electric era? If you're Volkswagen, you simply announce that the I" in GTI now stands for intelligence" instead of injection" and call it a day.Just kidding. Obviously, VW went much further in unveiling the new GTI concept, or ID.GTI, which had its official debut at IAA Mobility in Munich this weekend. The reinterpretation of the 1976 original GTI has a lot more state-of-the-art tech and an electrified powertrain. But moreover, it could signal the future of this particular form of quick-footed hatchback.The VW ID.GTI is just a concept, but a production version will be coming to Europe at some future date. The US market may be part of the mix as well, but time will tell.The VW ID.GTI... Continue reading...
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by Sean Hollister on (#6EFQM)
Not our finest moment. | Screenshot by Sean Hollister / The Verge Baldur's Gate 3 sounds like a fantastic single-player experience. I wish I'd tried that instead of playing with my closest friends!This isn't about difficulty: I fully expected to be beaten, shot, stabbed, and otherwise destroyed for taking on enemies too fast. I just wish developer Larian had designed a multiplayer experience that gave me the first freaking clue what's going on.Want to make sure you don't miss an important conversation that might determine the course of the game? Better make sure you're watching your companions' character portraits on the left of the screen like a hawk! At any moment, they might click on something or walk somewhere that triggers a cutscene, and a tiny conversation indicator is the difference... Continue reading...
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by Amrita Khalid on (#6EFQN)
Sincerely Accra" is a part of the Gold Coast Report podcast network. | Image: GCR This is Hot Pod, The Verge's newsletter about podcasting and the audio industry. Sign up here for more.Hope everyone has had an enjoyable Labor Day weekend. For today's issue of Hot Pod, I have a Q&A I conducted with Afripod's chief content officer and head of strategy, Kevin Y. Brown. The African podcasting platform - headquartered in Kenya - is considered the largest in the continent and is in the middle of an interesting partnership with radio stations. I got to hear Brown's thoughts on the new initiative and - as well as how Afripods is spreading awareness of podcasting as a medium throughout Africa. I also have a lightning round of deals and announcements for today's issue.Since I'll be off for the rest of the week, Hot Pod will... Continue reading...
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by Antonio G. Di Benedetto on (#6EFKX)
I, too, charge my devices in a blank void of solitude. | Image: Nomad After toying with lower-cost magnetic Qi wireless charging for a minute, Nomad is back on its proper MagSafe charger kick. The premium accessory maker is announcing a new multi-charger that's meant to charge your iPhone, AirPods, and Apple Watch all at once and look good doing it.Nomad's Base One Max 3-in-1 is a $170 MagSafe charger that can simultaneously fast-charge a compatible iPhone at 15W (hey, it's fast for an iPhone, okay?), an Apple Watch, and a set of AirPods or other wireless earbuds with Qi charging built into their case. The 3-in-1 weighs a hefty 1.7 pounds (755 grams), comes with a detachable 6.6ft / 2m USB-C cable, requires a 30W power adapter (not included), and comes in black or silver colors that can both be ordered... Continue reading...
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by Wes Davis on (#6EFKY)
Oh, hey, a strawberry. | Photo by Wes Davis / The Verge Niantic has a new Pikmin AR experiment for your mobile browser, called Pikmin Finder, that lets you pluck pikmin from any old place and send them off to collect treasure for you (via Nintendo Life). It's basically a cute, distilled version of 2021's Pikmin Bloom, and unless you're just hopelessly charmed by Shigeru Miyamoto's imaginary garden creatures, it's only good for a couple minutes of diversion. And the only official acknowledgment that it exists appears to be a support article.Niantic has had trouble lately, so it's not a surprise this was released so quietly. Between summer layoffs, a studio closure, and a lawsuit alleging internal sexual bias, the beleaguered company hasn't put its best foot forward lately. Niantic has a lot... Continue reading...
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by Tom Warren on (#6EFKZ)
New Discord update for Xbox. | Image: Microsoft Microsoft is rolling out a new Xbox dashboard for September that includes the ability to stream your Xbox gameplay to Discord friends and variable refresh rate (VRR) improvements for the Xbox Series S / X consoles. The dashboard update also includes the new Xbox voice reporting feature and a new way to pair accessories to Xbox consoles.The updated Discord functionality means you can now stream your gameplay to anyone on Discord. It's built into the Parties & Chats section of the dashboard, and a new stream your game" option now appears once you're connected to a Discord server. You can customize your stream quality, and the feature arrives just in time for tomorrow's release of Starfield.This Discord stream feature is only one-way,... Continue reading...
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by Ash Parrish on (#6EFM0)
Image: Nintendo It's September, so naturally, it means it's time to announce all the holiday video game bundles. And as inevitable as Mariah Carey's All I Want for Christmas Is You" being the number one song in America in October, Nintendo is releasing yet another Mario Kart 8 Deluxe holiday bundle.This non-Switch OLED bundle comes with three months of Nintendo Switch online. But, if you want all the extra courses and characters added over the years, like Birdo, Kamek, and Petey Piranha, you'll have to purchase the Booster Course DLC for $25 or sign up for the Nintendo Switch Online Expansion Pack at $50 for a year's subscription.This year, Nintendo's also offering an Animal Crossing: New Horizons bundle for the Switch Lite. (Remember that game? It... Continue reading...
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by Antonio G. Di Benedetto on (#6EFM1)
The camera isn't much bigger than the E-mount itself. | Image: Sony Sony's got a teeny-tiny new box camera that's small and light enough to be sent into the sky on a drone, and it's packing the high-resolution 61-megapixel full-frame sensor of its A7R V camera.The Sony ILX-LR1 is a new E-mount full-frame mirrorless camera that's only a bit larger than an average deck of playing cards and weighs just half a pound, yet it has the latest Bionz XR processor and supports 4K video up to 60 fps. That's an incredibly small package for a lot of imaging output, but it also lacks an electronic viewfinder, a screen of any sort, a standard handgrip, and even a battery. This $2,950 camera, expected to launch in December, is tailor-made for flying on high-end drones and specialty industrial uses - like surveying and... Continue reading...
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by Antonio G. Di Benedetto on (#6EFM2)
The gap between the keyboard's two halves gives you so much room for activities (or a trackball). | Image: ZSA Ever wonder what it might feel like to be an astronaut who's concerned about avoiding carpal tunnel while working their nine-to-five desk job? Now there's a keyboard to help you live that fantasy.ZSA is today releasing another Space Age-looking mechanical keyboard: the $365 Voyager. Like the similarly priced Moonlander Mark I before it, the ZSA Voyager is a split ergonomic keyboard. It's designed to relieve some wrist and shoulder stress by allowing you to type with your hands further apart than traditional boards, fine-tune the height and tenting angle of each side, and reduce the overall amount of movement necessary to type. But what's unique to the Voyager is just how short and compact it is for an off-the-shelf keyboard.The... Continue reading...
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by Tom Warren on (#6EFFT)
Image: Microsoft Microsoft will finally stop forcing Windows 11 users in Europe into Edge if they click a link from the Windows Widgets panel or from search results. The software giant has started testing the changes to Windows 11 in recent test builds of the operating system, but the changes are restricted to countries within the European Economic Area (EEA).In the European Economic Area (EEA), Windows system components use the default browser to open links," reads a change note from a Windows 11 test build released to Dev Channel testers last month. I asked Microsoft to comment on the changes and, in particular, why they're only being applied to EU countries. Microsoft refused to comment.Microsoft has been ignoring default browser choices in its... Continue reading...
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by Andrew J. Hawkins on (#6EFFW)
Image: Roberto Baldwin for The Verge BMW says it will use Amazon Web Services (AWS) cloud software to manage data from its autonomous vehicles.The company has a preexisting deal with AWS to handle data from its connected cars. Now, the German automaker is expanding that deal to include data from its next-generation advanced driver-assist system (ADAS), which is partly powered by Qualcomm's Snapdragon Ride Vision platform.Generative artificial intelligence, Internet of Things, machine learning, and storage capabilities"BMW says AWS will help provide cloud storage from data related to generative artificial intelligence, Internet of Things, machine learning, and storage capabilities to help accelerate the delivery of highly automated BMW vehicles."The AWS software will... Continue reading...
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by Tom Warren on (#6EFFV)
Image: Bethesda Starfield needs a modern CPU for the very best settings and experience. Continue reading...
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by Emma Roth on (#6EFFX)
Illustration by Nick Barclay / The Verge TikTok has started transferring European user information to its newly launched data center in Ireland. In an update on Tuesday, TikTok says it's working on opening two additional data centers in Europe, including one in Norway and another in Ireland.TikTok's move to open a data center in Ireland comes as the European Union clamps down on large online platforms with the Digital Services Act, a rule that has forced TikTok to make its algorithm optional for users in the EU.TikTok says it's working with the NCC Group, a UK-based security company, to audit its data controls and protections, monitor data flows, provide independent verification, and report any incidents." It adds that only approved employees" can access the controls and... Continue reading...
by Antonio G. Di Benedetto on (#6EFFY)
It's got nice features like hair-trigger lockouts, but what is up with these cheap-o looking LED strips? | Image: PowerA Accessory maker PowerA seems to know that RGB gamer lights are all the rage, but its new Xbox controller and LED strips have very strong We have gamer lights at home!" vibes.PowerA's new RGB-infused peripheral is the Advantage Wired Controller for Xbox Series X / S with Lumectra. It's a $44.99 wired gamepad available in black or white with some nice sounding features, like hair triggers, two customizable rear buttons, four-zone RGB lighting with three preprogrammed modes, and a detachable USB-C cable (a nice upgrade over PowerA's cheaper models still plagued by Micro USB ports).That all sounds well and good, but the new wired Advantage also has some wireless tech - no, it doesn't have any official Xbox wireless connectivity like... Continue reading...
by Justine Calma on (#6EFFZ)
Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Meta plans to deprecate" the News tab in Facebook's bookmarks section in the UK, France, and Germany. That's typically been company speak for removing a feature. The changes are supposed to go into effect in early December, according to Meta.As a company, we have to focus our time and resources on things people tell us they want to see more of on the platform, including short form video," the company said in a press release today.This is the latest action Facebook has taken to make news a lower priority on its platform. It's also another step toward mimicking shortform video content on TikTok.As a company, we have to focus our time and resources on things people tell us they want to see more of on the platform, including short... Continue reading...
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by Emma Roth on (#6EFG0)
Image: Latch Latch, the commercial access company run by the founder of Ring, is expanding beyond smart locks. The company announced today that it's rebranding to Door.com with the goal of offering an overarching platform that gives independent service workers, like drivers, housekeepers, and dog walkers, a platform to grow their businesses.After founding Ring in 2013, Jamie Siminoff sold the company to Amazon in 2018, where he continued to work until leaving in May of this year. The next day, Latch announced that it had acquired Siminoff's four-month-old stealth startup, Honest Day's Work, and Siminoff became the Chief Doorman of Latch (but will soon become CEO). Honest Day's Work aimed to create a full-building operating system designed to help... Continue reading...
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by Justine Calma on (#6EFAA)
A rendering of what ocean-based climate tech could look like. Caltech researchers are developing technology to filter CO2 out of seawater to allow oceans to absorb even more of the greenhouse gas. | Image: Caltech More than 200 scientists have signed onto a letter pushing for responsible" research into ways to trap planet-heating carbon dioxide in the world's oceans. They want to take urgent action on the climate crisis, while making sure they don't trigger any new problems by relying on oceans to help in the fight.Polluters have trashed the world's atmosphere with carbon dioxide emissions from fossil fuels. That blanket of pollution is already warming the planet and causing more extreme weather disasters. One way to keep climate change from getting worse is to take some of those historic emissions out of the atmosphere.Oceans already do that for us, absorbing and holding around 50 times more carbon than the atmosphere. What if humans could... Continue reading...
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by Jon Porter on (#6EFAB)
Image: Bethesda Softworks Starfield isn't even officially out of early access yet, but one of its mods has already generated controversy within the community. The mod in question adds support for Nvidia's DLSS 3 upscaling technology, which Bethesda omitted to include in Starfield in favor of AMD's rival FSR 2. But users have been critical of modder PureDark's decision to lock DLSS 3's more advanced frame-generation features behind a subscription to their Patreon. The free version of the mod only supports DLSS 2, which offers upscaling but not frame generation.Attempting to charge users for mods is a controversial topic, as Bethesda and Valve discovered when they teamed up to let modders charge for their Skyrim mods via Steam in 2015. The move was so... Continue reading...
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by Jon Porter on (#6EF6M)
The keyboard comes in a choice of black, white, or pink. | Image: Logitech Logitech has a new mechanical gaming keyboard it's announcing today: the Logitech G Pro X TKL Lightspeed. It's available now for $199 in a choice of three colors (black, white, and pink) and three switch types - linear GX Red, tactile GX Browns, and clicky GX Blues. The keyboard arrives alongside a new mouse, the Logitech G Pro X Superlight 2.As its name suggests, the Pro X TKL Lightspeed can connect to a computer using Logitech's Lightspeed dongle, which offers a 1000Hz polling rate. That should feel far more responsive than Bluetooth, which this keyboard also supports, but typically polls at a less responsive 125Hz. There's also the option of a wired connection via the USB-C port on the top of the Pro X TKL Lightspeed, which also... Continue reading...
by Sean Hollister on (#6EF6K)
The Logitech G Pro X Superlight 2 mouse. | Photo by Sean Hollister / The Verge I called it the real magic mouse, but I can no longer look at my award-winning Logitech G502 Lightspeed quite the same way - because I've just been spoiled by a new mouse that's roughly half its weight.Logitech has just announced the G Pro X Superlight 2, the fastest and lightest mouse the company's ever made, and after spending a very long Labor Day weekend blasting baddies and clicking desktop files, I'm already finding it hard to go back. Photo by Sean Hollister / The Verge It's not quite ambidextrous; you still only get your Mouse 4 and Mouse 5 buttons on the left. The $159 Superlight 2 weighs just 60 grams (2.1 ounces), down from the original 63-gram mouse and way lighter than my 114 gram G502... Continue reading...
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by Adi Robertson on (#6EEYV)
Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Microsoft and Apple are reportedly pushing to keep Bing and iMessage, respectively, off a list of gatekeepers" subject to new European regulations. Financial Times reports that both companies are privately (and separately) arguing that their services aren't large or powerful enough to justify earning the restrictions of the Digital Markets Act, a rule designed to promote competition in tech.The European Commission is set to publish a list of designated gatekeepers on September 6th, naming overall companies as well as specific services they offer. These powerful platforms, defined based on their revenue and user numbers, will be required to meet a slew of interoperability and competition rules. Apple and Microsoft - along with Amazon,... Continue reading...
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by Adi Robertson on (#6EEVF)
Photo by Adi Robertson / The Verge A Korean news report suggests Meta is partnering with LG to release a successor to its high-end Quest Pro virtual reality headset in 2025. As spotted by UploadVR, Maeil Business Newspaper writes that Meta has struck a deal for a joint venture with LG. The resulting headset is rumored to be priced at around $2,000 and use LG displays, as well as other parts from LG subsidiaries like LG Innotek. Maeil Business Newspaper furthermore claims Meta will release a low-end Quest headset in 2024 that could cost under $200.Meta didn't immediately respond to a request for comment from The Verge, and some of the details of the report seem unintuitive. $200 would be a major price drop for the consumer Quest; the Quest 2 sells for $299 after Meta... Continue reading...
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by Jennifer Pattison Tuohy on (#6EEPH)
The SwitchBot S10 robot vacuum and mop costs $1,199.99 and comes with an auto-empty / charging dock plus a battery-powered water refill dock. | Photo by Jennifer Pattison Tuohy / The Verge After previewing its latest robotic invention earlier this month, SwitchBot officially launched the S10 robot vacuum and mop at IFA 2023 in Berlin last week. The $1,199.99 bot, coming to Kickstarter in October, features an automatic water refill station that does away with the bulky water tanks housed in giant auto-empty docks that have become the hallmark of top-of-the-line floor cleaners from Roborock, Ecovacs, etc.Unlike those models that clean and dry their dirty mops in a small sink" in the dock, the SwitchBot S10 has an internal roller brush mop that it cleans using a squeegee method as it vacuums. This means no standing water or scuzzy mop left to get smelly.VIDEO: My hands-on demo of the new SwitchBot 10 and its automatic... Continue reading...
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by Emma Roth on (#6EEPJ)
The Digital Stage" stretches across the entire dashboard. | Image: Audi The Audi Q6 E-tron comes with not one, but three screens tacked on its dashboard. As you can see in the first images of the electric vehicle's interior, the three-screen setup - dubbed the Digital Stage"- stretches from the driver's side to the front passenger, with each display sporting different sizes and features.The driver gets two displays nestled within a free-standing hub that gently curves on both sides. While the 11.9-inch screen dedicated to the gauge cluster and other vehicle information sits directly in front of the driver, it connects to a 14.5-inch touch infotainment display that extends beyond the right side of the steering wheel. Audi says special ambient lighting" makes the setup appear to float" at night. ... Continue reading...
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by Charles Pulliam-Moore on (#6EEKQ)
Though many of Godzilla's recent appearances in Western-produced projects have framed him as something of a misunderstood hero, Toho's upcoming Godzilla Minus One from writer / director Takashi Yamazaki is going to take the king of the monsters back to his roots as a horrific metaphor for nuclear devastation.Set in the immediate aftermath of World War II at a time when Japan had been left hobbled by the atomic bombings of Nagasaki and Hiroshima, Godzilla Minus One tells the story of how the country plunged even further into turmoil and chaos when the titular kaiju is awakened for the very first time. Between ongoing efforts to rebuild destroyed neighborhoods and tend to the countless people left injured by the war, resources are already... Continue reading...
by Jess Weatherbed on (#6EEGR)
Ambient noise podcasters can apparently still make cash through subscribers, lister support, and automated ads. | Illustration by Kristen Radtke / The Verge Spotify is pulling select advertising privileges for white noise podcasts - a type of ambient noise podcast that involves looping relaxing sounds like rain or static - in a bid to boost the audio streaming company's annual profits. As reported by Bloomberg, Spotify outlined changes to its Ambassador Ads program (which pays creators to read ads promoting Spotify content) in an email to creators on Friday, noting that white noise podcasters will no longer be eligible to participate starting October 1st.Spotify will no longer spend its marketing budget to support white-noise podcasters through ambassador ads, Bloomberg reports. However, such creators can still make money on the platform via paid subscribers, listener support, and automated... Continue reading...
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by Jon Porter on (#6EEGS)
A Dolby graphic showing a TV connecting to two asymmetrical speakers. | Image: Dolby The best bit of attending Berlin's IFA trade show is when companies use it to offer an early look at tech that'll get a proper" launch later. That's what I experienced with a demonstration of Dolby Atmos FlexConnect, a new technology to let you wirelessly connect compatible external speakers to your TV and create an Atmos-enabled spatial audio setup.The most interesting part of Dolby's pitch for the technology is that it's supposedly far more forgiving about where you can place these specialized external speakers. They don't need to be perfectly symmetrical, like the press shots show DTS's similar wireless Play-Fi Home Theater standard. With Atmos FlexConnect, the idea is you can place your external speakers anywhere in the room with... Continue reading...
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by Tom Warren on (#6EEE4)
Photo by Tom Warren / The Verge Microsoft has started selling a new black version of the Xbox Series S with 1TB of built-in storage. The only changes over the original white Xbox Series S are a black paint job on the exterior and more storage inside. Priced at $349, it's still one of the most affordable ways to play Bethesda's new Starfield game, which launches on Xbox Series S / X and PC this week.The carbon black exterior now matches the larger Xbox Series X, with the $299 white Xbox Series S still available with its regular 512GB of storage. The increase to 1TB on this black model will allow you to install a modern Call of Duty game and not have to worry too much about how much storage is left over.You're essentially paying an extra $50 for 512GB of additional... Continue reading...
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by Jess Weatherbed on (#6EEBT)
Hopefully, it won't be too long before PC gamers can also give Torgal a well-deserved scratch. | Image: Square Enix The weekend bore some good news for PC gamers wanting to get in on the Playstation 5 exclusive Final Fantasy XVI JRPG. During the Voices From Valisthea" panel at PAX West on Sunday, Final Fantasy XVI producer Naoki Yoshida announced that a PC port is currently in development for the latest addition to the Final Fantasy video game franchise, alongside two paid DLC expansions.No details have been provided regarding a potential release date for the port or DLC, though at least one of the planned expansions will seemingly be set in Valisthea - the regional setting for Final Fantasy XVI. I hope to be able to give you more information on both the upcoming DLC and the PC version before the end of the year, so please stay tuned," said... Continue reading...
by Wes Davis on (#6EE42)
Flannery Associates, the company behind land grabs near San Francisco that turned out to be a secret plot to build a city with hundreds of millions in funding from wealthy tech leaders, has revealed a website for the planned city. California Forever is the name of Flannery's parent company, and its site is filled with sunny pictures of a walkable, green city by the bay.The text sets up what it says surveys tell it residents want - good local jobs, walkability, safety, etc. - then makes vague promises not to ruin nearby agriculture and to create solar farms. At the bottom, the site promises walkable neighborhoods and to help solve" infrastructure issues and protect and support" the nearby Travis Air Force base.Former Goldman Sachs... Continue reading...
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by Wes Davis on (#6EE0X)
Illustration: Alex Castro / The Verge Senior YouTube staffers are reportedly worried that its TikTok competitor, Shorts, may eat away at its long-form content, which has for almost two decades been its primary bread and butter, according to The Financial Times. As FT points out, YouTube's ad revenue, though recently improved, had been on a downward year-over-year slide for three straight quarters.YouTube is still figuring out how to reap more ad money from Shorts. Its long-form content lets it show more ads per video, but as short-form content gradually takes over, content creators themselves are uploading fewer long videos, FT writes, citing YouTube staff fretting about internal figures.But whether YouTube's senior staffers like it or not, YouTube has to support Shorts... Continue reading...
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by Wes Davis on (#6EDZ7)
The Verge Last week, Disney blocked Charter's Spectrum cable from accessing channels like ABC and ESPN over a disagreement between the two companies over new financial terms. Today, Disney says in a blog post that although Charter claims to value Disney's direct-to-consumer services," it is demanding these different services for free."With cable gradually losing customers and Disney openly musing about selling ESPN on its own as a streaming channel, Charter wanted to include Disney's streaming apps with its subscriptions. The blackout comes during a weekend when high-profile sports events like the US Open and big college football games are happening (not to mention the first NFL games start next weekend). Screenshot: Wes... Continue reading...
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by Wes Davis on (#6EDVG)
The 2020 iPad Pro Magic Keyboard as seen in The Verge's review. | Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge Apple will release a stronger, more premium-feeling iPad Magic Keyboard alongside the iPad Pro next year, according to Mark Gurman's latest Power On newsletter for Bloomberg. The keyboard, he reports, will use an aluminum top case while keeping the soft material found on the bottom of the keyboard now. It will also still have only one USB-C port, he writes.Gurman notes that the current keyboard is prone to bending and tearing over time, so hopefully an aluminum top case and the larger trackpad he wrote about last week will improve things, though one wonders about closing it over the iPad's screen. The updated iPad Pro design isn't coming until next year, so how Apple handles that is for future us to learn.A hardier Magic Keyboard with... Continue reading...
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by Jennifer Pattison Tuohy on (#6EDVH)
The Q8 Max is one of two new robot vacuums from Roborock. It features dual roller brushes, obstacle avoidance, and smart mapping features. | Image: Roborock Robot vacuum manufacturer Roborock announced three new vacuum products at IFA 2023, the global tech show taking place in Berlin this week: the Q5 Pro robot vac; the Q8 Max robot vac; and the Dyad Pro Combo wet / dry stick vacuum. The new lidar-powered robot vacuums add more than double the suction power of previous models, a new and more advanced DuoRoller brush system, and more app features for a lower price. The Dyad Pro is a multifunctional upright vacuum that can convert to a stick vacuum.Part of the company's more affordable Q line, the Q5 Pro costs $429.99 standalone or $699.99 for the Q5 Pro Plus with an auto-empty charging dock. The Q8 Max costs $599.99 standalone or $819.99 for the Q8 Max Plus. Both are slated to go on sale in... Continue reading...
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by David Pierce on (#6EDSP)
Image: William Joel / The Verge Hi, friends! Welcome to Installer No. 4, your guide to the best and Verge-iest stuff in the world. (If you're new here, first of all, hi hello welcome, and second of all, you can read all the old editions at the Installer homepage.)I've been sick a good chunk of this week, so my internet experience has been significantly more couch-based and horizontal than usual. I've been watching Twisted Metal and doing my umpteenth rewatch of Superstore, devouring this delightful documentary about the Apple Newton, reading about the booming product-return industry and the unmasking of a huge ransomware gang, buying just about everything on The Verge's cheap stuff that doesn't suck" list, listening to the ultra-chaotic new podcast from a bunch of... Continue reading...
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by Tom Warren on (#6EDR9)
Illustration: The Verge Microsoft is no longer updating WordPad and plans to remove the word processor from a future release of Windows. The software giant will instead recommend Microsoft Word, its paid word processor that has always been far more feature rich than the basic WordPad app that has shipped as part of Windows since Windows 95.WordPad is no longer being updated and will be removed in a future release of Windows," reads a support note published by Microsoft on Friday. We recommend Microsoft Word for rich text documents like .doc and .rtf and Windows Notepad for plain text documents like .txt." Screenshot by Tom Warren / The Verge WordPad hasn't been updated significantly since Windows 8. News of the WordPad removal... Continue reading...
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by Wes Davis on (#6EDFR)
A picture from Burning Man in 2009. | Photo by Frederic Larson/San Francisco Chronicle via Getty Images Nobody can go in or out of Burning Man after heavy rainfall on Friday turned the desert floor of the playa into impassible, sticky mud, prompting the Festival's organizers late last night to ask as many as 70,000 attendees to shelter in place (via SFGate). Organizers reposted a similar message to the Burning Man Traffic account on X (formerly Twitter) around 12PM ET today.An estimated 6 inches of rain soaked the festival Friday, according to The Associated Press, citing the National Weather Service in Reno, and another quarter of a foot of rain could fall this evening into Sunday.The Bureau of Land Management released a statement on Saturday saying festival officials and the Pershing County Sheriff's Office have closed ingress to the... Continue reading...
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by Wes Davis on (#6EDFS)
The 2025 Mini Cooper EV's interior. | Image: Mini The 2025 Mini Cooper EV reveal is showing off a facelift, increased range, and a giant, round OLED screen floating in front of the dashboard. The company says the Cooper E and Cooper SE - the two EV variants - have 190 miles and 250 miles of range, respectively, as calculated using the European EV test cycle. (Those numbers could drop to around 175 miles and 215 miles each when the EPA test cycle is applied, per Ars Technica.)But about that big OLED touchscreen that now floats in front of the center of the dashboard instead of the embedded rectangle in past models. The company teased the Cooper's redesigned interior earlier this year with videos showing the screen's animations and followed that up with another release with more detail... Continue reading...
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by Wes Davis on (#6EDCS)
Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Microsoft has released a new feature for its PowerToys utility suite called Crop and Lock, which lets you crop an app window to show only the details you want to see. The company brought PowerToys back from the dead in 2019 and open-sourced it on GitHub; other tools for the suite include toggles for small-yet-useful features like plaintext pasting or the ability to keep an app always on top.Crop and Lock, available for both Windows 11 and Windows 10 v2004 (19041) or newer, has two modes - a non-interactive Thumbnail crop that's essentially a live feed of the area you select that updates with the page, and a Reparent" mode that Microsoft writes is more interactive, but could have compatibility issues with some apps.Assuming you have... Continue reading...
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by Wes Davis on (#6EDAX)
Mophie's new magnetic stands and mounts. | Image: Mophie Mophie just announced at IFA that it's releasing three Qi2-compatible, 15W wireless smartphone chargers - the Snap Plus Powerstation Mini Stand ($69.95), the Snap Plus 3-in-1 stand ($129.95), and the Snap Plus wireless charging vent mount ($69.95) - starting later this year.Mophie doesn't mention the iPhone specifically, but it's rumored Apple will enable support for 15W, non-MagSafe wireless charging with the iPhone 15, as the second generation of Qi includes Apple's input and a similar magnet layout. We've asked Mophie and will update here if we receive a response.The Snap Plus Powerstation Mini Stand is a 5,000mAh portable battery with an aluminum kickstand and a USB-C port on the side. The company says it can do true 15W"... Continue reading...
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by Emilia David on (#6ECV0)
The concern that 5G signals could cause massive flight delays appears to finally be over now that Delta has upgraded its airplanes to avoid interference.Reuters reported the airline has finished updating the radio altimeters in its currently in-service fleet. Other aircraft out for planned maintenance will also be outfitted with the new altimeters. Delta told the Associated Press the update means no Delta aircraft will be subject to additional weather-driven constraints."The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) had said certain 5G signals could impact the altimeters pilots use to measure how far they are from the ground during low visibility situations. Although altimeters and 5G cell towers don't really share the same spectrum, the... Continue reading...
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by Emilia David on (#6ECS1)
Nest's wired indoor camera. | Photo by Jennifer Pattison Tuohy Google is increasing the price of its Nest Aware and Nest Aware Plus subscriptions, which are required to get more than a few hours of footage history from Nest security cameras.Nest Aware prices have increased to $8 a month or $80 per year, up from $6/month or $60/year, as first reported by 9to5Google. This is the first price hike for the video recording plan since 2020. Users still get 30 days of event video history, which records when the camera detects something.Nest Aware Plus, the higher tier subscription, now costs $15/month or $150/year, up from $12/month or $120/year. Users still get the same 60 days of event history and 10 days of 24/7 video history.9to5Google said the price hike is effective beginning September 1st for new... Continue reading...
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by Emilia David on (#6ECS2)
Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Gizmodo owner G/O Media shut down and laid off editors of its Spanish-language site Gizmodo en Espanol and is now using AI to translate articles.Matias S. Zavia, a writer at Gizmodo en Espanol, posted that the publication was shut down on August 29th and that it would now publish automatically translated articles. Gizmodo en Espanol previously had a small staff who wrote original stories and created Spanish-language adaptations of pieces from the English-language Gizmodo.
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by Jon Porter on (#6ECMR)
Urbanista's Malibu. After releasing two solar-powered pairs of headphones, you would have thought that it'd be simple for Urbanista to apply the same technology to a Bluetooth speaker. But with the Malibu, which is being shown off at IFA in Berlin ahead of its release later this month, Urbanista says it had a whole new set of challenges to overcome.That's because the company's approach to its solar powered products hasn't just been to put some solar-absorbing material on an existing device and call it a day. Instead, Urbanista product director Marten Sahlen and the company's brand and marketing director Tuomas Lonka tell me the company spends a lot of time making the products more power efficient in the first place, so they can get the maximum benefit from... Continue reading...
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by Emilia David on (#6ECMS)
Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Meta could let users pay for Facebook and Instagram to avoid ads in their feeds, at least in Europe.The New York Times reports that Meta is considering a paid subscription to its social media products, an attempt by Meta to quell concerns by the EU around data privacy and ads. No information is available on price or a release date, and it's not confirmed whether the product will actually be released.Meta did not respond to a request for comment.The company has been fighting with the EU and other European regulators around alleged privacy violations from its ad-tracking services and data transfers. Ireland's Data Protection Commission fined Meta $1.3 billion for transferring data of European users to the US, a violation of GDPR. The US... Continue reading...
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by Emma Roth on (#6ECHB)
Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times via Getty Images After her Eras tour shattered ticket sales records last year, now Taylor Swift is coming for the box office. The upcoming Taylor Swift | The Eras Tour concert film set a single-day sales record for AMC in just three hours after the ticket presale went live, raking in a total of $26 million in sales in one day, the theater chain announced.That beats the previous single-day sales record held by Spider-Man: No Way Home at $16.9 million. Aside from AMC, Fandango says that the three-hour film now sits on the site's list of the biggest first-day ticket sellers throughout its 23-year history, alongside box office giants like Avengers: Endgame and Star Wars: The Force Awakens.
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