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Tonal’s equipment sells for roughly $3,000 but also requires a $49 monthly membership. | Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge While hardware is a big part of connected fitness, so are the classes. The highly produced sessions led by engaging instructors can make — or break — a product, especially if there isn’t enough of a library to justify a device’s subscription. On that front, Tonal announced today that it’s opening a New York studio to expand its live class offerings and adding five new coaches to its lineup.Tonal is one of the major players in the connected fitness industry with a valuation of roughly $1.6 billion. Its $3,000 strength training system is backed by several professional athletes, including Maria Sharapova, Mike Tyson, and Drew Brees. But when The Verge initially reviewed the device in 2020, the classes were underwhelming. There was no live... Continue reading…

Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge Chinese augmented reality company Nreal is launching a Steam beta on its Nreal Light and Nreal Air AR glasses, letting users stream games from a PC to a virtual big screen. The company says its beta will go live at the end of June, coinciding loosely with a June 27th hackathon designed to attract AR developers with $100,000 in cash prizes. The move could expand Nreal’s software ecosystem and offer more to do in a pair of surprisingly good — but still limited — early AR glasses.Nreal suggests the Steam beta could be finicky, admitting in a press release that it “requires a bit of setup effort and is not optimized for all Steam games.” It will join the option to stream Xbox Cloud Gaming titles through Nreal’s Nebula platform as well as a... Continue reading…

Image: DJI Mostly known for its drones, Chinese company DJI has been expanding its reach with offerings for filmmakers in recent years. Last year the company introduced its first new cinema camera, the Ronin 4D. Today, it is announcing and releasing two new gimbals and a DJI Transmission wireless system, all of which are borrowing a few neat tricks from the Ronin 4D.The RS 3 can be seen as a successor to the RSC 2 that DJI released in 2020. It is the smaller of the two newly released gimbals focused on getting you up and ready to record as quickly as possible. The new axis locking mechanism releases automatically once the gimbal is powered on, allowing you to get filming sooner. Along with new quick-release mounts, it should save you precious... Continue reading…

Illustration by Kristen Radtke / The Verge; Getty Images Other than running Tesla, SpaceX, and — perhaps at some point if the buyout is complete — Twitter, Elon Musk is staying busy with yet another appeal in his case against the SEC. His beef with the government agency is, as it has been for the last several years, over the 2018 settlement he agreed to after being charged with securities fraud over a tweet about taking Tesla private. In April, US District Judge Lewis Liman was not swayed by Eminem-related arguments from Elon’s lawyers and ruled to let the agreement stand as originally written.Now, Musk’s lawyer, Alex Spiro, has filed with the court to take his case to the US Court of Appeals in the hope of a different decision. The world’s richest man has argued that he was coerced into... Continue reading…

Alex Castro/The Verge It’s supposedly live in my city Continue reading…

Photo by Jeff Gritchen/Digital First Media/Orange County Register via Getty Images The federal government released two new reports highlighting — for the first time — crashes and fatalities involving autonomous vehicles (AV) and vehicles equipped with advanced driver-assist systems (ADAS). Tesla reported the most crashes involving driver-assist technology, while Alphabet’s Waymo disclosed the most incidents involving its autonomous vehicles.Car and tech companies insist these technologies save lives, but more people died in auto crashes last year than in the last three decades. More data is needed to accurately determine whether these new systems are making roads safer, or simply making driving more convenient.The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) issued a standing general order last year... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge A lot of people are watching short-form videos on YouTube after nearly two years of YouTube giving creators lucrative cash bonuses and expanding features to be increasingly like TikTok.1.5 billion monthly users who are logged in to an account are watching short-form videos on YouTube’s TikTok clone, the company announced today. That’s compared to around 2 billion logged-in users who visit the platform monthly as of April, according to TechCrunch.Launched in 2020, YouTube Shorts is the platform’s answer to TikTok’s ascent. Since then, Shorts have gradually made their way across the platform, including in recommendations, and the company has added additional features mimicking TikTok, like sampling. As of April, Shorts were racking up 30... Continue reading…

Image: Microsoft Internet Explorer is dead. Microsoft is retiring IE today after nearly 27 years. The aging web browser is being sunset in favor of Microsoft Edge, with support being officially withdrawn for IE 11 today. It’s the end of an internet era, after Microsoft initially moved away from the Internet Explorer branding with the release of Windows 10 in 2015.For consumers, not much changes. Usage of Internet Explorer has plummeted in recent years, with StatCounter showing IE has less than half a percent of overall browser market share. Microsoft has been trying to stop people from using Internet Explorer for years now, and the company previously labeled it a “compatibility solution” rather than a browser that businesses should actively be using. ... Continue reading…

Microsoft will start automatically redirecting Internet Explorer users to its Edge browser over the next few months. Internet Explorer is being retired today, and consumers or businesses still using the browser will start to see a prompt soon that will redirect them to Microsoft Edge instead.The prompt and redirect is the first step in fully removing Internet Explorer from existing PCs, and Microsoft plans to issue an update that will disable the aging browser in the future. “Eventually, Internet Explorer will be disabled permanently as part of a future Windows Update, at which point the Internet Explorer icons on their devices will be removed,” explains Sean Lyndersay, general manager of Microsoft Edge Enterprise. I... Continue reading…

They play over and over and over and over. | Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Instagram Stories have been misbehaving for some users on iOS, making it so that they have to re-view all of someone’s stories before they’re able to see new ones. The issue has affected several Verge staff members since Monday, and some Reddit users have reported the same thing is happening to them. ‘On Wednesday morning, Instagram released an update for the app in the iOS App Store that seems to have resolved the issue. If you’re having issues, make sure to check for the update and see if your app is on the latest version, which 239.1. The updates notes merely say “The latest version contains bug fixes and performance improvements,” but Verge staffers and others on social media say it has brought the repeating Stories problem to an... Continue reading…

Image: Voicemod Voicemod, a popular real-time voice changer, is starting to use artificial intelligence to transform your voice into Morgan Freeman and other characters. A new Voicemod AI Voices beta is launching today, offering up eight options to transform your voice into fantasy characters, pilots, astronauts, and the actor Morgan Freeman.Voicemod has been transforming voices for years thanks to classic sound design techniques, but these new voice effects combine AI, too. The “Morgan” voice, as Voicemod calls it, is particularly impressive, allowing you to pretend to be the famous movie star or simply a polished voice actor. The new pilot voice is also a lot of fun, with sound effects that really make it sound like you’re piloting an aircraft. ... Continue reading…

Lenovo’s new Chromebook Duet 3 doesn’t work with older USI styluses. | Image: Lenovo A new report has uncovered compatibility issues with version 2.0 of the Universal Stylus Initiative (USI) standard that means older USI 1.0 styluses won’t work with some newer USI 2.0 devices. ChromeUnboxed came across the problem while using Lenovo’s new Chromebook Duet 3, when it noticed that existing styluses weren’t working with the device.It seems the problem with the Chromebook Duet 3 is that its screen uses an in-cell design that combines elements of the display with a digitizer that handles stylus input. ChromeUnboxed reports that this is a more compact and cost-effective way to offer stylus input. But because support for the technology was only introduced with USI version 2.0, the Duet 3 doesn’t work with styluses made to work... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Europe’s second-highest court, the General Court, has sided with Qualcomm after it appealed a €997 million (around $1,045 million) fine from European Union regulators over payments made to Apple to use Qualcomm chips, Reuters reports. The EU issued the fine in 2018, and said payments Qualcomm had made to Apple between 2011 and 2016 to exclusively use its chips were illegal under EU antitrust rules.“This meant that no rival could effectively challenge Qualcomm in this market, no matter how good their products were,” said EU competition commissioner Margrethe Vestager in a statement accompanying the fine. Qualcomm was accused of shutting rival chipmaker Intel out of the market, by making it too expensive for Apple to switch suppliers.T... Continue reading…

Photo by Jemal Countess/Getty Images for TIME Tech billionaire Bill Gates has dismissed NFTs as “100 percent based on greater fool theory” — the financial concept that even overpriced assets can make money as long as you find a bigger idiot to sell them to.Speaking at an event on climate change hosted by TechCrunch, Gates said he preferred investing in assets with tangible outputs, like farms or factories, “or a company where they make products,” and that he held no position in cryptocurrencies or NFTs. “I’m not involved in that. I’m not long or short in any of those things,” said Gates, suggesting that he was also suspicious of assets designed to “avoid taxation or any sort of government rules.”“Obviously, expensive digital images of monkeys are going to improve the world... Continue reading…

The Keychron Q5 in gray. | Image: Keychron Keychron’s latest wired mechanical keyboard is the Q5. It uses a similar construction to the excellent Q1 and Q2 keyboards that have proceeded it, but with a larger layout that includes a numpad. It’s not a traditional full-size keyboard, but the idea with its 1800 layout (aka a 96-percent layout) is that it offers almost all of the keys a user might need while still being relatively compact.“There’s currently no stock full-metal custom 1800 layout mechanical keyboard on the market,” said Keychron COO Paul Tan. “1800 layout saves about an inch of space from a full-size keyboard, without having to remove many keys. It’s the smallest you can go, without getting rid of the number pad.” The Keychron Q5 is available as a fully-assembled... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Everyone makes mistakes, but if you mess up a fact or flub a line in a YouTube video it can be hard to correct the error. You can edit and re-upload the video, but that means losing all your comments and engagement metrics. You can add a note to the video’s description or pin a comment with the correction, but that might go unnoticed by most viewers.That’s why YouTube is introducing a new feature named “corrections” that lets creators easily add more obvious corrections. After a video has been uploaded, creators can add corrections that will appear as infocards in the top right-hand corner of a video at the relevant timestamp (but only, it seems, for the first correction in any given video). Viewers can then click on the card to expand... Continue reading…

The Nothing Phone 1. | Image: Nothing Nothing, the consumer tech startup led by OnePlus co-founder Carl Pei, has shown off the rear design of its debut Phone 1 smartphone. “Leaks are harder to contain nowadays and many of you have been waiting for a long time,” Pei wrote in a tweet. “So here it is.” The phone is due to be properly announced on July 12th at Nothing’s next event.The image confirms some of the design rumors that have been swirling around the phone. As Pei previously confirmed to The Verge in an interview, the phone has illuminating light strips on the rear of the phone, which appears to be made from transparent material. The arrangement of these light strips was teased by Nothing at a previous event. Interestingly, a logo can be seen on the center of the rear... Continue reading…

T-Mobile is getting creative. | Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge T-Mobile is certainly not afraid to tout its own 5G achievements, and true to form, it’s announcing another milestone today: by combining three channels of mid-band spectrum on its 5G network, the company achieved 3Gbps network speeds. This seems to be more than a stunt, too — T-Mobile says this technology will become available to customers on its network “later this year.”Those 3Gbps (or 3000Mbps) speeds are approaching mmWave territory — that’s the high-band, limited range kind of 5G that lets you download a movie in seconds. Mid-band 5G typically reaches around 200Mbps, and that’s considered very good compared to LTE — but T-Mobile is doing a little tinkering behind the scenes to boost those speeds significantly.this most recent... Continue reading…

You’ll be able to see the movie in August 2023. | Image: Sony Sony’s upcoming Gran Turismo film is apparently hitting theaters sooner than we might have expected — its scheduled for release on August 11th, 2023, according to a new report from Deadline. Neill Blomkamp is set to direct the movie, which is supposed to be based on a true story.Seriously. Here’s the official logline (aka short summary) of the movie, per Deadline: “Based on a true story, the film is the ultimate wish fulfillment tale of a teenage Gran Turismo player whose gaming skills won a series of Nissan competitions to become an actual professional race car driver.” That means the film likely pulls from the story of someone from the GT Academy, which let Gran Turismo pros compete to join a real-life racing team sponsored by Nissan... Continue reading…

Image: Universal Pictures Peacock is bringing Downton Abbey: A New Era to its streaming service on June 24th. The film, which was released on May 20th, will exclusively stream on the platform following its departure from theaters.New Era is the sequel to the 2019 Downton Abbey film (which Peacock currently owns the rights to stream as well) and the original series. It centers around the Crawleys and staff as part of the family embarks on a journey to a villa in France, while the others greet a movie crew that arrives at the estate. If you’re a fan of Singing in the Rain, you’ll probably have a good time.To celebrate the film’s arrival (and to help fans catch up before the film’s arrival), Peacock also added a 24/7 channel that will just air seasons 1 through 6... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Twitch is expanding its ad incentive program to include more creators and pay them more money. Earlier this year, Twitch began offering select streamers a flat, guaranteed payment in exchange for running a fixed amount of ads during a fixed number of hours. Now, Twitch is opening up the program to include more partners and is changing the way it structures payouts to pay creators more.Originally, payouts earned with the ad incentive program were calculated using a CPM model. Basically, streamers would get a flat rate for every 1,000 ads watched on their channel.“We found that a fixed CPM model wasn’t the most straightforward way to share revenue with creators,” said Mike Minton, vice president of monetization at Twitch, in an email to... Continue reading…

This is from Fallout 4, not Fallout 5. | Image: Bethesda Bethesda, which recently delayed Starfield into next year and hasn’t shown anything substantial about The Elder Scrolls 6 since announcing it in 2018, is already thinking about what comes after. In an interview with IGN, Bethesda’s Todd Howard said Bethesda Game Studios is planning on making Fallout 5... eventually.“Yes, Elder Scrolls 6 is in pre-production and, you know, we’re going to be doing Fallout 5 after that, so our slate’s pretty full going forward for a while,” Howard said. There’s no indication about when we can expect Fallout 5 to be released. Given how long we’ve been waiting for Starfield and the fact that we know basically nothing about The Elder Scrolls 6 — note that Howard said the game is still in pre-production... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge In a judgment on Tuesday, an appeals tribunal in the United Kingdom largely upheld a previous ruling ordering Meta (parent company to Facebook) to unwind its acquisition of Giphy, as first reported by the Financial Times. The judgment comes more than six months after the initial ruling by the UK’s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) and more than two years after Meta first announced its intention to acquire the company.The ruling was not a total defeat for Meta, however. While the appeals tribunal found in favor of the CMA in five of the six claims, the tribunal did rule that the CMA had failed to properly inform Meta of Snapchat’s acquisition of Gfycat for nearly a year after it became aware of the ruling, thus undermining the... Continue reading…

O-RAN appears to have arrived. | Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Today’s the day: Dish Network needs to offer 5G service to at least 20 percent of the US population or face some steep fines from the US government. And lo and behold, Dish appears to be lighting up its 5G service in the nick of time — but there’s an awful lot still up in the air.The company’s website for Project Genesis (that’s what it’s calling this whole endeavor) has been updated to state that it’s “live in 120 cities” with a link to “order now.” Until very recently, the website only listed the 120 initial cities that the service would cover outside of its first test market in Las Vegas, Nevada, and it looked uncertain that Dish would make its deadline.It’s still not entirely clear that Dish has met the requirements. Dish has yet... Continue reading…

You’ve got to hand it to Lime — they really lean into the whole fruit thing. Case in point: the shared scooter company is trialing a new electric motorbike in Long Beach, California, called, wait for it, the Citra.It’s the latest lightweight electric vehicle to join the company’s fleet, which has been diversifying beyond the electric kick scooters that have defined Lime for the last five years. The Citra motorbike, which has a large padded seat and can reach a top speed of 20mph, is designed and built in-house by Lime’s existing manufacturing partners. And the company is hoping that, with soaring gas prices, customers will flock to a new vehicle that can help replace some of their car trips. The news comes after Lime q... Continue reading…

Nike’s Adapt technology is specifically cited in the lawsuit. | Photo by Felicia Shivakumar / The Verge Although Adidas and Nike have been in and out of court several times over the years, Adidas has taken it to a new level. On Friday, the company filed its first federal lawsuit against Nike, alleging that its rival infringed on nine of its patents relating to smartphone apps and adjustable shoe tech.Initially reported by Reuters and Complex, the lawsuit pertains to a number of Nike’s digital products. Adidas claims that the Nike Run Club, Training Club, and SNKRS apps infringe its patents related to features like audio feedback during workouts, GPS tracking, training plans, integration with third-party accessories like heart rate monitors, and the ability to reserve and buy limited-edition sneakers. These are basic features on several... Continue reading…

Largest floating solar power plant in the Southeast at Fort Bragg, North Carolina. | Image: Ameresco Floating solar had a moment in the spotlight over the weekend when the US Army unveiled a new solar plant sitting atop the Big Muddy Lake at Fort Bragg in North Carolina. It’s the first floating solar array deployed by the Department of Defense, and it’s part of a growing current of support in the US for “floatovoltaics.”The army says its goal is to boost clean energy, reduce greenhouse gas emissions, and give the nearby training facility a source of backup energy during power outages. The panels will be able to generate about one megawatt of electricity, which can typically power about 190 homes.The installation, the largest in the US Southeast, is a big win for floatovoltaics, which have yet to make a big splash in the US. They only... Continue reading…

The long-awaited game launches in early access in October. | Image: Blizzard It’s launching soon after years of development Continue reading…

iPadOS enthusiasts could have a choice to make. | Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge The rumors swirling around a 14.1-inch iPad have shifted. Last week, supply chain analyst Ross Young predicted that the potential device would be branded as an iPad Pro and would be equipped with the Mini LED / ProMotion display, like the one found on the current 12.9-inch iPad Pro. Now, however, Young predicts that the 14.1-inch tablet won’t have Mini LED or a 120Hz adaptive refresh rate display, according to a report from MacRumors.On the opposite end of the spectrum, there are also rumors that the entry-level iPad, which currently sells for $329 and features a 10.2-inch screen, will get a big upgrade with modern connectivity and specs. Image: Apple iPad users will soon be wanting for more screen space to go... Continue reading…

Lee Jung-jae as Seong Gi-hun. | Netflix Netflix’s Squid Game, a series about people risking their lives and sometimes killing one another on television in order to pay off their crippling debts, is becoming an actual game show.Though Netflix only just announced that Squid Game will return for a second season, today the streamer shared its plans to expand the Battle Royale-esque franchise with a real-world game show inspired by the fictional competition at the center of the original series. Like Squid Game, Squid Game: The Challenge (not to be confused with MTV’s The Challenge) will pit 456 players from across the globe against one another as they fight for a $4.56 million prize that only one participant can ultimately claim.Though Netflix has released a promotional video... Continue reading…

Photo Illustration by Grayson Blackmon / The Verge Switches, bulbs, plugs, remotes, bridges, and hubs — smart lighting can be complicated. We’ll help you get it sorted Continue reading…

Overwatch 2. | Image: Blizzard Blizzard is hosting another Overwatch 2 beta later this month ahead of the game’s newly announced October early access release date. The new beta begins June 28th, and it will be available on Xbox, PlayStation, and PC.You’ll be able to sign up for the beta beginning June 16th, and that same day, Blizzard plans to share more details about what you can expect in it. The company has already teased two tidbits: you’ll be able to play as the new hero Junker Queen, and there will be a new map to try out. An earlier closed beta kicked off in April, but it was limited to PCs.

The Smartphone for Snapdragon Insiders. | Image: Qualcomm Qualcomm, the company that produces Snapdragon processors, wanted to go big for the launch of its first smartphone, slapping a $1,500 price tag on an Asus-designed device that supposedly caters to the geekiest of Snapdragon fans. But, almost a year after its release, the dream phone for superfans is still running Android 11 and hasn’t received a security patch past January’s update, as first reported by XDA Developers (via Android Police).In a Reddit thread pointed out by XDA, users question whether the device, dubbed the Smartphone for Snapdragon Insiders, has been abandoned by Qualcomm. The last software update for the device occurred in March (18.1055.2201.203), and while it mentions “updated Android security patch,” it reportedly... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge For decades, lawmakers have pushed for a comprehensive federal law protecting user data — but it has never survived the chaos of a deeply divided Congress. But on Tuesday, the Energy and Commerce Committee held its first hearing to discuss a new proposal lawmakers believe could actually cross the finish line.Called the American Data Privacy and Protection Act, the proposal marks a major step forward in congressional data privacy negotiations. For years now, any measure that would set a national standard for user data protections has fallen short of final approval due to partisan disagreements. From Republicans withholding their support for bills allowing states — like California — to roll out their own rules to Democrats demanding a... Continue reading…

Image: Microsoft Microsoft has started working on bringing casual games to its Microsoft Teams service. Sources familiar with Microsoft’s plans tell The Verge that the software maker has started testing games like Solitaire, Connect 4, and Wordament inside Microsoft Teams. The casual games are designed to allow colleagues to play against each other during meetings.While you won’t be playing Halo or Forza inside Teams anytime soon, Microsoft is clearly looking at games as another way to improve the meetings experience as businesses continue to balance the needs of hybrid and remote work.Microsoft has a bigger vision for games inside TeamsMicrosoft is only testing casual games internally from its Casual Games offering right now, and the company could... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge OpenSea is announcing that users buying and selling non-fungible tokens (NFTs) on its platform could see fees drop by around 35 percent. This is thanks to the fact that the company is upgrading the protocol that underpins its marketplace, migrating to a platform called Seaport to handle its transactions. Offering lower gas fees may be a way for OpenSea to differentiate itself from the other NFT marketplaces that are competing with it (though not always successfully). The change does, however, come at a rough time in the crypto market overall.Seaport is an open-source project OpenSea announced last month, and the company says it’s significantly more efficient than its old system when it comes to dealing with the blockchain. (The Seaport... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Meta is adding parental controls to all Quest virtual reality headsets, letting guardians check underage users’ screen time and receive alerts or approval requests for purchases. The news comes alongside an expansion of parental control options on Instagram as well as new safety features in its Horizon Worlds VR social platform, which is expanding to the UK this week.As outlined in a blog post and first introduced in March, Meta’s new options are similar to those found on phones. Using them requires linking a teen’s Facebook account — which is required to use the headset — with that of a parent or guardian. (Children under 13 aren’t supposed to use the Quest, and people under 18 can’t access Horizon Worlds, so these features are meant... Continue reading…

Apple will offer streams of every Major League Soccer (MLS) match from early 2023 through 2032 in the Apple TV app, the two organizations announced in a major deal revealed Tuesday. While some games may still air on linear TV networks like ESPN and Fox, this gives Apple the global exclusive on an NFL Sunday Ticket-style offering for the league.To watch the matches, fans will be able to subscribe to a new, currently unnamed MLS streaming service that will be available “exclusively through the Apple TV app,” according to Apple’s press release. A “broad selection” of MLS and Leagues Cup matches will be available to Apple TV Plus subscribers, “with a limited number of matches available for free.” If you’re a full-season ticket holder,... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge After Instagram announced a new initiative meant to “nudge” teen users away from harmful content last year, the platform says it’s finally rolling out the feature in the US, UK, Ireland, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand. If a teen’s spending too long on Instagram’s Explore page looking at posts with a particular theme, the platform will display a notification suggesting that they look at other types of posts instead.Instagram says the feature “is designed to encourage teens to discover something new and excludes certain topics that may be associated with appearance comparison.” As shown in an image of the feature, users will receive a notification that prompts them to “Choose what to explore next” with a variety of posts they can... Continue reading…

Chevrolet is the latest automaker to jump on the non-fungible token bandwagon, but it’s taking a slightly different approach. Chevy announced plans to auction off a Corvette-themed NFT, but the winner bidder won’t just get recorded on the blockchain, they’ll also get the actual sports car inspired by the artwork.The NFT, which depicts a lime green Corvette Z06 blasting through a cyberpunk landscape, was created by artist Nick Sullo, who goes by xsullo online. The upcoming auction pairs Sullo’s NFT with a custom-painted 2023 Corvette Z06 color-matched to the art.In case you need a refresher, the new Z06 is Chevy’s shot-across-the-bow for all the other supercar manufacturers out there with Italian names. Its the first ‘Vette to feature... Continue reading…

13-inch M2 MacBook Pro. | Image: Apple During its WWDC 2022 event last week, Apple revealed its M2 chip and the redesigned MacBook Air, which got most of the attention, though it won’t be the first laptop with the new CPU that you can buy. Apple will also offer the M2 inside the familiar frame of its still Touch Bar-equipped 13-inch Macbook Pro, which will be available for preorders starting this Friday, June 17th, before the new MacBook Air goes on sale in July.We have a comparison chart ready so that you can reference this laptop’s capabilities versus the new Air as well as the 14- and 16-inch MacBook Pro laptops that were updated last year to offer M1 Max and M1 Ultra CPU options. Apple suggests active cooling, which the Air doesn’t have, as a reason to choose this model... Continue reading…

Photo by Sean O’Kane / The Verge Ford issued a recall for over 48,000 Mustang Mach-E electric crossover over concerns that a safety defect may render the vehicle immobile, the automaker said in a notice. The issue was first reported by CNBC.According to the recall, the malfunction involves a potential overheating of the vehicle’s battery high-voltage contactors, which can lead the vehicle to fail to start or lose power while in motion. “An overheated contactor that opens while driving can result in a loss of motive power, which can increase the risk of an accident,” the notice reads.Ford says 48,924 Mustang Mach-E vehicles sold in the US are affected by the problem — nearly half of the estimated 100,000 vehicles produced during that time. It’s the latest hiccup to... Continue reading…

Sonos’ assistant only takes music requests, and that actually works out in its favor Continue reading…

The 8BitDo Lite SE has an anti-slip backing, and all its buttons are on the front for easier access. | 8BitDo 8BitDo is launching a Bluetooth controller for gamers with limited mobility, developed in coordination with a dad and his young son who has spinal muscular atrophy type 2. The Lite SE works with Nintendo Switch and Android and is available for preorder at 8BitDo for $34.99, with a ship date of July 15th.The Lite SE — which looks a lot like the Lite controller 8BitDo launched in 2019 — is designed to be used either handheld or flat on a table. The trigger and bumper buttons are gone, replaced with L1, L2, R1, and R2 buttons on the front of the controller. L3 and R3 have their own buttons rather than relying on an analog stick click, and all of the inputs are more sensitive and easier to press. There’s an anti-slip mat built into the... Continue reading…

Photo Illustration by Grayson Blackmon / The Verge Her new book on the long history of fangirls, from the Beatles to One Direction Continue reading…

I hope everyone had a glorious weekend and a survivable Monday, despite looming economic catastrophe. I am trying not to think too hard about it, so good thing I had a newsletter to write!Today, Spotify gets some advice on content moderation, TED launches a new subscription service, and Acast enables its podcasters to sell NFTs.As Spotify grows its stable of creators, it taps experts to consult on content moderationIf there was one big takeaway from Spotify’s presentation for investors last week, it was that Spotify is going all-in on creator content. The “Spotify machine,” as CEO Daniel Ek deemed his company, will move into new verticals and bring millions of new creators onto the platform. That kind of scale may be good for the... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge WhatsApp is adding the ability to transfer your conversation history from Android to iPhone after previously only allowing users to transfer chats the other way (from iPhone to Android). The functionality was announced by Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg in a Facebook post. Early signs of the feature, which is rolling out in beta for now, were previously spotted by WABetaInfo.The update helps with a long-standing WhatsApp issue, which is that it’s historically been difficult to transfer chats between the two mobile operating systems. It’s easy to transfer chats from one iOS device to another or from one Android device to another but generally not between the two different operating systems.The transfer process only works on new or... Continue reading…

When Arianna Huhn experienced complications with her first pregnancy, she signed up for a clinical trial, one that required her to submit family DNA samples for research. Her parents, Gail and George Fogelman, agreed. But shortly after, they asked her to jump on a call with them, alone, without her husband.On the phone, Huhn noticed that her dad was choked up and unable to speak. Her mother took the lead. “There’s something that we have been hiding from you,” she said. “Your dad is not your genetic father.”In the late ‘70s, Huhn’s parents had experienced issues when they were trying to conceive. So they opted for artificial insemination, as suggested by their gynecologist and fertility doctor. Dr. Benjamin Fiorica told them that... Continue reading…

If you’re just getting Disney Plus access, Ms. Marvel is a good place to start. | Image: Marvel Studios Disney Plus is continuing its global expansion this week. Variety reports the service is now online in Greece, Turkey, Poland, and a number of other central European countries as part of a broader rollout over the last two weeks including 42 new countries and 11 territories across Europe, Africa, and West Asia. You can see the full list and local pricing here.For viewers in those countries, it means a slew of Marvel, Star Wars, Pixar, and Disney content is coming your way. (Our recommendation? Get into Ms. Marvel as soon as you can... and maybe wait on Moon Knight.) For Disney, it’s another key way to grow its streaming service. Disney Plus has about 87.6 million subscribers — plus another 50.1 million who subscribe to Disney Plus... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge The Firefox browser, already known for its privacy protections, is about to become even more private thanks to a new cookie-restricting feature announced by Mozilla on Tuesday.The design change, labeled “Total Cookie Protection,” aims to give enhanced protection against online tracking by limiting the ability of websites to read cookies created by third-party services. According to a blog post from Mozilla, access to any given cookie will be restricted to the website that deposited the cookie in a user’s browser, so a cookie created by one website or service will not be readable by other websites that a user visits.Mozilla’s blog post describes the new feature in terms of a separate “cookie jar” for each website, preventing trackers... Continue reading…