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Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Snapchat will soon start experimenting" with placing sponsored messages next to chat threads from friends, according to CEO Evan Spiegel.These Sponsored Snaps" from brands will appear as unread messages in Snapchat's main Chat tab, implying that they'll sit above messages from a person's contacts until they're acted on. This is the first time Snap will show ads in the most used part of its app.In an employee memo also posted on the company's website, Spiegel says that Sponsored Snaps will appear without a push notification, and opening the message is optional." It's unclear how easy it will be to get rid of a Sponsored Snap without opening it, or if doing so will even be possible. (Snap declined to comment beyond Spiegel's memo.)... Continue reading...

Image: Instagram Instagram is adding the ability to leave comments on Instagram Stories, the ephemeral posts that many people use even more than traditional posts these days.Previously, replying to an Instagram Story sent a private message visible only to the person who posted the content. The addition of comments adds a more public way to respond to Stories. The ability to comment in the first place is more limited, though: only people who follow the poster and who the poster follows back will be able to leave a comment. Instagram explains how most of it works in this video.Just like Stories, the comments are temporary and will last for up to 24 hours; Instagram spokesperson Emily Norfolk says users will have the option to turn comments on or off... Continue reading...

Photo by Antonio G. Di Benedetto / The Verge Microsoft has started testing a new gamepad keyboard layout in Windows 11 that's designed for Xbox controllers. The gamepad keyboard layout improves the on-screen keyboard in Windows 11, so you can use an Xbox controller to type or navigate around the OS.The gamepad keyboard is now in testing as part of the beta channel for Windows 11 and even includes button accelerators so you can use the X button for backspace, the Y button for spacebar, and the menu button on an Xbox controller to hit enter. The keyboard keys have also been vertically aligned, so it's easier to type with a controller. Image: Microsoft Microsoft's new gamepad keyboard for Windows 11. It's encouraging to see Microsoft add a feature like... Continue reading...

Image: The Verge In a reversal, Starlink says it's complying with the order" to block access to X in Brazil. The company previously refused to restrict X unless Brazil unfroze its financial assets.Starlink, the satellite internet company controlled by Elon Musk, has been caught in the crosshairs of an ongoing feud between the billionaire, who also owns X, and Brazilian Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes.In addition to imposing a ban on X over the spread of misinformation, the Brazilian justice also handed down an order that prevents Starlink from performing financial transactions. The move was supposed to coerce X into paying $3 million in fines for failing to block accounts flagged by the Brazilian government, as reported by The New York Times.... Continue reading...

Cath Virginia / The Verge An antitrust investigation by the Department of Justice focusing on Nvidia's AI dominance as the hardware company of choice is escalating, reports Bloomberg. The outlet reports that Nvidia and other companies have received legally binding requests for information as its sources say regulators are investigating whether Nvidia is making it harder to switch to other suppliers and penalizes buyers that don't exclusively use its artificial intelligence chips."Earlier this summer, Nvidia had overtaken Microsoft as the world's most valuable company, but now it trails both Microsoft and Apple. Before the subpoenas were reported on Tuesday afternoon, its share price dropped more than 9 percent, wiping out about $279 billion in market value in... Continue reading...

Photo by Allison Johnson / The Verge Last month, it was discovered that an inactive piece of software that ships on all Google Pixel smartphones presented a potential security vulnerability for device owners. The company quickly said it would remove Showcase.apk," which was created years ago for Verizon in-store demo devices and is no longer being used." But on the off chance it were ever exploited, cybersecurity firm iVerify found that the software could make phones accessible to hackers and ripe for man-in-the-middle attacks, code injection, and spyware." The flare-up was enough for Palantir to implement a companywide ban on Android devices.At the time, Google told us that it had seen no evidence of any active exploitation," and with today's release of the monthly... Continue reading...

Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow. | Image: Konami For anyone looking to explore the best Castlevania has to offer, the just-launched Castlevania Dominus Collection is pretty much a no-brainer. It includes a trilogy of games from the Nintendo DS era that show designer Koji Igarashi arguably at the height of his powers: the experiences combine smooth, satisfying action with worlds that are intricate labyrinths to be mastered slowly over time. Bringing that experience to modern platforms alone makes the collection worth it. But the Dominus Collection also goes a step further and includes some smart options for porting over a dual-screen game. Then, it throws in an unexpectedly excellent remaster just for fun.Part of what made Castlevania such a good fit for the DS was how much information... Continue reading...

The Google Pixel 9. | Photo: Allison Johnson / The Verge Android 15 has officially arrived - for developers, at least. Google's next-gen operating system is available in the Android Open Source Project, with support for Pixel phones due to roll out in the coming weeks. You'll have to wait a little longer if you have a compatible device from Samsung, Motorola, OnePlus, Nothing, or other brands, while Google describes the window for Android 15 coming to those phones as within the coming months."While Apple typically rolls out major changes tied directly to each new version of iOS, Google's Android updates often focus on tweaking the underlying ways apps and devices interact with each other. Down the line, devices with Android 15 will support single-tap passkeys, theft detection, improved m... Continue reading...

The first Pixel Fold (left) and the Pixel 9 Pro Fold (right). The highest compliment I can pay the Pixel 9 Pro F - oh forget it, let's just call it the Pixel Fold - is that I forgot I was using a folding phone while I was using it.Sounds like a weird compliment, right? Isn't the whole point of the thing that it opens up so you can use the big inner screen? Well, kind of. The whole promise of the foldable phone is that it's basically a small tablet when you need more screen real estate and a regular phone when you fold it back up. Every foldable I've used delivered on the first part of that promise. Big screen? We did it, Joe. It's the small-screen experience that hasn't been great.I was using the phone's outer screen before bed, drowsily answering the minimum amount of Duolingo questions... Continue reading...

Illustration by Cath Virginia / The Verge | Photos from Getty Images California lawmakers push to regulate artificial intelligence. Continue reading...

You can still get a free smart color bulb when you buy the Echo Show 8 on sale for $104.99. | Photo by Jennifer Pattison Tuohy / The Verge It's always sad when a three-day weekend ends, especially when it also marks the unofficial end of summer. On the bright side, many Labor Day deals are lingering, which means you still have an opportunity to save on a slew of goods before the holiday shopping season kicks off in earnest.Although a few Labor Day deals have since disappeared, we're still seeing steep discounts on a range of tech, some of which rival the Prime Day deals we saw in July. Right now, for instance, Apple's 9th-gen iPad is on sale for less than $200. Other Verge-approved items have also fallen to an all-time low (or close to it), including the Sonos Roam 2, Amazon's latest Echo Spot and the entry-level Kindle.Granted, we've seen many of these products go for... Continue reading...

A graphical representation of Intel's Lunar Lake chip. | Image: Intel Do good things come to laptop buyers who wait? Today, Intel is revealing its first nine answers to Qualcomm's Snapdragon X Elite and AMD's Strix Point laptop chips - and the company claims the new Core Ultra 200V lineup, formerly known as Lunar Lake, can meet or beat them in almost every way.When the first wave of laptops ship on September 24th, they'll have the fastest CPU core," the world's best built-in GPU," and the best AI performance," according to Intel. Where Qualcomm versus AMD was a question of battery life versus graphical performance, Intel claims its new chips do it all.For example, Dell is just now announcing a new version of its flagship $1,400 XPS 13 laptop with Lunar Lake that's basically identical to the current... Continue reading...

The IFA tech show in Berlin, Germany is one of the biggest home appliance shows in the world. It's also a showcase for smartphones, computers, gaming, audio, home entertainment, and smart home. | Image: IFA I'm a sucker for the smart kitchen. Build me a kitchen that can tell me what to cook, when to cook, how to cook it, and do the boring bits for me, then clean it all up afterward, and I'll be a happy tech reviewer. For years, this has seemed totally out of reach. Appliance makers have stuck Wi-Fi chips in everything but have barely done anything to make those appliances smart. Unless all your appliances are from the same brand, nothing works together in the smart kitchen - the one place where interoperability really matters.At the IFA tech show in Berlin, Germany, this week, the biggest names in home appliances will be showing off their latest gadgets and hopefully presenting solutions to some of these problems. I'll be there to hear... Continue reading...

Volvo FH Electric commercial truck. | Image: Volvo Volvo's commercial trucking division is launching a next-generation long-range version of its flagship electric semitruck, due out in the second half of 2025, with twice the battery range of the previous one.The new FH Electric truck can travel 600km, or about 373 miles, on a single charge. The current model goes 300km, or about 186 miles, in comparison, which Volvo representative Helena Lind tells The Verge will stay in the lineup.The extra range is thanks to Volvo's new e-axle driveline tech design where the electric motors and transmission is integrated in the rear axle, [which gives] room for more batteries," Lind says.Volvo will announce the final battery capacity closer to launch, but the FH will have eight batteries compared... Continue reading...

The Bang & Olufsen Beoplay H100 are available in three different colorways, including sunset apricot. | Image: Bang & Olufsen Bang & Olufsen has announced its new $1,549 Beoplay H100 headphones, which are debuting with an even steeper price tag than its H95, which were introduced four years ago and which now cost $999. The company is justifying that pricing with a focus on premium materials, improved noise-cancellation, and better repairability that will potentially extend the lifespan of the headphones.The use of materials like lambskin leather on the H100's ear pad cushions and scratch-resistant glass protecting the headphone's touchpad controls isn't new for Bang & Olufsen. But the ear pad and headband cushions can now be easily detached and replaced when they get worn or dirty, and the company says the H100 feature a revamped design, making it easier for... Continue reading...

The Outdoor Backpack is available in 45L and 25L models. | Image: Peak Design / Composite The Verge San Francisco-based Peak Design - maker of one of our all-time favorite backpacks - is back with its first new bag lineup in five years. PD says its new Outdoor line of backpacks and slings can be worn together for use beyond the pavement. They feature the company's most advanced soft-goods design to date," with lots of adjustment points for a variety of body types and loads. The new bags are compatible with the company's modular packing cubes that make it easy to organize and quickly access camera equipment, clothing, and other gear.Peak Design has been synonymous with outdoor photography' yet we still haven't created true outdoor bags...until now," says Peak Design founder and CEO Peter Dering in a press release. The Outdoor Line... Continue reading...

From left to right: the River 3, the Rapid power bank, the Delta 3, and the Power Kit v2. | Image: EcoFlow EcoFlow just launched four new battery products designed to power everything from your home appliances in the event of a blackout to your Qi2-compatible phone to RVs.Going from most powerful to least, there's the second-generation Power Kit to power your off-grid vanlife fantasies, the midrange Delta 3 and compact River 3 solar generators, and the Rapid Qi2 wireless power banks for phones that can also charge your laptop in a pinch. Image: EcoFlow All the new EcoFlow products. The Power Kit v2 is a follow-up to its original all-in-one power management system I reviewed 18 months ago. The kits are designed to power everything from an off-grid cabin to a small campervan, without the complexity of having to... Continue reading...

Existing subscribers Canva teams subscribers are being moved to a new, more expensive pricing model. | The Verge The price of some Canva subscriptions are set to skyrocket next year following the company's aggressive rollout of generative AI features. Global customers for Canva Teams - a business-orientated subscription that supports adding multiple users - can expect prices to increase by just over 300 percent in some instances. Canva says the increase is justified due to the expanded product experience" and value that generative AI tools have added to the platform.In the US, some Canva Teams users are reporting subscription increases from $120 per year for up to five users, to an eye-watering $500 per year. A 40 percent discount will be applied to bring that down to $300 for the first 12 months. In Australia, Information Age reports that the... Continue reading...

Volvo promised some pretty amazing tech in its EX90 flagship EV, but a lot of it is still to come. | Image: James Lipman / Volvo Volvo's new flagship EV has plenty of luxury bells and whistles, but some of its technology is still TBA. Continue reading...

Image: The Verge A panel of five Brazilian Supreme Court justices voted on Monday to uphold a decision (PDF) requiring the National Telecommunications Agency (Anatel) to limit access to X, the service formerly known as Twitter. Justice Alexandre de Moraes issued the ban on Friday in response to X owner Elon Musk's refusal to comply with court orders to block certain accounts and to identify a legal representative in the country. Four other justices have now backed the decision.Poder360 and O Globo report that three justices, Cristiano Zanin, Flavio Dino, and Carmen Lucia, fully supported de Moraes' ruling, while a fourth, Luiz Fux, noted reservations about a fine for people who circumvent the ban with a VPN, saying only people who post criminal messages... Continue reading...

Image: Alex Castro / The Verge Jacob Wohl and Jack Burkman are far-right activists, convicted felons, and engineers of questionable political stunts. Politico reports that they are now also running LobbyMatic, a company that sells an AI automation platform for lobbyists."LobbyMatic claims on its website that its AI-powered software can do everything - like automatically monitor congressional hearings or supercharge research" into legislative and regulatory issues.Jumping on the AI hypewagon is a perfectly respectable career move. The problem is that sources have told Politico that Wohl and Burkman are running the firm under the pseudonyms Jay Klein and Bill Sanders.LobbyMatic has no leadership listed on its official website. A company by the name of... Continue reading...

The tour marks the first reunion for Oasis since Liam (left) and Noel Gallagher split the band in 2009. | Photo by Gie Knaeps/Getty Images The British government has pledged to investigate the use of dynamic pricing by ticketing websites after Oasis fans got priced out of the band's surprise reunion tour. The UK's advertising regulator told BBC News it had received 450 complaints regarding misleading ticket prices and availability, with many tickets more than doubling in price. Sales began on Saturday and sold out within hours after thousands of hopeful buyers spent the day in online queues.On Ticketmaster, the cost of some tickets increased from 135 (about $177 USD) when sales began, to over 350 (about $460 USD). UK Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy told ITV News that the government will include issues around the transparency and use of dynamic pricing, including the... Continue reading...

Image: Samar Haddad for The Verge I'd been promised the future of tennis was in the desert.From the stands of the Next Gen ATP Finals in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, I watched as the eighth seed, Abdullah Shelbayh, was given the most dramatic of entrances. Inside one of the stadiums in King Abdullah Sports City, which features a sprawl of soccer fields and indoor arenas across nearly 4 million square meters, an announcer summoned a brief list of the player's accomplishments, first in Arabic and then in English. The music swelled. Bright white lasers illuminated the lines of the court before the screen at the other end of the stadium opened up to reveal a player tunnel, from which Shelbayh emerged, looking awkward and confused as spotlights swirled around him and the volume of... Continue reading...

The Pixel 9 is the Android flagship for anyone who just wants a dang phone. Continue reading...

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge After a brutal 2023, the vibes around self-driving cars are improving. Cruise, the industry leader whose vehicle was involved in a horrific San Francisco crash last fall, has rebooted under new management, while rival Waymo is expanding to serve broader swaths of the Bay Area and Los Angeles and Tesla is promising a new robotaxi service.Although Americans say they remain wary of autonomous driving, boosters insist there is nothing to fear. In fact, they foresee roads full of self-driving cars that are both safer and cleaner than the status quo, a tantalizing prospect in a country where transportation is the largest source of greenhouse gas emissions and residents are several times more likely to die in a crash than those living in other... Continue reading...

Image: Microsoft Lenovo appears ready to launch new more affordable Copilot Plus PCs. Reliable leaker Evan Blass has published a press release from Lenovo that details a variety of Copilot Plus PCs that will be announced at the IFA trade show later this week, including two that are powered by an unannounced 8-core Qualcomm Snapdragon X Plus chip.The new Qualcomm-powered Copilot Plus PCs from Lenovo include the IdeaPad 5x 2-in-1, a convertible with a 14-inch OLED display, and the IdeaPad Slim 5x, a full-metal clamshell laptop with the option to pick a 14-inch OLED display. Both feature a new Snapdragon X Plus 8-core chip, instead of the regular 10-core version. Image: Evan Blass (X) The IdeaPad 5x 2-in-1 comes with an OLED... Continue reading...

Disney and DirecTV both blame each other for causing the blackout. | Image: The Verge Disney-owned channels including ABC and ESPN were pulled from DirecTV's lineup on Sunday after talks to reach a new distribution deal between the companies collapsed. The blackout started midway through ESPN's broadcast of the US Open tennis tournament, and just ahead of the NFL season opener this coming weekend.DirecTV and Disney are both blaming each other for causing the blackout. The only thing for certain is that DirecTV's roughly 11 million subscribers are the ones suffering.DirecTV says it's being prevented from offering more flexible packages that can more closely cater to consumer interest, and that Disney is herding consumers away" from network TV by shifting content to Disney-owned streaming services like Hulu and Disney... Continue reading...

Image: Microsoft While the latest update to Windows 11 makes it look like the upcoming Recall feature can be easily removed by users, Microsoft tells us it's just a bug and a fix is coming. Deskmodder spotted the change last week in the latest 24H2 version of Windows 11, with KB5041865 seemingly delivering the ability to uninstall Recall from the Windows Features section.We are aware of an issue where Recall is incorrectly listed as an option under the Turn Windows features on or off' dialog in Control Panel," says Windows senior product manager Brandon LeBlanc in a statement to The Verge. This will be fixed in an upcoming update." Image: Tom Warren / The Verge Recall appeared as an optional Windows feature recently. The... Continue reading...

Image: NASA US astronaut Barry Wilmore called NASA ground crew on Saturday, asking for help with a repetitive knocking sound that was coming from the Boeing Starliner craft. The interaction was captured by a NASA Space Flight forum member, who included a recording of it in a post that was spotted by Ars Technica.In the recording, Wilmore asks NASA crew in Houston to configure their call so that he could show them the noise, which he says is coming from the speaker inside Starliner. Then, a repetitive clanging sound with slight there's-something-on-the-wing vibes can be heard. The Earthside crew member describes it as sounding almost like a sonar ping."

Image: Getty Let's get one thing out of the way: contrary to what you may have heard, electric vehicle sales are up.I know, recent headlines suggest otherwise. Tesla sales are down. Ford is scaling back its EV rollout. General Motors is delaying an electric truck and holding back on investments in EV battery mining. And Hertz is off-loading EVs as its stock price struggles. Automakers across the board are losing millions - some are losing billions - as customer demand appears to have flatlined after an initial burst of excitement. The vibe, as they say, is grim.And yet, sales are still growing. JD Power is projecting that 1.2 million EVs will be sold in the US by the end of 2024, an increase over 1 million sold last year. That's 9 percent of... Continue reading...

Image: David Pierce / The Verge Hi, friends! Welcome to Installer No. 50, your guide to the best and Verge-iest stuff in the world. (If you're new here, welcome, I promise it's not always this many expensive gadgets, and also you can read all the old editions at the Installer homepage.)This week, I've been reading about crime rings and paleontology beefs and the strange language of TikTok, watching Kevin Can F**k Himself and Trap, re-upping my Yousician subscription to get back into the guitar, doing a lot of weird stretches after spraining my finger, and trying to make the famous Levain cookies.I also have for you a bunch of new wearable gadgets, a new Star Wars game, the return of a fabulous YouTube series, and much more.Also, I still want to know: who's your... Continue reading...

This week brought a few noteworthy movie and TV trailers - the big one being Sonic the Hedgehog 3. And while I won't include them here, you should check out some of the trailers included with our coverage of the most recent Nintendo Direct (shoutout to the Nintendo DS Castlevania games collection).It's clear that summer is winding down, and so are the big blockbusters. Things will liven up a bit with Beetlejuice Beetlejuice next week, but things are looking quiet for a little bit after that.Sonic the Hedghehog 3Sonic the Hedgehog 3 finally brings Sonic's big nemesis, Shadow, into the mix, played by Keanu Reeves. The trailer only gave a bit of Reeves' voice but makes up for it with lots of Jim Carrey's disheveled and depressed Dr.... Continue reading...

OSOM's first phone, eventually renamed the Solana Saga. | Image: Osom A lawsuit filed against Osom Products, Inc. by its former chief privacy officer, Mary Stone Ross, claims that the company's CEO, Jason Keats, used business funds for extravagant purchases that include two Lamborghinis, reports Android Authority.Keats, who founded Osom after Essential shut down and hired several of Essential's former workers, is also accused of using company resources to pay for things ranging from his racing habit to his racing partner's salary to his own mortgage, the outlet writes. Ross has apparently asked the court to make Osom give her access to company records that may prove the lawsuit's claims.The lawsuit also reportedly claims that Keats tried and failed to sell the company to HP and that, after that deal... Continue reading...

Illustration by Samar Haddad / The Verge The rechargeable lithium-ion batteries that power most of our laptops may be the most practical battery tech we have right now, but they naturally degrade over time as their ions flow back and forth - it's an inevitable consequence of the way they're built and the way they work. Eventually, the batteries can't hold as much of a charge.Most modern laptops now come with some kind of smart charging technology built in, to limit the number of full charges that happen. How this is implemented varies between laptops - I'll talk about this, as well as other ways to ensure the battery on your MacBook or Windows laptop stays as healthy as possible for as long as possible.General battery healthAs with smartphones, because of the chemical... Continue reading...

Photo: Joe Raedle / Getty Images The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) cleared SpaceX's reusable Falcon 9 rocket for flight on Friday after temporarily grounding it following a failed landing earlier this week. The company has already pulled off two launches since the FAA's decision, putting 42 more Starlink satellites into orbit, it announced in a post on X today.The agency said that while the investigation of the landing incident remains open, flights can continue, provided all other license requirements are met," according to CNN. SpaceX had requested a return to flight on Thursday, the same day the FAA initially grounded the rocket, reports Reuters.