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by Jay Peters on (#66JJX)
“Hey zombie!” | Image: Deep Silver We already knew that Dead Island 2 will let you taunt zombies with your voice with Amazon’s new Alexa Game Control technology, and during Tuesday’s Dead Island 2 showcase on Tuesday, developer Deep Silver gave us a better idea of how the feature might work in practice.In a prerecorded and staged skit (the conceit is that the people in the video are actually on the run from zombies and just so happen to find a working copy of Dead Island 2), the video showed how certain voice commands will activate certain actions in the game. “Hey zombie” gets the attention of a nearby zombie in-game. “Get me my ax” has the player draw an ax that is shooting fire for some reason. “Time to go loco” activates some kind of super mode.Those aren’t the only... Continue reading…
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The Verge
| Link | https://www.theverge.com/ |
| Feed | http://www.theverge.com/rss/index.xml |
| Updated | 2025-07-08 21:04 |
by Barbara Krasnoff on (#66JJY)
Image: Google Last Saturday, I discovered two things: I needed to buy a doorbell for my mother’s apartment, and Google Lens could be a really useful time-saver.Here’s what happened: my mother lives in a large apartment complex that was built in the 1970s — and I suspect the doorbells on the apartment doors are the same that were installed then. They click more than they actually ring. I’ve got perfectly good hearing, and I have trouble hearing when somebody presses the doorbell; for my mother, who wears hearing aids, it’s nearly impossible. Recently, I finally decided to do something about it. The photo isn’t great, but Google Lens was able to identify the bell on the neighbor’s door. I spent a couple of hours shopping online.... Continue reading…
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by Jay Peters on (#66JJZ)
You’re still going to want to start saving your pennies. | Illustration by Nick Barclay / The Verge Apple’s long-rumored car could cost less than $100,000 when it’s finally available to buy, according to Bloomberg. But the car may have less ambitious self-driving capabilities than first planned and arrive a year later than originally expected.While the car had been reported to be a fully autonomous car like prototypes from EV startup Canoo, the current design for the car will have more conventional car features like a steering wheel and pedals, Bloomberg reports. This new version won’t be fully autonomous; instead, users will apparently only be able to activate the self-driving features on highways, closer to driver-assist options like GM’s Super Cruise and Ford’s BlueCruise. (Perhaps Apple is wary of running into the issues Tesla has... Continue reading…
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by Mitchell Clark on (#66JK0)
There are about to be new buttons on Google. | Image: Google Google is going to start adding recommended keywords beneath the search bar to help you filter down results, according to a Tuesday blog post from the company. It calls the feature “topics” and says it’ll make it easy to add and remove qualifiers to your query without having to do an entirely new search.As an example of how this system will work, Google shows a search for dinner ideas. In the filters section, where you usually see buttons that let you switch to an Images or Shopping search, are new buttons that let you add modifiers like “easy,” “healthy,” “vegetarian,” and “high protein.” Tapping them narrows your results down, and you can add several of them at once if you want to get really specific. It’s similar to adding more words... Continue reading…
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by Sheena Vasani on (#66GXX)
Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Also, we got some new trailers for Gen V, The Witcher: Blood Origin, and the upcoming The Last of Us series. Continue reading…
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by Jay Peters on (#66JGM)
Not seeing any vampires in this screenshot... | Image: Poncle Despite the name, Vampire Survivors currently doesn’t have any vampires among its 41 playable characters and hordes of enemies, but that could change with the game’s first DLC expansion. On the Steam page for the newly announced expansion, Legacy of the Moonspell, developer Poncle is hinting that we might finally see vampires in the game.“Legacy of the Moonspell is the first DLC for Vampire Survivors, and introduces a brand new stage, new characters, new monsters, and new weapons to slaughter them with,” Poncle writes. “There might even be some hidden mysteries for those of an inquiring mindset, but we can neither confirm nor deny the presence of vampires…”Regardless of whether vampires show up, the DLC looks to be a good expansion. In... Continue reading…
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by Justine Calma on (#66JE1)
Recently installed solar panels at the Defence School of Transport on September 29th, 2021, in Leconfield, England. | Photo by Christopher Furlong / Getty Images Right now, there’s “unprecedented momentum behind renewables,” the International Energy Agency says. Renewable power growth has been “turbocharged” by countries scrambling to tackle a global energy crisis spurred on by war in Ukraine, according to new analysis from the agency. Over just the next five years, as much renewable power is expected to come online globally as was added over the past two decades.Renewables will make up a whopping 90 percent of electricity capacity expansion in that five-year span, according to a new report by the International Energy Agency (IEA). By 2025, renewable energy is expected to topple coal to become the world’s biggest electricity source.Solar and wind power make up the vast majority of that... Continue reading…
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by Makena Kelly on (#66JB3)
Illustration: The Verge The Federal Trade Commission is investigating multiple crypto companies over allegations of deceptive conduct, as first reported by Bloomberg on Monday.“While we can’t comment on current events in the crypto markets or the details of any ongoing investigations, we are investigating several firms for possible misconduct concerning digital assets,” an FTC spokesperson said in a statement to The Verge Tuesday. “We cannot comment on the nature of the investigations.”On top of several civil suits, the FTC is just the latest US agency to probe the crypto industry following the sudden implosion of popular trading exchange FTX last month. The Justice Department, Securities and Exchange Commission, the Commodities Future Trading Commission, and... Continue reading…
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by Mia Sato on (#66JB4)
Nick Barclay / The Verge TikTok’s roundup of the biggest moments of 2022 is here — there’s a giant chocolate giraffe, musician Rosalía chewing gum, and a viral remix of Tariq, aka “Corn Kid.” But one thing stands out: the view count on TikTok’s top clips is a lot smaller than in years past.The videos in TikTok’s FYFaves list all have millions of views and are supposed to represent the most viral content on the app. The list is curated, though, and leaves out other videos with high views and engagement, so it isn’t a direct representation of the top-performing clips on the platform this year.Still, the list offers some insight into what’s been successful on TikTok, and over the past three years, views on the No. 1 spot have been trending downward.
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by Antonio G. Di Benedetto on (#66J8N)
The second-gen Nest Hub makes a handy bedside display. | Photo by Dan Seifert / The Verge We’re getting well beyond Black Friday, but the deals are still coming up strong. First off, the latest Google Nest Hub has fallen to a new all-time low price of just $39 at Walmart. And in addition to being a $70 discount, this deal comes with a WiZ smart bulb for free.The second-gen Nest Hub is the most recent seven-inch smart display from Google. This little portal to the Google Assistant gives you the weather, news updates, and access to music streaming, and it makes a great digital picture frame if Google Photos is your preferred cloud photo platform. It’s also a handy smart home controller since you can use your voice to set timers, pull up videos on a Chromecast-connected TV, or turn smart lights on or off. If you snag this deal... Continue reading…
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by Umar Shakir on (#66J8P)
Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Good news for those who hate switching apps on their TVs: HBO is making a return to Amazon’s Prime Video Channels in the US. Customers who subscribe to Prime Video can add HBO Max for $14.99 per month and get access to all the Warner Bros. Discovery content like House of the Dragon in the same place they watch The Boys.Both Amazon and Warner Bros. Discovery were reportedly in talks this summer to get their relationship rolling again. In 2020, WarnerMedia, the former AT&T-owned iteration of HBO’s parent company, launched the standalone HBO Max service that eventually replaced the previous HBO Go and Now streaming-only services. When Max went live, HBO began its attempt to transition to its new sovereign platform by removing its service... Continue reading…
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by Andrew Webster on (#66J8Q)
Image: Crunchyroll Suzume, the next feature from the director behind Weathering With You and Your Name, is releasing internationally next April. Crunchyroll announced the news today, revealing that Makoto Shinkai’s next feature will be in theaters outside of Asia starting on April 12th (it debuted in Japan last month).Here’s the full schedule:
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by Ash Parrish on (#66J8R)
Image: CD Projekt Red In a video outlining Gwent’s 2023 roadmap, the developers at CD Projekt Red shared an important if sad update: no more new cards will be released post 2023 and active support for the game will be ending.The game’s final batch of 72 cards will be released in three groups in April, July, and September 2023. In the video, the developers said they’ll take time after the final batch of cards is released to monitor cards and ensure the meta is balanced before handing over balance decisions to the players themselves.“We want to give you, the Gwent community, the right tools and opportunities to drive the balance changes of the game going forward,” said one of the developers in the roadmap video. They also said that they’re working on an... Continue reading…
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by Nilay Patel on (#66J8S)
Photo Illustration by Will Joel / The Verge The best of Bobs, the worst of Bobs. Continue reading…
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by Jay Peters on (#66J8T)
Perfect for the holidays. | Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Apple on Tuesday announced Apple Music Sing, a karaoke experience that will be built right into the Apple Music app. With Apple Music Sing, you’ll be able to follow along with Apple Music’s real-time lyrics and adjust the volume of the vocals so that you can better hear your singing voice. (I’ll personally be keeping the vocals up as loud as possible to hide my imperfections.)There are a few features designed to make it easier to sing with others, too. Background vocals can appear independently of main vocals, according to Apple, and there will be a duet view as well if you want to sing along with a friend. Apple will have more than 50 “dedicated companion playlists” featuring karaoke-ready songs that you can pick from. ... Continue reading…
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by Cameron Faulkner on (#66J8V)
You can use your spirit ash summons to help you in battle against other players. | Image: Bandai Namco As if there weren’t enough stuff to do already in Elden Ring, Bandai Namco announced that the open-world fantasy game is getting a multiplayer update that adds a new colosseum environment made expressly for player versus player (PvP) bloodbaths. This update will arrive on December 7th for every platform the game is on (PC, PlayStation, Xbox).While you can already engage in PvP battles across many memorable Lands Between locales, there’s nothing like a flat, circular arena to do your bidding. And in the colosseum, you’ll be able to use your spirit ash summons in battle, as you can against the game’s many bosses.The trailer above doesn’t share many details about this new colosseum, like where it is or how you’ll get there and assemble... Continue reading…
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by Andrew J. Hawkins on (#66J5V)
Photo by Andrew Hawkins / The Verge Polestar is offering an over-the-air (OTA) software update that boosts the electric Polestar 2’s performance by 68 horsepower. And rather than lock it behind an annual paywall as other automakers have done, the Chinese-Swedish company says it will only charge a one-time fee of $1,195.The upgrade adds 68 horsepower and 15 pound-feet of torque to the existing 408hp and 487 lb-ft of torque currently offered by the Polestar 2’s dual-motor powertrain, for a total output of 476hp and 502 lb-ft. Because the upgrade is software-based, the performance boost can be downloaded directly to the vehicle without needing to take it to a service center. The performance upgrade is only available to owners of the long-range dual-motor version of the... Continue reading…
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by Mitchell Clark on (#66J5T)
Filling up the heart meter gets you gifts. | Image: Carrot One of Carrot Weather’s main selling points, besides the fact that it’s a genuinely very good app for getting the forecast, is its character. The app has an “AI” that will serve up scalding insults and timely jokes alongside the “feels like” temperature (the only measure that matters, don’t at me). The latest update is taking that experience to a whole new level: according to the app’s developer, Brian Mueller, you’ll be able to “improve your relationship with the homicidal AI” and even “start a ‘romance’ with her.”You endear yourself to Carrot through “bonding activities,” which will increase the number of hearts you have with the app. Those include “debugging” the app (which involves shaking your phone), “charging its servers,” and... Continue reading…
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by Matt Huynh on (#66J5S)
Matt Huynh / The Verge How to Replace the Sky, a comic by Matt Hyunh.At the end of 2020, the painting software I’d used my entire professional life updated itself with a new button.Illustration of a Photoshop window, with the Sky Replacement tool selected in a menu.I made my living as a commercial illustrator, making pictures for advertising agencies, book publishers, and magazines.Illustration of a small propped-up tablet and keyboard.I usually painted with ink and brushes, but I also used drawing tablets and apps for jobs that needed flexibility for changes and a quick turnaround.Matt appears in front of the tablet.I was up-to-date with the latest tools, but I couldn’t imagine why I would need to replace the sky.The walls of an office appear around... Continue reading…
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by Andrew Webster on (#66J5W)
Image: Warner Bros. Pictures You’ll have to wait a bit to see Parasite director Bong Joon-ho’s next project. The sci-fi film, called Mickey 17, will hit theaters on March 29th, 2024. The news was revealed via the briefest of teaser trailers, which shows star Robert Pattinson hanging around shirtless in some kind of tube.The film is based on the novel Mickey 7 by Edward Ashton, which is about a “disposable employee” out on a quest to colonize an icy new world for human habitation (no word yet on where all the extra Mickeys came from). In addition to Pattinson, the film stars Steven Yeun (Nope, Okja), Naomi Ackie (The Rise of Skywalker), Toni Collette (Knives Out), and Mark Ruffalo (everything with the incredible Hulk in it). Outside of the cast, Joon-ho is also... Continue reading…
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by Jay Peters on (#66J39)
Assassin’s Creed Valhalla is one of the games you’ll be able to play on Luna if you already own it. | Image: Ubisoft Ubisoft and Amazon will now let you play some titles you own for PC via Ubisoft Connect on Amazon’s Luna cloud gaming service, the two companies announced on Tuesday. That means it will be just a bit easier to play some of those games when you may not be right in front of your typical machine thanks to the power of internet streaming.Amazon’s blog post specifically names Assassin’s Creed Valhalla, Uno, and Far Cry 6 as titles that will work with this new integration. But in blog posts, both Ubisoft and Amazon are careful to say that this only applies to “select” titles, so it could be a limited batch to start. That said, if you like the experience of playing Ubisoft games over Luna and want to check out more of them, you can... Continue reading…
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by Andrew J. Hawkins on (#66J38)
Image: Kodiak Robotics Kodiak Robotics, the autonomous truck startup, will receive $49.9 million to help the US Army develop self-driving vehicles for reconnaissance, surveillance, and other “high-risk” missions.The Mountain View, California-based company, which primarily builds self-driving systems for freight trucks, will develop the vehicles for the US Army’s Robotic Combat Vehicle program. The collaboration is set to last 24 months under the agreement with the US Department of Defense, Kodiak says.The details about the types of vehicles that Kodiak says it will develop for the army are still vagueThe details about the types of vehicles that Kodiak says it will develop for the army are still vague. According to the company, “Kodiak will develop... Continue reading…
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by Andrew J. Hawkins on (#66J37)
Photo by Andrew Hawkins / The Verge Rad Power Bikes, the number one seller of e-bikes in North America, discovers that when it comes to power, stability, and fun, three is the magic number. Continue reading…
by Jon Porter on (#66J3A)
A monkey in Neuralink’s in-house facility. | Image: Neuralink Neuralink, the brain implant company founded by Elon Musk, is reportedly facing a federal probe over the treatment of animals used in its experiments. Reuters reports that a probe was recently opened by the US Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) inspector general and focuses on potential violations of the Animal Welfare Act. A spokesperson for the USDA inspector general declined to comment to Reuters on its report.Although Reuters says it’s unclear how wide-ranging the probe is, the news agency details a range of concerns over animal welfare raised in interviews with more than 20 current and former Neuralink employees. These include reports that, in one experiment, 25 out of 60 pigs allegedly had the wrong size of device installed as... Continue reading…
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by Tom Warren on (#66HZD)
Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge YouTube is starting to roll out its own custom emotes. The Twitch-like emotes, dubbed YouTube Emotes, can be used across YouTube in comment sections and during live chats, though the platform previously allowed individual streamers to offer their own reactions and emotes. YouTube’s own initial emotes are focused on gaming, but there will be more over time.You’ll now see a list of YouTube emotes when you open YouTube’s emoji picker, and they’ll appear below a channel’s own existing custom emotes. Much like Twitch’s default system-wide emotes, YouTube’s ones also have specific names for autocomplete so you quickly type “:cat-orange-whistling:” for example, and it will automatically fill a comment with an orange cat whistling. ... Continue reading…
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by Adi Robertson on (#66HXE)
Illustration: Nick Barclay / The Verge Meta’s Oversight Board has released an in-depth report on Facebook and Instagram’s controversial cross-check system, calling on Meta to make the program “radically” more transparent and beef up its resources.The semi-independent Oversight Board cited “several shortcomings” in cross-check, which provides a special moderation queue for high-profile public figures, including former president Donald Trump before his suspension from Facebook. It singled out a failure to make clear when accounts are protected by special cross-check status, as well as cases where rule-breaking material — particularly one case of non-consensual pornography — was left up for a prolonged period of time. And it criticized Meta for not keeping track of moderation... Continue reading…
by Tom Warren on (#66HXG)
Waze on a new Renault vehicle. | Image: Waze Waze is launching a dedicated app on two new cars with Google built in. It’s the first time Waze has been available as a standalone app in cars, thanks to Google’s embedded Android Automotive OS. It means drivers can access Waze’s real-time routing, navigation, and more, without the need to connect a smartphone.All of the usual Waze alerts, navigation, and routing options will be available on dedicated displays inside new Renault Austral Hybrid and Renault Megane E-Tech electric vehicles in Europe.Two new Renault cars will get Waze built inRenault’s openR link multimedia system will now include the dedicated Waze app, and the system also integrates with Google services like Google Maps, Google Assistant, and Google Play to allow you... Continue reading…
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by Jon Porter on (#66HVF)
Illustration: The Verge Google’s search results on desktop will load in a continuous scroll instead of dividing into pages, the company has announced. The move follows a similar change made on mobile in October last year, but isn’t quite an “infinite” scroll. Instead, Google will load six pages of results into a single scroll before offering users a “See more” button to show more results.Google says the change is rolling out first for English searches in the US, but judging by the rollout of the feature on mobile it seems safe to expect to see additional markets and languages added over time.
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by Jon Porter on (#66HVG)
Spare parts and tools are available for select iPhones and MacBooks. | Image: Apple Apple’s self-service repair program, which is designed to let customers repair their own iPhones and MacBooks, is launching in Europe. The company announced today that genuine Apple parts, tools, and manuals will be available to customers in Belgium, France, Germany, Italy, Poland, Spain, Sweden, and the UK to perform their own repairs.Spare parts are available via Apple’s self service repair store, which features a drop-down menu in the top right to select the correct country. As with the service’s launch in the US earlier this year, customers will be able to rent tools to perform the repairs rather than needing to purchase them outright, and receive discounts by sending in their replaced parts to Apple for refurbishment or recycling.... Continue reading…
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by Mitchell Clark on (#66HHA)
The company could be facing another labor board complaint. | Illustration by Nick Barclay / The Verge Apple illegally interrogated and made coercive statements to employees during a union drive at one of its retail stores in Atlanta, Georgia, according to a ruling from the National Labor Relations Board reported on by Bloomberg. The company was being investigated as the result of charges filed by the Communications Workers of America, which has previously claimed that the company’s actions “made a free and fair election impossible” at the location.The NLRB’s regional director “found merit” to the allegations as well as ones that Apple held captive-audience meetings, according to Kayla Blado, a spokesperson for the regulator. Apple will either have to settle the case or face the NLRB filing a complaint against it. The regulator can’t... Continue reading…
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by Sean Hollister on (#66HFK)
Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order was one of the Steam Deck’s showcase titles when it first went on sale — now, it’s one of likely dozens of popular EA games that don’t launch properly anymore. Nearly four weeks ago, Valve retroactively revoked the Steam Deck Verified status of most popular Electronic Arts games on Steam, including every modern Battlefield, Need for Speed, Mass Effect, FIFA, and Madden title.The good news: both Valve and EA tell The Verge that fixes are on the way. There’s also an easy workaround if you’re comfortable navigating the desktop Linux interface and / or willing to risk your savegames.Here’s a partial list of titles that are no longer Steam Deck Verified, according to SteamDB data:
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by Sheena Vasani on (#66HFM)
Illustration by Nick Barclay / The Verge After shifting iPhone production away from China, it now looks as if Apple’s got its eye on iPad production. According to CNBC, Apple is discussing producing some of its iPads in India to help diversify its supply chain.The news comes almost two years after reports emerged that Apple is considering manufacturing iPads in Vietnam, too. Apple is doing this as the company looks to move up to 30 percent of its manufacturing outside of China.Apple’s been trying to diversify its manufacturing for years amid trade wars between China and the US and rising labor costs in China. More recently, strict covid restrictions sparked countrywide protests that last month forced Apple to cut down the production of iPhone 14s there, leading to shipping... Continue reading…
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by Allison Johnson on (#66H2W)
Google’s December Pixel update includes a couple of anticipated features for its newest phones. | Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge If you’ve been eager to try Clear Calling on the Pixel 7 but unwilling to download beta software to use it, then today’s your day — Google is taking it and a couple of other features promised for the Pixel 7 and 7 Pro public in today’s feature drop. That includes new speaker labels for transcriptions in the Recorder app and access to Google One’s VPN feature at no cost — it’s otherwise reserved for subscribers on Google’s $9.99 / month 2TB plan.Clear Calling attempts to reduce background sounds when the person you’re talking to is in a noisy environment. It’s only coming to the Pixel 7 and 7 Pro and won’t be added to Pixel 6 phones in the future. The Pixel 6 series uses the first-gen custom Tensor chipset and apparently lacks some... Continue reading…
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by Ash Parrish on (#66HE2)
Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge As labor movements in the video game industry build up momentum, over 300 quality assurance workers at ZeniMax Online Studios, former Bethesda parent company and current subsidiary of Microsoft, are in the process of organizing a union. The workers are organizing in collaboration with CODE-CWA, which has assisted in the formation of Activision Blizzard’s two unions.In a statement on Twitter, ZeniMax Workers United posted: “Today we, a majority of QA workers at ZeniMax, are proud to announce the launch of our union with [CODE-CWA]. We are the first group of workers at Microsoft to formally unionize. We are empowered to advocate for ourselves & build a future where we can thrive alongside the company.”The move comes just days after QA... Continue reading…
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by Emma Roth on (#66HC5)
Illustration by Nick Barclay / The Verge Facebook warns it could ban news in the US if Congress passes a bill that would require the platform to negotiate with and compensate publishers for their content. Andy Stone, Meta’s head of policy communications, said on Twitter that Facebook will “be forced to consider removing news” from Facebook if the Journalism Competition and Preservation Act (JCPA) is passed. Facebook previously threatened to block news in Canada and Australia when similar laws were proposed.Introduced last year with bipartisan support, the JCPA would allow publishers to negotiate with platforms like Facebook and Google over the distribution of their content. It’s supposed to give news publishers leverage against Big Tech and could require Facebook to pay for... Continue reading…
by Allison Johnson on (#66HC6)
An alleged render of the unannounced OnePlus 11 shows a round camera bump and a beloved feature sticking around. | Image: OnLeaks via GadgetGang Reliable leaker OnLeaks is offering what’s likely an early look at the upcoming OnePlus 11, with an updated camera bump treatment and the beloved alert slider intact. The image, courtesy of GadgetGang.com, shows a sleek round camera bump, green and black color options, and the alert slider alive and well on the device’s side rail above the power button. It also corroborates an earlier leak. All told, it looks like the 11 will represent a slight cosmetic update to the 10 Pro’s design — a welcome sight to OnePlus fans who feared that the slider was on its way out when it was omitted from the 10T.In addition to a slight design update, the OnePlus 11 is likely to include more of the same under the hood. A previous spec leak points to a... Continue reading…
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by Mia Sato on (#66HC7)
Image: Shein Online shopping behemoth Shein will spend $15 million on upgrades to its suppliers’ factories, the company announced today. The news follows a UK documentary report that found workers were subject to long hours and that wages were withheld, according to The Guardian.Shein says that, through an independent audit, it discovered that workers at two factories in China were working 12.5- and 13.5-hour-long days — more than is legally permitted by local law. While it’s “significantly less than claimed in the documentary,” the e-commerce giant is giving factories until the end of the year to correct the problem, Shein says.The company denied reports that wages were withheld from workers.The $15 million will be spent over the next three to... Continue reading…
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by Adi Robertson on (#66HC8)
Image: Krafton The world is full of mediocre video games, but occasionally there’s a game that makes me actually mad. It’s usually something I have high hopes for — a particularly creative idea or a genre I wish more developers were experimenting with. It’s often something whose priorities seem painfully and dramatically misplaced. The Callisto Protocol — a survival horror game released last week — is both.The Callisto Protocol’s design was spearheaded by Glen Schofield, the co-creator of Dead Space, one of my favorite series of all time. It shares a lot of DNA with Dead Space: both are fairly linear third-person survival horror shooters about fighting zombies in space. And as reviews have emphasized over and over, The Callisto Protocol is — by... Continue reading…
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by Jay Peters on (#66HC9)
A Dishy McFlatface satellite dish. | Image: Starlink Starlink’s upcoming daytime data caps will be going into effect in February instead of December, according to revised language on the company’s website (via CNET). When Starlink first announced the caps in November, the company had said they’d kick in sometime this month. Now, they’ll be in place a little bit later than originally planned.The terms of the data caps otherwise seem to be the same. As part of Starlink’s new “Fair Use Policy,” customers will have a dedicated amount of “Priority Access” data every month. Any data used from peak hours, which Starlink defines as 7AM to 11PM, will be pulled from that Priority Access pool. If you go over your Priority Access allocation, you can pay for more data or fall back on “Basic Access”... Continue reading…
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by Andrew Webster on (#66HCA)
Ruth Wilson in His Dark Materials. | Image: HBO Ahead of the premiere on HBO, the cast behind the fantasy series explains why the last season is the darkest and most complex to date. Continue reading…
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by Barbara Krasnoff on (#66HA8)
Samar Haddad / The Verge One of the more popular end-of-year items this year (and many of the past few years) is Spotify Wrapped, where the music service puts together a roundup of everything you listened to that year in various statistical formats, wrapped up (well, that’s what it’s called, right?) in bright, fun graphics. You can see what music categories you followed, get a playlist of your top 100 songs, see where you stand compared to others, and find out what your listening personality is. (Turns out, I’m The Replayer — “you stick with the songs you like.” I’m going to have to experiment more in 2023.)It’s easy to find Spotify Wrapped, although you have to do it using a mobile app.The simplest way is to just open your Spotify mobile app — you should... Continue reading…
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by Jennifer Pattison Tuohy on (#66F6K)
A cool but minor upgrade to an already excellent robot vacuum, iRobot’s Combo j7 adds a mop to the bot and is worth considering if you’ve got hardwood floors and lots of fluffy rugs. For everyone else, the regular j7 vacuum is still your best bet. Continue reading…
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by Tom Warren on (#66H7Q)
Photo by Sam Byford / The Verge Microsoft has offered Sony a 10-year contract to make future Call of Duty games available on PlayStation if its proposed Activision Blizzard acquisition goes ahead. Microsoft president Brad Smith confirmed the deal in an op-ed in The Wall Street Journal today, noting that “Sony has emerged as the loudest objector” to Microsoft’s proposed $68.7 billion acquisition and that “it’s as excited about this deal as Blockbuster was about the rise of Netflix.”“We’ve offered Sony a 10-year contract to make each new ‘Call of Duty’ release available on PlayStation the same day it comes to Xbox,” says Smith. “We’re open to providing the same commitment to other platforms and making it legally enforceable by regulators in the US, UK, and European... Continue reading…
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by Ash Parrish on (#66H7R)
Image: Blizzard Ramattra, the sleek and terrifying new tank coming with Overwatch 2’s second season, will be much easier to earn than the previous hero Kiriko. Aaron Keller, Overwatch 2’s game designer, stated in a brief message on Twitter that developer Blizzard is lowering the level at which Ramattra unlocks from 55 to 45.
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by Mitchell Clark on (#66H5E)
The DHS may need to come up with a better marketing slogan than “be your REAL ID self” before time is up. | Image: Department of Homeland Security The government has extended the deadline for when federal agencies like the TSA will start requiring Real ID cards, moving the date from May 3rd, 2023, to May 7th, 2025. This will give people an extra two years to get an updated driver’s license or ID card; after the deadline, they won’t be allowed to fly without them.The extension is meant to “address the lingering impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on the ability to obtain a REAL ID driver’s license or identification card,” according to a Monday press release from the Department of Homeland Security. The standard was implemented after 9/11 in an attempt to improve security while flying, so getting one of the cards requires providing several pieces of documentation. That includes proof... Continue reading…
by Tom Warren on (#66H5F)
Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Microsoft is increasing the prices of its upcoming first-party Xbox games next month. From 2023 onward, new full-priced games from Xbox Game Studios like Redfall, Starfield, and Forza Motorsport will be priced at $69.99 instead of the usual $59.99. It’s a price increase that matches the pricing that competitors like Sony, Ubisoft, and Take-Two all offer their own games at.Microsoft issued the following statement about the price increases:
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by Justine Calma on (#66H5G)
Twitter headquarters in San Francisco, California, on Tuesday, November 29th, 2022. | David Paul Morris/Bloomberg via Getty Images Lies about climate change on Twitter escalated to unprecedented levels this year, according to new analyses. The unnerving rise of content that rejects widely accepted climate science — sometimes referred to as climate skepticism or climate denial — piles on top of growing concerns about misinformation and hateful content that’s proliferated since Elon Musk’s takeover of the social media platform.There have been more tweets and retweets “using climate-sceptic terminology” in 2022 than in any other year since Twitter’s founding in 2006, according to analysis conducted for The Times by City, University of London researchers. That’s 850,000 climate-skeptic tweets or retweets this year compared to 650,000 in 2021 and 220,000 in 2020.“... Continue reading…
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by Jay Peters on (#66H5H)
The pixel art in the new version of Dwarf Fortress. | Image: Bay 12 Games Dwarf Fortress, the cult classic simulator game that has been in development since 2003, is getting a new “premium” version this week with entirely new visuals. The original game is well known for its ASCII art, but the version coming to Steam and itch.io will feature really nice pixel art.Dwarf Fortress can be a mind-bogglingly huge game. At its most basic level, the game lets you manage a dwarven outpost in a randomly generated world. But things can go much deeper than that; you can do a lot with your expansive settlements (just read the list of features from developer Bay 12 Games), and the game will even auto-generate a history of your world.But the “classic” version’s ASCII art can be somewhat intimidating (for me, it’s been... Continue reading…
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by Ariel Shapiro on (#66H2Y)
Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge After the brouhaha of Spotify Wrapped last week, Apple Podcasts has dropped its own end-of-year charts. Apple Podcasts’ daily charts already show which titles are trending year-round, but its year-end charts are an indicator of which shows are doing best on a consistent basis: and no surprise, true-crime programming reigns supreme.Crime Junkie took the top spot on Apple’s list of biggest shows of 2022, followed by The Daily, Dateline NBC, Morbid, and SmartLess. The last time Apple issued its year-end top podcast chart in 2020, only The Daily and Crime Junkie were in the top five. This year’s top 10 featured a blast from the past with Serial, which came in at No. 8. The 2014 show got a boost from the recent exoneration of subject Adnan... Continue reading…
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by Mitchell Clark on (#66H2X)
Tony Johnson / The Verge Elon Musk’s takeover of Twitter has left users wondering where to go should the platform go up in flames or its content moderation policies unravel. But is there really a viable alternative to Twitter yet? Continue reading…
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