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Illustration by Mengxin Li / The Verge In the Sotheby’s salesroom one evening in late February, fluorescent lights beamed down on the assembled crowd. A sea of spectators is not unusual for Sotheby’s — the 278-year-old auction house typically hosts more than 600 sales per year — but this sale was different. It was the auction house’s first-ever evening sale dedicated solely to NFTs.Sotheby’s described the event, titled “Punk it!,” as “a truly historic sale for an undeniably historic NFT project.” It consisted of a single lot — 104 CryptoPunks sold as an all-or-nothing bundle. Sotheby’s estimated the bundle would go for $20–30 million, on par with sales of paintings by David Hockney or Jean-Michel Basquiat.To drum up interest, the auction house had thrown a series of events... Continue reading…

macOS Ventura. | Image: Apple A new version of macOS means a new collection of Macs can no longer run Apple’s latest desktop operating system. Perhaps most notably, the new macOS Ventura update won’t be available for the 2015 MacBook Pro.This laptop quickly became a fan-favorite model because it was one of the last to come with a traditional scissor switch keyboard before Apple ditched it in favor of its much derided butterfly keyboard. Thankfully, Apple has since brought back this traditional keyboard design, meaning there are some very good Apple Silicon-powered replacements available for anyone still holding on to the 2015 machine.Here’s the complete list of Macs that Ventura is compatible with:

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Apple is finally adding the ability to see your stored Wi-Fi password in iOS 16. MacRumors reports that the iOS 16 developer preview includes an option to view a Wi-Fi password and even copy it to share with friends or family. You need to authenticate with Face ID, Touch ID, or a passcode to see a stored password, and then you get an option to copy it.If you own an iPhone then you know of the struggle to share Wi-Fi passwords when a family member or friend visits and they’re a green bubble aficionado (Android user) or they own a Windows laptop. Even though your phone is connected to the network, you still have to search around for the Wi-Fi password at the back of the router or on that old crusty piece of paper where you shouldn’t be... Continue reading…

Photo by James Bareham / The Verge Apple is adding native support for the Nintendo Switch Pro and Joy-Con controllers in iOS 16. Riley Testut, one of the iOS developers behind AltStore, discovered the new controller support in a developer beta of iOS 16 that was released yesterday.The Nintendo Switch Pro Controller works “perfectly” according to Testut, and both Joy-Con controllers show up as a single device for apps and games to take advantage of. Nat Brown, an engineering manager at Apple, has confirmed the new controller support and even revealed there’s a neat method to switch how the Joy-Cons work in iOS 16. You can dynamically switch between using both Joy-Cons as a single controller or two separate ones by holding the screenshot and home buttons for a few... Continue reading…

Image: Apple As part of today’s announcements at WWDC 2022, Apple briefly mentioned a new addition to its security tools that will apply to iPhone, iPad, and Mac platforms called Rapid Security Response. It didn’t go into a lot of detail about what Rapid Security Response is, but Apple is promising to have important security updates that get to your devices even faster. Currently, iOS and macOS users get their security updates rolled in with full system patches, usually with .1 or .0.1 version numbers, which can take quite some time for users to download and install.Now, Apple says its Rapid Security Response updates include important security improvements that “can be applied automatically between standard software updates.” MacRumors reports that... Continue reading…

Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge Apple is adding a new feature to iOS 16 to make the Hidden and Recently Deleted albums in Photos much more private. Starting with iOS 16, those albums will now be locked by default, and you’ll be able to unlock them using Face ID, Touch ID, or a passcode, according to Apple’s iOS 16 features page.In iOS 15, those albums are hard to find, but they they aren’t behind any protection. That means somebody who might have unwanted access to your phone can easily see what’s there if they know where to look — which somewhat defeats the purpose of the Hidden album in particular. With the change in iOS 16, people won’t be able to see photos in either album unless you unlock them. This new feature will also be available in iPadOS 16 and macOS... Continue reading…

Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge Are you the kind of person who’d hesitate to charge gadgets from a public charger — like the ones coming to the seat of your plane? Apple’s first beta of the just-announced macOS 13 Ventura includes a feature seemingly designed to address tampering fears. It’ll make USB-C and Thunderbolt accessories explicitly ask for your permission before they can communicate with MacBooks powered by Apple’s M1 or M2 chips.Here’s the full description of the feature from Apple’s release notes:

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Update June 6th, 8:03PM ET: Costco has removed the landing page for its PlayStation 5 bundle, indicating it has sold out or is simply no longer available.If you’re a Costco member, you now have another chance at nabbing Sony’s PlayStation 5 console. Right now, the retailer is selling the disc-based PS5 console in a bundle with an extra DualSense controller, a Pulse 3D wireless headset, a DualSense charging station, and four $25 PlayStation Store gift cards all for $789.99. If you want to take part but are not a member, you’ll have to purchase a Costco membership, which starts at $60 a year.As always, double-check your billing and shipping address details are both correct, add the bundle to your cart, and try to check out as soon as... Continue reading…

David Pierce/The Verge Apple revealed a new version of macOS at its Worldwide Developers Conference. The new operating system, macOS Ventura, includes a new Stage Manager tool, updates to Spotlight, Mail, and Safari, and other continuity features that bring the operating system closer to iOS.Enabled from the Control Center, the utility will automatically organize your open windows on the left side of your screen while centering the one you’re working in. Users can also group windows together to easily open more than one at a time. Spotlight comes with new updates as well: it can now find images in your photo library and can search for them by location, people, scenes, objects, or included text (via the Live Text feature). You’ll... Continue reading…

Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge Apple announced Monday that iOS 16 will let you switch on haptics when you type, meaning you’ll feel a tiny vibration every single time you press a key on your iPhone’s virtual keyboard. Apple’s haptics — powered by the company’s Taptic Engine — are some of the best out there on mobile phones (though many Android devices have caught up), and now you’ll get to feel a satisfying pulse while you’re chatting with your friends or composing an email.Previously, if you wanted haptic feedback on your keyboard, one option was to turn to... Google. The search company added haptic feedback to its Gboard keyboard for iPhone in 2019. I personally gave up on using third-party keyboards years ago because it’s a lot easier to just use Apple’s stock... Continue reading…

watchOS 9 will not support the Series 3. | Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge It’s been five years since Apple debuted the Series 3, and at WWDC 2022, it effectively laid the smartwatch to rest. watchOS 9 will not support the Series 3, and that likely means the Apple Watch SE will officially take over as Apple’s budget smartwatch.The Series 3 introduced cellular calling when it launched in 2017, and at the time, it was a great smartwatch. (Though, the battery life could’ve been a bit better.) While Apple continued to support the watch over the years, it became increasingly clear that the Series 3’s days were numbered. Since the release of watchOS 7 in 2020, many users have reported the Series 3 struggles to update to new software. And watchOS 9 introduced a lot of new health and fitness features.When the Apple... Continue reading…

Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge There were a whole lot of exciting announcements that came out of WWDC, but one update Apple didn’t mention onstage is that iOS 16 will bring support for using Face ID in landscape mode.As noted on Apple’s iOS 16 preview page (thanks @ParkerOrtolani for spotting), Apple states that you’ll soon be able to unlock your iPhone, make payments, autofill your passwords, and more with Face ID when your phone is tilted horizontally. You can already use Face ID when your iPad is in landscape mode, so expanding the feature to iPhones is overdue. When the feature is out, you’ll no longer have to ensure your phone is in portrait position to use Face ID, which can be somewhat of an annoyance if you frequently have your phone turned to the side.A... Continue reading…

I’m also crossing my fingers it will the final season. | Photo: Apple Ted Lasso’s upcoming third season is being written as if it’s the final one, Brett Goldstein, who plays the foul-mouthed Roy Kent and writes for the show, told The Sunday Times (via Variety). “We are writing it like that,” he said. “It was planned as three. Spoiler alert — everyone dies.” (I’d wager that last part isn’t true.)Ted Lasso is arguably Apple TV Plus’ biggest hit, but it hasn’t been clear when it might end. As Variety noted, Ted Lasso co-creator and star Jason Sudeikis has spoken about the story taking place over three seasons. “That three-season arc is one that I see, know, and understand,” he told Entertainment Weekly. It’s also unclear when this third season might debut, but it seems like it might arrive later than the... Continue reading…

Apple’s HomeKit gets a new Home app. | Image: Apple Apple announced an all-new Home app for its HomeKit smart home platform at WWDC this week. The new app will arrive with iOS 16 later this year and has a completely new design. Apple said that architecturally the app has been rebuilt from the ground up making it more efficient and reliable, especially for homes with multiple accessories.The navigation has also been redesigned to make it easier to find, organize, and control devices, and a new Categories section for climate, lights, speakers and TVs, water (sprinklers and faucets), and security will let you access those devices in one place. This should make it simpler to turn off all the lights or lock all the doors, even though they are in different rooms.You can now see your entire... Continue reading…

Etsy is launching a purchase protection program for shoppers and sellers, the company announced today. The program, which begins August 1st, will refund customers when an item arrives damaged, is missing, or doesn’t match the listing description.Purchases under $250, including shipping and taxes, are covered by the program, according to the updated seller handbook. The company says it will put $25 million per year into the program to cover refunds and that it’s free for sellers to participate in the program.“Easy issue resolution is a critical part of the e-commerce shopping experience, and our new Etsy Purchase Protection program aims to help make shopping on Etsy even more worry free,” Raina Moskowitz, Etsy’s chief operating... Continue reading…

Photo by JEFF KOWALSKY/AFP via Getty Images Back in February, Nike sued StockX, a popular online sneaker reseller, for launching a non-fungible token (NFT) series based on Nike’s shoes. It then accused StockX last month of knowingly selling counterfeits — a thing that shouldn’t be possible since StockX claims it authenticates the shoes sold on its site. Now, StockX is hitting back. In a court filing, the sneaker reseller says that Nike’s complaint is “nothing more than a failed attempt to bolster its still meritless claims.”StockX introduced its Vault NFT series in January. In the company’s own words, the idea was to allow customers to buy NFTs tied to a physical product akin to a digital receipt. According to the company, the benefit would be more efficient trading as a buyer... Continue reading…

The MacBook Air has been an iconic laptop design since Steve Jobs slid it out of a manila envelope in 2008. This year’s model, which Apple just announced at WWDC and is also the first Apple laptop to come with an M2 chip, abandons the famous wedge shape but also improves almost everything else about the Air. The wedge is gone! The first thing you notice? Colors! The new design is 11mm thick and weighs 2.7 pounds, and while it is now a more traditional slab-shaped design, it comes in a very handsome dark blue called “midnight” and a light gold called “starlight” in addition to the familiar silver and space gray. They’re not quite as colorful as, say, the new iMacs, but the midnight color is a particularly cool dark... Continue reading…

From left to right: silver, space grey, starlight, and midnight. | Apple Apple’s WWDC isn’t an event that traditionally packs in several hardware announcements, but nevertheless, a new MacBook Air took the stage during the keynote. The new 2022 model has been designed around the more powerful M2 processor, and its design comes closer to that of the 14-inch MacBook Pro, with a more squared-off look than the traditional wedge shape. It features MagSafe charging, two Thunderbolt USB 4 ports, and a headphone jack. It’s 11mm thick and comes in at 2.7 pounds. It will be available in silver, space grey, and new “starlight” gold and “midnight” blue colors. One nice touch is that each model includes a braided MagSafe cable that matches the colorway.This MacBook Air will be available in July starting at $1,199. The... Continue reading…

Apple revealed a ton of exciting news at WWDC 2022, giving us a glimpse at the highly-anticipated macOS Ventura, iOS 16, the M2 chip, a new MacBook Air, and much more.If you weren’t able to catch the conference live, here’s a list of Apple’s biggest announcements.Apple introduces iOS 16 with customizable lock screen, updated notifications, and more Apple has announced iOS 16, and the update brings a totally revamped and customizable lock screen interface. This lets you add custom wallpapers, change the date and time’s font and color, as well as add new widgets for weather, activity rings, calendar events, and more. Apple is also pushing updates to notifications and its Focus feature.iOS 16’s Live Activities let you... Continue reading…

Image: Apple At its WWDC 2022 event, Apple just demonstrated how Safari in macOS Ventura will support “passkeys,” a sign-in standard that’s built with cross-platform support to enable logins that don’t use passwords at all. Apple isn’t alone in this effort either, as last month Google and Microsoft joined with Apple to announce their new step forward for a long-in-development plot to kill passwords once and for all.By avoiding the use of passwords entirely, they should prevent users from falling victim to phishing attacks, social engineering, or bot attacks that plug in passwords snagged from databases of leaked passwords. Instead, you can use a device (like your phone or computer) as your primary authentication device, so using Face ID or Touch ID... Continue reading…

It only took 12 years. | Image: Apple Apple is finally bringing its first-party Weather app to iPad as part of iPadOS 16. Finally. The first iPad launched in 2010, and it hasn’t had the official Weather app that whole time.The company shared a few screenshots at WWDC 2022, and if you’re familiar with the app on iPhone, it will look pretty familiar. The app’s background reflects the weather, and there’s a big dashboard of statistics. It’s basically the iPhone app but blown up to tablet size. Image: Apple Here’s a screenshot of the weather in Seattle in the new iPadOS Weather app. Image: Apple And here’s the weather in San Carlos de Bariloche. It’s unclear exactly why it took Apple 12 years to add a weather app to iPad,... Continue reading…

Image: Apple Apple is planning to allow macOS users to use their iPhone camera as a webcam. The new Continuity Camera feature comes as part of macOS Ventura, an upcoming update to macOS. Apple envisions MacBook users clipping an iPhone to the top of their laptops and using the camera to improve video calls in FaceTime, Microsoft Teams, WebEx, and more.Continuity Camera simply takes the rear camera feed from your existing iPhone and converts it into a webcam that can be used in macOS apps. Continuity Camera even includes Center Stage and Portrait Mode support, so there are plenty of video modes for a variety of calls.

No lock screen widgets for you. | Image: Apple Apple released details about iOS 16 today at its Worldwide Developers Conference, including which phones will be eligible for the update — and which didn’t make the cut. To download iOS 16, you’ll need an iPhone 8 or later, meaning Apple is more or less ending support for the iPhone 6S, iPhone 7, and original iPhone SE.The iPhone 7 and SE were released in 2016, while the 6S was released in 2015, meaning they received nearly six and seven years of software support, respectively. That is, frankly, a very impressive run. It’s also much longer than Android devices have historically had access to software updates, though Samsung and Google have recently made significant strides in that department. Their midrange and flagship devices now get... Continue reading…

The refreshed iPad Air, released earlier this year. | Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge Apple has officially announced iPadOS 16, the latest version of its iPad operating system launching later this year. It shares some of its new features with iOS 16 and macOS, like a redesigned Home app and support for Passkeys in Safari, but it’s also getting some improvements of its own. There’s a new weather app and new collaboration features for Apple’s office productivity suite.Multitasking is getting a huge boost with this year’s iPadOS update. The Stage Manager feature Apple announced for macOS Ventura is also coming to iPadOS 16, where it means apps can be shown as windows that are able to overlap with one another. It can allow up to eight apps to be displayed onscreen simultaneously, and can also benefit from the improved... Continue reading…

Netflix’s upcoming adaptation of The Sandman tells the tale of a timeless, anthropomorphic being who lords over a realm of dreams, the titular being in question isn’t the only supernatural power player with an important role in shaping this story. In The Sandman’s latest trailer that dropped as a part of this year’s Netflix Geeked Week, Dream of the Endless (Tom Sturridge) is finally on the verge of breaking free from his 75 years of imprisonment on the mortal plane at the hands of human occultists.Though time means little to people like Dream, his absence from the Dreaming — a reality made of all the dreams living creatures create — comes with consequences that only those touched by magic like Johanna Constantine (Jenna Coleman) can... Continue reading…

Apple is adding a new tool to remind people to take medications to the iPhone health app, the company announced today. Apple Watch is also getting additional sleep tracking features.The new medications app will let users add any drugs they take by either scanning a label on a medication bottle or searching through a list of medicines. People can create custom schedules for each drug they are taking and receive alerts to remind them when it’s time to take one.In the United States, the app will also alert users if there are any dangerous interactions between the drugs that they take.watchOS 9 also includes upgrades to the sleep feature, which the company says can now track when users are in different sleep stages like REM or deep... Continue reading…

What an edited message looks like in Messages on iOS 16 | Image: Apple During its WWDC 2022 event, Apple announced a bunch of new features on the way for its software platforms, including the ability to edit messages you’ve already sent in its Messages app. Apple software engineering senior VP Craig Federighi announced the changes while discussing iOS 16 updates, adding that users will be able to unsend messages, and mark threads unread to easily revisit them later, covering three of the most requested features from iMessage users.In the fine print of its event press release, Apple explains that the ability to edit or unsend a message will be available for 15 minutes, and once a message is deleted, users can recover them for up to 30 days.

Screenshot: The Verge Today, Apple announced at WWDC 2022 that it’s introducing a new feature called Safety Check in iOS 16. The new feature is meant to protect people in abusive relationships.Safety Check can help users manage app access and passwords and inform them who has their passwords and information. It’ll help people in abusive relationships more easily cut ties to an abusive partner across devices. They can do this by reviewing and revoking access for certain people. That includes apps like Find My, location, data, contacts, and more. You can also use the Emergency Reset feature, which immediately resets access for all people and apps at once across devices synced with your iCloud account. That feature can also be used to review your security... Continue reading…

Screenshot: The Verge Apple announced today the latest version of its smartwatch platform, watchOS 9. On top of usual updates like new watch faces and fitness features. The new platform will first be available for developers, while the public release is slated for this fall when the new Apple Watch Series 8 arrives.watchOS 9 will also feature “refreshed” watch faces. They include a new astronomy face, a lunar face, as well as a new typeface screen. It’s also adding new rich complications, and active apps can be pinned for quick access. There’s also a new Siri UI.It’s also adding new running metrics, such as running form, stride length, and ground contact time. It’s also adding heart rate zones, which is good news if you like training by intensity. You’ll... Continue reading…

Apple Pay Later is a new feature in iOS 16. | Image: Apple Apple is launching a new feature for Apple Pay to let you pay for purchases in four installments over time without interest, called Apple Pay Later. It’s Apple’s take on a buy now, pay later (BNPL) service, built right into Apple Pay and coming with iOS 16.Buy now, pay later services have been on the rise. You’ve probably seen names like Affirm or Klarna while shopping on the web, and Block (formerly Square) jumped into the space in a big way with its acquisition of Afterpay. Apple has been rumored to be working on its own service for some time, and it seems like what was announced Monday at WWDC will be a natural extension of the company’s strategy to encourage people to buy things using Apple Pay.You’ll be able to pay for... Continue reading…

Racking systems to hold solar panels at the site of solar farm under construction on top of an old strip mine in Portage, Pennsylvania, U.S., on Monday, April 25, 2022. | Justin Merriman/Bloomberg via Getty Images In an executive action on Monday, President Joe Biden announced a number of measures aimed at boosting solar energy in the US, including a two-year “bridge” meant to alleviate a squeeze on the flow of solar equipment imports from Cambodia, Malaysia, Thailand, and Vietnam.The moves come after a federal investigation into whether solar manufacturers had been evading tariffs on goods from China by exporting them through other countries. The Department of Commerce says it will levy penalties on companies that it finds are evading taxes as part of its investigation, but only after the two-year reprieve from tariffs on imports from Southeast Asia ends.Alongside the tariff holiday, the executive order includes two measures meant to boost... Continue reading…

A T-virus-infected dog. | Netflix It’s never good when the Umbrella Corporation decides to set up shop and convince locals that the company’s arrival isn’t something to be worried about. To their credit, most of the citizens of New Raccoon City in the latest trailer for Netflix’s upcoming Resident Evil series likely don’t know just how much danger Albert Wesker (Lance Reddick) has put them all in.Albert’s daughters Jade (Ella Balinska) and Billie (Siena Agudong) do, though, and the new trailer introduces them at a time when Umbrella’s working hard to keep the truth of what kind of work Wesker and the rest of its employees do. Though the Umbrella Corporation of the future sees itself as a different kind of pharmaceutical giant destined to save the world, most everything... Continue reading…

New Live Activities feature in iOS 16 | Image: Apple Apple has revealed the changes iOS 16 will make to notifications, its most significant update to the area since iOS 12 was released in 2018. That update allowed automatic grouping of app notifications, but now, with iOS 16, it’s getting even more organized.There’s a completely redesigned Lock Screen, customizable with widgets that look just like Apple Watch complications. Notifications in the Lock Screen now roll in from the bottom and can be hidden on the bottom of the Lock Screen. ios16, notifications Notifications in iOS 16 appear like a carousel from the bottom of the Lock Screen. The newest feature is called Live Activities, it can pin notifications that act like widgets such as live sports scores from... Continue reading…

Concept art of The Going Merry. | Netflix Though Netflix’s upcoming One Piece series is still shooting, co-showrunners Matt Owens and Steve Maeda, and actor Iñaki Godoy, joined this year’s Netflix Geeked Week to hype up their new show, and give fans a look at what they’ve been cooking up. While the trio didn’t have much to share in the way of fresh shots from the series itself, the new behind-the-scenes production video Netflix dropped made clear that its One Piece may be bringing a level of heat that the streamer’s other live-action anime adaptations have been lacking.In the video, Owens and Maeda dig into how, because of the fantastical, heightened nature of the world Eiichiro Oda created with the original One Piece manga, they felt it was necessary that many of the show’s... Continue reading…

This definitely isn’t what the game is supposed to look like. | Image: u/copalse on Reddit Diablo Immortal apparently has some wild visual glitches on some Samsung devices with Exynos chips, which in some cases render the game largely unplayable. It’s hard to explain just how weird some of the issues are, so I recommend you look for yourself in these two videos from users on Reddit.

Photo Illustration by Grayson Blackmon / The Verge After fierce pushback, development is being halted on a Taser-wielding drone proposed as a solution to mass shootings in schools.On Sunday, Axon, the maker of the Taser stun gun, announced that it was pausing work on its drone-mounted Taser project just days after the idea was presented to the public. The announcement marks the end – at least for now – of a project that was widely seen as unfeasible at best, and at worst, a dystopian extension to an already fatal line of police weaponry.The Taser drone concept was originally announced by Axon on June 2nd. Just over a week after the Uvalde shooting, CEO Rick Smith tweeted that the company was developing a “remotely operated, non-lethal drone system” and wanted to start discussions on... Continue reading…

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The kit Apple sent to The Verge’s Sean Hollister, just to replace his iPhone 13 mini’s battery. | Photo by Sean Hollister / The Verge iFixit regularly performs dissections of the latest Apple gadgets, but this time, the repair resource site pitted its tools against other tools by taking apart Apple’s new iPhone self-service repair kit (via iMore). The take-apart process on Apple’s repair tools was documented and posted on iFixit’s YouTube channel, giving an inside look at the display press, battery press, and heated display removal contraptions.The video starts off with a take-apart of the display press, which has a really smoothly operating handle that the iFixit host was most fond of, describing it as a “swan takes flight every time it glides up.” The handle is smooth because it uses ball bearings that move on a circulating track like a conveyor belt as the press... Continue reading…

Netflix All of the young people who check in to the Rotterdam Home hospice know that they aren’t long for this world, but in the first teaser trailer for Netflix’s The Midnight Club from Mike Flanagan and Leah Fong, the prospect of dying isn’t what has everyone on edge. Because of their terminal illnesses, it’s easy for seven kids at the center of The Midnight Club to make a pact that the first of them to die will be sure to contact the others from beyond the veil and confirm suspicion that ghosts are real.But when a member of the Midnight Club actually passes on, the sudden onset of inexplicable, otherworldly occurrences makes clear that the kids have been flirting with forces they don’t really understand — ones that might take the Midnight... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge If you can’t be bothered to fill out your credit card and address details when shopping for jeans online, the Nate app sounds like a service you might want. The company bills itself as an “artificial intelligence startup” that uses AI to auto-fill customer information for $1 per transaction, saving shoppers a few minutes when completing purchases through the Nate app.But instead of using high-tech methods to complete purchases, Nate transactions were often handled manually by workers in the Philippines, according to a deep dive by The Information. Speaking to two people with direct access to Nate’s internal data, The Information reports that “the share of transactions Nate handled manually rather than automatically ranged between 60... Continue reading…

Jenna Ortega as Wednesday Addams. | Netflix Though the Wednesday Addams we all know and fear has always been someone who revels in the macabre, in Netflix’s upcoming Wednesday series from Tim Burton, the morose style icon may be turning a new leaf just as she heads off to high school. To kick off this year’s Netflix Geeked Week, the streamer debuted its first Wednesday teaser trailer, introducing actor Jenna Ortega (X, Scream) as the series’ titular hellspawn as well as her good friend Thing, a living, disembodied hand, portrayed by Victor Dorobantu.Learning how to control her burgeoning psychic powers is the main reason Wednesday’s mother Morticia (Catherine Zeta-Jones) and father Gomez (Luis Guzmán) ship her off to Nevermore Academy. But, as more and more of the people around... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Google has agreed to pay $100 million to Illinois residents to settle a class-action lawsuit over one of its facial recognition features in Google Photos (via Gizmodo). The complaint alleges Google’s face grouping tool, which automatically identifies your face in photos and videos uploaded to Photos, violates Illinois’ Biometric Information Privacy Act (BIPA).Introduced in 2008, the BIPA bars companies from collecting and storing any sort of biometric data, including a “retina or iris scan, fingerprint, voiceprint, or scan of hand or face geometry” without making an individual aware in writing about why it’s collecting this kind of data as well as how long it plans on storing it. Google “is in direct violation” of this law, the... Continue reading…

Sony’s unconventional LinkBuds just got their first price break on Amazon | Photo by Chris Welch / The Verge We’re kicking off the week here at The Verge Deals with a pair of solid discounts on Sony earbuds. First off, Amazon is currently offering the first-ever discount on the Sony LinkBuds. Normally available for $179.99, you can currently get a pair for $158 at Amazon. This isn’t a massive discount, but it’s the lowest price we’ve seen yet for these unique earbuds.The Sony LinkBuds are a clear departure from conventional earbuds, using an “open-style” donut-shaped design instead of the more typical silicone ear tips. This allows for better spatial awareness and, for some people, a more comfortable fit. And the LinkBuds provide crisp sound quality and excellent voice call performance. Though, as a result of their design, they aren’t very... Continue reading…

The first trailer for Strange World, the next animated feature from Disney, looks like a pulp paperback novel cover brought to life.It’s as beautiful as it is strange, with gooey aliens, walking mountains, and lots more sci-fi oddities. Disney describes it as a story that “journeys deep into an uncharted and treacherous land where fantastical creatures await the legendary Clades, a family of explorers whose differences threaten to topple their latest — and by far — most crucial mission.” It stars Jake Gyllenhaal and has some notable names helming it as well, including director Don Hall (Big Hero 6, Raya and the Last Dragon) and co-director and writer Qui Nguyen (Raya).Strange World is slated to premiere on November 23rd, though it’s... Continue reading…

Photo Illustration by Grayson Blackmon / The Verge Verge labor reporter on the fight to unionize Continue reading…

Illustration by Kristen Radtke / The Verge; Getty Images Elon Musk says that Twitter is in “clear material breach” of their $44 billion acquisition deal and that he could “terminate” the agreement in response. In a letter sent to Twitter this morning, Musk’s legal team claims that Twitter has failed to provide him with information on the service’s spam bot problem and that he’s entitled to receive that information under the deal agreement.“Mr. Musk believes the company is actively resisting and thwarting his information rights (and the company’s corresponding obligations) under the merger agreement,” the lawyers write. The letter says Musk could choose “not to consummate the transaction” because of the alleged breach of contract.Musk has been complaining about bots since shortly after he... Continue reading…

A screenshot of the LastPass vault, where users’ passwords are stored. | Image: LastPass Password manager LastPass is rolling out a new “passwordless” method to access its desktop vault today.Previously, users had to type in their master password to unlock the company’s desktop vault (and its stored passwords). Now, they’ll be able to authenticate access via the company’s mobile app. This will include the option to use your phone’s biometric login features, like face and fingerprint unlock.“Get instant access to the accounts used every day — without ever having to enter a password”LastPass is characterizing this as a “passwordless” login, but it’s important to note that your master password isn’t going anywhere anytime soon. LastPass’ chief secure technology officer Chris Hoff says master passwords will still be... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge ‘Unless you initiate the investigation and make the case, nothing happens,’ one contractor says Continue reading…