The Verge - All Posts

An Android phone without Google. No Google apps, no Google Play Services, no peppy Google Assistant. No Google surveillance and data snooping, no incessant ad targeting, no feeling like privacy is a pointless exercise. Some companies, like Huawei, have been forced to figure out how to build this kind of device. A few others have tried for the sake of maintaining your privacy and as a way to fight back against the tyranny of Big Tech. None of it has ever really worked.The team at Murena has been working on de-Googling Android phones for the last few years, starting back in 2017 when Gael Duval created an operating system he originally called Eelo. “Like millions others, I’VE BECOME A PRODUCT OF GOOGLE,” Duval wrote in 2017. He said he... Continue reading…

iRobot has launched a new operating system for its household robot cleaners | Image: iRobot The robots are getting smarter. Two years after releasing iRobot Genius Home Intelligence, an AI-powered platform for its robot vacuums and mops, iRobot has announced its new software platform: iRobot OS. This operating system for its Roomba robot vacuum cleaners will take them to the next level, says Colin Angle CEO of iRobot, providing the household bots with a deeper understanding of your home and your habits, so they can clean both harder and smarter.While at launch the iRobot OS is not immediately adding features to existing products, it is laying the foundation for a larger leap. “The idea of moving from the iRobot Genius to iRobot OS is a declaration that the intelligence of the robot is going to be the primary differentiator of... Continue reading…

Externally, the laptop looks very similar to its predecessor. | Image: Microsoft Microsoft looks set to announce an updated version of its compact Surface Laptop Go, if an early retailer listing from Korea is to be believed.The biggest change with the Surface Laptop Go 2 appears to be its newer 11th-gen Intel CPU (an i5-1135G7), which replaces the 10th-gen model found in the original 2020 laptop. The Go 2 will ship with Windows 11 this time around, and a Google Translate of the retailer page says its webcam will have “improved HD camera performance.” Preorders are set to open on June 2nd, so an official announcement might not be far away. WinFuture previously reported that the laptop could have a starting price of $650.Otherwise, the new laptop appears to be very similar to its predecessor. It still has a... Continue reading…

Heart of Russia was the game’s next planned DLC. | Image: SCS Software Euro Truck Simulator 2 has shelved an upcoming Russia-themed expansion pack after the country’s invasion of Ukraine, its developer SCS Software has announced. In a blog post, the Czech Republic-based developer said that it has cancelled the imminent release of the Heart of Russia DLC pack “so that it is not perceived in any way as being in support of or tolerance of the aggression.”Euro Truck Simulator 2 has become a cult hit since its release in 2012, leading its developer to support it with over half a dozen major pieces of DLC in the years since. These packs have expanded the game’s map and added new countries for players to drive through. When it was officially announced in March 2021, SCS said the Heart of Russia expansion wouldn’t... Continue reading…

Photo by Mike Stobe/Getty Images Epic Games has announced plans to host an in-person Fortnite competition in November, its first major in-person competitive Fortnite event since the Fortnite World Cup in 2019.The upcoming event, the FNCS Invitational 2022, will take place on November 12th and 13th at the Raleigh Convention Center in North Carolina. “We will be inviting a selection of top FNCS Duos from around the world who will have the opportunity to compete in a single lobby for a share of a $1,000,000 prize pool,” Epic wrote in a blog post bylined by “The Fortnite Team.”However, the company stresses that player health and safety are “the number one priority for holding any in-person event” and warns that it may have the reschedule the event if “public health... Continue reading…

Photo by Mitchell Clark / The Verge Rivian’s Charly Mwangi, its executive vice president of manufacturing engineering and a former Tesla exec, is leaving the company as part of a bigger shakeup splitting up parts of the company, according to Bloomberg. “The reorganization calls for splitting the commercial business, which includes delivery vans made for Amazon, from the retail side of the company that produces the R1T plug-in pickup truck and R1S sport-utility vehicle,” Bloomberg reports. The company’s new COO, Frank Klein, will now oversee “many” senior manufacturing and supply chain employees. The Wall Street Journal also reported on the shakeup.The changes are happening as the company is starting to ramp up production of its in-demand R1T and R1S electric vehicles. In... Continue reading…

A photo of the Pixel 7 prototype. | Image: eBay listing An alleged prototype of Google’s upcoming Pixel 7 smartphone has been posted on eBay, giving us our first look at the new phone in the wild months ahead of its scheduled fall release (via Android guru Mishaal Rahman).Google just revealed the phone a few weeks ago at Google I/O, and what we can see in the prototype matches up with what Google has already shown. The distinctive camera bar is back, and this year it’s an aluminum bar with cutouts for the cameras. And the alleged prototype’s casing is a deep black that looks just like one of the colors Google showed off at I/O. Image: Google One of Google’s official Pixel 7 and Pixel 7 Pro images — including that deep black. The eBay listing includes a few photos... Continue reading…

Mixed reality forecasts are a big part of TWC’s future. | Image: The Weather Channel The Weather Channel is not trying to win you over by spending big on its version of House of Cards. It’s not bidding on The Office next time it comes up, nor is it interested in NFL games. “Our tentpole is Mother Nature,” says Nora Zimmett, TWC’s chief content officer. “And she’s always delivering weather.”TWC launched a dedicated streaming service this month. It costs $2.99 a month or $29.99 a year, and it is... well, it’s The Weather Channel. The app’s main screen is an always-on stream that replicates exactly what you’d see on cable. That, Zimmett says, is what viewers were actually looking for. “We looked at our audience and heard, ‘where can I get The Weather Channel if I don’t want to pay $200 a month for a traditional bundle?’”... Continue reading…

Nikos Nikolopoulos Welcome to the inner beauty pageant Continue reading…

Image: DeLorean DeLorean Motor Company has revealed the first images of the Alpha 5 electric vehicle (EV), the brand’s attempt at resurrecting the DeLorean name in an all-electric form. Staying true to the classic ‘80s-era DeLorean known for its appearance in Back to the Future, the Alpha 5 comes with those iconic gull-wing doors and can reach 60mph in about 2.99 seconds (or 88mph in 4.35 seconds, if you’re curious).Before we dive into the details, it’s worth noting the company behind the Alpha 5 isn’t actually the same one behind the original DeLorean vehicles — that company went defunct in 1982. An unrelated Texas-based company, which supplies replacement parts to the owners of vintage DeLorean vehicles, snapped up the rights to the DeLorean brand... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge They do not go together like peanut butter and jelly Continue reading…

Photo by Becca Farsace / The Verge Amazon is ending support for its Cloud Cam security camera and offering owners a free Blink Mini to replace it. MacRumors noted the change late last week, and The Verge obtained a copy of an email sent to customers announcing the change. Cloud Cam owners will be able to use their cameras and download video until December 2nd of this year, after which all recordings will be deleted and the hardware will no longer function. Customers with the Cloud Cam Key Edition will also lose the ability to connect to smart locks, although they can get a free fourth-generation Echo to replace the functionality.“As the number of Alexa smart home devices continues to grow, we are focusing efforts on Ring, Blink, and other technologies that make your home... Continue reading…

The Pitaka MagEZ Case Pro comes with a magnetic charging puck that attaches to the back. | Image: Pitaka If you’ve wanted MagSafe-style convenient charging on an iPad Mini, Pitaka’s latest case is here for you. The new $79 MagEZ Case Pro for the sixth-generation iPad Mini (aka the iPad Mini 6) has magnetic points on the back that pass power through the iPad’s USB-C port when used with the included pad. Or you can use it with the $129 MagEZ Charging Stand, which elevates the tablet and provides a second Qi charging spot in its base for a phone or headphones.There are some downsides to this approach. Pitaka’s case doesn’t make use of the magnets built into the back of the iPad Mini, and it blocks the USB-C port from access, leaving you with the magnetic pad as the only way to charge the device. Forget about transferring any data over a wired... Continue reading…

An early image of Google’s upcoming tablet, released earlier this month. | Image: Google Google’s upcoming Pixel Tablet might support the cross-manufacturer USI (Universal Stylus Initiative) standard, allowing it to be used with a range of third party styluses, if a recently-discovered entry in the USI’s list of certified products is to be believed. The entry, which we spotted via NuGiz, lists a device from Google with the product name “Tangor” and the model number “Tablet,” which are presumably placeholder names for the Android-powered tablet Google announced earlier this month.USI is an industry-wide stylus standard that Google joined in 2018. It’s already supported across a range of Chromebooks, allowing them to be used with a variety of styluses from different manufacturers. But while there are plenty of proprietary... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge RealityOS — the name Apple is reportedly using for the operating system running on its rumored virtual and augmented reality headset — has appeared in a trademark filing spotted by Parker Ortolani. Bloomberg News was first to report the “reality operating system” branding back in 2017, and references to the name have appeared in Apple’s software.The trademark application hasn’t officially been filed by Apple, but it’s common practice for large companies to apply for trademarks under one-off company names — like Realityo Systems LLC, in this case — in the state of Delaware for the sole purpose of maintaining anonymity.The trademark application is the latest evidence that Apple is on the cusp of announcing its long-rumored headset. It... Continue reading…

It measures 6.5 feet in length with both blades attached. | Image: Hasbro Hasbro has designed a lifelike lightsaber just in time for the premiere of the new Obi-Wan Kenobi series, one that might be the toymaker’s most ambitious — and expensive — replica yet. The Black Series Reva Force FX Elite Lightsaber costs $499 and measures a total of 6.5 feet long with both blades attached. It’s modeled after the lightsaber wielded by the Third Sister, also known as Reva, a cold and callous Inquisitor set on hunting down Obi-Wan.Just like the iconic lightsabers we’ve seen held by Inquisitors in past Star Wars series, you can take off one of the blades, as well as remove half of the circle in the center of the lightsaber. There are a number of cool lighting and sound effects that you can activate too, and they work... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Apple’s attempt to dismiss an amended antitrust lawsuit filed by the creator of Cydia, an app store for jailbroken iPhones, has failed (via Reuters). California District Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers denied Apple’s motion to dismiss the case on Thursday and is giving the company 21 days to respond to Cydia’s refiled complaint.Cydia developer Jay Freeman (who also goes by the username Saurik), first filed a lawsuit against Apple in 2020. The complaint alleges Apple “has wrongfully acquired and maintained monopoly power” in iOS app distribution and payments, ultimately “depriving” third-party app stores of “the ability to compete with the App Store.” Cydia emerged before the Apple App Store even existed, and allowed users to find and... Continue reading…

Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge Apple may finally bring always-on display to the upcoming iPhone 14 Pro and Pro Max. According to a report from Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman, Apple could introduce the feature with iOS 16, allowing the iPhone to display a limited amount of information even when it’s locked.Gurman says the iPhone’s version of always-on mode could work similarly to the way it does with the Apple Watch Series 5 and up — the iPhone 14 Pro and Pro Max will drop the lock screen’s frame rate with always-on mode enabled, letting them conserve energy while the display remains powered on. It’s unclear if the new iPhone will use the same low-temperature polycrystalline oxide (LTPO) display Apple uses in newer Watch models. These low-powered screens play a huge part in... Continue reading…

Image: Aspyr Media Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic (KOTOR) II: The Sith Lords is heading to the Nintendo Switch on June 8th, as announced at this year's Star Wars Celebration event. The sequel to the classic KOTOR RPG is supposed to feature some performance enhancements and resolution upgrades, as well as a Restored Content DLC set to arrive post-launch. Image: Aspyr Media As you might’ve guessed, the Restored Content DLC comes with the content that Obsidian Entertainment and Aspyr Media, the game’s developers, left out during their rush to launch the game in 2004. There’s already a fanmade mod for KOTOR II on Steam that restores some of this lost content, but it’s unclear how similar the official DLC will be when it comes out.Y... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Twitter started testing Circle earlier this month with a limited group, and now it looks like it’s starting to roll out to more users (via Android Police). The feature works a lot like Instagram’s Close Friends, as it allows users to send out tweets to a specific group of people rather than all of Twitter.Right now, it’s unclear how many people currently have access to Circle. It looks like more users (myself included) are finally seeing the feature pop up when they start composing a tweet, but some users still report not having access quite yet. Twitter spokesperson Joseph Nunez told The Verge it’s still in testing. “We are still currently testing Twitter Circle with a group of people across iOS, Android and Web globally,” Nunez said.... Continue reading…

The Ayn Loki inherits much of its design from the Ayn Odin. | Image: Ayn Ayn, the maker of the Odin Android handheld, is releasing a lineup of what it calls the “most affordable” portable Windows gaming consoles yet (via Liliputing). The cheapest of the bunch starts at just $299 — $100 less than the 64GB Steam Deck.Ayn announced the news in a YouTube video and a series of posts on Instagram, giving us a look at what we can expect for looks, tech specs, and pricing. While the entry-level $299 Loki Mini comes with 64GB of storage and an Intel Alder Lake U chip, the standard Loki handheld has an AMD Ryzen 5 6600U chip with three different storage options: 64GB, 256GB, and 512GB, each costing $499, $599, and $699, respectively. The $799 Loki Max features an upgraded AMD Ryzen 7 6800U chip and 512GB of storage.... Continue reading…

comcast Comcast has received a patent for a smart speaker — one with a very unusual design, to say the least (thanks to @SteveDonohue on Twitter for pointing this out). Instead of opting for a spherical shape that comes with the Amazon Echo and Apple HomePod Mini, or even the rounded rectangular look of the Google Nest Audio device, a sketch shows what appears to be a speaker with a sloped top and a wide base.Online records show that Comcast first filed for the patent last year, but it didn’t get approved until April 2022. As seen in the sketch, the device seems to have playback controls on the side of the speaker, with an additional button and a small stand on the bottom. Image: Comcast via USPTO The smart speaker... Continue reading…

The 2022 iPad Air looks a lot like the 2020 model, but with faster performance. | Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge It’s officially Memorial Day Weekend. Time to get the grill going, throw some drinks in the cooler, and saddle up for some hot deals. We’ve been covering sales and discounts for Memorial Day all week, and we’ve got some fresh ones for your Saturday.First off, Apple’s latest iPad Air with expanded 256GB storage is down to $679 at Amazon. This $70 discount is the best price in over a month for this configuration. If you don’t feel that you need the extra storage, the 64GB model is $569.99 (about $30 off) at Amazon and Walmart. Though the 256GB helps ensure you don’t run short on space too quickly.This latest generation of the iPad Air looks a lot like the previous model from 2020, but it’s been given a big performance boost by borrowing... Continue reading…

Vecna in his natural habitat. | Image: Netflix Vecna is here to terrorize Hawkins Continue reading…

Photo by James Bareham / The Verge While Google’s Chromebooks are all about online services, sometimes you need a good old-fashioned printout to accompany your digital adventures.Printing from a Chromebook has gotten a lot easier over the years, but it still isn’t always obvious how to get started or which paths to embrace. Follow this guide, and with any luck, you’ll be churning out paper from your cloud-centric computer in no time.[Note: unfortunately, the Cloud Print system, which made it a lot easier to print using any cloud-connected device, was relegated to the Google graveyard in 2020. This means that some older printers may not be able to print from a Chromebook, period. Before purchasing a printer, especially a used one, make sure it’s compatible with ChromeOS.... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge The recent collapse of the TerraUSD (UST) stablecoin caught the crypto market by surprise. For people who saw Terra as a more secure asset compared to other, more openly volatile cryptocurrencies, and invested heavily in the coin or its associated Anchor protocol, they are now dealing with the aftermath as they let go of assets to try and make up for their lost nest eggs.A report by The Wall Street Journal on Friday told the stories of several of these investors, including one doctor who explained how the fall of TerraUSD is affecting his family’s future.

It claims the company intimidated workers. | Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Workers at the Cumberland Mall Apple store will no longer hold a union election in June, according to a report from Bloomberg. The Communications Workers of America (or CWA), the union attempting to organize the store, says it withdrew the request to hold an election because “Apple’s repeated violations of the National Labor Relations Act have made a free and fair election impossible.”The vote, which was scheduled to begin on June 2nd, would’ve been the first union election at a US Apple store had it gone through. Now, that title will go to a store in Maryland, barring that petition also being withdrawn. Workers at the Towson Town Center store are set to start voting in person on June 15th.The union says Apple intimidated workers and... Continue reading…

Meta’s new Privacy Policy menu | Image: Meta As it occasionally does, the company formerly known as Facebook has produced a new revision of its Terms of Service and updated its privacy policy. The old Facebook Data Policy is now Meta’s Privacy Policy, rewritten “to make it easier to understand and to reflect the latest products we offer.”With this revision, Meta “is not collecting, using or sharing your data in new ways based on this policy update and we still do not sell your information,” according to the company. Instead, this update tweaks the language and adds examples to help people understand what each segment is about.“the status quo is not good for privacy”After reading through the new policy and comparing it to the old one, this appears to hold up, for better or... Continue reading…

Blizzard Diablo Immortal is hell, literally, but playing it doesn’t have to be. Ahead of the game’s June 2nd release date, the Diablo team at Blizzard talked about some of the accessibility features they’ve built into Diablo Immortal to make hell that works for everyone.Controller support was something really important to bring to Diablo Immortal.“You will be able to play Diablo Immortal with controllers on both mobile devices and on PC,” Blizzard wrote in its accessibility blog. “Many controls — including skills, accessing chat, and more — can be remapped from the controller tab of the settings menu.”In addition to controller support, Blizzard is also sending Diablo Immortal reviewers a Razer Kishi controller that turns your phone into a... Continue reading…

Praise the servers. | Image: FromSoftware The servers for the Dark Souls series have been offline for PC players for months due to a remote code execution (RCE) exploit that could let hackers take over your computer, but developer FromSoftware is in the process of restoring the servers, according to a PC Gamer article published Friday.“We are currently in the process of restoring the online servers for the Dark Souls series on PC,” FromSoftware said to PC Gamer in an email. “We plan to restore online service for each game progressively, bringing back servers for Dark Souls 3 once we complete the necessary work to correct the problem. We will provide additional updates as soon as the restoration schedule is finalized. We want to thank all our players for your patience and... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Google’s latest Chromebook update adds a feature that tells you if your USB-C cable has limited functionality, the company announced Friday. USB-C cables can have widely varying capabilities, offering things like different charging and data transfer speeds on a cable-by-cable basis, so this new Chromebook feature seems like it could be a useful tool to help troubleshoot issues.“Eligible Chromebooks will notify you if the USB-C cable you’re using won’t support displays, or isn’t performing ideally for your laptop,” Google says in a blog post. “You’ll also get a notification if the cable you’re using doesn’t support the high performance USB4 / Thunderbolt 3 standards that your Chromebook does.” The new feature is coming first to... Continue reading…

The scale-back seems significant. | Photo by Allison Johnson / The Verge Samsung is reportedly scaling back the number of phones it’s planning on producing in 2022, from 310 million to 280 million, according to SamMobile, which cites a report from Korean outlet Maeil Business News. In absolute terms, that’s still quite a lot of phones, but it’s a relatively sharp decrease from the company’s original goal (and from the reported number of phones it and its partners produced last year). It seems that there may be a trend of manufacturers preparing for the economy to get worse before it gets better.Reportedly, the lowered production targets will affect phones across its lineup, from low-end models to flagships. In a way, cutting the production of its less expensive phones sounds counter-intuitive — wouldn’t more... Continue reading…

Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge Analogue Pocket’s long-awaited 1.1 update will finally be arriving in July, Analogue announced in a short blog post on Friday.The Analogue Pocket OS v1.1 release will include beta versions of the Library, Memories, and FPGA development features, according to the blog post. You can read more about the first two features in our article from October; the Library will be a huge historical archive about retro games, while Memories will let you capture and load save states as well as capture screenshots.It seems like the development feature will allow developers to take advantage of the Analogue’s second FPGA (field-programmable gate array). “Pocket is designed to be as easy as possible to develop and port FPGA cores to,” Analogue says on... Continue reading…

Kristen Radtke / The Verge The last few years have been incredibly hard for almost everyone, so now that summer is about here, it’s a good idea to step outside and decompress a bit with whatever activity suits you best — whether it’s a favorite sport, a long hike, overnight camping, bird-watching, bicycling, or just sitting on a beach and watching the waves come in.As we’ve done for the last couple of years, we asked some of our colleagues from The Verge what they were planning to take with them in their outdoor escapes. Here are some of their recommendations, including outdoor tech, camera gear, rugged footwear, and gadgets that help them take it easy.Outdoor techZMI PowerPack 20000Months predominantly spent indoors did wonders for my battery anxiety. Not... Continue reading…

Choose from Computer, Echo, Amazon or... Ziggy | Photo by Dan Seifert / The Verge If you’re getting tired of saying “Alexa” to get your smart speaker’s attention, or if Amazon’s voice assistant keeps thinking you’ve called on it when you haven’t, it might be time to try a new name.Perhaps you’d prefer to invoke the capabilities of the assistant with the word “Computer,” and mimic life on the Starship Enterprise from the comfort of your home. Or maybe you’re one of the parents of the 6,000 babies who were named Alexa in 2015 before the AI was a household name (a number that unsurprisingly plummeted to 1,900 by 2019).Either way, it’s simple to change the Amazon voice assistant’s wake word, and there are a few different words to choose from. Here’s a look at how you can evict Alexa in favor of a new wake word. ... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge The US Securities and Exchange Commission is scrutinizing Elon Musk’s initial disclosure that he’d taken a substantial stake in Twitter. In a letter sent last month, the SEC told Musk that he “does not appear” to have disclosed his acquisition of Twitter shares within the agency’s required 10-day window. The agency also suggested that Musk likely used the wrong form when he eventually disclosed his stake, using a document that wasn’t meant for someone who was hoping to make changes at the company being bought into.Reports have trickled out that the SEC was looking into Musk’s disclosure, but this is the first public indication of the inquiry. The letter, filed April 4th but just now made public, requests clarifications from Musk on why... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Verizon is dealing with an incident where a hacker captured a database containing company employee data, including the full names of workers as well as their ID numbers, email addresses, and phone numbers. Motherboard reported that the database is legitimate, as the anonymous hacker contacted them last week, and they were able to verify the data by calling some of the numbers.“These employees are idiots,” the hacker told Motherboard via chat. The hacker is seeking $250,000 in exchange for not leaking the database and said they are in contact with Verizon.A Verizon spokesperson contacted Motherboard confirming the incident, saying, “A fraudster recently contacted us threatening to release readily available employee directory information... Continue reading…

Ewan McGregor as Obi-Wan Kenobi in Obi-Wan Kenobi. | Image: Matt Kennedy / Lucasfilm Ltd. A beloved hero, ferocious villains, and lots of world-building Continue reading…

A carbon dioxide warning is displayed on the grounds near equipment installed as part of the Petra Nova Carbon Capture Project at the NRG Energy Inc. WA Parish generating station in Thompsons, Texas, U.S., on Thursday, Feb. 16, 2017. | Photographer: Luke Sharrett/Bloomberg via Getty Images Federal regulators are beginning to crack down on a new generation of pipelines that will be crucial for the Biden administration’s plans to capture millions of tons of carbon dioxide to combat climate change.The Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA) proposed penalties yesterday on the operator of one such pipeline that ruptured in Mississippi, sending at least 45 people to the hospital in 2020. The agency also pledged to craft new rules to prevent similar pipeline failures from happening as the US makes plans to build out a network of pipelines to transport captured CO2.A new generation of pipelinesThere are not many of these pipelines (compared to oil and gas pipelines) yet in the US, which are primarily... Continue reading…

Image: Barnes & Noble Barnes & Noble hasn’t completely forgotten its lineup of Nook e-readers. Starting today, you can preorder the new Nook GlowLight 4e for $119.99. That’s about $30 more than Amazon’s cheapest Kindle and $20 cheaper than Amazon’s extremely popular Paperwhite. But, unlike Amazon’s products, there are no ads you have to pay to avoid, and you can easily sideload content.The Nook GlowLight 4e charges via USB-C and has 8GB of built-in storage, which is standard for an e-reader at this price. It also has a 6-inch 212 ppi E Ink display with illumination. That’s better than the $89.99 Amazon Kindle with its 6-inch 167 ppi display, but the Kobo Nia starts at $99.99 and has the exact same display. The Kobo Clara HD retails for the exact same as the... Continue reading…

Bose’s QuietComfort 45 are the most comfortable noise-canceling headphones and are currently available at an all-time low. | Photo by Chris Welch / The Verge If you’re planning on flying this summer, a good pair of noise-canceling headphones that can help you tune out fellow passengers like the Bose QuietComfort 45s can come in handy. Regularly $329, you can buy them right now for $279 from Amazon, Best Buy, and Bose, which matches its all-time low and is the first significant discount we’ve seen in months.These are the most comfortable noise-canceling over-ears we’ve tested, with oval ear cups that help to prevent ear fatigue while, say, on long flights. At the same time, they’re also pretty light and foldable, making them easy to carry with you and pack, and their 24-hour battery means you won’t need to worry about recharging them anytime soon. Other notable features include a useful... Continue reading…

Photo by Andrew Hawkins / The Verge A rural Michigan man became the first person in the nation to receive a Ford F-150 Lightning, according to Bloomberg. Nicholas Schmidt, the chief technology officer of a grid optimization startup, took delivery Thursday of a silver electric truck at Richardson Ford, a dealership in the small town of Standish, Michigan.According to Bloomberg, Schmidt owns a Tesla Model 3 and put a deposit down for one of the company’s Cybertrucks and also considered purchasing a Rivian R1T truck as well. He said his wife was relieved when it was clear that the F-150 Lightning would be the first to arrive. (Schmidt has since tweeted that his Cybertruck reservation is “no longer needed.”)Ford is counting on its decades of production and delivery... Continue reading…

Illustration by Kristen Radtke / The Verge; Getty Images As concerns mount about the future of Elon Musk’s buyout agreement, Twitter’s board of directors has seen an unexpected shake-up.On Wednesday, Silver Lake co-CEO Egon Durban failed to win support from a majority of Twitter shareholders to remain on the board for another term after two investor groups raised concerns that Durban sits on the board of too many public companies. Durban offered his resignation in the wake of the vote, but on Friday, the other board members declined to accept it, instead forging an agreement for Durban to resign from two other board seats over the course of the next year.“accepting Mr. Durban’s tendered resignation at this time is not in the best interests of the Company”In the filing, the board takes note... Continue reading…

Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge Sony will broadcast almost half an hour of PlayStation trailers and announcements during its State of Play livestream next Thursday at 3PM PT (6PM ET), the company announced today. It’s yet to announce any specific games that are set to appear at the event but says it’ll include “exciting reveals from our third-party partners” as well as a look at “several” games in development for its upcoming virtual reality headset, the PlayStation VR2.News of the livestream follows an announcement at Sony’s investor day that it plans to have over 20 “major” titles available for the VR headset at launch (the date of which is yet to be announced). There’s currently just one confirmed game for Sony’s upcoming headset, a spinoff of the Horizon... Continue reading…

Concept art from Alejandro Jodorowsky’s Dune bible. Spice DAO, the cryptocurrency collective that bought a script bible for Alejandro Jodorowsky’s never-made Dune adaptation, is apparently still figuring out what to make of its success. Earlier this week, the collective stopped working with a core member who posted virulently hateful messages as part of a self-described internet art project. Now, the project’s originator has suggested Spice DAO will back off its quixotic goal of creating a community-owned media powerhouse — but it’s not clear the group is actually changing any plans.Towards the end of 2021, the decentralized autonomous organization (or DAO) raised millions of dollars to purchase a rare copy of Jodorowsky’s Dune bible, then found itself with a sizable leftover treasury... Continue reading…

Chrome OS isn’t the most option-packed operating system around, but there are some things you can do to make your Chromebook’s desktop look and work the way you want.Ready?Customize your Chromebook’s wallpaperFirst, let’s tackle your desktop’s basic appearance:

The Retro 35 charger. | Image: Shargeek / Indiegogo Accessory-maker Shargeek has launched an Indiegogo to fund a 35W USB-C charger shaped like a tiny Apple Macintosh computer. The page for the Retro 35’s crowdfunding campaign is very careful not to mention the name of Apple’s classic computer, but it’s drawn some very obvious inspiration, from the beige color scheme down to the placement of the disk drive. The device is eventually set to retail for $49, with Indiegogo “early bird” pricing starting at $25.As increasing numbers of phone manufacturers have stopped shipping charging bricks with their devices, aftermarket chargers are becoming more popular. Often, these bricks offer additional ports or higher charging speeds compared to their first-party equivalents, but it’s fun to see... Continue reading…