The Verge

SpaceX founder Elon Musk during an event on August 25th, 2022, in Boca Chica Beach, Texas. | Photo by Michael Gonzalez / Getty Images A group of former SpaceX employees has filed unfair labor practice charges with the National Labor Relations Board, The New York Times reports. The employees say they were fired illegally after putting together a letter that called on the company to strengthen its “zero-tolerance policies” following sexual harassment allegations against Elon Musk.Nine employees were ultimately fired after the letter came out in June, the Times reports, eight of whom filed the charges with federal regulators. The letter, first reported on by The Verge, asked SpaceX executives for three things: to curb “Elon’s harmful Twitter behavior,” to define and enforce the company’s sexual harassment policies, and ensure that all leadership is held accountable for... Continue reading…

Jabari Banks as Will Smith and Olly Sholotan as Carlton Banks. | Peacock Just in time to mark the anniversary of its season 1 debut on Peacock, Bel-Air is about to return to the streaming service for a second season of stories inspired by the original Fresh Prince of Bel-Air.After a season of focusing on young Will Smith (Jabari Banks) doing his best to get used to living with his upper-middle-class relatives in all their uber-luxe trappings, Bel-Air’s first season came to a dramatic close by unexpectedly bringing Will’s father Lou (Marlon Wayans) back into the picture. Between seeing his absentee father for the first time in years and learning that most of the adults in his family had been keeping a number of thorny secrets from him, Will came close to calling it quits in LA, and it seemed as if he was... Continue reading…

Businesses can be searched for like preexisting contacts. | Image: Meta WhatsApp is officially launching a new business directory feature across Brazil, the UK, Indonesia, Mexico, and Colombia. Meta says users will either be able to browse by business category (like travel or banking) or else search directly to find companies that are contactable on the service. Those signed up for WhatsApp’s Business Platform across all five countries will appear in the directory, while in Brazil, the directory will also be open to small businesses.The official launch of the feature follows a limited test that WhatsApp conducted in São Paulo, Brazil, last year. The feature is only available on Android in Brazil but is available across both Android and iOS in other countries.“While millions of businesses in Brazil use... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge In an email early Wednesday morning, billionaire Twitter owner Elon Musk gave the remaining employees at the company an ultimatum. They can stay and sign on to a “hardcore” culture of “long hours at high intensity” or leave. Employees have until 5PM ET today to fill out an online form with their decision.But just hours before the deadline, key questions about the terms of the agreement remained unanswered, with employee livelihoods, visas, and careers hanging in the balance. On Wednesday, confusion reigned as employees sought out answers to how their employment might be affected. How would severance offers work? What would happen to employees on leave or vacation? What about people on visas, for whom their ability to stay in the US... Continue reading…

The Meross Smart Wi-Fi Plug Mini may be one of the first Matter devices you can buy. | Image: Meross While Matter has officially launched, you still can’t buy a Matter-compatible device to use with the new smart home standard. Today, smart home device maker Meross announced its Matter Smart Wi-Fi Plug Mini, its first Matter-enabled smart plug. You can preorder it now for its release on December 31st.This might be the very first device you can buy with the Matter logo on it, indicating that it's ready to go with Matter out of the box. While some companies have announced updates to existing products — including Eve and Wiz, who have said they will roll out firmware upgrades this year to their existing products — most have said devices with Matter built-in won’t be available to buy until next year. Image: Meross T... Continue reading…

There are some nice new features coming to Google Maps. | Illustration: The Verge Google revealed some initial details about Search with Live View in September, but now it’s announcing the Google Maps augmented reality feature will begin rolling out in London, Los Angeles, New York, Paris, San Francisco, and Tokyo on Android and iOS beginning next week.The feature shows you things like coffee shops and ATMs when you’re holding up your phone and pointing it at the world around you.If you’re in a city where Search with Live View is available, just tap the camera button in the Google Maps search bar, point your phone’s camera at the buildings and places nearby, and look for the dots that pop up indicating where landmarks are.You can tap on a dot to learn more about it. This one is a little more easily understood in... Continue reading…

Old skewl meets new skewl with Google 3D and AR shopping. | Image: Google It’s now possible to use Google search for more than just Taylor Swift ticket queries: starting today in the US, the search engine will use augmented reality to help you find the perfect pair of shoes from the comfort of your home. The search giant is also making its AR beauty feature more inclusive and easier to use.As what appears to be a part of the reinvention of Google’s search engine, Google now displays 360-degree 3D views of sneakers after first introducing the feature during September’s Search On event. You can zoom in on the details, spin the shoes around, and use AR to see what they’d look like in your own space. Google now lets you shop for some sneaker brands like Vans in 3D and AR. For now, though,... Continue reading…

Microsoft’s “holiday” packaging for the Xbox Series S. | Image: Microsoft Microsoft is dropping the price of its Xbox Series S console to $249.99 for the holidays. The new promotional price starts today and includes special holiday-themed packaging. It’s part of a series of Black Friday deals from Microsoft that includes up to $300 off the new Surface Laptop 5, $200 off select Surface Pro 9 models, and up to 67 percent off Xbox digital games.While we saw the Xbox Series S drop as low as $249 in a limited offer that lasted just hours at Woot earlier this year, Microsoft’s official promotion means Best Buy, the Microsoft Store, and other retailers will all be offering the console at this promotional price. Target is even bundling a $50 gift card with its own Xbox Series S deal.Microsoft Gaming CEO Phil Spencer... Continue reading…

Motional Motional, the autonomous vehicle joint venture between Hyundai and Aptiv, is bringing its robotaxis to Los Angeles, where they will be available to hail through the Lyft app.The service is comprised of Motional’s fleet of Hyundai Ioniq 5 electric vehicles, which will be fully autonomous at the time of launch and not require a human safety driver behind the wheel.The company would not say when exactly the service will go live, though. “We plan to reveal timing when we are closer to launch,” a Motional spokesperson said. Previously, Motional said it wouldn’t deploy fully autonomous vehicles until 2023, so it’s probably safe to assume that LA residents won’t be able to hail one of the company’s vehicles until at least January.LA will... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Google is tweaking Android to offer a new prompt in the face of software crashes that reminds you to update your damn apps.“Update the app to fix crashes,” the prompt says, according to Esper’s senior technical editor Mishaal Rahman. “The app stopped working, but the latest update for the app may fix the issue. Install the update and then open the app again.”Obviously the prompt is only going to help if an app isn’t already fully updated. If you’re already running its latest version and it’s still crashing, then frustratingly it’s likely that a fix isn’t available (yet). Still, given the amount of times I’ve personally been able to resolve crashing issues with a simple update, I’m hoping that the new prompt will be more helpful than... Continue reading…

Pokémon Go developer Niantic has unveiled its latest tech demo showing off what it thinks could be the future of augmented reality gaming. The trailer, which apparently depicts “actual headset gameplay” shows a handful of players wearing AR glasses as they interact with shared virtual objects, including game elements as well as more practical virtual signage, while out and about. A couple of the players appear to be interacting with the game using handheld motion controllers, but there’s no sign of anyone needing to directly use a smartphone to play.The trailer was released to coincide with several announcements made at this year’s Qualcomm Snapdragon Summit. These include a new processor from the mobile chip giant, a new reference... Continue reading…

A trainer riding Koraidon, one of the new additions to Pokémon Violet and Scarlet. | Image: Nintendo The latest Pokémon release is a big, expansive adventure that also pushes the Nintendo Switch to its limits. Continue reading…

Qualcomm has announced a new subbrand of CPUs for its Snapdragon family of products, called Oryon. The new CPU will be released in 2023 and available to manufacturers to use in devices such as Windows PCs, smartphones, and other applications. The company announced the new CPU at its Snapdragon Summit on Wednesday, but provided few details about what it entails.The company has made Snapdragon-branded chips for Windows and Chrome OS computers for a few years now but has had slow traction getting them into many Windows devices. The few ultraportable computers that have used Qualcomm’s Arm chips have been niche, premium devices that appeal to a specific subset of PC buyers, but not the broader market. Image: Qualcomm ... Continue reading…

This is a photo of Aoki performing in Las Vegas, not at the Amazon event. | Photo by David Becker/Getty Images Amazon may have just confirmed that it would be laying off employees, but it seems to still have room for a Steve Aoki concert. On Wednesday evening, the superstar DJ performed a live concert for what appeared to be a group of Amazon warehouse employees, and the whole thing was streamed on the AmazonVestLife Twitch channel.We learned this was happening at all thanks to the New York Times’ Karen Weise, who tweeted about the performance shortly before it wrapped up. But it seems the concert wasn’t exactly a secret, as the “amazonvestlife” Instagram (which, like the Twitch channel, describes itself as the “official account for Amazon associates”) posted a story featuring Aoki to promote the show earlier on Wednesday. The DJ gave a shoutout... Continue reading…

Image: Toyota Toyota’s Prius has long been the ugly duckling of the eco-car market, but the automaker is finally delivering a version that’s easier on the eyes. The redesigned fifth-generation 2023 Prius was just revealed in Japan, with a sportier coupe-like look to hide that it’s still a four-door compact with hybrid and plug-in hybrid options.It’s certainly prettier, no doubt — the 1997 Prius was the first mass-produced hybrid electric vehicle, but it wasn’t very visually appealing, nor were any of the successive iterations. Toyota says this new one follows the “monoform silhouette” design introduced in the second-generation Prius (2003-2009), and the development team started from scratch to create a “Hybrid Reborn” concept that heavily informs... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge The lending arm of the cryptocurrency brokerage Genesis is suspending redemptions and new loan originations as it deals with a wave of withdrawals following the fall of FTX. In a statement on Twitter, Genesis says the “abnormal withdrawal requests” have exceeded its “current liquidity.”FTX, which was once the third biggest cryptocurrency exchange by volume, filed for bankruptcy last week, causing panic to ripple through the crypto community as investors pull their funds from other exchanges in fear that they might suffer the same fate. This influx of withdrawals hit Genesis as well, which revealed last week that it has $175 million locked up in FTX.

You won’t be seeing the FTX logo on TSM’s jerseys. | Image: TSM The esports giant TSM FTX is suspending its blockbuster sponsorship deal with the collapsed cryptocurrency exchange and is dropping FTX from its name.“After monitoring the evolving situation and discussing internally, we’re suspending our partnership with FTX effective immediately,” TSM wrote on Twitter on Wednesday. “This means that FTX branding will no longer appear on any of our org, team and player social media profiles, and will also be removed from our player jerseys.”

Starting January 16th, Airbnb guests will need to verify their identities in order to book stays in its top 35 countries and regions. | Image: Airbnb Airbnb is cracking down on parties booked through its service and will require that all guests in top countries verify their identity for a booking to be successfully completed. The new policies are meant to improve hosting experiences and drive more bookings to the platform.Starting today, Airbnb will require that all users verify their identity if they’re booking in any of the platform’s top 35 countries and regions, representing 90 percent of all reservations. Tara Bunch, Airbnb’s head of global operations, said in an interview with Fast Company that around 80 percent of the platform’s guests and hosts were already verified prior to this expansion. The process requires guests to verify their identity using personal information such... Continue reading…

Image: Evernote Evernote is getting a new owner. In an announcement on Wednesday, the note-taking app announced that it’s getting acquired by the Italian mobile developer Bending Spoons in a transaction that’s set to take place early next year.As part of the acquisition, Evernote will join Bending Spoons’ existing lineup of apps, which includes the video editing app Splice and the AI image enhancement app Remini. Evernote CEO Ian Small says the deal will let the company take advantage of Bending Spoons’ “proven app expertise and wide range of proprietary technologies” so it can work on building new features.“We are grateful to our customers and employees, and are excited to team-up with Bending Spoons,” Small said in a statement. “This strategic... Continue reading…

A black flying fox (Pteropus alecto) takes flight in an urban flying fox roost in Queensland, Australia. | Image: Pat Jones Stressed, hungry bat populations are linked to growing cases of an emerging zoonotic disease in Australia, new research finds. The bats have learned to adapt to more persistent food shortages by roosting closer to humans. That raises the risk of the potentially fatal Hendra virus jumping from bats to horses to people, according to a study published today in the journal Nature.“We want to be able to keep the reservoir hosts [aka bats] happy”Nevertheless, the research tells a story about why it’s important to protect bats that have gained a somewhat unfair bad rap for exposing humans to new kinds of viruses. At the end of the day, we actually influence each other’s ability to live in a healthy environment. It’s part of a concept called “O... Continue reading…

Illustration: The Verge If you’re subscribed to Google Fi’s Unlimited Plus plan, you can now enjoy an extra perk in addition to unlimited data: one year free of YouTube Premium.Starting today, new and existing members enrolled in Google Fi’s premium plan won’t have to pay the $119.99 annual fee for one year of the increasingly popular service, Patrick Seybold, Google’s global PR lead for Stadia, AR and Project Starline, told The Verge in an email.Even better? You won’t have to share the service with others if you opt for the family plan either, as each person will get their own YouTube Premium subscription.“Wireless consumers are increasingly opting for unlimited plans to fuel growing appetites for media, games, and other high-bandwidth applications... Continue reading…

Promotional art for League of Legends. | Image: Riot Games Ubisoft and Riot Games are teaming up on a new research project that’s intended to reduce toxic in-game chats.The new project, called “Zero Harm in Comms,” will be broken up into two main phases. For the first phase, Ubisoft and Riot will try to create a framework that lets them share, collect, and tag data in a privacy-protecting way. It’s a critical first step to ensure that the companies aren’t keeping data that contains personally identifiable information, and if Ubisoft and Riot find they can’t do it, “the project stops,” Yves Jacquier, executive director at Ubisoft La Forge, said in an interview with The Verge.Once that privacy-protecting framework is established, Ubisoft and Riot plan to build tools that use AI trained by the... Continue reading…

The Pokémon: Art Through the Ages exhibition at The Trafford Centre in Manchester. | Photo: Jay Castello No matter where the series goes, much of its appeal lies in the past, and that tension was on display at a recent exhibition in Manchester. Continue reading…

Just a week after 9/11, while the country was still reeling, a series of letters began arriving at news organizations and Senate offices. The envelopes were innocuous, indistinguishable from other mail, but inside was a white powder, a rare bacteria that can be fatal if inhaled — anthrax. Five people died, and 17 were sickened in one of the most deadly biological attacks in US history. Yet anthrax had the potential to inflict far more harm: if the spores had been released from a rooftop in downtown Washington, DC, it might have infected hundreds of thousands of people. One letter included the message, “DEATH TO AMERICA,” perhaps indicating more to come. But how could we plan for a silent, odorless killer?Responding to the universe of... Continue reading…

Image: Microsoft Samsung is expanding access on its older smart TVs to Xbox Cloud Gaming, Nvidia’s GeForce Now, and other game streaming services. Starting today and rolling out through the end of the year, apps for Xbox Cloud Gaming, Amazon Luna, GeForce Now, and Utomik will be available on select 2021 Samsung smart TVs.Samsung originally launched a gaming TV hub for its 2022 smart TVs and monitors earlier this year that included access to Xbox Cloud Gaming, Stadia, and GeForce Now. “When Samsung Gaming Hub rolled out earlier this year on 2022 TV models, the number one question we received was ‘when is cloud gaming coming to my 2021 TV?’ Today we’re happy to share with our eager fans that they’ll be able to play the games they love before the end of... Continue reading…

The software update is available for all 2022 Blade 14 laptops, whether it’s black, silver, or pink. | Image: Razer Razer’s 2022 Blade 14 gaming laptop now comes in silver, making it look even more MacBook-like. But in bigger news, the company is releasing a software update for all 2022 Blade 14 models that upgrades its two USB-C 3.2 Gen 2 ports to the more feature-rich USB 4 spec along with Thunderbolt 4 support.The USB-C 3.2 Gen 2 spec tops out at 20Gbps, but Razer spokesperson Gilberto Williams-Gamboa confirmed to The Verge that this update to USB 4 has doubled the bandwidth of the Blade 14’s two USB-C ports to a maximum of 40Gbps. Razer claims that the upgrade to USB 4 will provide “expanded peripheral compatibility,” including support for Thunderbolt 4 docks and external graphics card (eGPU) enclosures as well as for other use cases, like... Continue reading…

It’s the same controller but with USB-C ports. | Image: Backbone The Backbone One mobile gaming controller is now shipping for Android. There isn’t much that’s different from the iOS version that launched in 2020; it’s $99.99, the Lightning ports have been swapped for USB-C ports, and it has a polished, feature-packed companion app that makes gaming on your phone feel like you’re using a console. Inserting your phone will allow you to play native Android games as well as cloud-based titles from Xbox Cloud Gaming and Nvidia GeForce Now.Backbone says that the One should work with most Android phones, assuming that yours has a USB-C port and is running Android 8.0 or higher. The company mentions the Google Pixel 7 and Samsung Galaxy S22 lineups as being compatible, though its product page lists phones... Continue reading…

Image: Microsoft Microsoft is adding a bunch of casual games to Microsoft Teams today, months after The Verge exclusively revealed the company’s plans. Favorites like Solitaire, Minesweeper, Wordament, and IceBreakers are all now part of Teams, allowing co-workers to play against each other during Teams meetings.All four games are interactive and support multiple players and have been developed by Microsoft Casual Games — part of Xbox Game Studios. The games are available in a new Games for Work app in Microsoft Teams and range from supporting two players all the way up to 250. Image: Microsoft Microsoft Minesweeper is 30 years old. Solitaire has a head-to-head competition mode for perhaps challenging your boss during those... Continue reading…