The Verge

Just me and my bud Alucard. | Screenshot by Jay Peters / The Verge This week, the indie roguelike Dead Cells got a massive Castlevania-themed expansion, the game’s fourth paid DLC. After years of wanting to play Dead Cells, I’ve finally started in earnest, but I feared I would be overwhelmed by everything that had come before. Turns out that I had nothing to worry about: Dead Cells is smartly designed so that newcomers can jump in and have a blast without already knowing about the game’s worlds, weapons, or mysteries.As a 2D action game, it’s pretty easy to grasp the basics of Dead Cells. You’ll explore rooms, collect weapons, and use your arsenal to defeat various enemies that are out to get you. The roguelike elements of the game mean that you’ll frequently stumble upon new and better weapons while... Continue reading…

Image: Nilay Patel / The Verge Ford issued a recall notice for 18 F-150 Lightning pickup trucks with defective battery cells, which caused at least one truck to catch fire. The automaker will restart production of the electric truck on Monday, March 13th, with a “clean stock” of battery packs, after a four-week pause of production and shipment to investigate the cause of the defect.Ford said the “root cause” of the issue was at South Korean battery supplier SK On’s factory in Georgia. In a statement, spokesperson Emma Bergg said that the company was not aware of any reports of accident or injury related to this recall. “Together with SK On, we have confirmed the root causes and have implemented quality actions,” Bergg said. “Production is on track to resume Monday... Continue reading…

Image: The Verge Back in the Great Depression of the 1930s, people found escape from the bad news of the day by going to the movies. In fact, I can’t count how many movies — Sullivan’s Travels, The Purple Rose of Cairo, Matinee, Cinema Paradiso, just to name a few — are about people going to the movies for entertainment and escape. People stood in line and rushed to get their favorite seats; first come, first served. You’re part of a couple who are both comfortably making six figures? You’re paying off a college loan or trying to make it on your Social Security benefits? Doesn’t matter. You’re entitled to the best seat you can wrangle.Even when theaters began selling advance reservations, it was still first come, first served — if you wanted to see a... Continue reading…

Illustration: Alex Castro / The Verge Xbox is the latest big gaming brand to officially say that it won’t be on the E3 show floor, confirming the decision to IGN on Friday. Just this week, Microsoft announced the June 11th date for its annual Xbox showcase and a dedicated Starfield show, but we still didn’t know if Xbox would actually be on the floor of this year’s in-person E3 convention.“We can’t wait to host our Xbox Games Showcase on June 11th and will share more details later,” an Xbox spokesperson said in a statement to IGN. “We also look forward to co-streaming our event as part of E3 Digital and will not be on the E3 show floor.”In February, Nintendo confirmed that it wouldn’t be a part of E3, which now means that both Nintendo and Microsoft won’t have booths at... Continue reading…

Photo by Mitchell Clark / The Verge For some Rivian R1T reservation holders, the wait is almost over. “Thousands of R1T reservation holders can expect an invitation from us in the coming days,” says Andy Bowman, director of communications at Rivian. “Once their order is confirmed, they can expect to take delivery in the next 1-4 months.”The announcement comes as the EV startup has struggled to ramp up production, leaving many people on the waitlist for a year or more. The company has a big backlog to work through, too — it’s not sharing how many reservations it has anymore, but last September, the count was around 114,000, according to The Wall Street Journal.According to a Rivian support article, those who get the invitation to order an R1T will get access to the... Continue reading…

Chloe Kim is right at home on the rails. | Image: Epic Games Fortnite doesn’t seem capable of slowing down — and I’m not just talking about the relentless inclusion of seemingly every piece of modern pop culture. I mean the game itself. Fortnite keeps getting faster, and its latest major update, which ushers in a cyberpunk theme, speeds things up even more.This is something that has been brewing for some time and really became apparent when Epic added a “zero build” mode to the battle royale. Without that previously defining build feature, Fortnite had to adapt to give players more mobility options: swimming and sprinting, vehicles like cars and dirtbikes. The additions came slow and steady, but eventually, they made the game feel much speedier and more dynamic.That’s on full display in the new... Continue reading…

Samar Haddad / The Verge Alongside being a great kitchen TV, a handy bedside alarm clock, and a decent digital picture frame, an Echo Show smart display can also double as a security camera monitor. If you have a smart security camera that works with Amazon Alexa, it’s easy to view a live feed from it right on your smart display. This works with indoor cameras, outdoor cameras, doorbell cameras, and even floodlight cameras.Also, new this year, if you have more than one camera, the Echo Show can display multiple feeds at once, so you can surveil your whole domain... like some sort of mad Bond villain.Any Amazon Echo Show or Amazon Fire TV works for viewing live footage from any compatible camera, which includes cameras from Ring, Arlo, Google Nest, Eufy,... Continue reading…

Image: Getty Images Within hours of reports that Silicon Valley Bank was considering a sale after it failed to raise enough money to keep going, state and federal banking regulators shut it down. In an announcement from the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC), the agency said, “All insured depositors will have full access to their insured deposits no later than Monday morning, March 13, 2023.”Silicon Valley Bank is important for venture capital firms and startups. But as the economy has changed, VC-funded companies burned through their available cash. Simultaneously, VC funding dried up. So Silicon Valley Bank’s deposits dropped faster than the bank anticipated.After Silicon Valley Bank announced on Wednesday that it had sold $21 billion in... Continue reading…

Apple’s yellow iPhone 14 and iPhone 14 Plus will be available starting Tuesday, March 14th. | Image: Apple Apple’s iPhone 14 lineup just got a whole lot brighter. Like last spring, the tech giant recently announced that its latest smartphones will now come in a new color: yellow. The bright colorway will only be available for the iPhone 14 and iPhone 14 Plus, not the Pro models, which was the case when Apple debuted the green colorway last year.Aside from the new look, the phones don’t come with any changes. They still offer the same A15 Bionic chipset and feature set, which includes newer features like car crash detection and Emergency SOS via Satellite. The iPhone 14 Plus remains the larger of the two, with its 6.7-inch screen and longer battery life. The phones are just a little more vibrant and join other shades in Apple’s lineup,... Continue reading…

Image: Roku Roku’s upcoming Select and Plus TV sets will be a Best Buy exclusive, and the streaming hardware company is planning to cross-pollinate its ad data with Best Buy’s own ad system. The partnership includes the whole TV lineup that Roku announced at CES this year, and outside brands can partner with the duo to target product ads to Roku viewers based on their Best Buy shopping habits.The news comes just as Roku released its system OS 12 software that’s rolling out in the coming weeks. It’ll include new content discovery features, local news channels, and news recommendations that are curated to streamers and is “powered by AI,” according to the press release.The new system also includes new location-based experiences, which should enable... Continue reading…

A physical recreation of Mario’s boots. | Image: Red Wing Shoes If you’ve ever wondered what Mario’s shoes would look like in real life, wonder no more. Nintendo partnered with footwear maker Red Wing Shoes to recreate Mario’s boots as shown in The Super Mario Bros. Movie.To my eyes, they seem like boots for, well, a fictional Italian plumber. But really nice boots, of course — I’d expect nothing less for the man known for traveling across literal galaxies to stomp on sentient mushroom-like beings and evil turtles. Gotta have good shoes for that!If you want to see the boots for yourself, they’re actually on display at the Nintendo store in New York City right now:

Photo by Sean O’Kane / The Verge AM radio is under the gun, with more and more automakers discontinuing its use, especially as the industry undergoes a rapid shift to electrification. Lawmakers and regulators are worried that the slow demise of AM radio could make it more difficult to broadcast emergency information during a natural disaster or other related events. But automakers are undeterred and seem determined to sweep AM radio into the dustbin of history.The latest model to hit dealerships without the first-generation radio broadcast technology is the 2024 Ford Mustang, according to Ars Technica, citing Ford Authority. Indeed, Ford was one of eight companies to essentially declare AM radio to be an obsolete technology in their response to Senator Ed Markey’s... Continue reading…

The agreement stipulates that Comcast could still force Disney to buy its stake in Hulu, with a final valuation to be determined by independent analysts nearer the deadline. | Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Hulu’s fate still hangs in the balance following statements from Disney CEO Bob Iger this week. Speaking at the Morgan Stanley Tech, Media, and Telecom conference on Thursday, Iger said that Disney is still debating whether it will buy out Comcast’s 33 percent stake in Hulu, alluding to the current economic downturn and the company’s own difficulties with Disney Plus.“What we’re doing right now, because we own two-thirds of Hulu, and we have an agreement with Comcast that may result in us owning 100 percent, is we’re really studying the business very, very carefully,” Iger said. In an interview with CNBC last month, Iger had similarly refuted assumptions that Disney would buy the remaining stake in Hulu, saying “that that is not... Continue reading…

It’s-a time for his day and it’s-a time for some deals. | Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge It’s March 10th, which, thanks to the internet and some ace brand marketing, is Mario Day — aka, a low-key celebration of all things involving Nintendo’s beloved plumber. Most importantly, it means there are plenty of discounts and promos to take advantage of, including worthwhile deals on Nintendo games that otherwise frequently sell at full price.Retailers like Best Buy, Walmart, Amazon, and Target are discounting a batch of physical and digital first-party Nintendo titles and various accessories — offering around $20 off on many games that usually run $60. Admittedly, the celebration of our little Italian friend feels like an effort to keep building hype for the Super Mario Bros. Movie, which is due to hit theaters in just under a... Continue reading…

The entire exchange system for these things sucks. Time to go DIY. | Photo: The Verge Home seltzer mods have been around for years. CO2 is dirt cheap. So why are any of us putting up with a middleman jacking up the price of fizzy water? Continue reading…

Image: Michele Doying / The Verge Two days after Silvergate Bank announced its shutdown in a collapse with deep ties to problems with some of its crypto customers, Silicon Valley Bank is also struggling. Its stock price plunged more than 60 percent before trading was halted on Friday morning. It may sell itself — CNBC reports it’s now in talks to sell itself, and Reuters says that it’s “exploring options, including a sale.”Silicon Valley Bank is known for serving venture capital firms and the local tech startups those firms invested in. On Wednesday, the bank announced a bunch of bad news. It sold almost all of its securities, some $21 billion worth, at a $1.8 billion loss because deposits dropped quickly. The bank said this was because VC-funded companies were burning... Continue reading…

For $300, Replika sells a companion who will never die, argue, or cheat — until his algorithm is updated. Continue reading…

The Verge Some people work at home with a speaker system droning out their favorite background music. Some sit in an open office with a carefully assembled playlist blasting through their headphones. And some scrub the toilet while singing to the latest pop songs vibrating in their earbuds.While there are people who prefer to work in silence, others feel more comfortable laboring to the beat of their favorite tunes. We asked staff members of The Verge what kind of music — if any — they liked to play while they worked. Here is a sampling of the very varied answers we got.Focus playlists and / or as much noise as possibleMy go-to flow state music for the past five or six years is the 45 Warm Focus playlists from Patrick Ewing’s internet radio... Continue reading…

Jason Sudeikis in season 3 of Ted Lasso. | Image: Apple The feel-good sitcom Ted Lasso is based on an absurd premise: an American college football coach takes on manager duties at a small club in the English Premier League, despite knowing almost nothing about soccer. And despite the typically short shelf-life inherent in the job, he managed to keep the gig. People (mostly) love him, the team (eventually) played well, and here we are with Ted (Jason Sudeikis) preparing for his third season in charge. It brings with it a burning question: what the hell is he still doing here?Note: this review is based on the first episode of Ted Lasso season 3, which premieres on March 15th. It includes very light spoilers.The opening episode of Ted Lasso’s third season is best described as an existential... Continue reading…

The battery-powered Ring Video Doorbell 4 ranks among our favorites. | Image: Jennifer Pattison Tuohy / The Verge Whether you’re looking to improve your home security or just want to make sure nobody steals your Amazon package, a video doorbell like Ring’s Video Doorbell 4 can help. The handy device lets you keep tabs on who’s at the door directly from your smartphone, letting you keep an eye on packages and your home from wherever you might be. Right now, you can buy it for $159.99 ($60 off) at Amazon and Best Buy, which is a new all-time low.If you’re shopping for a battery-powered video doorbell, the Video Doorbell 4 is the one we’d recommend. Not only does it offer clear 1080p video with an HDR option and perks like free quick replies, but it’s also reliable. Of all the battery-powered models we tested, this was the only one that will never... Continue reading…

Image: NASA As part of its ongoing study of Mars’ clouds, NASA’s Curiosity rover recently captured a stunning image of a Martian sunset. As the Sun sinks over the horizon, its light forms into sun rays that can be seen banding across the sky.Technically known as crepuscular rays, this is the first time the phenomena has been imaged in such detail on Mars. And by studying the way the rays shine through the clouds, scientists can learn more about the Martian atmosphere and weather system.Although Mars’ atmosphere is extremely thin, at just 1 percent the density of Earth’s atmosphere, it is still active and changeable. The planet experiences high winds of up to 60 miles per hour, which can pick up the fine dust particles coating much of the planet’s... Continue reading…

Image: Revel The company that operates its bright blue electric mopeds actually makes more money from its Tesla Model Y-powered ridehail service. But EVs in a city like New York City don’t make sense without adequate charging. Continue reading…

Let the boomers in your life know that their dusty record collection is officially trendy now. | Image: Hyoung Chang/The Denver Post No longer just a niche hobby for dads and hipsters, vinyl is experiencing a major resurgence in mainstream music. According to the Recording Industry Association of America’s (RIAA) annual revenue report, vinyl records outsold CDs in the US last year for the first time since 1987, selling 41 million units against 33 million for CD.Vinyl record sales have consistently increased over the last 16 years according to the RIAA report published on Thursday, now accounting for 71 percent of all physical music format revenue. The growth margins here aren’t trivial, either — while physical formats as a whole increased by 4 percent, earning $1.7 billion between 2021 and 2022, vinyl sales alone accounted for $1.2 billion, experiencing a 17 percent... Continue reading…

Image: The Verge The head of WhatsApp says the messaging app will depart the UK if it’s forced to weaken its encryption standards under the country’s upcoming Online Safety Bill.WhatsApp chief Will Cathcart briefed reporters on Thursday (as reported by The Guardian, Politico, and Wired), criticizing the legislation as the most concerning set of online regulations in the Western world.“We’ve recently been blocked in Iran, for example. But we’ve never seen a liberal democracy do that,” said Cathcart, reports The Guardian. “The reality is, our users all around the world want security. Ninety-eight per cent of our users are outside the UK. They do not want us to lower the security of the product, and just as a straightforward matter, it would be an odd... Continue reading…

Image: Epic Games Fortnite’s new cyberpunk-themed “Mega” season launches Friday, but if you’re on PC, you’ll need to be on Windows 10 or higher to be able to check out its cyberpunk vibes. The change means that Fortnite no longer supports machines on Windows 7 and 8.The shift doesn’t come as a total surprise. Developer Epic Games said in December that it planned to drop support for those older versions of Windows with the release of Fortnite Chapter 4 Season 2 — which is the specific season Epic is launching today.

Image: Epic Games Fortnite is going even more anime in its new season. Chapter 4 Season 2 of the battle royale kicks off today, and it’s subtitled “Mega.” The big change is a huge biome that covers the bottom quarter of the map and introduces — among other things — a cyberpunk city to the game.The new area includes four main locations: Steamy Springs, Kenjutsu Crossing, Knotty Nets, and Mega City. The latter seems to be the most important, kind of like a futuristic take on the classic Tilted Towers, complete with lots of neon signs, holograms, and rain-slicked alleyways. There are also new ways to get around, including a two-seater bike that looks ripped out of Akira, a car that can drift, and the ability to grind on rails like you’re playing Sunset... Continue reading…

The limited display on Apple’s most recent HomePod. | Photo by Chris Welch / The Verge Apple could be preparing to launch a redesigned HomePod in the first half of 2024 equipped with a 7-inch touchscreen, according to a new prediction from noted analyst Ming-Chi Kuo.According to Kuo the device “could enable tighter integration with Apple’s other hardware products” which would mark “a significant shift in the company’s smart home strategy.” It sounds a lot like it could be designed to act as a smart home controller, similar to what Google offers with its Nest Hub smart displays, or Amazon with its Echo Shows. Apple’s existing HomePods have small circular displays on top, but their functionality is limited and they’re effectively just a fancy status indicator.“A significant shift in the company’s smart home strategy”A... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Reddit has announced that it’ll be shutting down Reddit Talk, its live audio conversation feature, on March 21st. In an announcement post, the company says it made the decision because “supporting Talk in the short-term requires significant resourcing - more than we anticipated.” The company will also be shutting down its “Happening Now” page, which exists to help you find active Talks and Live Chats.Talk was announced in April 2021, a time when audio chatroom app Clubhouse seemed like a big deal and other social networks were rushing to copy its features. The reason why it’s being sunsetted now is apparently that the third party audio vendor Reddit used for the service is also shutting down. According to its post, the company doesn’t... Continue reading…

Image: Capcom Exoprimal, the online multiplayer dinosaur destruction derby game that is, for some reason, not a remake of Dino Crisis, finally has a release date. Capcom announced a slew of other news for the game as a part of its March 2023 presentation. Check out the latest trailer here.Though it’s a rough time to release a live-service game with Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League’s release date getting pushed back along with an unfortunate amount of game shut-downs, Exoprimal is slated for release on July 13th. If you can’t wait that long, Capcom also shared that an open beta would be taking place March 17th through 19th — curiously the same dates as the early access open beta of Diablo IV. Check out the website for more details on how to join... Continue reading…

The Xbox Series X is larger and more powerful than the Series S. It offers a disc drive and can also display games in 4K. | Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge If you’ve been waiting to make the jump to next-gen gaming, Microsoft’s Xbox Series X is seeing a rare discount at Verizon right now, where you can pick up the console with free two-day shipping for $449.99 ($50 off).The Series X is essentially a larger, more powerful version of Microsoft’s compact Xbox Series S — which also happens to be on sale right now for $239.99 ($60 off) at Walmart and direct from Microsoft. Unlike the Series S, the bigger Series X supports 4K gaming and a few other enhancements, including faster performance, more storage, and a built-in disc drive. That means you can play both physical games as well as digital titles, whereas you can only play digital games on the Series S. Plus, you can play Xbox exclusives... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge A letter from CEO Mary Barra sent to GM workers on Thursday offered buyouts to many of its 58,000 employees, saying the company plans to trim $2 billion in fixed costs over the next two years. GM announced its plan to cut costs in January, on the same earnings call where it announced a record income of $14.5 billion for 2022. GM plans to spend billions over the next few years transitioning to building electric cars and making other changes.It’s not alone in making that shift either — Ford announced a split between its gas and electric automotive segments and followed that by laying off thousands of employees in the fall. Ford has said it will spend up to $20 billion reorganizing for EVs on top of the $30 billion it already planned to... Continue reading…

The Accessibility Assistant will begin rolling out “in the coming weeks” and will eventually replace Microsoft 365’s current Accessibility Checker. | Image: The Verge Imagine if Clippy didn’t suck and instead made genuinely helpful suggestions to ensure the content you create is accessible to as wide an audience as possible. That’s the idea behind a new tool Microsoft announced today at its annual Microsoft Ability Summit. The new “Accessibility Assistant” for Microsoft 365 office software is like a spelling or grammar checking tool that will instruct users on how to prevent and correct accessibility issues in real time when creating content.A new person-shaped icon will be used to flag the location of accessibility issues across your work, such as low contrast between text and background — the most frequent accessibility issue that occurs in Word documents, according to Microsoft. The Accessibility... Continue reading…

A plane in Washington, DC, on February 16th, 2023. | Image: Celal Gunes/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images Delta Air Lines laid out a new plan to wean its planes off fossil fuels in an effort to address climate change. The goal, the airline said, is for sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) to make up at least 95 percent of its fuel consumption by 2050.SAF is made from waste or crops through a process that’s supposed to cancel out much of the greenhouse gas emissions a plane produces. It’s not a perfect system and could create new environmental problems. And with very little SAF produced today, it’s going to be an uphill climb for Delta to hit its 2050 target. Nevertheless, SAF is largely seen by the industry as the most viable alternative to fossil fuels for now.With very little SAF produced today, it’s going to be an uphill climb for Delta to... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Microsoft is finally adding a keyboard shortcut to Word that lets you paste something as plaintext, stripping it of any formatting it had when you copied it. It’s the same Control + Shift + V shortcut that’s used in many other apps, and it’s currently rolling out to people using the Word beta on both Mac and PC, according to Microsoft’s Jennifer Gentleman.Word has long let you remove formatting from whatever you pasted after the fact, using the little ribbon that pops up and gives you the option to keep the original formatting, match the formatting of your document, or just use plaintext. Some people may prefer that option — one of my colleagues from the UK said the Ctrl + Shift + V shortcut “isn’t natural at all” for him, confusing all... Continue reading…

Peloton says it isn’t too concerned about the ITC ban. | Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Connected fitness giants Peloton and iFit are facing an import ban on their fitness equipment. The ban was announced today by the US International Trade Commission after a trade judge ruled that the two companies infringed on Dish’s streaming patents. While it’s hard to have connected fitness without streaming, this also isn’t Peloton or iFit’s first patent showdown.Dish and its subsidiary Sling TV initially sued Peloton, iFit, and Lululemon in 2021. The four patents in question stem from Dish’s Hopper set-top box and relate to how the device adjusts the bitrate of a stream in real time to improve video quality. The ITC complaint was separately filed at the same time, seeking a ban on Peloton and iFit’s NordicTrack equipment, as well as... Continue reading…

Illustration: The Verge Microsoft is making ChatGPT available in its own Azure OpenAI service today. Developers and businesses will now be able to integrate OpenAI’s ChatGPT model into their own cloud apps, enabling conversational AI in many more apps and services.Businesses could use ChatGPT to power custom chatbots to handle queries from customers, provide summaries of conversations, help automate emails, and much more.Microsoft says Azure OpenAI users can start to access a preview of ChatGPT today, with pricing set at $0.002 for 1,000 tokens. Billing for all ChatGPT usage starts on March 13th as part of Azure OpenAI. Developers will need to apply for special access, as the Azure OpenAI Service requires registration and is “currently only available to... Continue reading…

The 2021 iPad Pro is very similar to the newer model from 2022, but for much cheaper. | Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge It’s always tempting to get the latest tech so that it will last as long as possible, but iPads have lofty performance headroom that makes opting for a last-gen model easily viable. Right now, the 11-inch iPad Pro with M1 from 2021 is selling for $599 ($200 off) at Expercom, an authorized Apple dealer. That’s the lowest price we’ve seen on this very capable tablet, which is getting increasingly hard to find in stock in new condition.The M1 iPad Pro is a lot like the newer M2 model, which was mostly a spec bump. The M1 processor is still very speedy, even now in 2023, and should easily last over five years (or more), as Apple has a good track record for offering software support. If you’re picking up a 2021 iPad Pro, you’re getting a... Continue reading…