The Verge

Billions of voice messages are sent every day. | Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge Over the past few months of peak TV, the voice message has emerged as one of my favorite ways to talk about what I’m watching. I’ll finish this week’s episode of Andor, mute the show’s credits, and immediately start recording a voice message of my thoughts to send to a friend.The main reason we use voice messages (or voice notes, depending on where you are in the world) is their asynchronicity — we don’t have to both be free at the same time to communicate. Sometimes, he’s managed to watch the episode hours or even days before me and has already sent a message for me to listen to, while other times, I’ll be the first one to share my thoughts. But every week, the format is the same. The recording starts with a spoiler warning, and then... Continue reading…

The fastest Fire TV yet offers extensive hands-free voice controls that you can’t get from any other streaming player, but it still puts too many ads in your face Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Twitter’s combatting an increase in hateful tweets after Elon Musk officially acquired the company on Friday. Yoel Roth, the platform’s head of safety and integrity, said on Twitter that the company’s taking action against an “organized effort” to spread hate speech on the platform.According to Roth, a “small number” of accounts posted a rash of tweets containing “slurs and other derogatory terms” over the past two days, with the goal of making users think Twitter’s policies surrounding content moderation have changed. Roth says that just 300 accounts sent out over 50,000 tweets using a “particular slur,” and that almost all of the accounts in question are inauthentic.

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Telegram removed the ability for users on iOS to create pay-to-view posts due to Apple’s strict App Store guidelines (via 9to5Mac). In a post on Telegram, CEO Pavel Durov says creators on the platform have been using third-party payment or donation bots to sell access to certain posts on their channels, but that Apple was “not happy with content creators monetizing their efforts without paying a 30% tax to Apple.”Apple doesn’t allow developers to use third-party payment processors in their apps and charges up to a 30 percent commission on any in-app purchases. As noted by 9to5Mac, Telegram initially appeared to have been testing a paid posts feature, as spotted by social media consultant Matt Navarra. However, Telegram said in a... Continue reading…

Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales Apple’s new M2-equipped 14- and 16-inch MacBook Pros may not arrive until early next year, according to a report from Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman. While previous rumors suggested Apple could release the upgraded devices by the end of this year, now Gurman believes they’ll launch in the first half of March.As noted by Gurman, this release window would allow Apple to launch the new MacBooks around the same the macOS Ventura 13.3 and iOS 16.3 updates come out, which are expected sometime between early February and March. This prediction aligns with Ming-Chi Kuo's tweet from August that suggests Apple could release the new MacBook Pros early next year, as well as a recent rumor from Korean leaker Lanzuk (yeux1122), which also indicates the new... Continue reading…

The Libby app puts thousands of books into your pocket for free. | Photo by Victoria Song / The Verge I wanted the convenience of ebooks, the curation of a local bookstore, and the affordability of a library. This is how I got it. Continue reading…

The Spin 714 isn’t terrible, but it’s not the champion the 713 was Continue reading…

Season 3 of The Witcher hasn’t even premiered yet. | Photo by Taylor Hill/FilmMagic Although season 3 of The Witcher hasn’t premiered yet, Netflix just announced a major change coming to season 4: Liam Hemsworth is replacing Henry Cavill as the titular Geralt of Rivia. Both actors posted about the change on Instagram, with Liam Hemsworth saying he’s “over the moon about the opportunity to play Geralt of Rivia.” Netflix nor Cavill provided a reason for the casting change.“My journey as Geralt of Rivia has been filled with both monsters and adventures, and alas, I will be laying down my medallion and my swords for Season 4,” Cavill said on Instagram. “In my stead, the fantastic Mr Liam Hemsworth will be taking up the mantle of the White Wolf. As with the greatest of literary characters, I pass the torch with reverence... Continue reading…

The customization options let you take things in some wild new directions with your builds | Image: Alice Newcome-Beill A host of bugs and undercooked features keep the addictive building simulator from reaching its full potential Continue reading…

The 10-inch display on the Google Next Hub Max features a terrific camera and can provide personalized info at a glance. | Photo by Dan Seifert / The Verge This weekend we’re talking about Google devices, specifically Google’s Nest Audio and Nest Hub Max, along with a number of other excellent discounts you might want to take advantage of while you still can.First up we have Google’s compact Nest Audio, which is on sale for $49.99 at Best Buy, Target, and the Google Store, saving you $50 on the smart speaker’s regular price. The compact speaker offers excellent sound quality and can even pair with another Nest Audio to provide stereo sound. While the reliability of its voice controls can be a bit hit or miss, the Nest Audio provides a solid listening experience in an attractive and affordable package. Read our review.You can also find the Google Nest Hub Max on sale at Wellbots, Target,... Continue reading…

The projects you can build with Lego’s Mindstorms Robot Inventor kit, which will be going away by the end of the year. | Image: Lego As reported by Lego fan sites like Brick Fanatics and Brickset, Lego is discontinuing its Mindstorms kits, which are meant to let people make robots out of Lego bricks, pins, beams, motors, gears, and other pieces, and then program using Lego’s control hubs (via Gizmodo). The devices have been sold as a way to let children and adults easily build and program robots since 1998.While the company isn’t completely done with the idea of educational robotics kits, it will stop selling its Mindstorms Robot Inventor kit by the end of this year.The company’s statements suggest there’s an end date on its support for the various apps used to program and control Mindstorms robots on iOS, Android, macOS, Windows, and Fire OS, saying that it’ll... Continue reading…

Illustration by Nick Barclay / The Verge Organizers at Apple’s Towson Town Center store in Maryland claim that the company isn’t telling the whole truth when it comes to withholding benefits from workers at the location. As the company’s first retail location to unionize in the US pushes to negotiate a contract, workers say it’s making it difficult for them to bargain for their benefits.In a letter addressed to Tim Cook, the negotiating committee says they’re disappointed to learn the company won’t be offering workers at the location some new health and education benefits that are rolling out to other retail employees. The union also says that Apple has been spreading “misinformation” by saying workers would have to bargain for those benefits to be included in their contract.... Continue reading…

Honda’s power station battery slots are angled for easier access. | Image: Honda Honda delivered a new battery swapping station in Tokyo that’s looking mighty similar to the one Gogoro makes. The automaker’s new power pack exchanger lets electric motorcycle riders easily flip their depleting batteries for fresh ones instead of needing to wait around for a charge.The Honda power station itself looks very similar to Gogoro’s: like a vending machine with a grid of battery packs that slide in and out of slots. Image: Honda Honda’s “Power Pack Exchanger e:” station can be expanded to accommodate a whole lot of batteries in busy parts of cities. You can access fully charged batteries by interacting with the touchscreen, pulling one out, and popping in your discharged ones to charge up for use by... Continue reading…

Learn how to use Google Home Routines in your smart home. | Illustration by Samar Haddad / The Verge Google Home is Google’s smart home ecosystem, where you can control all your compatible smart home devices — such as smart lighting, smart cameras, smart locks, and more. The easiest way to do this is with Google’s smart home Routines. These are multi-action shortcuts that control one or more devices and / or trigger one or more actions to happen automatically based on another single action.For example, you can set a Routine that turns your lights off and your cameras on at 10PM each night. Or you can set one up that adjusts the brightness of your lights when the TV turns on and one that turns the bathroom light on when a motion sensor detects movement. Routines can be tailored by time as well, so if your doorbell rings after sunset,... Continue reading…

Illustration by Samar Haddad / The Verge I recently decided that I was going to figure out how to play custom Beat Saber tracks on my Meta Quest 2, no matter what it took. Thankfully, the free program I ended up using, called SideQuest, only took an hour or two of tinkering to get working, making it the perfect weekend project. Even better, SideQuest is useful for so much more than just modifying Beat Saber — it lets you sideload community-made games and experiences and even change the Quest home environment that acts as the backdrop to the system menus and app picker.If that sounds intriguing, read on: we’re about to go over how to install SideQuest and use it to get software onto your headset.Installing SideQuestThe first thing you have to do is install SideQuest on your... Continue reading…

Driverless cars aren’t going to change the world. | Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge The driverless car startups that haven’t run out of money, gone out of business, or been bought out want you to know that driverless cars aren’t going away. These companies insist that skepticism about the technology is expected but unwarranted and that driverless cars will, in the words of one co-founder, “change the world.”Where have we heard this before? Oh right, practically every tech company and Silicon Valley partisan that has emerged in the last decade or so has insisted that their only goal is to empower mankind and change the world (and not, I don’t know, make gobs and gobs of money).I do agree autonomous vehicles are coming (many are already here), but I think we need to rein in the “change the world” rhetoric. Like,... Continue reading…

Cars are lined up in traffic on Airline Drive in Houston, Texas, on April 13th, 2020. | Photo by MARK FELIX / AFP via Getty Images Traffic jams are linked to lower birth weights, new research finds. Pregnant people in the most congested neighborhoods gave birth to babies who weighed less than babies in less congested areas, according to a study published today in the journal Science Advances.A baby with low birth weight faces a greater risk of health complications — from infection to sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS). The new study adds to the body of evidence showing that clearing up pollution from cars and trucks will help babies stay healthier. It shows that it’s not just the volume of traffic that affects air quality and health outcomes — the flow of that traffic matters, too.A baby with low birth weight faces a greater risk of health complicationsBabies... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Snapchat is decreasing the reward money creators can get when they make content for the platform’s TikTok competitor — again.Business Insider reports that the pot of cash up for grabs for users making Spotlight videos now sits at millions of dollars per year. In February, Snap said it was offering up millions a month to creators making high-performing short-form videos for Spotlight. Even that was a dip from when Spotlight first launched in the fall of 2020, and Snap made splashy promises of paying out $1 million a day for a period of time to people making TikTok-style videos.Snap spokesperson Farrin Jay confirmed the fund sits at “millions of dollars throughout the year” and said the company is focused on rewarding Spotlight creators... Continue reading…

Signalis. | Image: Humble Games If you miss the days of old-school Resident Evil and Silent Hill, this is just the thing Continue reading…

Image: PlatinumGames / Nintendo Bayonetta 3 launches today and streamers might need to adjust some settings before they happily dig their seven-inch gun-barreled heels into the game, as one of the songs might get you slapped with a copyright strike.One of the prevailing themes of the Bayonetta series was that there’s always a pop-y remix of a classic song that accompanied our bundled busty bad bitch Bayonetta as she stomped demons, angels, and now, scientific horrors to death. The original Bayonetta featured “Fly Me to the Moon,” and Bayonetta 2’s theme was “Moon River.” Bayonetta 3 keeps up the tradition of remixing the golden oldies with “Moonlight Serenade,” and that’s where content creators might get into a bit of trouble.In its review embargo for the game,... Continue reading…

Bucks Gaming celebrating winning the 2022 NBA 2K League 5v5 finals in August. | Photo by Ron Hoskins/NBAE via Getty Images The NBA 2K League has announced that six players and a coach have been “disqualified indefinitely” following a gambling controversy. The esports league made the announcement yesterday.The suspended players include Christopher Lafanette, Dorian Earl Miller, and Robert Nastasi from the league’s affiliate of the Portland Trail Blazers; Zekirri Dennis of Mavs Gaming; and Kimanni Ingram of Jazz Gaming, who the league said “wagered or attempted to wager on NBA 2K League games, either on their own or through other individuals, and also violated the rules by failing to report violations or cooperate fully with the investigation.” Also receiving punishment are Blazers coach Andrew Maxie and player Marquis Gill for “failing to report violations... Continue reading…

Image: Activision If you’re itching to play the latest Call of Duty game that releases today but you’re in the sad state of not owning a game console to play it on, we have a deal for you. At Target, you can pick up the $299.99 Xbox Series S online or in-store, and you’ll receive a free digital copy of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare II (no, not the 2009 classic; Activision is just reusing old names now). Buying that game by itself normally costs $70, so this could be a great promo for you to take advantage of before it expires Saturday, October 29th, at 11:59PM PT.The Series S is a great console with or without this deal. It’s small, so it won’t hog a bunch of space in your entertainment center. And despite being significantly less powerful than the Series... Continue reading…

The race to create a solid-state battery that could compete with today’s lithium-ion cells is heating up. Lithium-ion batteries are everywhere: in your phone, car, camera, and more. Since their debut in the 1990s, they’ve become a leader in energy storage. But they have one major flaw: safety. Lithium-ion batteries have a tendency to catch fire, especially when damaged or at high temperatures.Solid-state batteries replace a flammable liquid electrolyte in lithium-ion batteries with a more stable solid one. They also could have more power, faster charging, and a longer lifespan. Right now, lots of startups are trying to get their first batteries out of the lab and into a factory and hope to prove that solid-state batteries can be... Continue reading…

Alex Castro / The Verge Internal surveys from 2019 to 2022 show that the company’s morale crisis predates Elon Musk Continue reading…

F. Murray Abraham in Guillermo del Toro’s Cabinet of Curiosities. | Image: Netflix From black-and-white superhero stories to stop-motion family films, the streaming services have plenty of new stuff to freak you out this spooky season. Continue reading…

Image: Activision Xbox and PC players are quickly discovering that they can’t disable crossplay in Call of Duty: Modern Warfare II. Activision’s latest Call of Duty installment launched early this morning, with PlayStation players able to freely toggle crossplay on or off. Xbox and PC players are rightly not happy about this.There are a variety of reasons why Xbox players want to disable crossplay, including trying to keep away from PC cheaters or simply avoiding PC players with the mobility advantages of mouse and keyboard. Likewise, PC players often want to steer clear of controller players and their aim assist.

Photo by RONNY HARTMANN/AFP via Getty Images European Union lawmakers have reached a political agreement on legislation that will effectively ban the production of new combustion engine cars and vans from 2035.As one of the world’s largest trading blocs and home to some of the world’s biggest car manufacturers, the EU’s decision will have a huge impact on global transport, pushing the industry even more firmly towards a fully electric future. The legislation will now have to be formally approved by the EU Council and the Parliament, though it’s expected only minor changes will be made.The key requirements are that, by 2030, new cars reduce their C02 emissions by 55 percent and new vans by 50 percent (in both cases these emissions are compared to 2021 levels). Then, by 2035,... Continue reading…

A full recharge in the time in takes to watch a few TikToks. | Image: Xiaomi Xiaomi subsidiary Redmi has just announced its new Note 12 lineup headed by the Note 12 Discovery Edition, a midrange smartphone that supports its 210W HyperCharge fast charging standard. That’s enough wattage to fully charge the phone’s 4,300mAh battery in just nine minutes. Put the handset on to charge and hop into the shower, and the phone’s battery will likely be completely replenished before you’ve had a chance to towel yourself off.In recent years, there’s been fierce competition to offer faster and faster charging speeds for mobile phones. Xiaomi offered 120W fast charging on its 11T Pro handset last year, before competitor Oppo announced its own 150W SuperVOOC standard. Arguably we’ve quickly reached a point of diminishing... Continue reading…

Rihanna at the Black Panther: Wakanda Forever premiere at Dolby Theatre. | Photo by Axelle / Bauer-Griffin / FilmMagic It’s been six long years since Rihanna blessed the world with new solo music for Star Trek Beyond, of all things, but the wait’s finally over with “Lift Me Up,” an original song from Black Panther: Wakanda Forever’s forthcoming soundtrack.Co-written by Rihanna, Tems, Ryan Coogler, and producer Ludwig Göransson, “Lift Me Up” is both a moving ballad and a tribute to the late Chadwick Boseman, star of the first Black Panther film who passed away in 2020 at the age of 43 following a battle with colon cancer. In a press release about the song, Tems said that she wanted it to feel like a “warm embrace” to all the loved ones she’s lost personally — a theme present throughout Wakanda Forever.“I tried to imagine what it would feel like if I... Continue reading…

Kristen Radtke / The Verge; Getty Images Stay up to date with the latest in the Musk-Twitter saga Continue reading…

Millie Bobby Brown and Helena Bonham Carter in Enola Holmes 2. | Image: Netflix The sequel doesn’t do all that much new, but it’s a solid take on a dying breed of film Continue reading…