The Verge

BMW will spend $1 billion on EV production and $700 million for a new battery facility. | Photo by Roberto Baldwin for The Verge BMW says it will make batteries for its electric vehicles at a factory in South Carolina in the latest move by a major automaker to localize EV production in the United States.The German company plans to invest $1.7 billion in the US, including $1 billion for EV production at BMW’s Spartanburg plant and $700 million for a new battery-assembly facility in nearby Woodruff.By 2030, BMW says it will have at least six electric models in production in the US. Establishing a US-based EV plant will allow BMW’s upcoming line of plug-in vehicles to qualify for the federal EV tax credit.BMW said it is partnering with Envision AESC on its plans for a dedicated battery plant in South CarolinaBMW said it is partnering with Envision AESC on its... Continue reading…

The M1 MacBook Air may be approaching its second birthday, but it’s still a worthwhile laptop — especially with a good deal. | Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge Look, it’s understandable to be a little thrown off by Apple’s latest announcements. The new Apple TV 4K seems interesting, the 2022 iPad Pro seems a little humdrum (save for the addition of the M2 chip), and the redesigned base iPad looks great, though it might cause some confusion with some accessories. But you know what’s still great and is down to its lowest price ever? The M1 MacBook Air from late 2020.You can get the base model of the M1-equipped MacBook Air for just $799 at Amazon with a 256GB SSD and 8GB of RAM in any of its three available colors. This $200 discount matches its all-time low that started during Prime Day last week. While this laptop has been with us for a little while now (it’s turning two years old next month)... Continue reading…

It doesn’t have a name yet. | Image: Intel Intel is showing off a preview of the next generation of Thunderbolt, which it says can “deliver up to three times the capability of Thunderbolt 4.” According to the company, its upcoming standard will be capable of:

Waymo will launch its next robotaxi service in Los Angeles, but it won’t say when. | Waymo Waymo is bringing its Waymo One robotaxi service to Los Angeles, a city of endless freeways, legendary traffic jams, and many pressing transportation needs that are unlikely to be addressed by adding more cars.Waymo currently operates robotaxis in two cities: Phoenix and San Francisco. The company is one of a handful trying to launch a widescale commercial service built around autonomous vehicles, like Amazon’s Zoox, Argo AI (which is backed by Ford and Volkswagen), and Cruise (which is backed by General Motors and Honda).LA isn’t uncharted territory for Waymo; the company has been mapping the city’s various neighborhoods, including downtown LA and the Miracle Mile, since 2019 — though it says it has yet to drive autonomously in the... Continue reading…

Some hours before he was abducted by a squad of feds in camouflage tactical gear, Mark Pettibone was playing a pickup game of Frisbee.It was what had become a normal night for the summer of 2020 in Portland, Oregon. The city was now four months into the pandemic and two months into the ongoing protests against police brutality in the wake of George Floyd’s death.At this point, Mark and his friend Connor O’Shea — whom he knew from his job at Trader Joe’s — had made a habit of going regularly after work to protest at the Multnomah County Justice Center, a downtown building that houses a jail and the local district attorney’s office. It had been weeks — almost two months — of tear gas and flash-bangs. That was the new normal.This... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge If Thanksgiving Day football isn’t enough, Amazon and the NFL want to create a new tradition by airing a Black Friday football game starting next year (via Deadline). The game will take place on November 24th, 2023, at 3PM ET, but it’s too soon to know which teams will be playing.Airing the game on Prime Video on Black Friday isn’t a coincidence, either. Hans Schroeder, the chief operating officer for NFL Media, says “Amazon’s uniquely positioned” to partner with the NFL on Black Friday because it’s “one of the most important days of the year for their business.”

The AT Protocol logo aims for a foundational image of the internet. | Image: AT Protocol Bluesky, the project started within Twitter to create a decentralized social network, announced it’s getting closer to actually shipping an app. “Closer” is the operative word here, though. Bluesky only announced that it is building an app, that it’ll be called Bluesky, and that it will “be a portal to the world of possibility on top of the AT Protocol.” We still don’t have a release date, a feature list, or much of anything else.The AT Protocol is the real news for Bluesky. The whole idea behind the project was to separate social apps and social networks — to let people use the same back end and data but build and use their own apps on top of it. “It will allow [Twitter] to access and contribute to a much larger corpus of public... Continue reading…

Internet is provided via the Aero Terminal, seen on top of the aircraft. | Image: SpaceX SpaceX’s satellite internet service Starlink will soon be available on select airplanes with the official launch of Starlink Aviation next year, the company has announced. It claims the service will offer internet speeds of up to 350Mbps to each plane equipped with its Aero Terminal, which it says is fast enough for video calls, online gaming, “and other high data rate activities.”It’s certainly a big leap up from the typical speeds offered by most in-flight Wi-Fi. OneZero reports that most flights either use air-to-ground systems which top out at around 10Mbps per flight (and only work while flying over land), while current satellite systems typically offer between 30Mbps and 100Mbps. Since these speeds are per plane, actual speeds... Continue reading…

The new Lyft parking feature allows users to search for and reserve parking spaces directly within the app. | Image: Lyft Lyft users can now search, reserve, and pay for parking spaces from the app in cities across the US, reports the San Francisco Chronicle. Drivers can access the new Lyft Parking feature by tapping the steering wheel icon located on the bottom-right corner of the Lyft app, according to Lyft’s website.The parking reservation feature is made possible by a partnership between Lyft and SpotHero, a Chicago-based parking company, and is available through both the iOS and Android versions of the Lyft app. Image: Lyft The Lyft parking feature will show available spaces with pricing, much like a hotel reservation. The SpotHero service is available in over 300 cities across the US and Canada but it’s unclear which... Continue reading…

The Logitech Crayon, complete with USB-C charging port. | Image: Logitech Logitech has released an updated version of its Crayon stylus to coincide with the announcement of Apple’s new iPads. The new stylus costs the same as the old model, $69.95, but now features a USB-C charging port rather than Lightning — a helpful change given the 10th-generation iPad’s switch from Lightning to USB-C.The change means that the Logitech Crayon arguably has a much more elegant charging mechanism than Apple’s first-party $99 Pencil when used with the base-level iPad. Logitech’s new stylus can charge using just the USB-C cable that comes with the tablet — no fiddly USB-C-to-Lightning adapter required. The wirelessly-charging second-generation Apple Pencil isn’t compatible with Apple’s new entry-level iPad.Apple’s product... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Apple has reinstated the apps made by the Russian technology group VK on the App Store after the company provided proof that it’s not “majority owned or controlled by a sanctioned entity” (via The Guardian). The company removed the VK-owned social network VKontakte, email app Mail.ru, and others last month in response to sanctions the UK put on the financial institutions that own the Russian firm.“The apps from this developer were removed from the App Store, as required by law, after multiple requests were made to the developer to provide documentation to verify that they were not in violation of UK sanctions,” Apple spokesperson Peter Ajemian said in an emailed statement to The Verge. “Subsequent to the removal, the developer has... Continue reading…

Stadia might be exiting cloud gaming, but Netflix might be jumping in. | Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Netflix is seriously considering its own cloud gaming platform, the company’s VP of games Mike Verdu said at the TechCrunch Disrupt conference on Tuesday (via Protocol). Netflix jumped into gaming in a big way last year with its mobile games lineup, but the company is apparently looking to use its overall expertise in streaming data to let people play games over the cloud.“We’re very seriously exploring a cloud gaming offering so that we can reach members on TVs and on PCs,” Verdu said. “We’re going to approach this the same way we did with mobile, which is start small, be humble, be thoughtful, and then build out. But it is a step we think we should take to meet members where they are on the devices where they consume Netflix.”Verdu... Continue reading…

Bird is shrinking as it seeks to right-size its finances. | Photo by Ty O’Neil / SOPA Images / LightRocket via Getty Images Bird is exiting three European countries — Germany, Sweden, and Norway — as well as “several dozen” small- to mid-sized cities in the US, Europe, the Middle East, and Africa. The cash-strapped shared scooter company also said it would be laying off an undisclosed number of employees in the affected markets, though it declined to share which cities it would be leaving.Bird said the decision to exit these markets was motivated by a plan to achieve financial self-sustainability. Under this plan, Bird would close shop in cities that lack “a regulatory framework necessary to facilitate the development of an innovative, competitive, self-sustaining micromobility industry.”The company continued:

Netflix’s games library is only going to get bigger. | Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Netflix currently has 55 games in development, including additional games based on Netflix franchises, the company said in its investor letter released Tuesday (PDF). The company only really got serious about gaming with the initial release of its Android and iOS lineup late last year, but the commitment to even more games signals Netflix has been pleased with the launch so far.Part of Netflix’s strategy is that subscribers will view its games as another reason to stick around, “and we’re seeing some encouraging signs of gameplay leading to higher retention,” the company wrote in the letter. Netflix said that gaming is a “multi-year journey,” indicating it will continue to invest in it for the long haul — which it might need to, as... Continue reading…

Jung Ho-yeon in Squid Game | Image: Netflix As the various streaming services try different release models, Netflix is making one thing clear: binge releases aren’t going away. In its quarterly earnings statement today, the company explained that “we think our bingeable release model helps drive substantial engagement, especially for newer titles.” It cited the success of Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story as an example, saying that the all-at-once release “helped drive significant interest in the show.”In fact, Netflix went so far as to say the release model was a big reason for the success of one of its biggest hits to date. “It’s hard to imagine, for example, how a Korean title like Squid Game would have become a mega hit globally without the momentum that came from people... Continue reading…

The FDA is stepping up its actions against e-cigarette companies. | Photo by John Keeble / Getty Images The Food and Drug Administration just took its first legal action against companies it says are selling e-cigarettes illegally. After facing criticism for not doing enough to keep illegal vapes off the market, the agency asked the Department of Justice to file for injunctions against six manufacturers — which would bar them from selling the products.“We will not stand by as manufacturers repeatedly break the law, especially after being afforded multiple opportunities to comply,” Brian King, director of the FDA’s Center for Tobacco Products, said in a statement.Companies need clearance from the FDA before they’re able to sell tobacco products, which includes vapes and e-cigarettes. Over the past year, the agency has been fielding... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Netflix plans to crack down on password sharing beginning in 2023. After giving users the ability to transfer their profiles to new accounts, the streamer says it will start letting subscribers create sub-accounts starting next year in line with its plans to “monetize account sharing” more widely.This is part of Netflix’s earning results today, which says the company added 2.4 million subscribers this quarter as the streaming service looks to launch its ad-supported tier next month and clamp down on password sharing. The streamer says it has grown by 104,000 paid subscribers in the US and Canada over the last three months, up from 73,000 in the same period last year, and says it remains committed to the “bingeable release model.”E... Continue reading…

Photo by Lev Radin / Pacific Press / LightRocket via Getty Images A report on this year’s white supremacist mass shooting in Buffalo, New York, asks legislators to criminalize a perpetrator or their accomplice filming a murder — and let states fine people, including the operators of large web platforms, who redistribute the videos. The recommendation is intended to stop terrorists from using livestreams as a propaganda tool, and it comes with additional requests for broadcast television-like restrictions on streaming platforms.The report was compiled by the office of New York Attorney General Letitia James and released today, five months after James announced an investigation into the May attack. In addition to urging reform in gun control and mental health support, it traces the shooter’s... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Hey, everyone. Ariel and Jake here for a combo issue this fine Tuesday morning / afternoon / evening, time zone dependent. We’ve been having a good time prepping for Hot Pod Summit, scoffing at political podcast launches, and wondering whether the future of audio in the metaverse has any legs.Today, we’ve got rumors of Spotify’s long-awaited HiFi plan, big ad moves from YouTube, and some headphone jack feelings. But first, speaking of Hot Pod Summit, Ariel has some exciting news to share…Hot Pod Summit LA is coming up fastHot Pod Summit LA is only two weeks away (!), and we have some excellent additional panelists to announce. Joining us will be:

The Belkin accessory that Apple showed off during its announcement of Continuity Camera — an iOS 16 / macOS Ventura feature that turns your iPhone into an excellent webcam — is now available for $29.95. It uses a hook, which also doubles as a kickstand, to latch onto your laptop’s display and MagSafe to hold your phone up in portrait or landscape mode so its cameras can see you.Belkin’s press release also says that there’ll be a version of the mount meant to be used with desktops and external monitors coming soon, but for now, the “for notebooks” is the only version that’s available. It’s compatible with most of Apple’s laptops, including MacBook Airs from 2018 on, 13-, 14-, 15-, and 16-inch MacBook Pros, and even the MacBook Retina... Continue reading…

The Hawiyah Natural Gas Liquids Recovery Plant, operated by Saudi Aramco in June 28, 2021. The plant is designed to process 4 billion standard cubic feet per day of sweet gas as pilot project for carbon capture technology. | Photographer: Maya Siddiqui / Bloomberg via Getty Images The business of capturing carbon dioxide from industrial emissions is booming around the world. The technology is gaining popularity as a way for companies to limit the pollution they produce that causes climate change. But even as it grows, the carbon capture industry is holding tight to its ties to oil and gas.Across the globe, the capacity to capture and store planet-heating carbon dioxide has grown by 44 percent over the past 12 months, according to a new report from think tank Global CCS Institute, which advocates for carbon capture and storage (CCS). That includes projects to scrub CO2 out of smokestack emissions from a veritable pantheon of the most notorious pollution sources: power plants, natural gas processing plants, oil... Continue reading…

It’s a likable device, but OnePlus still has some work to do Continue reading…

Image: EA Nearly a decade after The Sims 4 launched, EA has confirmed that the next major entry in the franchise is in the works. At a Sims livestream event, the company announced Project Rene, described as “the next generation The Sims game and creative platform.” It sounds very early in development and far from release — hence the codename, instead of being announced as The Sims 5 — but the company did provide a few early details.Here’s the official description:

So long, and thanks for all the streams. | Image: Apple Apple appears to no longer be selling the Apple TV HD, a less expensive alternative to its 4K streaming boxes, in its store (via MacRumors). The HD was a long-standing product in Apple’s lineup, originally announced in 2015 as the fourth-generation Apple TV and becoming the budget option as Apple rolled out 4K models — such as the one it announced today.In 2022, the HD didn’t make a ton of sense; starting last year, it came with Apple’s new remote, which was nice, but it was $149 and used Apple’s A8 processor from the iPhone 6. Meanwhile, the new Apple TV 4K starts at $129, has the much newer A15, double the storage, and of course, supports much higher resolution content (not to mention HDR). The HD maybe kind of sort of (but not... Continue reading…

You’ve got until November 6th, 2023, to file for a refund. | Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge In May 2021, Peloton and the US Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) recalled the troubled Peloton Tread Plus after several reports of injuries and the death of a child. As part of the recall, Tread Plus owners were given until November 6th, 2022, to get a full refund. Now, Peloton and the CPSC say they’re extending the refund period for another year.“Consumers should immediately stop using the recalled Tread Plus treadmills,” the CPSC said in a statement. It also noted that, to date, Peloton has received 335 incident reports, with the number of reported injuries increasing from 72 to 87 since the recall was first issued. According to the CPSC, roughly 125,000 Tread Plus units were recalled in total.Tread Plus owners will now have... Continue reading…

Look how tall it is. | Image: Lenovo In a promotional video for its Tech World 2022 event, Lenovo showed off a laptop with what appears to be a rollable screen. In a brief working demo, you can see the screen of what appears to be an old-school notebook slowly begin to rise from the keyboard deck, unfurling into a display that is monstrously, disconcertingly tall.My initial impression is that this thing looks a bit... tall. It’s not clear from the video whether I could stop the screen anywhere I wanted in the progression or whether I’d need to fully unroll it every time. It’s also not clear exactly how tall the display gets. Eyeballing the video, it looks like the display gains an additional 50 percent or so in height, meaning it might grow from 9-ish to 13.5-ish inches... Continue reading…

Lightning one end, USB-C the other. | Image: Apple The base model iPad’s switch to USB-C has made using an Apple Pencil with the tablet... complicated. The new 10.9-inch tablet only works with Apple’s first-generation Pencil, which requires a Lightning port to charge. That’s a little bit of a problem when the new iPad uses USB-C.Apple’s solution, naturally, is a dongle. A “USB-C to Apple Pencil Adapter,” to be precise, although from what I can tell, it’s technically a USB-C to Lightning port adapter. Apple’s press release notes that the adapter will be included in the box with new Apple Pencils for $99 and will be available separately for $9 for existing Pencil owners. “A new USB-C to Apple Pencil Adapter is required for pairing and charging,” Apple’s press release unequivocally... Continue reading…

Photo by Gotham / GC Images On Monday, Kanye West, now legally known as Ye, announced that he would buy Parler, an alternative social media platform, in a surprise move that has sparked both interest in the platform and concern for the billionaire rapper’s plans. But the move comes at a perilous time for Parler, which has seen months of stagnating usage and at least one attempt to find a buyer for the platform before Ye.According to a source familiar with the discussions, Parler’s parent company, Parlement, has been trying to offload its social media platform to potential buyers over the last few weeks. One prospective buyer described Parlement’s asking price for the platform as wildly inflated, and said they were stunned by the site’s low number of daily active... Continue reading…

The new Apple 4K TV. Alongside the redesigned iPad and the iPad Pro with the M2 processor, Apple announced a new and improved version of the Apple TV 4K. The big news with the third-gen Apple TV 4K is that it has a faster A15 Bionic chip (the previous model has the A12) and support for HDR10 Plus. The accompanying Siri Remote has also been updated, with Apple adding a USB-C port instead of Lightning. The streaming box starts at $129, which is even cheaper than its predecessor, and it will be able for purchase in stores on November 4th. We have yet to test the new model but will soon, so keep an eye out for our review.Where to preorder the Apple TV 4KWhile the Apple TV 4K won’t be available until November, you can preorder the streaming device from the A... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Workers at Amazon’s ALB1 warehouse near Albany, New York, have voted against unionizing with the Amazon Labor Union (ALU). There were 406 no votes and 206 yes votes, with 918 hourly full-time and regular part-time associates at the fulfillment center being eligible to vote, according to the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB). There were 31 challenged ballots, which was not enough to affect the winner.According to organizers, the union campaigned on improving pay and safety at ALB1. In the lead-up to the election, Amazon raised wages for all fulfillment and transportation employees, but union leaders at ALB1 responded by saying the $17 an hour the company offers isn’t enough. According to the ALU, Amazon has responded to the union... Continue reading…

Photo by David Pierce / The Verge This year Apple split the release date for the tablet version of its mobile operating system away from the release of iOS 16, and the company just announced the iPadOS 16 update will roll out starting on Monday, October 24th. The new iPads announced today will ship with the latest software on them, and it will be available as an update for the base model iPads (5th gen and later), iPad mini (5th gen and later), iPad Air (3rd gen and later), and all iPad Pro tablets.Based on our experiences with preview versions, one big reason for the delay is the addition of Stage Manager, a new addition for iPadOS 16 that’s supposed to bring laptop-level multitasking. It should be able to take better advantage of the M1 (and now, in new iPad Pro... Continue reading…

Using the dock to play through Portal 2 co-op is a great idea. | Image: Valve I’ve been waiting for Valve’s official Steam Deck dock for quite a while, so when the $89 accessory finally went on sale earlier this month, I ordered one right away. A few months ago, I wrote about how Steam Deck has changed the way I buy games in part because I believe I’ll be able to access my games on Steam for far longer than I can on other platforms. But I wasn’t ready to go all in because playing the handheld on my TV wasn’t as smooth an experience as it is on the Nintendo Switch.To be fair, TV gaming has never been the intention of the Steam Deck, as it’s clearly designed to be a portable device. But I’ve been testing the dock to see if it makes playing on my TV easier anyway. To me, it makes the Steam Deck even more useful; the... Continue reading…