The Verge

Spotify’s new homescreen design goes hard on full-screen images and video. | Image: Spotify Spotify is redesigning the core homescreen of its app, trying to make it easier for users to find new stuff to listen to — and watch. The new design goes heavy on imagery and vertical scrolling, turning your homescreen from a set of album covers into a feed that much more closely resembles TikTok and Instagram. As you scroll, Spotify is also hoping to make it easier to discover new things across the Spotify ecosystem.The new look, which Spotify just announced at its Stream On event, is clear evidence of the kind of company (and product) Spotify wants to be. Over the last few years, it has invested heavily into podcasts, audiobooks, live audio, and more, all in an attempt to be more than just a music app. The company also wants to be a... Continue reading…

Illustration: Alex Castro / The Verge Sony has laid out its concerns about Microsoft’s proposed acquisition of Activision Blizzard, including a host of fears about the future of Activision’s Call of Duty franchise. In new documents (pdf) submitted to the UK’s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA), Sony says it’s worried that Microsoft could raise the price of Call of Duty, make it only available on its own Xbox Game Pass subscription service, and even strategically or incidentally degrade the quality and performance of Call of Duty on PlayStation.Sony cites a specific hypothetical situation where Microsoft could release a Call of Duty game on PlayStation that has bugs and errors on the final level. Here’s Sony’s example in full:

Illustration: Alex Castro / The Verge Google has just released the second developer preview for Android 14, as app developers test their programs against changes coming in this year’s big mobile OS update. Most of the features in this latest release were already mentioned in the first Android 14 dev preview back in February, such as operational improvements to Android devices, changes to app security and privacy permissions, and a new API that supports passwordless sign-in using passkeys.The Android 14 preview also includes a test of Credential Manager, a platform API that supports multiple sign-in methods, such as passkeys and federated sign-in solutions (such as the option to sign in with Google) alongside the traditional username / password combinations. This API isn’t... Continue reading…

Chris O’Dowd as Dusty and Gabrielle Dennis as Cass in The Big Door Prize. | Apple There are probably more people who know better than to trust strange pieces of biometric-capturing technology in the world of Apple TV Plus’ upcoming comedy The Big Door Prize from David West Read. But in the series’ first trailer, almost no one can be bothered to think about whether they should be messing around with the eponymous machine because they’re all far too busy having the time of their lives thanks to what it does for them.Based on M.O. Walsh’s novel by the same name, The Big Door Prize tells the story of a sleepy little town that’s turned upside down when a mysterious machine that can show people the untapped potential for greatness they have within them appears one day. When the “Morpho” first appears, neither Dusty (Chris... Continue reading…

Image: Joe Burbank/Orlando Sentinel/Tribune News Service via Getty Images After several false starts, NASA finally launched its Artemis I mission in November last year. The big aim of the mission was to test out new hardware like the Space Launch System (SLS) rocket and the Orion spacecraft ahead of the crewed Artemis II mission.Artemis II will be the first crewed launch using the new system and is currently scheduled for next year. This mission will see four astronauts travel into orbit around the Moon, making it the first crewed mission to travel out of low Earth orbit since 1972. It will be followed by Artemis III, which aims to land a crew on the Moon’s surface, launching in 2025.Before a crewed launch, however, some of the hardware used in Artemis I needs to be refreshed. In a press conference this... Continue reading…

Illustration: The Verge If you pay for a Google One plan to get extra storage or other benefits, you might be about to get some extra features. The company has announced that all One subscribers will be getting access to the VPN that used to be limited to its Premium tier and that it’s adding dark web monitoring to alert you if your sensitive information starts circulating on sites that search engines normally don’t index.If you live in a supported country, you can use Google’s VPN on a variety of devices, including Android phones and iPhones, as well as Macs and PCs. Previously, you had to pay for the $9.99 monthly tier that included 2TB of storage to access it (or buy a Pixel 7, which includes it even if you’re not a One subscriber). Now, however, it’s even... Continue reading…

Image: Bethesda Starfield, a big upcoming title from Microsoft-owned Bethesda, is getting a new release date today. Starfield had been delayed to the first half of 2023, and it will now arrive even later on September 6th.In a new video, game director Todd Howard says Bethesda and Microsoft will now hold a Starfield direct event on June 11th to detail the game. “This June, we’re going to bring you into the studio and give you a deep dive in the game at our Starfield direct,” says Howard. “There’s so much that we still have to show you.” The dedicated Starfield showcase will follow Microsoft’s annual Xbox showcase on Sunday June 11th.

The preliminary evaluation opened on March 4th and applies to over 120,000 Tesla vehicles. | Illustration: Alex Castro / The Verge Auto safety regulators in the US have opened an investigation into Tesla following reports that steering wheels on Model Y SUVs have fallen off while the vehicle is being driven. In documents posted on Wednesday, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) said it’s aware of two separate incidents involving 2023 Tesla Model Y vehicles in which the SUV’s steering wheel completely detached from the steering column.The preliminary evaluation was opened on March 4th and, according to NHTSA, applies to over 120,000 vehicles. In both instances, the brand-new vehicles were delivered without a necessary retaining bolt to attach the steering wheel to the column and had low mileage during the time of the incidents.

Image: Lucasfilm It’s no secret that The Mandalorian often feels like a video game. The show has it all: fetch quests, escort missions, gear upgrades, and even difficulty spikes. That’s probably why ol’ Mando feels right at home in an actual video game. The opening of the third season of the show got away from the gameplay in order to do some scene setting that felt like one of those lengthy cutscenes Naughty Dog loves. But in episode 2 — aka chapter 18 — the cutscenes are over and we’re back to the action. The episode doesn’t just feel like any video game, either: it’s very Metroid.Note: this article contains light spoilers for the first two episodes of The Mandalorian season 3.At this point in the story, Din Djarin (Pedro Pascal) and his little green... Continue reading…

Image: Lightship The self-propelled trailer reduces drag to extend range, comes loaded with solar panels to charge your EV, enough battery capacity to power your home, and sleeps up to six people. Continue reading…

The Car-Net Safe & Secure add-on required to track stolen vehicles previously required an additional subscription fee. | Image: Robert Michael/picture alliance via Getty Images Volkswagen has announced changes to its Car-Net security system after a “serious breach in process” delayed law enforcement from using the service to locate a vehicle stolen with the victim’s child still inside. From June 1st this year, VW will provide five years of free Car-Net Safe & Secure connected emergency services in the US — including automatic crash notifications, emergency assistance, stolen vehicle locator, and anti-theft alerts — for “most model year 2020 to 2023 vehicles.”VW’s Car-Net system is a collection of technologies and services that allow vehicle owners to remotely monitor and operate their vehicle. While its basic package was already free for the first five years on compatible 2020 or newer VW models, Car-Net’s... Continue reading…

Realme’s pill-shaped “Mini Capsule.” | Image: Realme Less than six months after it debuted on the iPhone 14 Pro, Apple’s Dynamic Island has made it to an Android phone as a native feature. The Realme C55, which just launched in Indonesia (via GSMArena), includes a feature the company is calling the “Mini Capsule,” a pill-shaped black bar that expands out of the phone’s selfie camera.An animation on Realme’s website shows the Mini Capsule extending out of the left and right of the phone’s selfie camera hole-punch notch. Its capabilities include displaying the phone’s charges status, data usage, and your step count. Image: Realme An animation of the C55’s Mini Capsule. In spite of how shameless this all is, I’m broadly in favor of good new phone features being... Continue reading…

Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge Sony has released a new PS5 update that includes the highly anticipated Discord integration. Version 7 of the PS5 software is available for all consoles right now, allowing PS5 owners to join Discord calls on their console, alongside improvements to 1440p resolution, the ability to transfer data between PS5 consoles, and a new option to use your voice to capture clips of your gameplay.PS5 owners will be able to use the Discord app on mobile or a PC to transfer a Discord call to their console. It’s very similar to how Microsoft initially launched Discord support on the Xbox last year, which means you can’t directly access Discord servers on a PS5 without using a mobile device or a PC to transfer the call.The Discord integration is... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) had its eye on Twitter since well before Elon Musk bought the outfit, but now we have a better idea about what questions it’s been asking lately. Not only have the investigations continued, but the FTC has been looking into the company’s abilities to keep user data secure, the development of the Twitter Blue subscription plan, and pulling together information on the actions of the company’s new owner.As reported by the Wall Street Journal and New York Times, the Select Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government — part of the Republican-led House Judiciary Committee — revealed the requests in a new report (PDF), calling the FTC’s actions harassment and overreach.According to the... Continue reading…

Image: Toby Fox It’s time for another Xbox Game Pass refresh, which is seeing some interesting games enter the platform and some must-plays leave. You can check out the full list of games heading to Game Pass and the ones falling off on Xbox’s Game Pass website, but I thought I might call out some of them here.Civilization VICivilization VI is coming to game pass on March 16th. I know Civ VI has been out on consoles since 2019, but I am relatively new to and fascinated by the idea of PC strategy games on console. I checked out my beloved Age of Empires II on console earlier this year and found the experience a fairly seamless transition between PC and console. I’m extremely intrigued to check out Civilization VI on Xbox to see what it does differently... Continue reading…

Image: Google Google has announced its annual I/O conference will begin on May 10th. The company says it’ll be “broadcast in front of a limited live audience and is open to everyone online” and that you can register to attend today.This year, the biggest expectations revolve around all of the artificial intelligence technology Google is developing. Expect news about Bard, Google’s answer to ChatGPT, as well as other products to generate images, write code for apps, or test product prototypes. Image: Google The Google I/O 2023 landing page, which looks curiously similar to a tablet or foldable device UI. The conference is typically where we’ll get information about the next version of Android — which Google has already... Continue reading…

Photo by Albert L. Ortega / Getty Images The Star Wars production slate just got a little smaller. According to a report from Variety, a pair of upcoming Star Wars films from Marvel president Kevin Feige and Wonder Woman director Patty Jenkins is no longer in development.We first heard about a potential Star Wars film from Feige and Lucasfilm president Kathleen Kennedy back in 2019, but sources close to the situation tell Variety it’s been shelved. The same goes for the Rogue Squadron movie Jenkins was working on, which isn’t all that surprising given its production was delayed in 2021 and pushed back again last year. In December, Jenkins expressed uncertainty about the future of the film, noting at the time she didn’t “know if it will happen or not.”Despite these setbacks, V... Continue reading…

Pedestrians walk through Charles H. Milby Park in front of a refinery in Houston, Texas, on Sunday, March 8th, 2020. | Image: Sharon Steinmann/Bloomberg via Getty Images A controversial tactic for slowing climate change is picking up steam in Texas: capturing carbon dioxide emissions from smokestacks. While that might reduce CO2 emissions heating up the planet, it could pose new problems for communities already saddled with industrial pollution.Oil giant Occidental announced late last week that it leased 55,000 acres along the Gulf Coast of Texas to build out a hub for carbon capture technologies. The idea is to capture carbon dioxide emissions from nearby chemical plants, refineries, and factories. That CO2 then travels via pipeline to underground storage sites within Occidental’s proposed hub.The prospect of these new kinds of pipelines crisscrossing through communities already has some e... Continue reading…

Illustration: Alex Castro / The Verge YouTube will ease its restrictions on swearing in videos after an update it rolled out in November sparked backlash from several creators, and the company will be reviewing videos that had their monetization affected by the policy. In a video uploaded to the Creator Insider channel, the company says it reviewed the data on how the new rules were enforced and found that they “resulted in a stricter approach than we intended.” The update means that creators will still be able to make at least some money on videos, even if there’s mild swearing up front, though the restrictions remain confusing and don’t fully revert to the older rules.As a recap, late last year, the company changed its advertiser-friendly content guidelines to say that if... Continue reading…

Illustration: Alex Castro / The Verge If you installed version 531.18 of Nvidia’s drivers that were released with Nvidia’s new RTX Video Super Resolution feature last week, you may have noticed the Nvidia Container app hitting your CPU for more than 10 percent at a time. Nvidia’s latest GeForce drivers have been causing high CPU usage for some PC gamers, and the company is now issuing a hotfix driver today to correct the problems.The new hotfix drivers (531.26) correct the issues, with Nvidia Container no longer hogging the CPU when logging in or when a game is closed. You can download the fixed drivers over at Nvidia’s website.It’s the second time this year that Nvidia has had to issue quick fixes for issues with its GeForce drivers. Last month, a Discord update limited... Continue reading…

Image: Pete Marovich-Pool/Getty Images Gigi Sohn has withdrawn her nomination to serve on the Federal Communications Commission, as first reported by The Washington Post Tuesday.Sohn, a former FCC official and longtime public interest advocate, was nominated as a third Democratic commissioner by President Joe Biden in October 2021. But over the last 16 months, a brutal and oftentimes bad-faith lobbying campaign has continued to block her nomination. That’s left the FCC with a 2–2 partisan split that has blocked many of Biden’s goals for the agency, including reinstating net neutrality rules.“It is a sad day for our country and our democracy”“I could not have imagined that legions of cable and media industry lobbyists, their bought-and-paid-for surrogates, and dark money... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Even people who aren’t subscribed to Amazon Prime will be able to watch the football game it’s streaming on Black Friday for free. Amazon’s partnership to stream the Black Friday game, which will be played at 3PM ET on November 24th, was announced late last year, but at the time, it wasn’t clear if it would just be available to people who pay for Prime.Amazon’s press release says that the decision to stream it for free will offer “a free sample of the benefits that come with Prime membership,” which may be a hint as to why the company’s doing it. It could act as a push for NFL fans who may be on the fence about subscribing to Prime Video to access its Thursday Night Football streams, which Amazon has heavily invested in.It’s also a... Continue reading…

Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge Playdate is announcing a suite of new games and a pricing update. The $179 USD handheld is going up by $20, effective April 7th, bumping the price to $199.According to Playdate’s website, the price increase is due to increased manufacturing costs. Makes sense since the price of just about everything (insulin, happily notwithstanding) is going up. Originally, the Playdate was announced at a $149 price point until parent company Panic increased the price to $179 while increasing the number of games players would get for free from 12 to 24, as well as the device’s storage capacity.If you haven’t yet gotten one and if your budget allows (and if you don’t live in one of the many countries where it isn’t available, including its... Continue reading…

Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge As part of a showcase event, Panic announced that Catalog, a game store for its Playdate handheld, would be launching today. The store is available both on the device and on the web and is described as a “boutique” storefront featuring “software curated by the team at Panic.” As part of the announcement, Panic also announced that the handheld is getting a $20 price bump and will cost $199 starting in April.It was — and still is — possible to sideload games purchased on platforms like Itch.io, but Catalog theoretically makes it easier to find the good stuff. At launch, Catalog has 16 titles, 11 of which are brand-new. Two of those games — Real Steal and Recommendation Dog!! — are being released as a free “bonus” to the season one... Continue reading…

Illustration: Alex Castro / The Verge Messenger will soon reunite with the Facebook app. Buried in a blog post that attempts to reassure users that Facebook’s most definitely not dying, Meta officially announced that it’s conducting a test that adds Messenger back into the Facebook app. “You’ll see us expand this testing soon,” Facebook leader Tom Alison writes in the post.Facebook and Messenger first split in 2014, with CEO Mark Zuckerberg stating at the time that having Messenger as a separate app allows for “a better experience.” Now, Meta’s reversing that change, and it doesn’t come as much of a surprise. Last June, The Verge’s Alex Heath reported on Meta’s plans to finally bring Messenger back into Facebook, while social media consultant Matt Navarra also spotted Meta... Continue reading…

The Ultra was great at detecting when I arrived and left a track. | Photo by Victoria Song / The Verge Apple’s automatic track detection feature is impressively accurate and convenient, even without any calibration. Continue reading…

Image: Niantic Niantic, the studio behind Pokémon Go, is releasing its next big game very soon. The developer announced that the virtual pet game Peridot, which was first announced last year, will be available on both iOS and Android on May 9th. It’ll be a global launch.I had the chance to check out Peridot last summer, and that early version was an adorable mash-up of Pokémon Go’s augmented reality aspects with a Tamagotchi-style pet sim. In a blog post today, David Hollin, Peridot’s creative director, went into more detail about how the game will work when it does launch:

Sonos isn’t about to make the same mistake twice. In hindsight, its transition in 2020 to a major new software platform, S2, could’ve been communicated better and handled with more consideration for longtime customers. A few very old products were left behind, though only one speaker was affected: the first-generation Play:5. For those devices, Sonos has continued to maintain the old S1 controller app and deliver bug fixes / security patches. But the whole thing got messy and took some time for Sonos to straighten out.So with the introduction of two new speakers at the same time — a first for Sonos — some owners of existing speakers are having flashbacks to the S1 / S2 controversy and wondering if the Era 300 and 100 will mark the... Continue reading…

Amazon’s Fire TV Stick 4K Max is on sale for $34.99 ($20 off) at multiple retailers today. | Photo by Chris Welch / The Verge Sad you missed out on all the good Amazon streaming device deals we saw before the Super Bowl? Turn that frown upside down, because today, they’re back on sale again — and at the perfect time, too, given that we’re just days away from the season finale of The Last of Us. Right now, Amazon, Best Buy, and Target are all selling Amazon’s Fire TV Stick 4K Max at an all-time low of $34.99 ($20 off).The Fire TV Stick 4K Max is one of our favorite streaming devices, largely because of how well it integrates with Alexa. With the included remote, you can make voice commands as specific as “turn to ESPN on Sling TV” or just “turn off the lights.” Plus, it offers access to a wide selection of streaming apps, speedy performance, and support for... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Reddit is working on a TikTok-esque feature and splitting text and video posts into separate feeds, the company announced today. Video content on Reddit will be pulled into the Watch feed view, while text content will appear in the Read feed.The feeds will have a combination of posts from subreddits users are subscribed to, plus recommendations to start over the next few weeks as the company tests how users respond to the split views.Creating a feed dedicated solely to video content is like a “videofication” of the platform, Pali Bhat, Reddit’s chief product officer, said on Decoder today. Bhat says the change will allow Reddit’s 500 million monthly users to engage in the format they’re most interested in and to move between formats... Continue reading…

Illustration: Alex Castro / The Verge ChatGPT is coming to Slack. The Salesforce-owned Slack announced the new AI-powered app on Tuesday that will help you craft replies to your colleagues “in seconds.”Those with access to the app can click the three-dots icon in a thread and hit “Draft reply” instead of typing out the response themselves. It’s still not clear how detailed these responses will get — or if they might get a bit wonky at times. Obviously, you can probably edit any responses to better suit the conversation, but I honestly feel that I can type up a reply in the time it takes to command ChatGPT to write one for me. Image: Slack ChatGPT for the Slack app in action. Additionally, the ChatGPT Slack bot can help you find answers “on any... Continue reading…

Illustration: Alex Castro / The Verge General Motors’ next-generation Ultra Cruise driver-assist system will come equipped with lidar as well as several other high-tech sensors designed to enable hands-free driving and cover “95 percent” of driving maneuvers, the automaker announced today.In its first major update since announcing Ultra Cruise in late 2021, the automaker outlined several of the sensors that will power the driver-assist system, including cameras, short- and long-range radar, and a lidar sensor. The vehicles will also come with an all-new computer to process the data input from the sensors, which the automaker previously indicated would include Qualcomm’s new Snapdragon Ride Platform.The lidar will be located inside the vehicle, behind the windshield and... Continue reading…

Giles Martin and Sonos CEO Patrick Spence | Photo illustration: The Verge They join The Vergecast to discuss Sonos’ new Era 300 and 100 speakers, the ins and outs of spatial audio, and why this is the time to get behind it. Continue reading…

Both Era speakers launch together on March 28th. | Photo by Chris Welch / The Verge Available for preorder today and shipping March 28th, both speakers make a good first impression with new features and upgraded sound. Continue reading…

Samar Haddad / The Verge If you’re a PC gamer, then you’re probably familiar with Steam — but there’s more to Valve’s application than just launching your games. Dig a little deeper into the software, and you’ll find numerous options and features that you can take advantage of.These can change the look of Steam, make it easier to find your games, improve your Steam store recommendations, and plenty more.We’ve picked out 11 of our favorites below.Download games remotely You can manage game downloads from anywhere you can access a web browser. You don’t have to be sitting in front of your PC to install games: as long as your computer is switched on and connected to the web with the Steam client running, you can manage game... Continue reading…

Image: Apple Apple is releasing a new yellow colorway for the iPhone 14. Unlike last year, the new color variant won’t be available for the Pro models and will only ship with the base iPhone 14 and the 14 Plus.The new yellow adds a nice pop of color to the device that otherwise comes in black, blue, purple, white, and red. We last saw a yellow iPhone with the release of the iPhone 11 back in 2019, the successor of the yellow iPhone XR that launched in 2018. In addition to the new iPhone color, Apple also released several new spring-themed Watch band colors and silicone iPhone cases. Image: Apple Apple has released a new iPhone color every spring for a few years now, revealing an “alpine green” iPhone 13 and 13 Pro last spring,... Continue reading…