The Verge

Pictured: me after flat-lining several Combine soldiers with a mounted turret. Also pictured: me kind of forgetting that I’m gaming on a Chromebook. | Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge A Chromebook needs more than just an RGB keyboard to be a gaming laptop. It also needs a high-refresh-rate screen and a solid port selection. Now we’re talking. I’ve been testing the $649.99 Acer Chromebook 516 GE, one of a trio of newly announced gaming Chromebooks that my colleague Monica wrote about this week, and I have good news: it does a convincing impression of a gaming laptop, as long as you have fast internet.I’ve been testing a preproduction unit of the 516 GE, and it’s very different from your typical gaming laptop on the inside. There isn’t a high-end processor or graphics card to run the latest games. Instead, it has the fittings of an ultrabook with the necessary connectivity — cutting-edge Wi-Fi 6E connectivity and a... Continue reading…

Vincent Kilbride / The Verge While there has — rightly — been a great deal written and broadcast about how to deal with attacks and privacy violations online and via social media, there is now increasing attention being paid to helping people stay safe in their homes and out in the world.Android phones have, over the last few years, added several personal safety features to their toolboxes. Because the apps and features that come with the phones can differ depending on the manufacturer, what follows are some of the ways you can use the tools offered by Pixel and Samsung phones. If you have an Android phone from a different manufacturer, your best bet is to see what you have that is similar to what comes with either of these phones.Pixel phones come with a Safety... Continue reading…

Image: Firefox Firefox Relay, a Mozilla service designed to hide your “real” email address by giving you virtual ones to hand out, is expanding to offer virtual phone numbers. In a blog post Mozilla product manager Tony Amaral-Cinotto explains that the relay service generates a phone number for you to give out to companies if you suspect they might use it to send you spam messages in the future, or if you think they might share it with others who will.The idea is that handing out this alternative phone number makes it easier to block spam phone calls or texts in the future. You can either block all calls or texts sent to your relay number, or just block specific contacts. Importantly it lets you keep your “real” phone number private, which is... Continue reading…

Sony’s prototype Vision-S 02 SUV, unveiled at CES 2022 as a platform for developing Sony’s EV technology. | Image: Sony Sony and Honda have announced that they plan to start selling their jointly-developed electric vehicles in the US in early 2026.The US has been chosen as the first market because of its well-developed taste for EVs. The cars will then go on sale in Japan later the same year, and then, perhaps, in Europe. Preorders for the vehicles will open in 2025, with sales and vehicle customization pushed through online channels.The two Japanese companies announced they would be working together on a new 50-50 venture earlier this year, with the company later named Sony Honda Mobility. The alliance is intended to unite Honda’s expertise in car manufacture with Sony’s prowess in the fields of sensors, software, and entertainment. The companies hope... Continue reading…

Apple’s M1-equipped MacBook Air from 2020 is on sale right now for its lowest price to date. | Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge Think you have to wait until Black Friday to score a good deal on Apple devices? Think again. Amazon’s Prime Early Access Sale (aka Prime Day 2.0) has officially arrived, and with it comes some pretty solid Apple deals. Right now, there are stellar deals to be had on Apple’s first-gen AirPods and the latest AirPods Pro, which are on sale for their lowest price to date. If you’re looking for something else, however, there are also deals available on the latest entry-level iPad and iPad Pro, the M1-powered MacBook Air, and more.Below, we’ve listed some of the best Apple deals currently available, all of which are exclusive to Amazon Prime subscribers. To save on non-Apple devices and other kinds of tech, be sure to also check out our... Continue reading…

The Apple Watch Series 8 inherits design elements from last year’s Series 7, including the larger display. | Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge It’s almost time to ring the bell for the cows to come home on Amazon’s Prime Early Access Sale, but before that happens we want to note you can still get the Apple Watch Series 8 for $50 off. The best part? This one’s not just exclusive to Amazon or Prime members, as a couple of other major retailers are currently matching Amazon’s price and making it widely available.As for the configurations and colors available, you can get the 41mm Apple Watch Series 8 with GPS for $349 at Amazon (in midnight or red), at Best Buy (in all four colors), or at Walmart (also in all four colors). If you prefer a larger display, you can get the 45mm version of the Series 8 for $379 at Amazon (in red or midnight), at Walmart (in red, silver, or... Continue reading…

The Apple Watch Series 8 is $50 off. | Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge Amazon’s back with yet another Prime-exclusive shopping bonanza. It’s day two of its Prime Early Access Sale, and it’s an opportunity to get a head start on your holiday shopping way before Black Friday. That includes some neat deals on smartwatches and fitness trackers if you, or a loved one, are keen on crushing some fitness and health goals (or if you want to spend less time looking at notifications on your phone).While you won’t find deals on some of the newest launches — like the Pixel Watch — just yet, there are great options from brands like Apple, Bose, Garmin, Amazfit, and Mobvoi. This is a smart way to dip your toe into a new category, especially if you’re unsure whether wearables are for you. Quick reminder: you need an... Continue reading…

Energy Dome’s CO2 battery. | Image: Energy Dome There’s a new CO2 battery in the energy game, and it just might be the assist turbines need to harness the full power of the wind. The technology uses carbon dioxide to store energy in the form of pressure and heat. It’s a relatively straightforward solution that gives the CO2 battery some more flexibility than more traditional alternatives, like lithium-ion batteries.Lithium-ion batteries have become ubiquitous companions to solar panels. But the new CO2 battery could have an edge when it comes to storing energy from winds, which can be even more temperamental than the sun. Energy Dome, the company that developed the CO2 battery, announced a new partnership with global wind giant Ørsted last month.The two companies plan to run a... Continue reading…

Laura Normand / The Verge Mark Zuckerberg wants to own the future of computing — but not alone. That’s the intended takeaway from this year’s Meta (formerly Facebook, formerlier Oculus) Connect, where the Meta CEO described his plans for a new computing platform. “In each generation of computing that I’ve seen so far — PCs, mobile — there’s basically an open ecosystem and there’s a closed ecosystem,” Zuckerberg said. “I strongly believe that an open, interoperable metaverse built by many different developers and companies is going to be better for everyone.”“Openness” is typically considered a good thing in computing. It can promote competition and let people use tech in creative ways the designers didn’t expect. But Zuckerberg’s definition of an “open... Continue reading…

Illustration by Beatrice Sala The company behind ultra fast fashion brands Shein and Romwe will pay New York state $1.9 million over a data breach affecting millions of customers. The fine stems from charges that Zoetop failed to secure customers’ data, didn’t properly inform customers of a data breach, and tried to keep the extent of the leak quiet.The penalty comes after an investigation by the Office of the Attorney General into a 2018 hack in which credit card and personal information, like names, emails, and hashed passwords, was stolen. The data breach affected 39 million Shein and 7 million Romwe accounts, including more than 800,000 accounts belonging to New Yorkers.Romwe reset passwords more than a year after it was hacked and told customers they’d simply... Continue reading…

Photo by Becca Farsace / The Verge Today marks another chapter in the slow demise of the headphone jack. Microsoft has quietly removed the 3.5mm connector from its brand-new Surface Pro 9. The change is confirmed on the tech specs page, which no longer lists a headphone jack among the device’s “connections.” But it’s very much present on the same page for the Surface Pro 8.This seems to be the direct result of Microsoft bringing the Intel and Arm versions of the Surface Pro 9 together in the same chassis. The Surface Pro X has never had a 3.5mm jack, so now, the Intel hardware is coming in line with that design direction.But I’d argue it’s a more controversial omission this time. Why? The new universal outer enclosure is essentially the same size as that of the Surface... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Microsoft isn’t happy with Sony and the UK’s Competition and Markets Authority. The UK regulator signaled an in-depth review of Microsoft’s $68.7 billion deal to acquire Activision Blizzard last month, and the CMA has now published its full 76-page report (PDF) on its findings. The CMA says it has concerns that Microsoft’s Activision Blizzard deal could lessen competition in game consoles, subscriptions, and cloud gaming, but Microsoft thinks the regulator has simply been listening to Sony’s lawyers too much.Microsoft pleaded for its deal on the day of the Phase 2 decision last month, but now the gloves are well and truly off. Microsoft describes the CMA’s concerns as “misplaced” and says that the regulator “adopts Sony’s complaints... Continue reading…

The Pixel Watch is a fair attempt at a first-gen smartwatch, but Google has quite a few growing pains to address Continue reading…

Workspaces groups together tabs and lets you share them with a single link. | Image: Microsoft Workspaces is a new feature coming to Microsoft Edge designed to make it easier to organize and share the dozens of browser tabs that you use on a daily basis. The feature has been popping up in Edge’s early preview builds for over a year now, but Microsoft is offering more detail on it today as part of its Ignite conference alongside new security and shopping features for its browser.Screenshots of Workspaces in preview show how users can create groups of tabs by clicking an icon to the left of the tab row. They can add tabs and name and color-code each group. They can then access, edit, and open previously created groups from that same icon. If you’ve ever used a tab manager add-on like OneTab, then Workspaces seems like a neat,... Continue reading…

Scene from The Strangers (2008) | Image: Rogue Pictures It’s October, which means that all the Halloween lawn and store decorations are out, as are all the holiday TV specials, horror movies, and terrifying games. Which to choose for a really good scare?We asked The Verge staff members to tell us about their favorite ways to generate chills, and they came up with a wide variety of Halloween-ish entertainment. Some of their choices are subtly tension-building, some are truly frightening, some are really nasty, and some are just great camp horror.Whatever types of frights you’re into, you should find something here to help you celebrate what may be our favorite fall holiday.Novels and short stories“The Lottery” by Shirley JacksonI first encountered Shirley Jackson’s strange and... Continue reading…