The Verge

Bitcoin Mining Data Centers computers are provided energy from natural gas at Renegade Oil & Gas Company site in Elizabeth, Colorado on July 15th, 2022. | Photo by Hyoung Chang / The Denver Post The environmental and social damage Bitcoin inflicts on the world is comparable to notoriously polluting industries such as beef production and crude oil burned as gasoline, according to new a new study published today in the journal Scientific Reports. The research found that every $1 in Bitcoin market value generated an average of 35 cents in global climate damages between 2016 and 2021.For comparison, gasoline generated 41 cents, and beef production was responsible for 33 cents in damages. When it comes to both their economic value and environmental impact, Bitcoin is sometimes compared (albeit contentiously) to gold. This new study finds that the climate damages from Bitcoin were actually 8.75 times greater than gold.“When compared... Continue reading…

Photo by Edward Smith / Getty Images Mental health technology company Headspace Health is calling for researchers to submit proposals for studies on the impact of the company’s tools. The company’s products include both the meditation app Headspace and the digital therapy platform Ginger.“We see meditation as both a practice rooted in ancient history and a topic of modern science — which is why we’re just as dedicated to studying it as we are to sharing it with the world,” the company wrote on its “Science at Headspace” webpage.In the statement about the program, Headspace Health noted that research has already found benefits for mental health of both the meditation app and the therapy platform. But there’s still a lot that experts don’t know about mental health apps... Continue reading…

Entergalactic’s protagonist Jabari, who kinda sorta looks like Kid Cudi. | Netflix Netflix’s Entergalactic is a ‘television event’ that becomes way more emotionally resonant when you look at it as a companion piece to Kid Cudi’s upcoming album Continue reading…

A small example of what Melba can do. | Image: PlayerUnknown Productions Hey, remember PlayerUnknown? As in PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds or PUBG to your friends? Yeah, well Brendan Greene, aka PlayerUnknown, has provided details surrounding his latest gaming project, codenamed “Artemis,” which aims to be an open-source Earth-sized virtual environment supporting hundreds of thousands of players that can make or play whatever they want.Here’s the rub, though. Greene also wants users to be able to monetize what they make, essentially turning all user-generated content into NFTs. In an interview with Nathan Brown on the Hit Points newsletter, Greene mentions, “We’re building a digital place that has to have an economy, and it has to have systems at work. And I do believe you should be able to extract value from... Continue reading…

The Eero Pro 6 isn’t the latest model, but it might be all you need. It offers two 5GHz bands and one 2.4GHz band with support for dozens of devices connected simultaneously. | Photo by Dan Seifert / The Verge After a day full of product announcements, Amazon is getting back to cutting prices on its hardware — both new-ish and old-ish. Specifically, there are some great discounts happening once again on the company’s Eero lineup of smart mesh Wi-Fi routers. These prices match the ones that we saw back in early July just before the company launched Prime Day 2022. (Little did we know Amazon was planning another big sale that’s happening soon on October 11th and 12th).If you want another chance to grab a single Eero Pro 6E for $120 off, you can get one for $179 through Eero or Amazon’s site. This is currently the company’s highest-end router that can blanket up to 2,000 square feet by itself. It also features two ethernet ports and, notably, a... Continue reading…

Image: Alfred I’ve spent the last few months testing smart door locks, and I’ve had to set up an Amazon Subscribe & Save order for all the different batteries they’ve been chewing through. Smart locks have a power problem, and smart lock manufacturer Alfred thinks it has the solution: wireless power.First announced at CES 2020, the Alfred AirCord enabled ML2 smart lock is finally a reality. Wirelessly powered by a Wi-Charge wireless power transmitter, the lock is launching today for commercial real estate developers in the United States and Canada.The ML2 is a mortise lock designed for high-end residential homes and commercial buildings. While it’s not going to work on your standard front door fitted for a deadbolt lock, Brad Cook, head of product... Continue reading…

A sample video generated by Meta’s new AI text-to-video model, Make-A-Video. The text prompt used to create the video was “a teddy bear painting a portrait.” | Image: Meta AI text-to-image generators have been making headlines in recent months, but researchers are already moving on to the next frontier: AI text-to-video generators.A team of machine learning engineers from Facebook’s parent company Meta has unveiled a new system called Make-A-Video. As the name suggests, this AI model allows users to type in a rough description of a scene, and it will generate a short video matching their text. The videos are clearly artificial, with blurred subjects and distorted animation, but still represent a significant development in the field of AI content generation.The model’s output is clearly artificial but still impressive“Generative AI research is pushing creative expression forward by giving people tools... Continue reading…

The long-awaited $429 Sub Mini doesn’t disappoint, but there are still reasons to opt for the standard Sub Continue reading…

All this fuss for a brick and mortar? | Photo by Sean Hollister / The Verge The whole thing smacks of ‘content’ Continue reading…

The new Outlook for Windows design. | Image: Microsoft Microsoft is making its new version of Outlook for Windows available to all Office testers this week. The new Outlook for Windows app will make the desktop email client a lot more like the web version. Microsoft has been working on this redesign for months, and originally released a semi-public beta earlier this year.“Since then, we’ve received valuable feedback from Office Insiders on Beta Channel about how to create a more consistent, feature-rich experience,” explains Margie Clinton, group product manager on the Outlook team. “We’ve been listening to feedback since May and our team has been working diligently to improve the new Outlook for Windows.” Image: Microsoft Office testers can try the new Outlook for... Continue reading…

Sony is bringing another PlayStation exclusive to PC. Sackboy: A Big Adventure is set to release on PC on October 27th, according to a trailer that was posted early to Sony’s PlayStation Latin America YouTube account. Spotted by Nibel on Twitter, the trailer confirms the PC port of Sackboy: A Big Adventure will be full of improvements.4K and 120fps support is listed, alongside support for ultrawide 21:9 aspect ratio monitors, Nvidia’s DLSS, and Variable Refresh Rate (VRR). These are the best improvements to Sackboy: A Big Adventure yet, following a resolution and visuals boost on the PS5 version.Sackboy is the latest in a line of PlayStation games on PCSackboy: A Big Adventure is the latest in a growing line of PlayStation exclusive... Continue reading…

Its last exclusive game of the season won’t be quite as exclusive. | Photo by Cole Burston/Getty Images This Friday’s Yankees game against the Orioles will no longer be exclusively available on Amazon Prime Video, like 20 games before it: the game will also be airing on the Yankee Entertainment and Sports (YES) network, according to a tweet from the cable network. It’s a big change, and it’s something that Apple didn’t do last week, despite pleas from New York’s Attorney General.Many Yankees fans will likely want to tune in to the game, as outfielder Aaron Judge could beat a record for home runs that’s stood for over 60 years (he matched it on Wednesday after this article was originally published). But the ability to watch the Yankees on YES has been a bit contentious lately; last Friday, New York’s attorney general Letitia James called... Continue reading…

The Killswitch case keeps your Steam Deck safe and is currently available on the Dbrand site. | Photo by Alice Newcome-Beill / The Verge In high school, I’d keep my CD player from getting crushed in my bookbag by wrapping it in a wool sock. Considering that the CD player was probably the most expensive thing I owned at the time, I probably could’ve done better. This is how I felt with the first case I bought for my Steam Deck. It was definitely a step up from mismatched footwear, but I knew a device like this demands a little more respect without keeping it constantly locked away inside the case that it was packaged with.Dbrand, maker of accessories for your phone, AirPods, and even your PS5, shares this sentiment and made “Project Killswitch.” Killswitch is designed to be a better protective skin for the Steam Deck and started development shortly following Valve’s... Continue reading…

Image: Hertz Hertz and BP are joining forces to build a network of electric vehicle (EV) chargers throughout the US (via Engadget). The initiative should help support Hertz’s growing fleet of EV vehicles, as the rental car company recently announced plans to purchase a total of over 300,000 EVs from Tesla, Polestar, and GM.Details about the project are still pretty slim, and the two companies haven’t indicated how many charging stations they plan on building, how long it could take, or how much money either side is committing to the project. But we do know that Hertz is working with BP Pulse, the oil giant’s EV branch, to build out “a network of fast-charging hubs” with the goal of serving both Hertz customers and everyday EV drivers.According to a... Continue reading…

The company’s “been exploring new ways to make” the info you want easier to find. | Illustration: The Verge Google may be trying to reinvent the way we search in the future and expanding access to its impressive multisearch feature, but perhaps one of its most exciting announcements from today is a feature it’s calling “discussions and forums.” The idea is simple: whenever you do a Google search that it thinks could be an open-ended question, it’ll pop up a box full of results from “a variety of popular forums and online discussions across the web.” An example in its blog post shows results from Reddit, Quora, and Edmunds showing up when the user searches “best car for big family.”It’s more or less a meme at this point that you have to add “reddit” to a search if you want to find actually useful results instead of a page full of ads and... Continue reading…

Expect to learn more about the Pixel 7 and Pixel Watch at the next Made by Google event. | Image: Google Google will finally be sharing more about the Pixel 7 and Pixel Watch at its next Made by Google event Continue reading…

Sony is beginning to roll out PlayStation Stars. | Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge Sony’s new PlayStation Stars loyalty program will launch in North and South America on October 5th, the company announced on Wednesday. The new program will let PlayStation fans earn rewards like points and digital collectibles by doing things like playing a game or earning certain trophies.Sony has also spelled out some of the finer details of the program, which broadly line up with information we’ve heard before. The service is free to join with an adult PlayStation Network account, and while players can earn some benefits if they are a PlayStation Plus member, you don’t need to subscribe to PlayStation Plus to join Stars. The “full PlayStation Stars experience” will be available via the PlayStation mobile app but not consoles to... Continue reading…

Photo by Nikolas Kokovlis/NurPhoto via Getty Images Instagram says it’s permanently removed the official account for Pornhub for violating policies multiple times, Instagram’s parent company, Meta, told Motherboard.Meta claims that, over the past decade, Pornhub has repeatedly violated its terms of service regarding nudity, adult content, and sexual solicitation. However, it did not specify how exactly beyond telling the New York Post that the account recently violated rules against sexual solicitation by encouraging Instagram users to leave the social media platform and visit a porn site. Meta adds the adult entertainment company also violated guidelines concerning multiple violations of its terms.In response, Pornhub published an open letter on Twitter, calling the move unfair and... Continue reading…

The Verge Starting “early next year,” Google will be able to notify you if your personal info, such as your phone number, email, or home address, shows up in search results as part of its “results about you” tool. The announcement comes as Google has officially started rolling out the tool, which lets people easily create takedown requests for results with their personal info. The tool started showing up for some people last week.In a tweet, the company says the notification system will be opt-in. Ideally, it’s not something that most people will have to turn on; however, it will be nice to have the option, especially for those in high-profile positions or who find themselves targeted by harassment campaigns.

Verizon will let you manage your NFL Plus subscription on its Plus Play platform. | Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Verizon and the NFL go way back, and on Wednesday, the two groups announced their next new partnership: NFL Plus, the NFL’s new mobile streaming service, will be one of the streaming services offered on Plus Play, Verizon’s upcoming subscription management platform.Verizon first announced Plus Play in March, and to me, it sounds a lot like Apple’s Channels product. With Channels, you can subscribe to streaming services using your information and payment details linked to your Apple ID and manage those services from your Apple ID account instead of trying to remember a bunch of disparate logins. Plus Play seems to be Verizon’s take on a similar idea, but instead, you manage things via your Verizon account. Verizon has already said that... Continue reading…

Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge Microsoft confirmed that it’s removing SwiftKey from the Apple App Store and ending support for the iOS version of the keyboard app on October 5th. It will still be available if you’ve already downloaded SwiftKey on your iPhone, so long as you don’t uninstall it yourself.“Microsoft will continue support for SwiftKey Android as well as the underlying technology that powers the Windows touch keyboard,” Chris Wolfe, the director of product management at SwiftKey, said in a statement to The Verge. “For those customers who have SwiftKey installed on iOS, it will continue to work until it is manually uninstalled or a user gets a new device.”The move to discontinue SwiftKey on iOS comes after months of user complaints that seemingly went... Continue reading…

Ted Lasso addresses the media (in FIFA 23) | Image: EA The last FIFA game adds a lot of new features to the long-running franchise, but I was most excited about cosplaying as Jason Sudeikis and his mustache. Continue reading…

It might be a good idea to get familiar with the feature before you get into trouble. | Image: Apple Say you twisted your ankle on the trail, you’re out of cell signal range, and you need to call for help. Sounds like a great time to learn how to use a new feature on your phone, right? Hell no, and it seems that Apple has come to the same conclusion. Sleuths at 9to5Mac discovered some code in the latest iOS 16 developer beta that hints at the existence of a satellite SOS demo mode, potentially so you can get familiar with the feature before you get into trouble.SOS via satellite is the iPhone 14 and 14 Pro-only feature Apple announced (and demo’d for us) earlier this month. It uses satellite connectivity to help relay messages and location info to emergency services when you’re out of cell range. It’s not live yet; the feature is... Continue reading…

Honestly, I’m just interested to see how Razer competes with the Steam Deck. | Image: Verizon Verizon is teasing that it’s working on a 5G gaming handheld with Razer and Qualcomm, which is set to be fully announced on October 15th at RazerCon. The carrier talked a little about the device, which will be called the Razer Edge 5G, at a keynote at MWC Las Vegas, saying that it’ll run Android and give you access to cloud gaming services like Xbox Cloud Gaming. Unlike devices like Logitech’s recently announced G Cloud, however, it does seem like it’ll be able to play games stored locally on the device as well.While details are relatively sparse, we have heard of a similar device before: Qualcomm’s Snapdragon G3x Handheld Gaming Developer Kit. That device, which was shown off late last year, was made to showcase the company’s G3x... Continue reading…

Photo by Alex Wong/Getty Images The House is expected to vote on a package of previously uncontroversial bills targeting Big Tech’s market dominance this week, but a sudden flare-up among Republicans is threatening to hold up any movement on the bills.Earlier this week, Rep. Ken Buck (R-CO) announced that the House planned to vote on three bills that would make it more difficult and expensive for large tech companies, like Apple or Google, to acquire smaller companies by increasing filing fees. In turn, those fees would be used to fund investigations for federal antitrust enforcers at the Federal Trade Commission and Justice Department.“We can’t allow goliath tech firms to crush small businesses and conservatism any longer,” Buck said in a Monday statement.... Continue reading…

Google’s search is becoming both more visual and more exploratory. | Image: Google The internet is more visual and more interactive than ever. So how does the world’s biggest search engine change to fit the times? By redefining the whole idea. Continue reading…

You’ll soon be able to access Google’s shopping features by typing “shop,” followed by whatever you’re looking for. | Image: Google Google wants its search engine to become the place where you do your online shopping. To do that, the company announced today that it’s introducing a set of new shopping-specific features meant to help you narrow down your results and — more importantly — keep you on Google.For starters, Google’s folding shopping features directly into its main search bar, no longer requiring you to hit the “Shopping” tab whenever you’re searching for something you want to buy. Starting your searches with the word “shop” followed by a product name will automatically yield a set of visual results and research tools as well as availability in stores nearby. This feature’s coming to mobile first and will arrive on desktop and in more categories “soon.” ... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Amazon just held its fall hardware launch event, where it revealed a ton of new tech, including a new Kindle Scribe, an updated Fire TV cube, and a second-generation Echo Auto device. Here’s a roundup of some of the most exciting announcements that came out of Amazon’s event.The new Kindle Scribe comes with a stylus Image: Amazon Amazon’s new Kindle Scribe has an E-Ink display. Kindles aren’t just for reading anymore — the newest Kindle is an E-Ink tablet that you can use for reading and writing. It comes with a 10.2-inch screen with 300ppi, along with a Basic Pen or Premium Pen option for the stylus.The Premium Pen costs $30 more and comes with a customizable shortcut button and a sensor for an eraser. With... Continue reading…

Illustration: The Verge If you open up Google Maps right now, I’m guessing you’ll probably search for where you want to go using a traditional 2D map. But Google has some ideas to help you discover the world around you in a far more immersive way, and it showed off some of what it’s working on at its Search On event on Wednesday.One of those new features is what Google calls Immersive View, which it first demonstrated at this year’s Google I/O. On its face, it’s essentially a 3D aerial view of a certain area or location — think Apple Maps’ Flyover feature — but Immersive View also lets you go a level deeper by checking out weather, traffic, and even drill down to explore individual buildings. During Wednesday’s show, Google Maps VP and GM Chris Phillips gave a... Continue reading…

Amazon’s smart displays like the Echo Show 10 (pictured) will soon be able to display multiple security camera feeds. | Photo by Jennifer Pattison Tuohy / The Verge Amidst a slew of new hardware announcements today, Amazon is also announcing a host of new capabilities for Alexa, including a handful of new smart home features. The company hasn’t announced exact release dates for the updates, but its press release says it hopes to roll them out “over the coming months.”It might sound like a small change, but one of the more significant upgrades is the ability to quickly and easily schedule smart home device actions for moments in the future. Although it’s previously been possible to schedule actions via the Alexa app, now the process is a lot simpler, thanks to voice commands like “Alexa, turn off the lights in 10 minutes,” or “Alexa, turn on the fan at 6pm.”Smart displays can now show feeds from... Continue reading…

An example of DALL-E’s “outpainting” ability — extending an image beyond its current borders. | Image: OpenAI OpenAI has scrapped the wait list for access to its text-to-image system DALL-E 2, meaning anyone can sign up to use the AI art generator immediately.The company unveiled the original DALL-E in January 2021, with the tool impressing both AI experts and the public with its ability to turn any text description (or prompt) into a unique image. Since then, a number of other text-to-image systems have been created that rival the speed and quality of DALL-E. Other systems, like Midjourney and Stable Diffusion, are much easier for anyone to access, drawing attention away from OpenAI’s own offering.Open access AI art image generators have drawn attention away from DALL-EOpenAI, which has received substantial funding from tech giant... Continue reading…

The Fire TV Omni QLED TVs include full-array local dimming for better contrast and black levels. | Image: Amazon Amazon’s first self-branded TV sets were aimed squarely at budget shoppers and prioritized value and good software over sheer picture quality. The Fire TV Omni lineup runs the same software as the company’s popular streaming device — offering access to endless entertainment apps — and the built-in microphones allow for hands-free Alexa voice commands. Today, Amazon is announcing the latest edition to its TV series, the Fire TV Omni QLED, and this time, it’s stepping up the display specs with the inclusion of full-array local dimming.Starting at $799.99 and coming in 65- and 75-inch ($1,099.99) sizes, the Fire TV Omni QLED includes “up to” 96 individual dimming zones behind the panel, which should result in noticeably better contrast... Continue reading…

The latest Fire TV Cube has a fabric finish. | Image: Amazon Amazon just announced its latest and most powerful Fire TV Cube to date. Like past models, the $139.99 streaming player has built-in microphones for voice controls and a speaker for playing back Alexa’s responses. It’s the most capable of the company’s streaming players and retains the 360-degree IR blaster found in the previous Fire TV Cube that can power on and control other devices in your home theater system, like a TV, soundbar, or receiver.Preorders for the new Fire TV Cube start today, and it will ship on October 29th. Amazon has refreshed the Cube hardware by adding fabric to its sides, though the standard Alexa LED status bar and physical buttons for volume (and muting the microphones) remain present on top. The processor has... Continue reading…

Wires in the wall — what a concept. | Image: Eero When it comes to networking, Wi-Fi is great for convenience, but it can’t hold a candle to wires when it comes to performance and plain old reliability. Amazon seems to have taken this idea to heart because it’s introducing an ethernet jack-laden gateway, which supports power over ethernet, or PoE, to its Eero lineup. It’s also releasing a PoE access point alongside it.The tech, which is popular among businesses and home networking enthusiasts alike, lets you run a single cable to your networking equipment instead of having to connect power and ethernet separately. For those willing to pay for the equipment, it should provide more flexibility for where Eero access points can be mounted or even just let people achieve cleaner cable runs.... Continue reading…

Echo speakers will join the newest Echo Dot speakers as Eero Wi-Fi range extenders for an Eero. If you’ve been eyeing your Echo smart speaker for a while now and wondering if it could do something more than just play music or set a timer for your toast, I have good news. Amazon is turning it into an extender for your Eero mesh Wi-Fi network.The capability to push your Wi-Fi a few hundred feet further around your home and make it easier to connect smart home devices like outdoor cameras and that streaming media stick in the spare bedroom is a feature of Amazon’s new Echo Dot and Echo Dot with Clock speakers, announced today.But the feature is also coming to the fourth-gen Echo speakers on October 20th and to all fourth-gen Echo Dot models via a software update “in the coming months,” Nick Weaver, CEO and co-founder of Eero, told T... Continue reading…

No wires on the battery version of the Cam Pro. | Image: Ring Ring’s got a new top-of-the-line “Pro” security camera that packs all of the company’s advanced features into a more versatile design, complete with wire-free options for the first time. The Spotlight Cam Pro adds radar-powered 3D motion detection, color pre-roll, and Bird’s Eye View in a new design that can be powered by battery, a solar panel, and, of course, the good ol’ plug-in option. You can preorder the new Spotlight Cam Pro today: the battery and plug-in power options are $229.99, and the solar panel-powered model is $249.99.Like last year’s Ring Video Doorbell Pro 2 and Floodlight Cam Wired Pro, the new Cam Pro has a radar-powered 3D motion detection feature that can more accurately pinpoint when people actually enter your... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge The company’s annual September events are usually a marathon of new product launches. We’ll be covering the announcements live. Continue reading…

Image: Square Square now lets merchants use Apple’s Tap to Pay feature to process transactions. In a press release, the company announced that sellers with a compatible iPhone can use Square’s Point of Sale (POS) app to accept contactless payments.Apple first rolled out Tap to Pay on the iPhone XS and newer in February. The feature transforms the iPhone into a contactless payment terminal, letting users tap their iPhone or an NFC-supported credit/debit card against the seller’s device to complete a transaction. It also supports Google and Samsung Pay for users on Android. Stripe was the first payment company to launch support for the feature, with Square rolling out a limited beta program in June. Square says sellers with an iPhone 11 or newer that... Continue reading…