The Verge

Image: Blizzard Overwatch 2 lead hero designer Geoff Goodman has left Blizzard. First reported by PC Gamer, the long-time Blizzard employee decided to leave the company “earlier this year,” according to a statement from Blizzard to The Verge. Blizzard’s full response reads:“We thank Geoff for his many years of service at Blizzard and wish him all the best. His ability to bring to life Overwatch’s diverse hero roster through gameplay has been incredible, and the mark he’s left on the Warcraft and Overwatch teams will be felt for years to come.”The loss of Overwatch 2’s lead hero designer is an ironically timed blow, as a few short days ago, Kiriko, the game’s 35th hero, was revealed.

Razer’s Leviathan V2 X PC soundbar. | Image: Razer Razer’s new Leviathan V2 X PC soundbar is a smaller, stripped-down version of its full-featured sibling that Razer released earlier this year. The 15.7-inch soundbar comes at a cheaper $99.99 price point but still offers a decent amount of features for the cost.In terms of audio, you can expect two full-range drivers and two passive radiators with a maximum volume output of 90dB when one meter away. It’s missing the subwoofer and THX Spatial Audio that the standard $249 Leviathan V2 comes with, so you might miss out on more immersive, bass-rich audio that my colleague Cameron Faulkner said “sounds pretty fantastic” in his review. Image: Razer Just look at that RGB. Like its more expensive counterpart, the... Continue reading…

Share your sick gameplay footage without actually making people ill. | Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge Meta is rolling out the v44 software update for Quest headsets, and its big new feature is good news for anyone who likes sharing videos of themselves in virtual reality. There are new advanced camera settings that let you manually adjust how much stabilization is added and record 16:9 videos (or 9:16 vertical videos, which are perfect for TikTok) in addition to square ones — something that used to only be available through third-party software.The settings are currently listed as experimental for reasons that are about to become obvious, but they do provide a decent amount of control; alongside the aspect ratio and stabilization controls are options that let you pick your frame rate and compression quality, though Meta’s blog post... Continue reading…

Mizkif / YouTube The fallout regarding a Twitch streamer’s gambling scam has taken a dramatic and disturbing turn as one streamer involved has been accused of “covering up” a sexual assault.Yesterday, news broke that ItsSliker scammed fellow streamers out of hundreds of thousands of dollars in order to support a sports gambling addiction. That news, in turn, prompted several prominent streamers, including Pokimane, Asmongold, and HasanAbi, to call for the banning of slot gambling on Twitch despite the fact Sliker’s gambling wasn’t slots. One of the streamers calling for the Twitch gambling ban and a potential boycott of Twitch to further the issue was Mizkif, owner of OTKNetwork, a popular streaming network that counts content creators like Emiru and... Continue reading…

Google rolled out new features in Google Travel | Illustration: The Verge Google announced a new feature that will allow you to buy train tickets through search in select countries, including Japan, Germany, Italy, and Spain. The company says this could make it easier for users to choose more emission-conscious travel options when booking travel.According to Google, simply searching two destinations, such as “Berlin to Vienna trains,” will give you access to various listings in a Google search. From there, you can click on a direct link that will take you to the partner website to buy your ticket. Image: Google Users can book train tickets via Google search. Google is also rolling out a new search tool that will allow you to narrow down flight and hotel options that have lower... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge YouTube is working on a new program to let creators monetize their longform videos that use licensed music.At its Made on YouTube event today, the company announced Creator Music, opening up a catalog of popular music for content creators to use in their videos without getting their monetization dinged. Creators have a few options: they can either license tracks directly and keep all of the revenue (besides the 45 percent cut YouTube takes) or share revenue with the license holders. According to Billboard, that share is 27.5 percent each to the video creator and artists.Using music has been a challenge for YouTube creators, who have generally had to use royalty-free music in order to keep their videos from being demonetized. Using even... Continue reading…

Illustration by Samar Haddad / The Verge Your lock screen can do a lot more in iOS 16: this platform update provides a level of lock screen customization that iOS has never offered before, including widgets and wallpaper options. Even better, you’re not stuck with just one lock screen — you can create several to reflect the time of day, the weather, or your mood.It’s an amount of personalization that’s uncharacteristic of an Apple device. But beyond the entertainment value of turning your wallpaper into a grid of poop emoji, iOS 16 makes it possible to get useful information at a glance that once required you to unlock your phone — and that deserves a thumbs-up emoji for sure.Here’s how to completely design your new lock screen.

Iman Benson and Igby Rigney in The Midnight Club. | Netflix The seven terminally ill youths at the center of Netflix’s upcoming horror mystery series The Midnight Club from Mike Flanagan and Leah Fong all know they’re probably going to die before any of them are ready. But in the show’s first full trailer, the thing that has all of the kids at Brightcliffe hospice running scared isn’t the prospect of meeting their ends naturally — it’s how something from the great beyond seems intent on hastening their deaths.Though Brightcliffe is technically a facility where young people go to spend their final days, the new trailer establishes it as the kind of remote, occasionally scenic boarding school situation that residents could find almost charming. Under the watchful eye of Dr. Georgina Stanton... Continue reading…

The Motorola e22 embraces a more modern look. | Image: Motorola Motorola announced a couple of new budget phones — spotted by Phone Arena — for markets outside the US. That’s not notable — it does that all the time — but the Motorola e22 and e22i caught my eye because, damn, they look pretty good. Budget Motorola phones — particularly the ones sold in the US over the past couple of years — have all looked very much the same, with curved edges and pill-shaped camera bumps crammed with as many lenses as the price point allows. But these new e-series phones look a little different, and I hope it’s a sign of things to come.Right off the bat, you can see the flat back panel and side rails on the two devices that set it apart from other recent Motorola phones. Ever since Apple brought back the flat design... Continue reading…

The accounts were compromised as the result of a phishing campaign. | Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge American Airlines is alerting some of its customers to a data breach, where an “unauthorized actor” got access to names, birthdays, mailing and email addresses, phone, driver’s license and passport numbers, and “certain medical information” by compromising employee email addresses (via Bleeping Computer). According to a sample letter from the company, dated September 16th, the airline discovered the breach in July and began an investigation with a third-party security cybersecurity firm.I asked the company if it knew how long the attackers had access to the email accounts before the breach was discovered. In response, spokesperson Andrea Koos sent the airline’s statement, which contains a few details about what happened but doesn’t... Continue reading…

An intricate puzzle box in the Hellraiser film reboot. | Image: Spyglass Media Group Halloween is a little over a month away, which means spooky season is upon us — and that means it’s time for some horror movies. One of the new flicks due out in time for the big day is Hulu’s reboot of Clive Barker’s classic Hellraiser. Based on the first trailer, the new iteration looks to retain the mixture of seduction and scares that made the original so distinct, with some very satisfying puzzle box scenes thrown in as well.The reboot is directed by David Bruckner and will feature Sense8 star Jamie Clayton taking on the role of Pinhead. According to the official description, the new Hellraiser will follow “a young woman struggling with addiction” who “comes into possession of an ancient puzzle box, unaware that its purpose is to... Continue reading…

Windows 11 2022 Update arrives today. | Alex Castro / The Verge The Windows 11 2022 Update is officially here. Microsoft’s latest OS update includes app folders in the Start menu, drag and drop on the taskbar, new touch gestures and animations, and lots of accessibility improvements. You can find our full overview of all the new features right here.Microsoft has moved to the “Windows 11 2022 Update” naming instead of the 22H2 update moniker it has been using for months. This new simplified naming comes as the software maker commits to continuing with annual updates to Windows 11, despite recent rumors. “We will still have an annual release that will be available one time per year, and it will be available in the second half of the year,” says Nicci Trovinger, senior director of Windows product... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge One of Washington’s loudest tech groups, The App Association (ACT), says it proudly represents thousands of app developers across the world. But according to a new report from Bloomberg on Monday, the group receives more than half of its funding from Apple.The report paints Apple and the ACT as strange bedfellows, especially as the company’s App Store frequently finds itself at odds with the developers whose software it hosts. Over the last few years, major software developers like Epic Games and Spotify have accused Apple of running an anti-competitive online marketplace by requiring them to use the company’s in-app purchasing system while taking a stiff 15 to 30 percent cut from all sales.The report paints Apple and the ACT as... Continue reading…

This is a triumph. I’m making a note here; “Huge success” | Nvidia At Nvidia’s September event, where it announced the new RTX 4080 and 4090 graphics cards, it also showed off an upcoming mod for the original Portal on PC that injects gorgeous, ray-traced visuals into the game. It’ll be available for free to all current owners of the game on Steam sometime in November.Whether you’ve played the game numerous times (raises hand) or you’re about to get it for the first time (I envy you), it’ll look even better if you have a Nvidia RTX-series graphics card in your laptop or desktop. This launch follows Nvidia’s past visual treatments that spruced up classic games, including Quake II and Minecraft. Check out Nvidia’s blog post for the full details.Nvidia also announced a modding tool called RTX Remix,... Continue reading…

Google Tasks is now the one place to see your tasks across Google. | Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge Google is working on a big update to Google Tasks, the company said today. It’s bringing a couple of new features to the app, making it easier to add tasks, and finally integrating its reminder system across Google Assistant, Calendar, and the rest of the Google suite of apps. The new changes should make Tasks a better to-do list app and might also make Google’s overall task management tools make sense. Finally.Going forward, Google views Tasks as a hub for all your tasks across Google products. Hit the button that adds any Gmail thread to your to-do list so you can get to it later. Create reminders in Google Calendar, and they’ll show up both in your schedule and in Tasks. Say “hey Google, remind me to take out the trash at 9” to the... Continue reading…

Diego Luna as Cassian Andor. | Lucasfilm/Disney Plus Disney Plus’ Andor gets down to brass tacks about what it takes to win a war Continue reading…

A promotional image for the new Iron Man game. | Image: EA EA is teaming up with Marvel to make a new single-player Iron Man game, EA announced on Tuesday. The game is being developed by Motive Studio, which is working on the upcoming Dead Space remake.EA is describing this new Iron Man title as an “all-new single-player, third-person, action-adventure” Iron Man video game that will feature an “an original narrative that taps into the rich history of Iron Man, channeling the complexity, charisma, and creative genius of Tony Stark, and enabling players to feel what it’s like to truly play as Iron Man.”It’s currently in preproductionThe new game is currently in preproduction, so it seems as if it could be quite a while before we’ll actually be able to play it. The development team is led by... Continue reading…

Photo by: BSIP/Universal Images Group via Getty Images Digital health tools could help detect early signs of hearing loss and prevent further damage, a new analysis highlights. Virtual care, coupled with newly available over-the-counter hearing aids, could make it easier for people living in rural areas and far from specialists to keep their hearing sharp.“We can really meet people where they are,” says Samantha Robler, study author and an audiologist at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences.Millions of people around the world have some type of hearing loss, which can make it harder for them to do well in school, have fulfilling relationships, and get good jobs. Most of this hearing loss — like the kind caused by exposure to loud noises or infections — is preventable. But the... Continue reading…

The Grogu Tamagotchi comes in two flavors. | Image: Bandai Namco It’s a wonder it took so long, but Grogu, better known as Baby Yoda, has now become a Tamagotchi.The virtual pet toy will let you take care of the Mandalorian’s cuter half by feeding it squid chowder and macarons, playing some mini-games, and unlocking a bunch of outfits. But watch out: apparently “if you feed the Grogu Tamagotchi too much squid chowder, the squid will jump on him.” Considering that Grogu’s main personality trait is “hungry,” this seems like a perfect fit. Though it does appear that there are some dark possibilities depending on how well you take care of the little guy. The tagline reads, “Will you be able to successfully nurture Grogu or will the Dark Trooper take him away first?”The humble Tamagotchi has been making... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Nintendo is ending support for account logins and creation through Twitter or Facebook (via Eurogamer). Starting October 25th, you’ll have to log in using your Nintendo account username and password or through your linked Google or Apple account.If you’re asked to sign in again once the new policy goes into effect, simply enter the email address or username associated with your Nintendo account to sign in. You can also use your Google or Apple account (given that you’ve previously linked them to your Nintendo account).

Amazon is discounting select configurations of the Surface Pro 8 by as much as $600. | Image by Becca Farsace / The Verge Not everyone gets up in the morning ready to spend $1,300, but just in case you are, Amazon is currently offering an excellent deal on a 512GB configuration of the Microsoft Surface Pro 8, discounting this variant of the high-end tablet to $1,299.99. Normally available for $1,899.99, this is the best price we’ve seen — by far — for this model of the Surface Pro 8, which includes 16GB of RAM, a 512GB SSD, and an Intel Core i7 CPU. Amazon’s discount, unfortunately, doesn’t include the Type Cover as part of this deal, but the handy protective peripheral can still be purchased piecemeal from Microsoft for $179.99. We’re expecting Microsoft to announce a successor to the Pro 8 in the coming months, but with nothing confirmed just yet, this... Continue reading…

Amazon’s big devices event is next week. | Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Amazon is holding an event next week to announce new devices, features, and services. The fully virtual event will kick off at 9AM PT / 12PM ET on September 28th and is expected to include the usual deluge of Amazon devices announcements just in time for fall. Amazon confirmed the event in an email invitation to The Verge today.It’s reasonable to assume there will be new Echo devices, new Ring products or services, and perhaps some surprises, too. Last year’s Amazon fall devices event was chock-full of news, including its new Astro home robot, the Echo Show 15, a Fibit-like fitness tracker, and even a new smart thermostat.There haven’t been any substantial rumors about what to expect from Amazon this year, but as it has been two years... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge In the latest eye-watering crypto heist, Wintermute, a market-making firm, has been hacked for $160 million, according to its CEO.Early Tuesday morning, CEO Evgeny Gaevoy posted on Twitter that the company was experiencing an ongoing hack that had drained the funds from its decentralized finance (DeFi) operations.On blockchain tracking service Etherscan, a transaction flagged as an exploit showed tens of millions of dollars worth of Dai stablecoin, USD Coin, Tether, Wrapped ETH and other currencies transferred from the company to a wallet address labeled as “Wintermute Exploiter.”Market-making firms like Wintermute play a crucial role in the cryptocurrency ecosystem, providing liquidity to exchanges by holding large amounts of... Continue reading…

Photo by Erin Schaff-Pool / Getty Images Late last week, a US court effectively declared social media moderation illegal in Texas. The ruling doesn’t change anything for now. But it just set the stage for a Supreme Court decision that could transform the internet. And with that context... it’s remarkably bad.The case I’m talking about is NetChoice v. Ken Paxton, a fight over a law called HB 20, which we’ve discussed before. HB 20 bans large social networks from deleting (or hiding or demonetizing or downranking) content or users based on “viewpoint.” It’s positioned as an anti-“Big Tech” censorship bill, but it’s poised to cover many sites beyond your average Facebook or YouTube behemoth. It would require a radical reworking of many major services, plausibly including an end... Continue reading…

Spotify is launching audiobooks within the app. | Image: Spotify There is a lot happening today, so I won’t dally. Spotify is finally launching its audiobooks feature, Adnan Syed of Serial is free, and we are opening up the Hot Pod Summit lottery.Spotify launches audiobooks in the USSpotify is bringing audiobooks to its app today. At launch, the feature functions much like a traditional audiobook service, requiring users to buy each book they want to listen to. But the company has teased more unique business models that could come in the future and look more like the freemium approach listeners have become used to with music and podcasts.Users in the US can buy individual audiobooks from a library of 300,000 titles at prices set by publishers, similar to Apple Books. Listeners can browse and sample... Continue reading…

Adnan Syed leaves the courthouse after Baltimore Circuit Judge Melissa Phinn on Monday, Sept. 19, 2022, overturned his first-degree murder conviction in the 1999 killing of Hae Min Lee. | Jerry Jackson/The Baltimore Sun/Tribune News Service via Getty Images Adnan Syed was set free on Monday after more than 20 years in prison for being convicted of the murder of his ex-girlfriend, Hae Min Lee, in a case that spawned intense interest after it was documented in the podcast Serial. The New York Times reports Judge Melissa M. Phinn of Baltimore City Circuit overturned Adnan Syed’s murder conviction after prosecutors filed documents questioning the trial and the evidence presented, without saying that they believe he is innocent.According to the Baltimore Sun, the judge ordered Syed unshackled in court and to remain on GPS monitoring pending another trial, while the prosecutors have 30 days to determine whether to try him again or drop the charges. In her ruling, Phinn wrote, “the State has... Continue reading…

A canvas is a document that lives inside — and works with — Slack. | Image: Slack Slack is becoming a document editor. The Salesforce-owned company announced today at its developer conference that it is building a new feature, called Canvas, that will let users create and edit full docs from within the Slack interface. It’s one of Slack’s biggest announcements in a while and maybe its biggest departure ever from its email-killer roots.The idea behind bringing documents to Slack seems to have been to match everything about Slack that’s productive and useful but pull it out of a fast-moving chat window and into a more permanent and findable space. Canvas documents (which Slack calls canvases) can obviously contain text and images, but one big advantage they have is Slack’s ability to grab important content from any... Continue reading…

Adobe has come under fire for restricting its users to sharing files via it’s Creative Cloud. | Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Adobe’s $20 billion deal to buy Figma means the design community is watching the company’s every move with a careful eye, and a recent Twitter thread from Adobe’s chief product officer Scott Belsky makes it clear how challenging that can be — and also makes clear that Figma’s native cloud-editing features are the future Adobe’s really buying.Halide developer Sebastiaan de With expressed his frustrations on Twitter about Adobe removing the macOS share sheet option from Photoshop directly at Belsky, asking “Could someone at Adobe please throttle the user-hostile cloud upselling that’s happening?”Belsky responded saying that “retrofitting 30+ yr old legendary desktop products” to give them next-gen cloud features while preserving... Continue reading…

Nvidia’s RTX 40-series are expected today. | Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Nvidia is getting ready to announce its next-generation GPUs today. We’re expecting to see the new RTX 40-series, and rumors suggest there could be two RTX 4080 models and an RTX 4090.Nvidia has been teasing its RTX 40-series launch for a number of days now, and even has a 40-hour countdown that includes references to Ada Lovelace. Lovelace is Nvidia’s rumored next-gen GPU architecture that we’re expecting to hear a lot more about during today’s special broadcast at Nvidia’s GTC AI conference. Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang will hold a keynote at the opening of GTC today.When does the Nvidia event start? The Nvidia event is set to begin September 20th at 8AM PT / 11AM ET.Where can I watch the Nvidia event?A livestream for the Nvidia... Continue reading…

Put a disc in and play. | Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge Microsoft is making it easier to play games on your Xbox Series X, even if it’s offline — as of the 2208 update released earlier this month, you won’t be forced to do an online compatibility check to play a game from an Xbox One disc (via Windows Central). Instead, you can just pop the disc in, install the game, and play; no internet connection required.The change, which isn’t listed as a feature of the 2208 update on Microsoft’s site, was confirmed by Xbox engineering lead Eden Marie, who tweeted that the check was removed because it wasn’t necessary “in the vast majority of cases” when playing a cross-generation game on the Series X.

A new menu allows you to quickly select most used reactions. | Image: Telegram Telegram’s throwing a bone to its non-premium users this month by extending them access to more emoji reactions. The feature now lets all users choose from “dozens” of emoji that they can drop onto message bubbles as an alternative way to contribute to the conversation. And if you’re paying the $4.99 a month for Premium, don’t worry, you’re now getting an endless supply of reaction options by way of the custom animated emoji packs released last month, as well as other new features.Paying Telegram Premium subscribers can now use all animated emoji as a status, in addition to the default seven that can change colors based on the theme. For instance, you can choose a rotating controller emoji to indicate you’re busy fragging on your Xbox.... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Gmail users could start seeing more campaign fundraising emails hitting their inboxes over the next couple days as Google starts rolling out a new political filtering system.Google told Axios on Monday that it was launching a controversial new pilot program to keep campaign emails out of spam folders this week. The program was announced back in June and allows candidates, political party committees, and leadership political action committees to apply for spam folder exemptions.In August, the Federal Election Commission narrowly voted to approve the program after Google asked for the agency to sign off on it earlier this year.The move comes after months of criticism from Republicans who fear Google disproportionately flags GOP emails... Continue reading…

Photo by: Lindsey Nicholson / UCG / Universal Images Group via Getty Images Memo to Beyond Meat COO Doug Ramsey: human noses aren’t vegan.Ramsey was arrested in a road rage incident at a parking garage in Fayetteville, Arkansas. According to local news outlet KNWA, which cited law enforcement, the incident started when “a Subaru ‘inched his way’ in front of Ramsey’s Bronco, making contact with the front passenger’s side tire.”Ramsey came out swinging, and the Subaru’s owner said Ramsey “pulled him in close and started punching his body” before he “bit the owner’s nose, ripping the flesh on the tip of the nose,” according to KNWA. Reportedly, Ramsey also threatened to kill the other driver.Maybe Ramsey was on edge because Beyond Meat shares have fallen 92 percent from their peak closing value of $234.90 in... Continue reading…

Craters from a meteorite impact on Mars that was picked up by NASA’s InSight instrument | Image: NASA/JPL-Caltech/University of Arizona Bloop. That’s the sound a rock makes when it slams into Mars. At least, that’s what NASA’s InSight instrument picked up last September when it captured the faint — and, frankly, hilarious — sound of a meteoroid crashing into the Martian atmosphere, exploding into multiple pieces, and hitting the surface hard enough to leave a mark.Bloop, bloop, bloop. But don’t take my word for it. Listen for yourself.The noise sounds so funny in part because of how the soundwaves from the impact moved through the dry atmosphere of Mars. In certain conditions, like deserts on Earth, lower-pitched sounds move faster than high-pitched ones. “An observer close to the impact would hear a ‘bang,’ while someone many miles away would hear the bass sounds... Continue reading…