The Verge

The 2024 Chevrolet Equinox EV is intended to play a major role in GM’s quest to sell more electric vehicles than Tesla. | Image: Chevy The new midsize SUV, which starts at around $30,000, is intended to be an ‘EV for everyone’ Continue reading…

It’s not hard to tell the X3 (left) and One X2 (right) apart. | Photo: Becca Farsace / The Verge Insta360 has announced the X3, an all-in-one 360 camera that is a successor to the One X2 released in late 2020. Looking at the two cameras side-by-side, the X3’s biggest upgrade is obvious — the company dropped the mildly confusing “One” from the camera’s name. Oh, and instead of a small, circular touchscreen, the X3 now sports a 2.29-inch rectangular display, which you can use to preview and review footage and control the device. (Ironically, the X2’s biggest upgrade was also in the display department.)At $449.99, the X3 is slightly more expensive than its predecessor and still has the same 5.7K max resolution as the X2 did. However, the company says the camera’s 1/2-inch sensors have gotten an upgrade for “big resolution and image... Continue reading…

For a limited time, you can get a month of Disney Plus for a mere $1.99. | Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge If you’ve been eagerly awaiting the day you can stream Marvel’s Thor: Love and Thunder from the comfort of your home, you can do so while saving today. In honor of Disney Plus Day, the House of Mouse’s annual celebration of all things streaming-related, the company is offering both new and eligible returning subscribers one month of Disney Plus for $1.99 instead of $7.99.That means you won’t just be able to watch Marvel’s latest theatrical release for the price of a cup of coffee but also other content released today as part of the service’s Disney Plus Day celebration. This includes the live-action Pinocchio adaptation, the fourth episode of She-Hulk: Attorney at Law, the premiere of the Obi-Wan Kenobi: A Jedi’s Return documentary, and... Continue reading…

Razor, the company that helped kick off the scooter craze over two decades ago, is expanding its lineup of vehicles for adults with the EcoSmart Cargo, a pretty rad-looking electric scooter that borrows a lot from the world of e-bikes.The scooter features a number of stylish design touches, including an olive green body and roomy bamboo deck. The scooter also sports a high-torque, 1,000-watt motor and chain drivetrain and can reach speeds up to 19.9mph (32 kilometers per hour) and boasts a range of up to 16.6 miles (26.7km).The fastest and most powerful scooter in Razor’s lineupThat makes the EcoSmart Cargo the fastest and most powerful scooter in Razor’s lineup. As a company that mainly markets its products to kids, Razor is... Continue reading…

Uber and Nuro have been negotiating for nearly four years. | Uber Uber Eats customers in California and Texas may soon have their takeout delivered by a driverless delivery pod after the company signed a 10-year deal with autonomous driving startup Nuro.Today’s announcement is the culmination of over four years of start-and-stop negotiations between the two companies. Uber wanted to use Nuro’s vehicles to make deliveries in Houston back in 2019, but those plans never panned out. Now, the two companies have struck a decade-long deal to expand robot deliveries to more customers than ever.Starting this fall, Uber and Nuro will deploy autonomous delivery vehicles in two cities: Mountain View, California, and Houston, Texas. Neither company would disclose the number of vehicles nor the expected number... Continue reading…

All three of Apple’s new watches are now up for preorder. | Image: Apple Like clockwork, new Apple Watches have been announced, but this time there’s more than just one. During its recent “Far Out” event, Apple finally dished out the details on the new iPhone 14 lineup, along with the Apple Watch Series 8, Apple Watch Ultra, and a new Apple Watch SE. Apple has never announced this many watches at once, and they’re now hitting three different prices simultaneously. That may make deciding between them a little more challenging, but when can you get yours once you finally make your pick?The Apple Watch Series 8 and second-gen Watch SE are set to land on September 16th while the Watch Ultra is scheduled to launch on September 23rd, with preorders available now. We’ve only had a little bit of hands-on time with... Continue reading…

© 2022 Stellantis The two electric SUVs will arrive in North America starting in 2024 Continue reading…

The SP Max Plus has a hefty build that’s comparable in weight to a full-size laptop. | Photo by Cameron Faulkner / The Verge Brydge’s latest keyboard case for the Surface Pro 8 is a little different than the company’s previous versions. The $229 SP Max Plus consists of a rugged, backlit keyboard and a rugged, detachable case for Microsoft’s current-gen Surface tablet — all of which have an antimicrobial coating. Notably, it operates with a physical connection, not a wireless one. Getting connected via Bluetooth isn’t (usually) that finicky, but you won’t have to worry about that at all here.The two pieces connect via Brydge’s new proprietary, very strongly magnetized SecureConnect pogo pins, allowing the keyboard to run off the tablet’s battery once attached, instead of needing to be recharged on occasion. Photo by Cameron Faulkner / The... Continue reading…

The Dynamic Island may be a goofy name, but it’s real good-looking. | Photo by Allison Johnson / The Verge Before there were commercials and whole branding exercises hailing the notch on the Apple iPhone, there was a long row of iPhone XS devices in the lobby of the Steve Jobs Theater. The iPhone XS was part of the second generation of notched iPhones, so it was all kind of about the notch — but it was also about the fancy OLED display that showed off perfect blacks compared to the XR’s traditional LED. Which is why Apple put a vibrant wallpaper with bright pops of color on the XS and the notch disappeared into the perfect black of the OLED display. There was something timid about the choice to hide it in the wallpaper, like Apple wasn’t quite as confident of its now fairly iconic screen cutout. With the iPhone 14 Pro, it looks like Apple has... Continue reading…

Apple Watch Ultra. | Image: Apple I had a funny feeling watching yesterday’s announcement of the Apple Watch Ultra: I’ve seen this show before. It wasn’t until Garmin watch fans on Reddit and Twitter started lampooning Apple that it hit me… this is Nokia all over again.Let’s get this out of the way first: I’m a longtime Garmin watch fan. Most of my friends and family have all purchased svelte Apple Watches. It’s a great smartwatch but I wanted a great outdoor adventure and fitness watch to pair with my iPhone instead. That’s why I’ve been wearing big hulking Garmin watches like the Fenix and Epix series despite their clumsy software interfaces. I’ve used them to obsessively track and measure my performance in a variety of activities that include kitesurfing, trail... Continue reading…

The Steve Jobs Archive is live now. | Image: Apple The friends and family of Apple founder Steve Jobs have launched the Steve Jobs Archive, an organization that celebrates the technology titan. You can visit the archive at stevejobsarchive.com.Right now, the site is simple. At the top, there’s a poetic email Jobs sent to himself about his admiration for humanity. Scrolling down reveals some notable quotes from Jobs, including some from his famous 2005 commencement address at Stanford. At the end, there’s a short “About Us” description for the archive. Video and audio clips of Jobs are laced in along the way.“With respect for the past and excitement for the future, the Steve Jobs Archive offers people the tools and opportunities to make their own contribution,” the site reads. “We are... Continue reading…

Ive spoke at Vox Media’s Code conference alongside Tim Cook and Laurene Powell Jobs. | Getty Images for Vox Media Jony Ive isn’t a fan of cars using too many touchscreen controls, and says they’re an example of an interface “being driven inappropriately by something like multitouch.”During a panel with the former Apple design lead, Tim Cook, and Laurene Powell Jobs at Vox Media’s Code conference tonight, journalist Kara Swisher asked Ive what he thought of current design trends. Ive said that there were “fabulous affordances with interfaces like multitouch,” but said that they may have gone too far in places — and it might be time for a shift back toward more physical controls.“Potentially the pendulum may swing a little to have interfaces and products that are more tactile and more engaging physically,” Ive said. Swisher suggested that cars were... Continue reading…

Apple CEO Tim Cook. | Laura Normand / The Verge A conversation about the legacy of Steve Jobs Continue reading…

It’s a watchOS 9 feature, not a Series 8 one. | Image: Apple When Apple announced the Apple Watch Series 8 on Wednesday, it introduced a new low power mode feature that lets the wearable double its battery life by turning off a few features. It won’t be limited to Apple’s latest devices, though — during the presentation, Apple said low power mode is coming to “the Series 4 and later” with watchOS 9, which is launching September 12th.The company didn’t say whether the mode would be as effective on older devices as it claims it will be on the Series 8 and Apple Watch Ultra (Apple says its bigger watch will be able to go from 36 hours of runtime to 60 with the mode turned on). But based on what we know about how it works, it’s clear that it’ll be less effective on at least a few models.Apple... Continue reading…

Photo by Tom Warren / The Verge Nvidia is bundling its higher-end RTX 30-series graphics cards with a copy of Marvel’s Spider-Man: Remastered. If you purchase a GeForce RTX 3090 Ti, 3090, 3080 Ti, 3080 GPU — or a qualifying desktop or laptop that comes with those cards — Nvidia will include a free digital copy of the $59.99 game.Spider-Man Remastered, which is currently one of the top-selling titles on Steam, is the latest freebie Nvidia’s using to try to get users to buy its cards. After the original Spider-Man got rave reviews on PlayStation 4, the remastered version of the game just launched on PC (and Steam Deck) in August. The PC version of the game supports both ultrawide monitors and Nvidia’s Deep Learning Super Sampling (DLSS), which should enable... Continue reading…

Nick Barclay / The Verge Apple just wrapped up its Far Out event, giving us a glimpse at the new iPhone 14, three new Apple Watch models, and the next generation of AirPods Pro earbuds. But what about everything Apple didn’t announce?Some rumors we’ve been hearing for the months leading up to the event just didn’t end up panning out, and some of our long-shot hopes were deflated along the way. Here’s everything that could still come in the future — or may have proven to be a bust.The mixed-reality headsetApple’s mixed-reality headset has become the elephant in the room at its events, with rumors about the device only getting more detailed. While there was no sign of the headset at the Far Out event, that wasn’t necessarily a surprise.We aren’t expecting the... Continue reading…

The two companies announced a partnership. | Photo by Justin Sullivan / Getty Images GameStop is doubling down on crypto, and as part of its growing expansion into blockchain technologies, it announced a new partnership with crypto exchange FTX on Wednesday.The two companies haven’t spelled out too many details about what the partnership will actually mean, but they did share a few tidbits. According to a press release, “the partnership is intended to introduce more GameStop customers to FTX’s community and its marketplaces for digital assets.”GameStop is becoming FTX’s “preferred retail partner”One concrete aspect of the partnership is that GameStop will start carrying FTX gift cards in “select stores.” GameStop is also FTX’s “preferred retail partner” in the US, which could suggest that FTX will sell other sorts of... Continue reading…

Worth noting: the MagSafe charging case also has a Lightning port. Apple has quietly introduced a new option for its third-generation non-Pro AirPods — a Lightning-only charging case (via MacRumors). On the surface, that’s reasonable: forgoing wireless charging on the second-gen AirPods saved you $40. But this time around, you’re only saving ten dollars: they cost $169, compared to $179 for the MagSafe version (which can also be charged with a Lightning cable).For those looking to trade convenience for savings, foregoing wireless charging used to be a genuinely good option, saving you 20 percent. Now, you can just as easily save $10 on third-gen AirPods with two seconds of Googling — the MagSafe versions are on sale for $169 at both Amazon and Target. If you’re willing to wait, you could probably snag... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Fifteen years ago, Steve Jobs introduced the very first iPhone. He described it as three devices in one: a “widescreen iPod with touch controls, a revolutionary mobile phone, and a breakthrough internet communications device.”But since its first unveiling, the iPhone has become much more than that. It’s a symbol of the tech industry, of the modern era as a whole, and has made Apple the largest company in the world in terms of market capitalization. In 2015, it was speculated to be the most profitable product ever and helped grow Apple’s market cap to not just $1 trillion or $2 trillion — but as high as $3 trillion.One reason for that is the steady pace of progress Apple has made to keep the iPhone at the top of the fray. It started... Continue reading…

The iPhone 14 Pro measures up to the latest Android phones in many ways, including a fast-refreshing display. | Image: Apple The iPhone 14 and iPhone 14 Pro have arrived. So, just like we always do, it’s time to dissect those specs. Apple’s 2022 iPhones have different processors, depending on the one you get. They also have different camera systems. Notably, the iPhone 14 Pro sports an always-on display and support for up to a 120Hz refresh rate. That just scratches the surface as to what’s new here.If you’re curious about how these new iPhones compare to models from the past, we’ll have you covered pretty soon with a spec comparison. This post is focused on comparing the iPhone 14 and 14 Pro to some heavy hitters in the Android space. Specifically, the ones you can easily buy as an alternative to the latest iPhone, including the soon-to-be-replaced Pixel 6... Continue reading…

You’ll be able to work out — and meditate — without an Apple Watch. | Image: Apple Apple announced on Wednesday that iPhone users will be able to subscribe to its premium Fitness Plus workout subscription service even if they don’t have an Apple Watch.Previously, you couldn’t join the service without owning one of Apple’s smartwatches, which made signing up an expensive proposition. Since you need an iPhone to set up an Apple Watch, you’d have to own two Apple devices to join Fitness Plus. But with Apple bringing the Fitness app to the iPhone with iOS 16, no Apple Watch required, it makes sense that Apple would make Fitness Plus more easily accessible as well.The update removing the Apple Watch requirement for Fitness Plus signups will be available later this fall, Apple says. I’m a happy subscriber to the service —... Continue reading…

The design is very similar to the first-gen pair. | Photo by Chris Welch / The Verge Apple just announced its second-generation AirPods Pro. There’s no big redesign overhaul here: these look a lot like their predecessors, with the most substantial upgrades coming on the inside and with new software features. The new AirPods Pro still have Apple’s signature stem and (again) only come in white. There’s now an extra-small ear tip size in the box at least.The new Pros include Apple’s H2 chip, which the company promises improved noise cancellation over the original AirPods Pro — twice as much as before. They come with a refreshed case, which is also very similar to what came before but with a few convenient additions. They still have stems and only come in white. There’s a speaker on the bottom to make... Continue reading…

Sony and Microsoft are battling over Call of Duty’s future. | Image: Activision Sony has labeled Microsoft’s offer to keep Call of Duty on PlayStation “inadequate on many levels.” Microsoft Gaming CEO Phil Spencer revealed to The Verge last week that the company is committed to keeping Call of Duty on PlayStation for “several more years” beyond the existing marketing deal Sony has with Activision. Sony isn’t impressed, though, just as Microsoft is in the middle of trying to get its $68.7 billion Activision Blizzard deal approved by regulators.“Microsoft has only offered for Call of Duty to remain on PlayStation for three years after the current agreement between Activision and Sony ends,” explains PlayStation chief Jim Ryan in a statement to Games Industry.biz. “After almost 20 years of Call of Duty on PlayStation,... Continue reading…

The new Apple Watch SE. | Image: Apple Apple has announced a new Apple Watch SE. An upgrade to the original SE, the new smartwatch is the second generation of the company’s entry-level, cellular-capable model. The new SE will cost $249 for the GPS model and $299 for the cellular model, a $30 price drop from the original SE. The Apple Watch SE is available starting September 16th and can be pre-ordered today.The Apple Watch SE will support the crash detection feature announced on the Apple Watch Series 8 and will be up to 20 percent faster than the first-gen SE, thanks to the new S8 chip, the same as in the Series 8. The new SE watch comes in 40mm and 44mm sizes in silver, midnight, and starlight, with new color-matched back cases. The 44mm models cost $279 for GPS and $329... Continue reading…

The 14 Pro puts a new spin on the notch. | Photo by Allison Johnson / The Verge Apple just announced the iPhone 14 Pro and iPhone 14 Pro Max. They’re big upgrades to last year’s iPhone 13 Pro handsets with always-on screens, a new pill-shaped cutout that moves and animates, a faster A16 Bionic chip, and even an improved 48-megapixel camera.The iPhone 14 Pro and 14 Pro Max look very similar to last year’s 13 Pro and 13 Pro Max until you look more closely at the display. The new pill-shaped cutout means the notch is gone, kind of. It actually moves around and animates in what Apple calls the Dynamic Island. Notifications and alerts will adapt and move around the pill-shaped notch, and Apple is using this system for live activity widgets and even when you swipe up to move background tasks like music playback to the... Continue reading…

Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge The Internet Archive is no longer hosting backups of Kiwi Farms, continuing the forum’s removal from major web platforms. Twitch streamer Clara “Keffals” Sorrenti, who has led a recent campaign against the site, publicized the removal yesterday. Another tweet noted that a separate backup site has also been removed; searching either returns a response that “this URL has been excluded from the Wayback Machine.”Kiwi Farms’ main site has been offline since security provider CloudFlare dropped it earlier this week, citing an “immediate threat to human life” due to threats and potential criminal actions from Kiwi Farms users. But until yesterday, many of its threads were available through the Internet Archive’s Wayback Machine, including... Continue reading…

The 14 and 14 Plus keep the notch. The iPhone 14 is here, and it’s available in two sizes this year: regular and big. The standard iPhone 14 sticks with the 6.1-inch display — notch intact — and the 14 Plus brings a big 6.7-inch screen to the standard, non-pro iPhone series for the first time. That’s the story: aside from the new size, not much else has physically changed from the iPhone 13.The 14 looks and feels identical to the 13, and the 14 Plus is a bona fide big phone. Apple makes some big claims for its battery life too, calling it the best battery performance of any iPhone to date. The screens are both Super Retina XDR displays. The 14 Plus looks every bit as big as the 13 Pro Max, but is noticeably lighter. The iPhone 14 Plus is a handful with... Continue reading…

Kristen Radtke / The Verge Apple just held its Far Out event, where it revealed its iPhone 14 lineup, three new Apple Watches, including the long-rumored Apple Watch Ultra, and the next generation of AirPods Pro earbuds.If you didn’t get a chance to see the show for yourself, you can catch up on all the big news announced here.The iPhone 14 gets a revived “Plus” model with a bigger size Image: Apple The iPhone 14 doesn’t come with too many notable upgrades over the iPhone 13, as they both come equipped with the an A15-series chip and a notch. Apple did, however, introduce a new Plus model that comes with a bigger 6.7-inch display and improved battery life.Both devices come with an upgraded 12-megapixel main camera sensor, as well as a... Continue reading…

iPhone 14 Pro. Apple has officially announced the iPhone 14 Pro. The new handset has a new pill-shaped cutout that replaces the notch and can adjust dynamically, in the first big display redesign since Apple introduced the iPhone X in 2017. Apple CEO Tim Cook calls the iPhone 14 Pro the “most innovative pro lineup yet.”The first notable design change with the iPhone 14 Pro models is the display. While Apple will offer the usual 6.1- and 6.7-inch options, the notch is being replaced by a pill-shaped cutout that will house the Face ID components and a second circular cutout for the front-facing camera. The new notch. The iPhone 14 Pro arrives after modest upgrades to the iPhone 13 Pro models last year, which moved to a 120Hz... Continue reading…

Games Done Quick Awesome Games Done Quick, the winter companion to Summer Games Done Quick, will be held online next year in 2023. In a tweet, the Games Done Quick organization announced that instead of hosting an in-person event in Florida, it would instead return the speedrunning charity live-stream event to an online format.

Apple has announced the iPhone 14 and 14 Plus, preserving much of the iPhone 13’s design — including the previous-gen A15 Bionic chipset. There’s no Mini option this year, so your options are big or bigger. The US models of the iPhone 14 also do away with the physical SIM tray, going all-in on eSIM. The standard iPhone 14 model starts at $799, and the 14 Plus starts at $899. Preorders will start September 9th; the standard 14 ships on September 16th, and the 14 Plus arrives later on October 7th.Both models support Emergency SOS, the much-rumored emergency messaging via communication satellites when you’re out of range of a cell signal. The phone’s antennas can connect to satellite frequencies. Apple says it can take less than 15 seconds... Continue reading…

The wired charging case can supply 18 hours of battery life to the QuietComfort Earbuds II. | Image: Bose Bose doesn’t want Apple to hog all the limelight today. On the day Apple showed off its latest AirPods Pro model, Bose showed off the QuietComfort Earbuds II — $299.99 wireless earbuds that claim to deliver the “world’s best noise cancellation,” according to Bose’s press release. They’re available for preorder today in black (white is coming the first week of October), and shipping starts on September 15th.I spent about 10 minutes with the new earbuds at the launch event, during which Bose barraged the press with a cacophony of sounds from everyday life (trains, planes, automobiles) to show off two new features: CustomTune sound calibration and Aware Mode with ActiveSense. It’s impressive; ANC always makes a big difference, but the leap... Continue reading…

Apple’s new AirPods Pro will be available to order on September 9th. | Photo by Chris Welch / The Verge The long-awaited refresh of Apple’s AirPods Pro is here. On Wednesday, at its “Far Out” event, the company announced a second-generation pair of the popular noise-canceling earbuds with a new H2 chip that the company promises will offer improved sound quality and twice the noise cancellation.The new AirPods Pro also come with a new charging chase that offers Find My support and a built-in speaker so you can track them more easily (and loop where you can attach a lanyard if you want another way to carry the case around). In addition to charging it with a Lightning cable or on a Qi or MagSafe charger, you’ll also be able to charge the case on an Apple Watch charger. And Apple says the AirPods Pro have better battery: 6 hours on a single... Continue reading…

The Apple Watch cycle tracking app. Apple Watch Series 8 will give users a better estimate of when they ovulated based on data from a new temperature sensors.Using two sensors on the Apple Watch Series 8, the built-in menstrual cycle tracking app will check users’ temperature at the wrist every five seconds overnight. This should allow for ovulation tracking since body temperature changes over the course of the menstrual cycle and rises in response to ovulation.watchOS 9 and iOS 16 will also include changes to the cycle tracking app that flag any abnormalities in a user’s menstrual cycle based on the data they input about their periods. Deviations from someone’s normal cycle — like more spotting than usual — can be a signal of health conditions like fibroids or... Continue reading…

After over a year of rumors, Apple has finally announced the Apple Watch Ultra — a rugged, premium smartwatch that now sits atop Apple’s smartwatch lineup. The watch introduces a new design with a bigger display as well as a new design for exploration and outdoor activities.There’s a new button guard on the side, with a 49mm titanium case, redesigned digital crown, and a new Action button. The orange Action button can be customized for various purposes, including workouts, compass waypoints, and a new backtrack feature. The display has sapphire crystal as well as 2,000 nits of brightness. The buttons and crowns are also designed to work with gloves, which is a big concern for outdoor athletes. There are three built-in microphones to... Continue reading…

The Apple Watch Series 8. | Image: Apple Apple has announced its latest wearable, the Apple Watch Series 8. It includes a new temperature sensor, which Apple says “takes its commitment to women’s health even further.” The Series 8 also includes two new motion sensors to detect if you’ve been in a severe car crash.The company says it can track temperature changes as slight as 0.1 degrees Celsius and that it checks your temperature every five seconds. The company says that tracking your body temperature overnight can help give you insights into your ovulation cycle, which it can use to enhance the watch’s cycle tracking feature for those who menstruate. The company says that this data is encrypted on the watch itself — an important consideration for anyone tracking their cycles a... Continue reading…

Image: Apple Live from Apple’s ‘Far Out’ event in Cupertino Continue reading…

The sun shines behind electrical power lines during a heatwave in Hawthorne, California, on September 6th, 2022. | Photo by PATRICK T. FALLON / AFP via Getty Images Officials say an emergency cell phone alert played a crucial role yesterday in helping California avoid rolling blackouts during an extreme heatwave. Residents apparently jumped into action within minutes of receiving a text that urged them to save energy.A remarkably severe and long-lasting heatwave has put increasing pressure on the state’s power grid since last week. Record-smashing temperatures in the triple digits have sent power demand for air conditioning soaring.By Tuesday, demand hit an all-time high for the Golden State at 52,061 megawatts, according to grid manager California Independent System Operator (CAISO). CAISO issued a level 3 Energy Emergency Alert, its highest alert, at 5:17PMET that night. It signaled that... Continue reading…

Image: AMD With the Ryzen 7000 series already on the horizon, AMD has released the naming scheme that it will use for the chips it releases next year (and in the years to follow, presumably). The system will apply to chips across AMD’s portfolio, from Athlons all the way up to Ryzen 9.The new names will be fairly similar to the current names. They will continue to consist of four digits and a letter-constructed suffix, with numbers indicating processor generation and suffixes indicating power. But new numbers will make it easier to understand how powerful a given chip is directly from its name. Here’s what each digit will mean:

The speculated dongle will be cheaper than the current Chromecast with Google TV but can’t match its 4K streaming capabilities. | Photo by Chris Welch / The Verge According to leaked information from “retail sources” given to German-language site WinFuture, a 1080p version of the Google Chromecast streaming dongle will imminently hit the European market for around €40 (tax inclusive). The current Chromecast with Google TV dongle costs €70, making the upcoming alternative around 40 percent cheaper, though we’ll have to wait and see how prices will compare across other regions.A cheaper alternative to the standard Chromecast has been speculated since January of this year, with an FCC filing for a new wireless device designated as “Google G454V” emerging in June. While this wasn’t explicitly named as a Chromecast dongle, the listing mentioned the product is capable of 1080p resolution video... Continue reading…

The first-gen Eero had the same small, white squircle form factor as today’s Eeros. | Image: Eero Eero’s original mesh Wi-Fi router is going to the tech junkyard in the sky. This week, the company delivered an End of Life notice to users in its app, warning that the OG router’s days are numbered.The first-gen Eero, which debuted in 2016 and was discontinued in 2017, will stop receiving guaranteed software security updates after September 30th, 2022, Amazon spokesperson Connor Rice confirmed to The Verge. This is just over six years after the product launched. The devices won’t stop working, but they won’t receive new features — or, most crucially, security updates — beyond this date.This gives rise to the question of just how long you should keep your Wi-Fi router around. An essential piece of infrastructure in modern homes, it’s... Continue reading…

Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge A cybercriminal group containing former members of the notorious Conti ransomware gang is targeting the Ukrainian government and European NGOs in the region, Google says.The details come from a new blog post from the Threat Analysis Group (TAG), a team within Google dedicated to tracking state-sponsored cyber activity.With the war in Ukraine having lasted more than half a year, cyber activity including hacktivism and electronic warfare has been a constant presence in the background. Now, TAG says that profit-seeking cybercriminals are becoming active in the area in greater numbers.From April through August 2022, TAG has been following “an increasing number of financially motivated threat actors targeting Ukraine whose activities seem... Continue reading…

Alex Castro / The Verge Twitter is expanding Birdwatch, its community-driven content moderation program, to half of all US users on Wednesday.Twitter first launched Birdwatch last year with the goal of empowering users to provide additional context to potentially misleading tweets. Members of the program are asked to write notes contextualizing posts or provide related information that appears on user feeds. While only a small group of users have been able to view Birdwatch notes in the past, all notes have been publicly available on the Birdwatch website.Twitter has its own policies addressing misinformation on its platform and has started labeling false tweets and manipulated videos over the last few years. In a call with reporters on Tuesday, Twitter’s... Continue reading…

After Ben Shapiro’s appearance at Podcast Movement prompted outcry, the company that handles his podcast sales is cutting ties with the event. | Photo by Jason Kempin / Getty Images I hope you all had a chill Labor Day à la Miss Flo. I spent more of it on Twitter than I would have liked because of the spit , a gift from the messy drama gods. I don’t care what Chris Pine’s PR says — we saw what we saw.Speaking of drama, the Ben Shapiro / Podcast Movement brouhaha simply will not die. Let’s get into it.Cumulus cuts ties with Podcast Movement over Ben Shapiro controversyDo I love getting a juicy, unprompted news nugget in my inbox after 4PM? Not really. But I do appreciate the shit stirring on Cumulus’ part. Yesterday afternoon, the company announced that it will not be participating in Podcast Movement next year after the event’s organizers apologized for Ben Shapiro showing up at the conference last month.“At... Continue reading…

Tinky Winky, Dipsy, Laa-Laa, and Po | Image: Netflix Almost as if they heard about HBO Max kicking Sesame Street to the curb, Tinky Winky, Dipsy, Laa-Laa, and Po are coming back to entertain (and hopefully scare the hell out of) a new generation of Teletubbies fans in a new series from Netflix.Today, Netflix announced the impending arrival of its refreshed Teletubbies preschool show from Andrew Davenport, co-creator of the original series that first took the world by storm in the late ’90s. The news series is set to be narrated by The Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt’s Tituss Burgess and will star Doctor Who’s Jeremiah Krage as Tinky Winky, Rogue One: A Star Wars Story’s Nick Kellington as Dipsy, Rebecca Hyland as Laa-Laa, and Wonder Woman 1984 stuntwoman Rachelle Beinart as Po. ... Continue reading…

YouTube TV finally released the promised 5.1 surround sound audio, and it made this graphic for the occasion. | Image: Google After releasing YouTube TV surround sound capability for Google’s TV devices and Roku in June, Google is finally adding the feature for its cord-cutter audiences using Apple TV and Amazon Fire TV platforms. The company had promised to release the enhanced audio stream capability for those platforms eventually, saying it was “still working internally and with partners.”Google initially announced plans to add 5.1 surround sound capability for YouTube TV last year, coinciding with the launch of a 4K Plus package that includes higher-quality video and the ability to play recordings offline. At the time, Google promised the Dolby 5.1 surround features would be out for all subscribers (Plus package or not) in the “coming weeks,” but it... Continue reading…

Photo by PATRICK T. FALLON / AFP via Getty Images Tech reporters are descending on Cupertino, California, today for Apple’s product launch event, where they’re expecting a first look at new iPhones and Apple Watches. They’ll also be hot — really hot. There’s a suffocating heatwave across the whole state, including in the Bay Area, where temperatures hit all-time highs.

Nintendo Switch OLED Model Pokémon Scarlet and Violet Edition | Image: Nintendo Seems like whenever a new flagship Nintendo game is about to release, it gets a special edition Switch to go with it. Pokémon Scarlet and Violet are no exception, as today, Nintendo has revealed the orange and grape-flavored OLED Switch that will accompany the release of the next major Pokémon title.Burdened with the especially cumbersome name — The Nintendo Switch – OLED Model: Pokémon Scarlet & Violet Edition — the OLED Switch launches on November 4th and retails at $359.99, making the fancy paint job featuring Scarlet and Violet’s new legendaries Koraidon and Miraidon worth $10 extra bucks than the regular stark white SWOLED.In addition to the new SWOLED, Nintendo also released a new trailer for ScarVi (my new name for the game... Continue reading…