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Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Disney CEO Bob Chapek addressed criticism over the company’s handling of Florida’s “Don’t Say Gay” bill today, saying he called the state’s governor to express “concern” with the bill and pledged millions to charity in response to its passing. Chapek said that the company’s initial response, “no matter how well-intended, didn’t quite get the job done, but we’re committed to support the community going forward.”Disney recently came under fire for its refusal to openly condemn the “Don’t Say Gay” bill — which bans primary school teachers from “discussion about sexual orientation or gender identity” — despite operating a booming business empire in the state. In an internal memo to staff sent Monday, Chapek had written that “corporate... Continue reading…

Screenshot by Nick Statt / The Verge When I rejoined The Verge in 2018, my first big assignment looked like an absolute peach — fly to the gorgeous Hawaiian island of Maui, sip cool drinks on the sand (The Verge paid for my trip; we don’t accept junkets), and become one of the first journalists to experience blazing 5G speeds at a Qualcomm event. Instead, I found myself exposing a lie. The first real-world 5G test turned out to be a dud, the speeds misleading at best, covering up the fact Verizon and AT&T’s millimeter-wave (mmWave) 5G wasn’t ready.For the next three years, Verizon and AT&T successfully employed a fake-it-till-you-make-it strategy, enlisting politicians to help them “win” 5G as if it were some kind of “race.” Their fastest 5G networks ran on a chunk of... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Tesla’s Autopilot and Full Self-Driving features are safe, the company insists in a letter to two top Senate Democrats. Like, really safe. Safer than human driving. Unfortunately, the senators aren’t really buying it.“Tesla’s Autopilot and FSD Capability features enhance the ability of our cusotmes [sic] to drive safer than the average driver in the U.S.,” Rohan Patel, senior director of public policy at Tesla, writes in a March 4th letter to US Senators Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) and Ed Markey (D-MA). (The letter was first reported by Reuters.)Tesla is responding to the senators’ letter to the company’s CEO Elon Musk last month raising “significant concerns” about Autopilot and FSD. Blumenthal and Markey have also called on federal... Continue reading…

Photo by Jonathan Newton / The Washington Post via Getty Images If Congress’ sweeping new spending bill is signed, it would finally provide full funding to some major NASA projects that have been underfunded over the last few years. Notably, NASA’s program to develop a new human lunar lander would be fully funded as the president’s budget requested, as will a program to develop new commercial space stations in low Earth orbit.Overall, NASA would receive $24.041 billion for 2022 in this new bill, which will fund the US government for fiscal year 2022. NASA’s portion is roughly $800 million less than the $24.8 billion that President Joe Biden’s budget request called for in May of 2021. However, NASA would still see a slight bump from its total funding for fiscal year 2021, which sat at $23.27 billion.... Continue reading…

Colin Farrell in The Batman. | Image: Warner Bros. Pictures and DC Comics Now that The Batman is out in theaters, the new take on Gotham is set to expand to HBO Max. The network announced today that a spinoff about the Penguin is coming in the form of a limited series. Not much else is known about the show, but it will see Colin Farrell reprise his role as the iconic villain. It will be executive produced by The Batman director Matt Reeves, along with Farrell, Dylan Clark, and Lauren LeFranc, who will also serve as showrunner.“Colin exploded off the screen as the Penguin in The Batman, and having the chance to thoroughly explore the inner life of that character on HBO Max is an absolute thrill,” Reeves said in a statement. “Dylan and I are so excited to work with Lauren in continuing Oz’s story as he grabs... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Amazon is suspending shipments to Russia and Belarus due to the ongoing invasion of Ukraine, the company announced in a blog post (via Bloomberg). It’s also barring access to Amazon Prime Video in Russia.Amazon’s suspending shipments to Russia and Belarus“Given the ongoing situation in Russia and Ukraine, we’ve taken additional actions in the region,” Amazon says in the post. “We’ve suspended shipment of retail products to customers based in Russia and Belarus.”Amazon is also halting any new orders of the open-world MMO New World, the only game title it sells in Russia. A slew of other game companies, like EA Games, CD Projekt Red, Take-Two, Ubisoft, Activision Blizzard, and Epic Games, have suspended sales in the country as well. On... Continue reading…

If you’ve been waiting for Microsoft to resurrect Windows Movie Maker, Clipchamp might be the next best thing. After acquiring Clipchamp last year, Microsoft is now bundling the app into Windows 11. It’s a browser-based app that supports trimming, splitting, transitions, and even has a screen recorder feature.Clipchamp includes a timeline, just like pro apps like Adobe Premiere Pro, and uses a combination of templates and a library of filters, transitions, stock media, and styles to let people create videos with multi-track audio support and user-friendly editing. Microsoft has integrated in an Azure-powered text-to-speech generator for creators to use voiceovers in 70 languages, and OneDrive is also integrated for cloud storage of... Continue reading…

The first teaser for the upcoming Star Wars: Obi-Wan Kenobi series on Disney Plus has arrived, giving a first look at Ewan McGregor’s return as the exiled Jedi.Obi-Wan Kenobi will pick up with its eponymous hero ten years after the events of Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith — which saw the Jedi Master take refuge on the desolate planet of Tatooine, both to hide from the Empire’s regime and to keep an eye on the infant Luke Skywalker.But with Hayden Christensen set to reprise his role as a vengeful Darth Vader — aka, Anakin Skywalker, Obi-Wan’s former apprentice, who was last left beaten and burning in lava by his former friend — it sounds Obi-Wan’s time on Tatooine between Revenge of the Sith and A New Hope will be anything but... Continue reading…

The new Mac Studio. | Image: Apple There was a time not long ago when it seemed like Apple spent more time telling its customers what they wanted rather than just giving it to them.Convenient features like SD card slots, HDMI ports, and a traditional laptop keyboard were unceremoniously booted from MacBooks in favor of USB-C and a disastrous butterfly keyboard paired with a divisive OLED touch bar. Apple’s professionally focused Mac Pro was given a space-efficient cylindrical redesign that failed at the basic task of keeping power-hungry components (like those a professional user might actually need) cool.But with yesterday’s announcements, which include the powerful and port-rich Mac Studio and a new monitor that costs a fraction of the price of Apple’s previous... Continue reading…

Photo Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Photograph from Anthony Capone ‘At this point, I’ve probably spent a couple hundred thousand’ Continue reading…

Photo by Amanda Lopez for The Verge VW resurrects its iconic microbus for an electric era Continue reading…

Apple confirms the weight isn’t the extra cores. | Image: Apple When Apple published the spec sheets for its new Mac Studio computer, people were quick to voice their confusion about why on earth the version with the new M1 Ultra chip weighed a whole two pounds (almost a kilogram) more than the version with the M1 Max. While the M1 Ultra is basically two M1 Maxes stuck together, that’s not the reason for the weight difference, according to Apple. It turns out, it comes down to the metal used in the computer’s thermal systems.Here’s what the company said in an email to The Verge:

The latest iPad Pro, iPad Air, iPad, and iPad Mini (from left to right). | Image: Apple Apple announced a new iPad Air during its “Peek Performance” event on March 8th. While the design is similar to that of the last-gen Air, Apple did introduce a few iterative changes.For one, the iPad Air now shares the same blazing-fast M1 processor found in the most recent iPad Pro. The new Air also touts a 12MP front camera (updated from the last gen’s 7MP) equipped with Apple’s Center Stage feature, which can automatically follow you in the frame during video calls. There’s also 5G connectivity on the cellular models, a USB-C port that’s up to twice as fast as the last gen’s port, and 10Gbps of data transfer speeds.Like the last-gen model did, the new 10.9-inch iPad Air starts at $599 — although note that the LTE models cost $20... Continue reading…

Image: Substack Loyal Substack readers now have a way to keep all of their subscriptions in a dedicated place: the new Substack reader app. The app is only available on iOS for now; Android users can sign up for a waitlist.The standalone app pulls all of a user’s newsletter subscriptions into one inbox, placed alongside a discovery tab for readers to find new publications. Podcast and video subscriptions are accessible in the app, as are comment sections. Users can also add RSS feeds to the app.

Brantly Millegan remains a director of Ethereum Name Service following DAO vote. | Photo Illustration by Jakub Porzycki/NurPhoto via Getty Images Ethereum Name Service (ENS) director Brantly Millegan remains in his position following a vote to remove him over a number of controversial tweets. A snapshot of the vote shows 1.6 million governance tokens pledged against his removal, with 1.4 million for it, a margin of 5.88 percent.If Millegan abstained from voting, he would have been removed as directorENS is a blockchain protocol used by over 300,000 people. It converts convoluted crypto wallet addresses into a single username of the user’s choosing. The addresses are formatted as “username.eth” and have become widely used across the Web3 community.One of Millegan’s old tweets resurfaced last month, in which he said, “Homosexual acts are evil. Transgenderism doesn’t exist.... Continue reading…

Image: Google Google appears to have built its own solution for running Windows games on Stadia. Google is planning to detail its Windows “emulator” for Linux next week at the company’s Google for Games Developer Summit on March 15th. Reddit users have spotted a session at the summit that will detail “how to write a Windows emulator for Linux from scratch.”The session will be led by Marcin Undak, on Google’s Stadia porting platform team, and promises a “detailed overview of the technology behind Google’s solution for running unmodified Windows games on Stadia.” It appears that Google has built its own Windows emulator for Linux to help developers port games to the service without having to modify titles for Linux. Image: Google ... Continue reading…

Congress wants the DOJ to investigate Amazon over antitrust violations | Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Several members of the US House Judiciary Committee have sent a letter to Attorney General Merrick Garland raising concerns that the e-commerce giant is obstructing an antitrust investigation into its practices. The lawmakers claim that Amazon did not provide the information requested as part of the investigation and want the Department of Justice to investigate “whether Amazon and its executives obstructed Congress in violation of applicable federal law.”The letter claims that Amazon “engaged in a pattern and practice of misleading conduct that suggests it was acting with an improper purpose to influence, obstruct, or impede the Committee’s investigation and inquiries,” the letter states.“a pattern and practice of misleading conduct“... Continue reading…

The Alienware AW3423DW is the first to market with a QD-OLED panel. | Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge Yesterday’s big announcements from Apple included a hot, new monitor to get excited about, but we all know there are already many great displays worth your hard-earned money. Enter, today’s deal.The new Alienware AW3423DW 34-inch QD-OLED curved ultrawide gaming monitor just landed, and while Dell has it listed for $1,307.49 (normally advertised around $1,295) there’s already a way for you to knock a cool 10 percent off and buy it for $1,165.94. Getting this deal takes a little more legwork than most of our deals, but if our initial hands-on with this new monitor is any indication, it should be worth it.According to Slickdeals, and confirmed by the Verge Deals team, you can subscribe to Dell’s email updates at this link and after about... Continue reading…

Image: Apple Apple’s $1,599 Studio Display will be available on March 18th, and there’s a lot more to the company’s new external monitor than just its 27-inch, 5K panel. For one, Apple crammed six speakers into the thing. And if the 16-inch MacBook Pro and 24-inch iMac are anything to go by, the Studio Display is likely going to sound much better than most competing screens. But maybe you already have speakers hooked up at your desk and are nonplussed about the integrated audio system. There’s also a 12-megapixel webcam that Apple says should produce similar video call quality to what you’d get from an iPad. In other words, it has the potential to make you look even nicer than the 1080p webcam on recent Macs.To get the most out of the Studio... Continue reading…

Image: Twitter Twitter is rolling out a new shopping beta today: Twitter Shops, which lets sellers add a virtual storefront to their profiles for customers to browse. Notably, Twitter Shops won’t actually let you purchase things directly — instead, the shop listings will link you out to the company’s website in an in-app browser to actually complete your purchase.The feature is effectively a more substantial version of the existing Shop Module that Twitter has already been testing, but instead of a rolling carousel of products, it’s a larger list with a dedicated profile link.Put your store on TwitterWith Twitter Shops, your Twitter profile will get a new “view shop” button on the top of your profile, where companies will be able to list up to 50... Continue reading…

Photo by Sina Schuldt/picture alliance via Getty Images The first patient to have a heart transplant with an organ from a genetically modified pig died Tuesday, The New York Times reported. David Bennett Sr., who had severe heart disease, received the heart in early January. He was 57.It’s not clear exactly why Bennett died, a spokesperson from the University of Maryland Medical Center, where the procedure was performed, told The New York Times. Physicians will do a full evaluation and publish their results.Bennett’s death shows the challenges of animal-to-human transplants, called xenotransplantation. Advocates of the technique imagine a steady supply of animal organs could help treat the thousands of people on waitlists for organ transplants. Researchers and surgeons have shared a wave... Continue reading…

Pin games to Quick Resume. | Image: Microsoft Microsoft is rolling out a new Xbox dashboard update that includes Quick Resume improvements, Xbox Share button remapping, and a new audio wizard. The March Xbox dashboard update now includes the ability to pin games to Quick Resume, so Xbox Series S / X owners can ensure up to two games will never drop out of the Quick Resume feature.Pinned games will only disappear from Quick Resume if they’re manually removed or there’s an update to the game. Quick Resume can support multiple games otherwise, and typically, games only fall out of the ability to resume instantly when you’ve launched more than 10. This can vary depending on how big each game is. Image: Microsoft Quick Resume now has pinned games support. M... Continue reading…

Some people are back in the office while others are operating remotely, but for many workers, no matter where they are, Slack is still a default method of communication, and on this Wednesday morning, it is not working very well.Complaints in The Verge Slack channels mention messages failing to send or edits that the app just won’t update, and over the last few hours, the company has confirmed it’s working to fix problems affecting “calls, huddles, email processing, file uploads, emoji reactions retention, new DM groups retention in sidebar, Search, Workflow builder, Workflow pop out windows, Channel creation, API errors, webhooks and Slack Connect invites.”

Image: General Motors General Motors teased an electric Chevrolet Blazer SS, which will make its debut later this year. The Blazer EV will be the first electric vehicle from Chevy to feature a performance SS model.There’s not much to go on here except an image of the charging port illuminated by a LED ring. An accompanying video shows the charging port closing in a pretty cool fashion. And then we see the SS badge on a hubcap, which tells us that this is going to be a high performance version of the Chevy Blazer.There’s not much to go on here except an image of the charging portChevy’s gas-powered SS variants feature V8 engines, dynamic handling capabilities, and adjustable suspensions. The electric Blazer SS will lack the former thanks to its electric... Continue reading…

Inscriptions like this provide first-hand evidence of the thoughts, language, and society of ancient Greece. | Photo by: Sepia Times/Universal Images Group via Getty Images Machine learning techniques are providing new tools that could help archaeologists understand the past — particularly when it comes to deciphering ancient texts. The latest example is an AI model created by Alphabet-subsidiary DeepMind that helps not only restore text that is missing from ancient Greek inscriptions but offers suggestions for when the text was written (within a 30-year period) and its possible geographic origins.“Inscriptions are really important because they are direct sources of evidence ... written directly by ancient people themselves,” Thea Sommerschield, a historian and machine learning expert who helped created the model, told journalists in a press briefing.“It’s really difficult for a human to harness all... Continue reading…

US director Kogonada arrives for the screening of the film “Flag Day” at the 74th edition of the Cannes Film Festival in Cannes, southern France, on July 10, 2021. (Photo by John MACDOUGALL / AFP) | Photo Illustration by Grayson Blackmon / The Verge, Photo courtesy Getty Images After Yang’s director discusses the film’s wider unseen world Continue reading…

Robot vacuums like this Roomba i3 can respond to voice commands from Google Assistant. | Image: iRobot Robot vacuums are great for getting the dirty work done for you (admit it, you never cleaned under the couch before you got one, right?). And while these busy little bots can be set on a schedule in their accompanying smartphone apps, or sent on a run with a push of their button, connecting them to Google Home gives you more ways to command them to do your bidding, including just with your voice.The majority of robot vacuums with smartphone apps will work with Google Home for voice control through the Google Assistant, although some have more capabilities than others. All of them can be ordered to start and stop, some can be sent home to their dock, and others can be commanded to clean a specific room.You can also use your voice... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Adobe’s social network Behance is adding support for the Polygon cryptocurrency platform, letting users more easily showcase Polygon-based non-fungible tokens or NFTs. The company is touting Polygon integration as a more environmentally conscious way for artists to create NFTs, which Behance began supporting late last year. While that eco-friendliness is debatable, it’s part of Adobe’s ongoing expansion into crypto — as well as an attempt to placate artists that are worried about its potential negative effects.Polygon works on top of the popular Ethereum blockchain, and it’s got a smaller energy footprint for individual crypto transactions; it also avoids the massive transaction costs associated with Ethereum. (On the other hand,... Continue reading…

Image: Nintendo Citing “recent world events”, Nintendo has announced it will delay the release of Advance Wars 1+2: Re-Boot Camp.

Nvidia’s RTX 3090 Ti. | Image: Nvidia Nvidia announced its RTX 3090 Ti at CES earlier this year, promising more information by the end of January. Nvidia has since remained silent about pricing or a release date for the RTX 3090 Ti after rumors suggested the card had been delayed due to hardware issues.VideoCardz now reports that Nvidia is planning to launch the RTX 3090 Ti on March 29th. The site has obtained what appears to be RTX 3090 Ti embargo details for the launch of the card, with the March 29th date and 6AM PT timing for GPUs at retailers. Reviews of the RTX 3090 Ti are also reportedly scheduled for March 29th, too.Nvidia has only provided basic specs for the RTX 3090 Ti so far, and we have no idea on pricing yet. Nvidia previously revealed that the RTX 3090 Ti... Continue reading…

Gotham Knights, Warner Bros. Games Montreal’s next open-world Batman-themed RPG, has gotten a new release date: October 25th.Originally announced in August 2020 for a 2021 release, the game was delayed to an unspecified 2022 date early last year, with the developers explaining that they needed “more time to deliver the best possible experience for players.”Gotham Knights lets players suit up Nightwing, Batgirl, Robin, and Red Hood (either solo or with a second player) as they try to bring order to Gotham City following the death of Batman (although if you think for a second that the Caped Crusader is actually dead here, I’ve got a bridge in Brooklyn Gotham to sell you).

Joseph Wyman Brown uses tintype photography to make modern photos. The cameras he uses to make tintypes are slightly bigger than the one he’s holding. | Photo by Mitchell Clark / The Verge Joseph Wyman Brown captures modern people with 19th-century photography Continue reading…

Image: Apple Apple’s M1 Pro and M1 Max chips were a GPU-shaped warning to Nvidia and AMD last year, and now Apple has cranked up the heat with its new M1 Ultra. Apple claims it will rival Nvidia’s giant RTX 3090 graphics card, the fastest GPU on the market right now. But how does Apple think it can beat an RTX 3090? It turns out, last year’s M1 Max has some secret sauce inside.Apple’s new M1 Ultra is a surprising combination of two M1 Max chips, fused together to create a single powerful chip. The M1 Max has a secret high-speed interface that allows Apple to combine two chips into one. The result is an M1 Ultra chip that has double the CPU cores, double the memory, double the memory bandwidth, and most importantly, double the GPU cores.Apple calls... Continue reading…

Illustration by Kristen Radtke / The Verge, Sim courtesy Xmiramira Amira Virgil learned to mod The Sims 4 to combat the game’s poor presentation of Black skin Continue reading…

Samsung’s new display tech debuts in a gaming monitor Continue reading…

A solid laptop for a solid grand Continue reading…

Photo by Chris Welch / The Verge Nothing, the startup lead by OnePlus co-founder Carl Pei, will announce its product roadmap for the year on March 23rd at 9AM ET, the company announced today. Nothing is calling the event “The Truth” and says attendees can RSVP via its website: nothing.tech. The company is also announcing a new $70 million funding round today, which Pei says will give it “the fuel to realize the next phase of our vision of a seamless digital future.”The announcement of the event comes as Nothing is reportedly gearing up to launch its first smartphone by next month, according to a recent report from TechCrunch. Then, in an apparently leaked photo, Pei was seen showing off a smartphone to Qualcomm’s CEO Cristiano Amon. It comes a little over a year after... Continue reading…

Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge How I became a real trackball sicko Continue reading…

White House / Flickr President Biden is poised to issue a new comprehensive strategy for the federal government’s treatment of cryptocurrency, the White House announced on Wednesday. The White House described the pending executive order as “the first ever, whole-of-government approach to addressing the risks and harnessing the potential benefits of digital assets and their underlying technology.”“The rise in digital assets creates an opportunity to reinforce American leadership in the global financial system and at the technological frontier,” the White House said in a release describing the order, “but also has substantial implications for consumer protection, financial stability, national security, and climate risk.”“an opportunity to reinforce American... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Lumen, a US firm that provides essential internet services, says it’s pulling out of Russia in response to the country’s invasion of Ukraine. It’s the second major company of its kind to do so in less than a week, following a similar announcement from rival Cogent last Friday, and is the latest example of a ‘digital Iron Curtain’ growing between Russia and the West.In a blog post, Lumen said it was shutting down all business in Russia “due to increased security risk” in the country.“We have not yet experienced network disruptions, but given the increasingly uncertain environment and the heightened risk of state action, we took this move to ensure the security of our and our customers’ networks, as well as the ongoing integrity of the... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Disney Plus’ big ad experiment will arrive on the service later this year, meaning that users will have the option of sitting through advertisements in exchange for a slightly cheaper plan. On the one hand, that’s great news for streamers on a budget. Ad-supported plans give consumers a lot of flexibility to sign up for pricey services they may otherwise pass over. But it’s also a nice little workaround for boosting subscribers fast — something services are keenly aware of as they fight for our attention and our money.“We’re seeing an evolution of the market away from the monolithic business models of old,” Paul Erickson of research firm Parks Associates tells The Verge. “A lot of the players in the market, they’re not going to just... Continue reading…

Apple’s 3-meter long Thunderbolt 4 cable. | Image: Apple Apple is listing a new 3-meter Thunderbolt 4 Pro cable on its store for $159, which is arguably far too much for a cable. But given the scarcity of other Thunderbolt 4 cable options over 2 meters in length, it might be your only option.The listing coincides with the announcement of Apple’s new Mac Studio, which includes four Thunderbolt 4 ports on its back to connect to displays and other devices. Apple’s also selling a 1.8-meter cable for $129 that ships in two to three weeks. Apple’s 3-meter Thunderbolt 4 Pro cable says it’s “coming soon.”Apple’s 3-meter Thunderbolt 4 cable won’t have much, if any, competition when it arrives. Whether it’s Belkin, Caldigit, CableMatters, or Plugable, no major cable manufacturer (that I’ve found)... Continue reading…

Taiwanese electric bike company Tern announced a more affordable version of its popular line of cargo bikes. The Tern Quick Haul is as slim and approachable as the company’s other bikes, but with a slightly discounted sticker price.For years, Tern’s GSD and HSD models have delighted customers looking for powerful, high-performance e-bikes with plenty of cargo space. Now, the company is introducing a slightly smaller model for city-dwelling customers who care as much about parking and storage as they do about hauling kids or groceries.Another major selling point is the starting price. The Quick Haul lineup comes in two models: the D8, a Class 1 e-bike with a top speed of 20mph, which starts at $2,999; and the P9, a Class 3 bike with a... Continue reading…

Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge TF International Securities analyst Ming-Chi Kuo “strongly believes” that the upcoming MacBook Air redesign will feature an M1 chip, instead of the widely expected “M2” upgrade. Kuo made the comment to 9to5Mac following a tweet where he predicted an “all-new” design for the laptop with more color options and no Mini LED display.The redesigned MacBook Air had previously been reported to have an M2 chip by Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman. Apple can of course decide its own nomenclature for its chips based on marketing reasons, but if the M1 naming scheme follows the A-series chips in iPhones and iPads, the next number up would denote an upgrade in the CPU design. The M1 chips, including the M1 Pro, Max, and the just-announced Ultra, all use... Continue reading…

F-Zero X is coming to the Nintendo Switch Online Expansion Pack library on Friday March 11th. The futuristic racing game now comes complete with online multiplayer, which of course was not included with the original version on the Nintendo 64.The sequel to popular SNES racer F-Zero, F-Zero X was released in 1998. It wasn’t the most visually lavish game even by N64 standards, but that was by design. Nintendo’s focus was making sure that the fast-paced game could run at 60 frames per second with 30 racers on the track, which was a technical achievement at the time.F-Zero X will be the thirteenth N64 game to be added to the $49.99-a-year Expansion Pack tier of Nintendo Switch Online. Last month saw the release of The Legend of Zelda:... Continue reading…

The pressure isn’t just at the pump. | Photo by Andrew Hawkins / The Verge As US gas prices hit record highs in the wake of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, it seems like electric vehicles may not be a safe haven for those looking to save money. That’s because Russia plays an important part in the production of the nickel that ends up in batteries used by many electric vehicles — a metal that’s rocketed up in price even faster than oil.On February 25th, nickel was trading on the London Metal Exchange for around $24,000 a ton, according to The Wall Street Journal. By March 8th, it was trading at $80,000 (down from a peak of over $100,000), and the London Metal Exchange had suspended trading. There are a few reasons for the massive uptick in price — because it’s 2022, there are financial shenanigans involved, but... Continue reading…

Apple launched a new Magic Mouse today, March 8th, 2022. It’s a slick-looking black version. It also still has its charging port on the bottom — meaning that six and a half years after its introduction, Apple still seems to think that the best way to charge the mouse is by flipping it over (rendering it useless) and plugging in a Lightning cable.Here’s a little secret: I copied and pasted most of that last sentence from an article I wrote about this exact issue nearly a year ago, when Apple introduced a whole line of colorful Magic Mice and had the opportunity to change how they charge, but didn’t. Apple has kept this charge-on-the-bottom design since October 2015.“Like a beetle with its legs in the air”My former Verge colleague Nick... Continue reading…

Alex Castro / The Verge If you can’t connect to Spotify or Discord, then no, it’s not just you or your internet connection. Both services acknowledged problems on Tuesday afternoon. However, this time, the culprit doesn’t appear to be any kind of massive DNS or Amazon Web Services (AWS) problem. Sure, Apple’s event servers are still operational, and we haven’t lost access to security cameras or robot vacuums, but the coincidence is still unusual.According to Discord, after restarting its streaming service to fix one problem, a new issue caused a failure of its API, and as of about 30 minutes ago, they were still investigating. The Spotify Status account tweeted at 1:22PM ET that “we’re looking into it” but didn’t offer any other details about what’s going on.A... Continue reading…