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The Polaris Dawn crew (from L to R): Anna Menon, Scott Poteet, Jared Isaacman, and Sarah Gillis | Image: Polaris Program/John Kraus Yesterday, billionaire and private astronaut Jared Isaacman announced his plans to fly to space again on another SpaceX mission. His next flight, targeting the end of the year, will take him even deeper in space than his last flight with the company. It will also be the first in a series of three human spaceflight missions he’s funding with SpaceX, called the Polaris Program.The creator of Shift4 Payments, Isaacman is perhaps best known for funding an entire flight on SpaceX’s Crew Dragon spacecraft, which took him and three other private flyers on a three-day trip to Earth’s orbit. Called Inspiration4, the mission was meant to showcase how everyday people — not just NASA and government astronauts — can train and fly to space.Isaacman... Continue reading…

Anyone who watched WandaVision could tell you how Wanda Maximoff became the villain of her own story, but in the latest trailer for Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, the newly diademed Scarlet Witch steps back into the spotlight with a bit of a bone to pick about how her reputation in the Marvel Cinematic Universe has been shifting as of late.After years of Vision warning Wanda that the day would come when her fellow heroes would fear her, Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness appears poised to make good on that promise with a story making the case that Strange and the Scarlet Witch should be held accountable for their crimes against the natural magical order of things.WandaVision’s finale made it seem like the... Continue reading…

Disney’s getting serious about the metaverse. | Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Disney is appointing an executive to head up its metaverse plans, according to a memo CEO Bob Chapek sent to employees (via Reuters and CNBC). Mike White, who previously held the title of SVP of consumer experiences and platforms, will now be SVP of next generation storytelling and consumer experiences.“For nearly 100 years, our company has defined and re-defined entertainment by leveraging technology to bring stories to life in deeper, more impactful ways,” Chapek said in the memo, which Disney shared with The Verge.“Today, we have an opportunity to connect those universes and create an entirely new paradigm for how audiences experience and engage with our stories,” he continued. “This is the so-called metaverse, which I believe is... Continue reading…

Image: Creative Electron via iFixit Valve’s $400-and-up Steam Deck handheld is less than two weeks away from launch, but you can already see its guts spread across a table in no fewer than four teardown videos, including a new one published today by our friends at iFixit. What’s more, Valve has announced today that it’s making good on its promise to sell replacement parts for the Steam Deck so you can repair it yourself, and it has made iFixit the first authorized seller of parts for both the new Deck and the existing Valve Index VR headset.Unfortunately, Valve isn’t yet saying which parts will be available — when I asked if the Deck’s screen and battery might be among them, Steam Deck designer Lawrence Yang told me it’s still working with iFixit to hammer the details... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Discord is down again and suffering connectivity issues for many users. “We’re looking into issues with people sending messages, logging in, streaming videos, etc.,” reads a Discord status message.The issues seem to be affecting a large amount of Discord’s 150 million monthly active users, but The Verge is aware of multiple Discord users who are still participating in calls and messaging on the service at the time of writing.This is the second major outage for Discord in a matter of weeks. Discord recovered from a two-hour long outage on January 26th, which stopped millions of users from accessing the service. This previous outage also affected API and sessions, with most users unable to log in, join calls, or send messages on the... Continue reading…

Image: NASA On Monday, NASA released the first science images from its new Imaging X-ray Polarimetry Explorer, or IXPE. A look at the Cassiopeia A supernova — the bright remnants of a star that exploded in space in the 17th century — the image provides a first glimpse of what the space agency’s new X-ray mission will teach us about some of the most extreme events in the cosmos, like supernova explosions and cosmic collisions.Launched in early December, IXPE is NASA’s first mission dedicated to studying X-ray polarization, or X-ray light whose vibrations are all aligned in a single direction. The explorer builds on the work of the Chandra X-ray Observatory by using polarization to help explain exactly where the X-ray light produced from space events... Continue reading…

Illustration by Dale Crosby Close / The Verge On Tuesday, OpenSea and NFT communications platform Metalink announced a new partnership aimed at preventing social engineering attacks carried out through Discord DMs. As The Verge previously reported, some confidence tricksters have made millions of dollars by posing as customer service agents in OpenSea’s official Discord server and tricking NFT holders into sharing details that will let the scammers take control of their cryptocurrency wallets.OpenSea hopes to mitigate these scams by using Metalink, which operates a “token gated” communications platform so that only users holding certain NFTs in their cryptocurrency wallets will be able to get access. When they do so, they’ll be connected with authenticated OpenSea support... Continue reading…

The News Feed will now just be the Feed. | Image: Facebook Meta is changing the name of Facebook’s News Feed, the primary part of the service that users scroll through to see what their friends and family have shared. Going forward, it’ll just be called the “Feed,” according to a tweet from the company on Tuesday. The “News Feed” name had been in place since the feature was first introduced more than 15 years ago.In some ways, it’s a massive change — Facebook is one of the world’s most-used platforms, and the Feed is its main interface. On the other hand, it is “just a name change to better reflect the diverse content people see on their Feeds,” according to an email sent to The Verge by Facebook spokesperson Dami Oyefeso. The change “does not impact the app experience more broadly.”

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Meta, Facebook’s parent company, agreed to pay $90 million to settle a 2012 lawsuit accusing the company of tracking users even after they logged out of their accounts.The settlement was submitted for approval Monday evening in the US District Court for the Northern District of California. It is still awaiting final approval from the court. Plaintiffs affected by Facebook’s improper data tracking will receive portions of the $90 million. Meta will also be required to delete all of the data it wrongfully collected from those users.“We’re glad to move past this issue”Reached for comment, Meta spokesperson Drew Pusateri told The Verge, “Reaching a settlement in this case, which is more than a decade old, is in the best interest of our... Continue reading…

Details are light right now. | Image: Netflix Netflix, 2K, and Take-Two Interactive announced Tuesday that they will be partnering to make a live-action film adaptation of BioShock. While it’s a potentially exciting announcement, details beyond the existence of the movie are extremely light.There’s no release date, and according to Variety, it doesn’t have a director or a cast yet. And Netflix’s website says the movie is an adaptation of the BioShock franchise, which leaves open the possibility that it could feature characters and locales from the underwater city of Rapture from BioShock 1 and 2, as well as the sky city of Columbia from BioShock Infinite.However, Netflix did share a press image featuring a creepy Little Sister and an imposing Big Daddy, so it seems like a safe... Continue reading…

A monkey in Neuralink’s in-house facility. | Neuralink Elon Musk’s company Neuralink has denied claims that university researchers abused monkeys in experiments backed by the brain-computer interface startup. In a statement posted online, Neuralink responded to a federal complaint from the nonprofit Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine (PCRM), which alleged that Neuralink and its partners at the University of California, Davis conducted inhumane tests on animals.A PCRM statement said that monkeys at UC Davis “had their brains mutilated in shoddy experiments and were left to suffer and die.” Neuralink, by contrast, says that the lab “did and continue to meet federally mandated standards,” although it has since moved the animals to an in-house facility.The PCRM complaint, filed with... Continue reading…

Samsung has some aggressive deals for Galaxy S22 early adopters. | Photo by Chris Welch / The Verge Samsung’s Galaxy Unpacked event was already six days ago, and we’re now just 10 days away from the launch of the new Galaxy S22 phones. But today, just like any other, we’re talking deals.Teeing off, those exact Samsung Galaxy S22 phones already have some juicy deals even before you get them in your grubby mitts. There are some choice bonuses to take advantage of if you preorder by February 24th, and while we’ve gone into some of the details and carrier promos, here’s the long-short you should know right now: if you preorder any Galaxy S22 phone, you’ll get a free storage upgrade and credit back from Samsung to use on accessories or future products (with an added $50 credit exclusively for Verge readers).What that means is at the very... Continue reading…

I spent hours making it exactly to spec. I actually made the Chief’s chili, and it made me real sad Continue reading…

Newegg logo box (1020) Newegg says it will now accept returns of open box CPUs and motherboards with “no questions asked,” according to a report by Windows Central. This comes after popular PC hardware review YouTube channel Gamer Nexus posted videos claiming Newegg knowingly sold them a defective open-box motherboard and then refused them a refund.

They’re weird, refreshing, and fantastic at voice calls Continue reading…

Microsoft is releasing its first big update to Windows 11 today, and it includes a lot of new additions. A public preview of Android apps on Windows 11 will be available today in the US, alongside redesigned Notepad and Media Player apps. The first big Windows 11 update will also include a bunch of improvements to the taskbar.The public preview of Android apps on Windows 11 will allow users to install apps from Amazon’s Appstore. That’s a limited number of Android apps compared to the broader Google Play store, but there are workarounds to get Google Play Store running on Windows 11 unofficially. Image: Microsoft The taskbar gets a new share this window feature. The biggest changes in this Windows 11 update... Continue reading…

This is the Chrome OS Flex UI — it looks exactly like regular Chrome OS. | Image: Google Google has announced early access to a new version of Chrome OS called Chrome OS Flex. The new version of Chrome OS, designed for businesses and schools, is designed to run on old PCs and Macs. The operating system can be installed “within minutes,” according to Google’s blog post.Google told me that Chrome OS Flex will look and feel identical to Chrome OS on a Chromebook — it’s built from the same code base and follows the same “release cadence.” It did caveat that some features may be dependent on the hardware of the PC you’re using. In fact, it said this for every specific feature I asked about, including always-on Google Assistant and Android phone syncing. So, if you’re going to try this, keep an eye out.This won’t be the first... Continue reading…

Epic Games is bringing gyro-based motion controls for Fortnite to the PS4, PS5, and PC today. Gyro controls have existed on the Nintendo Switch and Android previously, and this new expansion to PlayStation and PC includes more robust gyro controls and a new flick stick option.Gyro controls allow you to control the camera in Fortnite by simply turning your controller. That means you can couple gyro controls with traditional stick aiming to improve precision and movement throughout Fortnite. Epic Games has also worked with flick stick creator Julian “Jibb” Smart to add more gyro controls and the flick stick option that will quickly flick the camera to a certain direction with mouse-like speed.There are now separate combat and building... Continue reading…

The neckband looks a lot like a plastic lanyard. | Image: Motorola Motorola has a new wearable 5G neckband that is designed to power lightweight VR and AR headsets (collectively known as XR headsets) such as parent company Lenovo’s ThinkReality A3 smart glasses, the company announced today. The neckband looks a lot like a large plastic lanyard, and is equipped with a Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 processor, a 5,000mAh battery, a touchpad, SIM card slot, speakers, and a range of sensors including a gyroscope and accelerometer, Engadget reports. Motorola says it’s partnered with Verizon on the neckband, which is able to connect to the carrier’s mmWave 5G network.The idea is that the neckband, which Motorola doesn’t provide an official product name for, will be able to act as the brains and brawn for a connected VR... Continue reading…

OM Digital Solutions, the new company formed after Olympus sold off its camera business to a Japanese investment fund, has announced its first camera. The OM System OM-1 is a flagship Micro Four Thirds mirrorless camera that serves as a successor to previous high-end Olympus models like the O-MD E-M1 Mark III.The OM-1 name will be a familiar one to Olympus shooters — a 35mm SLR camera with the same name launched the OM line in 1972. The new OM System OM-1 still has the Olympus name on the body, though the company tells DPreview that this is likely to be the last model where that’s the case.The OM-1 has a new 20-megapixel stacked CMOS sensor and an upgraded processor that lets it shoot stills at 50 frames per second with autofocus and... Continue reading…

Japanese industry titans are teaming up for a new cinematic universe based on iconic properties. Toho, Toei, Khara, and Tsuburaya Productions have announced the upcoming launch of the Shin Japan Heroes Universe, which will include representation from the Godzilla, Ultraman, Kamen Rider, and Evangelion franchises.Toho is the company that created Godzilla, Toei is behind Kamen Rider, Tsuburaya produces Ultraman, and Khara is the animation studio founded by Neon Genesis Evangelion creator Hideaki Anno. Tsuburaya Productions’ founder, the late tokusatsu special effects pioneer Eiji Tsuburaya, did effects work for movies in both the Godzilla and Ultraman series. Toho released the Anno-directed Shin Godzilla in 2016, and Anno... Continue reading…

Heather Morgan will have to follow several conditions while awaiting trial. | Image: Razzlekhan On Monday, a judge ruled that Heather Morgan, aka Razzlekhan, should be released on bail after she and her husband were arrested for allegedly helping to launder billions of dollars worth of stolen Bitcoin. Morgan and her husband Ilya “Dutch” Lichtenstein were already granted bail last week by another judge, but the government got an emergency stay on the previous order, saying that the couple could potentially use millions of dollars worth of un-seized Bitcoin to flee the country.Monday’s hearing took place to review the release order and consider further prosecution and defense evidence. You can read both of the written arguments below, which largely reflect what the parties argued in court. The presiding judge decided that Morgan... Continue reading…

The Penkesu custom handheld computer | Image: Penk Chen via GitHub There aren’t a lot of ultra-portable handheld PCs anymore, outside of the GDP pocket and its gaming-focused successors. With tablets, smartphones, and even handhelds like the Steam Deck diluting the marketable needs of owning a laptop, there isn’t much space for mini laptops beyond the simple joy of owning a fun-sized version of a traditional computer.But that’s not stopping DIY-er Penk Chen from building their own handheld PC called the Penkesu — a retro-futuristic ultraportable laptop with a mechanical keyboard. It could very well have existed as a working sci-fi movie prop in the ’90s or an R&B video plot device in 2002.

Android might stream apps to your computer. | Photo by Becca Farsace / The Verge Google’s January outline revealed plans to spend 2022 trying to make the Android and Chrome OS experience match Apple’s ecosystem integrations, including a feature that would mirror a messaging app from your Android phone on your Chromebook. Thanks to 9to5Google, which did some digging in the recently-released Android 13 developer preview, we might have an early look at what that feature will look like. Image: Google Google first outlined the mirroring feature in January. Based on what 9to5Google found, it appears that Google will essentially enable streaming apps to your computer. And the feature might end up working on non-Chrome OS computers, too, as 9to5Google says it used the web app involved on both... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Verizon says it has fixed a major outage that appeared to affect Georgia and parts of Florida. Wireless customers reported they couldn’t make calls, connect to data service, or send and receive text messages for hours.“This afternoon there was a fiber issue that caused a network disruption for some customers in Georgia,” Verizon spokesperson Karen Schulz said in a statement to The Verge. “Our engineers worked to identify the issue and service has since been restored.” Screenshot: Downdetector Outages are mainly affecting customers in Georgia. According to Down Detector, reports of connectivity problems started around 2PM ET, with issues mostly reported in Georgia. Judging by Down Detector’s data, reports of... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Apple’s new proposals for dating apps in the Netherlands haven’t gone far enough to appease the country’s competition regulator, which has just announced that it’s fining the company another €5 million (around $5.6 million). It’s the fourth weekly fine levied against the company, bringing the total to €20 million (around $22.6 million), and these fines are set to continue weekly while the Authority for Consumers and Markets (ACM) thinks Apple is failing to comply with its order.The ACM’s order, which was made public in late December, says that Apple should allow dating app developers — and only dating app developers — to use alternatives to Apple’s in-app payment system in the country. Apple first announced its intention to comply with... Continue reading…

Zoom meetings are a part of everyday life for many of us. Whether you’re a middle schooler learning remotely or an executive with back-to-back meetings, or if it’s just that your book club still meets virtually, most of us have to grapple with the video conference company at some point in our week. Having another option for joining meetings other than your computer or squinting at your smartphone is a nice bonus, and if you have an Echo Show at home, it can make a useful hands-free Zoom machine.Video calling with Zoom is currently available on the Echo Show 8 (first- and second-gen) and the Echo Show 10 (the one that rotates). Amazon has said Zoom will be coming to the Echo Show 15 later this year.The Show 10 and the second-gen 8... Continue reading…

Peloton CEO Barry McCarthy says he’s not interested in a sale right now. | Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge Last week was an eventful week for Peloton: it got a new CEO, investors unleashed their fury at outgoing CEO John Foley, 2,800 employees were fired, and then some of those employees crashed an all-hands. At the heart of the drama, a big question was whether new CEO Barry McCarthy had been brought on to get Peloton in shape for a sale as the company’s value has plunged to $8 billion from a pandemic high of $50 billion. However, in a Financial Times interview, McCarthy has officially nixed the idea for the “foreseeable future.”“If I thought it was likely that the business was going to be acquired in the foreseeable future, I can’t imagine it would be a rational act to move across the country. There are lots of other things I could be... Continue reading…

Wordle — the viral daily word guessing game that was recently bought by The New York Times — has been on a tear in the past few days. Brainteasers like “ULTRA,” “ULCER,” and “ALOFT” have appeared, frustrating players, many of whom have taken to Twitter to complain that the game’s new owners are intentionally amping up the difficulty.But while conspiracy theories abound that the rash of difficult words is a result of the New York Times Games division sitting around with devilish grins, looking to find the most difficult five-letter words in the lexicon, the truth is that The New York Times is innocent of Wordle crimes here.

If you listened in to The Vergecast a couple of weeks ago, you might remember a sidebar discussion on how Android and Windows users in the EU are prompted to choose a default search engine to comply with antitrust regulations. “Nothing in the world can make you pick Bing,” said The Verge editor-in-chief Nilay Patel with utter certainty. He then invited Vergecast listeners who actually choose Microsoft’s search engine over Google’s to write to him: “if you're a Bing-by-choice kind of person, let me know.”If a company is going to data mine me, I might as well get something out of itAs it turns out, some of our listeners are straight-up enthusiastic Bing users. “I know you were joking but I wanted to reach out,” a listener named Jimmy... Continue reading…

Photo by Jennifer Pattison Tuohy / The Verge At $59.99, Amazon’s Smart Thermostat is among the most affordable options out there that can intelligently tweak the temperature of your home and take voice commands via Alexa. But today’s deal at Amazon, Target, and Best Buy knocks $12 off of that price, and $47.99 matches the best deal we’ve seen on this smart home gadget yet. And just because it’s cheap doesn’t mean it’s lacking in features or quality. My colleague Jennifer Pattison Tuohy called it “a $60 stunner” in her review, praising its clean design and smart features that live up to their promises. Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge If you have one or more devices that recharge via USB-C, you owe it to yourself to snag a speedy charger. RavPower no... Continue reading…

Photo by Chris Welch / The Verge Samsung’s new Galaxy S22 Ultra is getting a lot of buzz since it’s the reincarnation of the Note. By comparison, the regular S22 and S22 Plus are much more iterative with a design that’s similar to last year’s S21 lineup. It’s been reported that Samsung was disappointed with the sales performance of its flagship phones in 2021, and at first glance, there’s little about the S22 and S22 Plus that make them feel like must-have upgrades. They’ve got the standard mix of camera and performance enhancements, but no big wow factor.But so what? There’s something to be said for Samsung’s hardware quality and consistency. The OLED screens in Galaxy phones are always that extra little bit nicer — in terms of uniformity, brightness, and so on — than... Continue reading…

The Opera browser will allow emoji-only web addresses | Opera Web browser company Opera said Monday it will enable emoji-only based web addresses “to bring a new level of creativity to the internet.” The integration is part of a partnership with Yat, a company that sells URLs with strings of emoji in them.“It’s been almost 30 years since the world wide web launched to the public, and there hasn’t been much innovation in the weblink space: people still include .com in their URLs,” Jorgen Arnesen, executive vice president of mobile at Opera, said in a press release.Yat pages are unique domains generated when someone purchases a string of emoji (which itself is called a Yat). The owner of a Yat can create an NFT of their emoji string, and the company plans to eventually let users connect their Yats... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Snapchat is introducing a new way for creators on the app to earn money. The platform is testing mid-roll ads that appear in the Stories of a small group of US creators, with a wider rollout happening in the coming months.When an ad is placed within a Snap Star’s Story, Snapchat will share the revenue with the creators. The company says the revenue share is based on a formula that takes into account metrics like posting frequency and engagement. The feature is only available to Snap Stars, who are creators or public figures with large followings that have been verified on Snapchat, indicated by a gold star.In recent years, Snapchat has added various ways for creators to monetize their presence on the app. Snapchat users already see ads... Continue reading…

Jared Isaacman (left) and the rest of the Polaris Dawn crew | Image: Polaris Jared Isaacman, the billionaire who flew to Earth orbit on SpaceX’s Crew Dragon capsule last year, plans to fly with SpaceX again. Today, Isaacman announced that he’s purchased three additional upcoming flights with SpaceX, a series of missions called “Polaris” that would take him deeper into space on the company’s spacecraft.Isaacman, who made his fortune through his payment processing company Shift4 Payments, made headlines last year when he bankrolled an entire SpaceX Crew Dragon passenger mission in September, dubbed Inspiration4. He filled the three remaining seats on the vehicle with other civilian astronauts, including a childhood cancer survivor, an engineer, and a professor. The quartet all trained and eventually flew to orbit... Continue reading…

Horizon Forbidden West running on a PS4. You don’t need a new console for Aloy’s latest adventure Continue reading…

Nvidia announced its RTX 3090 Ti with faster memory and better performance at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in early January. After originally promising more information by the end of January, Nvidia has since remained silent about pricing or a release date for the RTX 3090 Ti. Now, the company is refusing to say what’s going on.“We don’t currently have more info to share on the RTX 3090 Ti, but we’ll be in touch when we do,” Nvidia spokesperson Jen Andersson recently told The Verge.Just days after Nvidia’s original announcement of the RTX 3090 Ti, TweakTown and VideoCardz reported that Nvidia had halted the production of the flagship GPU. The company had reportedly been planning to release the RTX 3090 Ti on January 27th, but... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge The UK’s tax department, Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs (HMRC), says it’s the first authority in the country to seize an NFT, BBC News reports. The seizure was made as part of a £1.4 million (roughly $1.9 million) fraud case, in which three individuals have been arrested. The authority seized £5,000 worth of crypto assets (around $6,762) alongside three NFT artworks which have yet to be valued.As cryptocurrencies have exploded in price, high profile seizures by authorities have become increasingly common. Just this month the USA’s Department of Justice seized $3.6 billion worth of cryptocurrency linked to the 2016 Bitfinex hack. But this is one of the first high profile seizures of NFTs, digital assets that attempt to serve as proof... Continue reading…

Mok Shaiz’s majordomo reads from an 80s tabletop bowling game. | Screenshot: The Book of Boba Fett Keen-eyed observers might have spotted something a little off about the digital notepad used by Mok Shaiz’s majordomo in last week’s finale of The Book of Boba Fett. As pointed out by Mike Mika on Twitter, rather than the hi-tech instrument you might expect, the prop held by actor David Pasquesi appears to be a tabletop Coleco Bowlaltronic toy from the 1980s.Boba Fett thus continues Star Wars’ proud tradition of repurposing ordinary household objects as sci-fi gadgets in its galaxy far, far away. Perhaps the most famous example crops up in Episode V, when an extra can be seen in the background of Cloud City carrying what appears to be a household ice cream maker. This being Star Wars, the background character eventually received an e... Continue reading…

Where most open world games can offer a paralyzing amount of choices, Horizon Forbidden West doesn’t feel too overwhelming Continue reading…

It’s time to return to Middle Earth: the first trailer for Amazon’s incredibly ambitious The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power has finally arrived during the Super Bowl LVI, giving a first good look at the upcoming prequel series.The trailer reveal comes after a steady stream of teasers for the upcoming series, which will be set hundreds of years before the events of The Hobbit or The Lord of the Rings in what Tolkien referred to as “The Second Age” of Middle Earth (as opposed to his more popular books and their film adaptations, which take place during the Third Age.)Amazon’s series will be condensing some of Tolkien’s timeline from The Silmarilion, which spans thousands of years and documents key events in the history of Middle... Continue reading…

Polestar made its Super Bowl debut with a Polestar 2 commercial that aimed to set the electric car newcomer apart from traditional car companies by taking a shot at the entire concept of flashy car commercials — and at Tesla and Volkswagen, specifically.The 30-second ad, titled “No Compromises” makes a litany of claims for Polestar, promising “No epic voiceovers,” “No empty promises,” and “No hidden agendas.” More pointed claims saw Polestar take a jab at Tesla CEO Elon Musk (“No conquering Mars,”) and Volkswagen (“No dieselgate,”) over soaring shots of the company’s Polestar 2 electric sedan.Polestar is a relatively new player in the electric car space, tied closely to Volvo and (notably) offering the first car that’s entirely... Continue reading…

Coinbase just made its Super Bowl debut with a remarkable clever QR code ad that might have been too popular: the company’s “Less talk, more Bitcoin,” campaign appears to have temporarily knocked out its app following the ad airing during the broadcast

Marvel Studios The Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness teaser that played at the very end of Spider-Man: No Way Home was an unexpected surprise that, for all its flashiness, didn’t say a thing about the movie’s plot or how Wanda Maximoff (Elizabeth Olsen) and America Chavez (Xochitl Gomez) are meant to help Stephen Strange (Benedict Cumberbatch) fix the existence of all things. The movie’s latest trailer does, though.Somewhere out there in the multiverse, one of the countless variants of Stephen Strange has gone and put a dent in the multiverse that the original live-action variant now has to put right.Strange’s recent magical meddling in No Way Home probably has something to do with how the multiverse is damaged and how a seemingly evil... Continue reading…

Image by Intel Intel is investing in blockchain technology with a new chip designed to mine cryptocurrency (via Reuters). The company is focusing on sustainability, and plans on “developing the most energy-efficient computing technologies at scale.”Intel’s first crypto-focused chip, which it calls a “blockchain accelerator” is set to ship later this year. Two companies have already preordered the technology, including Bitcoin mining company GRIID Infrastructures and Block, the Jack Dorsey-owned fintech company formerly known as Square.The environmental impact of cryptocurrency mining has become a huge concern“We expect that our circuit innovations will deliver a blockchain accelerator that has over 1000x better performance per watt than mainstream... Continue reading…

A mosaic image of the Moon’s north pole, taken by NASA’s Galileo spacecraft | Image: NASA/JPL/USGS Last month, an astronomer and space tracking expert made a bit of a splash when he predicted that a piece of an old SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket left in space for the last seven years was going to collide with the Moon this March. But now he’s changing that prediction in a big way. While the rocket part he’s been tracking is still on a collision course with the Moon, he now believes that the vehicle is not an old Falcon 9 part, but an old Chinese rocket instead.The update comes from Bill Gray, an astronomer and asteroid tracker running Project Pluto, who has been following this doomed object since March of 2015. He says the object was first picked up by the Catalina Sky Survey, a program that uses telescopes near Tucson, Arizona to scan the... Continue reading…

Joe Burrow, the quarterback for the Cincinnati Bengals, is set to face off against the Los Angeles Rams (lead by Matthew Stafford) in Super Bowl LVI at SoFi Stadium in Los Angeles, California. | Photo by Scott Winters / Icon Sportswire via Getty Images Super Bowl LVI is being played at the SoFi Stadium in California at 6:30PM ET on February 13th, with the Los Angeles Rams facing off against the Cincinnati Bengals.If you’re looking to watch the game, the commercials, and / or the absolutely stacked halftime show featuring Dr. Dre, Snoop Dogg, Eminem, Mary J. Blige, and Kendrick Lamar, here are some of the ways you can do it. Do be warned, though — if you went out and bought a fancy new TV to watch the game, you won’t be getting the most out of it for the game, as NBC isn’t streaming it in 4K this year. (That said, the TV’s still probably great for a bunch of other things.)What time will the Super Bowl start?Kickoff is at 6:30PM ET on February 13th, which is 5:30PM CT, 4:30PM MT, and... Continue reading…

Universal Pictures Universal’s Nope from director Jordan Peele is one of the rare modern movies with this much hype around it to make it this close to its release date without the public knowing basically anything about it.Building up that sort of suspense is a huge gamble on the studio’s part that could go either way, but Nope’s first trailer certainly creates the impression that Peele’s gone and done it again — “it” here meaning “dreamed up something terrible and turned it into a work of art we’re all going to become obsessed with.”Nope’s first trailer introduces Daniel Kaluuya and Keke Palmer’s two cattle ranching characters who spend their days working with horses on farms while dreaming of making it big as professional horse handlers for film... Continue reading…