The Verge

Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge Every Wednesday and Friday, The Verge publishes our flagship podcast, The Vergecast, where our editors make sense of the week’s most important technology news. On Wednesdays, editor-at-large David Pierce leads a selection of The Verge’s expert staffers in an exploration of how gadgets and software affect our lives — and which ones you should bring into your home.Today’s episode starts with a discussion between David and deputy editor Alex Heath about the changes coming to Facebook and Instagram and how everything is turning into TikTok.Later in the show, contributing editor Casey Newton chats with David about another social media app: BeReal. The two discuss why it’s breaking out and whether it will succeed on its own before it gets... Continue reading…

Roblox removed the “oof” noise over licensing issues. Roblox has gotten rid of the iconic “oof” sound your character makes when dying (that even I, as an adult, can find some semblance of joy in). In a thread on Twitter (via Kotaku), Roblox explains it removed the sound “due to a licensing issue” and replaced it with a new noise that, in my opinion, sounds weird as hell.Roblox has had problems with the “oof” sound before. As Kotaku points out, Intellivision founder Tommy Tallarico originally created the noise for a 2000 game called Messiah. Tallarico took issue with the fact Roblox was using the noise, and in 2020, Roblox started charging creators $1 (or 100 Robux) to include the sound in their games to settle the dispute. It’s unclear what led Roblox to remove the sound entirely, though.... Continue reading…

Drop’s selection of keycaps range from clean aesthetics to cringey Marvel collaborations. | Image: Drop Nothing livens up your desk like some colorful mechanical keyboard keycaps, and Drop’s buy one, get one deal has returned to brighten up your hump day. You can buy one base or ortholinear kit of MT3 keycaps from Drop’s selection and get a second one of equal or lesser value for free. This sale includes some returning favorites like the two-tone blue Dasher set that’s reminiscent of the keyboards in Severance. You can see them in action by our own Dan Seifert in this Verge TikTok video.This BOGO promo includes some sets we haven’t seen looped into deals before. In addition to offering a few Lord of the Rings sets (Dwarvish and Elvish), the sleek Godspeed R2 and retro 9009 sets are also in the mix. Most sets cost $120 before the... Continue reading…

Illustration: Alex Castro / The Verge Street View has returned to select parts of India, Google announced today at an event hosted in New Delhi and on its blog. The 360-degree street-level viewpoint debuted in the country in 2011 but was then rejected by its government in 2016 due to security concerns. The navigation feature can be particularly useful for spotting landmarks that might help you find your way around.According to Google’s blog post, this feature is rolling out in Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Kolkata, Chennai, Delhi, Mumbai, Pune, Nashik, Vadodara, Ahmednagar, and Amritsar. Google says it expects to provide Street View to 50 Indian cities by the end of 2022.Exactly how Street View is relaunching in India is the most fascinating part of this story. Instead of getting... Continue reading…

GTA V was released almost nine years ago. | Image: Rockstar Grand Theft Auto VI, the next entry in Rockstar’s blockbuster open-world franchise, will reportedly be the first to let you play as a female character in its story mode. That’s according to a new report from Bloomberg, which just published a lengthy feature on the game’s development. The report also includes new details on the game’s release, which sources suggest is likely to be at least two years away.Rockstar has reportedly made efforts to overhaul its internal culture ever since the release of its last major title, 2018’s Red Dead Redemption 2, was marred by reports of poor working conditions at the studio. According to Bloomberg, morale at the company has improved significantly since then, and the development of GTA VI is being... Continue reading…

Photo by James Bareham / The Verge A motorcyclist in Draper, Utah, was killed early Sunday morning when a Tesla driver using Autopilot slammed into the rear of his bike. It is the latest crash involving Tesla’s advanced driver-assist system to draw scrutiny from federal investigators at the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA).The incident occurred just after 1AM Sunday on southbound Interstate 15, according to local reports. The motorcyclist, who has not been identified, was traveling southbound near the Salt Lake and Utah County lines when the Tesla approached from behind. The Utah Department of Public Safety said the Tesla driver collided with the back of the motorcycle, throwing the motorcyclist to the ground and killing him instantly.The Tesla... Continue reading…

Image: Microsoft Microsoft is holding an in-person tech event in October, the first since the coronavirus pandemic began more than two years ago. Microsoft Ignite, an annual conference for developers and IT professionals, will take place in Seattle between October 12th and 14th, and Microsoft says “space will be limited.”The software maker is planning to open registration for Ignite in late August, and it will be free to attend virtually. Microsoft is planning in-person events in cities around the world, with a central event at the Seattle Convention Center. “The Seattle in-person experience will include highly interactive and immersive activities at the Seattle Convention Center,” explains an FAQ from Microsoft. The FAQ doesn’t cover how Microsoft... Continue reading…

HBO Max In Harley Quinn’s third season, love is in the air Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge TikTok is making it easier for researchers to delve into the data and protocols that make up the platform. In a blog post, TikTok COO Vanessa Pappas announced the company will soon grant researchers access to the framework behind the platform and its moderation system.Pappas says TikTok will soon provide access to the “public and anonymized data” on the platform so “selected researchers” can “assess content and trends or conducts tests.” The company will also give researchers a way to probe its existing moderation system, evaluate the content on TikTok, and experiment with different types of content to see what gets rejected. Later this year, researchers will have access to TikTok’s moderation tools at its transparency center, a virtual... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge After weeks of mounting pressure from Democrats, Hulu will begin accepting political issue and candidate ads, according to a new report from Axios on Wednesday.Disney, a majority owner of Hulu, made the decision amid a controversy over the streaming platform’s decision to ban ads discussing abortion, gun reform, climate change, and other issues central to the Democratic Party’s midterm agenda.“After a thorough review of ad policies across its linear networks and streaming platforms over the last few months, Disney is now aligning Hulu’s political advertising policies to be consistent with the Company’s general entertainment and sports cable networks and ESPN+,” Disney said in a statement to Axios on Wednesday.“Disney is now aligning... Continue reading…

Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio. | Image: Netflix After some teasing on Twitter, Netflix has released the latest trailer for Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio, showing a dark and beautiful rendition of the classic tale — with the gorgeous attention to detail the director is known for.We first got a glimpse at the stop-motion film through a short teaser at the beginning of the year. It stars Ewan McGregor as Cricket and David Bradley as Geppetto, with Gregory Mann in the titular role. Del Toro — best known for films like The Shape of Water, Crimson Peak, and Pan’s Labyrinth — is co-directing Pinocchio alongside Mark Gustafson, and he has previously described the movie as something of a passion project.“After years of pursuing this dream project, I found my perfect partner in Netflix,” he... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Today, let’s talk about a settled question that Meta has decided to re-open: what should the company do about misinformation related to COVID-19?Since the earliest days of the pandemic, Meta has sought to remove false claims about the disease from Facebook and Instagram. And for just as long, the company has faced criticism that it hasn’t done a very good job. A year ago this month, asked about the role “platforms like Facebook” played in spreading misinformation about the disease, President Biden said “they’re killing people” — though he walked his statement back a day later.Still, Biden voiced a fear that is deeply held among Meta critics: that the platform’s huge user base and algorithmic recommendations often combine to help fringe... Continue reading…

Lab-grown meat seems to be everywhere these days. Last year, cultured meat and seafood companies raised $1.38 billion in investment, and more and more startups are popping up to develop their own products. A lot of people are betting that cultured meat is part of the future of food — and we wanted to find out why.The creation of cell-based meat starts with a biopsy from an animal. From there, the cells are cultured in a lab and given the right nutrients to grow and multiply. Once there are enough cells, the batch is transferred into a bioreactor, where the cells continue to multiply until the end result is enough cells to sink your teeth into.This process takes a lot of time and resources, and according to the Good Food Institute, no... Continue reading…

The Apple Watch supports flipping watch orientation. | Photo by Victoria Song / The Verge When it comes to watches, southpaws often get the short end of the stick. Unless lefties buy a destro watch, they have to learn to wear watches on their dominant hand instead of the nondominant hand as recommended. But that doesn’t have to be the case with all smartwatches. Because smartwatches have touchscreens, some watch manufacturers have given lefties the option of flipping the screen orientation so it appears “upside down.” This, in turn, gives users greater control over where the watch’s buttons are, making it easier to use a device worn on the right hand.While not every smartwatch allows you to switch screen orientation, two of the biggest players — Apple and Samsung — do. For Wear OS, you currently have to use third-party apps... Continue reading…

The Car Thing in action. | Photo by Ashley Carman / The Verge Spotify has stopped manufacturing Car Thing, a dashboard accessory designed to make it easier to control the streaming service on your phone from a car. The change was quietly announced as part of the company’s latest earnings release, which notes the decision cost the company €31 million (around $32 million USD). “Reported Gross Margin was negatively impacted by our decision to stop manufacturing Car Thing,” the release reads.“Based on several factors, including product demand and supply chain issues, we have decided to stop further production of Car Thing units,” a spokesperson for the company told TechCrunch. “Existing devices will perform as intended. This initiative has unlocked helpful learnings, and we remain focused on the car... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Spotify’s number of premium subscribers increased to 188 million in its second quarter, while its monthly active users (MAU) now sit at 433 million, the company announced in an earnings release today. That’s a year-over-year increase of 14 percent and 19 percent, respectively, and compares to the 182 million and 422 million figures it announced last quarter. The company says its growth in MAUs was its largest ever in a second quarter and exceeded its guidance.The earnings come at the end of a quarter in which Spotify’s big push into podcasts has experienced some hiccups. One of its biggest podcasts, Reply All, broadcast its final episode on June 23rd after co-hosts Alex Goldman and Emmanuel Dzotsi decided to leave production company... Continue reading…

This is a picture from Independence Day’s sequel, but you get the idea. Roland Emmerich, the director behind disaster movies such as Independence Day, The Day After Tomorrow, and Moonfall, is making a “gladiatorial epic” series for NBCUniversal’s streaming service Peacock. The show, which will be titled Those About to Die, is based on the book of the same name by Daniel Mannix (which, incidentally, previously served as the inspiration for Ridley Scott’s Gladiator). The series is set to be written by Robert Rodat, whose previous work includes Saving Private Ryan.Those About to Die is the first TV show created by Emmerich. Although he previously directed 2012 TV movie Dark Horse, the director’s career has otherwise been focused on the big screen, with a filmography packed with summer blockbusters. It sounds... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge AMD accidentally leaked its Noise Suppression feature last week, and now it’s officially making it available as part of its Adrenalin software. The latest Adrenalin Edition 22.7.1 update includes AMD Noise Suppression, which will reduce background audio noise using a real-time deep learning algorithm.AMD Noise Suppression works very similarly to RTX Broadcast, allowing you to filter unwanted background noise from your own microphone or even from someone else’s device if you’re on a call. AMD has integrated its Noise Suppression feature directly into the Adrenalin interface, so you don’t need to download a separate app like Nvidia requires to use RTX Broadcast.To take advantage of AMD Noise Suppression, you’ll need a Ryzen 5000 series... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Google is adding “photorealistic aerial views” to almost 100 landmarks in Google Maps, the company announced on Wednesday. The views, which remind me of Apple Maps’ Flyover feature, give you an overhead look at landmarks in cities including Barcelona, London, New York, San Francisco, and Tokyo, according to Google.You can get an idea of what the new aerial views look like in this GIF from the company: The aerial views are a “first step” toward launching the “immersive view” the company showed off at Google I/O, according to a blog post from Google Maps director of product Amanda Leicht Moore. Immersive view will also include indoor views and information like traffic and the weather layered on the map, Google spokesperson... Continue reading…

A OneWeb satellite on the opening day of the Story of a Satellite summer exhibition at Spaceport Cornwall on Aug 2, 2021 in Newquay, England. | Photo by Hugh Hastings/Getty Images Satellite companies OneWeb and Eutelsat have agreed to a $3.4 billion merger to create a player in global internet connections that competes with SpaceX’s Starlink and Amazon’s Kuiper. Combined, the two companies say they will tie together low Earth orbit satellites that offer faster connections with less lag and geostationary satellites that have more capacity and cover wider areas, with OneWeb continuing to operate as its own brand under Eutelsat.France-based Eutelsat provides television and internet via 36 satellites in geostationary orbits around the Earth’s equator. OneWeb, which launched its first internet-broadcasting satellites in early 2019, currently has about 428 satellites in orbit out of the 648 it plans to have as part of... Continue reading…

Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge You know, I didn’t want to join Instagram, but I had adopted a kitten with an internet following, and the following wanted to know how the kitten was doing. For a while, I dutifully updated once a week. But then Instagram started to change.Two big things happened in 2016. First, there were the changes to the feed. Algorithmic. Well, all right. Then, the Snapchat imitation: the Story. It was whatever. I didn’t mind it. After a while, I stopped posting photos in favor of posting Stories because more people looked at the Stories. There started to be more ads clogging the Stories, so I stopped watching as many. And I stopped posting photos or Stories as often.Come now the Kardashians, who have said that the new Instagram sucksThen came... Continue reading…

Everrati and Irvine, California-based Aria Group take apart a Porsche 911 to begin its EV rebirth. | Image: Everrati When we last spoke with Everrati CEO Justin Lunny, his UK-based restomod company that converts iconic cars to electric vehicles was expanding into the US market. Since then, the company set up headquarters in Calabasas, California, and in April, it partnered with Irvine-based manufacturer Aria Group to work on state-side electric conversions of Porsches and other prestige vehicles. Now Aria Group is helping build the first Everrati Porsche in California, and the owner of that car is a major investor: former Nest CEO Matt Rogers.Rogers’ car is a Porsche 911 (type 964) wide body, similar to his father’s that he has fond memories of riding in as a kid. Since then, he promised himself that he’d get one, too, but only if it were electric.... Continue reading…

Photo by Araya Doheny/Getty Images for NightFly Entertainment, Ltd. On Tuesday, the White House officially threw its support behind a bill pushed by Tiger King star Carole Baskin to restrict exotic animal ownership.In a statement, the Biden administration said that the Big Cat Public Safety Act “would build on existing laws that protect big cats like tigers, cheetahs, jaguars, and other wild animals living in captivity in the United States” and “limit ownership of these animals to zoos, sanctuaries, universities, and agencies.”The measure — introduced by Rep. Mike Quigley (D-IL) and Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) — would formally ban the cub petting industry of lions, tigers, and other big cats featured in Netflix’s hit Tiger King documentary released in 2020. As highlighted in the show, private zoos... Continue reading…

Photo by AMY OSBORNE / AFP via Getty Images Mark Zuckerberg believes that Apple and his company are in a “very deep, philosophical competition” to build the metaverse, suggesting the two tech giants are ready to butt heads in selling hardware for augmented and virtual reality.The Meta CEO told employees earlier this month that they were competing with Apple to determine “what direction the internet should go in,” according to a recording of his comments during an internal all-hands meeting obtained by The Verge. He said that Meta would position itself as the more open, cheaper alternative to Apple, which is expected to announce its first AR headset as soon as later this year.“This is a competition of philosophies and ideas, where they believe that by doing everything themselves... Continue reading…

The company’s profits are lower for another quarter. | Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Profits are down at Google parent company Alphabet for the second quarter in a row, even as it brings in more money. Alphabet brought in around $16 billion in profit during its second quarter of 2022, down from $18.5 billion during the same period last year, the company reported in its Q2 2022 earnings report this afternoon.As with last quarter, it seems like rising expenses have played a part; the company actually brought in more revenue than it did in Q2 2021. This quarter, its revenues were almost $69.7 billion, up from last year’s $61.9 billion. However, compared to this time in 2021, Google’s spending around $3 billion more on both research and development and sales and marketing.Google’s working towards a “sharper focus”As for... Continue reading…

A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket delivers a new batch of Starlink satellites into orbit. | Image: SpaceX SpaceX is pulling out all the stops to prevent Dish and other wireless companies from using the same radio frequencies as its internet-from-space Starlink satellites. Today, in a rare media call with reporters, SpaceX representatives reiterated how damaging they believe it would be for Starlink users if the Federal Communications Commission were to open up the 12GHz frequency band — which SpaceX’s satellites currently use — to other terrestrial uses like 5G.“Essentially, the band would become unusable,” David Goldman, senior director of satellite policy at SpaceX, said during the press call. “It would potentially end services for customers.”Dish hopes to use the spectrum to build out its new 5G network and has argued the deployment... Continue reading…

Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge Meta just made the surprising announcement that it will be raising the price of its Quest 2 virtual reality headsets by $100 next month. If you did a double take upon seeing that news, we commiserate — it’s weird for a two-year-old consumer tech product to suddenly go up in price.We’re conditioned to expect the price of tech products to go down over time thanks to the relentless advancement of technology and more efficient manufacturing processes. But here, the same product you could buy in September 2020 will cost 33 percent more in August 2022.The official reason Meta is upping prices is that “the costs to make and ship our products have been on the rise,” according to a company blog post credited only to the “Oculus Blog.” “By... Continue reading…

NPM has more than 11 million users worldwide. | Image: NPM/GitHub Developers who use NPM, the popular JavaScript package manager, will now be able to connect their Twitter and GitHub accounts to the software as a recovery method.The move was announced Tuesday along with a handful of other features meant to combine enhanced security with usability for the GitHub-owned package manager.In a blog post, GitHub said that the changes would make it easier for users to secure their accounts, while also streamlining some security features that users had found burdensome.“The JavaScript community downloads over 5 billion packages from npm a day, and we at GitHub recognize how important it is that developers can do so with confidence,” wrote GitHub product managers Myles Borins and Monish Mohan. “As stewards... Continue reading…

Photo by Sam Byford / The Verge Microsoft posted the fourth quarter of its 2022 financial results today, reporting revenue of $51.9 billion and a net income of $16.7 billion. Revenue is up 12 percent, and net income has increased by just 2 percent. But while revenue was up, Microsoft saw some of its core businesses, including Windows and Xbox, start to slip.The PC market had been thriving throughout the pandemic, but PC shipments experienced a big decline in the recent quarter — nearly 13 percent according to Gartner. It’s the sharpest decline in nine years, thanks to geopolitical tensions, inflation, and continued supply chain challenges.Microsoft’s Windows OEM revenue, the price PC manufactures pay Microsoft to put Windows on machines, fell 2 percent in Q4, driven... Continue reading…

Discord voice calls on Xbox | Screenshot: Tom Warren / The Verge Discord and Microsoft announced Discord voice chat last week, making it available initially to invite-only Alpha and Alpha Skip-Ahead Xbox testers. The new feature is now available to Xbox Insiders in the Beta ring, which doesn’t require an invite.Microsoft is releasing a new Xbox dashboard update for beta testers at 5PM ET / 2PM PT today that will include Discord voice integration. The voice chat works by first linking Xbox and Discord accounts and then connecting to a Discord voice call using the mobile app and transferring the call to an Xbox console using the Xbox mobile app.The process is a little involved, but once the initial setup is complete, it’s relatively easy to connect to Discord voice calls and transfer them to an Xbox... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Uber’s decision to not offer wheelchair-accessible service in every US market does not violate the federal law prohibiting discrimination against disabled individuals, a federal judge ruled this week.The ruling represents a win for the ride-hailing service, which has been criticized by disability advocates for providing only limited wheelchair-accessible service in a handful of cities.Two motorized wheelchair users, one in New Orleans, Louisiana, and the other in Jackson, Mississippi, sued Uber over the lack of accessible service in either city. Both plaintiffs use wheelchairs that can’t be folded and placed in a trunk. They claimed that Uber was in violation of the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990, which prohibits businesses... Continue reading…

Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge While a PlayStation 5 is still not yet a thing you can find on every store shelf any day of the week, availability has certainly gotten better in recent weeks. Sony has been dropping public restocks with some velocity of late, and today is another chance. You can hop in a public queue on Sony’s site to virtually line up for a PS5 console right now.The recent restocks have been fairly easy to score a console from, though you’ll still want to be attentive to your listed wait time until you hear the chime sound that signals it’s your turn. If you get through the queue, you may have a few options for PS5 consoles to pick between, including the regular $499 model that has a disc drive, the $399 Digital Edition that doesn’t, or the Horizon... Continue reading…

Games that can’t be played may have an exclamation point icon. | Image: Eden Marie on Twitter Scrolling through your Xbox game library, it can be difficult to tell which games you can actually play at the moment — perhaps you downloaded something from Game Pass, but it’s no longer on the service, or your friend came over to play a game and took the disc it was on home with them. Microsoft is currently testing a solution to this problem, with badges that will warn you that a game can’t be launched, according to Xbox engineering lead Eden Marie.In a Twitter thread, Marie explains that the feature adds two badges on screens where you see games, like the homescreen or game library. If you can’t play a game because of licensing issues — say, it was taken off of Game Pass, or you’re currently not logged into the Xbox Live account... Continue reading…

Photo by Cindy Ord / Getty Images for SiriusXM I hope you all had a good weekend. As you can tell, I did not get eaten by a shark, though that is because my husband forgot to register for a beach pass. Next time’s the charm, Evan!!On tap for today: cable news rogues turn to podcasting, pornographic content on Spotify, and earnings previews (that last one is a little less spicy than the first two).Chris Cuomo and Keith Olbermann return from cable news exile with new podcastsWhy try to reason with cable news execs when you can just launch your own podcast? In the past week, both Keith Olbermann and Chris Cuomo announced new shows that will put them back in the limelight (maybe).Olbermann, who was fired from MSNBC in 2011 for donating to a few Democratic campaigns (2010 scandals... Continue reading…

The Meta Quest 2 is arguably the default VR headset, but it’s getting more expensive soon. | Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge The incredibly popular Meta Quest 2 VR headset will have its price increased starting in August, with the 128GB configuration getting a price hike to $399.99 and the 256GB model being inflated to $499.99. However, you can still find both models on sale for their original price of $299.99 and $399.99 at multiple retailers, giving you some time to grab one before the price goes up.To be clear, Meta isn’t adding any new features or hardware once the price goes up — the Meta Quest 2 will be the exact same console, just $100 more expensive. Anyone that purchases a Meta Quest 2 within 30 days of the price hike will get a free copy of Beat Saber (a $30 value). If you’ve been on the fence about owning one of these VR headsets, now would be a... Continue reading…

Photo by Drew Angerer / Getty Images A volunteer on Andrew Yang’s 2020 presidential campaign is suing for discrimination and retaliation, alleging that after she spoke up about misogyny in campaign Facebook groups, she was denied opportunities for advancement. Now, Yang’s lawyers are trying to get the case thrown out, arguing that because the volunteer, Erica Lee, was never hired as a paid staffer, she doesn’t have the labor protections she’s claiming.“If their argument prevails, any volunteer anywhere can be horrible sexually harassed, or the victim of horrible discrimination, and there would be no recourse,” says Lee’s lawyer, Vincent P. White. “I don’t know if anyone wants to live in that world. It’s a horrific world that they’re describing.”Andrew Yang’s lawyers... Continue reading…

The headsets were some of the least expensive out there. | Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge The Meta Quest 2 (formerly known as the Oculus Quest 2) is about to get $100 more expensive, bringing the price for the 128GB model to $399.99 and the 256GB model to $499.99. According to a post from Meta, the price change for the almost two-year-old headset will take effect “starting in August.”As much as I hate to recommend buying things under pressure, you should probably act fast if you’re hoping to get your hands on one before then. It seems likely that scalpers and their armies of bots are about to have a heyday with the models that are currently for sale at the old price. You can pick them up from places like Meta’s official store, Best Buy, Amazon, GameStop, Target, or Walmart.This is a hefty price jump for what was one of the... Continue reading…

Illustrations by Alex Castro / The Verge It’s easier than it has ever been to add someone as a friend on your Nintendo Switch account with just your phone now that you can input a friend code into the Switch Online mobile app and send a request. An update in March made it simple for people to copy their code from the app to share it with others. Now you can more easily expand your friends list when you don’t happen to have your Switch handy.The updated version of the mobile app on iPhone / iPad or Android (version 2.2 or higher) also allows you to share your friend code as a URL for someone else to click on so they can send a request or a QR code so they can get there just by using their camera. Image: Richard Lawler The Nintendo Switch Online app on... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase is reportedly facing an investigation from the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) over whether it allowed users to trade unregistered securities, according to a report from Bloomberg. The SEC’s probe hasn’t yet been made public.Sources close to the situation told Bloomberg that the SEC started taking a closer look at Coinbase’s practices after the exchange added over 100 additional tokens to its platform, including Dogecoin, the joke cryptocurrency based on the Shiba Inu meme. These types of coins typically do well after they’re first listed, but they’re very volatile, and their value typically evaporates over time.This investigation is separate from the SEC’s case against former Coinbase... Continue reading…

A woman wipes her forehead at the top of the stairs to the Lincoln Memorial during a heatwave on July 22nd, 2022, in Washington, DC. | Photo by Anna Moneymaker / Getty Images Summers are now so brutally hot that the US government created a new website, heat.gov, to help Americans stay safe during dangerous heat spells. It features maps that show current heat conditions across the country and provides other tools and resources to help people beat the heat.The main goal of the website is to prevent heat-related illness and death by sharing up-to-date information on extreme heat. Heat kills more people in the US than any other weather disaster. Often, it disproportionately harms vulnerable pockets of people, including children, older people, and communities of color who live in urban and formerly redlined neighborhoods designed in a way that traps heat.“We don’t have to accept this. Right? This doesn’t have... Continue reading…

A chaotic battle in MultiVersus. | Image: WB Games MultiVersus, Warner Bros. Games’ free-to-play fighting game starring characters from many WB universes, launched in open beta in the Americas, Europe, Australia, and New Zealand on Tuesday. The game is available on PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X / S, and PC, and it has crossplay and cross-progression across all platforms.Technically, the open beta went live at 12PM ET, but there have been issues right from the start — I personally haven’t been able to get past the title screen at all. The developers have since put in the game in maintenance mode and are promising that “servers will be back online soon.”

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Michael Alan Stollery, the CEO of blockchain company Titanium Blockchain Infrastructure Services (TBIS), has pleaded guilty to securities fraud over a $21 million cryptocurrency scam. The California man admitted to falsifying details around the BAR coin, a crowdfunding token that should have — but wasn’t — registered with the US Securities and Exchange Commission.The TBIS scam was one of many dodgy initial coin offerings, or ICOs, in the late ‘10s. According to the complaint, between 2017 and 2018, Stollery introduced TBIS as a new company and hyped its coin with a string of elaborate false claims. TBIS touted nonexistent links with companies like Apple, Boeing, and IBM. Some of the “partners” complained, to which Stollery apparently... Continue reading…

Faraday Future’s first car is still a far way off in the future, according to recent regulatory filings.The California EV company that has flirted with bankruptcy more times than I can count said this week that it needs more cash in order to launch its debut electric vehicle, the FF91. As such, the company is pushing back customer deliveries to the third or fourth quarter of 2022.That may not seem so far off, but Faraday Future is not exactly known for its ability to meet deadlines. The company was late reporting its first quarterly earnings after going public through a merger with a “blank-check” company. And, of course, Faraday Future has missed several self-imposed deadlines for the launch of the FF91, which has been in... Continue reading…

The 6A’s Tensor chipset makes all the difference in this midrange phone Continue reading…

Ryan Gosling in The Gray Man. | Image: Netflix The Gray Man just debuted on Netflix last week, but the streamer already has some big plans for it as a budding franchise. Today, Netflix announced not just a sequel for the thriller but also a spinoff, instantly turning The Gray Man into the company’s next cinematic universe. The company says its plan is to turn it into “a major spy franchise.”Netflix says that the currently untitled sequel is in development and that star Ryan Gosling and directors Joe and Anthony Russo are all set to return alongside co-writer Stephen McFeely. There’s no word on when it might debut. As for the spinoff, Paul Wernick and Rhett Reese, best known for their work on the Deadpool movies, will serve as writers. According to Netflix “the logline is being kept... Continue reading…

Oura’s adding two new metrics that make use of its SpO2 sensors: average blood oxygen and breathing regularity. | Image: Oura SpO2 sensors, which enable blood oxygen monitoring, were one of the marquee upgrades when Oura announced its third-generation smart ring. The only catch was that, even though the new Oura Ring had the necessary hardware, the feature itself was still in the works. Now, roughly nine months after launch, Oura says blood oxygen sensing will finally start rolling out to users this week.Blood oxygen metrics have become increasingly popular when it comes to sleep tracking. It generally works by shining a red LED onto your skin. The amount of light that’s then reflected back is used to estimate how much oxygen is in your blood. The feature works similarly on the Oura Ring Gen 3, which uses a combination of red and infrared LED sensors. But... Continue reading…

Your phone has a way to turn your voice into text. IssueSometimes a word can be so hard to spell that any attempts are too garbled for autocorrect to offer helpful suggestions.Quick fixUse your device’s built-in dictation.The Full StoryWhenever I find myself struggling to spell a word, I double-tap the Command key on my Mac to activate dictation mode. From there, I can say the word out loud, and most of the time, the word I’m looking for will appear on my screen. I can then double-tap Command again to tell my computer to stop listening.Being a terrible speller, I do this trick at least once a week, and it’s the only reason I’m able to spell the word “guarantee” because my brain just cannot retain it.Most devices have a built-in way of doing voice-to-text, but there’s often a tiny... Continue reading…