The Verge

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Exactly 10 years ago today, Microsoft completed its $1.2 billion purchase of Yammer, an enterprise-focused social networking platform. Despite a big Yammer overhaul in 2019, Microsoft has been increasingly focused on Teams and its new Viva platform as the hubs of communication in workplaces.Microsoft is now launching Viva Engage today, a new Facebook-like app inside Teams that encourages social networking at work.Viva Engage builds on some of the strengths of Yammer, promoting digital communities, conversations, and self-expression in the workplace. While Yammer often feels like an extension of SharePoint and Office, Viva Engage looks like a Facebook replica. It includes a storylines section, which is effectively your Facebook news... Continue reading…

Excel Live inside Microsoft Teams. | Image: Microsoft Microsoft is bringing Excel directly into Teams meetings. Excel Live is a new way for Teams meeting participants to edit Excel spreadsheets together in real time. It’s part of a trio of new features coming to Teams that continue Microsoft’s focus on hybrid work. Teams is also getting video clips that can be shared in chats and collaborative annotations that allow colleagues to doodle on top of content during Teams meetings.Excel Live is part of Microsoft’s Live Share functionality in Microsoft Teams that the company detailed earlier this year. “What it does is it allows you in a Teams meeting to edit a workbook live in real time, right in that meeting stage itself,” explains Nicole Herskowitz, vice president of Microsoft Teams, in an... Continue reading…

Maybe it won’t be a dystopia? Continue reading…

The Hisense U6G includes Dolby Atmos, Dolby Vision, and HDR 10 Plus. | Image: Hisense Prime Day 2022 may be done and dusted, but there are still plenty of deals worth checking out. For instance, Walmart has discounted the 55-inch configuration of the Hisense U6G ULED TV to $378, the lowest price we’ve seen for this model that usually costs $449.99. While it may lack the higher refresh rates found in pricier models, the low-cost U6G has a few impressive features, like Dolby Vision and HDR10 Plus, for a more cinematic, contrast-rich viewing experience. This model also has Google Assistant built in, allowing you to control playback with your voice instead of having to frantically search for the remote for the hundredth time.For something that won’t cost as much, the second-generation Lenovo Smart Clock is currently... Continue reading…

Image: Chevy Chevy is bringing the Blazer to its electric car lineup. The midsize crossover SUV is the latest of the GM brand’s gas cars to feature an all-electric version, joining the Chevy Equinox EV, Silverado EV, and GMC Hummer EV.Chevy isn’t going light on the options for the Blazer EV: buyers can choose between front-wheel drive, rear-wheel drive, or all-wheel drive models. Plus, there will be a high-performance Blazer SS model capable of 557 horsepower. It can go from 0 to 60mph in less than four seconds using what the company calls a WOW (wide open watts) mode that recalls other high-performance electric settings like Tesla’s Ludicrous and Plaid options, Lucid Motors’ Launch Mode, or the Unbridled Extend setting on the Mustang Mach-E. Other... Continue reading…

Nintendo has confirmed that both the Wii U and 3DS digital storefronts will no longer allow new purchases of paid or free content starting March 27th, 2023. Previously, it was broadly targeting March 2023, giving gamers plenty of time to fill out their collections before they no longer have the chance to do so — legally, at least. Now, there’s a final date.There’s a bit more urgency, however, if you were hoping to purchase a Nintendo eShop card (which are typically available at some sort of small discount) to add funds to your account on Wii U or 3DS. As Nintendo previously shared, the cutoff date to add funds via this method is August 29th, 2022, which is just over one month from the time of publishing. Those funds will be yours to use... Continue reading…

Image: Hasbro This is a Nerf blaster unlike any you’ve seen before. It doesn’t shoot reusable foam darts or foam balls, but rather pellets of squishy, water-infused gel. Pellets so small you can fit 800 of them into this blaster, and so cheap it’ll come with 10,000 of them right out of the box. It’ll shoot them fully automatic with an included rechargeable, swappable 7.4V battery you can top up with a USB-C cable — just like a phone.It’s called the Nerf Pro Gelfire Mythic, it’ll cost $79.99 this November, and it’s wild to see it exists — partly because it’s such a departure from kid-friendly darts, and partly because it feels like Hasbro is finally conceding that it doesn’t need to reinvent the wheel to attract an older audience. I... Continue reading…

Trust us, 16:10 aspect ratio is just better. | Image: Dell Dell heard our call in 2021 for more laptops with tall displays and finally answered it a year later. It’s launching the Dell G16 (model 7620) on July 21st, starting at $1,399.99 and going up, and the display seems to be most of the story here. Instead of a 15.6-inch 16:9 aspect ratio display that Dell has traditionally used in its prior models, this is its first crack at a 16-inch model with a taller 16:10 aspect ratio screen. Most everything else is a known quantity from April’s G15 launch, but I’ll go over it again a bit later.Like displays that we’ve seen before in gaming machines from Lenovo, Acer, and more, this is a QHD Plus display sporting a 2,560 x 1,600 resolution, along with a 165Hz refresh rate. Are 160 extra vertical... Continue reading…

Image: Alienware Not content with settling for meeting the industry’s best refresh rates in a laptop at an already high 360Hz, Alienware is going for broke with 480Hz screens (3ms, 300-nit, 100 percent sRGB color gamut) in the M17 R5 and X17 R2. While each model can be configured with up to 4K displays, this new 480Hz model is a 1080p screen edging closer to perfection in terms of delivering smoother animations. And, perhaps more important for Dell’s target audience for these machines, it’ll help to further nix stuttering gameplay. The 480Hz option is but another screen configuration for the already launched Alienware X17 R2 and M17 R5 (costing $300 to upgrade over the base 165Hz panel).This news coincides with the launch of the AMD Advantage version... Continue reading…

The Atari 2600 Lego model. | Image: Lego The Atari 2600 is getting the Lego treatment. The Danish toy company’s latest model is based on the 1980 revision of the iconic console rather than its 1977 debut and consists of a meaty 2,532 pieces (which seems like a missed opportunity to offer 2,600 pieces, but I digress). It’ll be available on August 1st for $239.99 and coincides with the Atari’s 50th anniversary.The launch of the set comes a little over two years after Lego made a similarly loving recreation of Nintendo’s classic NES console. But while the Lego Nintendo console included both a buildable console itself as well as an accompanying CRT TV, the Atari model is more self-contained; there’s the console itself as well as a controller with a movable joystick.... Continue reading…

With HBO’s House of the Dragon set to debut just a little over a month from now, you’d be hard-pressed to bone up on your High Valyrian in time for the premiere by trying to watch all of Game of Thrones. Surely, some will try, but for those looking for a less time-consuming way of learning the fictional language or refreshing their skills, Duolingo has an alternative.Just in time for House of the Dragon’s launch, Duolingo’s expanding its High Valyrian course with 150 new words developed in partnership with David J. Peterson, the fantasy linguist who helped design the language for HBO’s Game of Thrones and House of the Dragon. Duolingo’s expanded High Valyrian course also features over 700 new sentences directly related to House of the... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Slack is putting its prices up in September, alongside some big changes to its free plan. It’s the first price increase since Slack launched in 2014, but will only affect users of Slack’s “Pro” plan. On September 1st, monthly Pro subscriptions will increase from $8 to $8.75 per user per month, and annual Pro subscriptions will increase from $6.67 to $7.25 per user per month.The price increases will only impact Pro customers worldwide, and not companies on Slack’s Business Plus or custom enterprise plans. There is a way to avoid the price increases for another year, though. Current annual Pro subscribers can lock in the existing annual rate for another year by renewing their subscription early before September 1st. Monthly Pro... Continue reading…

These colors combine to spell out the event’s date. | Image: Samsung In a trio of images posted to its official Twitter account, Samsung Mobile appears to have confirmed the date of its next Unpacked event as August 10th, 2022.The first image presents a grid of letters, numbers, and symbols, while the second shows the same grid replaced with colored circles. Match the characters to the colors, and you can decode the message on the third image as 081022 — aka August 10th, 2022.

Image: Vizio Vizio was once the de facto recommendation for TV shoppers looking to spend under $1,000 on a new set. But over the last several years, companies like TCL and Hisense have made their presence felt in the mid-range price segment that was long Vizio’s specialty — and sometimes with better performance.It didn’t help that Vizio hit some snags with its 2020 TV lineup (particularly in the area of next-gen 4K gaming), requiring multiple firmware updates to get those TVs where they needed to be for the most demanding gamers. So it makes sense that the company took its time with the 2023 models being announced today.What’s not being refreshed are Vizio’s highest-end sets. The 65- and 75-inch P-Series Quantum, 85-inch P-Series Quantum X, and... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Amazon is taking legal action against the admins of over 10,000 Facebook groups that it says facilitate fake reviews for products on its platform by promising money or free products in exchange for positive reviews. The groups are allegedly responsible for fake reviews across Amazon’s sites in the US, UK, Germany, France, Italy, Spain, and Japan, the company has announced. Just one such group, called “Amazon Product Review,” reportedly had over 43,000 members.The e-commerce giant has a well-documented problem with fake reviews, which has grown more pressing as third-party marketplace sellers make up a bigger and bigger proportion of sales on its platform. It officially banned incentivized reviews in October 2016, but four years later in... Continue reading…

At least one card issuer is tired of paying fees. | Photo by Victoria Song / The Verge A proposed class action lawsuit is taking aim at Apple Pay, claiming that Apple has an illegal monopoly over contactless payments on the iPhone, letting it force card issuers into paying fees (via Bloomberg). The suit is being kicked off by Iowa-based Affinity Credit Union, which issues debit and credit cards that are compatible with Apple Pay, but the company’s lawyers hope to make it a class-action case so other card issuers can join the lawsuit.According to the complaint, which you can read in full below, Apple makes over $1 billion a year charging credit card companies up to 0.15 percent per transaction in Apple Pay fees, and yet those same card issuers don’t have to pay anything when their customers use “functionally identical... Continue reading…

Photo by: Charles Sykes/Bravo/NBCU Photo Bank via Getty Images Duo Desus Nice and The Kid Mero, who established one of the top comedy brands of the decade with their podcast Bodega Boys and their eponymous show on Showtime, are well and truly done.Desus and Mero, otherwise known as Daniel Baker and Joel Martinez, respectively, are arguably the biggest podcast to Hollywood crossovers in the industry. After breaking into podcasting with Complex TV’s Desus vs. Mero podcast and Bodega Boys, the pair had a show on Viceland from 2016 to 2018 before getting the Showtime late-night series that would take them mainstream.“Desus Nice and The Kid Mero will be pursuing separate creative endeavors moving forward,” Showtime said in a statement Monday evening. “Showtime’s late-night talk show Desus & Mero will... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Netflix is testing a new way to tackle password sharing in Argentina, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, and the Dominican Republic (as reported first by Bloomberg). A support page for Netflix in Honduras clearly states the test will prompt users to pay an additional fee if they use an account on a TV or TV-connected device at a location outside their primary household for over two weeks. Each additional home will cost an extra 219 pesos per month, per home in Argentina ($1.17 US), and $2.99 everywhere else.According to Netflix, in the test areas, subscriber accounts have one primary “home” where they can access Netflix across any devices in the home, as well as travel and use Netflix on laptops and mobile devices elsewhere without the... Continue reading…

Illustration by William Joel / The Verge Russia imposed a nearly $365 million fine (21.1 billion rubles) on Google for failing to delete YouTube videos that go against the country’s laws, as reported earlier by Reuters. In a translated press release, Russian communications regulator Roskomnadzor states that YouTube didn’t follow orders to remove “prohibited content,” which includes videos “promoting extremism and terrorism,” as well as supposedly false information about the war in Ukraine.In March, the Roskomnadzor threatened to charge Google over its failure to remove “illegal” YouTube videos, stating the fee would start at 8 million rubles (~$94,675 USD at the time), with the possibility to climb to 20 percent of Google’s annual revenue. The 21.1 billion rubles reflects a... Continue reading…

Return of the Wallet | Image: Google Google Wallet, the app that will replace Google Pay in many countries (more on that in a moment), has started to show up on people’s phones. According to Google spokesperson Chaiti Sen, the company has “started rolling out the Wallet to Android users in 39 countries,” and it’ll be available “to all users over the next few days.”Google announced Wallet at its 2022 I/O event, pitching it as an app to manage all your digital cards — not just for payment, like debit and credit cards (though it does hold those), but for digital representations of your identification, vaccination status, tickets, keys, and more as well.

Unity CEO John Riccitiello has apologized for calling some game developers “some of the biggest fucking idiots” in an interview and has vowed that he will “do better.”This is a saga that has been playing out over several days, so let’s take a few steps back. On July 13th, Unity, which makes a popular game development engine, announced that it would be merging with ironSource, which offers software that helps developers monetize their apps. Riccitiello (who was formerly the CEO of EA) and Unity SVP Marc Whitten were interviewed by Pocket Gamer about the news, and the interviewer talked about how some developers push back on implementing monetization earlier in a game’s development.That’s where Riccitiello said the “fucking idiots” quote... Continue reading…

An artistic rendering of NASA’s VIPER lander on the Moon | Image: NASA NASA is delaying the flight of its VIPER rover — a specialized bot designed to hunt for water on the surface of the Moon. Originally set to embark on its lunar expedition in November of 2023, VIPER is now targeting a launch in November of 2024 in order to allow for testing of the lander that will deliver the vehicle to the Moon’s surface, according to NASA.Standing for Volatiles Investigating Polar Exploration Rover, VIPER is a big component of NASA’s Artemis program, which aims to send humans back to the Moon. The robotic rover is, in essence, a prospector. Equipped with specialized agile wheels, science instruments, and a drill, VIPER is designed to hunt for water ice that is thought to be located on the Moon’s surface in order to... Continue reading…

Printing a document from the Pages app. | Image: Umar Shakir / The Verge Printing is all but dead in this all-digital world, but there are still some things you can’t easily digitize: shipping labels, flyers for a bulletin board, printing out an email for your boss, and sticking prank memes in your colleagues’ cubicles. And in this era of doing almost everything on your phone, it’s good to have the option to print from it instead of needing to jump onto a computer.Apple has succeeded in building one of the easiest methods of printing from a smartphone by getting many printer manufacturers to adopt its AirPrint wireless printing feature. Apple also has a really easy way to create PDF documents instead of a traditional print copy — if you know how to get to it. In this article, we’ll show you both.Printing... Continue reading…

Temperatures are predicted to reach over 100 degrees Fahrenheit. | Photo by Dinendra Haria/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images The United Kingdom is currently experiencing an extreme heatwave, and some of its infrastructure hasn’t been able to cope. London Luton Airport, a hub for low-cost flights, had to suspend departures and arrivals on Monday after the heat caused a “small section” of runway to lift up, according to a tweet posted to the airport’s account. The BBC reports that the shutdown, which was cleared up by 6:05PM British Summer Time, meant that at least a few flights had to be diverted or canceled.Luton isn’t the only airport experiencing heat-related issues. According to CNBC, the Royal Air Force couldn’t use its Brize Norton station in Oxfordshire thanks to the heat. The UK’s Met Office predicted that temperatures in London would reach 39 degrees... Continue reading…

Now that Sony has successfully rolled Funimation into Crunchyroll in an attempt to create the one anime streaming service to rule them all, it’s leveraging that consolidation to raise prices, right? Wrong, apparently! The company just announced price cuts in 95 different territories around the world, including the UK, China, India, and many, many more.The price of a Mega Fan subscription is dropping 25 percent in the UK, 37 percent in Brazil, and — at the current exchange rate — it’ll cost nearly 88 percent less in India, where the company was previously charging $9.99 USD and will now charge 99 Indian rupees instead. The company isn’t saying how much every territory will pay, but there’s a full list of territories here.Oh, but if you... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Apple is planning to slow hiring in 2023, according to Bloomberg, making it the latest big tech company to shift its hiring plans.The changes won’t affect every team, Bloomberg reports, but some groups won’t see increased staff next year and some positions won’t be backfilled. Apple is also still prepping to launch its long-rumored mixed reality headset in 2023. The company didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.Many tech companies have adjusted hiring in recent weeks. Google CEO Sundar Pichai informed staff about a hiring slowdown. Meta’s chief product officer warned employees of “serious times” and has issued a hiring freeze for certain roles. Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi vowed to be “hardcore about costs” in a memo. And B... Continue reading…

Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has been buying location data from third parties to sidestep the traditional warrant process, according to new documents released by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU).The documents show that agencies like Customs and Border Protection (CBP) and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) were able to purchase vast amounts of this location data without any judicial oversight and use it to track the movements of millions of cellphones within the US.Generally, obtaining data about domestic communications directly from the providers (i.e., telecom companies) requires a warrant, which must be approved by a judge. But purchasing data from intermediary organizations is not subject to the same... Continue reading…

Bubbles, Blossom, and Buttercup Utonium shortly after being born. | Image: Cartoon Network Studios While the world may never get a chance to see The CW’s ill-fated live-action Powerpuff Girls series that nobody was really hot on, Townsville’s greatest superheroes are making their way back to the small screen once again in a new project from their original creator.Deadline reports that animation heavyweight Craig McCracken is partnering with Hanna-Barbera Studios Europe to produce and direct new rebooted versions of The Powerpuff Girls and Foster’s Home for Imaginary Friends, two of McCracken’s animated series that defined Cartoon Network throughout the ‘90s and early ‘00s. While the new Powerpuff Girls will once again tell the story of a group of superpowered sisters who regularly save the city of Townsville, the new Foster’s project... Continue reading…

From 60 MHz to 100 | Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Verizon says that customers in “many markets across the US” could get significantly faster 5G speeds, even when they’re not right next to a cell tower. According to a press release on Monday, this is possible because Verizon’s deploying extra C-band spectrum; for some areas, the carrier’s now using 100 MHz of bandwidth instead of 60 MHz. The company says some engineers got blazing fast download speeds of 1.4 Gigabits per second when they were “near active cell sites,” which dropped down to a (still very fast) 500 Mbps after they moved “further away from the towers.”Verizon didn’t immediately respond to The Verge’s question about how far the engineers were from the towers when they conducted the test.While people using Verizon’s ultra... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Uber has settled with the Department of Justice over allegations that it discriminated against disabled passengers, the DOJ announced in a press release on Monday. As part of the agreement, Uber will credit double the total wait fees issued to the 65,000 disabled riders already identified by Uber’s programs and commit more than $2 million to funds for other affected individuals.The claims center on Uber’s wait fee policy, which adds additional fees when a passenger takes more than two minutes to board the car. Disabled riders have long objected to the policy, claiming the fees disproportionately affect riders with physical disabilities.While the fees themselves are typically under a dollar, plaintiffs argued they contributed to a... Continue reading…

Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge Sony is acquiring the esports tournament platform Repeat.gg, marking the PlayStation maker’s latest investment into esports. Repeat.gg has put on more than 100,000 tournaments with over 2.3 million participants, reports GamesIndustry.biz, featuring popular games like Fortnite, League of Legends, and Call of Duty: Warzone.“Together with the talented Repeat.gg team, we’re excited to explore more ways for players to engage in competitive gaming and expand the breadth of our esports offerings,” Sony Interactive Entertainment’s Steven Roberts said to GamesIndustry.biz. “This is just the start of our journey and we look forward to sharing more updates with our community in the future.”Because of the acquisition, Repeat.gg will have access to... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Congressional Democrats are preparing to relaunch their fight to restore net neutrality, according to a new report from The Washington Post on Monday. Lawmakers in both the House and Senate are expected to introduce a new bill codifying the Obama-era internet rules in the coming weeks.The Net Neutrality and Broadband Justice Act — spearheaded by longtime Senate internet advocates Ed Markey (D-MA) and Ron Wyden (D-OR) — would reclassify broadband as a telecommunications service under Title II. This would give the Federal Communications Commission new enforcement powers over the internet, including the power to set rules against throttling, blocking, or paid prioritization.“It is more clear than ever that broadband internet is an... Continue reading…

The new Prime Video experience starts rolling out this week. | Image: Amazon New navigation, a top 10 list, and a very familiar look and feel Continue reading…

We’ll see the other half later this week... | Image: Cadillac Cadillac is offering one final teaser of the Cadillac Celestiq ahead of its full reveal later this week. The ultra-luxe EV will soon join the Lyriq and become the second full EV to ship out of GM’s luxury division, although the Celestiq is expected to be in a class of its own with a price that could start around the $300,000 range with a 500-units-per-year production target.“Every Celestiq will be instantly identifiable as one of a kind, giving each client a personal connection to Cadillac’s newest flagship,” said Cadillac’s design director for the Celestiq, Erin Crossley. The EV will be hand-built at GM’s global technical center in Warren, Michigan, with “globally sourced parts.”The Celestiq is built on GM’s flexible Ultium EV... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Instagram shoppers in the US will be able to pay for products directly in messages, the company announced today. Buyers will also be able to ask questions about products and track orders in the same message thread with merchants. Image: Instagram Payment through messages on the buyer side. Many small businesses on Instagram already field questions about products, arrange payments, and offer customer support via DMs. Payments in messages will only be available to qualified accounts that have set up a business account on Instagram.The option to request a payment directly through messages cuts out the additional step of sending an invoice via other apps. By offering this step — along with tracking and customer... Continue reading…

Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge Apple Arcade, Apple’s $5 per month subscription service for games, will be losing 15 titles sometime soon. As reported by TouchArcade, there’s a new section at the bottom of the Arcade tab in the App Store titled “Leaving Arcade Soon,” and it lists the games that will be removed.When I checked the new section on my iPhone, there was no specific indication as to when the games will be gone (beyond “soon”). Games have left Apple Arcade before, according to TouchArcade, but this is apparently the first time Apple has spelled out which titles will be going away. Apple didn’t immediately reply to a request for comment.As of this writing, here’s the list of games that will be leaving:

18 July 2022, Great Britain, London: The sun rises over skyscrapers. | Photo by Sebastian Gollnow / picture alliance via Getty Images For the first time on record, parts of the UK are sweltering in temperatures that could soon reach 40 degrees Celsius (that’s over 104 degrees Fahrenheit for American readers). It’s the first time those temperatures have ever been forecast in the UK, according to the Met Office, which also issued its first-ever “Red Extreme” heat warning for parts of England. The warning kicked in today and lasts through tomorrow.The level of risk the UK now faces from extreme heat is unprecedented. But this isn’t a one-off event. The nation is going to have to brace for dangerous heat much more often, forecasters warn.“We hoped we wouldn’t get to this situation”“We hoped we wouldn’t get to this situation,” Met Office climate attribution scientist... Continue reading…

A change in perspective is just what the genre needed Continue reading…

Image: Alex Castro / The Verge A new study measuring mobile network performance in the US indicates an increase in network problems, with slow performance or the inability to load content cited as the most common complaints. That’s according to research firm JD Power, which attributes the dip in network quality to increased usage.JD Power conducted the study from January to June 2022 and ranks each mobile carrier based on the number of problems per 100 connections. The results consistently show Verizon as the carrier with the least number of issues, with AT&T only beating Verizon in the Southwest and tying with the company in the Northeast. Meanwhile, T-Mobile trailed behind the two carriers across every region in the US.Issues apparently decreased in areas where... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge There’s been another twist in the saga of Meta’s attempt to buy GIF-sharing service Giphy, Bloomberg reports. Judges with the Competition Appeal Tribunal have told the UK’s competition regulator, the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA), to reconsider its previous ruling telling Meta to sell Giphy. “We have agreed to reconsider our decision in light of this finding,” the CMA told Bloomberg in a statement. It hopes the process will take no longer than three months.The ruling comes a month after the same tribunal largely sided with the regulator after Meta appealed its order to unwind the deal and sell Giphy. The tribunal found in favor of the CMA on five out of the six claims, but, crucially, on the remaining claim, it ruled that the... Continue reading…

The original Surface Duo. | Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge Microsoft was reportedly planning to launch a more affordable plastic version of the Surface Duo 2, and images appear to have leaked on eBay of the device. Windows Central reports that Microsoft canceled this mysterious midrange version of the Surface Duo 2 in late 2021 after reportedly originally planning to launch it as a cheaper model later this year.The leaked images on a now-deleted eBay listing reveal the device would have shipped with a more rounded design, a plastic matte finish, and a slightly smaller camera bump. Microsoft was reportedly making changes to the form factor of the Surface Duo 2 to position this as a lower-cost model. Image: eBay The leaked Surface Duo 2 plastic device. ... Continue reading…

Image: Nvidia Corsair is integrating Nvidia’s Broadcast audio and video features into its iCue and Elgato software this week. All you’ll need is a compatible headset, microphone or camera, and an Nvidia RTX GPU. The integrations in iCue, Elgato Wave Link, and Elgato Camera Hub are all seamless for features like noise removal and virtual camera backgrounds, so you no longer have to use the separate Nvidia Broadcast app.Nearly every Corsair headset that works with iCue will now be able to enable noise removal and room echo removal thanks to the Nvidia Broadcast integration. The Nvidia Broadcast features also include video integration for Elgato’s Camera Hub, allowing Elgato Facecam owners to easily enable a virtual background feature that eliminates... Continue reading…

Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge The best iPad deal during Prime Day was on the 2020 iPad Air, selling for $379 at Walmart ($220 off). But the newer, faster iPad Mini has taken its place with a $100 price drop at Best Buy that brings it down to $399.99. While you’re technically getting less tablet for your money — the Mini has an 8.3-inch screen compared to the Air’s 10.9-inch display — it features a slightly faster A15 Bionic chipset than what’s in the 2020 Air. It’s also similar in design, boasting a revamped look that includes slick, flat edges, a Touch ID-equipped power button, and a USB-C charging port. Read our review.Apple unveiled the 2021 iPad Mini at its fall hardware event last year, so it’s possible that there may be a new version on its way soon. If the... Continue reading…

Image: Snap Snapchat features like snapping, chatting, and video calling are coming to desktop through a new web app, marking the first time the company has made its service available beyond smartphones.With Snapchat for Web, you can log in with your Snapchat account and send private messages or call friends on desktop. Initially, the web platform will be available exclusively to Snapchat Plus subscribers, and it’s the first major feature launch since Snap announced its paid tier in June. Subscribers in the US, UK, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand will get access first. Snapchat will only be compatible with Google’s Chrome browser and not Apple’s Safari.Though Snapchat was created as a visual-first messaging app, its head of messaging product,... Continue reading…

The apparent leaked imagery. | Image: @evleaks Samsung will reportedly hold its next major “Unpacked” launch event on August 10th, according to a promotional image leaked by Evan Blass. The picture shows the date, alongside what appears to be a blurred image of the unannounced Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 4 foldable, leaked earlier this month by Blass and 91Mobiles.The Galaxy Z Flip 4 foldable is expected to be one of a handful of devices being launched at the event. Also rumored is a new Galaxy Fold device called the Galaxy Fold 4, renders for which leaked in May. Between it and the Galaxy Flip 4, it doesn’t look as though Samsung’s foldable lineup is set to receive any major design overhauls this year.

Lily-Rose Depp and the Weeknd in The Idol. | Image: HBO HBO has released the first teaser trailer for The Idol, a new show co-created by Sam Levinson, creator and primary director of Euphoria, as well as Abel Tesfaye, better known by his stage name The Weeknd. The Idol stars Tesfaye as a Los Angeles club owner and modern-day cult leader as he embarks upon a “complicated relationship” with a rising pop idol played by Lily-Rose Depp.As you’d expect from a show that shares its creator with Euphoria, The Idol’s trailer is a debauched affair that promises the series will tell “the sleaziest love story in all of Hollywood.” Levinson is directing each of the show’s six episodes after director Amy Seimetz stepped away from the project in April, Deadline reported at the time. News of the change in... Continue reading…

Image: Hyundai Hyundai’s attempting to keep car culture alive with its two performance-focused electric vehicle (EV) concepts it calls “rolling labs.” The RN22e features a modified Ioniq 6 body, and the N Vision 74 is modeled after the never-released 1974 Pony Coupe concept — but both feature a refreshing sporty design that doesn’t look like some sort of futuristic pod (or, well... this thing).The two concepts come from Hyundai’s “N” sub-brand, which focuses on high-performance vehicles. The N Vision 74 is the most striking of the two, and features a design that draws elements from the 2025 Hyundai N Vision Gran Turismo and the 1974 Pony Coupe concept that was originally designed by the iconic Giorgetto Giugiaro — the same man who went on to make the... Continue reading…

Chris Evans as Lloyd Hansen in The Gray Man | Image: Paul Abell/Netflix Fans of buttons can count on Captain America for support, as Chris Evans notes that even after a few weeks with a newer phone, he still prefers his old iPhone 6S and its button. The topic came up in an interview with Collider (via iMore) while doing a press tour for Netflix’s $200 million+, Russo brothers-directed spy flick The Gray Man, which he stars in along with Ryan Gosling.Evans is far from the only person still stuck on the missing button (he and Donald Trump agree on at least one thing), which Apple swapped for a solid circle with taptic engine feedback on the iPhone 7, and eventually dropped entirely from the iPhone X onward. Evans’ other big complaint is that it’s just too heavy. Like many people who struggle with bulkier... Continue reading…

Photo by James Bareham / The Verge Tesla’s apparently looking to expand its collection of in-car games... by adding Steam. In a reply to a tweet, Tesla CEO Elon Musk said the company’s “making progress with Steam integration” and that we can expect a demo “probably next month.”Tesla already offers a number of games through the built-in Tesla Arcade, like Cuphead and Sonic the Hedgehog 1, but adding Steam’s digital storefront could give users access to a whole lot more. We still don’t know if the integration will go so far as to allow users to make purchases on Steam while sitting in their cars, or if there will be any games Teslas can’t support.

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Last week, Congresswoman Anna Eshoo (D-CA) and Senator Ron Wyden (D-OR) wrote a letter urging the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) to address deceptive practices in the Virtual Private Network (VPN) industry. Eshoo and Wyden’s letter comes as people look to hide their digital footprint following the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade.A VPN allows a user to establish an encrypted connection between their device and a private server, making it harder for third parties to access their online activity. With abortion becoming illegal or restricted in several states, more people are looking to conceal their messages and search history, as police can use this information to prosecute someone seeking the procedure.In their letter,... Continue reading…