The Verge

This image shows off the white Beam, but today’s deal loops in the black-colored Beam. | Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge A nice rug can really tie a room together, but I think a good soundbar has similar powers. Sonos’ refurbished outlet is offering two color schemes of the first-generation Beam soundbar for $80 off its usual selling price. The plain black and shadow black Beam are $239 each. Unlike most soundbars, there’s no wireless subwoofer that comes with the Beam; all of the sound (and a surprising level of punchy bass) emanates from the soundbar itself. It’s easy to set up, and it can be incorporated into a larger set of Sonos speakers connected via Wi-Fi for a fuller sound. Here’s our review from 2018.You may know that Sonos has a newer second-generation Beam that has some minor design refinements plus Dolby Atmos support. It’s a better soundbar... Continue reading…

An abandoned and melting pint of ice cream along a city street on June 27th, 2021, in Portland, Oregon. | Photo by Nathan Howard / Getty Images Heat spells and downpours are serious mood killers, a huge analysis of Twitter conversations confirms. The international study is part of efforts to understand how climate change affects mental health around the world.Scrutinizing tweets from 190 countries, nearly every one on Earth, researchers looked at how “positive” and “negative” expressions shifted during extreme heat and rainfall events. Unsurprisingly, they found that during bad weather, negative sentiments became noisier and positive expressions became few and far between in each region. While it might seem obvious that bad weather can put people in bad moods, researchers see the consistency of the findings as a warning that people might be struggling to adapt to climate... Continue reading…

This Echo Show on the wall is the fairest smart display of them all. Updates to support Fire TV, new widget options, and a better Photo Frame mode make the flagship Echo a winner. Continue reading…

Chris Putnam/Future Publishing via Getty Images It’s payday for some of music’s biggest names: Bruce Springsteen sold the rights to his catalog for a reported $550 million last year. Bob Dylan struck a similar deal for an estimated $300 million in late 2020. Paul Simon’s catalog changed hands for $250 million. And in early 2022, David Bowie’s estate secured at least $250 million in a deal encompassing titles from nearly 30 albums.This music rights gold rush is due to both the explosion of music streaming and tunes on TikTok as well as an ever-growing need to supply global video services like Netflix with soundtracks to their shows and movies. Now, Duetti, a stealthy startup co-founded by two former streaming execs, wants to flip the practice on its head. Instead of giving big-name... Continue reading…

Henry Cavill. | Photo by Axelle/Bauer-Griffin/FilmMagic Noted Warhammer nerd Henry Cavill is set to do a little something more than paint elaborate figures: he’s going to feature in a new Warhammer live-action project on Amazon. Reports of the project first surfaced last night, and this morning, Cavill confirmed the news on his Instagram account.“For 30 years I have dreamt of seeing a Warhammer universe in live action,” he wrote. “Now, after 22 years of experience in this industry, I finally feel that I have the skill set and experience to guide a Warhammer Cinematic Universe into life.” He added that “having a home like Amazon will give us the freedom to be true to the massive scope of Warhammer,” perhaps alluding to the very expensive The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power series, which... Continue reading…

The yet unnamed HTC headset. | Image: HTC HTC plans to introduce a new flagship AR / VR headset next month that will reestablish its presence in the consumer virtual reality space. The company isn’t planning to release full details until CES on January 5th. But HTC global head of product Shen Ye spoke exclusively with The Verge about what it’s trying to achieve with its new design: a small, light all-in-one headset that promises full-featured virtual and augmented reality.“It’s about taking all of these advances that we made in not only the design aspects, but also the technology aspects, and building it into something that’s meaningful and that’s appealing for consumers,” Ye says.Based on an image shared with The Verge, the unnamed headset has a goggles-like look with front-... Continue reading…

Image: Epic Games The world of Fortnite is about to get even more anime. Starting at 7AM ET today, the battle royale game will kick off its latest anime crossover, this time with My Hero Academia.The collab will include four characters from the series available to purchase in the item shop — Izuku Midoriya, Katsuki Bakugo, Ochaco Uraraka, and All Might — as well as a Hero Training Gym to mess around on in creative mode and quests to complete to earn items like a cape and MHA emotes. Perhaps most notable, the Deku smash move from the show will become a power-up to use in the game.Here’s a look at the new character skins:This is the second major anime crossover for Fortnite, following an elaborate Dragon Ball event in August. Developer Epic Games has... Continue reading…

Image: The Tech Outlook Have you always wanted the same carbon fiber Lenovo ThinkPad design in a phone? Well you might be in luck soon because leaked images of a “ThinkPhone by Motorola” over at The Tech Outlook (spotted by Android Police) show a handset with the exact carbon-fiber styling of Lenovo’s ThinkPad laptops. Motorola owner Lenovo is even using the traditional ThinkPad font on the ThinkPhone.The leaked specs suggest the ThinkPhone will use a Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Plus Gen 1 chip inside with 8GB or 12GB of RAM and up to 512GB of storage. That’s not Qualcomm’s latest Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 flagship chip that’s just starting to appear in new devices, but the same chip announced in May that’s been shipping in handsets from Honor, Oppo, and Xiaomi ever since.... Continue reading…

The Verge Valve’s big Steam winter sale starts next week. Thousands of titles will be discounted between December 22nd and January 5th, with the winter sale beginning at 10AM PT / 1PM ET on the 22nd.There are usually some good deals, too. We’ve seen 50 percent off Halo: The Master Chief Collection in the past, as well as 50 percent off Control Ultimate Edition. This year Valve is teasing deals on Fallout 76, SD Gundam Battle Alliance, Ready or Not, Two Point Campus, Persona 5 Royal, Sonic Frontiers, F1 Manager 2022, and thousands more. As always, tis the season to buy things you’ll probably forget to play.Valve is also replacing its Luna New Year sale with an annual spring sale starting in 2023. The first spring sale will take place between... Continue reading…

It’s not as easy to share where you might go next. | Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Twitter is blocking users from tweeting links to many major servers for Mastodon, one of the most notable Twitter alternatives. The ban was enacted sometime during what’s been a chaotic Thursday evening on the platform after journalists and Mastodon’s own account were unexpectedly suspended.Attempting to tweet many Mastodon links will result in an error message saying, “We can’t complete this request because this link has been identified by Twitter or our partners as being potentially harmful.” Twitter is currently blocking links to the original mastodon.social server and more than 10 other domains The Verge tested.The ban on Mastodon follows the recent controversy around @ElonJet, an account that tracks the whereabouts of Twitter CEO... Continue reading…

Illustration: The Verge Meta, Amazon Web Services (AWS), Microsoft, and mapping company TomTom have launched a new mapping initiative in partnership with The Linux Foundation that could challenge the dominance Google holds in the mapping world, TechCrunch reports.The recently launched Overture Maps Foundation aims to encourage the development of new map products with openly available databases members can contribute to and reuse across companies and apps. It will additionally use open data that already exists from city planning departments as well as open-source projects like OpenStreetMap.While there are only four companies at the moment driving the initiative, the foundation intends on inviting other businesses and communities to join as well.“Mapping the... Continue reading…

An illustration of the SWOT satellite in orbit. | Image: CNES Early tomorrow morning, a new Earth monitoring instrument called the Surface Water and Ocean Topography mission, or SWOT, will launch into space on a SpaceX rocket. The satellite will take the first global survey of Earth’s freshwater systems from space, observing not only the oceans but also lakes, rivers, and coastal regions. It will be able to measure the height of water in these systems for the first time.“It will help us understand where water is, where it’s coming from, and where it’s going,” Katherine Calvin, chief scientist and senior climate advisor at NASA, explained in a press conference.Understanding Earth’s water and how it moves is crucial for both modeling climate change over the long term and dealing with urgent events... Continue reading…

Work work! Once the resigned cry of orcs in Warcraft will now be Chris Metzen’s new mantra as he emerges from retirement to rejoin the team at Blizzard. Today, John Hight, senior vice president and general manager of World of Warcraft, announced that longtime WoW veteran Metzen, also known for his work across Diablo, StarCraft, and Overwatch, would return to the company.

Agent 47 is really going to miss Stadia. | Image: IO Interactive Ahead of the impending shutdown of Google Stadia, Hitman developer IO Interactive has detailed how Stadia players will be able to bring their progress from Hitman — World of Assassination to other platforms. Players will be able to do a one-time transfer, what IO Interactive is calling the Stadia Progress Carryover, to any of the platforms where Hitman 3 is available, including PlayStation, Xbox, and PC.IO Interactive expects to launch the transfer tool a week before Stadia shuts down on January 18th, but you can prepare now by linking your Stadia account to your IOI Account. If you don’t do this before Google shuts down the Stadia servers, IO Interactive warns that you won’t be able to bring your progress over. You’ll have until... Continue reading…

Scientists, engineers and administrators from the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratories following the announcement of a breakthrough in fusion research on December 13th, 2022, in Washington, DC. | Photo by Chip Somodevilla / Getty Images Scientists need better targets to shoot and even more advanced lasers. Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge When Apple acquired classical music streaming service Primephonic back in 2021, the company revealed plans to launch a standalone app with many of Primephonic’s best features by the end of this year. But we’re now in mid-December. iOS 16.2 was just released without any sign of the app — believed to be called Apple Classical — and it’s not present in the latest iOS 16.3 betas, either.With many Apple employees nearing holiday vacation, it seems increasingly unlikely that Apple Classical will be a year-end surprise.In its original press release from August of last year, Apple said Apple Music Classical would combine “Primephonic’s classical user interface that fans have grown to love with more added features.” (The Apple Classical app... Continue reading…

The HP Spectre x360 is a slick convertible laptop with excellent battery life. | Photo by Monica Chin / The Verge A capable and steeply discounted configuration of the HP Spectre x360 13 is kicking off our deal roundup for today. It’s available at HP for $999.99 (normally $1,249.99). This 2-in-1 convertible laptop has a 1920 x 1280 13.5-inch touchscreen, an Intel Core i5-1235U processor, 8GB of RAM, and 512GB of storage. If you want more power and storage, the Spectre x360 can be configured with up to 32GB of RAM, 2TB of storage, or an even faster processor for an additional fee, but all configurations are subject to the same $250 discount. If you can look past some of its preinstalled bloatware (which can be removed), you’re getting a well-designed laptop with excellent battery life. Read our review.A pair of our favorite Jabra earbuds, the Elite... Continue reading…

France’s defender #05 Jules Kounde clears the ball during the Qatar 2022 World Cup football semi-final match between France and Morocco | Photo by ANTONIN THUILLIER/AFP via Getty Images FuboTV was down during the World Cup, preventing users from watching the entire semifinal between France and Morocco. According to FuboTV spokesperson Jennifer Press, the ongoing outage stems from a “cyber-related incident.”Hours later, FuboTV’s status page indicated that the service was still down and had been experiencing issues since around 9:20AM ET, affecting both account creation and management as well as streaming. When I try to open the FuboTV app on my TV, the service displays an endless loading screen. In an update posted at 6PM ET, FuboTV says it’s “beginning to see some recovery to the ongoing issue.”On Thursday, FuboTV issued a press release saying it did not have any bandwidth issues that affected its service, and that... Continue reading…

Nothing’s Android 13 update for the Nothing Phone 1 has started rolling out in open beta, the company announced today. The update is version 1.5 of the company’s Nothing OS Android skin and contains unique additions like an all-new Nothing-themed weather app alongside Android 13 features like the ability to set language options on a per-app basis and a new QR code scanner in quick settings. Its official release is scheduled for early next year.In an interview with Android Authority, Nothing CEO Carl Pei shed some light on why its Android 13 update has taken so long to release. Apparently, the Phone 1 originally launched with software developed by an outsourced team from another Android phone manufacturer of around 400 engineers. But in... Continue reading…

The new Microsoft Teams view in HoloLens 2. | Image: Microsoft Microsoft has long supported real-time video calls using Microsoft Teams on HoloLens 2 headsets, but now the company is bringing full Teams integration to its mixed reality headset. HoloLens 2 users will now be able to freely call people directly, browse and add Teams contacts to calls, and even view calendars and join group meetings.Microsoft is also allowing HoloLens 2 users to see what people are sharing in meetings, too. A new live video stream of shared screens will appear as a hologram that can be moved and resized. Image: Microsoft A Microsoft Teams meeting in HoloLens 2. Microsoft Teams has largely been used on HoloLens 2 for remote assist scenarios where an engineer or support person would dial into... Continue reading…

Will Smith as Peter in Apple’s Emancipation. | Image: Apple Apple’s historical action drama Emancipation is being called out for playing irresponsibly fast and loose with crucial details about its complex, painful subject matter. Continue reading…

Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge Nine months (and 90-plus updates) after the Steam Deck launched to early adopters, here’s an idea of what’s next. Continue reading…

Illustration by Samar Haddad / The Verge Instagram is adding several new features to its app, and the first to roll out is called Notes. The feature allows you to send short 60-character messages to groups of your Instagram friends; the message will hang around for 24 hours before it disappears.It’s an interesting idea — a way to send a quick note to a bunch of friends. (For example, “I just got a new TV — come on over!”) However, there are some things you should know about Instagram’s Notes before you start:

Google Home now supports Matter. | Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Google announced today that it has completed the initial rollout of Matter to its Google Nest products and Android OS. This means the Matter smart home standard, first developed by Google, Apple, Samsung, Amazon, and others, now has the foundation in place to start delivering on its ambitious promises: interoperability, simplicity, security, and a smart home that just works.Over the past few weeks, Google has updated millions of Google Nest smart speakers, displays, and Wi-Fi routers as well as billions of Android phones and tablets to Matter. The company says the transition will be completed today, December 15th. Android devices need to run Android 8.1 and up and Google Play Services 22.48.14, while Google Nest devices need the latest... Continue reading…

Illustration by Kristen Radtke / The Verge Soon, you’ll be able to pick up a pair of Sony’s OTC (over-the-counter) hearing aids at one of HearUSA’s 350 hearing centers or through its online store. Founded in 1987, HearUSA operates a network of retail stores that help consumers directly buy prescription — and now OTC — hearing aids.Both Sony’s CRE-C10 and CRE-E10 models will be available starting in early 2023, though no firm date was provided. Sony, which has long been a leading headphone maker, first announced it was entering the OTC hearing aid market back in September.The partnership between HearUSA and Sony isn’t surprising. HearUSA is owned by Denmark’s WS Audiology, which also owns popular hearing aid brands Signia and Widex, among others. It’s also the company Sony... Continue reading…

Uber will use robots from Cartken to make deliveries in Dadeland. | Image: Uber Uber is expanding its use of autonomous delivery vehicles with the announcement that it will soon deploy sidewalk robots developed in Miami, Florida.The six-wheeled delivery robots will come from Cartken, an Oakland-based AI company founded by a team of ex-Google engineers known mostly for deploying its vehicles on college campuses.The robots will deliver items offered by a slate of businesses in the Dadeland area of Miami-Dade County, with plans to expand into larger areas of the city and some additional markets in 2023. Uber claims that its partnership with Cartken represents the robotics company’s “first formal partnership with a global on-demand delivery app beyond college campuses.”Sidewalk delivery robots are becoming a... Continue reading…

Two Mac Studios don’t quite make an Arm Mac Pro. | Photo by Becca Farsace / The Verge Does anyone else vividly remember the day of June 22nd, 2020? I sure do. That was the day when Apple announced that its Macs were going to transfer away from Intel processors to the company’s own silicon. That transition, Tim Cook himself claimed, would take two years.Reader, it has been well over two years since that fateful day. Even if you start the clock at the November 2020 launch of the M1 MacBook Air and MacBook Pro, we are past due. Apple’s ambitious timeline has not come to fruition. I wasn’t lying. This is what they said. Let us peruse the items that are currently for sale on Apple’s website. The MacBooks have all moved over to Arm processors — we’ve got the M1 and the M2 MacBook Airs, and we’ve got the M... Continue reading…

To create fusion ignition, the National Ignition Facility’s laser energy is converted into X-rays inside the hohlraum, which then compress a fuel capsule until it implodes, creating a high-temperature, high-pressure plasma. | Image: Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory Nuclear fusion is back in the news. This week, the US Department of Energy announced what it called a “major scientific breakthrough” in fusion power research: for the first time, a fusion experiment had produced more energy than the energy used to kick off the reaction. It’s not the first time we’ve heard about fusion progress. There have been decades of headlines touting breakthroughs large and small, usually implying that we’re closer than ever to generating all the clean energy we’ll ever need from nuclear fusion.A “major scientific breakthrough” in fusion power researchIt’s a lot to take in, so The Verge put together this guide to fusion power with the help of some experts. Below, we’ve summarized scientists’ dreams for fusion,... Continue reading…