The Verge

Image: LG Just three months before it quit the smartphone business for good, LG insisted it had actually built — and would shortly sell — a rollable phone. But did it really make one? The only proof was a brief teaser at the top of a virtual press conference that could have totally been CG, and the phone never saw the light of day, unless you believe the rumor that the company sold a handful to its own employees in Korea. GIF by Sean Hollister / The Verge Rollable unrolls. But now, for the first time, we can see a real LG rollable phone unrolling its screen in the wild (via NotebookCheck). It’s a dead ringer for the image that Korea’s Agency for Technology and Standards regulatory body revealed last March, and we see... Continue reading…

Image: Magic Leap The Magic Leap 2 headset is launching on September 30th for a starting price of $3,299. The mixed reality device is a smaller and lighter successor to the 2018 Magic Leap, and among other improvements, it features a wider field of view — but also, as expected, a higher price.Magic Leap has already distributed the Magic Leap 2 to a limited set of partners, including neurotech company SyncThink and other medical companies. In September, it will be available for general purchase in several markets, including the US (where it’s selling through retail partner Insight), Canada, the UK, Germany, France, Italy, Spain, and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Launches in Japan and Singapore are planned for the end of 2022.The headset comes in three... Continue reading…

Photo by Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images Tweets from former President Donald Trump inspired the violence at the US Capitol on January 6th, a former Twitter employee who worked on platform and content moderation policies told congressional investigators in testimony released on Tuesday.The employee, whose identity remains anonymous, specifically pointed to a December 19th tweet from Trump, which asked his supporters to join him in “protest” of the 2020 election results. “Be there. Will be wild,” the tweet said. According to the anonymous employee, that message was seen by many within Twitter as directly responsible for the violence that followed, which left five dead and has resulted in more than 700 arrests.“Be there. Will be wild”That impression was confirmed by testimony... Continue reading…

Photo by Mike Kemp/In Pictures via Getty Images The New York Times will soon let you link your Wordle stats to a NYT account, a change that should fix one of the most annoying aspects about the online puzzle game.Right now, your Wordle stats don’t sync across browsers or devices, meaning that if you want to keep your streak going, you have to play the game on the same browser and the same device. With this upcoming change, though, your stats and streak will sync “across *all* the devices you play Wordle on,” the NYT said in a tweet from its Games account.You’ll be able to link your Wordle stats to a free or existing NYT account, and the option will be available “soon.” (The option wasn’t live for me yet when I checked Tuesday’s puzzle in Chrome on my laptop and in Safari on my... Continue reading…

The phone as a remote experience has just gotten much worse. Google has seemingly outdone itself when it comes to discontinuing products and experiences in a short amount of time — as 9to5Google reports, after rolling out a new interface for some older Chromecasts last winter, the company has basically made it useless. In a reply to a customer on Twitter, the company says you’re no longer able to log in to your YouTube account on older versions of the streaming puck, leaving you better off just casting from your phone (especially if you pay to see an ad-free YouTube).While choosing videos on your phone and sending them to your TV through the Chromecast was originally how the device was supposed to work, Google recently added to that experience. Last year, users got the ability to use their phones... Continue reading…

MARCOS CRUZ/NETFLIX Netflix’s Resident Evil series puts the Albert Wesker and his family in the spotlight Continue reading…

Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge A screen reader is an accessibility tool designed for people with vision impairments. It can read any text, buttons, or image descriptors aloud on a wide variety of devices, including the phones or tablets that run Android.On most Android devices, the screen reader tool is called TalkBack, and there are several ways you can enable it. On Samsung devices with software versions earlier than One UI 3.1, TalkBack is occasionally labeled as “Voice Assistant.” Despite having different names, Samsung says TalkBack and Voice Assistant offer the same functionalities.For this article, I used a Samsung Galaxy Note 9, so your experience might be slightly different depending on which type of Android device you’re using.Enable the screen reader... Continue reading…

Nintendo I am convinced that somewhere deep in the bowels of Nintendo HQ, there is a cabal of game developers in charge of strategically deploying Kirby when things get dire. I mean, how else can you explain the fact that we get not one but two cute as fuck Kirby games in the same calendar year?You can’t.Kirby is the shining light of the world, and he comes when we need him the most. He showed up in 2002 with Kirby: Nightmare in Dreamland. And in 2017-2018, Nintendo must have known we were going through it because it released four games in quick succession: Team Kirby Clash Deluxe, Kirby’s Blowout Bash, Kirby Battle Royale, and Kirby Star Allies. Yes, none of these games were particularly memorable, but I choose to believe that Nintendo looked... Continue reading…

Kristen Radtke / The Verge; Getty Images Once again, search and social media platforms are facing moderation challenges tied to data allegedly leaked from the president’s son’s devices.Over the weekend, users of 4Chan’s /pol/ messageboard were whipped into a frenzy of excitement by one poster claiming to have hacked into Hunter Biden’s phone. Exact details are hard to confirm, but the original poster suggests they have used a tool called iPhone Backup Extractor to recover backup copies of the contents of an iPhone and iPad belonging to Hunter Biden — possibly by compromising his iCloud account and downloading the data from the cloud.at least some of the images shared on 4Chan haven’t previously appeared anywhere else onlineThe 4Chan poster shared further instructions about... Continue reading…

Photo by Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images Elon Musk’s short-lived push to buy Twitter has made him a lot of enemies — but it’s delivering exactly what a certain set of Republican influencers want. Right-wing figures like Steve Bannon and Donald Trump Jr. have already hailed Musk’s decision to back out of the deal. For them, the goal is no longer to control Twitter but to embarrass it.“Maybe Elon never intended to buy Twitter after all,” Charlie Kirk, podcaster and CEO of Turning Point USA, said in a tweet on Friday. “Maybe he just wanted to expose it.”“Maybe he just wanted to expose it.”“Twitter has lied from [its] conception and continually about the scale, scope, depth, source and ubiquity of BOTs versus actual human users,” Bannon, former White House chief strategist... Continue reading…

You can now split your trip into segments. Whenever I plan a trip, especially a road trip that will last more than a day, I always plan more than one stop. Not only bathroom and meal breaks, but interesting attractions, public parks and nature preserves, friends who may live along the route — I like to include them all.Until recently, if I were using an iPhone, I’d skip Apple Maps in favor of Google Maps for iOS, which has had the ability to create multi-stop maps since 2016. Finally, however, in iOS 16, Apple Maps lets you plan a route with multiple stops. It’s a cinch to use. Just tap on “Add Stop,” add another destination, and then move it to wherever you want it.

Doom Eternal and its expansions are included in the deal. | Image: Bethesda The GPU shortage is over, and if you’re considering picking up one of Nvidia’s RTX 30-series graphics cards, the company is running a deal until August 1st that tosses in some Bethesda games for free.Beginning Tuesday, if you buy “a select GeForce RTX 3080, 3080 Ti, 3090, 3090 Ti desktop, laptop, or GPU” from participating retailers, you’ll get Ghostwire: Tokyo, Doom Eternal, and the Doom Eternal: Year One Pass, which includes the game’s two Ancient Gods expansions, according to Nvidia.The company seems to be a big fan of Doom Eternal. It offered a bundle last summer that included an RTX 3080 Ti, Doom Eternal, a $100 gift card to the Bethesda store, and some Doom Eternal gear — but this year’s deal applies to a larger number of cards... Continue reading…

NASA, ESA, CSA, and STScI All the cosmic photos! Continue reading…

Image: Lofi Girl YouTube interrupted the beloved Lofi Girl radio channel this week over copyright notices that YouTube later called “abusive” and false. The channel’s streams, which had been running for over two years, relaunched today after being removed on July 10th. The takedown stemmed from a Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) demand apparently from record label FMC Music Sdn Bhd Malaysia. YouTube reversed the strikes soon after, but Lofi Girl used the incident to call for more rigorous controls on the notoriously exploitable system.The operator of Lofi Girl (formerly ChilledCow) tweeted a copy of the DMCA takedown notice for its two lo-fi hip-hop “beats to relax/study to” video streams on Sunday, calling the reports “false copyright strikes.”... Continue reading…

YouTube TV is the biggest thing in internet cable. | Image: YouTube When YouTube decided to build a cable TV-like product back in 2014, a big part of the goal was just to create a better relationship with Hollywood. After seven years of fighting with Viacom about widespread copyright infringement, YouTube CEO Susan Wojcicki wanted a way to work with networks and studios, not against them. She hired Christian Oestlien, who is now a VP of product management at YouTube, and gave him a broad mandate: “figure out what YouTube might be able to do with the larger media companies, with a focus around television.”Seven years later, YouTube TV, the company’s live cable streaming bundle, is a hit. The company announced today that 5 million people are currently either paying for or testing out YouTube TV, which... Continue reading…

An aerial view of the Whinstone US Bitcoin mining facility in Rockdale, Texas, on October 9th, 2021. The long sheds at North America’s largest Bitcoin mine look endless in the Texas sun, packed with the type of machines that have helped the US to become the new global hub for the digital currency. | Photo by MARK FELIX/AFP /AFP via Getty Images Bitcoin miners in the Lone Star State are powering down this week as a punishing heatwave stresses the power grid. Texas’ grid operator asked residents and businesses to conserve energy on Monday with “extreme hot weather driving record power demand across Texas.”Bitcoin mining companies in the state responded by turning off their machines that otherwise would have used over 1,000 megawatts of electricity, according to the Texas Blockchain Council. That freed up about 1 percent of the grid’s total capacity.“They are shutting down for several reasons but primarily because it is the right thing to do to be a good ‘grid citizen,’” Lee Bratcher, president of the Texas Blockchain Council, said to The Verge in an email. There are also... Continue reading…

With today’s announcement, Nothing’s Phone 1 is fully illuminated. Unusual back panel, usual everything else Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge It’s a big ol’ Spotify day here at Hot Pod. The company is making moves, acquiring Wordle-inspired music trivia game Heardle, expanding its video podcast reach to new countries, and taking another hit podcast exclusive.Plus, a roundup of the best Prime Day audio deals. Let’s get into it.Spotify acquires music trivia game HeardleSpotify announced Tuesday that it has purchased Heardle, one of the many themed trivia games that cropped up in the wake of Wordle’s blockbuster success. Heardle is Spotify’s first game acquisition, and the company hopes it will play a dual role: in addition to keeping music nerds engaged, it can act as a music discovery tool. You can read all about it here.Spotify expands video podcasts to six more countriesA... Continue reading…

Image: Nintendo Kirby’s getting yet another Switch game; this time, it’s a four-player competition to see who can gobble up the most strawberries. The trailer for Kirby’s Dream Buffet has Kirby and friends rolling across food-themed obstacle courses while shapeshifting into desserts, like a cupcake or chocolate bar, that grant him different powers.Kirby’s Dream Buffet looks kind of like Super Monkey Ball, only Dream Buffet swaps bananas for strawberries and a plastic ball for, well... Kirby. As the four players consume more strawberries, they grow bigger to prepare for what Nintendo describes as a final “fruity fight atop a floating platform.” He big. At the end of the trailer, Kirby and his three blue, green, and yellow companions... Continue reading…

Photo by Nilay Patel / The Verge With so much attention on Elon Musk’s bizarre Twitter adventures, it’s easy to forget how fast SpaceX’s Starlink project has been moving. In just the past six months, the service has rolled out to nine new countries and launched a new service for vehicles as well as a new premium tier. There’s even a spectrum fight quietly bubbling in the background. New satellites are launching regularly, and the dream of a low-orbit internet is only getting closer.That doesn’t mean the service is delivering everything it promised. Our 2021 review found huge problems with reliability — particularly if you’re anywhere near trees. A more recent review of the RV service was a little better, but it’s clear that many of the big reliability issues have yet... Continue reading…

Samsung says the software updates will arrive as part of One UI Watch 4.5 later this year. | Photo by Dieter Bohn / The Verge Samsung announced today that its forthcoming One UI Watch 4.5 update will add new accessibility features to its Galaxy Watch 4 and Watch 4 Classic smartwatches. The settings will essentially allow users to adjust audio and visual settings, including color adjustments and rebalancing stereo audio.For users who may have a hard time distinguishing colors, the update will allow them to tweak the display with various color filters. Samsung is also introducing settings so users can increase contrast to make fonts more readable, disable transparency and blur effects, and remove any animations. Image: Samsung One UI Watch 4.5 adds color filters to help people who have a hard time differentiating colors. People who... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Verizon’s new Welcome Unlimited plan comes with a slightly more attractive $65 / month price tag for one line but only offers access to 5G on the company’s low-band nationwide network. It’s also missing support for a 5GB hotspot that Verizon’s other entry-level 5G Start plan offers for an extra $5 per month.While Welcome Unlimited comes with unlimited text, talk, and data, Verizon notes that “your data may be temporarily slower than other traffic” whenever there’s more congestion on the network. The plan isn’t included with Verizon’s mix and match Unlimited plans, either — this means everyone on your plan must switch over to Welcome Unlimited if you decide to sign up.When compared to the 5G Start plan, Welcome Unlimited is virtually... Continue reading…

Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge Last month, Apple announced that, with its iOS 16 update, it is finally adding built-in keyboard haptics to the iPhone — haptics that will allow you to feel vibrations as you type. Previously, haptics were available for other gestures like typing an incorrect passcode or pressing and holding your screen to reveal content, but not for the keyboard. In other words, the keyboard’s new upgrade, which is powered by Apple’s Taptic Engine technology, will finally give iPhone users an opportunity to access haptics without downloading another piece of third party software.Keyboard haptics are a good confirmation tool to indicate that what you’re typing is going through. If you’re someone who has to keep their phone silenced during the day, it... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Spotify announced Tuesday that it has purchased Heardle, one of the many themed trivia games that cropped up in the wake of Wordle’s blockbuster success. Heardle is Spotify’s first game acquisition, and the company hopes it will play a dual role: in addition to keeping music nerds engaged, it can act as a music discovery tool.“We are always looking for innovative and playful ways to enhance music discovery and help artists reach new fans,” said Jeremy Erlich, global head of music at Spotify. “Heardle has proven to be a really fun way to connect millions of fans with songs they know and love and with new songs and a way to compete with their friends as to who has the best musical knowledge.”The game remains a standalone website for now.... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge A little more than 1 in 4 Americans live with a disability — that’s more than 60 million adults who are deaf, blind, neurodivergent, or physically disabled. Technology offers the utopian promise of a universally accessible society, but it only delivers part of the time.Assistive tech has been a life-changing advancement for many people with disabilities. But as technology changes, each innovation is accompanied by a host of access needs that are all too frequently ignored.This week, The Verge will explore technological advances in accessibility and the ongoing fights to expand access in software and hardware, as well as provide feature reviews of the accessibility options in Windows, macOS, iOS, and Android. Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge A list of accessibility features in Windows 11, where to find each one, and what they can do Continue reading…

Image: Peloton Peloton has announced it will completely out-source the production of its bikes and treadmills to Taiwanese manufacturer Rexon. The fitness company currently builds some of its hardware in-house, but says out-sourcing will allow it to reduce costs and simplify its supply chain.It’s the latest move by recently-installed CEO Barry McCarthy to right Peloton’s troubled ship. As a fitness firm focused on delivering home workouts, the company was a natural pandemic darling. But founder and former CEO John Foley overestimated demand for its products, and saw sales, subscribers, and stock plunge as the company was left burdened with surplus inventory. Its most recent earnings showed losses of some $757 million.Peloton is increasingly focused... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge We thought technology would mediate between my disabled son and an ableist world. We got endless bureaucracy instead. Continue reading…

Blackpink on stage at Coachella in 2019. | Photo by Rich Fury/Getty Images for Coachella Mobile-based battle royale shooter PUBG Mobile will host its first ever virtual concert later this month featuring best-selling K-pop girl group Blackpink.It’s the latest example of a video game expanding into virtual events (which, yes, we could label as part of the “metaverse” if we really wanted to — but we don’t.) Compared to rivals like Fortnite, which has hosted various concerts by the likes of Travis Scott and Ariana Grande, PUBG isn’t exactly known for such activities. But in a press release from publisher Tencent Games, executive Vincent Wang said PUBG Mobile is “expanding” its “ever-evolving world.” So: make of that what you will.A number of concerts will take place in the game from July 23rd to 24th and then from July 30th... Continue reading…

The newest Kindle Paperwhite features a slightly larger backlit screen. | Photo by Chaim Gartenberg No matter what time of year it lands, Amazon Prime Day is always one of the best opportunities to buy Amazon’s own products. Now that Prime Day 2022 is upon us, last year’s excellent Kindle Paperwhite is selling for a new all-time low of $94.99. This is $45 below the usual starting price for the ad-supported model. If you’re in the market for a Kindle, this is maybe just the ideal model to get and the perfect price to buy it for. Unless, of course, you prefer the ad-free version — which is discounted by $50 to $109.99. Though, if you hate ads, embrace your inner child and consider the Kindle Paperwhite Kids Edition for $104.99 ($55 off), which is also ad-free and includes a case plus a protection plan.The latest Kindle Paperwhite may... Continue reading…

Amazon is selling Apple’s AirPods Pro for just $169.99. | Photo by Chris Welch / The Verge If you missed out on buying Apple’s AirPods Pro when they were on sale for $159 during Black Friday, you’ve got another chance at saving big thanks to Amazon’s excellent Prime Day deal. Regularly $249, you can buy the AirPods Pro — which we consider to be the best true wireless earbuds for iPhone owners — for just $169.99, a price that is only $10 shy of the all-time low we saw in November. It’s also the lowest price Amazon has offered this year on the outstanding noise-canceling earbuds, which come with a MagSafe-ready charging case, swappable silicon tips for a comfortable fit, and spatial audio support for a more immersive sound experience. Read our AirPods Pro review. Of course, $169.99 isn’t exactly cheap. If you prefer a great a... Continue reading…

The Hive View is among the cameras being discontinued. | Photo: Yves Béhar via DesignBoom Hive, the smart home company best known for its smart thermostats, is officially getting out of the home security market globally. In a support page posted on its website, the company says it’s no longer selling its Hive View security cameras, HomeShield security system, and Hive Leak water detection device. And soon, existing devices will cease to function.After September 1st 2023 Hive Leak will stop functioning, and by August 1st 2025 all its cameras and security system will have joined it. The sound detection feature of its Hub 360 will disappear at the end of 2022. Hive’s customers have begun receiving emails warning them of the shutdown.“We’ve made the tough decision to discontinue our smart security and leak detection products”T... Continue reading…

Photo by Silas Stein/picture alliance via Getty Images BMW is now selling subscriptions for heated seats in a number of countries — the latest example of the company’s adoption of microtransactions for high-end car features.A monthly subscription to heat your BMW’s front seats costs roughly $18, with options to subscribe for a year ($180), three years ($300), or pay for “unlimited” access for $415.It’s not clear exactly when BMW started offering this feature as a subscription, or in which countries, but a number of outlets this week reported spotted its launch in South Korea.BMW has slowly been putting features behind subscriptions since 2020, and heated seats subs are now available in BMW’s digital stores in countries including the UK, Germany, New Zealand, and South Africa. It doesn’t,... Continue reading…

The app is coming to iOS and Android. | Image: Linktree Linktree, a popular “link in bio” service, is launching a mobile app on iOS and Android, the company announced on Tuesday. Previously, you’ve had to log into Linktree through a browser on desktop or your phone to manage your profile, but if you prefer an app, that will now be an option. The “majority” of Linktree’s signups and logins from its more than 25 million users happen on a mobile device, according to a Linktree press release, so this new app could prove to be a popular choice for creators.Link in bio services, which generally let you make a simple page with a list of all the links you want to share with the world, have become more and more popular among creators in recent years. Social networks like Instagram and TikTok only let... Continue reading…

A Nikon DSLR camera on display at Paris Fashion Week in 2020. | Photo by Edward Berthelot/Getty Images Optics and imaging giant Nikon will stop making new single lens reflex cameras — once the technological mainstay of professional photography — according to a report from Nikkei.The death of SLR cameras has been coming for quite some time, as mirrorless alternatives have increased in image quality while offering consumers the option to use lighter and smaller products.According to Nikkei, Nikon will continue to produce and distribute its existing SLR models, but will focus development of new models entirely on mirrorless. Nikkei notes that Nikon’s SLR cameras were “widely used by professional cameramen for more than 60 years and have come to be seen as synonymous with the Japanese company.”Nikon will continue to sell existing DSLR... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge We’re on the cusp of a new generation of wireless headphones that are more power-efficient, sound better, and support novel new features like being able to connect an “unlimited” number of devices to a single source. That’s thanks to Bluetooth LE Audio, an umbrella term for a collection of new features for Bluetooth devices that the Bluetooth standards body is officially announcing the completion of today.Bluetooth LE Audio was announced way back at the beginning of 2020, and the Bluetooth SIG had originally hoped that supporting devices would be released before the end of that year. But, after a significant delay due to the pandemic, the completion of the specification today means that manufacturers can now start adding support for the... Continue reading…

Amazon has announced an updated version of its smart Dash Cart — a shopping cart that lets users scan and pay for their purchases as they shop to avoid waiting in checkout lines.The original Dash Cart launched in 2020 and Amazon has been slowly rolling them out (ho ho) to its Fresh grocery stores and Whole Foods Market stores. It’s clear they’re still a bit of an experiment, though, and Amazon says the new Dash Cart will only be available at its Westford, Massachusetts Whole Foods store some time “in the coming months,” before slowly heading to other Fresh and Whole Foods locations across the US.The cart’s main feature is a sensor array in the rim that uses AI-powered cameras and barcode scanners to identify whatever you put in (or... Continue reading…

HMD’s Nokia 5710 XpressAudio. | Image: HMD HMD has announced a trio of new Nokia feature phones including the Nokia 5710 XpressAudio, which has a built-in charging case for an included pair of true wireless earbuds. The company is far from the first to have had this idea (check out 2019’s Servo R25 as one recent example), but it’s notable to see the form factor attempted by a more established company with global reach.The Nokia 5710 XpressAudio looks like a regular candy bar-style feature phone from the front, with a 2.4-inch display and classic T9 keypad. But around back, there’s a charging compartment, revealed with the slide of a plastic cover. The device will retail for £74.99 (€69) and will be available in the UK in late July, though there’s no word on a US release. ... Continue reading…

Even the most recent models. | Image: Honda Security researchers and The Drive’s Rob Stumpf have recently posted videos of themselves unlocking and remotely starting several Honda vehicles using handheld radios, despite the company’s insistence that the cars have security protections meant to stop attackers from doing that very thing. According to the researchers, this hack is made possible because of a vulnerability in the keyless entry system in many Hondas made between 2012 and 2022. They’ve dubbed the vulnerability Rolling-PWN.The basic concept for Rolling-PWN is similar to attacks we’ve seen before used against VWs and Teslas, as well as other devices; using radio equipment, someone records a legitimate radio signal from a key fob, then broadcasts it back to the car. It’s... Continue reading…

Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge Has there ever been a better day to get into Nerf? I’m having a hard time thinking of one. Two of the best, most competitive unmodded blasters cost half their normal price today — including the Dart Zone MK-3 and the Nerf Rival Perses — and I’m seeing huge discounts on a bunch of other actually-fun foam throwers as well.Just note that you won’t actually find most of these blasters at Amazon. Target and Walmart are holding the best blaster sales, likely in an attempt to draw focus from their competitor.

Photo by Sean Hollister / The Verge GameStop is seemingly ignoring that whole ”crypto winter” thing and moving ahead with the launch of its own NFT marketplace, which is now open in what the company calls a “public beta.”Right now, you can use the platform to buy, sell, and create NFTs. There are more than 200 collections you can peruse and more than 53,000 NFTs listed on the marketplace. The art I’ve seen seems to be pretty standard NFT fare — in just a few minutes of perusing, I’ve already spotted some some weird cat and monkey-themed collections, for example. Unsurprisingly, you can connect the newly-launched GameStop Wallet to manage your digital assets, though you can also use options like WalletConnect and MetaMask. And not just anyone can create an NFT on the... Continue reading…

Today and tomorrow, NASA is releasing the first full-color images taken by the agency’s mighty James Webb Space Telescope, the largest and most powerful observatory ever sent into space. It’s a major moment for the telescope, signaling the beginning of scientific operations for the mission that could fundamentally transform astrophysics and our understanding of the Universe.The James Webb Space Telescope, or JWST, sports the largest mirror we’ve ever sent into space, spanning more than 21 feet across. Made out of gold-plated beryllium, the mirror is designed to gather infrared light — a type of light invisible to the human eye that can travel incredibly long distances across the Universe. Equipped with this impressive mirror, JWST... Continue reading…

NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI, Webb ERO Today, NASA unveiled the first full-color image taken by the agency’s powerful James Webb Space Telescope, a pivotal moment for the deep-space observatory that marks the beginning of its first year of transformational science. The incredibly detailed image — a deep field of some of the most distant galaxies seen from Earth — showcases the mighty power of the telescope and serves as a teaser for even more awe-inspiring images of the Universe that are still to come.The picture is one of a handful of inaugural full-color images that NASA plans to release this week to celebrate the start of science operations for the James Webb Space Telescope, or JWST. President Joe Biden and NASA administrator Bill Nelson unveiled the first picture this... Continue reading…

Floating YouTube videos, (maybe) coming to a screen near you. | Image: Google Google has announced that YouTube’s picture-in-picture mode for iOS and iPadOS, which lets you watch videos in a floating window while using other apps, is rolling out to more people. According to a community post on Monday, people running iOS 15 should start seeing the feature soon, though there is some fragmentation in its availability.YouTube Premium subscribers should be getting access to the feature no matter where in the world they live — as long as its an area where you can actually get YouTube Premium, of course — and they’ll be able to use it to watch any sort of content. For non-paying YouTube users, YouTube only mentions that picture-in-picture is available in the US. Within the US, though, the company says that “everyone... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge One day after an explosion of reports sourced from a massive “Uber Files” leak containing thousands of documents and messages between top executives, Mark MacGann, the company’s former chief of policy in Europe, the Middle East, and Africa (EMEA) has come forward as the source.In this video interview (embedded above), MacGann told The Guardian that “I was the one talking to governments; I was the one pushing this with the media; I was the one telling people that they should change the rules because drivers were going to benefit and people were going to get so much economic opportunity.” Accompanying reports on the interview are available from the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ), The Washington Post, and the... Continue reading…

Availability of PS5 consoles ebbs and flows. | Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge It may be Amazon Prime Day time, but a big sales event like that is just an invitation for other retailers to jump in and also take advantage. We’ve already seen Target and Best Buy running “anti-Prime Day” promotions, and Best Buy is adding some fuel to this fire by scheduling a restock of PlayStation 5 consoles for its paying subscribers.Beginning at 12PM ET / 9AM PT on Tuesday, July 12th, Best Buy Totaltech members will be able to digitally queue for a standard $499.99 PS5 with a disc drive. Totaltech costs a whopping $199.99 per year, though it does include other perks from the big box retailer, like added tech support and free delivery and installation for appliances from Best Buy.If all the prior Best Buy restocks have taught us... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Twitter’s high-powered lawyers from Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz are preparing for a court battle. After Elon Musk finally filed paperwork attempting to exit a $44 billion deal to acquire Twitter last week, they filed a letter today saying Musk’s termination attempt is invalid because “Mr. Musk and the other Musk Parties have knowingly, intentionally, willfully, and materially breached the Agreement.”Twitter is being represented by Wachtell partner William Savitt, who has represented other big companies like Anthem and Sotheby’s in cases against activist shareholders.Musk says he wants out due to concerns Twitter has misrepresented the amount of bot activity on the platform — the same problem he promised to fix — and that Twitter... Continue reading…

Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) says it will step up to protect the privacy of consumers in a post-Roe America, declaring the agency is “committed to fully enforcing the law” against illegal sharing of sensitive medical and location data.In a blog post published on Monday by Kristin Cohen, the FTC’s acting associate director in the Division of Privacy and Identity Protection, the commission took particular aim at data brokers and third parties who share previously collected information. The post points to a wide range of sources that can potentially collect sensitive information about a user but highlights the combination of location data and health data as presenting a particular risk to consumers.“The conversation about... Continue reading…