The Verge

Photo by Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty Images for The Met Museum/Vogue SpaceX has fired a number of employees who wrote and shared a letter criticizing the behavior of CEO Elon Musk, with the company’s president criticizing the letter as “overreaching activism.”The open letter, first reported by The Verge, described Musk’s behavior as “a frequent source of distraction and embarrassment for us, particularly in recent weeks.” It cites SpaceX’s “No Asshole” policy and asks the company to “publicly address and condemn Elon’s harmful Twitter behavior.”Said the letter writers: “As our CEO and most prominent spokesperson, Elon is seen as the face of SpaceX — every Tweet that Elon sends is a de facto public statement by the company. It is critical to make clear to our teams and to our potential talent pool that... Continue reading…

Capcom is developing a sequel to its 2012 high fantasy action RPG Dragon’s Dogma, the company announced Thursday. There are few official details, but we do know the title — Dragon’s Dogma 2 — and that it will take advantage of Capcom’s RE Engine, which has been used for many of the studio’s recent games. Director Hideaki Itsuno announced the new game at the end of a video looking back on the creation of the original Dragon’s Dogma.

Would you subscribe to Snap? | Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Snap is doing internal tests of a paid subscription called Snapchat Plus, which will apparently give users early access to features, as well as other abilities. In a statement to The Verge, Snap spokesperson Liz Markman said:

The Baby Shark family is once again moving to the blockchain. | Image: Pinkfong Pinkfong, the company behind “Baby Shark” — aka the song with the most-viewed video on all of YouTube — has announced an NFT project titled “Baby Shark: Collection No. 2.” The NFTs in the collection, all 10,000 of them, will feature generative art of the titular baby shark and the rest of his shark family. Generative NFTs are like the Bored Ape Yacht Club, where there are a variety of randomized traits across a collection.When I first heard this news, I had two thoughts simultaneously (using up my entire daily allotment):

Square Enix During today’s Final Fantasy VII 25th anniversary event, Square Enix announced a remake of Crisis Core, the prequel to Final Fantasy VII that was previously only released on the PSP.Dubbed with the exceedingly long and convoluted name, Crisis Core — Final Fantasy VII —Reunion, Crisis Core recounts the story of Zack Fair: the Shinra SOLDIER turned hero turned Aerith’s main boo turned Cloud’s comrade, who is one of the most compelling protagonists in the Final Fantasy canon.According to the reveal, the Crisis Core remake boasts new, upgraded models, new voiceovers, and new music. All the newness, however, means that, unfortunately, Gackt — the J-pop star who lent his voice to the villain Genesis — will likely not be making a... Continue reading…

Image: Square Enix Square Enix officially announced the next chapter of the Final Fantasy VII remake saga Thursday evening during its Final Fantasy VII 25th Anniversary Celebration stream. The game is titled Final Fantasy VII Rebirth, and it will launch as a PS5 exclusive “next winter.”Remake ended on a major cliffhanger that set up for a lot more story ahead, and now we have a hint at what the next game might look like. In a brief trailer, Square Enix revealed some of the world outside of Midgar, as well as mysterious scenes of Cloud Strife walking alongside Sephiroth and an injured Cloud huddled against Crisis Core protagonist Zack Fair.“Final Fantasy VII Rebirth is being designed so that people can enjoy this game whether they know the original game... Continue reading…

Image: Square Enix Final Fantasy VII Remake Intergrade is coming to yet another platform very soon. Square Enix announced that the game, along with the bonus episode featuring Yuffie (together know as Intergrade), are coming to Steam on June 17th. That’s tomorrow! Notably, the Steam version on Intergrade will indeed be compatible with the Steam Deck, according to the company.The game originally launched following a lengthy development cycle on PS4 on April 10th, 2020. It was worth the wait, as my colleague Andrew Webster considered it to be a thrilling, thoughtful reimagining on the classic RPG. Square Enix then released PS5-specific performance upgrades and extra story content in June 2021 within the Final Fantasy VII Remake Intergrade bundle.

Aw yeah, that’s... one... run-of-the-mill strap. | Image: Google Any modern smartwatch worth its salt comes with swappable straps. So it’s no surprise that Google is reportedly working on a number of strap options for its forthcoming Pixel Watch. According to 9to5Google, the company is making at least seven straps — including the one showcased during the I/O keynote — for when the smartwatch launches this fall.So far, 9to5Google is reporting that Google’s working on a Milanese-style mesh band, two types of leather bands, a link bracelet, a fabric band, and a silicone band. It’s also purportedly working on a stretchable option reminiscent of Apple’s Solo Loop. If it sounds like Google’s taking several pages out of Apple’s playbook, it is. We still don’t know the majority of the Pixel Watch’s specs,... Continue reading…

eBay Live looks heavily inspired by Instagram’s livestream feature. | Image: eBay eBay’s combining online and real-world auction experiences with its newly launched eBay Live platform, where people can chat and react to sellers through Livestream video and buy their products. The service is currently in beta release and will launch with “highly coveted and rare” trading card offerings like a “1998 Kobe Bryant Skybox That’s Jam PSA 10” from eBay seller Bleecker Trading starting on June 22nd at 3PM ET. The event will be hosted live by avid collector DJ Skee, and interested buyers can join in on the official eBay Live page or sign on via the eBay app.“As the collector community grows, we’re offering a new live platform that combines an engaging environment with incredible ease, allowing our community to come together... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Amid all the news on Overwatch 2 and Diablo Immortal, Activision Blizzard has filed a document with the US Securities and Exchange Commission in which it affirms that, after an internal investigation, it concluded its own board did not fail to act when presented with allegations of harassment.“Contrary to many of the allegations, the board and its external advisors have determined that there is no evidence to suggest that Activision Blizzard senior executives ever intentionally ignored or attempted to downplay the instances of gender harassment that occurred and were reported,” Activision Blizzard wrote in the filing.The report does acknowledge there were problems within the company and that such a conclusion does little to address the... Continue reading…

Image: Jonathan Wight Apple’s upcoming Continuity Camera feature, which lets you wirelessly use your iPhone as a webcam, is quietly one of the features I’m most excited about in the next version of macOS and iOS — and it seems like I’m not alone in that. Jonathan Wight, a software engineer at Apple, has already made 3D-printable mounts that let you stick your phone to your computer instead of waiting for the official accessories to hit the market or even for the operating systems that enable the feature to officially launch (via 9to5Mac).The mounts, which Wight has made for the iMac Pro and MacBook Pro, are relatively simple. They have hooks for mounting onto your computer and a slot for a MagSafe charging puck that will handle actually holding your phone... Continue reading…

Illustration by Kristen Radtke / The Verge; Getty Images Elon Musk told Twitter employees on Thursday that the company needs to become more like WeChat and TikTok if it wants to achieve his goal of hitting 1 billion users.When asked how Twitter could grow its user base and increase engagement, Musk explained that the app should offer more utility and make sure “people are very entertained and informed,” according to employees who heard the remarks during his first internal all-hands. He drew a comparison to WeChat, the super app in China that mixes social media with payments, games, and even ride-hailing.“There’s no WeChat equivalent outside of China,” Musk said after dialing in 10 minutes late to the virtual meeting via his phone camera. “You basically live on WeChat in China. If we can... Continue reading…

You’ll be able to filter comics out of your Kindle reading list! Approximately four months after Amazon incorporated Comixology into the Kindle app and kind of broke both in the process, it has outlined a number of plans to fix things. io9 noted that a thread was posted to the Comixology account on Twitter yesterday.“We understand that the current experience needs improvements, and want you to know that we’re working hard to get those out the door as quickly as possible,” the eleven-tweet thread begins.

A polar bear in Southeast Greenland. | Image: Thomas W Johansen NASA Researchers have identified a special group of polar bears described in a paper published today in the journal Science. The bears might have found a unique sort of refuge from the effects of climate change in Southeast Greenland, the authors write, where their group has become genetically distinct from other polar bears. Scientists are now pushing to recognize the bears as their own unique “subpopulation,” a move that could help keep them protected from potential threats like hunting and habitat loss.Over the past decade, the researchers surveyed polar bears across 1,800 miles of Greenland’s eastern coastline in an effort to better understand the animals’ health and movements. Although that’s a big range, they thought they were dealing... Continue reading…

Instagram is testing out a new full-screen mode for its feed and an updated navigation bar in hopes of making content on the platform more discoverable and immersive. The test, which has been rolled out to “a limited number of people,” according to Meta spokesperson Seine Kim, is the latest effort from the company to compete with TikTok when it comes to social video.If you’re a part of that group, you’ll be able to see videos almost entirely full screen as you scroll through your feed (the navigation bar will still appear underneath them). The description, as well as buttons that let you favorite or comment on the video, will appear along the bottom, and the Instagram logo and other top buttons will appear floating above the top. ... Continue reading…

Activision Blizzard Overwatch 2 is going free-to-play, ditching loot boxes, and committing to a more consistent content schedule Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge In an all-hands meeting with Twitter’s staff on Thursday, Elon Musk gave more detail on how he would deal with moderation on the platform, leaving the door open for a more hands-on approach than many have assumed he would take.Responding to an employee-submitted question about his views on content moderation, Musk said he believed people should be able to “say pretty outrageous things within the law” but that such speech shouldn’t necessarily be amplified, according to employees who heard the remarks. In particular, he leaned on a distinction between freedom of speech and freedom of reach, popularized by disinformation researcher Renée DiResta.Reiterating past comments he has made publicly, Musk also said he wants Twitter to take a... Continue reading…

Activision Blizzard In Overwatch 2, loot boxes are no more.Contained within the salvo of information Blizzard just launched about Overwatch 2, one of the more interesting bits is the fact the game will transition from a retail model to a free-to-play model. Also included in the Overwatch 2 strategy is a concerted effort to deliver content on a regular basis with a new seasonal content structure. That new seasonal structure will include a premium battle pass not unlike the kind prominent in other live-service games, whereby there will be separate, exclusive rewards available for subscribers.With the arrival of the battle pass also comes an in-game shop making the Overwatch loot boxes a thing of the past.“Players will have a lot more control about how... Continue reading…

Chris Hemsworth in Spiderhead. | Image: Netflix There’s something devious about the playfulness of Netflix’s Spiderhead. The sci-fi thriller, led by a dapper Chris Hemsworth, takes place at a remote prison slash research center, where inmates are given a surprising amount of freedom in exchange for being subjected to experimental pharmaceutical treatments that do everything from making them feel terrified to creating an impossible-to-satiate hunger. It’s bleak stuff. And yet much of the film has a light tone to help mask its devious nature; Hemsworth dances to ’80s pop, and inmates spend their free time playing arcade games and creating snacks with prosciutto and nectarines.The whiplash between these moments and the dark premise is delightful, though ultimately, Spiderhead doesn’t... Continue reading…

Illustration by Kristen Radtke / The Verge; Getty Images Elon Musk told Twitter employees on Thursday that the company “needs to get healthy” financially and bring down costs, suggesting that job cuts are likely in store if his deal to buy the social media service goes through.“Right now costs exceed revenue,” Musk said when asked about the possibility of layoffs during an internal Q&A, according to employees who heard the remarks. “That’s not a great situation.”The question of layoffs has been top of mind for Twitter’s more than 7,000 employees since Musk first said he wanted to buy the company. Current CEO Parag Agrawal told staffers in an earlier meeting that layoffs weren’t being planned “at this time.” Though Musk didn’t explicitly say if there would be job cuts Thursday, his comments... Continue reading…

The Nest x Yale smart lock that was introduced in 2018. | Photo by Florence Ion for The Verge The Google Nest Hub Max is getting an update to prepare it for Matter support (hooray!) but will lose the ability to connect directly to the Nest x Yale Lock (boo). Next month, a “small number” of people could find themselves temporarily disconnected until they add another dongle (ugh), but at least the dongle will be free (hooray again).Per a post on the company’s Nest community page, Google says:

Illustration by Kristen Radtke / The Verge; Getty Images Aspiring Twitter owner Elon Musk said that Twitter employees doing “excellent” work should be allowed to continue working from home. But Musk clarified that he strongly prefers work in person and would confirm with managers that remote employees were contributing positively to the company.“If someone can only work remotely, and they’re exceptional, it wouldn’t make sense to fire them,” Musk said in response to a question about his stance on the policy, according to a person who heard the call. “Definitely not in favor of things that are mad.”The response came during a virtual all-hands meeting with Twitter employees today, during which the Tesla CEO addressed workers for the first time and answered pre-submitted questions, read by a... Continue reading…

Image: LG One of the boldest product announcements at CES 2022 was LG’s DualUp monitor, which is now available for $699. That’s pricey but somehow less expensive than some of us were expecting it to cost.Instead of doubling the width of a monitor, as most display makers have tried already, LG’s DualUp effectively stacks two 21.5-inch QHD monitors on top of each other, totaling 27.6 inches measured diagonally (2560 x 2880) with a 16:18 aspect ratio. The design is jarring at first, but it could be the tall order that content creators and productivity sickos have been waiting for.The DualUp houses LG’s Nano IPS panel, and it supports HDR and covers 98 percent of the DCI-P3 color gamut. In terms of ports, the DualUp includes two HDMI ports, one... Continue reading…

Photo by Becca Farsace / The Ve When it comes to taking photographs, the range of interest and knowledge among practitioners — and the range of the equipment they use — can be immense. You can be happy just taking the occasional snapshot with your phone; you can own a reasonably priced camera and a couple of decent lenses; you can save up your salary for your dream camera along with some really good lenses, straps, and tripods; or you can be a pro whose expertise demands a major investment in top-line equipment.So, when we asked a staff as diverse as The Verge’s about their favorite camera gear, it wasn’t surprising that we got back a wide variety of answers. Recommendations ranged from $37 backpacks and $58 mini tripods to $450 roller bags and $2,000 lenses.Whether... Continue reading…

The Razer Blade 14 includes an RTX 3080 and is available for its lowest price ever. | Photo by Monica Chin / The Verge Everyone may be buzzing about the imminent release of Apple’s new M2-equipped laptops, but if Windows is your preferred OS, there are a handful of dope laptop deals you should check out, starting with the 2021 Razer Blade 14. This laptop originally costs $2,799.99, but it has been steeply discounted to $1,797.99 at Microsoft. This configuration of Razer’s 14-inch gaming laptop pairs an AMD Ryzen 9 5900HX processor with an RTX 3080 graphics card, allowing it to easily tackle modern AAA titles and take full advantage of its 2560 x 1440 resolution display that has a 165Hz refresh rate.While we wouldn’t recommend paying full price for a year-old Razer Blade 14, this discount makes it far more appealing. At this price, it’s next to... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Every Friday, The Verge publishes our flagship podcast, The Vergecast, where Verge editor-in-chief Nilay Patel, editor-at-large David Pierce, and managing editor Alex Cranz discuss the week in tech news with the reporters and editors covering the biggest stories.Right before the final deadline from the US government, Dish Network says they have finally launched their 5G service in America. The Vergecast dedicates some time on the show this week to analyze Dish’s press release and talk about the obstacles The Verge must go through to test out this service.Later in the show, the topic shifts to Google’s LaMDA model that was accused of being sentient by a Google engineer. The crew pushes back on the idea of a chatbot being sentient... Continue reading…

Want to hear your TV’s audio in the shower? Here’s how. ISSUEYou want to play music on multiple Sonos speakers in your home, but your phone — and the Sonos app you normally use to control everything — are out of reach.QUICK FIXTap and hold the play / pause button on any idle Sonos speaker, and it will automatically be grouped with whatever other speakers are currently playing.THE FULL STORYBeing able to envelop your entire living space in music is one of the best things about owning a Sonos system. Whether you’ve got speakers in every room or just a few strategically placed where they matter most, having the flexibility to get your whole system playing in harmony — or to send your TV’s audio to the Roam in your shower — is a huge convenience.A shortcut that all Sonos owners should... Continue reading…

Today, Discord is announcing widespread availability of AutoMod, an autonomous moderation tool built directly into the platform to take the strain off human moderators. Alongside the official launch of AutoMod, Discord is also letting more servers offer paid memberships to their users and is adding new features to manage these premium subscriptions.AutoMod is designed to scan servers for select words and phrases and can then automatically dole out responses like blocking messages, alerting admins, and timing out offending users. The feature has been available to a “small group of servers” for a couple of months but is now available on any Community Server across Discord. Image: Discord AutoMod comes with... Continue reading…

Photo by Justin Sullivan/Getty Images This week, for the first time ever, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration released data on crashes involving cars equipped with advanced driver-assist systems and automated driving technology. A lot of headlines — including The Verge’s — focused on the number of Tesla vehicles that crashed, which is understandable because Tesla had a lot of crashes.But the numbers themselves don’t tell us the whole story. In fact, they don’t really tell us much of any story at all. Not yet.That’s because we’re still missing a lot of key details, like the number of vehicle miles driven or the prominence of advanced driver-assist technology in each manufacturer’s fleet. NHTSA receives the data through varying sources, including customer... Continue reading…

Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge Many hospital websites have a tracking tool that sends sensitive medical information to Facebook when people schedule appointments, according to an investigation by The Markup. Experts say that the hospitals using the tool may be violating the medical privacy law the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, or HIPAA.The Markup found that 33 of the top 100 hospitals in the United States were using a tracker called the Meta Pixel on their websites. Installing the Meta Pixel gives groups access to analytics about Facebook and Instagram ads but also tracks how people are using their websites: the buttons they click, the information they put in forms, and so on.On hospital websites, that could include sensitive health... Continue reading…

Image: Microsoft Microsoft is adding a new game performance indicator to its Xbox app on Windows today that will let you know if a title plays well on your PC before you go ahead and download it. While system requirements have always been listed, this simple label makes it far easier to get a good idea of whether a game is suitable for your PC at a glance.The Xbox app compares a game’s performance on PCs with similar specs to your own and generates a prediction as to how well the game will run. “If your PC isn’t up to the task of running a graphically demanding game, you’ll be able to view the game’s system requirements to get more details on what you need to run the game,” explains Tila Nguyen, senior product manager lead on Xbox experiences at... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge T-Mobile is announcing some updated benefits it offers to customers who subscribe to its wireless plans, which it calls “Coverage Beyond.” Perhaps the most timely is a 25 cent per gallon discount on gas at Shell stations, which it’s offering via its T-Mobile Tuesday program. The company is also bringing upgrades to the international and in-flight data benefits for customers.For the gas discount, T-Mobile’s fine print says it’s good for “up to 20 gallons,” which is the same limit the company put on its fuel rewards for Shell in the past (though those only knocked 10 or 15 cents off per gallon). The promotion will last from June 21st “through the week of Labor Day,” according to T-Mobile spokesperson Brandy Sloan and is available to... Continue reading…

Image: Microsoft Microsoft is launching a new Defender cybersecurity app across Windows, macOS, iOS, and Android today. While the software giant has used the Defender moniker for its antivirus protection for years, this new cross-platform Microsoft Defender app is designed for individuals as more of a simplified dashboard that taps into existing antivirus software or offers additional device protections.Microsoft Defender will be available for Microsoft 365 Personal and Family subscribers today, and the features will vary by platform. On iOS and iPadOS, for example, there’s no antivirus protection, and the app offers some web phishing protections instead alongside a dashboard that includes alerts for other devices.Over on Android, Microsoft Defender... Continue reading…

When we talk about health and tech, usually the conversation is around newer devices like wearables. But newer isn’t always better, especially for one group of researchers using an old Pixel 4 to screen for neurological diseases using just the selfie cam from the phone.The DigiHealth Lab at UC San Diego, directed by Professor Edward Wang, looks at ubiquitous technology like smartphones to figure out how they can be used to monitor our health. The idea is that, by building digital health tools that work on more common devices, they can increase access to more people — particularly people who might not be able to afford the latest smartwatch or fitness tech.We spoke with Colin Barry from the lab to tell us more about how the modified... Continue reading…

Photo by Paul Hennessy/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images An open letter to SpaceX decrying CEO Elon Musk’s recent behavior has sparked open discussion among the company’s employees in an internal chat system. Employees are being encouraged to sign onto the letter’s suggestions, either publicly or anonymously, with a signed version of the letter to be delivered to the desk of SpaceX president Gwynne Shotwell.The letter, reviewed by The Verge, describes how Musk’s actions and the recent allegations of sexual harassment against him are negatively affecting SpaceX’s reputation. The document claims that employees “across the spectra of gender, ethnicity, seniority, and technical roles have collaborated on” writing the letter. It’s not known which SpaceX employees wrote the letter; the employees... Continue reading…

A photo from Players. | Image: CBS Studios The entire time I watched Players, a new Paramount Plus show about competitive League of Legends, I kept feeling like something was just a little off.Players is a mockumentary about Fugitive Gaming, a fictional team that’s a member of the League of Legends Championship Series (LCS), the North American wing of professional League of Legends esports. Much of the show revolves around the relationship between Creamcheese (Misha Brooks), a brash veteran who has been a star of the team since its founding, and Organizm (Da’Jour Jones), an inscrutable rookie who promises to be one of the best-ever players. (American Vandal creators Tony Yacenda and Dan Perrault are the minds behind Players.)You may have watched a lot of sports stories... Continue reading…

Alex Castro/The Verge FuboTV will soon let you place bets on live sports. Some users will get to make wagers using real cash, while everyone can participate in free contests.Starting June 19th, all FuboTV users will be able to predict the outcome of live games. Before select games start, users will be able to choose which team they think will win. This will earn them points — not actual cash — that’ll give them a place on a leaderboard, letting them compete against friends and other FuboTV users. FuboTV calls this game Perfect Pick’ems and says it plans on launching other competitions in the future.But users in Iowa and Arizona can place bets on winning teams for real cash. If a user thinks they chose the winning pick, they can scan a QR code that appears... Continue reading…

It’s light on weight and light on price Continue reading…

Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge Tech companies operating some of the world’s biggest online platforms — including Facebook-owner Meta, Microsoft, Google, Twitter, Twitch, and TikTok — have signed up to a new EU rulebook for tackling online disinformation.These firms and others will have to make greater efforts to halt the spread of fake news and propaganda on their platforms, as well as share more granular data on their work with EU member states. Announcing the new “Code of Practice on disinformation,” the European Commission said that the guidelines had been shaped particularly by “lessons learnt from the COVID19 crisis and Russia’s war of aggression in Ukraine.”The code has been shaped by COVID misinformation and Russian propaganda“This new anti-disinformation... Continue reading…

Camo, an app that lets you use an iOS, Android, or iPadOS device as a webcam for your computer, is introducing a new feature that could be very interesting for streamers and those who take every Zoom meeting very seriously. The app now includes the ability to create overlays and add them to your video stream, letting you include info such as your social media handles or name and pronouns anywhere your video appears.Camo’s adding overlays at a very interesting time — Apple just announced a feature called Continuity Camera, which will also let you use your iPhone as a webcam for your Mac without having to install any extra software.Reincubate, the company behind Camo, says that the feature is a part of Thursday’s 1.7 update. Using the... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Tesla has raised the prices of select Model 3, Model Y, Model X, and Model S vehicles, Electrek reports. The largest price increase affects the Model X Dual Motor All-Wheel Drive version, which saw a $6,000 increase from $114,990 to $120,990, while the Model S Dual Motor All-Wheel Drive configuration increased by $5,000 from $99,990 to $104,990. Tesla’s most affordable car, the Model 3, was spared from the most severe increases.One version of the Model 3 is seeing an increase, however. The Long Range version of the Model 3 increased in price by $2,500 from $54,490 to $57,990. However the price of the most affordable Model 3 version sold online, the Rear-Wheel Drive model, is staying the same at $46,990. That was the price it rose to... Continue reading…

When I was a kid growing up in rural Yorkshire, one of the regular attractions at local fairs was a huge steam-powered organ: a baroque monstrosity of pipes, horns, and whistles that would parp out classical tunes to the delight of onlookers. I don’t know if steam organs are still a thing, but if they’ve been retired then I have the perfect replacement: the Floppotron — a mammoth “PC hardware orchestra” that plays music using only electric motors.Like a fairground organ, the Floppotron is unwieldy, massive, musically unsubtle, and a complete joy to behold. It’s the work of Polish engineer Paweł Zadrożniak, who’s been building various iterations of the instrument since 2011. The first Floppotron consisted of just a pair of floppy drives p... Continue reading…

Samsung’s new Wallet will keep payment cards, car keys, and cryptocurrency accounts in one place. | Image: Samsung First, there was Samsung Wallet. Then it became Samsung Pay. Now, because time is a flat circle, Samsung is bringing the Wallet app back — basically, bringing a lot of existing Samsung services into one app. And this time, there’s crypto!The new Samsung Wallet is available today, and it will take the place of the current Pay and Pass apps, which currently handle payment cards and passwords, respectively. It also integrates with SmartThings to store certain digital home and car keys.And, of course, the new Samsung Wallet integrates with the existing Samsung Blockchain Wallet app, so you can easily check the value of your cryptocurrency portfolio. Or maybe don’t. Samsung also plans to add some features it teased at its Unpacked event... Continue reading…

Amazon has held the annual event for Prime members since 2015. | Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Amazon’s annual shopping event, Amazon Prime Day, will officially kick off at 3AM ET / 12AM PT on Tuesday, July 12th, and run through Wednesday, July 13th, the company announced today. We knew it was going to be July, thanks to a prior earnings call, but now Amazon Prime subscribers know when to set their clocks for.This year’s Prime Day is a few weeks later than it occurred last year, but it’s maintaining its summer timing, as opposed to during the height of the pandemic in 2020 when Amazon delayed the event until October. And if you’re in the market for toys, tech, home goods, or pretty much anything else, it may be one of the best times to save money outside of the Black Friday / Cyber Monday holiday shopping season. It’s almost a... Continue reading…

SwitchBot’s new smart door lock takes a unique approach to unlocking your door. | Image: SwitchBot SwitchBot, the company that makes tiny robotic fingers to press your switches for you, is branching further into the smart home. The new SwitchBot Lock ($99.99) sticks to your door and turns the thumb turn automatically to lock and unlock it. This is the simplest retrofit smart lock solution I’ve ever seen. SwitchBot says it can be installed in seconds since there’s no need to remove any part of your existing door lock. But it does look a bit odd.The SwitchBot Lock will be available starting June 20th at Amazon and the SwitchBot store along with two compatible keypads — the SwitchBot KeyPad ($29.99) and the SwitchBot KeyPad Touch with a fingerprint reader ($59.99). Image: SwitchBot There are two versions of the... Continue reading…

Sonos speakers pile up inside a customer’s apartment. A couple of days ago, The Verge reported on a strange glitch that caused Sonos to ship customers more items than what they ordered — and charge extra on top of that. While most customers received anywhere from two to six extra speakers, we were recently contacted by a customer who has had a much more extreme experience.As a quick recap, all of this emerged after two users contacted The Verge about this issue earlier this week and pointed us to a Reddit thread with users who had the same (or similar) experiences of ordering one or two speakers and receiving several in return. In an email sent to customers (which you can read in full in our previous report linked above), Sonos attributed the problem to a system update resulting in “some... Continue reading…

Image: The Boring Company Elon Musk’s Boring Company has received unanimous approval to expand its system of tunnels beneath downtown Las Vegas. The expansion will add stops at landmarks like the Stratosphere and Fremont Street, letting customers hop aboard a Tesla and travel from one part of the city to the next.The network of tunnels, called the Vegas Loop, is supposed to span 29 miles and have 51 stops when finished. But for now, only 1.7-mile tunnels are operational beneath the Las Vegas Convention Center (LVCC), turning what would be a 25-minute walk across the convention center into a two-minute ride. The system uses human-controlled Model X and Y vehicles to transport passengers, despite Musk’s previous statements about using sleds to carry cars through... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge YouTube is introducing new seasonal recaps of your top artists, songs, albums, and playlists to YouTube Music, starting first with the Spring Recap. YouTube rolled out a Spotify Wrapped-style annual recap at the end of last year, but now YouTube owner Google is taking the concept further with seasonal rundowns.“Similar to the 2021 Recap, you’ll find your personalized content in the Spring Recap landing page on the YouTube Music app along with your personalized Spring Recap playlist,” YouTube product manager Ayshaw Khan wrote in a blog post. “Want to tell your friends about your favorite songs of the Spring? Easily share your Spring Recap playlist and stats by simply tapping the arrow at the bottom of your stats card.” ... Continue reading…