The Verge

Nuns with swords. | Image: Maria Heras / Netflix It was when the stately nun grabbed a gun and proceeded to take out a room full of demon-infested priests that I knew Netflix’s Warrior Nun had finally figured out what kind of show it was — and that show was entertaining as hell.Warrior Nun, the Netflix show about a young woman resurrected from the dead and imbued with superpowers by the halo of an angel to battle the forces of evil (yes, really), first premiered back in 2020. That first season was fine. It was watchable while you’re doing laundry or playing a video game, but with a first half so excruciatingly slow, I wasn’t about to suggest it to friends or family. The second season premiered on November 10th and is much more sure of itself.It feels as if one of the more... Continue reading…

Twitter, as we knew it, is dead. Long live Twitter. | Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Good morning! I wish the circumstances were better, but it’s so nice to see so many familiar avatars. Oh, and hello to the Blue subscribers in the front row. I know Twitter would have appreciated your support. We’re gathered here today, of course, to remember our beloved social media platform. Twitter, as we knew it, passed from this earthly realm on October 27th, the day that a billionaire with terrible ideas and a worse sense of humor purchased it.Personally, I have so much to thank Twitter for. Sure, it rewired my brain into a little tweet factory, constantly auditioning summaries of every unusual thing that happened to me to test their tweet-worthiness. And so what if it turned my attention span into Swiss cheese? Twitter was there... Continue reading…

Apple’s Cycle Tracking is completely optional, especially advanced features like retrospective ovulation estimates and cycle deviation detection. | Illustration by Samar Haddad / The Verge When Apple first launched Cycle Tracking for periods in its Health app, the feature was fairly basic. It didn’t do much besides let you log your period — and even then, you couldn’t log factors like pregnancy or birth control. However, the company recently added advanced features that can help retroactively identify when a person ovulates and detect cycle deviations.While these tools might be helpful, it’s understandable if you’re leery of sharing biometric information for this particular purpose in the post-Roe era. If that’s the case, you can easily disable those features.Apple’s retrospective ovulation estimates are based on temperature data. That means you need an Apple Watch Series 8 or Ultra, which are currently the only Apple... Continue reading…

How many billions can users troll him out of? | Illustration by Laura Normand / The Verge The most expensive forum drama of all time? Continue reading…

GM has confirmed that its Super Cruise hands-free driver assistance system will be made available to a total of 22 vehicles globally by the end of 2023. | Image: General Motors General Motors has announced the first vehicles to access its recently-expanded Super Cruise hands-free driver assistance system (ADAS).Super Cruise is available only on certain roads, with GM announcing an expansion to its network back in August. The expansion doubled the size of the Super Cruise network in North America and Canada, which covers over 400,000 miles of roads. Now, GM has revealed the first vehicles to have access to this expansion:

Atari Karts on the Jaguar. | Image: Atari The new retro collection is a cross between an interactive documentary and a virtual museum exhibition. Continue reading…

He did it. | Image: The Pokémon Company The day has finally come: famed pokémon trainer Ash Ketchum is the very best. The moment, 25 seasons in the making, happened earlier this morning in the latest episode of the Netflix series Pokémon Ultimate Journeys, when Ash won the “Masters Eight Tournament of the Pokémon World Coronation Series,” making him the top trainer in the world. The episode aired first in Japan and will be coming to the rest of the world “in the future.”As fans of the Pokémon animated series already know, being the very best, like no one ever was, has always been the goal for Ash and his pal Pikachu since the show debuted in 1997. Just look how happy he looks holding that trophy. If nothing else, the win is a great lesson in perseverance. There’s currently... Continue reading…

A penny for your tweets. | Illustration by Laura Normand / The Verge Elon Musk seems intent on turning Twitter into a bank, complete with what he describes as a “high-yield money market account,” debit cards, checks, and loans. He described his plans during a last-minute meeting with staff today, and you can read a full transcript of that here.Musk broached the topic of payments during his introduction, saying that “I think there’s this transformative opportunity in payments,” adding that the goal is “enabling people on Twitter to able to send money anywhere in the world instantly and in real-time. We just want to make it as useful as possible.” He said that the feature, along with “video content and compensating content creators” and improving search, is a “high priority.”Musk says he’ll do a lot of... Continue reading…

Musk spoke to Twitter employees today. | Illustration by Kristen Radtke / The Verge; Getty Images With Twitter staff still reeling from mass layoffs and executive resignations, Musk took questions from employees for nearly an hour. Here’s everything he said. Continue reading…

You actually get two of these. | Image: Tumblr Tumblr has been enjoying a resurgence thanks to some recent policy changes and ongoing chaos at Twitter, and that’s drawn a few real-world celebrities like Ryan Reynolds and Lynda Carter to the platform. Unlike most big social networks, though, Tumblr doesn’t verify high-profile accounts’ authenticity. That’s caused a little confusion since, without a link from some known off-platform account, it’s almost impossible to tell if these accounts are real. Fortunately, Tumblr is rolling out a new feature that will do absolutely nothing to change this — and you can buy it for a one-time fee of $7.99.The Tumblr Important Blue Internet Checkmark is the latest of a few joke items Tumblr sells on its web store, and it does about what you’d... Continue reading…

Nick Barclay / The Verge Earlier this year, Google announced a pilot that would allow Spotify (and eventually other apps) to bypass the standard Google Play billing on Android in favor of their own payment systems. Crucially, Google still gets a cut of those payments under this new User Choice Billing initiative, but in Spotify’s words, it still represents progress toward greater “platform fairness and expanded payment options.” And now, the streaming music service has begun actually testing User Choice Billing in select markets.“Going forward, Android users will soon be able to choose how to pay for their Spotify subscription in the way that best suits them,” Spotify wrote in a newsroom post. “Google has taken a bold step to help level the playing field, but... Continue reading…

Amazon might be changing how it thinks about Alexa. | Photo by Jennifer Pattison Tuohy / The Verge Amazon’s Alexa assistant is under the microscope as part of a major cost-cutting review headed up by CEO Andy Jassy, according to The Wall Street Journal. Alexa has become a major part of Amazon’s devices and smart home strategy, but documents seen by the WSJ indicate that the company’s entire devices unit has had an operating loss exceeding $5 billion in some recent years.As part of the review, Amazon is looking into whether it should “focus on trying to add new capabilities to Alexa,” the WSJ writes. It’s unclear exactly what that means, but it appears the company is considering lessening its investments in a product that seemingly doesn’t bring in much money on its own.In a statement, the company voiced support for Alexa but didn’t... Continue reading…

Photo illustration by William Joel / The Verge Wear OS is much better than it used to be, so there’s never been a better time to consider a smartwatch. Continue reading…

Whoop’s new study shows changes in heart rate variability ahead of delivery. | Image: Whoop Monitoring changes in heart rate in pregnant people may be a way to screen for people who will deliver prematurely, according to new data from researchers working at wearable company Whoop.Preterm birth is risky and can lead to health complications for both the parent and the infant. But it’s hard to predict who might be likely to go into labor early. “Accessible, noninvasive screening options for premature birth can serve as early warning signs for pregnant people, giving them more time to find and administer interventions to improve health outcomes,” said Elizabeth Cherot, chief medical officer of the medical practice Axia Women’s Health, in a statement from Whoop.The Whoop wearable device calculates users’ heart rate variability,... Continue reading…

Illustration by Kristen Radtke / The Verge What if you had access to everything the internet knows about you, and what if you could use it to make your life better? That’s what Mem is trying to figure out. Continue reading…

Illustration by Kristen Radtke / The Verge; Getty Images Elon Musk sent his first email to Twitter employees on Wednesday evening, warning of a “challenging economic climate” ahead and the need for the company to launch Twitter Blue verified subscriptions to help “survive the upcoming economic downturn.”After laying off half of Twitter’s workforce and gutting entire teams, Musk is battling advertisers who have paused their ad spend on the service in response to his takeover, chaotic management style, and his own tweets. Musk launched a new Twitter Blue subscription for $7.99 a month on Wednesday, allowing anyone in supported countries to pay for verification.“We need roughly half of our revenue to be subscription,” says Musk in his email to employees, but the verification push is off to a... Continue reading…

Image: KFC Fast food chain KFC sent customers in Germany a message encouraging them to “treat [themselves]” to the restaurant’s food to mark the anniversary of Kristallnacht, the coordinated anti-Jewish attacks by the Nazi Party many consider to be the beginning of the Holocaust.

COURTESY OF NETFLIX Earlier this year, Netflix dropped a Dragon Age-shaped bomb on me when it announced that it was producing a new miniseries in collaboration with BioWare taking place in the Dragon Age universe. That miniseries, Dragon Age: Absolution, is almost here, due to hit the streaming service on December 9th, and we have a first look at the newest trailer.Dragon Age: Absolution is like Ocean’s Eleven, Dragon Age-style, wherein a group of misfit warriors, outcasts, and ne’er-do-wells team up to steal a mysterious artifact from a powerful mage. The show features the voice talents of Kimberly Brooks, Matt Mercer, Ashly Burch, and Phil LaMarr. But beyond the phenomenal voice actors and slick animation, I’m singularly concerned with one thing, and one... Continue reading…

If you’re worried that John Wick will finally meet his demise in the upcoming John Wick: Chapter 4, the character has some reassuring words for you: “maybe not.”After making its debut with a brief teaser at San Diego Comic-Con, we now have the first proper look at the fourth John Wick film. And while it offers plenty of familiar faces and action, the focus of the clip is the new: most notably, the new management, played by Bill Skarsgård. Apparently, he and John (Keanu Reeves) will have to fight to the death in single combat. As the official description explains, John “uncovers a path to defeating the High Table, but before he can earn his freedom, Wick must face off against a new enemy with powerful alliances across the globe and... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro Meanwhile, Musk’s personal lawyer is telling people ‘Elon puts rockets into space, he’s not afraid of the FTC.’ Continue reading…

Illustration by Laura Normand / The Verge Elon Musk has sent his first email to Twitter employees, warning them to prepare for a “dire” economy and putting an immediate end to remote work.In the email sent to Twitter staff late Wednesday evening and obtained by The Verge, Musk warned that a weaker economic environment in the US would mean difficulties for the company’s ads business. “Frankly, the economic picture ahead is dire, especially for a company like ours that is so dependent on advertising in a challenging economic climate,” he wrote. “Moreover, 70% of our advertising is brand, rather than specific performance, which makes us doubly vulnerable!”“Without significant subscription revenue, there is a good chance Twitter will not survive the upcoming economic downturn.”... Continue reading…