The Verge

Cooking Mama: Cuisine. | Image: Apple Apple has lined up a trio of notable Japanese developers for its June additions to Apple Arcade. Today the company announced four games coming to the subscription service next month, led by Konami’s Frogger and the Rumbling Ruins (a sequel to early Arcade game Frogger in Toy Town) which launches on June 3rd. That will be followed by Cooking Mama: Cuisine on June 17th, which mixes up the cooking formula by tasking players with figuring out ingredients instead of just picking a premade recipe.Rounding out the list is Air Twister, which comes out on June 24th from legendary designer Yu Suzuki, who is best known for titles like Shenmue and Out Run. Here’s the official description:

The Google Nest WiFi router needs your home address | Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge IssueGoogle Assistant didn’t respond to “Hey, Google, set a timer.”Quick fixReset home address in the Home appThe full storyOver the weekend, my partner and I decided it was finally time to upgrade our Wi-Fi router. We had been contently operating on a relatively ancient OnHub router until we got the warning from Google that it was turning off the controls for the OnHub as of this coming December. We bitched a bit and then bit that bullet and used a Google-offered discount to purchase a Nest WiFi router and point.Having decided on a lazy Memorial Day weekend, we thought that Monday would be the perfect day to finally get around to switching from the old router to the new — and it shouldn’t take more than a few minutes, right?Y... Continue reading…

Iogear’s Upstream 4K Game Capture Card with Party Chat. | Image: Iogear Iogear’s latest capture card offers up to 30Hz 4K gameplay capture or 120Hz 1080p capture for $129.99. That makes it significantly cheaper than Elgato’s equivalent card, the recently announced HD60 X, which has an MSRP of $199.99 and offers similar recording specs. Other features of the so-called UpStream 4K Game Capture Card with Party Chat include the ability to pass through (but not capture) 4K HDR footage at 60Hz, 1440p footage at 144Hz, and 1080p at 240Hz.Capture cards like these are aimed at content creators like Twitch streamers and YouTubers, giving them a quick and easy way to retrieve their gameplay footage ready to be broadcast online. The UpStream 4K Game Capture Card is an external device, so it connects to the broadcast... Continue reading…

Photo by Jon Akira Yamamoto/Gamma-Rapho via Getty Images Blood oxygen monitors said that hospitalized Asian, Black, and Hispanic COVID-19 patients had higher blood oxygen levels than they actually did, according to a new study. Oxygen levels are an important indicator of how serious someone’s case of COVID-19 is and what medications they’re eligible for — and that overestimation meant that it took longer for Black and Hispanic patients to get necessary treatment.Pulse oximeters, the standard way clinics and hospitals measure blood oxygen, work by sending red and infrared light through the fingertip and measuring the amount that’s reflected back. (Hemoglobin, the protein in blood that carries oxygen, absorbs more infrared light when it’s carrying oxygen). For years, studies have shown that... Continue reading…

The Barracuda Pro look gargantuan on this person’s head. | Image: Razer Building on the Barracuda X gaming headset it released in 2021, Razer has added two options to the lineup with the new Barracuda and the Barracuda Pro that focus both on dual wireless connectivity (2.4GHz via a USB-C dongle and Bluetooth) and providing excellent sound quality. The Pro sit at the top of the lineup, available starting today for $249.99, and what sets them apart from the midrange $159.99 Barracuda (along with the $99.99 Barracuda X) are a few things: active noise cancellation, plush leatherette ear pads (compared to a more breathable woven fabric), and a built-in THX Achromatic audio amplifier to deliver more powerful, accurate sound.Both of these new models feature bigger 50mm drivers (the Barracuda X and several other... Continue reading…

Photo by Colin Young-Wolff/Riot Games via Getty Images France’s national linguistic watchdog, the Académie Française, has banned the official usage of a number of phrases borrowed from English to describe the world of gaming.Instead of “esports,” government workers should refer to “jeu video de competition.” Instead of talk of “pro-gamers,” they must discuss the activity of the “joueur professionnel.” And instead of “streamers,” they must refer to the “joueur-animateur en direct” — and so on.The changes, reported by AFP, were made in coordination with the French Ministry of Culture and published in the government’s official legal almanac, the Journal officiel. This makes the changes binding for government employees, though not for the public at large.The Académie Française is tasked... Continue reading…

Tom Hanks as Geppetto. | Disney Out of all the modern Pinocchio projects in the pipeline, Disney’s upcoming feature from director Robert Zemeckis has always been one of the odds-on favorites to capture people’s imaginations if only because of the studio’s history with the iconic fairytale. While Pinocchio’s first teaser trailer only gives you the slightest taste of what Zemeckis has in store for audiences, it’s a strong sign that the movie will be able to recreate at least some of the original animated feature’s magic.Pinocchio’s first trailer only features a small look at the titular living toy (Benjamin Evan Ainsworth) as his puppet-making father Geppetto (Tom Hanks) first carves him from a block of wood. What you do see, though, is the time, attention, and love... Continue reading…

Sony WH-1000XM4 While Sony’s WH-1000XM5 recently debuted with a higher price and just a couple of improvements, you can pick up the still very good XM4 model for a low price at Woot. Normally $348, the silver model is available new for $259.99. It’s been about six months since we’ve seen a price beat this one. (Amazon sold them for $248 around Black Friday.)This XM4’s color scheme is called “silver” by Sony, but I consider it to be a creamy off-white with gold accents. This model touted features that we were happy to see return in the latest version, like the 30-hour battery life and the ability to pair to two Bluetooth sources simultaneously as well as its automatic play / pause function that occurs when you put on or take off the headphones.You can... Continue reading…

Danica Novgordoff It was a beach date that would transform Chris Michaud, though the memorable parts were neither the beach nor the date but what he saw that day. Both in their early 30s, summer of 2017, Chris had met Gemma recently, swiping on Bumble. They decided to head to the New Hampshire coast, not far from where they both lived in Portsmouth. Before arriving at the beach, Gemma suggested they do a little birding.In a marsh, they spotted egrets, a glossy ibis, and “some other cool stuff.” Later, they went to the beach, as promised, but Chris just kept thinking about the birds. This moment, in birding lingo, is called the “spark,” when a person sees something that inspires them to be a birder for life. (Nearly everyone I talked to for this story... Continue reading…

Fujifilm’s X-H2S camera with the upcoming 18-120mm powered zoom lens. | Image: Fujifilm Fujifilm’s latest X-Summit event is happening today in Omiya, Japan, and it brings several new announcements for its X-series of APS-C mirrorless cameras, including two cameras and two lenses. The headliner is the 26-megapixel X-H2S camera, which Fujifilm calls its new high-speed flagship model. It is the successor to 2018’s X-H1 and will launch on July 7th for $2,499 (without a lens).Joining this camera at release is a new XF 150-600mm super-telephoto zoom lens costing $1,999, with an XF 18-120mm powered zoom due out later in mid-September for $899. Fujifilm also teased another camera, the X-H2, with a new 40-megapixel non-stacked sensor that’s also coming in September.These new cameras are more pro DSLR-like than anything else in... Continue reading…

Save on drones, phones, and other fun tech this Memorial Day weekend | Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge Memorial Day marks the unofficial start to summer in the US. In addition to using the long weekend of the national holiday for travel and taking some well-earned rest and relaxation, it usually kick-starts lots of outdoor activities — like backyard cookouts, road trips to the beach, and camping trips. It’s also another shopping holiday, with discounts on offer for all kinds of home goods and some great tech, gadgets, and gear.There are plenty of deals on cool outdoorsy gear to take advantage even now, after the holiday — like a DJI Mini 2 drone kit. But there are also still great sales happening on indoor toys as well, like a range of Hisense TVs that are now available for up to $350 off. And let’s not forget travel essentials like Z... Continue reading…

An Android phone without Google. No Google apps, no Google Play Services, no peppy Google Assistant. No Google surveillance and data snooping, no incessant ad targeting, no feeling like privacy is a pointless exercise. Some companies, like Huawei, have been forced to figure out how to build this kind of device. A few others have tried for the sake of maintaining your privacy and as a way to fight back against the tyranny of Big Tech. None of it has ever really worked.The team at Murena has been working on de-Googling Android phones for the last few years, starting back in 2017 when Gael Duval created an operating system he originally called Eelo. “Like millions others, I’VE BECOME A PRODUCT OF GOOGLE,” Duval wrote in 2017. He said he... Continue reading…

iRobot has launched a new operating system for its household robot cleaners | Image: iRobot The robots are getting smarter. Two years after releasing iRobot Genius Home Intelligence, an AI-powered platform for its robot vacuums and mops, iRobot has announced its new software platform: iRobot OS. This operating system for its Roomba robot vacuum cleaners will take them to the next level, says Colin Angle CEO of iRobot, providing the household bots with a deeper understanding of your home and your habits, so they can clean both harder and smarter.While at launch the iRobot OS is not immediately adding features to existing products, it is laying the foundation for a larger leap. “The idea of moving from the iRobot Genius to iRobot OS is a declaration that the intelligence of the robot is going to be the primary differentiator of... Continue reading…

Externally, the laptop looks very similar to its predecessor. | Image: Microsoft Microsoft looks set to announce an updated version of its compact Surface Laptop Go, if an early retailer listing from Korea is to be believed.The biggest change with the Surface Laptop Go 2 appears to be its newer 11th-gen Intel CPU (an i5-1135G7), which replaces the 10th-gen model found in the original 2020 laptop. The Go 2 will ship with Windows 11 this time around, and a Google Translate of the retailer page says its webcam will have “improved HD camera performance.” Preorders are set to open on June 2nd, so an official announcement might not be far away. WinFuture previously reported that the laptop could have a starting price of $650.Otherwise, the new laptop appears to be very similar to its predecessor. It still has a... Continue reading…

Heart of Russia was the game’s next planned DLC. | Image: SCS Software Euro Truck Simulator 2 has shelved an upcoming Russia-themed expansion pack after the country’s invasion of Ukraine, its developer SCS Software has announced. In a blog post, the Czech Republic-based developer said that it has cancelled the imminent release of the Heart of Russia DLC pack “so that it is not perceived in any way as being in support of or tolerance of the aggression.”Euro Truck Simulator 2 has become a cult hit since its release in 2012, leading its developer to support it with over half a dozen major pieces of DLC in the years since. These packs have expanded the game’s map and added new countries for players to drive through. When it was officially announced in March 2021, SCS said the Heart of Russia expansion wouldn’t... Continue reading…

Photo by Mike Stobe/Getty Images Epic Games has announced plans to host an in-person Fortnite competition in November, its first major in-person competitive Fortnite event since the Fortnite World Cup in 2019.The upcoming event, the FNCS Invitational 2022, will take place on November 12th and 13th at the Raleigh Convention Center in North Carolina. “We will be inviting a selection of top FNCS Duos from around the world who will have the opportunity to compete in a single lobby for a share of a $1,000,000 prize pool,” Epic wrote in a blog post bylined by “The Fortnite Team.”However, the company stresses that player health and safety are “the number one priority for holding any in-person event” and warns that it may have the reschedule the event if “public health... Continue reading…

Photo by Mitchell Clark / The Verge Rivian’s Charly Mwangi, its executive vice president of manufacturing engineering and a former Tesla exec, is leaving the company as part of a bigger shakeup splitting up parts of the company, according to Bloomberg. “The reorganization calls for splitting the commercial business, which includes delivery vans made for Amazon, from the retail side of the company that produces the R1T plug-in pickup truck and R1S sport-utility vehicle,” Bloomberg reports. The company’s new COO, Frank Klein, will now oversee “many” senior manufacturing and supply chain employees. The Wall Street Journal also reported on the shakeup.The changes are happening as the company is starting to ramp up production of its in-demand R1T and R1S electric vehicles. In... Continue reading…

A photo of the Pixel 7 prototype. | Image: eBay listing An alleged prototype of Google’s upcoming Pixel 7 smartphone has been posted on eBay, giving us our first look at the new phone in the wild months ahead of its scheduled fall release (via Android guru Mishaal Rahman).Google just revealed the phone a few weeks ago at Google I/O, and what we can see in the prototype matches up with what Google has already shown. The distinctive camera bar is back, and this year it’s an aluminum bar with cutouts for the cameras. And the alleged prototype’s casing is a deep black that looks just like one of the colors Google showed off at I/O. Image: Google One of Google’s official Pixel 7 and Pixel 7 Pro images — including that deep black. The eBay listing includes a few photos... Continue reading…

Mixed reality forecasts are a big part of TWC’s future. | Image: The Weather Channel The Weather Channel is not trying to win you over by spending big on its version of House of Cards. It’s not bidding on The Office next time it comes up, nor is it interested in NFL games. “Our tentpole is Mother Nature,” says Nora Zimmett, TWC’s chief content officer. “And she’s always delivering weather.”TWC launched a dedicated streaming service this month. It costs $2.99 a month or $29.99 a year, and it is... well, it’s The Weather Channel. The app’s main screen is an always-on stream that replicates exactly what you’d see on cable. That, Zimmett says, is what viewers were actually looking for. “We looked at our audience and heard, ‘where can I get The Weather Channel if I don’t want to pay $200 a month for a traditional bundle?’”... Continue reading…

Nikos Nikolopoulos Welcome to the inner beauty pageant Continue reading…

Image: DeLorean DeLorean Motor Company has revealed the first images of the Alpha 5 electric vehicle (EV), the brand’s attempt at resurrecting the DeLorean name in an all-electric form. Staying true to the classic ‘80s-era DeLorean known for its appearance in Back to the Future, the Alpha 5 comes with those iconic gull-wing doors and can reach 60mph in about 2.99 seconds (or 88mph in 4.35 seconds, if you’re curious).Before we dive into the details, it’s worth noting the company behind the Alpha 5 isn’t actually the same one behind the original DeLorean vehicles — that company went defunct in 1982. An unrelated Texas-based company, which supplies replacement parts to the owners of vintage DeLorean vehicles, snapped up the rights to the DeLorean brand... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge They do not go together like peanut butter and jelly Continue reading…

Photo by Becca Farsace / The Verge Amazon is ending support for its Cloud Cam security camera and offering owners a free Blink Mini to replace it. MacRumors noted the change late last week, and The Verge obtained a copy of an email sent to customers announcing the change. Cloud Cam owners will be able to use their cameras and download video until December 2nd of this year, after which all recordings will be deleted and the hardware will no longer function. Customers with the Cloud Cam Key Edition will also lose the ability to connect to smart locks, although they can get a free fourth-generation Echo to replace the functionality.“As the number of Alexa smart home devices continues to grow, we are focusing efforts on Ring, Blink, and other technologies that make your home... Continue reading…

The Pitaka MagEZ Case Pro comes with a magnetic charging puck that attaches to the back. | Image: Pitaka If you’ve wanted MagSafe-style convenient charging on an iPad Mini, Pitaka’s latest case is here for you. The new $79 MagEZ Case Pro for the sixth-generation iPad Mini (aka the iPad Mini 6) has magnetic points on the back that pass power through the iPad’s USB-C port when used with the included pad. Or you can use it with the $129 MagEZ Charging Stand, which elevates the tablet and provides a second Qi charging spot in its base for a phone or headphones.There are some downsides to this approach. Pitaka’s case doesn’t make use of the magnets built into the back of the iPad Mini, and it blocks the USB-C port from access, leaving you with the magnetic pad as the only way to charge the device. Forget about transferring any data over a wired... Continue reading…

An early image of Google’s upcoming tablet, released earlier this month. | Image: Google Google’s upcoming Pixel Tablet might support the cross-manufacturer USI (Universal Stylus Initiative) standard, allowing it to be used with a range of third party styluses, if a recently-discovered entry in the USI’s list of certified products is to be believed. The entry, which we spotted via NuGiz, lists a device from Google with the product name “Tangor” and the model number “Tablet,” which are presumably placeholder names for the Android-powered tablet Google announced earlier this month.USI is an industry-wide stylus standard that Google joined in 2018. It’s already supported across a range of Chromebooks, allowing them to be used with a variety of styluses from different manufacturers. But while there are plenty of proprietary... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge RealityOS — the name Apple is reportedly using for the operating system running on its rumored virtual and augmented reality headset — has appeared in a trademark filing spotted by Parker Ortolani. Bloomberg News was first to report the “reality operating system” branding back in 2017, and references to the name have appeared in Apple’s software.The trademark application hasn’t officially been filed by Apple, but it’s common practice for large companies to apply for trademarks under one-off company names — like Realityo Systems LLC, in this case — in the state of Delaware for the sole purpose of maintaining anonymity.The trademark application is the latest evidence that Apple is on the cusp of announcing its long-rumored headset. It... Continue reading…

It measures 6.5 feet in length with both blades attached. | Image: Hasbro Hasbro has designed a lifelike lightsaber just in time for the premiere of the new Obi-Wan Kenobi series, one that might be the toymaker’s most ambitious — and expensive — replica yet. The Black Series Reva Force FX Elite Lightsaber costs $499 and measures a total of 6.5 feet long with both blades attached. It’s modeled after the lightsaber wielded by the Third Sister, also known as Reva, a cold and callous Inquisitor set on hunting down Obi-Wan.Just like the iconic lightsabers we’ve seen held by Inquisitors in past Star Wars series, you can take off one of the blades, as well as remove half of the circle in the center of the lightsaber. There are a number of cool lighting and sound effects that you can activate too, and they work... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Apple’s attempt to dismiss an amended antitrust lawsuit filed by the creator of Cydia, an app store for jailbroken iPhones, has failed (via Reuters). California District Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers denied Apple’s motion to dismiss the case on Thursday and is giving the company 21 days to respond to Cydia’s refiled complaint.Cydia developer Jay Freeman (who also goes by the username Saurik), first filed a lawsuit against Apple in 2020. The complaint alleges Apple “has wrongfully acquired and maintained monopoly power” in iOS app distribution and payments, ultimately “depriving” third-party app stores of “the ability to compete with the App Store.” Cydia emerged before the Apple App Store even existed, and allowed users to find and... Continue reading…

Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge Apple may finally bring always-on display to the upcoming iPhone 14 Pro and Pro Max. According to a report from Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman, Apple could introduce the feature with iOS 16, allowing the iPhone to display a limited amount of information even when it’s locked.Gurman says the iPhone’s version of always-on mode could work similarly to the way it does with the Apple Watch Series 5 and up — the iPhone 14 Pro and Pro Max will drop the lock screen’s frame rate with always-on mode enabled, letting them conserve energy while the display remains powered on. It’s unclear if the new iPhone will use the same low-temperature polycrystalline oxide (LTPO) display Apple uses in newer Watch models. These low-powered screens play a huge part in... Continue reading…

Image: Aspyr Media Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic (KOTOR) II: The Sith Lords is heading to the Nintendo Switch on June 8th, as announced at this year's Star Wars Celebration event. The sequel to the classic KOTOR RPG is supposed to feature some performance enhancements and resolution upgrades, as well as a Restored Content DLC set to arrive post-launch. Image: Aspyr Media As you might’ve guessed, the Restored Content DLC comes with the content that Obsidian Entertainment and Aspyr Media, the game’s developers, left out during their rush to launch the game in 2004. There’s already a fanmade mod for KOTOR II on Steam that restores some of this lost content, but it’s unclear how similar the official DLC will be when it comes out.Y... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Twitter started testing Circle earlier this month with a limited group, and now it looks like it’s starting to roll out to more users (via Android Police). The feature works a lot like Instagram’s Close Friends, as it allows users to send out tweets to a specific group of people rather than all of Twitter.Right now, it’s unclear how many people currently have access to Circle. It looks like more users (myself included) are finally seeing the feature pop up when they start composing a tweet, but some users still report not having access quite yet. Twitter spokesperson Joseph Nunez told The Verge it’s still in testing. “We are still currently testing Twitter Circle with a group of people across iOS, Android and Web globally,” Nunez said.... Continue reading…

The Ayn Loki inherits much of its design from the Ayn Odin. | Image: Ayn Ayn, the maker of the Odin Android handheld, is releasing a lineup of what it calls the “most affordable” portable Windows gaming consoles yet (via Liliputing). The cheapest of the bunch starts at just $299 — $100 less than the 64GB Steam Deck.Ayn announced the news in a YouTube video and a series of posts on Instagram, giving us a look at what we can expect for looks, tech specs, and pricing. While the entry-level $299 Loki Mini comes with 64GB of storage and an Intel Alder Lake U chip, the standard Loki handheld has an AMD Ryzen 5 6600U chip with three different storage options: 64GB, 256GB, and 512GB, each costing $499, $599, and $699, respectively. The $799 Loki Max features an upgraded AMD Ryzen 7 6800U chip and 512GB of storage.... Continue reading…

comcast Comcast has received a patent for a smart speaker — one with a very unusual design, to say the least (thanks to @SteveDonohue on Twitter for pointing this out). Instead of opting for a spherical shape that comes with the Amazon Echo and Apple HomePod Mini, or even the rounded rectangular look of the Google Nest Audio device, a sketch shows what appears to be a speaker with a sloped top and a wide base.Online records show that Comcast first filed for the patent last year, but it didn’t get approved until April 2022. As seen in the sketch, the device seems to have playback controls on the side of the speaker, with an additional button and a small stand on the bottom. Image: Comcast via USPTO The smart speaker... Continue reading…

The 2022 iPad Air looks a lot like the 2020 model, but with faster performance. | Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge It’s officially Memorial Day Weekend. Time to get the grill going, throw some drinks in the cooler, and saddle up for some hot deals. We’ve been covering sales and discounts for Memorial Day all week, and we’ve got some fresh ones for your Saturday.First off, Apple’s latest iPad Air with expanded 256GB storage is down to $679 at Amazon. This $70 discount is the best price in over a month for this configuration. If you don’t feel that you need the extra storage, the 64GB model is $569.99 (about $30 off) at Amazon and Walmart. Though the 256GB helps ensure you don’t run short on space too quickly.This latest generation of the iPad Air looks a lot like the previous model from 2020, but it’s been given a big performance boost by borrowing... Continue reading…

Vecna in his natural habitat. | Image: Netflix Vecna is here to terrorize Hawkins Continue reading…

Photo by James Bareham / The Verge While Google’s Chromebooks are all about online services, sometimes you need a good old-fashioned printout to accompany your digital adventures.Printing from a Chromebook has gotten a lot easier over the years, but it still isn’t always obvious how to get started or which paths to embrace. Follow this guide, and with any luck, you’ll be churning out paper from your cloud-centric computer in no time.[Note: unfortunately, the Cloud Print system, which made it a lot easier to print using any cloud-connected device, was relegated to the Google graveyard in 2020. This means that some older printers may not be able to print from a Chromebook, period. Before purchasing a printer, especially a used one, make sure it’s compatible with ChromeOS.... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge The recent collapse of the TerraUSD (UST) stablecoin caught the crypto market by surprise. For people who saw Terra as a more secure asset compared to other, more openly volatile cryptocurrencies, and invested heavily in the coin or its associated Anchor protocol, they are now dealing with the aftermath as they let go of assets to try and make up for their lost nest eggs.A report by The Wall Street Journal on Friday told the stories of several of these investors, including one doctor who explained how the fall of TerraUSD is affecting his family’s future.

It claims the company intimidated workers. | Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Workers at the Cumberland Mall Apple store will no longer hold a union election in June, according to a report from Bloomberg. The Communications Workers of America (or CWA), the union attempting to organize the store, says it withdrew the request to hold an election because “Apple’s repeated violations of the National Labor Relations Act have made a free and fair election impossible.”The vote, which was scheduled to begin on June 2nd, would’ve been the first union election at a US Apple store had it gone through. Now, that title will go to a store in Maryland, barring that petition also being withdrawn. Workers at the Towson Town Center store are set to start voting in person on June 15th.The union says Apple intimidated workers and... Continue reading…

Meta’s new Privacy Policy menu | Image: Meta As it occasionally does, the company formerly known as Facebook has produced a new revision of its Terms of Service and updated its privacy policy. The old Facebook Data Policy is now Meta’s Privacy Policy, rewritten “to make it easier to understand and to reflect the latest products we offer.”With this revision, Meta “is not collecting, using or sharing your data in new ways based on this policy update and we still do not sell your information,” according to the company. Instead, this update tweaks the language and adds examples to help people understand what each segment is about.“the status quo is not good for privacy”After reading through the new policy and comparing it to the old one, this appears to hold up, for better or... Continue reading…

Blizzard Diablo Immortal is hell, literally, but playing it doesn’t have to be. Ahead of the game’s June 2nd release date, the Diablo team at Blizzard talked about some of the accessibility features they’ve built into Diablo Immortal to make hell that works for everyone.Controller support was something really important to bring to Diablo Immortal.“You will be able to play Diablo Immortal with controllers on both mobile devices and on PC,” Blizzard wrote in its accessibility blog. “Many controls — including skills, accessing chat, and more — can be remapped from the controller tab of the settings menu.”In addition to controller support, Blizzard is also sending Diablo Immortal reviewers a Razer Kishi controller that turns your phone into a... Continue reading…

Praise the servers. | Image: FromSoftware The servers for the Dark Souls series have been offline for PC players for months due to a remote code execution (RCE) exploit that could let hackers take over your computer, but developer FromSoftware is in the process of restoring the servers, according to a PC Gamer article published Friday.“We are currently in the process of restoring the online servers for the Dark Souls series on PC,” FromSoftware said to PC Gamer in an email. “We plan to restore online service for each game progressively, bringing back servers for Dark Souls 3 once we complete the necessary work to correct the problem. We will provide additional updates as soon as the restoration schedule is finalized. We want to thank all our players for your patience and... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Google’s latest Chromebook update adds a feature that tells you if your USB-C cable has limited functionality, the company announced Friday. USB-C cables can have widely varying capabilities, offering things like different charging and data transfer speeds on a cable-by-cable basis, so this new Chromebook feature seems like it could be a useful tool to help troubleshoot issues.“Eligible Chromebooks will notify you if the USB-C cable you’re using won’t support displays, or isn’t performing ideally for your laptop,” Google says in a blog post. “You’ll also get a notification if the cable you’re using doesn’t support the high performance USB4 / Thunderbolt 3 standards that your Chromebook does.” The new feature is coming first to... Continue reading…

The scale-back seems significant. | Photo by Allison Johnson / The Verge Samsung is reportedly scaling back the number of phones it’s planning on producing in 2022, from 310 million to 280 million, according to SamMobile, which cites a report from Korean outlet Maeil Business News. In absolute terms, that’s still quite a lot of phones, but it’s a relatively sharp decrease from the company’s original goal (and from the reported number of phones it and its partners produced last year). It seems that there may be a trend of manufacturers preparing for the economy to get worse before it gets better.Reportedly, the lowered production targets will affect phones across its lineup, from low-end models to flagships. In a way, cutting the production of its less expensive phones sounds counter-intuitive — wouldn’t more... Continue reading…

Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge Analogue Pocket’s long-awaited 1.1 update will finally be arriving in July, Analogue announced in a short blog post on Friday.The Analogue Pocket OS v1.1 release will include beta versions of the Library, Memories, and FPGA development features, according to the blog post. You can read more about the first two features in our article from October; the Library will be a huge historical archive about retro games, while Memories will let you capture and load save states as well as capture screenshots.It seems like the development feature will allow developers to take advantage of the Analogue’s second FPGA (field-programmable gate array). “Pocket is designed to be as easy as possible to develop and port FPGA cores to,” Analogue says on... Continue reading…

Kristen Radtke / The Verge The last few years have been incredibly hard for almost everyone, so now that summer is about here, it’s a good idea to step outside and decompress a bit with whatever activity suits you best — whether it’s a favorite sport, a long hike, overnight camping, bird-watching, bicycling, or just sitting on a beach and watching the waves come in.As we’ve done for the last couple of years, we asked some of our colleagues from The Verge what they were planning to take with them in their outdoor escapes. Here are some of their recommendations, including outdoor tech, camera gear, rugged footwear, and gadgets that help them take it easy.Outdoor techZMI PowerPack 20000Months predominantly spent indoors did wonders for my battery anxiety. Not... Continue reading…

Choose from Computer, Echo, Amazon or... Ziggy | Photo by Dan Seifert / The Verge If you’re getting tired of saying “Alexa” to get your smart speaker’s attention, or if Amazon’s voice assistant keeps thinking you’ve called on it when you haven’t, it might be time to try a new name.Perhaps you’d prefer to invoke the capabilities of the assistant with the word “Computer,” and mimic life on the Starship Enterprise from the comfort of your home. Or maybe you’re one of the parents of the 6,000 babies who were named Alexa in 2015 before the AI was a household name (a number that unsurprisingly plummeted to 1,900 by 2019).Either way, it’s simple to change the Amazon voice assistant’s wake word, and there are a few different words to choose from. Here’s a look at how you can evict Alexa in favor of a new wake word. ... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge The US Securities and Exchange Commission is scrutinizing Elon Musk’s initial disclosure that he’d taken a substantial stake in Twitter. In a letter sent last month, the SEC told Musk that he “does not appear” to have disclosed his acquisition of Twitter shares within the agency’s required 10-day window. The agency also suggested that Musk likely used the wrong form when he eventually disclosed his stake, using a document that wasn’t meant for someone who was hoping to make changes at the company being bought into.Reports have trickled out that the SEC was looking into Musk’s disclosure, but this is the first public indication of the inquiry. The letter, filed April 4th but just now made public, requests clarifications from Musk on why... Continue reading…