The Verge

The MacBook Air equipped with Apple’s M1 processor is our favorite affordable laptop and is often on sale. | Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge If you want a great laptop, you’re going to have to fork over a ton of money, right? Not necessarily. There are dozens of good laptops on the market at various price points. While it can feel overwhelming to find the right one for your needs (some are better suited for, say, college students, whereas others are ideal for gamers), that’s why we’ve come up with this list of some of the best laptop deals available right now.In addition to the latest deals, we’ll share each discounted model’s best features (and downsides) to give you more clarity during your shopping journey. And if you need to do more research, you can also check out our guides to the best laptops on the market and the top cheap laptops as well. Photo by... Continue reading…

Image: New Line Cinema Embracer Group’s purchase of Middle-earth Enterprises opens up a wealth of opportunities to put all kinds of new spins on the characters, stories, and places of J.R.R. Tolkien’s Middle-earth. I am a horse girl at heart, and so a video game company purchasing the various rights to the Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit universe means my dreams of a horse game involving the Rohirrim are that much closer to fruition. But Embracer didn’t just buy the gaming rights to Middle-earth; it bought (almost) all the rights. What else can Embracer do with all those juicy IPs, and how much of Middle-earth does the Swedish holding group own?Does Embracer Group own The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit?Short answer: no. Long answer: Nooooooo. To be clear,... Continue reading…

Absorbent booms are used to contain aqueous film forming foams (AFFF) from spilling into the surface water in Bensalem Township, Pennsylvania, on February 7th, 2019. AFFF used in fighting fires can contain PFAS. | Photo by Bastiaan Slabbers / NurPhoto via Getty Images “Forever chemicals” have a reputation for being indestructible, persistent, and just about everywhere — including many places where they shouldn’t be, like our drinking water.But now, there’s excitement about a new way to essentially smash these molecules to bits so that they don’t cause environmental and health problems. It’s described in research published today in the journal Science. There are caveats to the process, but to many experts’ delight, it’s surprisingly simple for such a tough substance.“It truly goes against everything I’ve known for the past 10 years. And that’s really cool because someone else can then take this information and exploit it and adapt it to technologies that we need,” says Shira Joudan, an environmental... Continue reading…

Basically a price hike. | Photo by Mitchell Clark / The Verge Rivian canceled the entry-level version of the R1T, effectively raising the price of its base model electric truck by over $6,000, according to an online forum for customers and later confirmed by the company.The company said in an email to customers that it was canceling the base “Explore” model, which started at $67,500, in favor of the $73,000 “Adventure” trim. Customers can either upgrade to the more expensive trim level or cancel their orders, the company advised. Rivian has also “discontinued” the less expensive trim for its R1S electric SUV, which is expected to start shipping to customers later this year.In an email to preorder holders, a copy of which was shared with The Verge by Rivian spokesperson Tanya Miller, the company... Continue reading…

Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge Update August 18th, 4:00PM ET: Sony has started another restock event, giving you another change to score a PlayStation 5. Click here to join the queue.It’s been a minute since Sony last offered the PlayStation 5 via its digital storefront. Last month, the company ran public restocks three days in a row, allowing anyone with a PlayStation Network account to line up online for a chance to buy one. And frankly, recent restock events have been fairly easy to breeze through and nab a console. So now is the time to line up, as Sony has a restock going on right now.Once you wait in the queue and your turn comes around (keep your volume on and you’ll hear a chime) you should be able to shop for a PlayStation 5 console and a selection of... Continue reading…

Photo by Nate Smallwood / Getty Images Democratic Senate hopeful John Fetterman’s campaign to troll Republican opponent Dr. Mehmet Oz into defeat has dominated Facebook and Twitter over the last few weeks. But on Thursday, the campaign announced it is launching an official TikTok account to expand the reach of its already viral videos.The campaign formally launched the TikTok account with a video of Fetterman wearing his signature black hoodie and speaking directly to the camera. In the short video, Fetterman makes an expected jab at Oz and the festering controversy over the authenticity of the Trump-endorsed candidate’s Pennsylvania roots.“I’m on TikTok now. Woo hoo!” Fetterman says at the end of the video.The campaign’s decision to join TikTok comes on the heels of a... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge In February, when the Def Con hacker conference released its annual transparency report, the public learned that one of the most prominent figures in the field of social engineering had been permanently banned from attending.For years, Chris Hadnagy had enjoyed a high-profile role as the leader of the conference’s social engineering village. But Def Con’s transparency report stated that there had been multiple reports of him violating the conference’s code of conduct. In response, Def Con banned Hadnagy from the conference for life; in 2022, the social engineering village would be run by an entirely new team.Now, Hadnagy has filed a lawsuit against the conference alleging defamation and infringement of contractual relations.The l... Continue reading…

There are many, many streaming services that people are spending their time with. | Image: Comcast More people spent their TV time watching a streaming service than cable or broadcast last month, according to a report from Nielsen (via The Wall Street Journal). The audience measurement company says that this is the first time ever that streaming services have accounted for the biggest chunk of people’s viewing habits.The report says that services like Netflix, YouTube, and Hulu made up 34.8 percent of people’s watch time, while cable made up 34.4 percent. Broadcast TV made up for 21.6 percent. Added together, traditional TV services still beat streaming, but streaming had the biggest piece of the pie. Image: Nielsen No one streaming service came close to beating cable on its own. Neilson says that part of... Continue reading…

Image: Lego In 1822, Augustin Fresnel invented a lens made of ringed prisms that could concentrate beams of light more effectively than reflectors or huge convex pieces of glass. These days, they’re used in spotlights and even most VR headsets. But originally, he designed them for lighthouses — it’s the invention that’s said to have saved a million ships — and today, Lego has announced a motorized lighthouse with its very own fresnel lens. Image: Lego Make no mistake: it’s a toy — and, at $300 for the 2,065-piece set, a pretty expensive one, too! But Lego’s new light-up Motorized Lighthouse is packed with clever touches, like most of its modern sets aimed at adult budgets. It’ll go on sale on September 1st.I’m particularly... Continue reading…

Image: New Line Cinemas The Embracer Group is a doozy of a media company. It’s 11 parent companies in a massive trench coat that are themselves composed of several more parent companies that own publishers and developers and the rights to video game franchises both AAA and indie. Earlier today, it added a bunch more companies to its roster including Limited Run Games, Maneater developer Tripwire Interactive, and the intellectual property rights to parts of The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit universes.To list all of Embracer Group’s companies and assets would take an unreasonable amount of time and space and would get kinda boring. So here are the high points in the company’s portfolio.What video game franchises I’ve heard of does Embracer now own?Embracer... Continue reading…

Illustration by Samar Haddad / The Verge Google uses TLS (what is called standard encryption) to keep your emails relatively safe in transit. (The service does also have the more secure S/MIME encryption, but it’s only available for business and educational institutions.) There are, however, other ways you can keep your personal data a little safer, and one is by using Google’s confidential mode.Google introduced its confidential mode for Gmail in 2018. The setting allows people to send messages that can expire and prevents recipients from copying their contents, forwarding them to others, or downloading them.You can use confidential mode on a desktop or through the Gmail app on mobile, though whichever you use, you’ll need to activate confidential mode each time you send a... Continue reading…

Image: Krave Nic Flavored gummies are the new nicotine product in the crosshairs of the Food and Drug Administration, which is continuing its years-long crackdown on nicotine use by teens and young adults.The agency announced today that it issued a warning letter to Krave Nic, which sells gummies containing 1 milligram of nicotine each in three flavors — Blueraz, Cherry Bomb, and Pineapple. The company needs FDA authorization to manufacture or sell this type of product, the agency said in its statement.“Nicotine gummies are a public health crisis just waiting to happen among our nation’s youth, particularly as we head into a new school year,” said FDA Commissioner Robert Califf in a statement.This type of nicotine product is a relatively new entry... Continue reading…

Triller acquired Swizz Beatz and Timbaland’s Verzuz in 2021. | Photo by Paras Griffin / Getty Images for Revolt Timbaland and Swizz Beatz are suing Triller after the short-form video platform allegedly failed to make a $28 million payment for the acquisition of their live music face-off series, Verzuz.The music-producing pair claim Triller hasn’t followed through on any of its required payments since January. According to the lawsuit, which was filed in a Los Angeles County Superior Court on Tuesday, Triller allegedly failed to pay Timbaland and Swizz Beatz in January and later agreed to a settlement that would require it to pay $18 million in March and $1 million every month for the next 10 months. But those payments supposedly haven’t come through either.Triller claims it has paid Swizz Beatz and Timbaland “millions in cash and in stock”“To... Continue reading…

Kristen Radtke / The Verge Instagram is tired of creators making their videos in Reels and then heading over to TikTok. While using Reels this week, The Verge discovered that when trying to download an edited clip to an iPhone, the audio from the clip disappeared. This means if you want to export the footage from Reels to use in another app, you have to actually post the Reel first in order to save the sound. As recently as late July, it was possible to download the clip with audio and use it in a separate app — like, say, TikTok — without posting it first.The audio was stripped out on three iPhones we tested, though exports with audio were still possible with Instagram on Android. Instagram did not respond to multiple requests for comment on whether this was a... Continue reading…

A lower starting price in theory but a $5 increase in practice | Image: Visible Verizon is making some big changes to its Visible cell service, which is meant to be a simpler and more affordable alternative to the carrier’s mainline options. On Wednesday, it replaced Visible’s single plan with two options, called Visible and Visible Plus, and is doing away with the Party Pay discount that let most of the carrier’s customers get the now-legacy Visible Unlimited plan for only $25 a month.Current Visible customers will still have the option of sticking with the old plan and price, though there are some details about that we’ll get into in a moment. (Side note: annoyingly, I’m one of those customers, and I first heard about these changes from 9to5Google — as far as I can tell, I haven’t gotten any emails or texts... Continue reading…

The Voyager A1600 is full of potential that doesn’t go far enough Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge New HBO Max owner Warner Bros. Discovery has been playing fast and loose with content recently on the streaming service as a result of fallout from the messy megamerger. Even though it’s been shedding shows and movies from the service to save money — and even canceling late-stage projects — it’s trying to course-correct any lost subscriptions by offering a new deal to bring in subscribers.New and returning subscribers can get 30 percent off a one-year subscription to HBO Max when signing up and prepaying the full year by October 30th. This knocks the ad-free plan down to $104.99 instead of $149.99 for the year (equivalent to $8.75 per month), and the ad-supported plan goes from $99.99 to $69.99 (equivalent to $5.83 per month).It may be... Continue reading…

Want Big Ten football? Good luck finding it. | Photo by Steven King/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images The Big Ten Conference announced a new slate of sports TV and streaming deals on Thursday, which will reportedly bring the conference more than $8 billion over the next seven years. It’s the richest rights deal in the history of college sports, with most of the money coming from Fox, CBS, and NBC — and most of the games coming to linear TV. There’s a streaming element, too, mostly through Peacock and Paramount Plus. But the big takeaway from the latest big-money deal? Watching sports is only getting more confusing and more expensive.Here’s the basic rundown of the deal as it pertains to the upcoming football season: Fox got the best package of Big Ten games, which will kick off at noon on Saturdays during the season. CBS gets a handful... Continue reading…

The $50 discount also comes with digital currency for Fortnite and Rocket League. | Photo by Tom Warren / The Verge If you’re still on the hunt for an Xbox, our deals team has got you covered. The Xbox Series S, the slimmer and paler cousin of the Series X, is on sale right now at Adorama for $249.99 instead of its usual $299.99. Discounts as steep as this are pretty rare, making this a great opportunity to pick up the disc-less variant of Microsoft’s next-gen console if you’re okay with making a few compromises. The current $50 discount also applies to the Fortnite and Rocket League Bundle, which comes with codes for 1,000 Fortnite V-Bucks and 1,000 Rocket League credits (a $16 value in total).The Series S touts many of the same features as the Series X but lacks a disc drive, which may be an annoyance for some players. Some more notable differences... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge YouTube knows you’re resharing videos you made on YouTube Shorts — and the company wants to be credited.In a post about new features shared yesterday, a YouTube representative said that the company would start adding watermarks to Shorts videos when a creator downloads them. Some creators will make shortform videos in one app, download their video, and repost the same clip to other platforms. In the post, YouTube is clear about why it’s adding watermarks.“We’ve added a watermark to the Shorts you download so your viewers can see that the content you’re sharing across platforms can be found on YouTube Shorts,” it reads.All the major shortform video platforms are fighting for creators and viewers, and other companies have gone about the... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Google is making a series of updates to Search that aim to tackle clickbait and improve the relevancy of search results, prioritizing original and authentic reviews over recycled information that passes around aggregator sites. The changes in the form of two updates are being rolled out in the weeks ahead, according to a blog post announcing the ranking updates.“We know people don’t find content helpful if it seems like it was designed to attract clicks rather than inform readers. So starting next week for English users globally, we’re rolling out a series of improvements to Search to make it easier for people to find helpful content made specifically by and for people,” reads the announcement. “This update will help make sure that... Continue reading…

This will be the one and only Pixy model. | Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge Snap just introduced its selfie drone, Pixy, in April, but the company won’t be developing any future versions of the product, according to The Wall Street Journal. Snap CEO Evan Spiegel apparently told employees at a Q&A session about the choice to no longer develop the Pixy line. A source told the publication the company plans to sell the current Pixy, and that model is still available for purchase on the Pixy website.The Pixy is a small, lightweight drone that’s designed to be more approachable than other drones. The $230 device launches right from the palm of your hand so it can film footage that syncs back to the Snapchat app so you can share it with your friends.In an interview with The Verge, Spiegel had teased that the... Continue reading…

Image: Dodge For those bemoaning the imminent demise of Dodge’s gas-powered muscle cars, the automaker has a message: fear not the future, for it is electric.Dodge revealed its first electric muscle car, the Charger Daytona SRT concept, at an event this week at its Pontiac, Michigan-based headquarters. The two-door coupe is positioned as a preview for the automaker’s first EV, which is expected to go into production in 2024.“The Dodge Charger Daytona SRT Concept exists because performance made us do it,” said Dodge CEO Tim Kuniskis in a statement. “Dodge is about muscle, attitude and performance, and the brand carries that chip on its shoulder and into the BEV segment through a concept loaded with patents, innovations, and performance features... Continue reading…

The crypto market has been hit hard by plummeting valuations and trading volume. | Image: Alex Castro / The Verge In June, cryptocurrency exchange Crypto.com announced it was laying off around 260 employees, or 5 percent of its workforce, due to the widespread downturn in the crypto market. But layoffs did not end there.Sources in and outside the firm tell The Verge that the company has quietly let go of hundreds more employees since the initial layoffs. These new layoffs have not been publicized, and it’s difficult to estimate their exact number. Crypto.com has been trying to limit knowledge of the extent of these departures even within the company, with CEO Kris Marszalek refusing to answer a question about the total figure in a recent employees-only town hall meeting.All this suggests that Crypto.com — one of the most visible players in the... Continue reading…

Kristen Radtke / The Verge; Getty Images Apple Podcasts is introducing a pair of new top 100 charts today that track subscription podcasts and subscription podcast channels. And as of day one, Amazon is at the top.Amazon’s stable of shows dominates the new charts. Morbid, SmartLess, and Something Was Wrong, which release early for subscribers of Amazon-owned Wondery Plus, nab the top three spots among subscriber shows in the US. The type of limited-time exclusivity arrangement, which is looser than the platform-exclusive arrangement that Spotify has with shows like The Joe Rogan Experience and Call Her Daddy, appears to be working in driving subscriptions, even if it’s away from Amazon’s platforms.Wondery Plus, meanwhile, is the top subscription channel overall in the US,... Continue reading…

Samar Haddad / The Verge BeReal is a fun app. But one of its less fun qualities is the element of surprise. You don’t see a preview of yourself while the front-facing camera is shooting, and you don’t know exactly when it’s taking your picture. As a consequence, if you’re in a hurry or otherwise distracted, you may end up posting a photo that you’re unhappy with for the world to see.Don’t worry: the app doesn’t make it easy, but you can delete BeReals. You can only do it once a day, though — so if you want to make another post, the second one had better be good. Additionally, if you delete a BeReal, you won’t be able to delete the next one you post.If you’ve thought things through and you’re sure you want to delete your BeReal, here’s how to do it.How to... Continue reading…

Apple’s new MacBook Air costs $200 more than the prior model, while Apple is still selling the older one for the same price it was two years ago. | Photo by Becca Farsace / The Verge For many, this summer has been the season of inflation. After fuel prices spiked earlier this year (and have only slowly started to come down), it seems like everything we had to pay for suddenly became more expensive. Outside of the gas station, this is most likely felt at the grocery store, where staples like bread, pasta, vegetables, and other consumables all cost more now than they did a year (or even just a few months) ago.Inflation has also impacted the price of tech products, like smartphones and laptops, but it can be harder to spot. Unlike food or other consumables, technology products have a long production cycle, often taking 18 months or more to go from an idea to a store shelf. Many companies set a product’s target price at... Continue reading…

Kristen Radtke / The Verge; Shutterstock Adam Neumann is trying to make it work Continue reading…

It’s the best Android smartwatch you can get... for now Continue reading…

Cameo Live offers 10-minute video calls. | Image: Cameo Celeb shoutout service Cameo is taking another swing at selling virtual meet-and-greets with the celebrities on its platform. Cameo Live is a new service the company is announcing today that offers a 10-minute live video call with a celebrity, which customers can choose to have either as a one-on-one session, send as a gift, or take part in with up to nine friends.If the feature sounds familiar, that’s because Cameo has tried launching similar features a couple of times already. In June 2020, it launched its first iteration of Cameo Live, which also offered 10-minute video calls, albeit only with up to five participants (not including the celebrity). But a little under a year later, in April 2021, Cameo sunsetted the feature and... Continue reading…

GeForce Now runs even better on the web now. | Image: Nvidia Nvidia is upgrading its GeForce Now game streaming service to support 1440p resolution at 120fps in a Chrome or Edge browser. GeForce Now members on the RTX 3080 tier of the service will be able to access the new browser gameplay options today by selecting 1440p on the GeForce Now web version.Nvidia originally launched its RTX 3080 GeForce Now membership tier last year, offering streams of up to 1440p resolution with 120fps on PCs and Macs or 4K HDR at 60fps on Nvidia’s Shield TV. Previously, you had to download the dedicated Mac or Windows apps to access 1440p resolution and 120fps support, as the web version was limited to 1080p at 60fps. Image: Nvidia The new browser options for GeForce Now. The RTX 3080... Continue reading…

Photo by Chris Welch / The Verge Motorola is today announcing its latest smartphone for the US market. And while I wish it were the sleek new 2022 Razr — currently only available in China — we’re instead looking at another entry in the company’s Edge lineup. The Edge phones are designed to offer several flagship-tier features at an accessible price point. (Motorola’s Edge Plus, meanwhile, directly competes in the premium, more expensive bracket.)With the 2022 edition of the Edge, Motorola is concentrating on familiar strengths: a 144Hz OLED display, lengthy battery life, comprehensive 5G support, and camera upgrades.Priced at $499 for a limited time — Motorola won’t say how long — before an eventual jump to $599, the company describes this phone as one of its thinnest... Continue reading…

The Dell Pro Webcam WB5023 has an integrated universal mounting clip and comes with a magnetic lens cap. | Image: Dell Dell is adding a new option to its selection of webcams and hybrid work peripherals. The new Dell Pro Webcam (model WB5023) follows a similar playbook to last year’s Dell UltraSharp 4K Webcam, with a compact, barrel-shaped design and automatic cropping software to keep you centered in the frame. Though instead of 4K resolution, the Pro Webcam records and streams up to QHD 2560 x 1440 resolution. This more modest resolution helps it hit a lower price of $134.99, but thankfully Dell squeezed in a noise-reducing microphone at this price point — correcting the biggest omission from the 4K model. This new camera is available globally today. Image: Dell Hidden under the front ring of the webcam is a white LED to... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge More than 650 Google employees have signed a petition calling on the company to extend abortion-related health benefits to contractors and better protect user privacy in the wake of a Supreme Court decision overturning Roe v. Wade in June.“We, the undersigned, recognize that all Alphabet workers, of all genders, are impacted by the overturning of Roe v. Wade and are disappointed in Alphabet’s response and influence on this ruling,” employees wrote.After the Supreme Court decision, Google’s chief people officer Fiona Cicconi told employees their health insurance would cover out-of-state medical procedures and said they could apply for relocation without justification.But the benefits do not extend to Google’s temporary, vendor, or... Continue reading…

Dell is following Microsoft’s lead. | Image: Dell Dell has announced that its new XPS 13 2-in-1, first revealed back in June, will be available for purchase starting on August 25th with a starting price of $1,099. Unlike the previous generations of XPS 13 2-in-1 models, this XPS is a Surface Pro-style tablet with a magnetic keyboard case. This will allow the device to quickly transform from a tablet to a laptop, similar to the way Apple’s iPad Pro can with the Magic Keyboard.The new design is meant for “customers who prioritize versatility like students and entrepreneurs,” and the form factor will help users “transition freely and fluidly from consumption to full productivity mode,” per Dell. Image: Dell Tablet, but XPS. This will also be Dell’s first XPS to... Continue reading…

A report from Kotaku exposes a toxic workplace culture for female staff and contractors at Nintendo of America. | Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Nintendo of America is investigating reports that female game testers were subject to discrimination and harassment, according to internal messages seen by Kotaku. Earlier this week, the publication published a scathing report exposing a toxic workplace culture at the company in which female staff and contractors were targeted by male colleagues.According to Kotaku, Nintendo of America president Doug Bowser sent an email to employees acknowledging the claims on August 16th, the same day the report was released. In the message, Bowser stresses that the company is taking the allegations seriously, stating, “We have and will always investigate any allegations we become aware of, and we are actively investigating these most recent claims.”“... Continue reading…

The resulting blurred contact name and profile picture. | Image: Oppo Oppo is launching its ColorOS 13 update today, and has detailed the features that are on the way for its devices as they’re upgraded to its flavor of Android 13. Oppo — which like Vivo, OnePlus, and other Chinese brands is controlled by the tech giant BBK Electronics — says the update will be arriving first on the Find X5 and Find X5 Pro this month, ahead of its release on around 33 additional models in the Find, Reno, A, F, and K ranges before the end of the year.One of the smaller features worth calling out is a neat pixelation feature that’ll be available for screenshots in WhatsApp and Messenger chats. A new “Pixelate” option appears in the editing window, which can be tapped to automatically blur out the contact’s name and profile... Continue reading…

Marvel’s Spider-Man Remastered. | Image: Sony NexusMods and ModDB, two of the biggest online sites for PC game mods, have removed a project that cut the in-game pride flags from the recently-released PC port of Marvel’s Spider-Man Remastered. As NexusMods explained in a blog post, the mod was uploaded to its site by a brand new account with no modding history, which the site’s administrators suspect is a secondary account for one of the site’s users — a “sock puppet” account.“It was very clearly done deliberately to be a troll mod,” NexusMods writes. “The fact the user needed to make a sock puppet like a coward to upload the mod showed their intent to troll and that they knew it would not be allowed. Had they not been a coward and had they used their main account instead, we would... Continue reading…

Embracer Group has embarked on an acquisition spree today that includes Limited Run Games, Tripwire Interactive, and the IP rights to Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit. There are five acquisitions in total today, alongside a sixth undisclosed deal for a company in the PC and console gaming space.The Lord of the Rings and Hobbit rights mean Embracer now has control over movies, video games, board games, merchandising, stage productions, and even theme-park rights for the Tolkien fantasy franchises. This includes Amazon’s very big and expensive take on Lord of the Rings that will debut on Prime Video on September 2nd. Embracer notes that it could even explore “additional movies based on iconic characters such as Gandalf, Aragorn, Gollum,... Continue reading…

No, it’s not “words.” | photo by Mike Kemp/In Pictures via Getty Images The New York Times has made a few upgrades to its Wordle assistant WordleBot, and that includes a new recommended starting word: SLATE. Previously, it recommended CRANE, but now you might want to slate this new one into your repertoire.The NYT introduced WordleBot in April as a “daily companion” to help analyze your Wordle play, and with WordleBot 2.0, the team has made some changes. One of the bigger changes is that the bot no longer limits its analysis to the subset of five letter words that are known Wordle solutions — that is, it’s thinking more like a typical human player would. Previously, the bot could have judged you harshly for guessing a legit word that, for whatever reason, isn’t one of the possible Wordle solutions, which... Continue reading…

Brian Cassella/Chicago Tribune/Tribune News Service via Getty Images Buy now or buy later? Continue reading…

Leveling up your home theater experience Continue reading…

Nick Barclay / The Verge If you thought ad-supported Netflix would just be the regular service with some commercial breaks, then I regret to inform you you were wrong. According to language in the code of the Netflix app, discovered by developer Steve Moser and shared with Bloomberg, Netflix may limit offline downloads to the ad-free tiers of Netflix.Currently, Netflix has three tiers. For $9.99 a month, you get standard definition content and the ability to watch TV on one screen at a time. Pay $14.99 a month and you get HD and the ability to watch on two screens at a time. If you want to watch everything in UHD (with 4K and HDR), you’ll have to pay $19.99. You’ll also be able to watch on four screens at a time.It’s not really a surprise Netflix would... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge The world’s biggest electric vehicle battery maker, Contemporary Amperex Technology Co. Limited (CATL), and Intel are among the major companies shutting down their factories for six days in China’s Sichuan province because of a heatwave-related power shortage in the area, according to CNN and Bloomberg.The move affects factories belonging to companies like Tesla’s battery supplier CATL, Apple’s supplier Foxconn Technology, Toyota, Texas Instruments, Volkswagen, Onsemi, and more.China ordered all Sichuan factories to pause operations until August 20th to alleviate the pressure placed on the power grid after China’s worst heatwave in 60 years resulted in increased air conditioning usage. According to CNN, temperatures spiked to 104... Continue reading…

The Adidas RPT-02 SOL Bluetooth headphones. | Image: Adidas Solar-powered gadgets are nothing new — Logitech has sold keyboards you never have to plug in for over a decade now. But an audio headset where barely-there solar cells blend into the design? Until this week, we’d only ever tried one of those. Now, there are at least four.On Tuesday, Adidas announced the RPT-02 SOL, a $230 pair of self-charging Bluetooth cans with Exeger’s Powerfoyle solar cells built right into the recycled plastic headband (via Engadget). That’s the same exact solar technology as in the Urbanista Los Angeles solar-powered headphones we reviewed last year, and they also quote the same 80 hours of “reserve” battery life, even in a pitch-black room. Image: Adidas I wouldn’t know it held solar... Continue reading…

The React-R controller comes in two colors: black and white / purple. The Turtle Beach React-R is the latest controller from the gaming accessories brand, newly available in the USA today for $39.99. It’s a wired Xbox and PC controller with a detachable USB-C cable, officially licensed by Microsoft, and it mixes some of Turtle Beach’s audio chops from its headsets into an affordable gamepad.The React-R is a bit like Turtle Beach stripped down its Recon controller and gave it a slightly worse name. For $20 less than the Recon, the React-R offers nice quality face buttons, sticks, triggers, and two programmable rear buttons. Some of those buttons, particularly the shoulders, sound a bit more hollow in their clickiness — but that wasn’t something that felt especially premium on its pricier counterpart... Continue reading…

Bad vibrations. | Image: A&M Records While it’s normal for friends to judge our music tastes and take away your aux privileges, our devices usually won’t complain about our listening habits (even if we ask them to repeatedly play a song that most humans would find insufferable). However, according to a story shared by Microsoft principal software engineer Raymond Chen on his blog The Old New Thing, some Windows XP-era laptops did end up taking exception to the music video for Janet Jackson’s “Rhythm Nation” because it contained a sound that crashed their hard drives.According to Chen, an unnamed “major computer manufacturer” discovered that some of their computers were crashing when trying to play the song and that playing the song on one laptop could even crash another... Continue reading…

Image: Substack By most measures, Forever Wars should have been a Substack success story. The newsletter, which documents the war on terror, began last year after Substack cut a deal with a seasoned reporter to write on the platform, build an audience, and — if everything went well — launch a reader-supported venture that made the switch from newsroom to newsletter worth the gamble. Substack’s usual promise applied: if a writer wants to leave, they can, and it will be easy to do. And, in late July, a day after the expiration of a year-long deal, that’s what Spencer Ackerman did, moving Forever Wars to the newsletter platform Ghost as seamlessly as possible.But the switch became far messier this week when Substack barreled through its standing promise... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Reddit’s working on a new portal to provide developers with the resources they need to create bots and other third-party tools. In a blog post, Reddit announced that it’s opening a wait list for the beta of its developer platform, allowing developers to host bots for free and reuse apps across different communities.If you’re a frequent Reddit user, you might already be familiar with some of the more popular bots on the platform, like u/RemindMeBot, which sends you a message to remind you about a certain post or comment at a specified time. There’s also a bot that provides summaries of Wikipedia pages and even one that converts videos on the platform into downloadable links.As Reddit notes, developers on the platform currently “operate... Continue reading…

Chris Welch on top of the NYC Ferry. | Photo by Andrew Marino / The Verge A couple of months ago on The Vergecast, we wanted to answer a question: which wireless earbuds should you buy to use for phone calls, Zoom meetings, or chatting with your voice assistant? So The Verge’s Chris Welch went to a noisy coffee shop in Brooklyn and hopped on a call with Vergecast co-host David Pierce to test out a bunch of wireless earbuds in a tough noise environment.The pretty clear winners of that test were the Apple AirPods Pro and the Sony LinkBuds, which had the clearest detail in the voice and took out a fair amount of background noise.But since that test, two new pairs of flagship earbuds have launched: the Samsung Galaxy Buds 2 Pro and the Google Pixel Buds Pro. So, obviously, we had to put them to the test, along... Continue reading…