The Verge

As someone who is really into fonts, I know that most people don’t share my passion — but I genuinely think that anyone who cares at all about typography will have some interest in what Google announced on Thursday. If you’ve ever used anything made by Google, you’ve seen Roboto. Now, Google’s introducing something called Roboto Flex. As the name implies, it’s a version of its famous font that you can tweak and customize in a ton of ways.I can sense I might be about to lose a lot of people, so let’s try this: here’s a gif showing all the customizable parameters Roboto Flex has. There’s no trickery going on — I’m not changing a raster image with Photoshop or anything. Everything you see is built into the font itself and can be changed as... Continue reading…

Besides podcasts, things for your car, and annual listening recaps, Spotify has been running another experiment since 2018 with Stations, a “lightweight” app available for free and paid subscribers.After its initial debut overseas with an Android version, Spotify launched an iOS version of the app in 2019 and opened it up to users in the US. However, now the test is over, and 9to5Google reports Spotify has started notifying users that the app will shut down on May 16th.If you used Stations, you can visit the site to move your favorite curated lists over to the main Spotify app, which includes the following message:

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge A copyright battle has spawned a sweeping order demanding internet service providers block a set of pirate sites — one of the broadest such rulings to date.As TorrentFreak recently reported, a New York district judge ruled in late April on a series of copyright lawsuits against three sites that rebroadcast mostly Hebrew-language television. The rightsholders demanded monetary damages from the site operators — who didn’t show up in court — and an injunction meant to prevent viewers from accessing the services. Judge Katherine Polk Failla approved the request and ordered a voluminous list of ISPs to block Israeli-TV.com, Israel.tv, and Sdarot.com. The companies are required to block not only the current addresses but also any domain known... Continue reading…

Retail photo of the Mini 3 Pro. | Image: DroneDJ On Thursday, DJI tweeted a teaser for a May 10th announcement, saying it’s about to reveal “a twist in the plot.” It seems likely that the company plans on releasing a new drone — especially given that a YouTube video showing a DJI Mini 3 Pro and its controller being unboxed was uploaded on the same day as DJI’s teaser (via DroneDJ).In their video, YouTuber DM Productions says they got footage of the unboxing from someone who received the unannounced DJI Mini 3 Pro drone early. The video gives us a good look at the drone itself, with its bevy of obstacle avoidance sensors as well as its controller.As DM Productions points out, the controller is similar to DJI’s current RC Pro, with a few buttons and ports removed. The Mini 3 Pro’s... Continue reading…

Photo by Andrew Hawkins / The Verge Lucid Motors is raising the prices of its luxury electric vehicles, as the company continues to struggle with production. The company reported delivering only 360 vehicles to customers in the first quarter of 2022.As of June 1st, Lucid’s newly increased prices will be $154,000 for the Air Grand Touring (previously $139,000), $107,400 for Air Touring (up from $95,000), and $87,400 for Air Pure (up from $80,000). That represents an average increase of around 11 percent. The new Lucid Air Grand Touring Performance model, announced just two weeks ago, will remain priced at $179,000. (All of Lucid’s vehicles are eligible for the $7,500 federal EV tax credit as well as any available state and local incentives.)In a call with investors, Lucid... Continue reading…

New design, more features, and the same signature sound Continue reading…

Fertility and cycle tracking apps are widely used and can be useful tools that help people monitor their health. But reports regularly show that, like other health apps, they fall short when it comes to protecting user privacy. That shortfall is particularly concerning for users in the US after a leaked Supreme Court opinion indicated that the court intends to overturn Roe v. Wade — eliminating the right to an abortion in the United States and allowing states to criminalize the safe and lifesaving medical procedure.Information stored in cycle-tracking apps isn’t covered by the medical privacy law HIPAA, so companies have broad leeway with how they use it — and who they share it with. They often share information with data brokers,... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Nvidia will pay $5.5 million to settle charges that it unlawfully obscured how many of its graphics cards were sold to cryptocurrency miners. The US Securities and Exchange Commission announced the charges and a settlement with the company today. Its order claims Nvidia misled investors by reporting a huge boost in revenue related to “gaming,” hiding how much its success relied on the far more volatile crypto market. Nvidia isn’t admitting to wrongdoing as part of the settlement, but it agrees to stop any unlawful failures to disclose information.The charges stem from Nvidia’s fiscal year 2018 financial reports. The SEC notes Nvidia saw an explosion in crypto mining-related sales in 2017, when the rewards of mining Ethereum grew... Continue reading…

The Beats Fit Pro are some of the many noise-canceling earbuds currently on sale. | Photo by Chris Welch / The Verge Mother’s Day is just around the corner, and in honor of that fact, several retailers are now discounting a wide range of tech and accessories. We’re seeing some of the lowest prices we’ve seen on a variety of items, ranging from the latest Kindle Paperwhite to the new Echo Show 15, as well as some of the best fitness trackers, streaming sticks, and noise-canceling wireless earbuds you can buy. That means you can still get a great deal on a present for your mom if you haven’t bought one already — or if you simply want to pick up something nice for yourself. (We’re not judging!)Below, we’ve collected some of the top deals on tech and gadgets so you can save on a great gift ahead of the holiday. Take a look, and be sure to also peruse our 2... Continue reading…

The Versa 2 was the last Fitbit smartwatch to have a physical button. | Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge To button, or not to button? When it comes to wearables, the answer is you should always opt for physical buttons. And while they’re abundant on smartwatches, fitness trackers tend to favor touchscreens and capacitive buttons. But it looks like there may be some good news for fans of physical buttons. A new leaked photo of the Fitbit Versa 4 indicates that the side button is back, baby.The photo comes from 9to5Google, and for the most part, it looks almost identical to the Versa 3 — except if you zero in on the right-hand side, where you can see a teeny little raised button.It might not seem like it, but this is actually a significant design change. Earlier iterations of the Versa — one of Fitbit’s most popular devices — had a... Continue reading…

The 16-inch Omen gaming laptop is getting a deep discount at HP. We’re heading into the weekend with a bunch of awesome laptop deals. Kicking things off, we have an excellent configuration of the HP Omen 16 gaming laptop. Regularly $1,549.99, you can currently grab this configuration at HP for just $1,259.99 when you use the code 10GAMER2022 at checkout.The HP Omen 16 has a 16-inch 1080p display with a 144Hz refresh rate, and this configuration is equipped with an AMD Ryzen 7 5800H CPU backed up by an RTX 3070 graphics card. Some additional specs include 16GB of RAM and 512GB of storage space, which may not last terribly long given how large game install sizes have gotten but should be enough for a handful of your favorite AAA titles.The Omen 16 also supports a surprising number of connectivity... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge When news broke of layoffs at the Netflix-owned fan site Tudum last week, responses tended to come in two parts: First, of course, was that it sucked for the workers affected. But also, what even is Tudum?Launched less than six months ago, Tudum was envisioned as a home for bonus content related to popular Netflix titles, like interviews with stars, news about renewals and trailers, and also bigger, meatier stories that could contextualize shows and films. A former writer who lost their job last week compared Tudum to DVD special features and investments that other companies have made into supplementary material — “a Criterion Collection for normal people,” as they put it.“It kind of builds on an already existing culture of fandom... Continue reading…

Ford is developing a new technology that would allow vehicle owners to rev their engines remotely, perhaps by using a key fob, according to a patent application spotted by 7th Mustang and other Ford enthusiast sites.The patent was filed on November 3rd, 2020, and published on May 5th, 2022, according to Ford Authority. According to the application, the technology would allow vehicle owners to rev their engines using an “input device operated by the user” and without having to push down on the accelerator. The vehicle’s engine could be engaged “at various distances from the vehicle” — in other words, remotely.Ford Remote Control Revving Patent US20220137616 by ahawkins8223 on ScribdThis seems like an idea generated almost... Continue reading…

EVE Online. | Image: CCP Games EVE Online, the long-running sci-fi MMO best-known for its sprawling, expensive space battles will soon get... integration with Microsoft Excel. EVE developer CCP Games announced the collaboration with Microsoft today at its annual fanfest event, saying that the Javascript tool would allow players to “seamlessly” transfer data from the game to a spreadsheet in order to “help players access and calculate everything from profit margins to battle strategy.” CCP says more detail on the collaboration will be available later in the year.Of course, Excel isn’t the only thing the studio announced, though it may be the most surprising. (Though the game did already have a UI-only mode that made it look a lot like a spreadsheet.) Elsewhere, CCP is... Continue reading…

Tim Cook showcases the billionth iPhone at Apple’s campus on Wednesday. | Image: Apple Every Friday, The Verge publishes our flagship podcast, The Vergecast, where Verge editor-in-chief Nilay Patel and editor-at-large David Pierce discuss the week in tech news with the reporters and editors covering the biggest stories.On today’s episode, Nilay and David spend a while chatting with Tripp Mickle, a New York Times reporter and the author of a new book, titled After Steve: How Apple Became a Trillion-Dollar Company and Lost Its Soul. They talk about the rise of Jony Ive and Tim Cook, the power struggle between the two, and how Apple is grappling with everything from building a car to managing its relationship with the Chinese government.After that, Verge managing editor Alex Cranz joins the show to talk about Starlink’s new... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Around 4:30AM ET on Friday, the official Discord channel for OpenSea, the world’s largest NFT marketplace, joined the growing list of NFT communities that have exposed participants to phishing attacks.In this case, a bot made a fake announcement about OpenSea partnering with YouTube, enticing users to click on a “YouTube Genesis Mint Pass” link to snag one of 100 free NFTs with “insane utility” before they’d be gone forever, as well as a few follow-up messages. Blockchain security tracking company PeckShield tagged the URL the attackers linked, “youtubenft[.]art” as a phishing site, which is now unavailable.While the messages and phishing site are already gone, one person who said they lost NFTs in the incident pointed to this... Continue reading…

The controller bar appears with a press of the Xbox button. | Image: Microsoft Microsoft is testing a new feature for Windows 11 that lets you use a controller to launch recently-played games, avoiding the need to use a mouse and keyboard. The feature is called the “controller bar,” and is accessible by pressing the central Xbox button on a controller when you’re not currently in a game. It’s designed to show up to three recently-played games, alongside a selection of game launchers like Steam.As someone whose gaming PC is permanently plugged into his TV, I can see the feature being very useful for people like me. Currently, even if I’m playing a controller-based game, I first need to use a wireless keyboard and trackpad to launch it from Windows. But in the future I might be able to skip this step, and boot up... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge When Facebook briefly blocked all news from being posted on its platform in Australia last year, it used an overly broad definition of news publisher that it knew would cause collateral damage, company whistleblowers are alleging. Complaints filed with Australia’s Competition & Consumer Commission and the US Department of Justice allege that the company engaged in “a criminal conspiracy to obtain a thing of value, namely favorable regulatory treatment,” The Wall Street Journal reports.The news ban was put into place by Facebook last February in protest over a proposed Australian law that would effectively force platform-holders like it and Google to pay news publishers when sharing their content. But the ban was chaotically implemented,... Continue reading…

The Dragon capsule carrying Crew-3 is lifted out of the ocean and onto the Shannon, a recovery vessel. | NASA/SpaceX Four astronauts successfully returned home to Earth in a SpaceX Crew Dragon spacecraft today, bringing an end to their six-month-long stay on the International Space Station (ISS). After undocking from the ISS early Thursday morning, the crew dove through Earth’s atmosphere before splashing down underneath parachutes off the coast of Florida at 12:43 AM ET.

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge California’s Department of Fair Employment and Housing sued Blizzard last July, saying it “created a culture of ‘constant sexual harassment’ and gender-based discrimination.” The revelations that followed through the rest of the year only served to confirm those assertions, and even as accusations of retaliation continue to roll in, a new set of leaders say they are committed to making changes.In January, Blizzard president Mike Ybarra wrote about “the work we are doing to rebuild your trust in Blizzard,” and included descriptions of several full-time leadership roles dedicated to changing the culture. It appears that two of the spots have been filled, as Activision Blizzard appointed Kristen Hines as its new chief diversity, equity,... Continue reading…

There are limits on which emoji you can use. | Image: WhatsApp WhatsApp is now rolling out the ability to react to a message with emoji, as well as share files that are up to 2GB in size, a massive jump from the previous 100MB limit. Meta, the company behind WhatsApp, said last month that these features would be coming “soon,” and it seems like today’s the day. The company also announced on Thursday that it’ll be doubling the maximum size of group chats.When reactions were first announced, Meta said that you’d only be able to use a select few to start out with but that support for “all emojis and skin-tones” would be added in the future. Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg expressing many emotions here. The reactions are a useful feature, which is why other apps like Slack and Telegram... Continue reading…

The new Kindle Paperwhite starts at $99.99 instead of $139.99 at Best Buy and will arrive in time for Mother’s Day if you order today. | Photo by Chaim Gartenberg / The Verge We’re now just days away from Mother’s Day on May 8th, but don’t panic: if you’ve left your gift shopping until the last minute, there are still plenty of great gadgets you can buy that should arrive in time. Even better, many of them are on sale, with a few products like Amazon’s 2021 Kindle Paperwhite and the second-gen Echo Show 8 selling at all-time lows. On top of that, you can even get free shipping, to boot.Below, we’ve curated a list of gifts for all budgets that should arrive in time for the holiday. And for those who leave shopping until the very last minute (no shame!), we’ve also included a couple of digital gifts that you can buy as late as Mother’s Day.And if you need more help (or you’d prefer to explore other options... Continue reading…

Amazon is throwing its hat into the ring of companies trying to solve one of streaming TV’s biggest issues: endless amounts of content can make it really difficult to pick something to watch. Its approach uses an IMDb-branded app that’s exclusively available to Fire TV owners, which will let you play a series of games designed to help you pick a movie.Amazon’s press release mentions three games in the new app: one will “shuffle through movie and series options” and give you three options to choose from. In theory, the limited choice could help cut down on analysis paralysis since you could end up with something like three times fewer options than you would if you opened up Netflix. However, Amazon does note that there's a “deal cards”... Continue reading…

The number of annual reviews is being cut in half. | Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Google is hoping to make its performance reviews less of a burden to employees by making it so they only happen once a year instead of twice a year, requiring less paperwork, and changing the way employees are rated. According to a report from The Information, 47 percent of Google employees didn’t think that their time was well spent with the previous performance review system.It’s often hard to point to how internal changes can affect end users, but Google, as a company, has a reputation for either pulling the plug on products or letting them wither without getting proper attention. At some point, though, actual humans had to work on those projects — it’s always possible that if employees can focus on their actual jobs instead of... Continue reading…

Apple introduced Cycle Tracking on the Series 5. | Photography by Victoria Song / The Verge Although modern smartwatches and fitness trackers have been around for almost a decade, period tracking didn’t arrive until 2018. These integrations shared familiar features with your standard period-tracking app — but a big difference was that instead of having to pull out your phone, you could view or input data from your wrist. And, because these features were part of a wearable platform, users could see how their health trends correlated to their menstrual cycles in one place.Tracking your menstrual cycles digitally can be more convenient than having to pull out a physical calendar or inputting dates into a spreadsheet. But before you get started, there are a few things to take into account.First and foremost, you must acknowledge... Continue reading…

Even before a leaked Supreme Court opinion threw the future of abortion in the United States into turmoil, major corporations were adding a new benefit for their employees: coverage for abortion and other medical travel.The latest company to add the benefit was Amazon, which announced earlier this week that it will cover travel costs for employees who have to travel out of state for abortions or other medical procedures. This could make it possible for workers living in states that make abortion illegal to still get the care they need. It’s a potential lifeline for employees — especially if the Supreme Court decides to overturn Roe v. Wade, eliminating the right to an abortion in the United States and allowing states to criminalize the... Continue reading…

Good news for smart homes divided: as of this week, the newest Google Nest cameras can now stream to your Amazon Alexa smart displays, including Echo Show devices, Fire TVs, and Fire tablets. Following Amazon’s announcement last week that third-party cameras can take advantage of its new person and package announcement features on Echo smart speakers, Google Nest has updated its languishing Alexa skill to include its latest cameras.The Google Nest Alexa skill adds the ability to view a live feed and get motion announcements on Echo speakers from the Google Nest Cam (outdoor/indoor, battery), Google Nest Cam (wired, indoor), and Nest Cam with floodlight. It also adds doorbell press notifications and two-way talk to Google’s support for... Continue reading…

Friends, the moment has arrived: the most influential first-person shooter in gaming history* has transcended the limitations of a single screen. Yes, GoldenEye 007 for the Nintendo 64 can now be played without screen cheating because a British museum rigged up $10,000 worth of hardware to give each player their very own screen. It’s all in honor of the game’s 25th anniversary.

All recent iPhones — dating back to iPhone 8 — can take advantage of the Back Tap feature. | Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge Back Tap is one of the easiest ways to put an iPhone function you use all the time literally at your fingertips. It is exactly what it sounds like: a way to access different phone features by tapping the back of your phone — kind of like an extra, user-customizable button. It was introduced with iOS 14, and the feature works on devices as old as the iPhone 8, which was launched five years ago — so it’s highly likely that you’ve got a compatible phone.Here’s how to set up Back Tap. For reference, I followed these steps on an iPhone 13 Pro Max running iOS 15.4.1.

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Twitter is working on a handful of new features, including the ability to attach photos and videos to the same tweet, according to a report from 9to5Google. The roundup of features in the works includes news things like mixed-media tweets and also updates on previously reported features like Statuses.Developer Dylan Roussel spotted the mixed-media capability for Twitter Android — currently, you can attach up to four pictures or one video in the same tweet, but not both a still image and video. Twitter didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.

Kristen Radtke / The Verge; Getty Images The danger for many people isn’t medical — it’s legal Continue reading…

Image: Summer Game Fest Summer Game Fest will kick off this year on June 9th at 2PM ET / 11AM PT, with a live show hosted by, as my college Ash Parrish described him, “consummate video game hype-man Geoff Keighley.” According to a press release, the show will be streamed on basically every platform, including YouTube, Twitch, Twitter, and Facebook.After the big premiere show will be Day of the Devs, where indie game developers can show off what they’re working on. As GameSpot notes, developers submit their games for consideration to be included in the show. Like last year, that show is being presented by Iam8bit and Double Fine, the studio behind games like Psychonauts, Grim Fandango, and Broken Age. The SGF website says to “stay tuned” for its announcement of... Continue reading…

Image: Xbox Ever since Epic Games started its battle with Apple and Google over their app store fees, playing Fortnite on your mobile device has been more difficult, if not impossible. You could try it on iPhone via Nvidia’s GeForce Now but only if you got into a closed beta. But now, Epic Games has decided to partner with the company it spurned — Microsoft — and is putting Fortnite on pretty much anything with a screen for free via the Xbox Cloud Gaming service.Fortnite is the first free-to-play title to join Xbox Cloud Gaming, and Microsoft says that all you’ll need to play (in the 26 countries where it’s available) is a Microsoft account and internet access for your iOS, iPadOS, Android, or Windows device. It works through your web browser (c... Continue reading…

Illustration by Kristen Radtke / The Verge; Getty Images Elon Musk has secured $7.1 billion in new financing for his takeover of Twitter — which CNBC reports will include assuming the role of “temporary CEO” — with this round of funding coming from a group of sometimes high-profile outside investors. At the top of the list is Larry Ellison, with the co-founder and current CTO of Oracle committing $1 billion to the purchase.Ellison has said that he is “very close friends” with Musk, and he was added to Tesla’s board in 2018. As one of the richest people alive — a superlative he shares with Musk — and an estimated net worth of over $100 billion, the investment is relatively small change for him. Back in 2012, Ellison bought nearly the entire Hawaiian island of Lanai for around $500 million.A... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Lyft Shared rides, the ride-hail company’s carpooling service, is returning to more US cities this month. The return of carpooling comes as the company struggles to rein in its spending in response to an ongoing driver shortage and high gas prices.Lyft suspended carpooling in March 2020 in response to the COVID-19 pandemic to help curb the spread of the virus. About 16 months later, shared rides slowly returned to a small number of markets. And now, it’s returning to even more cities. (Uber started bringing its Uber Pool service back to cities last fall.)In May, Lyft Shared rides will return to five US cities: San Francisco, San Jose, Denver, Las Vegas, and Atlanta. The company has been operating its carpooling service in Philadelphia... Continue reading…

Matt Smith as Prince Daemon Targaryen. | HBO Though House Targaryen will still hold much power in HBO’s upcoming House of the Dragon series, the Game of Thrones prequel will also dig into the story of how the family fell from grace after years of existing in a world separate from Westeros’ other classes. In the show’s latest trailer, King Viserys Targaryen, Princess Rhaenyra Targaryen, and Prince Daemon Targaryen want nothing more than to further ensure that their family’s control over Wesreros’ other power players remains intact.But the Targaryen family’s infighting — to say nothing of the inbreeding — creates the perfect opportunity for their conniving rivals from Houses Stark, Velaryon, and Lannister to make plays for the Iron Throne and destroy the true source of the ruling... Continue reading…

Eero’s new mesh Wi-Fi router looks familiar but achieves higher speeds. | Photo by Jennifer Pattison Tuohy / The Verge It’s not every day that you get sizable discounts on products that just came out, but today is an exception. The new Eero Pro 6E mesh Wi-Fi router, which The Verge’s Jennifer Pattison Tuohy just reviewed, is already on sale at Amazon for 15 percent off. It’s the new, top-of-the-line model from Eero, sporting a 6GHz band that eclipses gigabit speeds via Wi-Fi — at least in devices that support it. It’s also got Thread support for easier smart home integration with compatible products, and the signal from one unit can cover up to 2,000 square feet. These mesh routers also come in a two-pack to cover 4,000 square feet or a three-pack for big, multi-floored homes.That lone Eero Pro 6E router normally costs $299, but Amazon has it... Continue reading…

The Eero Pro 6E is the company’s first 6GHz-capable router Continue reading…

Josh Brolin in Outer Range. | Image: Richard Foreman/Amazon Prime Video A show about cowboys, small town drama, and one big hole Continue reading…

HoloLens showing a driver an upcoming left turn. | Image: Microsoft Microsoft has officially announced a new “moving platform” feature for the HoloLens 2, which is designed to let the augmented reality headset work in places like cars. It addresses a long-standing HoloLens issue of moving environments confusing the headset’s sensors. The enhancement was developed in collaboration with Volkswagen, which has been experimenting with using the headset as a heads-up display in its vehicles.As Microsoft’s blog post explains, its augmented reality headset tracks movement using a combination of camera sensors and an inertial measurement unit (which typically includes accelerometers and gyroscopes). But in a car, the readings from these two sensors can conflict; the headset senses movement but sees a static... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Overwatch League commissioner Sean Miller shares his thoughts on what a new game will do for the League Continue reading…

Photo by Owen Grove for The Verge The Meta Quest 2 is one of those rare products that keeps getting better. Part of this has to do with the hardware, which has received several useful updates since we reviewed it in late 2020, including 120Hz refresh rate support for some games, Air Link to wirelessly connect to a gaming PC, and more. Better yet, Meta shows no signs of slowing down its cadence of updates.But almost of equal importance to the Quest 2’s long-lasting success are the interesting ways that the VR community has modified aspects of the hardware or crafted its own software with the goal of going beyond what’s usually possible in an off-the-shelf Quest 2 VR headset.In this video, I’m diving into a handful of those tips and tricks, both on a software and... Continue reading…

Sen. Chris Coons, who led Wednesday’s hearing on tech transparency, during a previous hearing in March. | Photo by Drew Angerer/Getty Images On Wednesday, Congress was treated to the unfamiliar spectacle of highly intelligent people, talking with nuance, about platform regulation. The occasion was a hearing, titled “Platform Transparency: Understanding the Impact of Social Media,” and it served as a chance for members of the Senate Judiciary Committee to consider the necessity of legislation that would require big tech platforms to make themselves available for study by qualified researchers and members of the public.One such piece of legislation, the Platform Transparency and Accountability Act, was introduced in December by (an ever-so-slightly) bipartisan group of senators. One of those senators, Chris Coons of Delaware, led the Wednesday hearing; another, Sen. Amy... Continue reading…

Illustration by Kristen Radtke / The Verge; Getty Images Elon Musk is expected to take on the CEO role at Twitter in a temporary capacity after his purchase of the company closes later this year, according to CNBC reporter David Faber. Faber says Musk detailed the plans in presentations to possible funders for the takeover.Musk hasn’t publicly said what will happen to the company’s C-suite once the deal is complete, and current Twitter CEO Parag Agrawal — who’s been in the role for just five months — has remained vague about his prospects of remaining on the job.With Musk’s commitments to Tesla and SpaceX, where he’s also CEO, there had been speculation from big tech observers that he would have to hand off the top role at Twitter. Now, it sounds like that may happen — but not right away.R... Continue reading…

Image: SnoopyTech (Twitter) After The Verge yesterday revealed the name of Sonos’ latest soundbar and a retailer accidentally posted images of the device, the leak floodgates have now seemingly opened. Twitter user SnoopyTech has shared a number of marketing shots of the Sonos Ray, offering a closer look at the upcoming product’s size and design.The images showcase the Ray in both black and white and offer a higher-quality peek at the soundbar’s design. Similar to the Arc and Beam, the Ray has a ton of perforated holes cut into the plastic front grill. Image: SnoopyTech (Twitter) The Sonos Ray shares design traits with the more expensive Arc and Beam. Around back is the connect button, power, optical, and ethernet — confirming The... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Mark Benson, the new head of SmartThings US, on why it’s best positioned for the arrival of Matter Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge On May 5th — World Password Day — we might have come one step closer to passwords being a thing of the past.In a joint effort, tech giants Apple, Google, and Microsoft announced Thursday morning that they have committed to building support for passwordless sign-in across all of the mobile, desktop, and browser platforms that they control in the coming year. Effectively, this means that passwordless authentication will come to all major device platforms in the not too distant future: Android and iOS mobile operating systems; Chrome, Edge, and Safari browsers; and the Windows and macOS desktop environments.“Just as we design our products to be intuitive and capable, we also design them to be private and secure,” said Kurt Knight, senior... Continue reading…

Believe it or not, there was no such thing as an AMD Chromebook until 2019. Also, the first ones were sluggish, and whi;e AMD’s second stab at Chromebooks was quite a bit better, they still contained rebranded CPUs whose Zen cores were years out of date. Today, AMD is putting a better foot forward — with the new Ryzen 5000 C-Series chips, including the “first 8-core high-performance x86 processor for Chromebooks.”I mean, AMD’s still not putting its best foot forward, because these APUs will still sport last-gen AMD Vega graphics rather than the newest RDNA 2 stuff you’ll find in the company’s Ryzen 6000 chips (not to mention the PS5, Xbox Series X, and Steam Deck). And the new Ryzen 7 5825C, Ryzen 5 5625C, and Ryzen 3 5425C aren’t... Continue reading…

The new Spin 514 features two upward-firing speakers. | Image: Acer Acer is launching a new version of its Chromebook Spin 514 for 2022 with support for the latest AMD Ryzen 5000 C-series processors. The 14-inch 2-in-1 laptop will launch in Q3 2022 with a $579.99 starting price, which is significantly higher than the 2021 model. But the price hike might be justified if you want a faster Chromebook. Acer says that these Zen 3 processors are “performance-oriented” with AMD Radeon graphics. Speedy PCIe 3.0 NVMe storage is also built into each configuration, which trounces the slower eMMC storage used in last year’s model.The starting model of the Spin 514 has a 14-inch 1080p touchscreen, AMD’s Ryzen 3 5125C, 8GB of dual-channel LPDDR4X RAM, and 128GB of NVMe SSD storage. Prices weren’t disclosed for... Continue reading…