The Verge

The Apple Watch Series 8 inherits design elements from last year’s Series 7, including the larger display. | Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge It’s almost time to ring the bell for the cows to come home on Amazon’s Prime Early Access Sale, but before that happens we want to note you can still get the Apple Watch Series 8 for $50 off. The best part? This one’s not just exclusive to Amazon or Prime members, as a couple of other major retailers are currently matching Amazon’s price and making it widely available.As for the configurations and colors available, you can get the 41mm Apple Watch Series 8 with GPS for $349 at Amazon (in midnight or red), at Best Buy (in all four colors), or at Walmart (also in all four colors). If you prefer a larger display, you can get the 45mm version of the Series 8 for $379 at Amazon (in red or midnight), at Walmart (in red, silver, or... Continue reading…

The Apple Watch Series 8 is $50 off. | Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge Amazon’s back with yet another Prime-exclusive shopping bonanza. It’s day two of its Prime Early Access Sale, and it’s an opportunity to get a head start on your holiday shopping way before Black Friday. That includes some neat deals on smartwatches and fitness trackers if you, or a loved one, are keen on crushing some fitness and health goals (or if you want to spend less time looking at notifications on your phone).While you won’t find deals on some of the newest launches — like the Pixel Watch — just yet, there are great options from brands like Apple, Bose, Garmin, Amazfit, and Mobvoi. This is a smart way to dip your toe into a new category, especially if you’re unsure whether wearables are for you. Quick reminder: you need an... Continue reading…

Energy Dome’s CO2 battery. | Image: Energy Dome There’s a new CO2 battery in the energy game, and it just might be the assist turbines need to harness the full power of the wind. The technology uses carbon dioxide to store energy in the form of pressure and heat. It’s a relatively straightforward solution that gives the CO2 battery some more flexibility than more traditional alternatives, like lithium-ion batteries.Lithium-ion batteries have become ubiquitous companions to solar panels. But the new CO2 battery could have an edge when it comes to storing energy from winds, which can be even more temperamental than the sun. Energy Dome, the company that developed the CO2 battery, announced a new partnership with global wind giant Ørsted last month.The two companies plan to run a... Continue reading…

Laura Normand / The Verge Mark Zuckerberg wants to own the future of computing — but not alone. That’s the intended takeaway from this year’s Meta (formerly Facebook, formerlier Oculus) Connect, where the Meta CEO described his plans for a new computing platform. “In each generation of computing that I’ve seen so far — PCs, mobile — there’s basically an open ecosystem and there’s a closed ecosystem,” Zuckerberg said. “I strongly believe that an open, interoperable metaverse built by many different developers and companies is going to be better for everyone.”“Openness” is typically considered a good thing in computing. It can promote competition and let people use tech in creative ways the designers didn’t expect. But Zuckerberg’s definition of an “open... Continue reading…

Illustration by Beatrice Sala The company behind ultra fast fashion brands Shein and Romwe will pay New York state $1.9 million over a data breach affecting millions of customers. The fine stems from charges that Zoetop failed to secure customers’ data, didn’t properly inform customers of a data breach, and tried to keep the extent of the leak quiet.The penalty comes after an investigation by the Office of the Attorney General into a 2018 hack in which credit card and personal information, like names, emails, and hashed passwords, was stolen. The data breach affected 39 million Shein and 7 million Romwe accounts, including more than 800,000 accounts belonging to New Yorkers.Romwe reset passwords more than a year after it was hacked and told customers they’d simply... Continue reading…

Photo by Becca Farsace / The Verge Today marks another chapter in the slow demise of the headphone jack. Microsoft has quietly removed the 3.5mm connector from its brand-new Surface Pro 9. The change is confirmed on the tech specs page, which no longer lists a headphone jack among the device’s “connections.” But it’s very much present on the same page for the Surface Pro 8.This seems to be the direct result of Microsoft bringing the Intel and Arm versions of the Surface Pro 9 together in the same chassis. The Surface Pro X has never had a 3.5mm jack, so now, the Intel hardware is coming in line with that design direction.But I’d argue it’s a more controversial omission this time. Why? The new universal outer enclosure is essentially the same size as that of the Surface... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Microsoft isn’t happy with Sony and the UK’s Competition and Markets Authority. The UK regulator signaled an in-depth review of Microsoft’s $68.7 billion deal to acquire Activision Blizzard last month, and the CMA has now published its full 76-page report (PDF) on its findings. The CMA says it has concerns that Microsoft’s Activision Blizzard deal could lessen competition in game consoles, subscriptions, and cloud gaming, but Microsoft thinks the regulator has simply been listening to Sony’s lawyers too much.Microsoft pleaded for its deal on the day of the Phase 2 decision last month, but now the gloves are well and truly off. Microsoft describes the CMA’s concerns as “misplaced” and says that the regulator “adopts Sony’s complaints... Continue reading…

The Pixel Watch is a fair attempt at a first-gen smartwatch, but Google has quite a few growing pains to address Continue reading…

Workspaces groups together tabs and lets you share them with a single link. | Image: Microsoft Workspaces is a new feature coming to Microsoft Edge designed to make it easier to organize and share the dozens of browser tabs that you use on a daily basis. The feature has been popping up in Edge’s early preview builds for over a year now, but Microsoft is offering more detail on it today as part of its Ignite conference alongside new security and shopping features for its browser.Screenshots of Workspaces in preview show how users can create groups of tabs by clicking an icon to the left of the tab row. They can add tabs and name and color-code each group. They can then access, edit, and open previously created groups from that same icon. If you’ve ever used a tab manager add-on like OneTab, then Workspaces seems like a neat,... Continue reading…

Scene from The Strangers (2008) | Image: Rogue Pictures It’s October, which means that all the Halloween lawn and store decorations are out, as are all the holiday TV specials, horror movies, and terrifying games. Which to choose for a really good scare?We asked The Verge staff members to tell us about their favorite ways to generate chills, and they came up with a wide variety of Halloween-ish entertainment. Some of their choices are subtly tension-building, some are truly frightening, some are really nasty, and some are just great camp horror.Whatever types of frights you’re into, you should find something here to help you celebrate what may be our favorite fall holiday.Novels and short stories“The Lottery” by Shirley JacksonI first encountered Shirley Jackson’s strange and... Continue reading…

A close-up view of a portable ankle exoskeleton that helps someone walk | Image: Stanford University A new robotic, boot-like exoskeleton uses wearable sensors to adjust to each person who wears it, marking a significant step forward for robotics. The device, described in a study published today, helps solve one of the big challenges in developing systems that help people walk: that everyone walks differently.“This exoskeleton personalizes assistance as people walk normally through the real world,” said Steve Collins, associate professor of mechanical engineering and head of the Stanford Biomechatronics Laboratory.Exoskeletons as a concept aren’t new — researchers think they could help people with mobility issues or remove some of the strain from walking for people in jobs that require constant movement. But so far, devices that... Continue reading…

The front of the Meta Quest Pro headset. | Photo by Alex Heath / The Verge One mild sunny day last week, I made my first visit to Meta’s campus in Burlingame, CA, to experience the company’s latest big swing in its efforts to build a metaverse. The centerpiece of the day, as well as Tuesday morning’s keynote address at the Connect conference, is the Meta Quest Pro: a $1,499 standalone mixed reality headset, shipping October 25th, that the company hopes will spur a new wave of adoption by professionals and businesses.Yesterday I wrote about what Meta had to prove at Connect: that the metaverse is not only happening, but happening now, and that Meta is better positioned to capture the upside of the coming platform shift than anyone else. Indeed, that was the core theme of Tuesday’s keynote, as CEO Mark... Continue reading…

The Surface Studio 2 Plus is all about internal upgrades. | Photo by Becca Farsace / The Verge It’s been a long time since Microsoft updated its Surface Studio line of all-in-one PCs. While rumors had suggested a Surface Studio 3 was on the way, Microsoft is debuting its Surface Studio 2 Plus today instead — an upgrade on the Surface Studio 2 that launched four years ago. It includes some important upgrades on the inside, but the exterior is practically the same, and it all starts at an eye-watering $4,299.The Surface Studio 2 Plus will ship with Intel’s 11th Gen Core i7-11370H processor, a chip that’s rapidly approaching two years on the market. We’re about to enter Intel’s 13th Gen era, so it’s hugely disappointing to see Microsoft not move to 12th Gen H series chips or wait for Intel’s latest and greatest.“Our goal was ship... Continue reading…

The Surface Laptop 5 now comes with Thunderbolt 4. | Photo by Becca Farsace / The Verge Microsoft is refreshing its Surface Laptop lineup today with new Surface Laptop 5 models. While the company has offered AMD and Intel chip options for the Surface in the past, this year’s models are pure Intel with the addition of Thunderbolt 4 support.Microsoft hasn’t fully explained why it’s dropped AMD from its Surface Laptop lineup, though. “We focused on shipping Intel 12th Gen,” says Pete Kyriacou, vice president of program management at Microsoft. “We’re great partners with AMD, we continue to work with them on longer term projects but for Laptop 5 we don’t have AMD models.” Photo by Becca Farsace / The Verge The new Sage color option (right). As with last year’s Surface Laptop 4 lineup, Microsoft will... Continue reading…

Microsoft Designer will let users type text prompts to generate new images. | Image: Microsoft Microsoft is adding AI-generated art to its suite of Office software with a new app named Microsoft Designer.The app functions the same way as AI text-to-image models like DALL-E and Stable Diffusion, letting users type prompts to “instantly generate a variety of designs with minimal effort.” Microsoft says Designer can be used to create everything from greeting cards and social media posts to illustrations for PowerPoint presentations and logos for businesses.Essentially, AI-generated imagery looks set to become the new clip art.Microsoft is rolling out this software slowly and carefullyThe app isn’t ready for a full launch though, and Microsoft is only offering a limited web preview. “We’re inviting people to try it out, give us... Continue reading…

Illustration by Vincent Kilbride / The Verge The biggest vulnerability is always the human element.It’s a truism in the security world, but we rarely dwell on what it means. You can patch a software flaw completely, but there’s no perfect fix for an accounts payable clerk who approves a phony invoice or an executive who falls for a spear-phishing attack. Human beings are complex, and keeping them safe is even more complex. It’s the hardest problem in security; in a sense, it’s the only problem.So for the next two weeks, we’re taking a look at some cybersecurity stories with the human element at the center, whether it’s scammers dangling bogus job offers or people facing the difficult choice of who to trust when seeking an abortion. These difficult situations are at the heart of... Continue reading…

Vincent Kilbride / The Verge One of the reasons PDFs are so popular, especially among lawyers and other legal professionals, is that they are accurate and (for the most part) unalterable versions of documents that were once only available on paper. As a result, because PDFs often hold information that we want to keep private, they can also be password-protected.There are a variety of ways you can password-protect a PDF file. If you use a Mac, you can use the Preview app that comes with macOS. If you use a Windows PC, it’s a little more involved; you can use the Word app (assuming you’ve got a paid-for version), or you can use an online app by Adobe (the company that created the format).Here are step-by-step directions to help you protect your PDFs with one of... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Intel is planning substantial job cuts, likely numbering in the thousands, according to a report from Bloomberg News. The reduction in headcount is a response to declining demand for the company’s consumer chips — part of a wider downturn in the PC market.The layoffs will hit Intel’s sales and marketing teams particularly hard, says Bloomberg, affecting around 20 percent of team members. The cuts will reportedly be announced “as early as this month,” around the same time as Intel’s third-quarter earnings report on October 27th. The company currently has 113,700 employees.After two years of booming sales during the pandemic, the PC market is now struggling. Recent analysis from Gartner found that worldwide shipments totaled 68 million... Continue reading…

Nicholas Barclay / The Verge Amazon is back with another Prime Day for 2022, and we’re here to highlight the deals that are worth your money. The Prime Early Access Sale is happening now through tomorrow, October 12th, and it’s an event that should serve as a good primer for the kinds of deals we might see during Black Friday and Cyber Monday. In other words, you might be able to get some — or all — of your holiday shopping done, whether it’s all at Amazon or from one of the many other retailers that are serving up a rush of deals to compete.What you’ll find below are the best deals from Amazon’s Prime Early Access Sale. And just to reiterate, most of the Amazon deals below are exclusive to Prime members, though you may be eligible for a free 30-day trial.... Continue reading…

Photo by Vlad Savov / The Verge Honda first announced plans to partner with LG Chem to build a $4.4 billion electric vehicle (EV) battery plant back in August, and the two companies confirmed today that the factory’s coming to Fayette County, Ohio. Establishing a US-based EV plant will allow Honda’s upcoming line of plug-in vehicles to qualify for the country’s EV tax credits.Construction on the factory will begin early next year, with mass production of EV batteries set to start by the end of 2025. Honda says the factory will have an annual production capacity of 40GWh and will supply about 2,200 jobs.In addition to the joint venture with LG Chem, Honda’s also investing $700 million to retool three of its existing Ohio-based car plants for EV production. The move... Continue reading…