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by Justine Calma on (#671NZ)
A 3M plant during the pilot installation of a PFAS purification method in Antwerp on September 27th, 2022. | Photo by Nicolas Maeterlinck / BELGA / AFP via Getty Images 3M plans to phase out “forever chemicals” over the next few years, the manufacturing giant announced today. The announcement comes as the company faces a slew of lawsuits over its toxic legacy with per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, also known as PFAS or forever chemicals.Specifically, 3M says it will discontinue the use of forever chemicals in its portfolio of products and “exit all PFAS manufacturing by the end of 2025.” Currently, 3M nets around $1.3 billion in annual sales of PFAS it manufactures. The chemicals have gone into many of its most iconic products over the years, including Scotchgard fabric protector. In the 1960s, the company also worked with the Navy to develop firefighting foam using PFAS.“PFAS are critical in the... Continue reading…
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The Verge
| Link | https://www.theverge.com/ |
| Feed | http://www.theverge.com/rss/index.xml |
| Updated | 2026-08-09 04:47 |
by Dan Seifert on (#66SYX)
Logitech’s Combo Touch keyboard case and USB-C Crayon stylus for the 10th Gen Apple iPad. Apple’s 10th-gen iPad is a bit of an enigma, a mix of newer design and technology with older features and limitations. Nowhere is this more apparent than with the accessory situation, where the 10th-gen iPad uses Apple’s older Pencil instead of the model used with the iPad Air, iPad Mini, and iPad Pro and the bafflingly expensive and limited Magic Keyboard Folio.Fortunately, where there are frustrations, there are opportunities, and Logitech has swooped in to grab them. The company has released a Crayon stylus and Combo Touch keyboard case for the 10th-gen iPad that manage to do a better job than Apple’s devices while costing considerably less money to boot.Logitech Crayon vs. Apple Pencil (first gen) The Logitech... Continue reading…
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by Adi Robertson on (#671P0)
Within makes popular fitness app Supernatural. | Image: Supernatural / Within Meta has delayed its acquisition of virtual reality studio Within by a month, agreeing not to close the deal until January 31st. The agreement was noted in a court filing reported on by Reuters this morning, extending a temporary restraining order agreed to in August. The news comes as the two sides face off in court over whether Meta is unlawfully monopolizing the nascent VR industry.The FTC sued Meta in July to stop the acquisition of Within, which makes the popular VR fitness service Supernatural. It argued that Meta’s acquisition reduced competition in the potential “killer app” category of fitness apps, a claim Meta denies. Meta has previously acquired several other VR studios, including the developers of Beat Saber, a game with... Continue reading…
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by Andrew J. Hawkins on (#671P1)
Illustration by Laura Normand / The Verge That poll that Elon Musk posted to Twitter Sunday evening? Asking whether he should stay on as CEO of Twitter or appoint someone else? The one where he said he would “abide by the results” no matter how it turned out? The one where nearly 58 percent of participants said, yes, please step down already?It was probably mostly meaningless. According to CNBC’s David Faber, whose reporting is pretty reliable on this kind of stuff, Musk has been actively searching for a replacement even before posting the poll. In fact, that search has been “ongoing,” Faber writes. How ongoing? Faber doesn’t say, but Musk hasn’t been exactly shy about describing his tenure at Twitter as only temporary.Musk hasn’t been exactly shy about describing his tenure... Continue reading…
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by Victoria Song on (#671P2)
Unlike Bane, no one cared who I was, even after I put on the mask. I channeled my inner Bane, but not a single jaded New Yorker gave Dyson’s wearable air purifier a second glance. Continue reading…
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by Jess Weatherbed on (#671EA)
The new bilingual search function is available in India first and will display search results in both English and Hindi in certain regions. | Illustration: The Verge Google is improving how Google search presents information in two languages, alongside developing its voice search feature to understand inquiries that use a mix of languages.Search results in the knowledge graph box and some sections like “Top stories” and “People also ask” will be displayed in both English and Hindi in Hindi-speaking regions of India, regardless of which language the user used to make the search. The new bilingual search function is available in India first with plans to add Tamil, Telugu, Marathi, and Bengali sometime next year. The feature is location-based, which means you may already have access to it if Google recognizes you’re located in a region of India where Hindi is a dominant language. I... Continue reading…
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by Andrew Webster on (#671EB)
Image: Bandai Namco Bandai Namco is looking to adapt another major work from Dragon Ball creator Akira Toriyama. The company has announced a push to develop Sand Land, a manga written by Toriyama in 2000, into what it describes as “a full IP.”That will start with an animated film adaptation. No other specific projects were announced, but given the company’s history — both with Dragon Ball and the massive success of titles like Elden Ring — it’s safe to say that video games are likely to be part of the project as well.You can get a sense of the world of Sand Land in the brief teaser above. Here’s the official description:
by Jessica Lucas on (#671EC)
Kristen Radtke / The Verge; Photos: Getty Images A popular niche risks running afoul of the site’s rules against ‘sexually gratifying’ content. Continue reading…
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by Alice Newcome-Beill on (#671ED)
The 8BitDo Pro 2 is the best pro controller for the Nintendo Switch and a number of other consoles. | Image: Sam Byford If you’re in the market for a versatile controller that doesn’t cost a grip, 8BitDo currently has a couple of models on sale you might be interested in. On sale for $39.99 at Amazon and Best Buy (normally $49.99), we consider the 8BitDo Pro 2 to be the best pro controller for the Nintendo Switch, even though it performs just as well with a variety of platforms, including Windows, macOS, and mobile devices.The Pro 2 is modeled after the classic SNES controller but includes a pair of grips for enhanced comfort. It also includes an additional pair of front triggers to support modern controller layouts and two back paddles as well. All of the inputs on the Pro 2 can be remapped using the 8BitDo app. You can learn more about it in our full... Continue reading…
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by Jon Porter on (#671EE)
The Centerpiece’s screen appears to dynamically respond to keypresses. | Image: Finalmouse Boutique gaming mouse manufacturer Finalmouse has big plans for its first foray into the mechanical keyboard market. Its Finalmouse Centerpiece is an eye-catching $349 keyboard that has a screen embedded underneath its transparent keycaps and switches. The effect is that it looks like you’re typing on the screen directly, while (hopefully) maintaining the feel and tactility of traditional mechanical switches.There’s been at least one similar attempt at this idea made in the past: the Optimus Popularis. But while the Popularis used its screen (which was only visible through its individual transparent keys) to display useful information like keyboard shortcuts, Finalmouse’s seems to be far more cosmetic.
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by Jon Porter on (#671EF)
Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Amazon and European Union regulators have reached an agreement over two long-running antitrust cases, the European Commission has announced, which it’s hoped will help make third-party sellers more competitive on Amazon’s marketplace. The agreement means Amazon will avoid fines that had the potential to stretch into the billions of dollars, but it has agreed to make a series of legally binding commitments that it will have to abide by for up to seven years.The commitments come in three broad parts that are consistent with those that were made public in July this year. First, Amazon has agreed not to use nonpublic data from independent sellers on its Marketplace platform to make decisions like which products to launch or what prices to... Continue reading…
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by Jay Peters on (#671EG)
Micha Huigen / The Verge In 2022, Apple introduced iOS 16, which brought with it vastly improved lock screens — and made the iPhone so much better.With iOS 16, you can now set things on your lock screen, like different clock fonts, lock screen widgets, and new wallpapers, in just a few taps. Anytime I want to give my iPhone a fresh coat of paint, I can do it right from the same screen I see every time I wake my phone — without having to dive into settings. And even better, when you start to make a new wallpaper, the page contains a bunch of suggestions and options to help you decide what it might look like.Want a lock screen focused on the weather? Apple has a recommendation for that. Want a fancy pattern of emoji? There are a bunch of patterns to pick from,... Continue reading…
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by Jess Weatherbed on (#671EH)
Accidental Delete grants users a five-second window to restore incorrectly deleted messages. | Image: WhatsApp WhatsApp has rolled out a new feature that allows users to restore deleted messages on the platform. Accidental Delete grants users a five-second window to bring back messages, acting as a safety net for WhatsApp users to correct mistaken deletions or reselect how they want a message to be deleted.There are currently two options available for deleting messages on WhatsApp: “Delete for me” (which hides the message from yourself but keeps it visible for everyone else) and “Delete for everyone.” Previously, if a user accidentally selected “Delete for me” instead of “Delete for everyone,” there was no way to access the message and select the correct deletion option — a distressing situation if you need to remove something sensitive from a... Continue reading…
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by Victoria Song on (#6719H)
Micha Huigen / The Verge The year 2021 wasn’t great for Peloton. Its stock tanked. Its premium treadmill killed a small child, injured several others, and wound up being recalled. Its new, affordable treadmill also ended up being recalled before it ever officially launched. By December, Peloton was the butt of everyone’s jokes after Mr. Big, a major Sex and the City character, died on his Peloton Bike in the first episode of HBO’s sequel And Just Like That.... Peloton tried to clap back with a cheeky commercial. That backfired. The year ended with murmurs about a potential sale.And yet, somehow, 2022 was worse.Peloton opened 2022 with a fumble, followed by yet another TV character having a heart attack on its Bike. Soon after, then-CEO John Foley stepped... Continue reading…
by Mia Sato on (#6719K)
Illustration by Nick Barclay / The Verge TikTok users will soon get a peek under the hood of their For You pages to understand why each video is being recommended.In a blog post today, the company said it would begin rolling out a new feature on videos that breaks down why they’re being shown to the user. The feature — labeled “Why this video” — is accessed through the share panel and by clicking a question mark icon. Image: TikTok Why am I seeing another video about The 1975? TikTok recommends content based on a variety of signals the company collects from users but has largely kept its exact methods under wraps. A blockbuster Wall Street Journal investigation last year detailed some ways the TikTok algorithm reads users, including how long a... Continue reading…
by Jennifer Pattison Tuohy on (#6719J)
The once HomeKit-only Eve devices now work with Google Home and Samsung SmartThings — if you jump through some large hoops. I upgraded an Eve Energy smart plug and Eve motion and contact sensors to Matter and controlled them simultaneously in Google Home, Apple Home, and Samsung SmartThings. But I needed two phones and two days to get it all working. Continue reading…
by Jay Peters on (#6711S)
A lot of people are checking it out. | Image: Mastodon Mastodon, a decentralized social media platform that many are turning to as a Twitter alternative, saw its userbase skyrocket from about 300,000 monthly active users to 2.5 million between October and November, Mastodon’s CEO, founder, and lead developer Eugen Rochko said in a new blog post. Elon Musk officially took over Twitter in late October, meaning Mastodon’s huge jump in users almost directly followed Musk’s new ownership.Rochko’s post also addressed Twitter’s now-reversed bans on sharing links to Mastodon, many journalists, and the @joinmastodon account itself following the still-in-place ban on @ElonJet. “This is a stark reminder that centralized platforms can impose arbitrary and unfair limits on what you can and can’t say... Continue reading…
by Cameron Faulkner on (#65T7D)
Photography by Joel Goldberg for The Verge Mom, mum, mammy, mother dearest. No mom is the same. Fortunately, we’ve compiled a list of gift ideas so that you’ll be able to find something awesome to give to the mother figure in your life — no matter what name she goes by. Continue reading…
by Sheena Vasani on (#66CWG)
Image: Kristen Radtke / The Verge Keeping your mind and body in tip-top shape takes work, but these gift ideas should make things a bit easier for the fitness buff in your life. Continue reading…
by Allison Johnson on (#670RZ)
T-Mobile is paying Comcast headquarters a visit today. | Image: T-Mobile From the minds that gave us 5G gin comes T-Mobile’s latest publicity grab: a truck driving in circles around Comcast’s headquarters in Philadelphia with a message reading: “Make Xfinity your ex.”This oh-so-subtle messaging comes with an offer to Comcast customers, tempting them to switch to T-Mobile’s 5G home internet service for $25 per month (provided you have a “qualifying voice line”). It also underscores just how important fixed wireless broadband is to T-Mobile as it looks for ways to capitalize on its early lead in 5G and take a bite out of the cable company’s home internet business.Some of T-Mobile’s interest in home internet is thanks to a condition of its Sprint acquisition. In exchange for reducing our wireless carrier... Continue reading…
by Mitchell Clark on (#670S0)
“Blue for Business” will let you show who is affiliated with your brand. | Image: Twitter Twitter has officially announced Blue for Business, a subscription geared toward companies that want to “verify and distinguish themselves on Twitter,” as its press release says. The service will let companies link their main accounts with those of their employees to make it easier to show that someone actually does work for them.The company is testing the service with “a select group of businesses,” including its own employees. Esther Crawford, director of product management at Twitter, has a little bird badge next to her blue checkmark that verifies her as an employee at the company, as you can see in this tweet of her announcing Blue for Business. Craft Ventures, a venture capital firm, also appears to have some employees marked as... Continue reading…
by Alice Newcome-Beill on (#65QEY)
Photography by Joel Goldberg for The Verge An expertly crafted collection of all of our favorite games and accessories for the special gamer in your life. Continue reading…
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by Adi Robertson on (#670S1)
Illustration: The Verge Tumblr is adding support for livestreaming via the video platform Livebox. The feature is being rolled out to US users on iOS and Android now, and a release for global users and the desktop site is planned for the future. More details are outlined in a blog post, which dubs the service Tumblr Live.Tumblr has supported streaming in the past, but it did so by letting people share streams from other services like YouNow and YouTube. The new option is described as a native Tumblr streaming service powered by Livebox. (Livebox is operated by the Meet Group, a subsidiary of the dating app company ParshipMeet Group.) Livebox allows users to tip streamers, and by the same token, Tumblr will let you pay creators in a virtual currency called... Continue reading…
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by Jay Peters on (#670NG)
Doesn’t seem very hip to be square, in this case. | Screenshot by Jay Peters / The Verge Twitter is adding to its increasingly complex ways of differentiating accounts with new square profile pictures with rounded corners for brands. The new type of profile pic started rolling out on the platform on Monday, and you might already be able to see them on brand profiles and in your feed.Here’s what The Verge’s new square profile pic looks like, for example: Image: Jay Peters / The Verge It’s a square. And here it is in the feed: Image: Jay Peters / The Verge Still a square. It appears that these square profile pictures are being applied to accounts with gold verification badges, which already denote official business accounts. The Verge’s official deals and... Continue reading…
by Mitchell Clark on (#670NJ)
Parcel gives you an overview of where all your packages are and can notify you when they’re moving. | Image: Parcel My inbox is always awash with different shipping notifications, especially this time of year, as I’ve got gifts in transit to family members all across the country. “See what packages are coming your way,” sing FedEx, UPS, and the USPS’s Informed Delivery digests. “Here’s the latest on that thing you ordered,” say a billion online stores. The cacophony doesn’t bother me, though. I know I can safely ignore almost all of those emails because an app called Parcel is already keeping me up to date on everything that they’re trying to tell me.While I’m about to heap a lot of praise on this specific app, it’s worth noting that it’s far from the only package tracking app around (I’ve heard a lot of praise for Shopify’s Shop, which also benefits... Continue reading…
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by Sean Hollister on (#670NK)
Image: Eufy At this point, there’s zero chance I would buy a Eufy security camera for my own home. But if you already own some or if you’re on the fence, you might want to hear what the company has to say for itself.While Eufy just nerfed its privacy promises rather than answering our questions about how we were able to play live footage from an end-to-end encrypted camera through VLC Media Player, the company’s customer support team does have a prepared statement, even if its PR department does not.Unfortunately, only a tiny portion of the statement addresses that particular issue — but it does seem to tacitly admit Anker did not properly secure its Eufy web portal. And while it does also hint at some sort of fix, it’s not clear we’ll be... Continue reading…
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by Ash Parrish on (#670NM)
Photo: Carlton Beener / Blizzard Entertainment After a three-year hiatus, the Overwatch World Cup is back. The event was announced over the weekend, possibly in a cute nod to the dramatic FIFA World Cup nail-biter final and to coincide with a special Overwatch League veterans competition (which you should watch if you want to see how the GOATs of Goats played in addition to feeling the emotions names like Runner, Bumper, Ryujehong, and Esca will evoke in fans of the Apex Tournament days).
by Emma Roth on (#670NN)
Nick Barclay / The Verge Binance.US has entered an agreement to acquire the assets of the insolvent cryptocurrency brokerage Voyager, as earlier reported by CNBC. In a press release on Binance.US’s site, the California-based company says the move should free up customer funds that have been locked up in the bankrupt Voyager Digital.Binance.US, which is led by CEO Brian Shroder, is only available to users in the US and remains a separate entity from the international trading platform Binance, owned by Changpeng (CZ) Zhao.Voyager says the Binance.US bid is worth just over $1 billion, which is an estimate of the value of Voyager’s crypto profile plus an additional $20 million in consideration. As part of the agreement, Binance.US will make a $10 million deposit... Continue reading…
by Sheena Vasani on (#670NP)
Amazon’s latest smart speaker, the fifth-gen Echo Dot with Clock, now supports Matter. | Photo by Jennifer Pattison Tuohy / The Verge Seventeen Amazon Echo devices now support Matter’s interoperable smart home standard after Amazon completed the first phase of its promised Matter rollout today, the company announced. These include smart speakers newer than the third-gen Echo Dot and Echo, as well as smart displays ranging from the second-gen Echo Show 8 to the large, wall-mounted Echo Show 15.However, this rollout is limited only to those with Android phones and smart plugs, smart bulbs, and smart switches. They’re also only able to connect to your home network over Wi-Fi, although both Thread and iOS support should be available next year. Other products, including the full Eero device lineup, will also be compatible with Matter in 2023.The move comes just a few... Continue reading…
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by Chris Welch on (#670GK)
The Fire TV’s music videos are provided by Xite. | Image: Amazon If you find yourself on the couch using one of Amazon’s Fire TV devices, you’re likely browsing through Prime Video, Netflix, HBO Max, or maybe a live TV service like YouTube TV. But like so many other entertainment platforms, Amazon has made an effort to complement the most popular entertainment services with a hefty dose of free ad-supported content. It’s already done this with local news, sports, food programming, movie trailers, and more. Music videos are next on the list.“Fire TV customers in the US will soon be able to access tens of thousands of premium music videos from major and independent labels — no sign-ups, subscriptions, or fees required,” Amazon wrote on its Fire TV blog today. “Fire TV customers can easily find... Continue reading…
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by Jay Peters on (#670GM)
The Ray-Ban Stories don’t have AR, but someday we might be wearing sunglasses with advanced AR tech. | Photo by Amanda Lopez for The Verge Meta’s Reality Labs division might be burning billions, but it’s not all going toward not-great VR headsets. The company is currently putting “about half” of Reality Labs’ operating expenses toward augmented reality (AR), Meta CTO and Reality Labs head Andrew Bosworth said in an extensive blog post on Monday.The company has been pushing toward its vision of AR glasses for a while, and while that product might still be very far out, Meta has taken recent steps to get closer to it. Last year’s Ray-Ban Stories sunglasses look like regular glasses and are equipped with cameras, and the Meta Quest Pro is capable of more immersive AR thanks to its color passthrough.But that fully complete glasses product from Meta could be years away, even... Continue reading…
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by Alice Newcome-Beill on (#670GN)
Image: Amazon On December 13th, Amazon’s robotics division was hit with a lawsuit seeking $280 million in damages from Gilimex Inc., a Vietnamese company responsible for manufacturing the steel and fabric storage containers that hold items as they’re moved around the company’s warehouses.The supplier says Amazon rushed it to ramp up production early in the pandemic, assuring the smaller company it would be notified if things change. However, last spring, Amazon’s need for these parts abruptly dropped as it sharply reduced projections. After that, Gilimex claims Amazon didn’t compensate Gilimex for raw materials that were purchased in advance or provide any advance warning to ramp down its production, only offering to buy a small fraction of the... Continue reading…
by Charles Pulliam-Moore on (#670GP)
Rosario Dawson as Ahsoka Tano in Disney Plus’ Ahsoka. | Disney Plus Disney Plus subscribers probably still have a back catalog of shows and movies from 2022 to watch. That said, the streamer’s already gearing up to hit the ground running in the new year with a bevy of returning series like The Mandalorian and Loki and a few new ones like Ahsoka and Secret Invasion.Though it doesn’t reveal all that much about any of the new series debuting next year, Disney Plus’ new teaser trailer for all of its forthcoming shows does make clear that the House of Mouse is sticking to its guns in 2023 by offering up even more live-action Marvel and Star Wars fare. Pedro Pascal’s Din Djarin and Grogu are both (obviously) returning for The Mandalorian’s third installment that’s slated to spotlight the return of Katee... Continue reading…
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by Justine Calma on (#670GQ)
A plenary meeting during the UN Biodiversity Conference (COP15) in Montreal, Quebec, on December 19th, 2022. | Photo by LARS HAGBERG/AFP via Getty Images More than 190 countries agreed to protect 30 percent of Earth’s lands and waters by the end of the decade at the UN Biodiversity Conference. The historic deal was struck before sunrise today following nearly two weeks of negotiations in Montreal.Each country adopted the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework, which commits them to achieving over 20 environmental targets by 2030. Altogether, the framework is supposed to stop human beings from driving species to extinction, preserve the planet’s genetic diversity, and ensure that the benefits of that biodiversity are used sustainably and equitably.One of the biggest and most controversial parts of the deal is the provision to “protect” at least 30 percent of land, inland water,... Continue reading…
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by Antonio G. Di Benedetto on (#670GR)
Sony’s DualSense controllers come in seven color options, and they’re all on sale. | Photo by Cameron Faulkner / The Verge Attention, fellow deal hunters and cheapskates: it’s the Monday before Christmas, so if you still have gifts to buy, you’d best hurry. Let us help you do that without overspending. Starting things off, Sony’s DualSense controller for the PlayStation 5 and PC is once again on sale for around $49.99 at Amazon, Best Buy, and Target. The best part of this deal, aside from the fact that you’re getting up to $25 off, is that every color of the DualSense is discounted.You can choose from the stock white, midnight black, cosmic red, galactic purple, nova pink, starlight blue, and even the most recent gray camouflage. Whether you’re going for a controller in a hue that vividly stands out or one that tactically blends in, you get all the... Continue reading…
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by Andrew J. Hawkins on (#670GS)
Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Two former Tesla employees are saying they were illegally fired from the company after taking part in an organized effort to publicly criticize Elon Musk, according to Bloomberg.The two employees, both of whom are based in California, have filed complaints with the National Labor Relations Board. The firings may have violated federal law protecting employee speech related to working conditions.The employees say they were involved in drafting two letters, one of which asked Tesla to reconsider its return-to-the-office policies and the other highlighting a tweet by Musk that they argue violates the company’s anti-harassment policies. The draft letters were never sent to Tesla executives, according to Bloomberg.“Tesla’s failure to... Continue reading…
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by Adi Robertson on (#670BM)
Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge The Supreme Court has scheduled arguments for two major internet moderation cases in February of 2023. As noted by Bloomberg reporter Greg Stohr, hearings for Gonzalez v. Google and Twitter v. Taamneh have been respectively scheduled for February 21st and February 22nd, respectively.The two cases could result in a fundamental change to how platforms can recommend content, particularly material produced by terrorist organizations. Both stem from lawsuits claiming that YouTube, Twitter, and other platforms provided support for Islamic State attacks by failing to remove — and, in some cases, recommending — accounts and posts by terrorists. Gonzalez v. Google’s plaintiffs claim these recommendations shouldn’t be covered by Section 230 of... Continue reading…
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by Jess Weatherbed on (#670BN)
Ubisoft games originally purchased on Google Stadia have started to appear on users’ Ubisoft Connect accounts. | Image: Ubisoft Ubisoft has started handing out PC versions of games originally purchased on Google Stadia in preparation for Stadia’s shutdown on January 18th, 2023.Ubisoft previously announced back in September that any Ubisoft titles purchased on the cloud gaming platform would be eligible to transfer over to PC, promising to share “specific details as well as the impact for Ubisoft+ subscribers at a later date.” 9to5Google now reports that this migration process quietly started on Friday, December 16th.Games that support cloud cross-save may have saved game data ported over to a user’s Ubisoft Connect accountUsers have seen the game licenses transfer automatically to PC via Ubisoft Connect (as opposed to individual game codes being manually... Continue reading…
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by Emma Roth on (#670BP)
Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Epic Games and the Federal Trade Commission reached a $520 million settlement over claims the Fortnite developer broke online privacy protection laws for kids and tricked players into buying in-game items (via The Wall Street Journal). The settlement includes a record $275 million penalty to settle alleged violations of the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Rule (COPPA) and $245 million over a purchasing setup that could trick players and allow them to buy things by accident.Fortnite made over $9 billion during its first two years in existence.In its complaint, the FTC alleges Epic collected personal information from Fortnite players under the age of 13 without their parent’s knowledge or consent. The agency also claims Epic harmed... Continue reading…
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by Victoria Song on (#6706Y)
Micha Huigen / The Verge I used to sigh when reviewing Android smartwatches.I desperately wanted Android users to have a smartwatch that could go toe-to-toe with the Apple Watch, but it wasn’t happening. There was always something. Dismal battery life, a laggy OS, outdated or inaccurate health features, and more tumbleweeds than third-party apps — sometimes all of the above. You never want to be an overly cynical reviewer, but I was losing hope.However, that wasn’t the case in 2022. Unlike every other year, Wear OS watches were the reviews I looked forward to most.There were a ton of reasons to be excited. After years of speculation, the Pixel Watch is no longer a mythical gadget whispered about in rumor blogs. It’s a real smartwatch that you can currently... Continue reading…
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by Allison Johnson on (#6706Z)
The OnePlus 11 5G and OnePlus Buds Pro 2 will debut in New Delhi come early February. | Image: OnePlus Got your 2023 planner in hand? Good, because OnePlus wants you to save the date for its global flagship phone launch on February 7th. Dubbed Cloud 11, the event will take place in New Delhi and will debut the OnePlus 11 5G and OnePlus Buds Pro 2.A teaser image accompanying Monday’s news lines up with previously leaked renders, showing a redesigned camera bump. Separately, company spokesperson Spenser Blank confirmed that a Hasselblad-branded camera system and the much-beloved alert slider will return on the OnePlus 11 — both features omitted from the OnePlus 10T.Per usual, there’s not much in the way of concrete details at this point. A tagline for the event teaser reads “Witness the Shape of Power,” which probably has something to... Continue reading…
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by Cameron Faulkner on (#67070)
Micha Huigen / The Verge The Nintendo Switch’s lousy performance is as enduring as the console itself. Grainy, stuttery graphics are synonymous with playing games on the 2017 system, which hasn’t gotten a spec upgrade to boost how games look and run. And in the five-plus years since the Switch was released, remarking on disappointing visuals has been a fixture in our reviews of the console’s best games.The Switch’s hardware is pulling in the opposite direction of Nintendo’s modern software, which is bigger, better, and more ambitious in scope than ever before. And yet, its strategy of supporting a low-powered device that gets slowly updated is no different for the Switch than it was for Nintendo’s previous consoles. This long-tail strategy has been successful... Continue reading…
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by Alex Cranz on (#67071)
You won’t need a nightlight in the bathroom with this toilet. | Image: Kohler Have you ever sat on the toilet, pondering your day, using your phone even though that’s kind of gross to do on the john, avoiding everyone in the house, and thought, “I wish Alexa was in here with me?” That is, what I assume, the designers of the Kohler Numi 2.0 Smart Toilet were thinking when they made this $11,500 toilet that has Alexa inside.Kohler first showed off the Numi 2.0 at CES way back in 2019, and not a whole lot has changed from that initial announcement. It still has Alexa built-in, and it still has lots of LED lights and speakers, so any guests who come over will know you appreciate the techier things in life. There doesn’t appear to be a warning built into the toilet telling users Alexa is listening to their bowel... Continue reading…
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by Jess Weatherbed on (#67021)
Google is working with pharmacists to create a tool that can decipher the handwriting of doctors, detecting medications mentioned in otherwise hard-to-read prescriptions. | Image: Google Google is developing an AI model that can decipher difficult-to-read handwriting, with a focus on notes and prescriptions written by doctors. The search giant announced during its annual conference in India on Monday that it was working with pharmacists to create a tool in Google Lens that can decode messily written medical notes (via TechCrunch).Google showcased the feature during the event, demonstrating its capability to specifically detect medicines in a handwritten prescription. There’s no detail yet on when the new text deciphering feature is expected to launch, only that “much work still remains to be done before this system is ready for the real world.”Google Lens is an AI-powered multipurpose object recognition tool that can... Continue reading…
by Richard Lawler on (#66ZMG)
Illustration by Kristen Radtke / The Verge; Getty Images Elon Musk may be close to ending his run as Twitter CEO if he abides by the results of a poll he started on Sunday night.After haphazardly establishing a ban on links to certain social platforms that put his site at odds with both The Washington Post’s Taylor Lorenz and his own supporters, like Silicon Valley venture capitalist Paul Graham, Musk’s doxxing, banning, and moderation outburst ended — predictably — with an apology and a promise it “won’t happen again.”All Musk needs from his captive audience is a little more attention, with a promise that there will be votes about “major policy changes” in the future.The first change put to a vote? Musk’s role as Chief Twit, with nearly 58 percent of the almost 18 million votes saying he... Continue reading…
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by Tom Warren on (#67022)
Photo by Chris Welch / The Verge Nvidia is planning to remove GameStream, a feature for streaming PC games, from its Shield TVs and tablets. GameStream has been a feature of Nvidia Shield devices ever since they were portable, allowing Shield owners to stream games to their TV from a PC at up to 60fps in 4K resolution.Shield owners will be disappointed to hear that Nvidia isn’t just discontinuing its GameStream feature, but it’s actually going to remove it from devices. An update due in mid-February will totally remove the GameStream feature, in a bizarre move after nearly 10 years.Nvidia recommends Steam Link insteadNvidia is recommending that Shield users switch to Steam Link, which is a similar way of streaming PC games to a Shield device. You’ll need the Steam... Continue reading…
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by Jess Weatherbed on (#66ZYE)
Meeting organizers can apply a sensitivity label to meeting invites from Outlook or Teams to set meeting protection defaults, such as preventing chat and setting encryption for meeting video and audio. | Image: Microsoft Microsoft Teams Premium is now available for public preview, enabling users to test AI-powered smart features such as live translations, custom meeting branding, and advanced meeting protections.Microsoft Teams Premium is an add-on for the Microsoft Teams conferencing service that introduces a host of new features that make meetings on the platform “more personalized, intelligent, and secure,” according to a new Microsoft blog post. The preview is available as a 30-day free trial via the Microsoft 365 Admin Center.Features available to try out include live translation of 40 languages into captions, custom meeting templates, and advanced webinar experiences (which includes registration of up to one thousand attendees, interactivity... Continue reading…
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by Emma Roth on (#66ZJY)
Illustration: The Verge; Image: Getty Images League of Legends developer Riot Games says Sam Bankman-Fried’s affiliation with the game is hurting the company’s image (via Molly White). In a filing in FTX’s bankruptcy case, Riot Games asks the court to terminate its League of Legends Championship Series (LCS) sponsorship deal with the collapsed crypto exchange, citing irreversible “reputational harm.”Bankman-Fried’s love for gaming entered the spotlight following the fall of FTX, and he became notorious for playing League of Legends (and other games) during meetings. In a now-deleted profile of Bankman-Fried posted by venture capital firm Sequoia, co-founder Neeraj Arora says he was even playing League of Legends during their first meeting over Zoom.
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by Emma Roth on (#66ZD4)
Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Update December 19th, 2:45AM ET: Twitter has deleted @TwitterSafety’s tweets and a webpage detailing its new policy after Elon Musk apologized and said major policy changes would be put to a vote. The story that follows reflects the policy as of Sunday evening.Twitter will no longer allow users to promote their presence on certain social platforms, including Facebook, Instagram, Mastodon, Truth Social, Tribel, Nostr, and Post. In a post outlining these changes, Twitter says it will take action against users that violate this policy “at both the Tweet level and the account level.”This means users can no longer include links to their profiles on other social networks in their Twitter bio, nor can they send out tweets directing users to... Continue reading…
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by Emma Roth on (#66ZD5)
The 2019 Pro Display XDR alongside the Mac Pro. | Photo by Avery White for The Verge Apple’s working on “multiple new” external monitors outfitted with the company’s in-house silicon, according to a report from Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman. This lineup’s expected to include an updated version of the Pro Display XDR, which was last released in 2019.Gurman says the addition of Apple’s own chips should help the displays “rely less on resources from the attached computer.” Apple similarly incorporated the iPhone 11’s A13 Bionic chip into the Studio Display it launched back in March, allowing the monitor to support certain features like Center Stage, spatial audio, and “Hey Siri” voice commands.Besides the rumored Pro Display XDR, it’s still not entirely clear what other kinds of monitors Apple has planned. Supply chain analyst... Continue reading…
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