The Verge

The Felicity Ace burning in the middle of the Atlantic. | Photo: Portuguese Navy A massive, abandoned cargo ship is burning in the Atlantic with 3,965 Volkswagen Group vehicles on board, about a quarter of them from Porsche, according to Bloomberg. Porsche estimates that 1,100 of its vehicles are on board the Felicity Ace, a cargo ship about the size of three football fields. Volkswagen Group is also home to brands like Audi, Bentley, Bugatti, Lamborghini, and VW.The Felicity Ace was heading from Germany to a port in Rhode Island when it issued distress signals Wednesday morning, reporting a fire in one of its cargo decks. All 22 crew members were successfully evacuated and did not need medical attention, according to a statement by the Portuguese Navy. The owner of the vessel is now developing a plan to recover... Continue reading…

Paris added many new dedicated bicycles lanes in 2020. | Photo by CHRISTOPHE ARCHAMBAULT/AFP via Getty Images Paris officials plan to ban private vehicles from the historic heart of the city by early 2024 in a move designed to decrease congestion and improve air quality in the French capital, the city has announced. Targeting 2024 represents a two year delay on the original 2022 timeline, which was announced last May by the city’s mayor, and French presidential hopeful, Anne Hidalgo. The ban is part of a wider push to improve conditions in the city ahead of it hosting the 2024 Olympic Games.The so-called “tranquil zone” will focus on the city’s first four arrondissements, according to The Local, and includes the city’s two islands on the Seine which host the Notre-Dame cathedral and Sainte-Chapelle. City authorities say that the current plan is... Continue reading…

It’s official: you can mark off February 25th in your calendar as a day to spend hours battling enemies and solving puzzles in a twisted fantasy world. What? Elden Ring? No, I’m talking about The Legend of Zelda: Majora’s Mask. Nintendo has confirmed that the cult classic Zelda game will be added to Nintendo Switch Online’s N64 library next week.Majora’s Mask was released in 2000 and is visually similar to its predecessor, the seminal Ocarina of Time. It’s a darker and very different game, however, built around a repeating three-day cycle where Link has to figure out how to save the world from imminent destruction by the moon. A remake for the 3DS, called The Legend of Zelda: Majora’s Mask 3D, was released in 2015.Nintendo 64 games are... Continue reading…

A clubby experience in Horizon Worlds. | Image: Meta Facebook has bet its future on virtual reality and the metaverse, rebranding to Meta and spending billions a year to build hardware and software that extends beyond traditional social media. But the company has, at least so far, shared little with the public about how well its early bets are performing.Meta’s highest-profile bet right now is a social VR platform for the Quest headset called Horizon Worlds. It was recently featured in Meta’s Super Bowl ad, and Zuckerberg called it “core to our metaverse vision” on the company’s most recent earnings call. During a virtual Meta all-hands earlier this week — yes, the Metamates one — the company’s chief product officer, Chris Cox, gave employees a previously unreported update on Horizon’s... Continue reading…

Photo by Patrick Pleul/picture alliance via Getty Images Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk, one of the wealthiest men in the world (depending on the day) says the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has tried to “chill” his free speech in an “unrelenting investigation” of him and the automaker he co-founded. The SEC, Musk’s attorneys allege, “has broken its promises” in a 2018 settlement over a tweet Musk posted saying he had funding secured to take Tesla private.“Worst of all, the SEC seems to be targeting Mr. Musk and Tesla for unrelenting investigation largely because Mr. Musk remains an outspoken critic of the government,” the letter states, “the SEC’s outsized efforts seem calculated to chill his exercise of First Amendment rights rather than to enforce generally applicable laws in... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge In case you missed out on the news from early February, Amazon Prime will see its first price increase in four years starting tomorrow, February 18th, for new subscribers. The annual cost will rise from $119 to $139, or if you pay monthly, it will go from $12.99 to $14.99. If you pay monthly, you’ll have no choice after tomorrow but to take the hit. Per Variety, the cost of the Prime Students membership plan will increase from $6.49 to $7.49 per month. All of this info is listed on Amazon’s support page.However, if you have the means to front the fee for an annual Prime membership, doing so today will save you $20 compared to if you were to do the same thing tomorrow. That locks you in for a year of service at the $119 rate.Current... Continue reading…

Photo by Michael S. Schwartz/Getty Images Spotify reportedly paid Joe Rogan at least $200 million to commit to podcasting on the platform exclusively for three and a half years, according to a New York Times report. That number, while astronomical, is double what had previously been reported in The Wall Street Journal as Rogan’s deal price — $100 million — and has continued to be used widely in the media without correction from Spotify’s team.This news comes after a volatile month for the audio company and one in which musicians, podcasters, employees, and the medical community scrutinized the company’s work with the controversial podcaster. In January, a group of medical community members penned a letter to the company asking it to remove a Rogan episode they said peddled... Continue reading…

HUNGA TONGA-HUNGA HA’APAI, TONGA – DECEMBER 24, 2021: In this image 2. of a series created on January 19, 2022, Maxar overview satellite imagery shows the Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha’apai volcano on December 24, 2021, before the eruption on January 15th , 2022 in Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha’apai Islands, Tonga. | Photo by Maxar via Getty Images The volcanic eruption that rocked the Pacific island nation of Tonga in January was so powerful it blasted ash all the way up to the mesosphere, the third and coldest layer of Earth’s atmosphere. Rising 58 kilometers (36 miles) above Earth, the volcanic plume was likely the tallest ever measured by satellite, according to NASA.NASA was able to measure the plume because two weather satellites happened to be in the right place at the right time. Those satellites took still images and infrared observations that give a play-by-play of the eruption from above.In just 30 minutes or so following the eruption, ash, steam, and gas from the underwater volcano rose from the surface of the ocean all the way up to the mesosphere. A second blast... Continue reading…

In the lead-up to Destiny 2’s The Witch Queen expansion, players got the chance to interact with Savathûn, the game’s newest villain. In a PR stunt cleverly disguised as Savathûn hijacking the Destiny 2 Twitter account, the titular Witch Queen shot off some fire tweets, excoriating anyone foolish enough to wander into her mentions.Savathûn started her social media takeover with the tweet, “I am unburdened—hollow, filled only with potential. Weightless. Pure,” which, honestly, is a mood. When the official Xbox account replied somewhat snarkily, Savathûn unleashed all four barrels of The Fourth Horseman, kicking off her short but brilliant Twitter career.

Audi RS E-tron GT has an option for the company’s Digital Matrix LED, an Adaptive Driving Beam technology that’s not currently available in the US model. | Photo by Andrew Hawkins / The Verge The National Highway and Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) announced a final ruling this week that permits automakers to finally add Adaptive Driving Beams (ADB) for vehicles on US roads.Adaptive headlights, available on many vehicles in Europe, Canada, and Japan, have been prohibited in the US due to rigid and outdated federal regulations. Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards (standard no. 108) specified requirements for lamps and reflectors dating back to 1967, which standardized binary hi / low beams, which as a result stifled newer headlight technology.But now, after the passage of President Joe Biden’s $1 trillion infrastructure bill late last year, NHTSA was directed to amend FMVSS no. 108. The agency was given two years to... Continue reading…

Keep a DM convo at the top of the list. | Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Twitter is now rolling out pinned DMs, the company announced Thursday. The feature was previously only available to Twitter Blue subscribers, but it’s now coming to everyone on Android, iOS, and the web.The feature doesn’t seem to be fully rolled out just yet. I have access to it on the iOS app, but not on Twitter’s web app. On the iOS app, you can swipe to the side on a conversation to reveal a pin, and if you tap that, the conversation will be moved to a new “Pinned conversations” section at the top of your DM inbox.

Years ago, one of my PC building buddies swore by Crucial Ballistix memory. I’m pretty sure I bought Corsair Dominator instead. Are people like me why Micron just decided to retire the Ballistix brand for good? Your guess is as good as mine because Crucial ain’t talking, but it’s definitely a thing that just happened. Crucial Ballistix is officially end-of-life, rep Chelsea Garecht confirmed to The Verge, and the company will focus on Micron DDR5 memory and Crucial-brand memory and SSDs instead.It’s making me all nostalgic for the days when RAM brands seemed to matter.got any good RAM stories?There was a time you could theoretically buy worse RAM, or at least RAM from a notably less reputable manufacturer, for your desktop or laptop... Continue reading…

Image: NTSB A civil lawsuit has been filed accusing Tesla and a service manager at one of its stores of negligence stemming from a fiery crash that killed a 20-year-old man, Reuters reports.Nicholas Garcia and a passenger, Jazmin Alcala, died in a crash on September 13th, 2021, while driving in his 2021 Model 3 after its underbody struck the road’s surface as it drove through an intersection near his home in Coral Gables, Florida. The car quickly went out of control, left the road, and struck two trees before it was engulfed in flames.In the lawsuit (included below, via PlainSite), a lawyer for Garcia’s family argues the sedan’s suspension failed, causing the bottom to hit the road and igniting the batteries, and leading to sparks shooting out... Continue reading…

A screencap of the “Breakers” mechanic in Peloton’s Lanebreak game. | Image: Peloton Finally, some less dramatic news from Peloton: its Lanebreak in-app video game is finally here for Peloton Bike and Bike Plus owners.You can find Lanebreak in the “More Rides” menu at the bottom right of a Peloton bike’s tablet. The game itself sort of looks a lot like riding a light cycle in Tron, but it takes elements from rhythm games. Essentially, you can switch between six virtual “lanes” by turning the bike’s resistance knob. The farther right you go, the higher the resistance. There are also game mechanics — dubbed by Peloton as “Moments” — that relate to your resistance and how fast you’re pedaling. For instance, “Beats” are blue bars that give you points for being in a certain lane. “Breakers” are orange sections where you’re... Continue reading…

Crunchyroll has come to the Nintendo Switch just in time for those of you waiting to binge all of Demon Slayer season 2 on the go.

Another rocky day for the social media platform. | Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Twitter’s having a rough February. Following some problems last Friday, the social network experienced some issues on Thursday as well. It doesn’t seem to be a full-on outage, but there were a handful of small issues.I was having trouble loading tweets on profiles in my browser, and a few Verge staffers noticed problems as well. App researcher Jane Manchun Wong chronicled a couple issues, but said Twitter made a change to mitigate things.Twitter confirmed there was an issue Thursday in a statement to The Verge. “Earlier today, we experienced a technical bug that briefly impacted how Tweets were loading for people on Twitter,” company spokesperson Shaokyi Amdo said. “This issue has since been resolved.”Earlier on Thursday,... Continue reading…

Netflix Each Stranger Things season so far has featured either eight or nine episodes, but according to series co-creators Matt and Ross differ, the upcoming fourth season is going to be a little different as it starts to bring the story of Eleven and her friends to its impending close.Today, Netflix shared an open letter from the Duffer Brothers detailing elements of Stranger Things’ fourth season, which they described as “the beginning of the end,” and announcing that the show’s fifth season will be its last.“Seven years ago, we planned out the complete story arc for Stranger Things,” the brothers explained. “At the time, we predicted the story would last for to five seasons. It proved too large to tell in four, but — as you’ll soon see for... Continue reading…

Photo by Sean O’Kane / The Verge Consumer Reports is swapping the Tesla Model 3 for the Ford Mustang Mach-E as its new top electric vehicle pick for 2022. The designation is sure to give Ford a morale boost as it seeks to outpace Tesla in the race to become the number one EV manufacturer in the US.Tesla has long dominated CR’s EV rankings, with the Model 3 holding the position for the past two years. But the publication says a variety of factors, including ride quality, reliability, and the in-car user experiences, have led it to crown a new winner in the Mustang Mach-E.“Make no mistake, the Model 3 is still a great choice, and Consumer Reports recommends it,” CR’s deputy editor Jeff Bartlett writes today. “But the Mustang Mach-E is also very sporty, plus it’s more... Continue reading…

Alex Castro / The Verge This story originally ran in Hot Pod, The Verge’s preeminent audio industry newsletter. You can subscribe here for more scoops, analysis, and reporting.Spotify announced yesterday its acquisition of Podsights and Chartable, two companies known for tracking pixels that allow marketers, advertisers, and podcasters to measure the success of their shows. This is a big deal, to state the obvious, if for no other reason than if podcasters have avoided Spotify’s podcast world up until now, well, they’re probably going to have to start engaging. Both these platforms are critical to the space to show advertisers that their marketing is being heard and acted upon and that podcast ads are effective and worthy of a budget.As for its plans,... Continue reading…

Image: Intel Intel has given an update on the timeline for its long-awaited entry into the discrete graphics game: Arc GPUs for laptops are set to ship soon in Q1 2022 (where they’ll slot in neatly on machines with Intel’s new 12th Gen Alder Lake H-series CPUs that it launched at CES 2022). Arc desktop GPUs will still have a bit of a wait ahead of them: Intel says that they won’t be arriving until sometime in Q2, while workstation graphics cards won’t hit until Q3.Intel has quietly announced a new, upcoming service for its Arc GPUs — “Project Endgame,” which will allow customers to stream access Intel’s graphics cards for an “always-accessible, low-latency computing experience.” The exact mechanisms here aren’t totally clear, but it sounds like... Continue reading…

Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge Apple’s latest MacBook Pro laptops have been a triumph of performance thanks to the beefy M1 Pro and M1 Max processors, as well as a redesign that saw the welcome return of dedicated ports for HDMI and SD cards. They’re also on the pricey side, starting at $1,999.99 and going way up from there. Now, the faster 14-inch MacBook Pro with 10-core M1 Pro CPU and 1TB of storage has dropped to a new low price of $2,249.99 at Amazon — reflected as an automatic discount when it is added to your cart.This laptop configuration features Apple’s M1 Pro processor, complete with 1TB of storage and 16GB of RAM. The M1 Pro in this machine has 10-cores along with a 16-core GPU that makes it more than capable for heavy content work across Apple and Adobe... Continue reading…

Photo Illustration by Matt Harbicht/Getty Images for Tandem Diabetes Care The Food and Drug Administration cleared a smartphone app from Tandem Diabetes Care to program insulin delivery for its t:slim X2 insulin pump, the company announced Wednesday. It’s the first phone app for both iOS and Android to able to deliver insulin, the company said in a statement. Previously, delivery had to be handled through the pump itself.With this update, pump users will be able to program or cancel bolus doses of insulin, which are taken at mealtimes and are crucial in keeping blood glucose levels under control. “Giving a meal bolus is now the most common reason a person interacts with their pump, and the ability to do so using a smartphone app offers a convenient and discrete solution,” John Sheridan, president and CEO of... Continue reading…

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration says it is investigating 416,000 Tesla vehicles after receiving hundreds of complaints of unexpected braking. The investigation covers all Tesla Model 3 and Model Y vehicles released in 2021 and 2022.Reports of “phantom braking” first surfaced last fall, when Tesla was forced to “roll back” version 10.3 of its Full Self-Driving beta software, the company’s advanced driver assist system, because of issues with forward collision warnings and phantom braking.But after the rollback, the number of complaints actually increased substantially, with NHTSA receiving at least 107 from November to January, compared with only 34 in the preceding 22 months, according to The Washington Post.In... Continue reading…

The Surface Pro 8 is back to its lowest price at Best Buy. | Photo by Becca Farsace / The Verge The Microsoft Surface Pro 8 is currently the lowest price we’ve seen in the past several months. Normally, this configuration of Microsoft’s tablet with the Type Cover costs $1,239.98 but is currently $999.98 at Best Buy, an excellent value for both products. When The Verge writer Monica Chin reviewed this laptop for us, she had no shortage of good things to say about it. Between the 120Hz display and the refreshed aesthetic, this is a model we can definitely recommend.While there are other configurations available at a discount, the model we’ve featured here uses an 11th Gen Intel Core i5 CPU, 8GB of RAM, and a 128GB storage capacity.Dell is currently discounting its 2021 XPS 13 laptop, with some configurations receiving discounts as... Continue reading…

Experts worry that rideshare drivers aren’t prepared Continue reading…

Sony Pictures Columbia Pictures’ new Uncharted movie from Venom director Ruben Fleischer is a testament to the idea that the longer much-buzzed-about adaptations of beloved franchises linger in development hell, the more likely they are to emerge from it — that is if they ever do — as warped misfires that might have been better kept in the drafts. Uncharted isn’t the first movie this is true of. But unlike so many other adaptations in this class, which tend to feel hamstrung by a lack of understanding of what people like about the source material, you do get the sense watching Uncharted that everyone involved vaguely “gets” what all the fuss is meant to be about. Uncharted knows what it’s supposed to be — the problem’s that it is profoundly... Continue reading…

Affected battery serial numbers begin with 229, 250, and 259. OtterBox’s OtterSpot stackable wireless charging battery packs were released in August 2019, and now the company shared that early units may swell “under multi-stack and higher temperature conditions.” That’s a significant problem because stacking these batteries to recharge them is core to OtterBox’s pitch for the product. The company currently offers a bundle containing a 36W charging base with one battery, but the base can simultaneously charge up to two stackable batteries, plus a Qi-compatible device on top.OtterBox spokesperson Julie Campagnoli shared with The Verge that this issue impacts units that were manufactured during the first two months of production, between July through August 2019. No injuries have been reported as of... Continue reading…

The cheaper model might be great, but this one isn’t Continue reading…

Image: Asus AMD’s latest generation of mobile processors is here. We already know a lot about them, thanks to AMD’s CES 2022 keynote, like that they’re the first processors to ship with Microsoft’s Pluton security processor, which was built to block new attack vectors that have been used to compromise PCs. More importantly to gamers, some of these new processors (including AMD’s new discrete graphics offerings) seem very powerful.You’ll be able to find Ryzen 6000 H-series processors in laptops from Alienware, Asus, Acer, Lenovo, Razer, and more releasing in the coming weeks and months. But right now, all eyes are on Asus’ ROG Zephyrus G14, which is among the first to launch with AMD’s latest components. Here’s our verdict on that laptop. ... Continue reading…

A great affordable handset that feels more Oppo than OnePlus Continue reading…

The OnePlus Nord CE 2 in blue and gray. | Image: OnePlus The OnePlus Nord 2 CE is the latest entry in the company’s more affordable Nord range. It’s a stripped-down version of last year’s Nord 2, similar to the original Nord CE. The CE stands for “Core Edition,” similar to Samsung’s FE or “Fan Edition” devices. It costs £299 (€349) and will be available in Europe and India (but not the US). It’ll be available to pre-order from March 3rd and will go on general sale on March 10th in Europe. Check out our full review right here.Although this is a relatively affordable smartphone, a number of its specs only started appearing on flagship smartphones relatively recently. It supports up to 65W fast charging via an included SuperVOOC charger (OnePlus has ditched its own Warp Charge branding in favor... Continue reading…

Image: Snap Snapchat will let users change their usernames with an update arriving globally later this month, the company announced today. It means you’ll be able to leave behind the name you used originally without having to create an entirely new account. Snapchat says the new feature will be available for both iOS and Android, and will launch on February 23rd.In order to change your username, head to the profile screen by tapping the Bitmoji icon in the top right corner of the camera. Tap the gear icon, then “Username” and select “Change Username.” Changing a username won’t have any impact on your contacts, Snap code, Snap Score, or memories, according to Snapchat’s press release. Image: Snap A walkthrough of the steps to... Continue reading…

Sonantic’s demo pairs an AI generated voice with a real human actor. | Image: Sonantic The quality of AI-generated voices has improved rapidly in recent years, but there are still aspects of human speech that escape synthetic imitation. Sure, AI actors can deliver smooth corporate voiceovers for presentations and adverts, but more complex performances — a convincing rendition of Hamlet, for example — remain out of reach.Sonantic, an AI voice startup, says it’s made a minor breakthrough in its development of audio deepfakes, creating a synthetic voice that can express subtleties like teasing and flirtation. The company says the key to its advance is the incorporation of non-speech sounds into its audio; training its AI models to recreate those small intakes of breath — tiny scoffs and half-hidden chuckles — that give real... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Chrome, Firefox, and Edge are about to hit version 100, in a triple release that could break some websites. The move to version 100 in the coming weeks could result in bugs or compatibility issues on some websites not ready to read triple-digit user-agent strings. Google, Mozilla, and Microsoft are busy trying preempt any big issues.Mozilla, Google, and Microsoft have been warning about the upcoming version 100 release for months, which is about to drop in March for both Chrome and Edge, followed by Firefox in May. Mozilla and Google have both been running experiments to test websites and report breakages. There’s a running list of issues, which is fairly small right now, and Engadget notes that the notable sites affected include HBO... Continue reading…

Photo by Matt Cardy/Getty Images Amazon will continue to accept Visa credit cards after reaching a global deal, just weeks after the retail giant threatened to stop accepting Visa credit cards in the UK. Bloomberg reports that Amazon will also stop charging Visa credit cardholders an extra fee on purchases made in Singapore and Australia.At the core of the dispute were the payment fees Visa charges Amazon each time a customer makes a purchase with one of its credit cards. In the UK in particular, Visa’s interchange fees on credit cards had risen from 0.3 percent to 1.5 percent after the UK left the European Union and was no longer bound by EU fee limits.“This agreement includes the acceptance of Visa at all Amazon stores and sites today”Bloomberg reports that Amazon... Continue reading…

Microsoft’s big upcoming feature list for Windows 11 includes some important optimizations and improvements behind the scenes for PC games. The software giant is planning to bring its Xbox HDR Game Calibration app to Windows 11, and make older games run with less input lag, Auto HDR, and Variable Refresh Rate (VRR) if they’re running windowed instead of fullscreen.The upcoming Windows HDR Calibration app will allow PC gamers to improve color accuracy and consistency of an HDR display, just like on Xbox. It will include three test patterns to calibrate HDR efficiently, and Windows 11 testers will be able to access the app soon ahead of its general release.Windows 11 shipped with the Auto HDR feature from the Xbox Series X / S consoles,... Continue reading…

An illustration of a Samsung laptop is shown alongside a series of other device. | Image: Samsung Samsung is teasing the announcement of a new Galaxy Book laptop at an event on February 27th coinciding with this year’s Mobile World Congress (MWC). In a small animation released alongside the invitation, a laptop can be seen unfolding itself, before being joined by a collection of other Samsung products, including a smart watch, smartphone, and a tablet. The event will be streamed on Samsung’s YouTube channel at 1PM ET / 10AM PT on February 27th.In an accompanying blog post, Samsung Electronics’ head of new computing R&D team Hark-sang Kim gives some hints about the company’s priorities for its “next generation Galaxy Book lineup.” Kim says the aim is to offer a “seamless experience across devices and operating systems” with various... Continue reading…

Oppo has released official images of its latest flagship phone, which will be part of the Find X5 series. The company posted pictures of black and white versions of the device along with details on its launch event, which will take place at 6am ET on February 24th, just ahead of Mobile World Congress 2022 in Barcelona.The Find X5 Pro has already leaked extensively, with the Hasselblad partnership and branding revealed in a hands-on photo last month. Oppo made the Hasselblad partnership official earlier this week, following last year’s collaboration between the camera company and Oppo sub-brand OnePlus. Oppo says the Find X5 Pro has a “cutting-edge camera like no other” and a “futuristic flagship design” made from a... Continue reading…

If you upload data to a service, you can’t count on it staying private. | Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge A report recently published by Politico about the automated transcription service Otter.ai serves as a great reminder of how difficult it can be to keep things truly private in the age of cloud-based services. It starts off with a nerve-wracking story — the journalist interviewed Mustafa Aksu, a Uyghur human rights activist who could be a target of surveillance from the Chinese government. But though they took pains to keep their communication confidential, they used Otter to record the call — and a day later, they received a message from Otter asking about the purpose of the conversation with Aksu.Obviously, it was a concerning email. After receiving mixed messages from an Otter support agent about whether the survey was real or not,... Continue reading…

Photo by Lino Mirgeler/picture alliance via Getty Images Nick Clegg — Meta’s head of policy and communications — is getting a fancy new title: he’s being upgraded from vice president of global affairs to president of global affairs. The move seems less about elevating Clegg’s responsibilities and more about positioning him (rather than CEO Mark Zuckerberg or COO Sheryl Sandberg) front and center for Meta’s major policy decisions and interactions with governments.“For the last three years, Nick has managed some of the most complex issues our company faces — including content policy, elections, the establishment of the Oversight Board, and more,” Zuckerberg wrote in a post announcing the move. “Nick will now lead our company on all our policy matters, including how we interact with governments... Continue reading…

A ‘pageless’ Google Docs document | Image: Google During Google’s I/O event last year, the company laid out plans to significantly revamp the look and feel of its Workspace cloud apps (they were called G Suite until a 2020 name change). That includes a new look for Gmail that’s starting to roll out this month, search chips (you can just call them filters) for Google Drive, and a set of changes that are about to arrive for Google Docs and Google Sheets.The theme of this approach is called “smart canvas.” It takes some hints from productivity apps like Notion to give you more options for blending the features of multiple tools in one screen and to promote ways that you can collaborate remotely with coworkers, powered by Google’s AI. Integrating its various office apps is an approach... Continue reading…

Photo Illustration by Rafael Henrique / SOPA Images / LightRocket via Getty Images The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is investigating the relationship between the US branch of cryptocurrency exchange Binance and two trading firms that have ties to Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao, as reported by The Waall Street Journal. The two firms, Merit Peak Ltd. and Sigma Chain AG, serve as market makers that continually buy and sell crypto on Binance.US, helping to lower price volatility.The SEC is particularly concerned with the way Binance discloses its ties to the two trading firms, WSJ reports. On the Binance.US website, the crypto exchange tells users that affiliated market makers can trade on the platform. However, it doesn’t name specific firms.The SEC has asked Binance.US for more information about both firmsThe... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Spotify is making more podcast acquisitions. The company announced today it’s acquiring both Chartable and Podsights — two of the most prominent podcast marketing and ad attribution companies. The deal price hasn’t been disclosed, but this marks the first major acquisition the company has made this year in a long line of audio purchases.Both Podsights and Chartable allow podcasters and networks to include tags in their shows that are used to track who listened, if they heard an ad, and whether they took action upon hearing it. Spotify says it plans to use Podsights’ technology outside podcasting and will bring it to the “full scope of the Spotify platform, including audio ads within music, video ads, and display ads.” The Chartable... Continue reading…

Here’s the first image from the show, which was posted in September. | Image: Neil Druckmann on Twitter HBO’s upcoming The Last of Us series seems like it will be a faithful adaptation of the hit video game — but unfortunately, it won’t be airing this year, according to comments HBO chief content officer Casey Bloys made to The Hollywood Reporter.“The Last of Us is shooting right now in Canada. We haven’t announced an air date yet,” Bloys said. “But it’s not 2022. They’re still shooting in Calgary.” He said something similar to Deadline, too: “[The Last of Us] is not going to air in 2022 — they are still shooting in Canada. I imagine you will see it in ’23.”While it’s a bummer that the show won’t be out in 2022, I’m just fine with HBO taking all the time it needs. The Last of Us is one of my favorite video games, and I really want to see... Continue reading…

A patient with the Argus II. | Photo by Dunyagoz Hospital/Anadolu Agency/Getty Images More than 350 blind people around the world have implants in their eyes made by the company Second Sight Medical Products, which could help partially restore aspects of sight. But the company abandoned the technology a few years ago when it was teetering on the verge of bankruptcy, according to a new investigation from IEEE Spectrum. Now, if something goes wrong with the implants, users are left stranded.“It is fantastic technology and a lousy company,” Ross Doerr, a Second Sight patient, told IEEE Spectrum.Second Sight’s implants, the Argus I and the Argus II, don’t restore normal vision; people see things in shades of gray that disappear when they move their heads. And results vary from person to person. Some users of the implants,... Continue reading…

Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge Right now, you can save $30 on Microsoft’s Xbox Series S at eBay, which drops the price to $269.99 — the lowest we have seen yet. Reputable eBay seller Antonline is offering two options: the standard Xbox Series S console and the Xbox Series S Fortnite and Rocket League Bundle. Both packages get you the console and a matching white controller for that nice $269.99 price, but the Fortnite and Rocket League bundle includes extra in-game content for both free-to-play titles. If you’re hesitant about eBay purchases, Antonline maintains a 98.8 percent positive feedback score on its eBay store and offers a 30-day money-back return policy.While the Series S may be the lesser of the two Xbox consoles in terms of features and power, lacking a... Continue reading…

Photo by Chris Welch / The Verge Owners of Bose’s QuietComfort 45 noise-canceling headphones can now customize the bass, mid-range, and treble EQ settings to their liking. With a new firmware update released yesterday, the QC45s are no longer stuck on their default, out-of-the-box tuning. You can dial in your preferred settings or choose from a few of Bose’s own presets, including bass boost, treble reducer, and so on.QC45 owners are already comparing the EQ adjustments on Reddit, with many dialing up the bass response a bit. I noted in my review of the otherwise-excellent QC45s that it was disappointing to see them released without EQ customization, so I’m glad the company got around to adding it.The latest QC45 firmware also “makes it easier to pair with and... Continue reading…

Amazon workers in New York will vote on unionization | Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Workers at an Amazon warehouse on Staten Island in New York City will hold an election next month to decide whether to unionize, the Amazon Labor Union (ALU) said Wednesday. Workers at the warehouse, called JFK8, will vote between March 25th and March 30th, according to the ALU, which is representing the workers. The election will be held in person at a tent outside the warehouse, the ALU tweeted.The National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) did not immediately confirm the dates and said the two sides were “still in discussion” Wednesday afternoon. But the regulator determined last month that unionization efforts at Amazon’s JFK8 warehouse had “reached a sufficient showing of interest” to hold an election.

The LTE versions of the Samsung Galaxy Watch 4 has reached new all-time lows. | Photo by Dieter Bohn / The Verge If you, like me, pigged out on one too many chocolates on Valentine’s Day and / or chicken wings during Super Bowl Sunday, today’s smartwatch deal may help you get back on track with your fitness goals. Right now, Samsung’s LTE-outfitted Galaxy Watch 4 is on sale in both size configurations for its lowest prices to date. At the moment, you can pick up the 44mm version at Amazon and Best Buy for $249.99 instead of $329.99 or the 40mm variant for $219.99 (Amazon, Best Buy).The Galaxy Watch 4 is an excellent Android smartwatch, one that is particularly ideal for those already tapped into the Samsung ecosystem. As we noted in our review last year, the latest Samsung wearable sports a responsive interface and offers greater support for... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge On Wednesday, Google announced the start of a multi-year process to overhaul ad tracking on Android phones, moving the mobile platform along a similar path to the one sketched out by Apple’s tracker blocking on iOS last year.Currently, Android devices are each assigned a unique identifier known as an “advertising ID,” which is used to build a profile of an Android user that developers can use to target in-app ads. But when the new changes are implemented, the advertising ID will be phased out in favor of alternative targeting mechanisms that Google says will be more favorable to user privacy, according to a blog post published Wednesday.“Today, we’re announcing a multi-year initiative to build the Privacy Sandbox on Android, with the... Continue reading…