The Verge

Twitter CEO Parag Agrawal will be taking a few weeks of paternity leave. | Photo Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Twitter CEO Parag Agrawal plans to take “a few weeks” of paternity leave for the birth of his second child, the company confirmed Wednesday. First reported by The Washington Post, Agrawal announced he was taking the leave at a company all-hands meeting last week, although he apparently will take less than the full 20 weeks that Twitter provides.“At Twitter, we encourage and fully support employees taking parental leave in whatever way works best for each person,” Laura Yagerman, head of corporate communications at Twitter, said in a statement emailed to The Verge. “It’s a personal decision, and we created a parental leave program (supporting up to 20 weeks of flexible leave) that is customizable for that reason.” She added that... Continue reading…

Concept art for Disney’s first planned “Storyliving” community: Cotino, California. | Image: Disney Disney has launched a new business for fans who can’t bear to leave the pristine, family-friendly world the corporation has nurtured through its theme parks and media ventures.“Storyliving by Disney” will operate as part of the company’s theme parks division, developing a series of master-planned communities for residential living, designed by Disney’s creative staff and offering the same pampered tranquility found in its resorts.Disney’s new planned communities will be as pampered and pristine as its resorts“Picture an energetic community with the warmth and charm of a small town and the beauty of a resort,” said Disney Parks, Experiences and Products exec Helen Pak in a promotional video.Only one location has been announced so... Continue reading…

Let the games begin! Continue reading…

It’s got better GPS and solar charging, but the best part is it’s comfortable Continue reading…

Microsoft acquired AltspaceVR in 2017. | Image: Microsoft Microsoft is removing all social hubs hosted in AltspaceVR and requiring users to log into the virtual reality app using a Microsoft account. The changes are designed to improve safety and moderation on AltspaceVR, and Microsoft will also turn its existing safety bubble feature on by default and mute attendees joining meetings in AltspaceVR by default.“As platforms like AltspaceVR evolve, it is important that we look at existing experiences and evaluate whether they’re adequately serving the needs of customers today and in the future,” explains Alex Kipman, head of Microsoft’s mixed reality efforts. “This includes helping people better connect with those who have shared common interests while also ensuring the spaces they access are... Continue reading…

Screenshot: Wordle As a fairly enthusiastic — if not very expert — Wordle player, I wasn’t thrilled with the idea that The New York Times was adding the word game to its quiver. But I understood why the Times would want it, and why the game’s creator would want to not have to deal with its unexpected popularity. So I heaved a sigh, and prepared to continue to play on the new site.The day came: I clicked on the familiar powerlanguage.co.uk/wordle URL and saw www.nytimes.com/games/wordle/index.html in the address field. I mentally shrugged, and prepared for my morning battle with the English language.And — nothing.A blank screen. No 404 notice, no “your internet connection is loused up” message — and especially, no Wordle. Just a blank screen. ... Continue reading…

The process is relatively simple. | Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge If you’ve decided to delete your TikTok account for whatever reason, there’s good news — it’s relatively easy to do and should only take a few minutes (provided you’re already logged in or remember your password). The process can be done either in the app or on the web — here’s how:Deleting your TikTok through the appTikTok makes it relatively easy to delete your account through the iOS or Android app.

Ashley Carman, editor of Hot Pod We’re thrilled to announce that Hot Pod Summit — our invite-only event for the people pushing the audio industry forward — is returning to On Air Fest at the gorgeous Wythe Hotel in New York City. The day-long gathering on February 24th will be hosted by The Verge’s senior reporter Ashley Carman and will feature programming on the biggest topics in audio, including podcast subscriptions, competing with big tech, moderation, and more.This is The Verge’s first Hot Pod Summit since acquiring the newsletter in 2021, and we couldn’t be more excited to keep this important event going. We’re putting on the event with our partners at work x work; this marks their 5th consecutive year producing the event. And if you want to see what On Air Fest... Continue reading…

Apple Music Replay 2022. | Screenshot: Apple Music A month and a half into 2022, Apple Music’s roundup of your listening habits throughout the year is already live, 9to5Mac reports. Unlike Spotify, whose Wrapped feature launches each December, Apple’s competing Music Replay feature is available from now until the end of the year. So if you’re an Apple Music subscriber keen to see what your music tastes have been like over the past 47 days, now’s the time.Of course, there’s a decent chance you haven’t actually listened to enough music this year for Apple Music to generate your Replay summary. As 9to5Mac notes, the summary shows your top 100 most played songs, your top 10 played albums, and your most listened to artists. You can find your stats by heading over to replay.music.apple.com,... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge For the first time, Uber is allowing its customers to see how many five-star ratings they’ve received from drivers — as well as how many shameful one-star reviews they’ve racked up.For years, the two-way rating system has fueled Uber’s power over its riders and drivers. Low-performing drivers — those with an average of four stars or less — were at risk of deactivation. Even some poorly behaved passengers could get kicked off the platform if they received enough one-star ratings. Now, Uber is offering its customers fresh insight into how they are perceived by drivers.Customers will be able to access a breakdown of their average ratings in the Uber app’s new privacy menu, which will be available to customers globally starting today. ... Continue reading…

The “sunrise blue” Realme 9 Pro Plus turns red in sunlight. Realme has announced the Realme 9 Pro and Pro Plus, two new phones that now sit at the top of its extremely popular mid-range numbered series. We reviewed the 8 Pro last year and found it to be one of the best value phones available anywhere — except the US, of course, where Realme doesn’t have a presence.The two new 9 Pro phones are big upgrades on the 8 Pro. The physical design is all new, combining thin flat sides with a curved back panel that, at least on the “sunrise blue” model, uses a photochromic layer that changes color under exposure to sunlight. Take the phone outside on a reasonably sunny day and it’ll change from blue to a reddish tint in a matter of seconds. Vivo, which shares the same BBK ownership as Realme, launched a... Continue reading…

Nintendo is winding down new purchases on its Wii U and 3DS marketplaces. The Nintendo Switch has been Nintendo’s main console for years now, but the company has still kept the Wii U and Nintendo 3DS’s eShop open for people who want to buy games on those platforms. In March 2023, though, that will no longer be the case — Nintendo won’t let you buy things on the Wii U or Nintendo 3DS eShop “as of late March 2023,” the company announced on Tuesday.Nintendo will be slowly making changes to eShop purchases up until that deadline:

On February 15th, Microsoft released its first big public update to Windows 11 with the long-awaited ability to use Android apps. What are they like? Well, we covered that when they originally hit the Beta Channel for Windows 11 insiders, and so far it feels largely identical — so here’s our October 2021 story and video.Original story:Microsoft has released the first preview version of its Android apps support in Windows 11. It’s available to testers in the Beta Channel version of Windows 11, which means you’ll need to opt into the Windows Insider program to get access. I’ve installed the preview version on two systems — a gaming rig with a Core i9 11900K and Microsoft’s Surface Pro X — to get a feel for exactly how well Android apps... Continue reading…

Photo by Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images Showtime’s anthology series Super Pumped is getting a second season, and this one will be about Facebook with a focus on founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s relationship with COO Sheryl Sandberg, according to The Hollywood Reporter.There are some big names in the cast of the first and forthcoming Uber-focused season — Joseph Gordon-Levitt plays Uber founder Travis Kalanick, Kyle Chandler plays venture capitalist Bill Gurley, and Uma Thurman plays Arianna Huffington — so we have to wonder who will be tapped to play Zuckerberg and Sandberg season two. (Perhaps Showtime will bring Jesse Eisenberg back to reprise his role from The Social Network?)It seems that the relationship between the two Facebook (now Meta) leaders will be... Continue reading…

Photo by Andrew Liptak / The Verge GM is set to resume production of its electric Chevy Bolt in April after halting production to address a battery recall, according to reports from the Wall Street Journal and The Detroit News. The automaker originally predicted it wouldn’t start building Bolts until at least the end of January 2022.GM paused production of all Bolts last August“GM will resume production at its Orion Township, MI, plant the week of April 4, 2022,” GM spokesperson Dan Flores said in a statement obtained by The Detroit News. “We remain committed to Bolt EV and EUV and this decision will allow us to simultaneously replace battery modules and resume retail sales soon, which were strong before the recall.”Recalls for the 2017-2019 Chevy Bolt started in 2020... Continue reading…

Mercedes-Benz continues to make good on its promise to go all-electric by 2030 with the announcement of the AMG EQE, a high-performance version of the automaker’s electric E-class sedan.The AMG EQE is the second battery-electric production car from the automaker’s in-house performance AMG subsidiary, following the AMG EQS sedan announced last September. Both cars will be built on Mercedes’ EVA2 platform, which underpins the EQS, the smaller EQE, and several SUV sister models. The EVA2 is designed for medium and large vehicles, while the automaker’s MMA (Mercedes Modular Architecture), debuting in 2025, will be for electric compact cars such as the EQA and EQB.The new Mercedes-AMG EQE will be wicked fastThe new Mercedes-AMG EQE will... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge On Tuesday, Ukraine’s Ministry of Defence suffered from a DDoS attack that prevented users from accessing its website, and two Ukrainian banks lost access to online banking services, according to statements from the government.In a tweet posted at around 7PM local time (12PM ET), the Ukrainian Ministry of Defence said that its website was probably being hit with a DDoS attack and that work to restore service was underway. Four hours later, the site still could not be accessed.PrivatBank faced a “massive DDoS attack” that blocked online banking services, including payments and balance inquiriesThe DDoS attack comes as Russia has claimed to be de-escalating potential conflict by withdrawing troops from the Ukraine border — a statement... Continue reading…

Photo credit should read Long Wei / Costfoto/Future Publishing via Getty Images TSMC’s new Arizona chip-making plant has run into construction delays, according to a new report from Nikkei Asia, which notes work has fallen three to six months behind schedule due to a mixture of labor shortages, COVID-19 surges, and complexities in obtaining construction licenses.According to Nikkei Asia’s report, TSMC originally hoped that the construction of facilities would have reached the point that it’d be able to start moving in chip-making equipment by September. It’s now expecting to have to push that to early 2023 instead.It’s important to note that the delays here aren’t actually directly related to chip-making — it’s not that TSMC can’t get a hold of enough semiconductor production equipment. Rather, it seems the... Continue reading…

Knuckles is getting his own series. | Image: Paramount Sonic the Hedgehog 2 won’t be the only time we get to hear Knuckles voiced by Idris Elba. At an investor presentation on Tuesday, Paramount announced that a series focused on the red echidna is in the works for its Paramount Plus streaming service, and Elba will reprise his role. And that’s not the only Sonic news from Paramount: even though we’re still weeks away from the April 8th release of Sonic the Hedgehog 2, Paramount also said Tuesday that a third movie is in development.

Image by Paramount Plus The live-action Halo show on Paramount Plus has been renewed for a second season, just over a month before the first season is set to premiere. According to a press release, David Wiener (who’s worked on shows like Fear the Walking Dead, Homecoming, and Brave New World) will act as showrunner and executive producer for the second season. The news was announced during an investor event, where ViacomCBS also said that it’s rebranding as Paramount as part of its focus on streaming.Announcing a season two renewal early might help pull in skeptical viewers who remember incidents like Netflix’s live-action Cowboy Bebop, which was abruptly canceled shortly after season one aired. The live-action Halo has already been through a long development... Continue reading…

ViacomCBS is getting a new name: Paramount.The media behemoth — which was created through the merger of CBS and Viacom in 2019 — said the rebrand is meant to focus on the company’s goal of becoming a major player in streaming. It is also, plainly, just a better name.Paramount intends to “turn streaming into a sustainable business for the future,” Paramount CEO Bob Bakish said during an investor event this afternoon, “and know this, we are committed to that future and creating that value.”Paramount Plus will get exclusive streaming rights in 2024The company intends to hit 100 million streaming subscribers by 2024 — up from its previous goal of 65 million to 75 million during the same timeframe. The company plans to further its... Continue reading…

Rivian’s Gear Guard features keep watch over your truck and stuff. | Photo by Mitchell Clark / The Verge Rivian has come out with a video about the Gear Guard system for the R1T, which shows off the electric pickup’s ability to record video if people get too close and to send a notification to an owner’s phone if there’s an event significant enough to set off the car alarm. As Rivian’s UX designer explains in the video, Gear Guard isn’t one specific feature, but rather a suite of systems that can work together — the video monitoring system is part of Gear Guard, but so is the cable which you can use to lock bikes, kayaks, and more to the truck.In the video, which you can watch below, Rivian employees explain the R1T’s video monitoring system, which uses five of the built-in cameras to record a 360-degree view if it detects that someone is... Continue reading…

The smoke stacks at American Electric Power’s (AEP) Mountaineer coal power plant in New Haven, West Virginia, October 30, 2009. In cooperation with AEP, the French company Alstom unveiled the world’s largest carbon capture facility at a coal plant. | Photo credit should read SAUL LOEB/AFP via Getty Images On Tuesday, the Biden administration issued new guidelines for federal agencies on how to assess proposals to capture and sequester carbon dioxide pollution. The new guidance lays out steps that could encourage “widespread deployment” of a controversial form of climate tech, as well as the network of pipelines and other infrastructure that come along with it.The bipartisan infrastructure law passed last fall included more than $12 billion for Carbon Capture, Utilization, and Sequestration (CCUS) projects. The US will likely need such technologies to reach Biden’s climate goals, the new guidelines say. But the technologies, which draw CO2 out of smokestack emissions or the ambient air, are a divisive strategy for slowing climate change.... Continue reading…

Photo by Gareth Fuller/PA Images via Getty Images If you, like me, find yourself writing the same email over and over again or copying and pasting the same message multiple times, Gmail gives you an easier option. By creating and saving email templates, you can insert them the next time you compose a message and save yourself some time.You can store up to 50 templates at a time, so it’s easy to create different templates for different situations. Here’s how.Create an email template:

Illustration: Alex Castro / The Verge Search chips, a feature that’s supposed to make it easier to search for files in Google Drive, is becoming available to all Workspace users, including G Suite Basic and Business users. It was first released as a beta in November and should let you narrow down your search results by location, file type, date modified, people, tasks, and shared label. Image by Google Search chips appear right below the search bar after you conduct a search. As Google demonstrates in the above GIF, you can use search chips by entering a keyword in Drive’s search bar as you normally would. Right below the search bar, you’ll see six different dropdown menus for search chips: Location, File Type, People, Last Modified, Title only,... Continue reading…

The feature is still in beta but will be available to many more people. | Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Twitter is significantly expanding the beta of its Safety Mode feature, the company announced Tuesday. Safety Mode, which initially rolled out in September, lets you temporarily autoblock accounts that send you harmful or abusive tweets.Safety Mode was previously available to approximately 750 beta users, but it will be expanding to ~50 percent of people in the US, UK, Canada, Australia, Ireland, and New Zealand, Twitter spokesperson Tatiana Britt tells The Verge.Twitter is also introducing proactive Safety Mode prompts. “Since the initial rollout of the Safety Mode beta in September, we’ve learned that some people want help identifying unwelcome interactions,” Britt said. “For this reason, our technology will now proactively identify... Continue reading…

Photo by Chris Welch / The Verge Today, Nvidia’s Shield TV got some software fixes with the rollout of Shield Experience Upgrade 9.0.1 (via 9to5Google), a much-needed patch to last month’s buggy 9.0 release based on Android 11. Nvidia posted release notes on its forum today that detail some more fixes and details in another post some known issues that still lurk in the update.The Shield is one of the most-upgraded Android devices ever releasedThe biggest fix of the bunch resolves major Plex Media Server issues and the handling of file access permissions that changed as a part of the move to Android 11. This stable release follows about a month of the company trickling out smaller hotfix patches to brave users willing to subject their Shield TVs to beta releases.But... Continue reading…

The Polaris Dawn crew (from L to R): Anna Menon, Scott Poteet, Jared Isaacman, and Sarah Gillis | Image: Polaris Program/John Kraus Yesterday, billionaire and private astronaut Jared Isaacman announced his plans to fly to space again on another SpaceX mission. His next flight, targeting the end of the year, will take him even deeper in space than his last flight with the company. It will also be the first in a series of three human spaceflight missions he’s funding with SpaceX, called the Polaris Program.The creator of Shift4 Payments, Isaacman is perhaps best known for funding an entire flight on SpaceX’s Crew Dragon spacecraft, which took him and three other private flyers on a three-day trip to Earth’s orbit. Called Inspiration4, the mission was meant to showcase how everyday people — not just NASA and government astronauts — can train and fly to space.Isaacman... Continue reading…

Anyone who watched WandaVision could tell you how Wanda Maximoff became the villain of her own story, but in the latest trailer for Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, the newly diademed Scarlet Witch steps back into the spotlight with a bit of a bone to pick about how her reputation in the Marvel Cinematic Universe has been shifting as of late.After years of Vision warning Wanda that the day would come when her fellow heroes would fear her, Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness appears poised to make good on that promise with a story making the case that Strange and the Scarlet Witch should be held accountable for their crimes against the natural magical order of things.WandaVision’s finale made it seem like the... Continue reading…

Disney’s getting serious about the metaverse. | Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Disney is appointing an executive to head up its metaverse plans, according to a memo CEO Bob Chapek sent to employees (via Reuters and CNBC). Mike White, who previously held the title of SVP of consumer experiences and platforms, will now be SVP of next generation storytelling and consumer experiences.“For nearly 100 years, our company has defined and re-defined entertainment by leveraging technology to bring stories to life in deeper, more impactful ways,” Chapek said in the memo, which Disney shared with The Verge.“Today, we have an opportunity to connect those universes and create an entirely new paradigm for how audiences experience and engage with our stories,” he continued. “This is the so-called metaverse, which I believe is... Continue reading…

Image: Creative Electron via iFixit Valve’s $400-and-up Steam Deck handheld is less than two weeks away from launch, but you can already see its guts spread across a table in no fewer than four teardown videos, including a new one published today by our friends at iFixit. What’s more, Valve has announced today that it’s making good on its promise to sell replacement parts for the Steam Deck so you can repair it yourself, and it has made iFixit the first authorized seller of parts for both the new Deck and the existing Valve Index VR headset.Unfortunately, Valve isn’t yet saying which parts will be available — when I asked if the Deck’s screen and battery might be among them, Steam Deck designer Lawrence Yang told me it’s still working with iFixit to hammer the details... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Discord is down again and suffering connectivity issues for many users. “We’re looking into issues with people sending messages, logging in, streaming videos, etc.,” reads a Discord status message.The issues seem to be affecting a large amount of Discord’s 150 million monthly active users, but The Verge is aware of multiple Discord users who are still participating in calls and messaging on the service at the time of writing.This is the second major outage for Discord in a matter of weeks. Discord recovered from a two-hour long outage on January 26th, which stopped millions of users from accessing the service. This previous outage also affected API and sessions, with most users unable to log in, join calls, or send messages on the... Continue reading…

Image: NASA On Monday, NASA released the first science images from its new Imaging X-ray Polarimetry Explorer, or IXPE. A look at the Cassiopeia A supernova — the bright remnants of a star that exploded in space in the 17th century — the image provides a first glimpse of what the space agency’s new X-ray mission will teach us about some of the most extreme events in the cosmos, like supernova explosions and cosmic collisions.Launched in early December, IXPE is NASA’s first mission dedicated to studying X-ray polarization, or X-ray light whose vibrations are all aligned in a single direction. The explorer builds on the work of the Chandra X-ray Observatory by using polarization to help explain exactly where the X-ray light produced from space events... Continue reading…

Illustration by Dale Crosby Close / The Verge On Tuesday, OpenSea and NFT communications platform Metalink announced a new partnership aimed at preventing social engineering attacks carried out through Discord DMs. As The Verge previously reported, some confidence tricksters have made millions of dollars by posing as customer service agents in OpenSea’s official Discord server and tricking NFT holders into sharing details that will let the scammers take control of their cryptocurrency wallets.OpenSea hopes to mitigate these scams by using Metalink, which operates a “token gated” communications platform so that only users holding certain NFTs in their cryptocurrency wallets will be able to get access. When they do so, they’ll be connected with authenticated OpenSea support... Continue reading…

The News Feed will now just be the Feed. | Image: Facebook Meta is changing the name of Facebook’s News Feed, the primary part of the service that users scroll through to see what their friends and family have shared. Going forward, it’ll just be called the “Feed,” according to a tweet from the company on Tuesday. The “News Feed” name had been in place since the feature was first introduced more than 15 years ago.In some ways, it’s a massive change — Facebook is one of the world’s most-used platforms, and the Feed is its main interface. On the other hand, it is “just a name change to better reflect the diverse content people see on their Feeds,” according to an email sent to The Verge by Facebook spokesperson Dami Oyefeso. The change “does not impact the app experience more broadly.”

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Meta, Facebook’s parent company, agreed to pay $90 million to settle a 2012 lawsuit accusing the company of tracking users even after they logged out of their accounts.The settlement was submitted for approval Monday evening in the US District Court for the Northern District of California. It is still awaiting final approval from the court. Plaintiffs affected by Facebook’s improper data tracking will receive portions of the $90 million. Meta will also be required to delete all of the data it wrongfully collected from those users.“We’re glad to move past this issue”Reached for comment, Meta spokesperson Drew Pusateri told The Verge, “Reaching a settlement in this case, which is more than a decade old, is in the best interest of our... Continue reading…

Details are light right now. | Image: Netflix Netflix, 2K, and Take-Two Interactive announced Tuesday that they will be partnering to make a live-action film adaptation of BioShock. While it’s a potentially exciting announcement, details beyond the existence of the movie are extremely light.There’s no release date, and according to Variety, it doesn’t have a director or a cast yet. And Netflix’s website says the movie is an adaptation of the BioShock franchise, which leaves open the possibility that it could feature characters and locales from the underwater city of Rapture from BioShock 1 and 2, as well as the sky city of Columbia from BioShock Infinite.However, Netflix did share a press image featuring a creepy Little Sister and an imposing Big Daddy, so it seems like a safe... Continue reading…

A monkey in Neuralink’s in-house facility. | Neuralink Elon Musk’s company Neuralink has denied claims that university researchers abused monkeys in experiments backed by the brain-computer interface startup. In a statement posted online, Neuralink responded to a federal complaint from the nonprofit Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine (PCRM), which alleged that Neuralink and its partners at the University of California, Davis conducted inhumane tests on animals.A PCRM statement said that monkeys at UC Davis “had their brains mutilated in shoddy experiments and were left to suffer and die.” Neuralink, by contrast, says that the lab “did and continue to meet federally mandated standards,” although it has since moved the animals to an in-house facility.The PCRM complaint, filed with... Continue reading…

Samsung has some aggressive deals for Galaxy S22 early adopters. | Photo by Chris Welch / The Verge Samsung’s Galaxy Unpacked event was already six days ago, and we’re now just 10 days away from the launch of the new Galaxy S22 phones. But today, just like any other, we’re talking deals.Teeing off, those exact Samsung Galaxy S22 phones already have some juicy deals even before you get them in your grubby mitts. There are some choice bonuses to take advantage of if you preorder by February 24th, and while we’ve gone into some of the details and carrier promos, here’s the long-short you should know right now: if you preorder any Galaxy S22 phone, you’ll get a free storage upgrade and credit back from Samsung to use on accessories or future products (with an added $50 credit exclusively for Verge readers).What that means is at the very... Continue reading…

I spent hours making it exactly to spec. I actually made the Chief’s chili, and it made me real sad Continue reading…

Newegg logo box (1020) Newegg says it will now accept returns of open box CPUs and motherboards with “no questions asked,” according to a report by Windows Central. This comes after popular PC hardware review YouTube channel Gamer Nexus posted videos claiming Newegg knowingly sold them a defective open-box motherboard and then refused them a refund.

They’re weird, refreshing, and fantastic at voice calls Continue reading…

Microsoft is releasing its first big update to Windows 11 today, and it includes a lot of new additions. A public preview of Android apps on Windows 11 will be available today in the US, alongside redesigned Notepad and Media Player apps. The first big Windows 11 update will also include a bunch of improvements to the taskbar.The public preview of Android apps on Windows 11 will allow users to install apps from Amazon’s Appstore. That’s a limited number of Android apps compared to the broader Google Play store, but there are workarounds to get Google Play Store running on Windows 11 unofficially. Image: Microsoft The taskbar gets a new share this window feature. The biggest changes in this Windows 11 update... Continue reading…

This is the Chrome OS Flex UI — it looks exactly like regular Chrome OS. | Image: Google Google has announced early access to a new version of Chrome OS called Chrome OS Flex. The new version of Chrome OS, designed for businesses and schools, is designed to run on old PCs and Macs. The operating system can be installed “within minutes,” according to Google’s blog post.Google told me that Chrome OS Flex will look and feel identical to Chrome OS on a Chromebook — it’s built from the same code base and follows the same “release cadence.” It did caveat that some features may be dependent on the hardware of the PC you’re using. In fact, it said this for every specific feature I asked about, including always-on Google Assistant and Android phone syncing. So, if you’re going to try this, keep an eye out.This won’t be the first... Continue reading…

Epic Games is bringing gyro-based motion controls for Fortnite to the PS4, PS5, and PC today. Gyro controls have existed on the Nintendo Switch and Android previously, and this new expansion to PlayStation and PC includes more robust gyro controls and a new flick stick option.Gyro controls allow you to control the camera in Fortnite by simply turning your controller. That means you can couple gyro controls with traditional stick aiming to improve precision and movement throughout Fortnite. Epic Games has also worked with flick stick creator Julian “Jibb” Smart to add more gyro controls and the flick stick option that will quickly flick the camera to a certain direction with mouse-like speed.There are now separate combat and building... Continue reading…

The neckband looks a lot like a plastic lanyard. | Image: Motorola Motorola has a new wearable 5G neckband that is designed to power lightweight VR and AR headsets (collectively known as XR headsets) such as parent company Lenovo’s ThinkReality A3 smart glasses, the company announced today. The neckband looks a lot like a large plastic lanyard, and is equipped with a Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 processor, a 5,000mAh battery, a touchpad, SIM card slot, speakers, and a range of sensors including a gyroscope and accelerometer, Engadget reports. Motorola says it’s partnered with Verizon on the neckband, which is able to connect to the carrier’s mmWave 5G network.The idea is that the neckband, which Motorola doesn’t provide an official product name for, will be able to act as the brains and brawn for a connected VR... Continue reading…

OM Digital Solutions, the new company formed after Olympus sold off its camera business to a Japanese investment fund, has announced its first camera. The OM System OM-1 is a flagship Micro Four Thirds mirrorless camera that serves as a successor to previous high-end Olympus models like the O-MD E-M1 Mark III.The OM-1 name will be a familiar one to Olympus shooters — a 35mm SLR camera with the same name launched the OM line in 1972. The new OM System OM-1 still has the Olympus name on the body, though the company tells DPreview that this is likely to be the last model where that’s the case.The OM-1 has a new 20-megapixel stacked CMOS sensor and an upgraded processor that lets it shoot stills at 50 frames per second with autofocus and... Continue reading…

Japanese industry titans are teaming up for a new cinematic universe based on iconic properties. Toho, Toei, Khara, and Tsuburaya Productions have announced the upcoming launch of the Shin Japan Heroes Universe, which will include representation from the Godzilla, Ultraman, Kamen Rider, and Evangelion franchises.Toho is the company that created Godzilla, Toei is behind Kamen Rider, Tsuburaya produces Ultraman, and Khara is the animation studio founded by Neon Genesis Evangelion creator Hideaki Anno. Tsuburaya Productions’ founder, the late tokusatsu special effects pioneer Eiji Tsuburaya, did effects work for movies in both the Godzilla and Ultraman series. Toho released the Anno-directed Shin Godzilla in 2016, and Anno... Continue reading…