The Verge

On Wednesday, the Senate voted to confirm privacy expert Alvaro Bedoya to the Federal Trade Commission. The confirmation secured a Democratic voting majority at the agency tasked by the Biden administration with investigating big tech companies like Facebook and Google over potential data privacy and competition violations.Vice President Kamala Harris voted to break a 50-50 tie on the Senate floor to finalize Bedoya’s confirmation.“The confirmation secured a Democratic voting majority at the agency”Bedoya will replace former Commissioner Rohit Chopra who left the FTC last year to head the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. Before his confirmation, Bedoya was a Georgetown law professor with a focus on privacy law, founding the... Continue reading…

The new Pixel 6A in its three color options: charcoal, chalk, and sage. | Image: Google Google’s new Pixel 6A, announced at its I/O 2022 keynote, may seem like just another budget-focused A-series model, but the latest midrange Pixel is a little different than its forebears. In the past, the Pixel A-line opted for a cheaper, plastic build and slower processor to hit a lower price point. This time, the Pixel 6A uses the same Google Tensor processor that first debuted in the Pixel 6 and 6 Pro, and yet it still undercuts its flagship brethren to sell at the same $449 price as the outgoing Pixel 5A when preorders go up on July 21st and it hits stores on July 28th.So if you’re not giving up slower performance, what are you giving up? And why would anyone still spend more on a Pixel 6 or 6 Pro? Image: Google ... Continue reading…

Google wrapped up its I/O presentation with one big surprise: a look at its latest AR glasses. The key feature Google showed off was the ability to see languages translated right in front of your eyes, which seems to me like a very practical application for AR glasses. While a big part of Silicon Valley is heavily invested in making AR glasses a reality thus far no has suggested a truly “killer” app for AR that would let you overlook the wide variety of privacy concerns inherent with the tech. Live translating the spoken word would definitely be a killer feature.The company didn’t share any details on when they might be available, and only demonstrated them in a recorded video that didn’t actually show the display, or how you would... Continue reading…

The Pixel 6A is one of the many Pixel devices Google showed off today. | Image: Google Google has wrapped up its two-hour-long I/O keynote, which was absolutely packed with news. We heard about AI, Android, and, of course, a plethora of Pixel hardware. Here are the biggest announcements we saw on Wednesday. Image: Google Google isn’t bumping the price of its A lineup. The Pixel 6A features Google’s flagship chip but not its best cameraGoogle announced its new mid-tier phone, the Pixel 6A, which will cost $449 when it’s available for preorder on July 21st. The company seems to be flipping its usual script for this phone — previous A models have featured a camera comparable to the one found on Google’s flagship Pixels but had weaker processors. The 6A, though, has the Pixel 6’s Tensor chip and... Continue reading…

Photo Illustration by Grayson Blackmon / The Verge Making ambient computing happen is forcing Google to change how it does everything Continue reading…

The Pixel Watch will support turn-by-turn navigation on Google Maps | Image: Google After weeks of rumors and leaked photos, Google finally confirmed that the Pixel Watch is real. Today’s announcement is more of a tease than a full reveal, however, with the watch arriving later this fall alongside the Pixel 7.Given that the Pixel Watch is the worst-kept wearable secret of 2022, there wasn’t anything too surprising in terms of design. As suspected, the Pixel Watch has a circular, domed design and features a “tactile” crown and side button. It’s made of recycled stainless steel and has swappable proprietary bands. It’ll also run on an “improved” Wear OS 3 that features a “refreshed UI” with better navigation and smart notifications. You’ll also have the option to pick a cellular version of the device for standalone... Continue reading…

That device there on the right? That’s Google’s upcoming Android tablet. | Image: Google Google is getting back in the tablet game. The company’s internal hardware division plans to release an Android-powered tablet in 2023, senior vice president of devices and services Rick Osterloh announced on Wednesday at its I/O developer conference. Osterloh was light on details, except to say it’ll run on the same Tensor processor inside Google’s latest Pixel phones and that he imagines it as a consumer-focused gadget focused on entertainment and consumption rather than work. (The Verge’s Dan Seifert, who briefly saw a picture during a product briefing ahead of I/O, immediately said “it looks like an old Samsung tablet.”) But Osterloh’s overall message is clear: Google cares about Android tablets. For real this time.The announcement... Continue reading…

The Pixel 7 (with a pill-shaped camera cutout) and Pixel 7 Pro (with two camera cutouts). | Image: Google Google couldn’t let its I/O keynote pass without teasing its next flagship phones: the Pixel 7 and 7 Pro, arriving this fall. It’s a modest update of last year’s design that keeps the horizontal camera bar but tones it down a little with updated camera cutouts. The 7 and 7 Pro will include a next-gen Tensor chipset and ship with Android 13.This year’s Pixel phones feature an updated version of the design introduced on the 6 and 6 Pro, hanging onto the prominent horizontal camera bump wrapping around the back. This time, the camera bar is made of aluminum that flows into the device’s side rails, rather than having a big black bar that cuts off at the edges like last year. The renders also suggest that Google will ditch the two-tone color... Continue reading…

Image: Google Today, after several attempts at making wireless earbuds, Google is announcing its most premium product in the category yet: the $199 Pixel Buds Pro. Designed as a direct answer to Apple’s AirPods Pro, the Pixel Buds Pro offer active noise cancellation, a transparency mode, multipoint Bluetooth connectivity, and an IPX4 water resistance rating, among other features. They’ll be available to preorder alongside the also new Pixel 6A smartphone starting July 21st and in stores a week later on the 28th.Both the earbuds and case closely resemble the 2020 Pixel Buds — the carrying case looks practically identical — and the Pro earbuds will come in black, blue, green, or red. Compared to the older buds, you’ll notice more microphone inlets... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge For Google, a company that built its reputation on organizing the world’s information, the latest sales pitch to users is that it will try to do more with less of it.At its I/O 2022 developer conference on May 11th, the tech giant announced a range of privacy measures that it says will help users retain more control over how their data is used by Google applications and displayed to the world through search.One new change introduced at the conference is the My Ad Center interface: a hub that will let users customize the types of ads they see by selecting from a range of topics they are interested in or opt to see fewer ads on a given topic. Screenshot of the My Ad Center interface, via Google. Google says that My... Continue reading…

Image: Google There’s a good chance you’ve spent much of the last two-plus years sitting at home, cycling through endless days of virtual meetings staring into your laptop’s webcam and talking into your built-in mic. This means you’ve spent much of the last two-plus years appearing to everyone else like a mushy pile of poorly lit pixels, sounding like you’re shouting from inside a tin can. It’s not your fault: your laptop’s webcam just sucks. And so does its mic. But Google thinks it can fix them both with AI.Google announced on Wednesday at its annual I/O developer conference that its Workspace team has been working on a couple of AI-powered ways to improve your virtual meetings. The most impressive is Portrait Restore, which Google says can... Continue reading…

Google is partnering with a Harvard professor to promote a new scale for measuring skin tones with the hope of fixing problems of bias and diversity in the company’s products.The tech giant is working with Ellis Monk, an assistant professor of sociology at Harvard and the creator of the Monk Skin Tone scale, or MST. The MST scale is designed to replace outdated skin tone scales that are biased towards lighter skin. When these older scales are used by tech companies to categorize skin color, it can lead to products that perform worse for people with darker coloring, says Monk.“Unless we have an adequate measure of differences in skin tone, we can’t really integrate that into products to make sure they’re more inclusive,” Monk tells The... Continue reading…

The Test Kitchen is one of Google’s new AI experiments. | Image: Google After mistakes and challenges, the company is moving a little slower with AI language models Continue reading…

“Near me” lets you search for pictures of objects locally. | Image: Google At Google I/O, Google senior vice president Prabhakar Raghavan announced new enhancements for its Lens Multisearch tool, which lets you conduct a search with just an image and a couple of words.A new mode, called “near me,” will let users take a photo of an object and then find results locally. As Raghavan explained, you’ll be able to take a photo of a dish and then search for restaurants that serve that specific food. Google will then display a list of relevant restaurants near you. To make this feature happen, Google scans relevant photos from websites, as well as those posted by reviewers, and then matches them to the one you uploaded. Near me will be available in English later this year, and will expand to more languages “over... Continue reading…

Photo by Dan Seifert / The Verge The Nest Hub Max’s latest updates let you use Google Assistant without having to say “Hey Google” ahead of every request.One of the ways that’ll work is with a new feature Google calls “Look and Talk.” Once it’s turned on, you’ll be able to look at the Nest Hub Max’s display and ask a question, no “Hey Google” prompt required. The feature could be a handy way to save some time when you’re already looking at a Nest Hub Max’s screen — I could see it being a useful way to ask for recipes.Look and Talk is an opt-in feature, and you’ll need to have both Google’s Face Match and Voice Match technologies turned on to use it, according to a blog post from Sissie Hsiao, Google’s vice president of Assistant. Audio and video from the Look and... Continue reading…

The dream of a central hub to manage your streaming services is getting closer. | Image: Roku Roku users are now able to subscribe to Discovery Plus through the Roku Channel’s Premium Subscriptions feature, the company announced on Tuesday. The streaming service has been available to watch on Roku from day one, but now there’s an option to manage your subscription to it from Roku’s hub.When you subscribe, you can choose either the ad-free version of Discovery Plus, or the ad-supported tier. Like with the standalone subscription (as in, the one not done through the Roku Channel), there’s a week-long free trial. Some of the Roku Channel’s premium offerings. This is the first time Roku’s offering a premium subscription with an ad-supported tier. While the difference for Discovery Plus is only a few bucks ($4.99... Continue reading…

Bandai Namco / Klein Tsuboi The tale of “Let me solo her” has reached an epic milestone — 1,000 Malenias defeated. The Elden Ring folk hero live streamed the event, dispatching the thousandth Goddess of Rot in manner that demands it be recounted to the masses.The tale of “Let me solo her” began last month, when whispers of a strange warrior started making the rounds on Reddit. Players, stymied by a boss considered one of the hardest in FromSoftware history, would call for help, summoning a pot-helmeted, semi-nude warrior who would dispatch Malenia with relative ease. After that, “Let me solo her” would return to his world with a cheerful wave to await the next summons from a Tarnished in trouble. And from there, the legend was born.“I chose Malenia to help... Continue reading…

Image: EA Several years after we first heard that EA and Respawn Entertainment would bring their battle royale shooter to mobile platforms, there’s a global release date for Apex Legends Mobile, which will launch for Android and iOS on May 17th. Beta testing for the game started over a year ago and has slowly expanded to include more players worldwide, but now its limited regional launch period is over. If you’re wondering what devices it will run on, this FAQ from the beta has more information.EA isn’t ready to share more details, but beta testers have been able to experience a game that looks fairly close to the experience players get on PCs and consoles. In an earlier trailer provided for the regional launch, you can see how the game has... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge YouTube TV is rolling out two new Spanish-language offerings: Spanish Plan and Spanish Plus. While the $34.99 / month standalone Spanish Plan provides access to an all-Spanish lineup of channels on YouTube TV, Spanish Plus is a $14.99 / month add-on for users already subscribed to the YouTube TV Base Plan.Spanish Plan subscribers gain access to over 28 channels (all of which you can view on this page) including ESPN Deportes, Fox Deportes, CNN Español, and Discovery en Español. The Spanish Plus add-on is advertised as having a slightly more limited selection of over 25 networks, but that’s just because YouTube TV already bundles Univision, UniMás, and Galavisión in its Base Plan.YouTube TV announced the addition of these three channels... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Join us for all the news and announcements from Google’s developer keynote Continue reading…

You can play Twitter Data Dash right now. | Image: Twitter Twitter released a new browser game on Wednesday that’s intended to help explain some of its privacy settings. You can play the game, called Twitter Data Dash, right here.“Welcome to PrivaCity!” reads a description of the game on the site. “Get your dog, Data, safely to the park. Dodge cat ads, swim through a sea of DMs, battle trolls, and learn how to take control of your Twitter experience along the way.”When you start Twitter Data Dash, which was made by Momo Pixel, you’ll first pick the language you want to play in, and then pick from one of four characters who will accompany Data the dog on a couple of the levels. (That character will otherwise appear in text boxes.) The game itself is a pretty straightforward side-scrolling... Continue reading…

Finally, a body composition gadget that won’t tell you to just lose weight Continue reading…

The first model, a 1961 Scout 80, in pickup style with removable hardtop. | Dutchtower Volkswagen is considering resurrecting the SUV pioneer Scout as an off-road electric vehicle brand, according to The Wall Street Journal. The brand would be focused on the US market, where it would likely compete with popular nameplates like the Jeep Wrangler and Ford Bronco.According to the Journal, VW’s board of directors is set to approve the plan on Wednesday. The plan envisions Scout operating as a subsidiary of VW, much like Audi, Skoda, Porsche, Lamborghini, and Bentley. (A VW spokesperson declined to comment, noting that the report refers to actions taken by Volkswagen Group’s supervisory board.)VW is one of the largest automakers in the world but only holds a small share of the US market. The plan to bring back Scout as an... Continue reading…

Photo by Dieter Bohn / The Verge It’s for the developers, but we all know it’s really for Pixel fans Continue reading…

Airbnb’s design category. | Image: Airbnb Airbnb is rolling out a huge app redesign this summer that its CEO Brian Chesky calls “the biggest change in a decade.” The new changes are rolling out to users in the US today and will let users search for stays based on categories and plan trips that include more than one home.The presentation, and especially an intro video for the Sumer 2022 launch included in Chesky’s tweet, feels like it draws directly from Apple’s product launches over the last 20 years, which we’d expect from a company collaborating with famed former Apple designer Jony Ive and his firm LoveFrom. When asked if Ive was involved with this redesign, Airbnb spokesperson Liz DeBold Fusco initially said, “yes,” but did not provide further details.After this post was... Continue reading…

Ooblets. For its first Indie World Showcase of 2022, Nintendo revealed a colorful and occasionally violent slate of independent games coming to the Switch. The bigger-name titles coming to the console include the farming / Pokémon-style adventure Ooblets and the goofy strategy game TABS (or Totally Accurate Battle Simulator), both of which are slated to hit the Switch sometime this summer. (The Switch release for Ooblets will coincide with the game’s 1.0 launch on PC and Xbox.)There are also multiple titles launching later today, including the city sim Mini Motorways, rhythm-based dungeon crawler Soundfall, visual novel Opus: Echo of Starsong, and the nature adventure game Gibbon: Beyond the Trees.Other highlights include: Nama Takahashi’s... Continue reading…

Michael Stuhlbarg as Nicodemus West and Benedict Cumberbatch as Stephen Strange. | Marvel Studios First comes the multiverse, then come the incursions Continue reading…

Today’s deal is on the standard Switch with neon blue and red Joy-Cons. | Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge We may be in a bit of a lull for major new game releases, but there’s been no shortage of great sales. Right now, you can get a Nintendo Switch console with neon blue and red Joy-Cons for just $259.99 at Walmart, Amazon, and GameStop. That’s $40 off Nintendo’s standard Switch console. Sure, it’s not the fancier OLED model that came out last year, but this discounted price is $90 less than that model, and it, of course, plays all the same games.The Nintendo Switch may feel like an aging console these days, as it’s five years old, but it’s still bolstered by excellent first-party Nintendo titles and a wealth of indie games — all of which you can take on the go or play docked on a TV. While many fans are thirsty for some kind of... Continue reading…

Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge The European Commission has proposed controversial new regulation that would require chat apps like WhatsApp and Facebook Messenger to selectively scan users’ private messages for child sexual abuse material (CSAM) and “grooming” behavior. The proposal is similar to plans mooted by Apple last year but, say critics, much more invasive.After a draft of the regulation leaked earlier this week, privacy experts condemned it in the strongest terms. “This document is the most terrifying thing I’ve ever seen,” tweeted cryptography professor Matthew Green. “It describes the most sophisticated mass surveillance machinery ever deployed outside of China and the USSR. Not an exaggeration.”Jan Penfrat of digital advocacy group European Digital... Continue reading…

Photo by Chaim Gartenberg / The Verge One of the most powerful portable battery packs is cheaper than ever. You can get $70 off Zendure’s SuperTank Pro at Wellbots, which has a 26,800mAh capacity, up to 100W charging, and four USB-C ports. Normally $229.99, it costs just $159.99 with the offer code ZENVERGE used at checkout.This battery pack may be overkill to some in terms of heft and price, but it could be the ideal travel charger for people who like to bring multiple devices on trips. Compared to its predecessor, which I put to the test here, the latest version brings several improvements. Notably, it can deliver its maximum 100W throughput while getting the maximum charging speeds with the other three ports. Also, its OLED display provides more info about how quickly... Continue reading…

When announcing the iPhone, Steve Jobs joked about it looking like an iPod with a rotary dial. | Image: Apple, via John Schroter on YouTube This week, Apple announced that it’s discontinuing the iPod Touch, its last product with the “iPod” name. More than 20 years after the original iPod was announced, and after over a decade in the shadow of the iPhone, it can be hard to remember just how important the device was to Apple. But the music player helped define the company we know today — and was a big factor in bringing it back from the brink of ruin.The story of Apple’s comeback has been told over and over to the point of becoming mythologized, so I’ll try to keep it brief. The 1990s were not kind to the company, almost leaving it bankrupt. By the turn of the century, though, things were starting to turn around: the iMac G3 was selling well, and Apple’s revenue was starting... Continue reading…

Illustration: Alex Castro / The Verge Google’s annual developer conference, Google I/O 2022, is virtually set to kick off today. The conference is a hub for developers looking to network, but the rest of us are watching to see if Google will unveil new product announcements and major updates.We don’t know exactly what’s going to be announced this year, but we have some good guesses. Some of those guesses include a new Pixel Watch and a midrange Pixel 6A, which could include a new processor and camera sensor and major updates for Android 13, whose beta became available to Pixel owners in April.What time does Google I/O start? Google I/O’s main keynote will be streamed today, Wednesday, May 11th, at 10AM PT / 1PM ET. If you think you’re going to miss it, don’t worry —... Continue reading…

Samsung’s anticipated 2022 flagship foldable — the Galaxy Z Fold 4 — may have just leaked in unofficial renders published by SmartPrix, based on information from the often reliable Onleaks. The renders of the Galaxy Z Fold 4 show a similar overall design to its predecessor, the Z Fold 3, with a 6.2-inch cover display and a 7.6-inch folding inner display, but with a redesigned rear camera configuration inspired by this year’s Galaxy S22 Ultra.This inner display will reportedly once again have an under-display selfie camera, a feature that disappointed us on last year’s device. This year’s version has reportedly seen performance improvements, which are sorely needed. Around back there are three rear cameras, same as last year, but S... Continue reading…

Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge Apple is preparing to swap the proprietary Lightning port on its iPhones next year for the nearly universally-embraced USB-C, claims company analyst Ming-Chi Kuo.In a pair of tweets, Kuo said Apple was going to make the change in 2023, basing this claim on an unspecified “survey” (presumably of component manufacturers, from whom Kuo seems to get a lot of his information for predictions about future Apple products).Kuo said that adopting USB-C “could improve iPhone’s transfer and charging speed in hardware designs, but the final spec details still depend on iOS support.”

Photo by Andrew Hawkins / The Verge Ford’s first electric truck is fun, familiar, and checks all the boxes for a great entry-level EV Continue reading…

LG Display’s 360-degree Foldable OLED. | Image: LG Future foldables could move on from existing single-fold designs to fold twice, use displays that are capable of folding both inwards and outwards, or even use rolling screens to expand outwards. That’s if manufacturers embrace new folding screen technologies being shown off by Samsung Display and LG Display this week in San Jose, California, during the annual Display Week conference.LG Display is showing off an 8-inch foldable touchscreen which it says can fold both inward and outward, similar to what we saw from TCL’s Ultra Flex concept earlier this year. The design allows a single folding display to serve as both an inner screen (like with the Galaxy Z Fold 3) and an outer screen (like with Huawei’s Mate XS). Devices equipped with... Continue reading…

The Xperia 1 IV brings a true optical zoom lens to a smartphone for the first time. Real zoom for a steep price Continue reading…

Dish is teasing a new wireless plan called Boost Infinite to launch this fall. | Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Dish Network seems to be taking its unconventional approach to building a wireless network all the way to the blockchain. Executives hosting an analyst event in Las Vegas today gave a few hints at their vision of this country’s fourth wireless carrier, and it might involve a future where you can pay for a new iPhone in Bitcoin.Stephen Stokols, CEO of Dish-owned Boost Mobile, showed off branding for a new postpaid wireless plan coming this fall called “Boost Infinite,” and, well, here’s what he said:

A major feature on Twitch is finally coming to YouTube. | Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge YouTube is launching gifted memberships in beta, and they’ll be available for select channels beginning Wednesday. Memberships are YouTube’s take on Twitch’s subscriptions, which viewers can use to show financial support for creators and get access to certain perks like custom emoji. Twitch users have been able to buy gift subscriptions for some time, but if you’ve wanted to buy gift memberships to other fans of a YouTube channel, you haven’t been able to.The memberships gifting beta will be available to a “small group of creators” to start and will be expanded to more “over the next several months,” YouTube says on a page about the feature. Channels interested in trying the feature can fill out this Google Form, though you’ll need to... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Tesla is recalling 130,000 cars due to an issue causing the CPU in vehicles’ infotainment systems to overheat during fast charging, potentially making the car’s touchscreen malfunction or go completely blank (via The Associated Press). The electric car maker started rolling out an over-the-air update (OTA) on May 3rd to fix the issue on affected vehicles, which include the 2022 Model 3 and Y, as well as the 2021 and 2022 Model X and S.“During fast-charging or preparation for fast-charging, the infotainment central processing unit (“CPU”) may not cool sufficiently to prevent higher than expected temperatures, which may cause the CPU to slow processing or restart,” the recall notice from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration... Continue reading…

Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images I have been told to blog about Senator Josh Hawley’s new copyright bill, and I do this with nothing but the greatest reluctance. Normally, I love talking about copyright! I’ll talk about copyright all day long! [Ed note: And she does.] But writing this post is agony, because the thought of giving this absolutely asinine piece of legislation any attention is killing me on the inside.This is a deeply unserious bill. There is not a line in it that is meant to pass muster. It is knowingly in violation of the Constitution, and an insult to the democratic process.In brief, the bill is targeted at the Walt Disney Company, also known as,

Image: Google TV Last fall, Google announced a key improvement to devices running its Google TV front end with personalized access so that each user in a home could have individual profiles with their own recommendations and Assistant responses. In December, that feature was delayed until “the coming months,” and it’s still nowhere to be found; however, 9to5Google reports glanceable cards for Google TV’s ambient mode screen saver that were also announced at the same time are starting to roll out.When they were announced in October, Google showed a version of the UI (the picture above) with large personalized cards scrolling across the middle of the screen. They could display information like weather, sports scores, and news or toss in shortcuts to... Continue reading…

Image: Canoo Canoo, the struggling electric vehicle startup, thinks it’s about to run out of money. In stark terms, the company reports that it only has enough cash to last another quarter and is unsure whether it will be able to stay afloat beyond that.“As of the date of this announcement, we are reporting that there is substantial doubt about the Company’s ability to continue as a going concern,” the company states in its first-quarter earnings report.“there is substantial doubt about the Company’s ability to continue as a going concern”Canoo was founded in late 2017 when former BMW executive Stefan Krause left then-struggling EV startup Faraday Future. Krause and some of the other executives who co-founded Canoo — which was then called... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge AT&T says it’s the first carrier to deploy location-based routing for 911 calls across the country, a feature that allows the company to transmit wireless emergency calls to the correct call center based on a device’s GPS location. As announced in a press release, AT&T says the feature should enable the carrier to accurately locate and route 911 calls within 50 meters of where the call was placed.AT&T previously routed calls based on the location of the cell tower that picked up the call signal, an area that could cover up to a 10-mile radius. This means a call center miles away — or even a whole town over — could receive your call, potentially delaying the time it takes for emergency services to reach your precise location. In theory,... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Google’s Michele Turner discusses how Matter started and where it will take Google Nest. Continue reading…

They’re featured in a new limited time mode that kicks off on May 11th. | Image: Activision Activision is adding a wild crossover to Call of Duty: Warzone — the giant monsters Godzilla and Kong will appear in a new limited-time mode that kicks off tomorrow, May 11th.In the new mode, called Operation Monarch, players will compete to be the last team standing as Godzilla and Kong roam the island. While the monsters “usually don’t get too aggressive,” at certain points during a match, they might “become enraged and recklessly attack” in a “Titan Frenzy,” according to a blog post by Activision’s James Mattone.“After receiving a Titan Frenzy alert, an Operator has two options: tactically withdraw (run away) from these dangerous creatures or attempt to suppress them by dealing direct damage,” Mattone says. If you do enough damage... Continue reading…

Westworld season four teaser image | Image: HBO HBO’s puzzle-filled robot show that always packed extra sides of hedonism and murder is close to making its return, as fans apparently dug up a teaser trailer for season four of Westworld before its scheduled debut.HBO media relations director Chris Godefroy confirmed it was an Easter Egg set up for dedicated fans, and as we’ve seen ahead of previous seasons, there will be more to come. You can watch it right here on HBO’s YouTube channel (via Reddit), to see that many of our android friends, foes, and friends who didn’t know they were androids will continue to have roles to play. This link showed up on Thrillist’s Instagram story over a picture of NYC, teasing a setting in the upcoming season.On Tuesday HBO made the news official,... Continue reading…

It seemed like AMD and Nvidia were living in a fantasy world. They’d throw out prices like $329 or $479 for a midrange graphics card, knowing you’d actually pay hundreds more by the time pandemic middlemen had their cut. But today, AMD seems to be waking up.With the recently announced $1,099 AMD Radeon RX 6950 XT, $549 Radeon 6750 XT, and $399 Radeon 6650 XT, the company is finally pricing its graphics cards based on the market instead of creating a fake MSRP. When you combine that with the fact AMD graphics cards have nearly come back down to sane prices in general, it means there’s a chance in hell you might actually be able to buy these new ones for the price that AMD is quoting. Image: AMD That’s good —... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge One of the questions about Elon Musk’s pending purchase of Twitter is what will happen to Donald Trump. The former president’s account was banned on January 8th, 2021, “due to the risk of further incitement of violence,” while Jack Dorsey was still the company’s CEO. During an interview conducted remotely during the Financial Times’ Future of the Car conference and livestreamed on YouTube, the current Tesla and SpaceX CEO responded to a direct question about the ban and what will happen when he owns Twitter.With the caveat that “I don't own Twitter yet, so this is not, like, a thing that will definitely happen,” Musk said, “I guess the answer is that I, I would reverse the permaban,” citing a shared opinion with his text messaging... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Eddy Cue, Apple’s senior vice president of services, is considering restructuring Apple’s services business to redirect more attention to streaming and advertising, according to a report from Insider. In its most recent earnings report, Apple said its services, which include the App Store, Apple Pay, Apple News, Apple Music, Apple TV Plus, and iCloud, added 825 million subscribers and earned $19.8 billion in revenue.As part of the shake-up, Cue has reportedly pulled Peter Stern, Apple’s current vice president of services, off of advertising to focus solely on its services division. Sources close to the situation told Insider that Todd Teresi, Apple’s vice president of advertising platforms, has absorbed Stern’s previous advertising... Continue reading…