The Verge

Will this drama never end? | Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge New Peloton CEO Barry McCarthy’s first day is not off to a good start.The company, which announced a major leadership shakeup at its Q2 earnings call on Tuesday, held an all-hands meeting meant to welcome McCarthy. Outgoing CEO John Foley was also in attendance. The all-hands was referenced in a blog penned by Foley revealing he was stepping down. While this is par for the course when companies change leadership, CNBC is reporting the meeting was cut short when angry ex-employees — who were just terminated — crashed the party.Citing anonymous sources, the CNBC report says that current and former staffers flung accusations of mismanagement and vented about yesterday’s terminations. As part of cost restructuring measures, Peloton let... Continue reading…

Heather Morgan was arrested on Monday, and goes by the online persona “Razzlekhan.” | Image: Forbes Yesterday, the Department of Justice announced it had finally recovered almost all the Bitcoin stolen in the 2016 Bitfinex hack with its “largest financial seizure ever.” The DOJ was, however, immediately upstaged — when people discovered that one of the people accused of helping launder billions of dollars of Bitcoin had posted rap videos to the internet.She calls herself the “Crocodile of Wall Street.”I’ve lost track of how many hours I just spent immersing myself in her music, writing, and Content to get an idea of what her deal is. And let’s just say that even her wacky viral videos (which have now largely vanished from her YouTube channel) did not prepare me for the full razzle-dazzle.Anyhow, here’s just a taste of what I found... Continue reading…

Frozen Mazda | Photo by Jakub Porzycki/NurPhoto via Getty Images Some Mazda drivers in and around Seattle this week discovered they could no longer change the radio station or play anything else in their cars after listening to the local NPR station KUOW (via GeekWire).The issue affected owners of various Mazda vehicles with model years ranging from 2014 to 2017 that were tuned in to the station. According to KUOW, it’s been happening for weeks.

A size comparison between the S22 Ultra, S22 Plus, and S22. | Photo by Chris Welch / The Verge The latest iteration of Samsung’s flagship Galaxy series is official. The company announced the Galaxy S22, S22 Plus, and S22 Ultra during its Unpacked event today, ending months of speculation, particularly regarding the S22 Ultra. The standard S22 starts at $799.99, while the S22 Plus and S22 Ultra are priced at $999.99 and $1,199.99, respectively. Each is available for preorder starting today and scheduled for release on February 25th.The new S22 models look similar to the outgoing lineup, with a few iterative upgrades. They all offer screens with a max refresh rate of 120Hz, which allows for smooth scrolling, and feature an ambient light sensor that will automatically adjust color and saturation levels to match your environment.... Continue reading…

Photo by Spencer Platt / Getty Images Canada Unity 2022, the group of anti-vaccine protestors who have snarled traffic in Ottawa and earned accolades in the right-wing media, wants to talk to you about Bitcoin.A handful of the group’s organizers held a press conference on Facebook Live Wednesday that quickly devolved into a presentation on the popular form of cryptocurrency, confusing many of their supporters who were watching online.“Are we at a press conference for Freedom Convoy 2022 or having some guy shove Bitcoin down our throats?” one commenter griped. “Very disappointed! I came to see updates about progress made by our Truckers.”“Very disappointed!”The convoy protests began in late January, after a loose affiliation of truckers banded together to drive from... Continue reading…

Image: Nintendo Nintendo is bringing the Mario Strikers soccer series to the Switch with a new title called Mario Strikers: Battle League. The company debuted the game at Wednesday’s Nintendo Direct.In Battle League, teams of five will compete against each other in arcade-y soccer action. You won’t just be passing and kicking to try and score goals — you’ll also be able to tackle your opponents, send items their way, and use impressive special shots, all while playing as characters from the cast of the Mario universe. You’ll also be able to equip gear that affects stats like speed and strength.For multiplayer, up to eight players can play together locally on one Switch. Nintendo is also offering online play. You’ll also be to make online clubs with... Continue reading…

Disney Plus series Obi-Wan Kenobi will be available to stream on May 25th, the company announced Wednesday. The series will see Ewan McGregor reprise his role after playing the iconic Jedi across the prequel trilogy between 1999 and 2005. Joining McGregor will be Hayden Christensen, who’s playing Anakin Skywalker after his transformation into Darth Vader, as well as series newcomers Moses Ingram and Kumali Nanjiani.Beyond its cast, plot details on Obi-Wan Kenobi have been relatively thin. We know it’ll be set roughly 10 years after the events of Star Wars: Episode III — Revenge of the Sith and will see Obi-Wan watching over a young Luke Skywalker on his home planet of Tatooine.

Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge Samsung just announced its highly anticipated Galaxy S22 lineup, but many who have tried to preorder the new smartphones report that they can’t actually complete their purchases. Many are reporting issues or just a blank screen that seems to load indefinitely at checkout, and that’s also where I ran into problems when trying to buy a few combinations of both locked and unlocked models of the phones.Here are just a few examples of people writing to Samsung’s support account on Twitter asking for help:

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Apple has acknowledged an iOS 15 bug that may have recorded interactions with Siri on some devices, regardless of whether the user opted out, according to a report from ZDNet. The bug automatically enabled the Improve Siri & Dictation setting that gives Apple permission to record, store, and review your conversations with Siri.“We stopped reviewing and are deleting audio received from all affected devices”Apple tells The Verge that it identified the bug shortly after the release of iOS 15, stopped reviewing any recordings inadvertently received, and is deleting info received from affected devices. After discovering the bug, the company turned off the feature for “many” users and corrected the opt-in setting when it released iOS 15.2.... Continue reading…

Photo by Sam Byford / The Verge Microsoft has announced a set of best practices called the Open App Store Principles for its Windows app store and future game console marketplaces. They amount to Microsoft directly promising not to do things that Google and particularly Apple have been accused of — like gaining unfair advantages over the developers that rely on their app stores. The principles are intended to allay fears about Microsoft’s recent Activision Blizzard acquisition and to distance the tech giant from two of its biggest rivals, whose app store restrictions have spurred lawsuits and legislation.Microsoft says the Open App Store Principles are “grounded in app store legislation being considered by governments around the world,” including the United States and... Continue reading…

Stephen King’s Firestarter novel tells the story of a young family on the run from the US government as it attempts to capture them and better understand the superhuman mental abilities they all developed after being exposed to an experimental chemical. Universal and Blumhouse’s upcoming adaptation of the book is likely to hit many of the same notes found in the source material and in Mark L. Lester’s 1984 film of the same name. But the new Firestarter’s first trailer leads with an energy that feels decidedly rooted in 2022, and it’s difficult to say whether that’s a good thing or not.Firestarter revolves around haggard psychic dad Andy McGee (Zac Efron), whose ability to influence people’s minds in the novel appears to be reworked as... Continue reading…

Horizon Forbidden West comes out on February 18th, and while Sony has spent the bulk of its time showcasing the upcoming open-world title on the powerful next-gen hardware of the PlayStation 5, the game is also coming out for the older PlayStation 4 lines of consoles. To prove it, developer Guerrilla Games has shown off a — extremely brief — preview of the game running on a vanilla PlayStation 4 for the first time.Since Horizon Forbidden West was first announced in June 2020, Guerrilla Games has almost exclusively shown footage of the Horizon Zero Dawn sequel on the PS5. A short blog post at the end of January showed off PS4 Pro clips, but base PS4 gameplay has been scarce until now (a scant nine days before release).The 22-second... Continue reading…

It’s fast and secure, but there are better options outside the walled garden Continue reading…

SEATTLE, WASHINGTON - OCTOBER 22: Protestors line up as Andy Jassy the CEO of Amazon speaks at the ceremonial ribbon cutting prior to opening night for the NHL’s newest hockey franchise at the Climate Pledge Arena on October 22, 2021 in Seattle, Washington. | Photo by Bruce Bennett/Getty Images Tech giants’ climate plans aren’t as aggressive as they sound, according to an assessment of 25 of the world’s biggest companies published on Monday. The plans many companies have put together rely too much on offsetting their emissions through unreliable methods rather than setting specific targets to prevent pollution in the first place.“We set out to uncover as many replicable good practices as possible, but we were frankly surprised and disappointed at the overall integrity of the companies’ claims,” Thomas Day, lead author of the new study released by the nonprofit NewClimate Institute, said in a statement.The report, which includes both tech giants and other companies operating in sectors like shipping and brick-and-mortar... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Microsoft has long argued that its Xbox store should be treated differently than the app store ecosystem around PCs or phones. The software giant takes a 30 percent cut on digital game purchases through its Xbox store, just like Apple takes from software purchased on its App Store. While Microsoft defended this business model during the Epic v. Apple trial last year, the Xbox maker is now hinting that it needs to make its Xbox store more open in a move that could change its Xbox console business model in the future.Microsoft has unveiled a series of app store principles today that are similar to the ones it laid out two years ago. The principles are designed to “ensure we’re providing the best possible experience for creators and... Continue reading…

Image: Sony Microsoft says the Call of Duty franchise and other popular cross-platform Activision Blizzard games will remain available on PlayStation if and when its $68.7 billion acquisition goes through.“To be clear, Microsoft will continue to make Call of Duty and other popular Activision Blizzard titles available on PlayStation through the term of any existing agreement with Activision,” Microsoft says. “And we have committed to Sony that we will also make them available on PlayStation beyond the existing agreement and into the future so that Sony fans can continue to enjoy the games they love.”This means that in addition to Call of Duty, other Activision Blizzard titles, like Diablo and Overwatch, should also remain available as... Continue reading…

Discovery and WarnerMedia are one step closer to merging | Photo Illustration by Pavlo Gonchar/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images The merger of Discovery and WarnerMedia got one step closer to fruition on Wednesday, with the deal clearing an antitrust review from US government agencies, according to a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). Once finalized, the merged company will be one of the biggest media conglomerates in the US, blending Warner Bros.’ TV and movie assets with Discovery’s huge catalog of television programming.According to the SEC filing:

Photo by Clive Rose - Gran Turismo/Gran Turismo via Getty Images AI agents have bested humans at many games, from chess to Go to poker. Now, the machines can claim a new high score on the classic racing video game series Gran Turismo.Sony announced today that its researchers have developed an AI driver named GT Sophy that is “reliably superhuman” — able to beat top human drivers in Gran Turismo Sport in back-to-back laps. You might think this an easy challenge. After all, isn’t racing simply a matter of speed and reaction time and therefore simple for a machine to master? But experts in both video game racing and artificial intelligence say GT Sophy’s success is a significant breakthrough, with the agent showing mastery of tactics and strategy.“Outracing human drivers so skilfully [...] represents... Continue reading…

The new Galaxy S22 lineup | Image: Samsung At Samsung’s first Galaxy Unpacked event for 2022, the company introduced a new lineup of Galaxy S22 phones: the Galaxy S22 and Galaxy S22 Plus. Samsung also announced the Galaxy S22 Ultra with an included stylus. It is essentially a successor to the once-popular Galaxy Note line.Samsung claims the S22 Ultra has a faster response time for the S-Pen. The other changes are a bit more minor, including a slight redesign and updated night capabilities in the camera. The Galaxy S22 and the S22 Plus are also a bit iterative, despite being Samsung’s mainline flagships. These phones are very similar to the previous year’s models but are more durable and have better portrait mode capability.Finally, there’s also a new high-powered Android tablet... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge It’s time for the next Nintendo Direct, which means it’s also time to dust off that bingo card of Nintendo-related announcements. This 40-minute presentation is airing on Wednesday, February 9th, at 5PM ET / 2PM PT, and there are, frankly, so many games that we're hoping to see. Perhaps Hollow Knight: Silksong will make its awaited return with a release date in tow, or maybe we’ll get some more gameplay footage of Bayonetta 3.Nintendo has a lot of other big games slated to come out in 2022 that could see the spotlight in this presentation. Games like Triangle Strategy, Kirby and the Forgotten Land, and Advance Wars 1+2: Re-Boot Camp will likely get a mention, as they are releasing in the next couple of months. But it’d be great to get... Continue reading…

Image: Samsung Samsung’s latest Unpacked event has introduced a new lineup of tablets, the Galaxy Tab S8 series — the Galaxy Tab S8, S8 Plus, and S8 Ultra. Samsung has gone with the good, better (bigger), and best (biggest) approach on these. As the top end of the line, the Ultra touts a massive screen size of 14.6 inches with 2960 x 1848 resolution and starting price of $1,099.99. The Tab S8 Plus is the next size down with a formidable 12.4-inch, 2800 x 1752 display for $899.99, and the smallest Tab S8 has an 11-inch, 2560 x 1600 panel for $699.99.These new models create a little more choice if you’re in the market for an Android tablet — a fairly small field outside of Samsung. We will have to do a full review before we can say how good the Tab S8... Continue reading…

Save $20 on the classic Switch at Woot | Photo by James Bareham / The Verge The regular price for the standard Nintendo Switch is $299.99, but Woot is currently offering a rare discount on this popular handheld, lowering the price to $279.99 for Amazon Prime members. The standard Switch comes packaged with a pair of Joycons and a charging dock to connect the console with your TV. While the Switch does come equipped with built-in storage of 32GB, that space can go pretty quick with the number of titles available for this console. Besides being home to first-party Nintendo titles featuring Mario and Zelda, the Switch eShop is chock full of amazing indie titles like Shovel Knight and Hades.The LG C1 OLED is a popular pick for The Verge staff, thanks to its combination of gaming features, slim profile, and image... Continue reading…

We compare the new S22 line to Apple’s iphone 13 The Samsung Unpacked event revealed a number of new devices, namely a new iteration of its flagship Galaxy series of phones, the Galaxy S22. These new phones are set to release on February 25th and become the bleeding edge of Samsung’s smartphone lineup. Naturally, we’re curious to know how these stack up against Apple’s iPhones, so we’ve collected some of the most relevant features to show you how they stack up against the iPhone 13 lineup on paper.The standard iPhone 13 and its variants came out last September and started at $699.99 for the 13 Mini, reaching all the way up to $1,099.99 for the 13 Pro Max. The Galaxy S22 and its other variants are set to release later this month and have a price point starting at $799.99 for the... Continue reading…

Screenshot: Dark Souls 3 Dark Souls’ servers on PC will remain offline until after the February 25th release of Elden Ring, Bandai Namco and FromSoftware announced on Twitter. The game publisher and developer are also investigating the upcoming Elden Ring for the same issue that shut down Dark Souls: a remote code execution (RCE) exploit that could let bad actors infiltrate your system.

Photo by Chris Welch / The Verge Samsung’s Galaxy S22, S22 Plus, and the S22 Ultra have been announced at the company’s Unpacked event. Each phone has a new design, with new components that put them ahead of 2021’s leading Android phones. As for the S22 Ultra, it absorbed the Galaxy Note’s coolest trick of having an S-Pen built-in. If you want to jump right into our hands-on coverage, you can check out our early impressions with the hardware right here or in the video below.Though, there’s a chance that you’re already sold on the improvements and changes made to this year’s lineup. If that’s the case, I’m going to get right to it and tell you how to preorder the S22 phones so you can get them on launch day.Order before 2/24 to get preorder bonusesNo matter where you... Continue reading…

Peacock The Fresh Prince of Peacock has arrived in Bel-Air Continue reading…

Garmin’s Instinct 2 watches come in two sizes, a smaller 40mm (left) and the standard 45mm. | Image: Garmin Garmin’s back with yet another multisport smartwatch lineup. The Instinct 2 series is billed for “rugged individualists,” but this time there’s an interesting twist. The company says the solar models of the smartwatch can get unlimited battery life thanks to improvements in their solar technology.Garmin has been tinkering around with solar charging for a while now. It introduced the feature with the Fenix 6 Series and later expanded it to other watches, including the original Instinct. When it launched the flagship Fenix 7 Series last month, Garmin noted it had vastly improved the solar charging tech. Now it’s bringing those advances to its mid-range Instinct 2 series.That said, unlimited battery life is a bold claim — especially for... Continue reading…

Photo by Dave Hogan/Getty Images The estates of Robin Williams and George Carlin have filed lawsuits accusing Pandora of streaming the late comedians’ jokes without the proper licenses. The suits are joined by complaints from Andrew Dice Clay, Ron White, and Bill Engvall, who also allege they weren’t given “a fraction of a penny” for their work as a result of Pandora’s “willful” wrongdoing.As explained by Puck, comedians are fighting for recognition of two copyrights on a comedic work: one for writing a joke and another for recording it. Companies have traditionally only purchased licenses for the recordings, not the jokes themselves. Puck points out that the argument streamers need both has never really been tested in court, so it’s not entirely clear if Pandora is in... Continue reading…

Lucasfilm Ltd. The final episode from The Book of Boba Fett has arrived, bringing a close to the increasingly crowded series. But the finale still can’t manage to corral the show’s various plot threads into a satisfying ending, despite some big action moments designed to delight fans.Fett’s character has always been one full of potential: a morally ambiguous bounty hunter roaming the galaxy with a badass outfit and a cool-looking ship. Unfortunately, this week’s finale falls flat in a similar manner to the rest of the show. Boba Fett (Temuera Morrison) still feels strangely sidelined in the series that bears his name, defanged of his fearsome reputation into a more family-friendly hero. And the show leaves viewers with more questions than answers... Continue reading…

A24 Men, A24’s upcoming horror thriller from Annihilation director Alex Garland, tells the story of a woman attempting to put some literal and metaphorical distance between herself and a devastating loss by escaping to the English countryside only to find herself being followed by something or someone dead set on catching her. Men’s first trailer didn’t quite explain who the person tailing Harper (Jessie Buckley) is, but it more than seems like it may be her recently deceased ex-husband.In contrast to its title, Men’s first trailer seemingly only features one man — a guy looking much worse for wear than any living, breathing person — silently chasing after Harper through the lush landscape she was hoping to be able to enjoy. After first... Continue reading…

Photo by Chris Welch / The Verge Will iterative upgrades cure Samsung’s sales problem? Continue reading…

Watching a YouTube video with friends in Google Duo. | Image: Google New live sharing features, including the ability to watch videos together and view the same online whiteboard, are coming to Google Duo on Samsung’s new Galaxy S22 devices and Tab S8 tablets. Google and Samsung announced the new features during the launch event for Samsung’s new flagship phones and tablets. As well as Galaxy smartphones, the feature is also coming to Pixel devices, according to Engadget.Google says Duo’s live sharing feature works across many popular apps including Jamboard, the company’s collaborative whiteboard software that lets up to 50 people write and draw on the same surface. Other supported apps include YouTube for watching videos together, Google Maps, Samsung Notes, and Samsung Gallery. Non-Samsung and Google... Continue reading…

The new Galaxy S22 phones will get four generations of Android OS upgrades. | Image: Samsung Samsung announced today during its Galaxy Unpacked 2022 event that the new Galaxy S22 phones and other recent devices will get up to four generations of Android OS upgrades.The company revealed the news in a press release today:

Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge It gains an on-board stylus, plus some incremental hardware and software upgrades Continue reading…

Illustration by Claudia Chinyere Akole Designers struggle with fast fashion copying their time-consuming creations Continue reading…

Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images A group of four progressive lawmakers — Sens. Markey (D-MA) and Merkley (D-OR) and Reps. Jayapal (D-WA) and Pressley (D-OH) — sent letters to several federal agencies on Wednesday calling for an end to their use of Clearview AI’s controversial facial recognition system.The letter was sent to the Departments of Justice, Defense, Homeland Security, and the Interior. All four agencies were identified in an August 2021 report from the General Accounting Office as using Clearview for “domestic law enforcement” purposes.“Clearview AI’s technology could eliminate public anonymity in the United States,” the letter reads, describing the system as “capable of fundamentally dismantling Americans’ expectation that they can move, assemble, or... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Last week, the Senate Judiciary Committee passed the Open App Markets Act, one of legislators’ latest attempts to limit big tech companies’ power — a big step toward opening up iOS and Android’s app stores. But the proposal has raised questions about moderation and security alongside praise from anti-monopoly watchdogs, mirroring a tech world debate about the perks and harms of walled gardens.The bill is aimed at increasing competition in mobile computing, a field where plenty of people agree a few companies have too much power. But as a series of proposed amendments demonstrated, though, not everyone agrees where that power should stop.What is the Open App Markets Act?You can read the Open App Markets Act or S. 2710 for yourself —... Continue reading…

Photo by Anthony Wallace - Pool/Getty Images LGBTQ dating app Grindr has limited the global visibility of users logging in from the Beijing Olympics Village in order to protect athletes from potential outing and harassment.The app’s “Explore” function, which lets users browse profiles from any location worldwide, has been adjusted to exclude profiles logging in from the Olympic Village, reports Bloomberg News. Users in the Olympic Village will still be able to browse nearby profiles, but the new privacy setting should save athletes from international snooping and exposure.In past Olympics, social media users have used the app’s Explore function to retrieve Grindr profiles from the event and share them online — a dangerous activity considering some athletes are from countries... Continue reading…

Photo by Chris Welch / The Verge Nothing has added voice assistant support to its Ear 1 earbuds, allowing you to summon either Google Assistant or Siri with a triple-tap, the company announced on Twitter. The addition comes as something of a surprise given Nothing originally told Android Central it had no plans to add voice assistant support to the Ear 1.According to 9to5Google, the functionality is rolling out with firmware version 0.6700.1.86, and also supports Amazon’s Alexa in addition to both mobile OS’s native voice assistants. Unfortunately, it sounds like the feature is currently a little buggy, with 9to5Google reporting the earbuds sometimes fail to register that all-important third tap.

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Apple’s long-rumored virtual or augmented reality headset might not launch until 2023, but developers have spotted additional mentions of a new “realityOS” that could power it. First referenced as “rOS” in 2017 by Bloomberg News, realityOS was also spotted as part of some pre-release iOS 13 builds. 9to5Mac reports that developers have now found references to realityOS in GitHub repos and in App Store upload logs.“What is Apple’s realityOS doing in the App Store upload logs?” asks iOS developer Rens Verhoeven. Fellow developer Steve Troughton-Smith says a GitHub repo referencing realityOS confirms it “has its own OS & binaries... and has a realityOS simulator.” He also speculates this could simply be “a remnant of somebody’s pull request... Continue reading…

Photo by Guo Junfeng/VCG via Getty Images The European Union has outlined an ambitious new industrial policy that aims to make the bloc a significant player in the global semiconductor industry.The European Chips Act, adopted this week by the EU Commission, bundles together €43 billion ($49 billion) in public and private funding for the sector, with an end-goal of doubling the EU’s share of global chip production from 9 percent to 20 percent by 2030.For years, the EU has wanted to increase its leadership in the development and fabrication of semiconductor chips (it unveiled a similar funding package in 2013), but the global supply chain crisis triggered by the pandemic has sharpened the urgency of these plans.“the global shortage of chips has really slowed down our... Continue reading…

The Alfa Romeo Tonale. | Image: Alfa Romeo The Alfa Romeo Tonale SUV is the “first car on the market” to come with an NFT digital certificate, that the Italian automaker says will increase the car’s residual value.How? Well, that’s not exactly clear, but it involves recording information from the car’s electronic system to the blockchain as proof that a car has been properly serviced when it comes time to sell it.“With the customer’s consent, the NFT will record vehicle data, generating a certificate that can be used to assure the car has been properly maintained,” Alfa Romeo’s press release says. “On the pre-owned car market, NFT certification represents an additional source of credibility for owners or dealers to count on.”However, as CNBC notes, the data must be recorded... Continue reading…

Raquel Urtasun, the former chief scientist at Uber’s Advanced Technologies Group, promised an “AI-centric approach” to autonomous vehicles when she founded her own company last year, Waabi. Now, she’s ready to deliver on that promise with the announcement of the company’s first product: a virtual world in which to test its autonomous vehicles called “Waabi World.”Urtasun says she doesn’t want to rely on a large fleet of vehicles driving millions of miles on public roads and gathering data in service of training AI systems to drive better and safer than humans. That’s expensive, time-consuming, and ultimately doesn’t capture the seemingly endless number of edge cases that could confuse a self-driving vehicle. Urtasun claims that... Continue reading…

Samsung’s “Tiger in the City” 3D billboard in NYC promoting its Galaxy Unpacked event. The company teased that Tigers are “known for its powerful night vision and vivid colors” | Image: Samsung Samsung is holding a Galaxy Unpacked event this Wednesday, February 9th, at 10AM ET / 7AM PT, where it is expected to reveal the latest flagship Galaxy S22 devices, which may include a proper replacement for the Galaxy Note series that we missed in 2021.The virtual event will not only go out to viewers as a livestreamed video but will also be broadcast as a metaverse experience using the Decentraland platform. The experience is called Samsung 837X and is based on the company’s real-world flagship exhibition center located on 837 Washington Street in New York City. Samsung is leaning into metaverse experiences, as it held its first Samsung 837X metaverse event last month for CES, in addition to separate interactive experiences using the Z... Continue reading…

Photo by MARIANA SUAREZ/AFP via Getty Images Elon Musk’s satellite internet service Starlink just got dealt an expensive blow — the company’s currently estimating that 40 of the 49 Starlink satellites it launched on February 3rd will be destroyed because of a geomagnetic storm.The storm caused “up to 50 percent higher drag than during previous launches,” keeping the deployed satellites from reaching their proper orbit around the Earth. And while Starlink tried to fly them “edge-on (like a sheet of paper)” to reduce that drag, it now looks like as many as 40 of them will burn up in the Earth’s atmosphere instead of reaching their destinations.SpaceX recently crossed the 2,000 satellite launch milestone, and has plans to launch 12,000 if not a great many more — so losing 40 of... Continue reading…

Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge Peloton’s vice president of hardware engineering, Sam Bowen, and its commercial operations executive, Rob Barker, are leaving the company, according to a report from Bloomberg.Bowen led the development of the company’s bikes, treadmill, heart-rate monitor, as well the not-yet-released Guide device, while Barker previously served as the CEO of Precor, a company bought by Peloton that provides workout bikes to gyms and hotels. In a note on LinkedIn announcing his departure, Barker said, “After 27 years in various roles at Precor, Amer Sports and Peloton, I am moving from being a full-time executive at one company to a fitness industry small entrepreneur and advisor. I will continue to focus where my passion and heart lies: the fitness... Continue reading…

You’ll be able to watch videos faster or slower than normal. | Image: Twitter Twitter is testing video playback speed options on Android and the web, the company announced Tuesday. Finally! I am one of those sickos that cranks up the playback speed on every YouTube video and podcast to 1.5x or 2x speed, and I’ve been waiting for years for the ability to do so on Twitter.For those that are in the test, it appears that you’ll see a little gear when watching a video that you can click or tap on to access the different speed options. Based on Twitter’s announcement tweet, it looks like you can watch a video at as slow as 0.25x speed or as fast as 2x.