The Verge

Image: Startup Trail My startup went public, and it only took me about 25 minutes to pull it off. I don’t remember what the company does, though I don’t think it really matters? I own 16 percent of the place, but after I made some rash decisions about a legal fight and opted to set up a local office in India, the company basically doesn’t have any cash left on hand. Users love us, though! So the future’s bright for... whatever our name is. It doesn’t matter. In a minute, I’ll start over and try something else.I’ve spent too much of my day today playing Startup Trail, a new browser game made by The Copia Institute (a think tank and the parent organization of the publication Techdirt), the startup trade group Engine, and developer Leveraged Play. The two... Continue reading…

Kristen Radtke / The Verge The Apple Store, located in Atlanta’s Cumberland Mall, is the first of the company’s 272 retail locations to file for a union election. Employees have written an open letter explaining what changes they are pushing for: fair compensation and transparency on alleged pay inequality within the company, a commitment to promote more BIPOC employees into leadership positions, and increased COVID-19 safety measures in stores.“We want to have a voice in our workplace,” says Elli Daniels, a retail employee and union organizer. “We are doing this because we adore Apple and we love our jobs and we want to make sure we can continue to love the company as much as we do right now. We aren’t doing this because we want to turn our backs on the... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge If you applied for financial aid through Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) in the US in early 2022, there’s a very good chance some personal information was provided to a platform that’s completely irrelevant to the process: Facebook.This report from The Markup exposed that, as early as January 2022, the US Department of Education sent data from website visitors to Facebook, potentially including information submitted on forms like first and last name, country, phone number, and email address, via the “Meta Pixel” tracking pixel — even if the person didn’t have a Facebook account. The Markup also notes that this data collection began “even before the user logged in to studentaid.gov.”It’s unknown how many students had... Continue reading…

Ingenuity captured images that shows debris from the Mars landing site featuring Perseverance’s parachute and backshell | Image: NASA/JPL-Caltech New pictures from the Ingenuity helicopter offer a fresh perspective of the wreckage left behind when the Perseverance rover landed on Mars last year, NASA said on Wednesday.Launched in 2020, the Perseverance rover successfully landed on the Red Planet in 2021, with the mission of finding ancient signs of life on Mars. The rover carried the Ingenuity helicopter onboard — an experimental project that scientists on Earth hoped would be able to see sights that the rover couldn’t.Perseverance went through a grueling process known as the seven minutes of terror to descend onto the Martian surface. As it entered the atmosphere, a heat shield helped protect the rover from the blistering heat of reentry and slowed it down dramatically. After... Continue reading…

Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge Every Friday, The Verge publishes our flagship podcast, The Vergecast, where Verge editor-in-chief Nilay Patel and editor-at-large David Pierce discuss the week in tech news with the reporters and editors covering the biggest stories.On today’s episode, David, Nilay, and Verge deputy editor Liz Lopatto get into the implications of Twitter accepting Elon Musk’s buyout offer and talk about what they think his plans will be for the social network. They also debate what to make of all the rumors flying around that the deal won’t go through at all, even as Musk makes plans for the company’s future under his leadership.In the second half of the show, Verge senior editor Alex Heath joins to give us all the details on the Pixy, Snap’s new... Continue reading…

The Hatching monster hiding under a bed. | Image: IFC Films Animatronics designer Gustav Hoegen has worked on some of the biggest film franchises around. He’s helped bring to life the likes of the adorable mechanic Babu Frik from Rise of the Skywalker and the towering engineer from Prometheus. But some of the most stressful experiences in his career came on the set of Hatching, a Finnish body horror movie that debuted at Sundance and premieres in theaters and on-demand today. Unlike those productions, Hatching is a smaller-scale film, with only one creature to make — and Hoegen’s team was responsible for every aspect of its creation. “It’s definitely not good for the nerves doing this on your own,” he tells The Verge.Hatching tells the story of Tinja, a young girl in a seemingly picture-perfect... Continue reading…

IFC Midnight Director Hanna Bergholm’s Hatching will disturb you Continue reading…

BuyDig is currently selling the Xbox Series S with an extra controller for just $294.99. | Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge We’ve been seeing a lot of good deals on Microsoft’s next-gen Xbox Series S console recently, but today’s BuyDig deal stands out because it comes bundled with an extra Xbox wireless controller from Microsoft in addition to the one that’s already included. You can currently nab this bundle for $294.99 instead of $363.99 when you apply promo code DIGAPRIL5 at checkout. In comparison, you can buy the console by itself with one controller included for $289.99 from Amazon, which, while a new all-time low at Amazon, isn’t even the best price we’ve seen.While the Xbox Series X is becoming more readily available these days, the Xbox Series S is an affordable alternative that retails for less than half the price. It also plays the same games as... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge A few years back, I was working as a freelancer for a company that was trying to develop a US market for its rather obscure hardware products and needed a native English speaker to tweak the text on its site. Everything was going swimmingly until my second week on the job, when I went to the site — and found that I was suddenly getting weird ads flashing across my screen and had lost the ability to access my security software.I needed to get rid of whatever had invaded my system — hopefully, without the need to reset my PC (and lose more time reinstalling all of my apps and files). Here’s what I used: System Restore.System Restore is a handy feature that takes a sort of snapshot of your PC’s software, registry, and driver... Continue reading…

I feel like I’ve tested and seen this Polar watch before Continue reading…

When Jurassic World: Dominion’s last trailer was released, my colleague Chaim Gartenberg boldly argued that he wasn’t at all scared by the prospect of a dino-infested future. “Humans have things like armies and weapons and walls and cities. We’ve grown pretty good at the whole “keeping animals away from us” strategy,” he wrote. “Sure, Jurassic Park posits that a raptor could open a door — but can it eat through concrete? Can it successfully use the weird electronic swipe card that I need to get into our office building?”Dominion’s latest trailer doesn’t have an answer to these questions. But it does answer our burning follow-up about whether a raptor is clever enough to avoid being clotheslined after a quick bit of thinking by Bryce... Continue reading…

Illustration by William Joel / The Verge Top Twitch streamers are voicing their anger about reported plans by the Amazon-owned platform to boost profits by cutting pay-outs in its partnerships program.As reported by Bloomberg News, Twitch is considering a number of changes to increase the revenue it collects from its most popular streamers. These include encouraging streamers to run more ads; reducing revenue share for streamers from 70 percent to 50 percent (a favorable deal only available to some of the platform’s biggest draws); and introducing a new tier system allowing streamers to graduate through different revenue splits based on set metrics.As a concession, Twitch could release partners from exclusivity clauses, letting them stream on rivals like YouTube and... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge The Central African Republic (CAR) has become the second-ever country to adopt Bitcoin as a national currency, following El Salvador’s adoption of the cryptocurrency last year.CAR’s government says a bill to adopt Bitcoin was passed unanimously by the country’s parliament, reports Reuters and BBC News. (Though former CAR prime minister Martin Ziguele complained the bill was approved “by proclamation.”) The office of CAR president Faustin-Archange Touadera claimed the move would “improve the conditions of Central African citizens” and distinguish CAR as “of the world’s boldest and most visionary countries.”However, geopolitical analysts and financial experts are confused by motivations for the move. CAR is a landlocked nation that is... Continue reading…

One simple, clicky button. | Photo by Mitchell Clark / The Verge In the age of aesthetically pleasing morning routines, a cheap electric coffee maker can feel a bit dated — something to begrudgingly use at the office rather than a gadget that brings joy to your kitchen. And while I love the fancy coffee gadgets that require a manual, multi-step ritual, there’s one thing that makes me turn to a standard Mr. Coffee machine every morning: its dead-simple “brew now” button that instantly starts the process of getting caffeine into my body.The single-button operation means I don’t have to navigate the complexities of brewing temps or ratios while I’m still half-asleep. I just press it, it lights up, and the machine gurgles to life, heating up water and pushing it up a tube onto the coffee grounds I’ve... Continue reading…

An example of the banner that previously appeared when you open a dodgy file from Google Drive. | Image: Google Google’s office collaboration tools Docs, Sheets, Slides, and Drawings will now show a warning banner when you open potentially malicious files from the web, the search giant has announced. This banner already appears when dodgy files are accessed from within Drive, as well as from suspicious links within separate Docs, Sheets, Slides, and Drawings files. The broader rollout should help protect users in a wider range of situations.Confusingly, Google’s January 20th announcement post said that the banner already appeared when opening Google Docs, Sheets, Slides, and Drawings links. However, the company tells us this was a typo, and that it should instead say that the banner appears on “links from Google Docs, Sheets, Slides, and... Continue reading…

The company is making some changes. | Photo by Joan Cros/NurPhoto via Getty Images Airbnb announced on Thursday that the “vast majority” of its employees will be allowed to work remotely, and won’t have to take a pay cut if they move away from the cities surrounding the company’s offices. Airbnb is implementing the change after it had “the most productive two-year period” in its history while working remotely, according to a Twitter thread from Brian Chesky, the company’s co-founder and CEO. It is worth noting, however, that it also laid off a quarter of its workforce during that time.Airbnb is also making other remote work policy changes. According to its announcement post, employees will also be able “live and work in over 170 countries for up to 90 days a year in each location,” as long as they keep a permanent... Continue reading…

You’ve been able to link your account to multiple computers for a while. | Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge WhatsApp seems to be working on a feature that would let users chat with the same account on multiple phones, or on a phone and a tablet, according to a screen found in a beta version of the app by the site WABetaInfo. The screen gives instructions for registering the device you’re using as a “companion” by scanning a code with your main phone — though currently there doesn’t appear to be an actual code to scan.A screen found in a previous beta showed that devices could be getting the ability to sync recent messages, even though they’re end-to-end encrypted. That screen, combined with the “Register Device as Companion” screen that instructs users on how to use WhatsApp on another device, adds up to compelling evidence that this feature... Continue reading…

Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge The Steam Deck started shipping two months ago today, and it’s gotten quite a bit better since, but this week might be the best yet — because we’re finally addressing the single biggest issue with the $400 portable PC. Yes, I’m talking about the fan.When the Deck launched, it shipped with an extremely noisy fan to cool its AMD Zen 2 and RDNA 2 silicon, and owners like me have been dealing with its volume and constant whine from day one. It ran constantly, even when I wasn’t doing anything with the system, and was always ramping up even in relatively lightweight games like Vampire Survivors. Photo by Sean Hollister / The Verge My Steam Deck’s fan, from Delta Electronics. Worse, it whines. Or at least some... Continue reading…

Illustration by Kristen Radtke / The Verge; Getty Images As part of his pitch to raise funds to acquire Twitter, Elon Musk apparently “floated” the idea of cutting jobs at Twitter to improve its bottom line, according to a Bloomberg report. “While nothing is set in stone — and Musk himself had no access to Twitter’s non-public financials at the time — he specifically mentioned job cuts” during discussions with banks, the report says. The Washington Post reported that Musk discussed making “efficiencies” at the company in the conversations with bankers, “which could include job cuts.”There are still a lot of uncertainties about what Twitter will look like under Musk’s ownership, assuming the $44 billion deal announced Monday goes through as expected. So far, the best indication of what he... Continue reading…

CEO of Snap Inc. Evan Spiegel presents at the livestreamed Snap Partner Summit 2022 | Photo by Snap, Inc./Getty Images for Snap, Inc. Snap isn’t the only social media company with smart glasses and an expanding hardware portfolio, but what’s separating its approach from Meta? While announcing Pixy, a $229 drone that takes off from your hand to capture selfies, Snap CEO Evan Spiegel spent some time explaining his decision to focus on experiences built for the real world instead of the virtual metaverse.“The reason why we don’t use that word is because it’s pretty ambiguous and hypothetical,” he told The Guardian. “Just ask a room of people how to define it, and everyone’s definition is totally different.”“Just ask a room of people how to define it, and everyone’s definition is totally different.”Spiegel also told The Verge’s Alex Heath that companies making... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Netflix is laying off some Tudum editorial staff just months after launching the website that publishes news, interviews, and other fan content. Tudum falls under the company’s marketing division and includes people working on entertainment, news, lifestyle, and culture content.Most of the 10-person Tudum culture and trends team was let go, according to one person with knowledge of the situation. They said the staff was given no prior warning of the layoffs, and other workers found out their colleagues were laid off via Twitter. Many of the writers were experienced journalists that Netflix lured from other outlets, the person says. The person also claims news of layoffs on other teams is forthcoming. If you have knowledge of additional... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Amazon made a boatload of money during the first quarter of 2022. But investors, having grown used to Amazon’s rocket-like trajectory during the pandemic, haven’t quite adapted to the fact that it’s no longer accelerating quite so fast.Despite notching $116.4 billion in sales from January through March of this year — up nearly 8 billion year over year — Amazon’s stock took a dive in after-hours trading, falling by about 10 percent before stabilizing a bit higher.The problem wasn’t that Amazon had underperformed in Q1, but that Amazon projected a slower Q2 than analysts had hoped for. Analysts wanted to see Amazon projecting $125.5 billion in sales, according to CNBC, but instead, the company only expects sales to come in from $116... Continue reading…

Square Enix In a candid Twitter thread, celebrated video game developer Yuji Naka revealed details about a lawsuit he filed against Square Enix and his struggle to make the ambitious but ultimately atrocious Balan Wonderworld a better game.In the thread, written in Japanese and translated by The Verge, Naka wrote that he was removed as the producer of Balan Wonderworld six months before its release and that he sued Square Enix shortly thereafter.“Improving a game until the very end is what being a game creator is, and it’s strange to make it impossible to do that,” Naka wrote. “I asked my lawyer to try to negotiate even just commenting on the production until the end, but I filed suit because I was refused.”“Improving a game until the very end... Continue reading…

Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge Even as it deals with continued supply constraints and consumers wary of inflation, Apple today reported the best March quarter in its history. The company tallied $97.3 billion in revenue in Q2, up 9 percent over the year-ago quarter. That amounted to a profit of $25 billion, with earnings per share of $1.52.Apple set March quarter revenue records for its iPhone, Mac, and Wearables / Home / Accessories divisions. Apple’s various services grew to a new high of 825 million subscribers. And the Mac continues to surge. “The last seven Mac quarters have now been the top seven quarters ever in the history of the Mac,” Apple CEO Tim Cook told CNBC. But the second quarter saw a slowdown in iPad sales, which were down slightly year over year.... Continue reading…

A report finds evidence that Amazon and third parties use voice data from Alexa-enabled devices to serve targeted ads. | Photo by Dan Seifert / The Verge A report released last week contends that Amazon uses voice data from its Echo devices to serve targeted ads on its own platforms and the web. The report, produced by researchers affiliated with the University of Washington, UC Davis, UC Irvine, and Northeastern University, said the ways Amazon does this is inconsistent with its privacy policies.Titled, “Your Echos are Heard: Tracking, Profiling, and Ad Targeting in the Amazon Smart Speaker Ecosystem,” the report concludes that Amazon and third parties (including advertising and tracking services) collect data from your interactions with Alexa through Echo smart speakers and share it with as many as 41 advertising partners. That data is then used to “infer user interests” and “serve... Continue reading…

The Bethesda game launcher is no more. | Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge The Bethesda.net game launcher is giving up the ghost as of May 11th, so Bethesda is allowing anyone who has purchased games on their exclusive platform to migrate their purchases to Steam. The launcher and your library will remain accessible after May 11th, but Bethesda has recommended that users begin the process as soon as possible.In the process of migrating your games, Bethesda has noted that your entire game library and wallet will be accompanied by all of your saved games — meaning that you shouldn’t have to worry about losing your 500-plus-hour playthrough of Fallout 76. However, we’d recommend backing up those files wherever applicable before you start the process.Bethesda.net logins will still be a thing, however, and your... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Amazon Prime Day, the company’s annual shopping holiday that targets subscribers to its premium shipping / entertainment package, will take place in July this year. The manufactured holiday for discount shopping has moved around a bit after Amazon delayed it to October for 2020 and then moved it back up to June for 2021.Amazon announced the information in its Q1 2022 earnings report and hasn’t shared any other details about what to expect or the exact dates.

Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge Last month, Ukraine Vice Prime Minister Mykhailo Fedorov accused DJI of helping Russia to kill Ukrainian civilians in an unusual way — by allowing Russia to freely use a drone-tracking system called DJI AeroScope to target the exact location of Ukrainian drone pilots and, allegedly, kill them with mortar strikes and missiles.So we wrote an in-depth explainer on what DJI AeroScope actually is, how it works, what it was designed for, and what, if anything, DJI could actually do to prevent people from getting killed using its tech. But a hacker pointed out that DJI wasn’t being truthful with us on at least one point — and the company is now admitting it. The AeroScope signals broadcast by every modern DJI drone aren’t actually encrypted,... Continue reading…

An excellent midrange feature set at the right price Continue reading…

A good screen and the right 5G bands, but not much else going for it Continue reading…

Despite supply problems, it seems the Spark EV shall endure. | Photo by Kevork Djansezian / Getty Images General Motors has denied reports that it’s no longer providing battery replacements for the all-electric version of the Chevy Spark, according to Kevin Kelly, a spokesperson for the company. Kelly told The Verge in an email that the company is “currently experiencing a temporary disruption in the supply of new Spark EV packs,” but that it “remains committed to providing replacement packs to Spark EV owners who need them in the future.”Last week, a report from EV-Resource cited an anonymous GM district executive as saying that the company was “no longer going to supply [the Spark EV’s] battery.” While GM has denied that’s the case, EV-Resource’s report also says that the company ran out of battery packs, which squares with Kelly’s... Continue reading…

Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge The United States, all European Union member states, and 32 non-EU countries have announced a “Declaration for the Future of the Internet” that lays out priorities for an “open, free, global, interoperable, reliable, and secure” internet. It highlights goals like affordability, net neutrality, and removing illegal content without curtailing free expression — although it offers few specifics for achieving them.The three-page declaration, also summarized by the White House and the European Commission, offers a broad vision of the net as well as a mix of more specific issues for its 61 signatories. “We are united by a belief in the potential of digital technologies to promote connectivity, democracy, peace, the rule of law, sustainable... Continue reading…

Photo by Win McNamee/Getty Images Standing beside a poster-sized printout of her suspended Twitter account, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) introduced a new bill on Thursday to abolish Section 230 — the hotly debated law that protects tech companies from liability over what users post on their platforms.Titled the 21st Century FREE Speech Act, Greene’s measure serves as the House companion to a Senate version of the bill introduced by Sen. Bill Hagerty (R-TN) last year. The bill would repeal Section 230 and replace it with language requiring “reasonable, non-discriminatory access to online communications platforms” by classifying them as “common carriers.”Greene’s announcement comes days after Elon Musk won a bid to take Twitter private at $54.20 a share, with Musk... Continue reading…

This is Igloo! His birthday was yesterday, and he is very patient and kind. | Alex Cranz Elinor Karlsson has never owned a dog. But ever since she was a graduate student, she’s been studying dog genetics. (They’re good models for studying genetic diseases in humans.) Part of that work involved collecting genetic and behavioral data on thousands of dogs. And all that data meant the research team could ask a question Karlsson had been wondering for years: does a dog’s breed really say anything about how that dog acts?“Everybody was assuming that breed was predictive of behavior in dogs,” said Karlsson, now the director of the Vertebrate Genomics Group at the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, during a press briefing. “And that had never really been asked particularly well. And we could actually do that.”The answer they... Continue reading…

Image: Pop TV Schitt’s Creek, the extremely GIF-ed comedy series, will be moving homes from Netflix to Hulu on October 3rd. Hulu announced its acquisition of the show’s US streaming rights on Thursday, saying that it will become the only place you can stream all six seasons of the show later this year.The show currently lives on Netflix, so it’s hard to see this as anything other than Disney (which owns Hulu) swiping away a show that’s been incredibly popular on a rival streaming service. Netflix has had a lot of bad news recently, and while losing Schitt’s Creek isn’t on the same level as the company’s subscriber numbers dropping for the first time in a decade, it’s not a great sign, either. The streaming service has struggled to hang onto other... Continue reading…

Illustration by William Joel / The Verge Last year, Apple added App Tracking Transparency to iOS, and the shift in the flow of data from mobile users was enough to unsettle even Facebook. Now, Google, which relies on targeted advertising for its business model, is preparing its own multi-year adjustment to mobile ad tracking and privacy.Starting today, app developers can get their first look at the new system, as the first developer preview of Privacy Sandbox on Android rolls out, following the path of similar tests in Google’s Chrome browser on the desktop.This new plan is supposed to replace Android’s existing advertising ID, which is a user-resettable ID for each device with a Privacy Sandbox of “new, more private advertising solutions.” Like Apple’s approach, it claims... Continue reading…

Gameloft / Disney Make way for Disney Dreamlight Valley, a new Disney-inspired life-sim that feels as if Disney adults got their hands on the Animal Crossing source code. In combination with yesterday’s formal announcement, I had the opportunity to participate in a hands-off demo to see a bit of the vision the developers at Gameloft have for the game. It’ll be difficult to resist the allure of talking about a brand new Disney game entirely in Disney song lyrics, but I’ll do my best to rein in that impulse.Hey! Clear the way in the old Bazaar. Hey you, let us through, it’s a brand-new star. Oh, come be the first on your block to meet its eyeIn addition to being a life-sim game, Disney Dreamlight Valley is a Disney adult’s ultimate isekai fantasy. In it,... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge A huge reason behind Sonos’ success is the company’s adaptability. Whenever a new audio streaming service comes along — and as the industry evolves and pushes new formats like lossless and Dolby Atmos spatial audio — Sonos is always right there trying to support what’s new. For voice assistants, Sonos offers both Amazon Alexa and Google Assistant on its smart speakers. And the company also widely supports Apple’s AirPlay 2 across its current product lineup. That’s all on top of the whole-home audio platform that Sonos has built its brand on.But to stay so nimble and adaptable, Sonos constantly needs to be looking forward and have some sense of what’s coming down the technology pike. To help with that, Sonos recently (and very quietly)... Continue reading…

Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge Snap takes another stab at hardware with a selfie drone called Pixy Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge As cryptocurrency thrives, Bitcoiners seethe Continue reading…

Image: Snap It’s becoming a fundamental law of the internet: where people socialize, they must also shop. Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, and practically every other social network and messaging app on the planet has spent the last couple of years trying to make every pixel of your chats and pictures into a one-click purchasing possibility.Snap’s plans on this front are more ambitious than most. It’s trying to take the whole shopping experience — you see a shirt you like on a stranger, figure out what it is and where to buy it, try it on, buy it, wear it, return it because everything looks better on Ryan Reynolds than you, rinse and repeat — and funnel it through Snap’s AR camera. Through Camera Kit, most of that tech can... Continue reading…

The Samsung Galaxy Buds 2 and their inverted Orero-style wireless charging case. | Photo by Chris Welch / The Verge One of the best bang-for-the-buck values in the true wireless earbuds space is now even cheaper and available in the color that goes with everything. The black Samsung Galaxy Buds 2 are currently just $99.99 at Best Buy. The $50 discount on these noise-canceling earbuds makes them a no-brainer purchase if you’re an Android user looking for a great pair of earbuds on a budget. Sure, there are better-sounding options out there, like the Beats Fit Pro, but they’re twice the price. The Galaxy Buds 2 are small, affordable, and even come with a wireless charging case — something many other affordable earbuds skimp out on. Their biggest hangup may be that they don’t automatically pause when you remove them from your ear, but at this price, it... Continue reading…

Optic Gaming winning the Valorant Masters Finals in Reykjavik, Iceland. | Image: Riot Games Riot Games is making some big changes to the Valorant esports scene. The shift is due to kick off in 2023 and will include the introduction of three regional leagues representing the Americas, Europe, and Asia; previously, professional Valorant operated on a tournament structure. The changes will bring Valorant more in line with Riot’s other popular competitive game, League of Legends.It’s not clear yet which teams will participate in the new leagues, nor how they will be selected. But Riot says that “the new model will incorporate long-term partnerships with no entry fees to a select number of teams to ensure continued long-term stability for the world’s fastest-growing esport,” adding that “teams who meet the selection criteria will... Continue reading…

Image via FCC It appears Snap is working on a drone called Pixy, and the whole thing just leaked with a huge amount of details, including photos and a seemingly unfinished user manual, published by the FCC. It’s small: rulers in the photos indicate the drone is roughly 130 millimeters wide and 120 millimeters tall, which translates to approximately 5.1 inches by 4.7 inches.In a user manual, Snap characterizes the drone as “a small smart drone with a camera and camera function.” The drone itself is a rounded rectangle in Snap’s characteristic yellow hue with translucent orange propellers. There’s a knob on the top that looks to offer a bunch of different settings — it looks like a camera mode dial, right down to a traditional “landscape picture mode”... Continue reading…

Photo by Tom Warren / The Verge If you’ve just bought a new laptop, one of the first things you’re probably going to want to do is personalize how it looks. Windows has plenty of options for customizing what you see when you open up your device. You can not only select a color, photo, or slideshow for your wallpaper, but you can choose a lock screen and pick a theme.It’s simple and straightforward to do once you access your personalization settings. To do that:

Bubble. | Image: Netflix In Bubble, a new anime film on Netflix, there are plenty of the typical hallmarks of a dystopic city. The movie takes place in a version of Tokyo that’s been almost entirely abandoned, and there are lots of rusted cars, crumbling buildings, and greenery reclaiming its place amongst the urban sprawl. But there’s also a vibrancy to the city — something that was very important to director Tetsuro Araki. “We wanted to make it light and colorful because we wanted to present this dystopian landscape almost as a utopia,” he tells The Verge.The reason for that tone might have to do with Bubble’s rather unique premise. It’s not a typical end of the world story. Instead of a planet beset by war or natural disasters, in Bubble, the earth is... Continue reading…

Starfield concept art. | Image: Bethesda E3 2022 may be canceled, but it looks like we’re still getting at least one big gaming event in June. Today, Microsoft announced the Xbox & Bethesda Games Showcase, which will take place on June 12th at 1PM ET.There aren’t many details about the event itself just yet, but the company says that it “will include everything you need to know about the diverse lineup of games coming soon to the Xbox ecosystem, including upcoming releases to Game Pass on Xbox and PC.” The teaser art, which features the Xbox logo floating among the stars, suggests we’ll see more of Bethesda’s upcoming sci-fi RPG Starfield, which is due to launch in November for Xbox and PC.Last year’s June showcase featured news like the reveal of vampire shooter Redfall, a... Continue reading…

Applied VR Virtual reality company AppliedVR is taking an innovative approach to a new trial for its chronic pain treatment. Rather than try to find a group of people with chronic back pain to sign up for the trial and not get the treatment, they’ll pull data from an existing database of chronic pain patients to use as a comparison group — a strategy that has the potential to make clinical trials more efficient.AppliedVR got Food and Drug Administration approval for its virtual reality system that treats chronic back pain back in November. Now, the company is collecting more information about how the treatment works in different groups in the real world. They’re partnering with healthcare data company Komodo Health on the trial. Komodo offers its... Continue reading…

An inexpensive phone that feels like it should cost more than $300 Continue reading…

Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge Twitter overstated the number of daily users on its service for three years straight, overcounting by up to 1.9 million users each quarter. The error was due to Twitter inadvertently counting multiple accounts as active when they were all tied to a single user, even if they weren’t all in use. These incorrect usage numbers were given for Q1 2019 through Q4 2021.This is, somehow, not the first time Twitter has done this. In 2017, Twitter also realized it had been overstating its user figures by about 1 million to 2 million users for three years. The repeat mistake was revealed today in Twitter’s earnings release for the first quarter of 2022.The updated figures aren’t exactly a game-changer: Twitter now has 229 million daily users,... Continue reading…