The Verge

Update April 27th, 4:18AM ET: SpaceX successfully launched the crew from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center at 3:52AM ET. The astronauts will now spend roughly 17 hours en route to the ISS, and are due to dock with the space station at around 8:15PM ET, reports Reuters.Original Story: In the early morning hours, SpaceX is set to launch its seventh crewed mission to orbit, this time sending three NASA astronauts and an Italian astronaut to the International Space Station. Their launch will spark the beginning of a six-month stay on board the ISS, part of SpaceX’s commitment to NASA to periodically fly astronauts to and from the orbiting lab.The mission, called Crew-4, is SpaceX’s fourth operational human spaceflight mission to the ISS for... Continue reading…

Photo by Monica Chin / The Verge Here’s the situation: you’re typing a report for work, and you suddenly have to write the phrase “Jones née Berkowitz.” Or you are adding a phrase in Spanish and need to use the word “años.” How do you add the special characters to the letters with your Windows 11 PC?Special characters (also known as diacritical marks) may be more common in certain languages, but there are plenty of circumstances in which English speakers may need to use them. But because they are so rare in English, native English speakers may not have learned how to add those marks to documents, emails, or other writings. It’s not difficult to add them to your Windows document, although it’s not quite as smooth an operation as on a Mac, where all you have to do is... Continue reading…

Microsoft’s third quarter 2022 financial results are here, and the company’s posting double-digit growth yet again: revenue of $49.4 billion and net income of $16.7 billion. Revenue is up 18 percent, and the profit represents an 8 percent jump year over year. Microsoft is crediting a chunk of this quarter’s growth to the cloud, with server and cloud services revenue up 29 percent specifically, and Microsoft Cloud up 32 percent to $23.4 billion.There was plenty of reason to suspect Microsoft would still sport a smile this quarter. While the PC industry has started to decline from its pandemic highs, it was flagging Chromebook sales — not Microsoft Windows machines — that were responsible for the entirety of the recent dip. Meanwhile, the... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Most people who use smartwatches and other wearable devices that can track health are white, well-educated, and wealthy. That’s not because other groups aren’t interested in using the devices to keep tabs on their fitness, heart rate, or other metrics, according to a new study. It’s just that the cost of these devices is too high. That leaves lower-income groups and racial minority groups excluded from research studies that use wearable data.The study was conducted by researchers at the All of Us Research Program, an initiative at the National Institutes of Health aiming to build a health database that’s representative of the United States. The team is purposefully seeking to include groups historically underrepresented in medical... Continue reading…

Subaru is sticking to its outdoorsy roots when marketing the Solterra. | Image: Subaru Subaru has announced the pricing of its first all-electric vehicle, the Solterra SUV. The vehicle, which comes standard with all-wheel drive like most Subarus, will start at $44,995, with the “Limited” and “Touring” trims starting at $48,495 and $51,995, respectively. All models will have an extra $1,225 destination and delivery charge, bumping their cost out the door up a bit more.The Solterra will have an “up to a 228-mile” range, according to Subaru, and will be able to charge 80 percent of its battery in under an hour. While the Limited and Touring models add features like roof rails, wireless charging, and a glass roof, there’s currently not an option to add more range to the vehicle — something that many other manufacturers offer.... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge If combining NFTs with the medical industry doesn’t sound the most logical, this report from BuzzFeed News will likely confirm your skepticism. An NFT project called MetaDocs assigns doctors / influencers, like Dr. Pimple Popper, to (somewhat unsightly) cartoon personifications of themselves, which users can then purchase to gain access to one-on-one conversations, question-and-answer sessions, or DMs.But despite MetaDocs’ goal of cutting the “red tape” that comes with gaining access to doctors, the MetaDocs themselves aren’t legally able to give medical advice to NFT holders. As BuzzFeed points out, MetaDocs doesn’t have a license to practice telemedicine, barring its doctors from giving medical advice, writing prescriptions, or... Continue reading…

HUNGA TONGA-HUNGA HA’APAI, TONGA – DECEMBER 24, 2021: In this image 2. of a series created on January 19, 2022, Maxar overview satellite imagery shows the Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha’apai volcano on December 24, 2021, | Photo by Maxar via Getty Images Catastrophe has become more commonplace, according to data from a new United Nations report. Not only that, but humans are largely responsible for the increasing number of disasters, which are only going to become even more frequent, the report warns.Looking back, from 1970 to 2000, the world averaged between 90 and 100 disasters reported per year, according to the report published today by the United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNDRR). That grew tremendously from 2001 to 2020, to between 350 to 500 disasters a year.That includes disasters caused by hazards like earthquakes, tsunamis, volcanic eruptions, extreme weather, crop plagues, epidemics, and more (the UN counted biological, geophysical, and weather... Continue reading…

Blizzard Entertainment Happy Overwatch 2 Beta Day! As many players awake to find the golden beta ticket in their inboxes, there will inevitably be those who are left without one. But take heart, heroes, for Blizzard has designed a way by which you can earn an invite to what is, essentially, Overwatch 2’s soft-launch day.Starting tomorrow and lasting for a few hours, anyone who connects their Battle.net account to their Twitch profile and watches at least four hours of Overwatch 2 from a list of streamers can earn access to the OW2 beta. You can find the list of approved streamers here.In the beta, players will be able to check out the 33rd hero Sojourn, all the new hero updates, the brand-new Push game mode, and the five vs. five rework. Unfortunately, the... Continue reading…

The Studio Display’s camera quality was a mess upon release. | Photo by Becca Farsace / The Verge When we reviewed Apple’s $1,599 Studio Display one thing immediately jumped out: its built-in webcam is bad. At the time, Apple told us that an update to improve the camera would be forthcoming, and now it appears to be here. Apple spokesperson Jennie Orphanopoulos tells The Verge that “an update to the Studio Display firmware is now available with today’s beta release of macOS Monterey 12.4. This beta update has refinements to the Studio Display camera tuning, including improved noise reduction, contrast, and framing.”Developers are able to install the Monterey 12.4 beta now; everyone else will be able to install it from Apple’s public beta program later today.Will the improvements to the camera be enough to make your average Zoom... Continue reading…

Sifu, the tough martial arts game released earlier this year, will be getting difficulty modes on May 3rd as part of a major content update, developer Sloclap announced Tuesday. The game had received some criticism for its challenging difficulty, so, hopefully, the new modes will make the game more approachable.As part of the May 3rd update, the game will get “student,” “disciple,” and “master” difficulties, though it’s unclear exactly how the modes will be tuned in comparison to one another. If I had to guess, though, they translate to “easy,” “medium,” and “hard” modes.I was a big fan of the game’s difficulty at launch. It was hard, but I loved going through the game’s levels multiple times to improve. When I defeated the game’s... Continue reading…

Illustration by William Joel / The Verge The first public beta of Android 13 is now available for anyone with a compatible Pixel device to download and try out, the search giant announced today. Its release comes ahead of Google’s annual developer conference next month when the company is expected to fully detail its plans for the update — due for release later this year.For end users, the most interesting features are those that have already appeared in Android 13’s initial two developer previews. There’s support for Bluetooth Low Energy (LE) Audio, a new photo picker that lets you restrict which of your photos an app is able to access, new app icon theming options, and a new permission that could cut down on notification spam. Image: Google Apps will... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Instagram is testing a feature that would let users pin posts to their profile grid, according to TechCrunch.The feature, which is currently live only for some as part of the test, allows users to highlight specific posts at the top of their profile grid. Similar to pinned tweets on Twitter or pinned videos on TikTok, highlighting individual Instagram posts at the top of a profile would allow creators to draw attention to content without asking followers to scroll down through past posts to look for it.Meta confirmed to TechCrunch that it’s testing a new feature that lets users “feature posts on their profile.” It appears the feature has been in the works for a few months, having been spotted in January by reverse engineer Alessandro... Continue reading…

Every color and configuration of Samsung’s S22 is currently on sale. | Photo by Chris Welch / The Verge If you’re looking to upgrade your smartphone, you’re in luck. Both Best Buy and Amazon have discounted the entire Samsung Galaxy S22 lineup, with some models getting up to $200 knocked off their original price. This offer applies to all unlocked models of Samsung’s latest smartphone, regardless of the configuration. This either matches or beats the best prices we’ve seen for the S22 line, and we consider this an excellent deal on what we consider the default Android phones to buy. Read our reviews of the S22 and S22 Plus.Kicking things off with the standard model of the S22, the 128GB model is currently available at Amazon and Best Buy for $699.99, as opposed to its usual retail price of $799.99. The base model of this 6.1-inch phone... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Let’s break it down Continue reading…

Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge If you’ve managed to get your hands on a Playdate or have one on the way, you’re guaranteed a full “season” of 24 games delivered to your device over the span of 12 weeks. And there are some great ones included — check out my full Playdate review for a round-up of my favorites. But there’s also more to the device than just those games, thanks to sideloading. Playdate maker Panic has made it very easy to get games onto your device. You can check out the process here, but essentially, you just need to download a file — usually from somewhere like Itch.io — and then either load it onto your device via USB or load them wirelessly by adding them to your account on the Playdate website.It’s a pretty painless process, and there are already... Continue reading…

Drop’s new white-on-black DCX keycaps. | Image: Drop There’s a new keycap style in town: DCX Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge YouTube is expanding its Super Thanks tipping program, giving more creators another way to monetize their presence on the platform.Super Thanks, which allows fans to send creators tips directly on videos, was previously in beta since being announced last year. Tip amounts vary between $2 and $50, and fans can include a custom comment when they send creators money. The program is now open to all eligible YouTube Partner creators in 68 countries, the company announced in a blog post.YouTube has introduced a variety of ways creators can monetize interactions with fans and viewers. In addition to Super Thanks, a feature called Super Chat allows livestream audience members to pay to have their comment pinned in the accompanying chat. With... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Reddit is expanding its Community Funds program, the company announced this week, and it plans to spend $1 million funding various projects across the platform. “We will invite communities to submit ideas for projects, events, contests, giving, almost anything you can think of to bring people together for inspiration and delight,” the company said in its announcement. Projects can ask for between $1,000 and $50,000, and Reddit will start issuing grants in June.In a way, this is Reddit’s version of the creator funds that Facebook, Snapchat, TikTok, YouTube, Spotify, and, well, pretty much everybody has been offering to people using their platforms. And, in that sense, Reddit’s commitment here is pretty small: Facebook pledged to spend... Continue reading…

Google Play’s new safety section. | Image: Google Google is rolling out a new safety section in the Play Store designed to show users more detail about the data apps collect and how it is used, the company has announced. The section will be gradually rolling out for users over the coming weeks, and app developers have until July 20th to add the information to their listings — so the section may not immediately appear for everyone. The initiative was first announced last year.According to Google, the section is an attempt to give users more information and context. It’ll list the data each developer is collecting, if they share it, and their security practices (such as whether they encrypt the data while in transit). There will also be information on whether a developer follows Google... Continue reading…

Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge Panic has just begun shipping the Playdate, its unusual new gaming handheld. Part of the Playdate’s appeal is its quirky hardware: in an era where new handhelds have glorious OLED screens or are powerful enough to play your library of Steam games, the Playdate is a tiny device that has a crank and can only display games in black and white. But the Playdate is also interesting because of its “season” release model for games.Everyone who purchases a Playdate will get access to a full season of 24 games, though you won’t be able to play all of them right away. Instead, you’ll get two games when you first set up the device, and after that, Panic will send you two new games on Mondays in an almost TV show-like release cadence.“I think I... Continue reading…

Claire Danes as Cora Seaborne and Tom Hiddleston as Will Ransome. | Apple Author Sarah Perry’s 2016 novel The Essex Serpent is a story about a fictional village descending into madness as more and more people become convinced that there’s a mythical beast lurking in the nearby waters. But The Essex Serpent also revolved around a complicated romance that Apple seems keen on exploring in its upcoming adaptation of the book — at least judging from the first trailer.The Essex Serpent follows as Cora Seaborne (Claire Danes) and her companion Martha (Hayley Squires) journey to the fictional village of Aldwinter in pursuit of Cora’s dream to become a paleontologist following the sudden death of her abusive husband. While local tales of a massive primordial serpent capable of causing earthquakes are cause for alarm... Continue reading…

You can reset your Apple Watch passcode from the wrist or on your phone. | Photo by Victoria Song / The Verge When you set up a passcode on your Apple Watch, you’ll ideally pick one that you can easily remember. However, mishaps happen to the best of us. Maybe you needed to change up your usual passcode for security reasons and plumb forgot the new one. Perhaps you’re booting it up for the first time in a while and didn’t remember setting one up to begin with. In my case, I wore my Apple Watch to bed and vaguely remember taking it off in the middle of the night. When I tried to unlock it this morning, I was instead greeted by a message saying I had entered in one too many wrong passcodes.Regardless of the reason, getting locked out of your Apple Watch is no fun. Thankfully, this is an easy problem to fix. Photo by Victoria... Continue reading…

Photo by Chris Welch / The Verge Roku has signed a multiyear deal with Lionsgate to exclusively offer the studio’s theatrical releases for free on its ad-supported Roku Channel immediately after their showing on Starz, starting with its 2022 release slate. It includes films like John Wick: Chapter 4, The Expendables 4, Borderlands, Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret, and more, which will be available on the channel in two separate windows. The second window will be nonexclusive, however, so the Roku Channel will be the first place viewers can see the films for free.“This agreement affirms the great demand for first-run studio movies across a broad array of platforms,” said Jim Packer, the president of worldwide television distribution at Lionsgate. “This partnership... Continue reading…

Photo Illustration by Grayson Blackmon / The Verge On the frontier of fighting the NSA Continue reading…

Gaming phones have resorted to babes Continue reading…

Display your photos on your Google Nest Hub. | Photo by Dan Seifert / The Verge Google’s family of Nest Hub smart displays can do a lot of things: control your smart home devices; show you a feed of your video doorbell; play YouTube videos; double as a digital cookbook; and even track your sleep for you. But they also make excellent digital photo displays.There are many digital picture frames out there, but what sets Google’s apart is the auto-adjustment feature that makes your digital pictures look like a printed image in a frame rather than a digital image on a computer screen. The Nest Hubs are also really easy to use — all you need is a free Google Photos account. And, starting at $100, they’re some of the least expensive options out there.Google also has a feature called Live Albums that will automatically... Continue reading…

Samsung Samsung has announced the T7 Shield USB-C portable SSD, which, by all accounts, has the same internal hardware as the T7 but with a more rugged design that endows it with IP65 water and dust resistance. The grippy rubber coating inherently makes it better at deflecting scuffs and scratches than the metal design of the T7, and it boasts better drop resistance of up to 9.8 feet. And, thanks to that rubber, Samsung says it can maintain high performance, transferring up to 2TB of data without triggering its Dynamic Thermal Guard feature that throttles data transfer speeds to safeguard the hardware.The T7 Shield is available starting today in 1TB and 2TB configurations, priced at $143.99 and $260.99, respectively. It has the same transfer... Continue reading…

Photo by Michael S. Schwartz/Getty Images Well hi, everyone, I hope we’re all relaxed and ready for a very calm, very normal week. I know I’m certainly ready to stay focused on my own projects and not get wildly distracted by the whims of billionaires with money to burn. Wish me luck.Joe Rogan “gained two million subscribers” from recent controversyFrom the department of any press is good press: Joe Rogan says the recent firestorm around his ongoing vaccine misinformation and past use of a racial slur only added to his fan base. “It’s interesting, my subscriptions went up massively — that’s what’s crazy,” Rogan said on an episode Friday, according to The Hollywood Reporter. “During the height of it all, I gained 2 million subscribers.”The Reporter adds that, according to... Continue reading…

The Wyze Garage Door Controller uses a Wyze Cam v3 and QR code to watch over your garage door. | Image: Wyze Hot on the heels of its latest smart door lock release, Wyze is launching a garage door controller to manage access for that other way into your home. The Wyze Garage Door Controller launches today and costs $39.99 plus shipping. This gadget lets you control and view your garage door from anywhere using a Wyze Cam v3 and a controller box, so you can see the door while you open or close it remotely using the Wyze app. Instead of using a contact sensor to monitor the state of your door as similar products do, Wyze is deploying some AI tech to its integrated camera to watch your door.A smart garage door controller is a retrofit device that connects to your existing motorized door opener to let you control it remotely over a Wi-Fi... Continue reading…

Image: Fiture When Mirror debuted its fitness mirror in 2018, it was a unique, space-efficient take on at-home fitness. Since then, several competitors including NordicTrack and Echelon have launched their own versions. Today, another challenger has appeared in the form of the Fiture — a $1,495 interactive connected mirror that offers real-time form feedback, gestures, voice control, and the ability to build custom workouts.I got the chance to check out the Fiture in person recently, and the device looks, well, like a mirror. It measures 43 inches long and, at 1.3 inches thick, is relatively slim. Aside from a plug in the back, speakers on the sides, and button controls, it looks like any other full-length mirror you’d buy at a furniture store.L... Continue reading…

Touchpad! | Image: Dell Asus is no longer the only big laptop manufacturer doing funky touchpad things: Dell has thrown its Latitude business line into the mix. The new Latitude 9330 has a new “collaboration touchpad” that I’m having trouble seeing as anything other than the trackpad version of a Stream Deck. Simply put, there appears to be a row of LED buttons across the top of the touchpad that access controls for the microphone, camera, chat, and screen-sharing function.Also of interest is that this laptop is the first 13-inch device of the Latitude 9000 series. The 9000 line, while generally outside of many consumers’ price ranges, is the high-end segment of the Latitude line known for being thin and feature-packed. Business customers looking for flagship... Continue reading…

Image: Nintendo During a Nintendo Direct event last fall, the company revealed a release date for the animated Super Mario Bros. movie that it’s making with Minions animation studio Illumination. Now the company has revealed that the movie will not hit theaters on December 21st as planned and instead will be released in the spring of 2023.A tweet credited to Mario creator Shigeru Miyamoto says that after consulting with co-producer Chris Meledandri, the new release dates for the Super Mario Bros. film are April 28th in Japan and April 7th in North America. The tweet did not offer an explanation of how Chris Pratt will portray Mario, a title, or answer any of the other questions we’ve had since this project was announced in 2018.

Ford CEO Jim Farley and the F-150 Lightning. | Photo by JEFF KOWALSKY/AFP via Getty Images Ford CEO Jim Farley knows there’s lots to improve as Ford turns into an EV company Continue reading…

Photo by MARCO BELLO/AFP via Getty Images You know what, I’m into it. Let’s go full, unkempt beard for this one. The Gen-Xers are online and they are posting Radiohead on main.

Blue Origin Just before Twitter announced it’s accepting Elon Musk’s $44 buyout bid, the world’s richest man tweeted, “I hope that even my worst critics remain on Twitter, because that is what free speech means.”His commitment is getting a mild test thanks to a fellow tech billionaire / rocket enthusiast / media mogul. Jeff Bezos quoted a New York Times reporter’s tweet pointing out that Tesla’s business interests in China could give the government leverage over Twitter via its new owner, saying, “Interesting question. Did the Chinese government just gain a bit of leverage over the town square?.”

Photo by Sean O’Kane / The Verge President Biden’s administration called for Congress’s help in letting more law enforcement agencies access drone tracking systems on Monday. In recent months, government use of counter-drone systems has become more controversial after a Ukrainian government official asked drone-maker DJI to cut off Russia’s access to its AeroScope drone location system.The White House’s outline of what it calls the “Domestic Counter-Unmanned Aircraft Systems National Action Plan” called for Congress to “reauthorize” the authority to track drones given to organizations like the Departments of Homeland Security, Justice, Defense, and State. (The plan also notes that the CIA and NASA also have limited authorities.) The statement also asks Congress to give... Continue reading…

Illustration by Kristen Radtke / The Verge; Getty Images In the moments before Elon Musk bought Twitter, the company’s Slack channels were lit up with nervous anticipation. It had been days since Twitter leadership had shared anything with them, and after a weekend’s worth of reports that a sale was imminent, employees were looking for answers.For the first few hours of the morning, none came. Work all but came to a halt, employees told me. Like a classroom where the teacher is late and students are attempting to self-govern, one said. A “hellhole,” said another. One thread, in which an employee asked good-naturedly whether anyone was excited about the prospect of working for Musk, drew dozens of responses, many of them quite ugly.Then, just before the markets closed, the news arrived: the... Continue reading…

Here’s what a Steam Deck lock screen looks like. | Image: Valve Valve’s newest Steam Deck update adds a lock screen to the handheld gaming PC, the company announced Monday. The change means you can now set a PIN when you wake the device from sleep, which could prevent people from accessing your device who shouldn’t be. After you’ve installed the update, you can turn on the lock screen and set a PIN in the Steam Deck’s settings menu from a new Security tab.The update also adds a handful of other welcome changes. The achievements page has gotten a “refresh,” and Valve says it’s now “faster to load and easier to navigate.” There are localized keyboards for 21 languages and layouts, and you can enable multiple keyboards at the same time, though Valve notes that it’s “currently working” on keyboards for... Continue reading…

An illustration of NASA’s DART spacecraft just before it hits Dimorphos | NASA China’s space agency plans to send a spacecraft to slam into an asteroid, knocking it into a new — and hopefully safer — orbit. The prospective new mission will launch within the next four years, and was announced on Sunday by Wu Yanhua, deputy director of the China National Space Administration, according to Global Times, a state-run news outlet.The country hasn’t yet determined which asteroid to target. The mission was announced as one part of a larger new planetary defense effort, which will seek to catalog and monitor near-Earth asteroids, especially those that might pose a threat to our planet. The effort would include a new warning system as well. Eventually, the plan is to identify an asteroid that might threaten Earth, and send... Continue reading…

2022 is a big year for Google’s wearable efforts | Photo by Dieter Bohn / The Verge After a massive Pixel Watch leak this past weekend, you’d think that maybe Google would relax on the wearables front. Nope. With Google I/O just weeks away, a video teasing Google Assistant on the Samsung Galaxy Watch 4 has popped up on YouTube, and Google-owned Fitbit has officially started rolling out passive atrial fibrillation alerts on its suite of devices.We’ve known that Google Assistant was coming to the Galaxy Watch 4 (and therefore Wear OS 3) for months. The only thing we haven’t really known is when, but it seems like the wait is coming to an end. There was a false alarm last week when Verizon jumped the gun with an update log that suggested Google Assistant support had been included in the latest round of Galaxy Watch 4... Continue reading…

Image: Pony.ai Pony.ai has received a license to operate its autonomous taxi service in China, making it the first company to win the country’s approval (via Reuters). Starting in May, the Toyota-backed robotaxi service will operate 100 autonomous vehicles in the Nansha district of Guangzhou, and will later expand to serve other portions of the city.Pony.ai says riders can hail and pay for rides from the company’s app between 8:30AM to 10:30PM, and that its fares will align with the “standard taxi pricing” in Guangzhou. The autonomous vehicles will also have a driver present in the car for safety purposes, but plans to remove them over a “short to intermediate time frame.”In November, the Chinese startup gained approval — but not a license — to... Continue reading…

Image: Sennheiser Ever since the original pair’s debut back in 2018, Sennheiser’s Momentum True Wireless earbuds have received heaps of praise for their sound quality. After releasing a sequel in 2020, Sennheiser is announcing the third product in the series today — and this time, they’ve been given a substantial redesign. They’ll be available starting May 10th in black, graphite, and white for $249.95.The Momentum True Wireless 3 buds look closer to the CX and CX Plus True Wireless than they do their direct predecessors. Clearly, Sennheiser has settled on a universal design language of sorts for its earbud lineup, and that’s reflected here. The Momentums do give off a sleeker and more premium impression than the company’s cheaper buds. ... Continue reading…

Photo Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Twitter CEO Parag Agrawal didn’t have many concrete answers for staff about what will happen once Elon Musk takes over the company later this year. During a virtual all-hands call Monday, hours after the company announced it had agreed to be bought by Musk for $44 billion, Agrawal fielded questions on the future of his job, the company’s board, and possible layoffs.Layoffs aren’t planned “at this time,” Agrawal said, according to a person who heard the remarks and who asked to remain anonymous. Agrawal also said that he’d remain as CEO until the deal’s close, but he didn’t comment about what would happen after that. The company’s board will dissolve once the deal closes, said Brett Taylor, the board’s independent chair.“We don’t have... Continue reading…

E Ink / The Verge E Ink has a new version of color electronic paper, and while it isn’t as pretty as an OLED or possessing the new tech sheen of stuff like mini- and microLED, E Ink Gallery 3 sure is easy on the eyes. Gallery 3 isn’t quite as fast as the E Ink found in your Kindle, but it has some absolutely stellar upgrades compared to previous versions of the Gallery technology and brings us a whole lot closer to a color E Ink screen that big companies like Amazon might actually risk putting in a tablet.Currently, a handful of companies are making color E Ink tablets based on E Ink’s other color technology, Kaleido. Those include the PocketBook Color (really neat!) and the Boox Nova3 Color (cooler in theory than in practice). Kaleido was E Ink’s... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge If you’re an Apple user, then you might have seen some problems in the App Store or with Apple Music. On Monday Apple’s system status page listed issues affecting “all users” for both services noticed since 11:41AM ET without going into detail about what the problems are. In our tests, the App Store and Apple Music are both generally operational, but users noticed problems for several hours before they were resolved.9to5Mac reported earlier that Apple’s Privacy Labels weren’t appearing on many App Store listings and cited a source confirming it was a bug that would be fixed soon.Posters on Reddit have seen problems with Apple Music missing lyric information, Dolby Atmos, and lossless audio from songs where it should have those... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro “Free speech is the bedrock of a functioning democracy, and Twitter is the digital town square where matters vital to the future of humanity are debated” is how Elon Musk explained why he spent $44 billion to acquire Twitter.

Image: Microsoft You’ll soon be able to download Microsoft Teams from the Microsoft Store that comes built into Windows, according to a roadmap update from the company, as spotted by Neowin. Yes, you read that right. Microsoft’s work communications app hasn’t been available on its own store up to this point; it either had to be downloaded from the web or installed alongside the rest of Office 365. (Though, as ZDNet notes, it was available at one point on the store exclusively for people using Windows 10 in S mode, which restricted where you could install software from.)According to the roadmap, Teams will be available on the store sometime next month for both Windows 10 and 11. The version for Windows 10 will be usable with personal, work, and school... Continue reading…

Image: Mattel J.J. Abrams’ Bad Robot is partnering up with Warner Bros. for a live-action Hot Wheels movie, yet another sign that Mattel is getting quite serious about the filmmaking business.Today, Warner Bros. and Mattel Films announced that Bad Robot has signed on to produce a live-action Hot Wheels feature film described in a press release as a showcase of “some of the world’s hottest and sleekest cars, monster trucks and motorcycles.” Speaking about the collaboration, Mattel Films’ executive producer Robbie Brenner did not provide any plot details but did allude to the new project being aimed at a broad swath of the Hot Wheels fanbase.“As the global leader in car culture, Hot Wheels has been igniting the challenger spirit in auto enthusiasts... Continue reading…

Netgear and AT&T are introducing the most impressive mobile hotspot I’ve ever seen: a four-inch puck that promises to turn the newest, fastest flavors of 5G and Wi-Fi into speedy internet for your laptops, tablets, and even wired PCs.It’s called the Netgear Nighthawk M6 Pro, and at $459.99, it ain’t cheap. But it’s a leap over its predecessors in practically every way. Not only is it one of the first hotspots with both actually useful C-band 5G frequencies and speedy-but-spotty mmWave but also AT&T says it’s the first with Wi-Fi 6E for 3.6Gbps wireless transfer speeds. It’s also got a 2.5Gbps ethernet jack for wired gadgets where its predecessor maxed out at gigabit wired speeds.Oh, and it’s got a USB 3.2 Type-C port for charging and... Continue reading…