The Verge

Image: Gap Gap is selling NFTs, following other clothing retailers like Adidas, Nike, and Macy’s that in recent months have jumped into the NFT space. The NFTs are built on the Tezos blockchain, which touts itself as a more energy-efficient option.The NFTs come in the form of a series of digital hoodie art, with different levels of rarity at different price points. Common level pieces starting at roughly $8.30, or 2 tez, are on sale today. Rare, epic, and one-of-a-kind tiers will roll out over the next few weeks. Gap is partnering with artist Brandon Sines, creator of the Frank Ape cartoon character, on the designs.The gamified experience comes out to around $500.For shoppers who’d prefer to buy something wearable, look no further than the... Continue reading…

Photo taken on Aug. 12, 2021 shows burned bushes after a wildfire caused by high temperature in Siggiewi, Malta. Matla was hit by a heatwave which has swept across the Mediterranean Sea. | Photo by Jonathan Borg/Xinhua via Getty Images The last eight years have been the eight hottest years on record, NASA and the National Oceanic Administration (NOAA) confirmed today. 2021 ranks as the sixth hottest year on record, the agencies said, as global average temperatures trend upward. Rankings aside, there were plenty of red flags throughout 2021 to show us how remarkable the year was for temperature extremes.“The fact is that we’ve now kind of moved into a new regime ... this is likely the warmest decade in many, many hundreds, maybe 1000s of years,” says Gavin Schmidt, director of NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies. “There’s enough change that it’s having impacts locally.”In North America, those local impacts included epically bad summer heat, even for typically... Continue reading…

Fortnite is back on iOS today... sort of. The popular battle royale game isn’t back on the App Store (where it’s been missing since Apple pulled the app from its storefront in August 2020), but iPhone and iPad owners can now stream Fortnite to play on their phones and tablets through Nvidia’s GeForce Now service, which opened up a closed beta today to test the new streaming version of the game.Nvidia and Epic Games have been promising that Fortnite would come back to iOS through GeForce Now running through Safari’s web browser (the only way that Apple currently allows game streaming services like GeForce Now, Stadia, xCloud, or Luna to operate on iOS) as far back as November 2020, when the service first launched on Apple’s hardware.... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge The White House will meet with leaders of major tech companies including Apple, Google, Amazon, Meta, IBM, and Microsoft on Thursday to discuss the security of open-source software. The issue has become urgent in the wake of the extremely serious Log4j vulnerability, discovered in December 2021.The summit will also include the Apache Software Foundation — the owner and maintainer of the Log4j library — and Oracle, owner of the Java software platform on which the Log4j library runs. GitHub and the Linux Open Source Foundation will also be represented.Executives from the tech companies will meet with representatives of various federal agencies, including the departments of Commerce, Defense, Energy, and Homeland Security. Other agencies... Continue reading…

Magic Leap Magic Leap announced Tuesday that it was giving four healthcare partners early access to its next-gen augmented reality headset, including neurotechnology company SyncThink. With the new partnership, the company is interested in targeting vestibular disorders, which cause dizziness, SyncThink chief clinical officer Scott Anderson told The Verge.SyncThink has been collaborating with Magic Leap for a few years, Anderson says. Now, it’s expanding that relationship to bring Magic Leap 2 into the neurological health space and collaborate on clinical studies, he says. SyncThink already has FDA clearance for an eye-tracking VR device that helps diagnose concussions. Changes in eye movements are also linked to vestibular disorders.The upgrades... Continue reading…

Both the ad-free and ad-supported HBO Max plans are currently on sale. | Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Whether it’s exclusives like the new Harry Potter reunion special, Return to Hogwarts, or access to new films like The Matrix Resurrections, an HBO Max subscription means you can watch some of today’s most popular titles from the comfort and safety of your home. Unfortunately, we rarely see deals on the popular streaming service — that is, until today.Right now, HBO Max is offering 20 percent off both its ad-supported and ad-free monthly subscription plans, which throughout 2021 gave subscribers limited-time access to movies like Dune the same day they hit theaters. And while Warner Bros. has stated it doesn’t intend to keep simultaneously releasing movies in theaters and on HBO Max this year, it will release six exclusives on HBO Max... Continue reading…

Leica M11 in black | Image: Leica Leica has introduced the latest generation of its venerated M rangefinder camera, the new M11. The M11 is very similar in appearance to the M10 line it’s replacing, with much of the claimed 40 new improvements found on the inside. Leica says the M11 will be available starting today, January 13th, 2022, with a price tag of $8,995.The most significant upgrade is a new, 60-megapixel backside-illuminated full-frame CMOS sensor that captures 14 stops of dynamic range at its full resolution. Uniquely, the M11 also allows photographers to capture RAW files at 36 or 18 megapixels, which unlocks another stop of dynamic range, provides better low light performance, and allows for longer burst shooting at the expense of zoomed-in detail. (The... Continue reading…

The HP Elite Dragonfly G3 is one of thebiggest laptop releases from CES, bringing more consumer-friendly features to a traditional business laptop. | Image: HP HP had one of the most expansive laptop launches of this year’s CES. The headliners included two Elite Dragonfly models, a whole gaggle of Windows 11 Elitebooks, and a dump of gaming laptpos and desktops (as well as accessories). We saw the usual spec upgrades: better chips, smaller bezels, better battery life, bigger touchpads, etc.But a few newer themes ran through HP’s releases and through those of many other major laptop manufacturers as well. Less obtrusive, chic-er looks. Heavier duty chips in chassis that are thinner, lighter, and easier to take from place to place. AI features meant to prevent snooping in public places. Better conferencing technology — lines that have resisted adding webcams for years finally have them. These... Continue reading…

Illustration by Samar Haddad / Photo by Becca Farsace Back in the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, people who wanted to get together while staying safe from infection discovered that they could meet with friends, families, and co-workers via videoconferencing software. Maybe because many of them were already using Zoom at work for videoconferencing, that app almost immediately became the flavor of the day.There were a few hiccups along the way — possibly because Zoom was meant to be primarily a business app. At first, while Zoom included some methods that could be used to safeguard meetings, those features could be hard to find, especially if you hadn’t used the app before. Meetings began to be interrupted by unwanted intruders who would purposely cause disruptions, often in extremely... Continue reading…

You should probably buy the Pixel 6 instead Continue reading…

Photo by Walid Berrazeg/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images Chip manufacturer Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC), which supplies silicon for Apple, Qualcomm, and other tech giants, plans to spend as much as $44 billion to increase its manufacturing capacity in 2022, Reuters reports. In its latest earnings release, the Taiwanese firm said it expects capital spending to be between $40 and $44 billion in 2022, up from a previous record of $30 billion in 2021.It’s not an entirely unexpected increase, given the company’s previously announced plan to spend $100 billion on expanding its manufacturing capacity through 2023. But the record sum suggests it doesn’t expect demand for chips to slow down anytime soon, despite some analyst warnings of potentials slowdowns in areas like... Continue reading…

Xbox One S | Photo by Tyler Pina / The Verge Microsoft has stopped manufacturing all Xbox One consoles. The software giant originally discontinued the Xbox One X and digital Xbox One S ahead of the Xbox Series X launch, then quietly stopped manufacturing the Xbox One S at the end of 2020, leaving retailers to sell out their remaining stock.“To focus on production of Xbox Series X / S, we stopped production for all Xbox One consoles by the end of 2020,” says Cindy Walker, senior director of Xbox console product marketing, in a statement to The Verge.Microsoft’s confirmation comes just as a Bloomberg report suggested Sony had planned to end PS4 production at the end of 2021, but that the company will now manufacture around a million PS4 consoles in 2022. Sony has confirmed PS4... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Nigeria has lifted its ban on Twitter, first instated on June 5th, 2021. The Nigerian government says Twitter has agreed to meet all of its demands, according to a report from CNN. These include Twitter opening a local office in Nigeria, addressing concerns over its tax payments, and “managing prohibited publication in line with Nigerian law.”This last condition is particularly important, as the original ban was condemned by many international agencies as an act of censorship. The Nigerian government banned Twitter in 2021 just days after the company deleted a tweet by the country’s president, Muhammadu Buhari, that threatened secessionists in Nigeria’s southeast region. Some had interpreted the tweet as threatening genocide for its... Continue reading…

Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge The PC market experienced its first big growth in a decade during 2020, when the pandemic began to force people to work and learn from home. Market research firms Gartner and IDC are now reporting that the worldwide PC market has grown again throughout 2021, as demand for traditional PCs continued during a global chip shortage.Nearly 340 million PCs were shipped in 2021, according to Gartner. That’s a nearly 10 percent increase over the already unprecedented numbers seen in 2020. IDC puts the figure at 348.8 million, up nearly 15 percent.“2021 has truly been a return to form for the PC,” said Jitesh Ubrani, a research manager at IDC. “Consumer need for PCs in emerging markets and global commercial demand remained strong during the... Continue reading…

Image: Dropbox Dropbox’s latest beta has added native support for Macs with M1 processors, 9to5Mac reports. The addition was confirmed by a Dropbox community manager on the company’s forums, and we’ve verified it by installing the latest beta of the macOS app. You can grab it yourselves from this Dropbox forum.The service has always worked on Apple’s M1 Macs, but until now it’s had to use Apple’s Rosetta 2 translation layer. This allowed the macOS app, which was originally designed for old Intel-based Macs, to run on machines with Apple’s new M1 processors. Offering native M1 support should result in Dropbox having better performance and consuming less power when used with Apple Silicon devices. That said, Rosetta translation is so fast you might not... Continue reading…

Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge Apple has denied that last month’s iOS 15.2 update is behind the difficulty some iPhone owners have faced with using the iCloud Private Relay feature on cellular networks. Verizon, AT&T, and T-Mobile earlier this week said they weren’t blocking the VPN-like feature, but T-Mobile claimed to have identified that iOS 15.2 toggled it off by default.Now Apple says that’s not the case. After releasing an updated beta of iOS 15.3 that clarifies the language in iCloud settings, Apple issued a statement to 9to5Mac saying that iOS 15.2 wasn’t the problem. “No changes were made to iCloud Private Relay in iOS 15.2 that would have toggled the feature off,” the statement reads. “Users are encouraged to check their Settings to see if Private Relay is... Continue reading…

AmpMe isn’t a brand-new app that popped up just to scam unsuspecting users out of their money. See the photo atop this post? That’s from 2015, when we first covered the idea: an app that can sync up a room full of smartphones into a single gigantic speaker with no fees in sight. But as App Store scam hunter Kosta Eleftheriou points out, the app looks seriously shady more than six years later — if you downloaded it yesterday, it would immediately try to sell you on a $9.99 a week automatic recurring subscription. That’s $520 a year, an incredible sum if you pull it out as a party trick and then forget to cancel.AppFigures estimates the app has raked in $13 million since 2018.

Photo by Chaim Gartenberg / The Verge Apple is updating the wording for iCloud Private Relay issues in the latest iOS 15.3 beta, clarifying that problems with the service may be an inadvertently switched-off setting and not issues with a customer’s specific cell carrier, via MacRumors.The old message put the blame for iCloud Private Relay not working squarely on the shoulders of cell carriers.

It’s called CarBravo and is set to launch in the spring. | Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge The used car market is red hot, and it seems General Motors wants to compete squarely with used vehicle sites like Carvana with a new website called CarBravo. GM is beginning to enroll dealers now to be a part of the site, which is set to launch in “spring 2022,” according to a press release.CarBravo will not only let shoppers look at inventories from both dealers and GM’s central stock of used vehicles, but it will also let people shop for non-GM used vehicles, Steve Carlisle, GM’s EVP and president of GM North America, said in a statement. That could help it better take on Carvana (which just announced it has sold one million cars) and other sites such as CarMax and Vroom, which let people shop across many different car brands.The... Continue reading…

Photo by Chris Welch / The Verge Multipoint support on earbuds has long been one of Jabra’s hallmarks, but slowly we’re starting to see other brands add the convenience to their buds. The latest is OnePlus, which is adding “dual connection” to its flagship OnePlus Buds Pro with a new firmware update.Once that update is installed, the Buds Pro will be able to connect to two devices at once, letting you seamlessly switch between, say, listening to music on your laptop and taking a call on your mobile phone.This functionality is common in a lot of premium wireless headphones but has been much slower to make its way to earbuds. For a long time multipoint was a big selling point for Jabra’s Elite 65t, 75t, and 85t earbuds. But other companies like Anker and JBL have... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge In a public report issued earlier this week, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) recommends that the IRS and Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) be given more information about the location of the kiosks where people can turn cash into crypto or vice versa. In its report, GAO cites crypto’s potential use in sex trafficking and drug dealing as the reason why the government should have more insight into one of the ways people obtain crypto outside of the more tightly regulated exchanges.While kiosk operators already have to comply with several regulations (they have to register with FinCEN, keep transaction records, and collect extra information for transfers over $3,000), GAO argues that it’s still hard for government... Continue reading…

Unfortunately, us reviewers also tend to snap photos exclusively on the left wrist. | Photo by Dieter Bohn / The Verge Good news for Wear OS southpaws: Google is adding the ability to rotate the screen on Wear OS watches 180 degrees. There is, however, a catch — you might have to upgrade to get the feature.The news was initially spotted on Reddit by journalist Mishaal Rahman and picked up by Android Central. In a Google IssueTracker thread requesting customizable screen orientation, a developer wrote, “Our development team has implemented the feature you have requested and will be available on future new devices.” That prompted some mixed responses. On the one hand, the feature exists. On the other, it’s implied the feature may not make its way to all Wear OS smartwatches.Should this be the case, it’s understandable why Wear OS users are cheesed. It’s... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge On Wednesday, Apple released the 15.2.1 version of iOS, a minor update to the mobile operating system that fixes bugs, including a denial-of-service vulnerability previously reported by The Verge.The 15.2.1 patch addresses a vulnerability triggered through HomeKit, the software API for connecting smart home devices to iOS applications. If the vulnerability was exploited, HomeKit devices labeled with a very long name would cause iPhones and iPads to endlessly freeze, crash, and reboot.Since HomeKit device names are backed up to iCloud, signing in to the same iCloud account with a restored device would trigger the crash again.Apple’s security notification for the 15.2.1 update lists only one change, a fix for the HomeKit vulnerability.... Continue reading…

Photo by Win McNamee/Getty Images On Wednesday, a senior White House adviser said that a government-run website to order COVID-19 rapid tests “should be online by this weekend,” according to new reporting from PBS NewsHour. Tests should start arriving this month.The promise comes weeks after President Joe Biden announced that Americans would soon be able to order 500 million free COVID tests directly from the government. “We’ll have websites where you can get them delivered to your home,” Biden said in a speech on December 21st as the Omicron variant surged across the country. In prior remarks from White House press secretary Jen Psaki, the website would go live “as soon as these tests are available.”The website would go live “as soon as these tests are available”S... Continue reading…

Developer Zach Shakked — the creator of one of several controversial copycat versions of Josh Wardle’s popular free word-guessing game — has responded to Apple removing his app from the App Store after an internet backlash that followed his boasting about the money-making potential of his clone.“I realize I crossed a line. And I surely, surely will never do anything remotely close to this again. I fucked up,” tweeted Shakked. He goes on to explain that “Wordle” itself wasn’t trademarked and that Wardle’s game was similar to Lingo, an older TV game show with a similar word-guessing mechanic. Shakked also says that he planned to expand on Wordle with more functionality and change the overall design of the app to less resemble Wardle’s... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge The California Department of Motor Vehicles is “revisiting” its opinion to not regulate Tesla’s Full Self-Driving (FSD) beta software. The news comes after numerous safety advocates and regulators have expressed concern about the company’s willingness to allow its customers to test its Level 2 driving feature in public. (The news was first reported by the Los Angeles Times.)The state’s DMV oversees the largest autonomous vehicle testing program in the country, with over 60 companies permitted to operate test vehicles on public roads. Only a handful are approved to operate fully autonomous vehicles without safety drivers at the wheel, and even fewer have been approved to deploy vehicles for commercial purposes.Unlike other companies... Continue reading…

It has taken nearly 10 years, but Windows is finally getting a new modern volume indicator. Originally introduced in Windows 8 in 2012, the black bar that pops up when you adjust the system volume using a keyboard or other device is finally going away. Microsoft is replacing it with a volume indicator that matches the overall Windows 11 design.Indicators for volume, brightness, camera privacy, camera on / off, and airplane mode are all being updated soon with a more modern design. “These new flyouts will appear when you press the volume or brightness keys on your laptop and will honor light/dark mode to give you a more coherent Windows experience,” explains Microsoft’s Windows Insider chief Amanda Langowski. “Brightness and volume... Continue reading…

Magic Leap Augmented reality headset maker Magic Leap has announced early partners for its Magic Leap 2 headset — a signal that the once consumer-focused company is still moving ahead with its enterprise-focused business.In a press release today, Magic Leap named four healthcare partners that are getting access to the device: clinical data visualization company SentiAR, neurotechnology company SyncThink, diagnostics company Heru, and surgical software tool Brainlab. The Magic Leap 2 is slated for more general release in mid-2022. It’s a smaller, lighter follow-up to the Magic Leap headset that debuted in 2018; in an interview with Bloomberg, Magic Leap CEO Peggy Johnson said it would be “slightly” pricier than its predecessor, which starts at... Continue reading…

The seemingly indefatigable Nvidia Shield is getting another major Android update, with the new Shield Software Experience Upgrade 9.0 that adds Android 11 and a host of other upgrades.The new update is rolling out to all Shield set-top boxes, including the original model from 2015 — which originally ran Android 5.0 Lollipop when it first launched. The latest upgrade to Android 11 gives the popular set-top box the honor of being one of the most upgraded Android devices ever released. To put that in perspective, a comparable Android phone from 2015 would be the Galaxy S6, which never got past Android Nougat (Android 7.0). In addition to updating the OS to Android 11, the latest Shield software is also bringing some other... Continue reading…

ps4 playstation 4 stock While many of us fall somewhere between trying to find a new-generation gaming console like the Xbox Series X / S and PlayStation 5 or trying to find worthwhile gaming experiences once we have them, Sony tells Bloomberg it’s still manufacturing new PlayStation 4s. According to the report, an internal plan had projected an end to the production of the system in 2021, but the ongoing shortages will cause the company to build about a million PS4s in 2022, according to sources.If you really need one, Sony will still sell you a PS4 Slim for $300Sony confirmed that PS4 production is still ongoing, providing a quote to Bloomberg saying the system “is one of the best-selling consoles ever, and there is always crossover between generations.”... Continue reading…

The larger 12.9-inch iPad sports a Mini LED screen and more real estate for use with Apple’s Pencil. | Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge There is no better screen in the world of tablets (yet) than the Mini LED panel on the 12.9-inch iPad Pro of 2021. While Mini LED is not super common yet — though we did see more of it announced at CES 2022 — it’s appealing as it achieves deeper black levels, a high contrast ratio, and high brightness. It’s also more expensive than a traditional LCD panel, so any dollar saved can be a worthwhile one.If you want that Mini LED-equipped iPad Pro, we have a solid discount to share. Apple’s Wi-Fi-equipped base 128GB storage configuration is $100 off. This model usually runs for $1,099, but Amazon is selling it in the silver colorway for $999. The 2021 iPad Pro also packs Apple’s stellar M1 processor, ensuring its performance can not only... Continue reading…

Horizon Zero Kirby, better known by its official title, Kirby and the Forgotten Lands, launches on March 25th and has a new trailer showing off the game’s co-op features and all the cool powers you’ll be able to suck out of the local fauna.In Kirby and the Forgotten Lands, the eponymous Pepto-Bismol-colored creature travels to a mysterious land dotted with overgrown buildings and rusted-out cars to investigate the mass kidnappings of Waddle Dees. Kirby, eater of worlds, is joined on his journey by a cute blue sidekick called Elfilin, who will help him defeat the evil Beast Pack.The trailer showcases two new abilities Kirby can learn using his power of vore: Drill and Ranger. With Drill, Kirby can dive underground dodging attacks and... Continue reading…

Image: Netflix The House, one of Netflix’s first new releases of the year, is a straightforward concept. It’s a film split into three chapters, each helmed by a different director, all of which explore a different story related to the same sprawling home. What connects each short, aside from the physical house and stop-motion animation, is a creeping sense of dread. The House looks cute, with talking animals and dollhouse-like visuals, but in each story there’s something lurking just beneath the surface; something wrong, unsettling. It could be a recession or a scary creature — but when you put it together the result is an anthology with a trio of distinct, yet clearly connected stories.The first chapter, directed by Marc James Roels and Emma de... Continue reading…

Block Island, R.I: Deepwater Wind installing the first offshore wind farm at Block Island, Rhode Island, August 14, 2016. | Photo by Mark Harrington/Newsday RM via Getty Images On Wednesday, the Biden administration announced a slew of new moves to transition the US to renewable energy, with a focus on upgrading the power grid and using public lands and waters to harness solar, wind, and geothermal energy. It’s the administration’s latest effort to clean up the nation’s electricity grid, as Democrats struggle to make headway on key legislation needed to tackle the climate crisis.The Department of Energy is rolling out a “Building a Better Grid” initiative, which will put federal dollars to work after the recently passed bipartisan infrastructure law allocated $65 billion for grid improvements. Notably, there’s $2.5 billion earmarked for new and improved transmission lines that will be crucial for zipping... Continue reading…

Photo Illustration by Grayson Blackmon Buds, buds, buds, buds! Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge A new app hopes to be an independent platform for the wildly popular Buy Nothing groups Continue reading…

In February 2020, I found that that it was possible not only to mute conversations or other accounts on Twitter, but (courtesy of a tweet by @nonprofWHIT ) that you could also mute a specific word. And you could do it straight from a tweet.Now, Twitter has announced it is expanding this feature so that when you mute a word or phrase, it will not appear in your Explore tab or Event-based notifications.Here’s how you go about it.Mute words or phrases on an iPhoneIf you’re using the Twitter app on an iPhone, it’s a quick and easy process:

Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge Just over 13 months ago, the Trump-era Federal Trade Commission sought to break up Facebook. The lawsuit was a long time in coming — it sought to unwind acquisitions that were made in 2012 (Instagram) and 2014 (WhatsApp) — and, in its initial form, was laughed out of court. The FTC had not plausibly demonstrated that Facebook had a monopoly, Judge James E. Boasberg ruled at the time, and thus could not proceed.Still, Boasberg offered the FTC a second chance: re-file the case with more evidence to support its central claim, and perhaps it could go to trial. In the intervening months, President Trump had been dislodged from office, and antitrust crusader Lina Khan took the reins at the FTC. To no one’s surprise, she took Boasberg up on... Continue reading…

Working from home is normal now. For some of us, it has become a permanent change.Thankfully, in these days of videoconferencing, texting, and file-sharing, it has been possible for many of us to move to home desks and offices and thrive that way. It helps that remote working was already a part of many people’s lives before COVID-19 appeared. But that doesn’t mean it’s been easy. It’s been an adjustment for many of us here at The Verge, too.Now we’re taking the tech expertise of our staff, and the experience of our writers and editors, to put together our best tips and advice on working from home. For example, we give advice on looking for the best monitor, choosing a business-level file-sharing service, and buying a printer. (Yes,... Continue reading…

Illustration by Samar Haddad / The Verge The need for a home / office printer has increased as more of us are working or schooling from home. You could be a parent who needs to print out workbooks for your child. Or you may find that it’s easier to make notes on a business report using a pen or pencil rather than a keyboard. Or you’ve suddenly discovered that a government office is demanding that you snail mail a form to them. Or you’re tired of trekking to your local office supply store for printing out occasional forms.Whatever the reason, if you find yourself in need of a printer, it’s not difficult to find one. Printers have not changed a lot over the past few years; they’ve just become more efficient and less expensive. You will still be choosing between laser and inkjet... Continue reading…

A great choice for the space constrained Continue reading…

Nuro, the autonomous delivery company, announced its third-generation autonomous vehicle with a host of new improvements, including a bizarre-looking external airbag for pedestrians.The company, which has a fleet of driverless delivery pods scurrying through the Southwest, says its new vehicle will have twice the cargo space as the second-generation R2 robot. It will also include modular inserts and new temperature-controlled compartments to keep food warm or cold, depending on the need.twice the cargo spaceNuro, which is valued at $8.6 billion, was founded in 2016 by Dave Ferguson and Jiajun Zhu, two veterans of the Google self-driving car project that would go on to become Waymo. It is one of the few companies to be operating... Continue reading…

Illustration by Samar Haddad / The Verge This pandemic has more people working from home than ever before, but it’s not all lollipops and daffodils. While there may have been some early excitement about not commuting or being breathed on by Chet the Xerox Tech, an actual home office can be downright depressing and / or uncomfortable. I should know.As someone who has freelanced for the great majority of the last decade, I’ve worked from home nearly that whole time — even when home was a camper van for more than five of those years. Yes, that was a tight space for a home office, but those constraints led me to refine my WFH game to keep my body healthy and my mind at least partially sane. Here are some of the tips (and items) that made the biggest difference for me.Desk setupI... Continue reading…

You can buy the cloth once again. | Image: Apple Apple’s $19 polishing cloth is back in stock at the company’s online store, as spotted by 9to5Mac. The very expensive piece of cloth was first introduced following Apple’s October event, but it was quickly backordered — according to MacRumors, it was “impossible” to get one before the holidays — so if you’ve been waiting to get one, now’s your chance.“Made with soft, nonabrasive material, the Polishing Cloth cleans any Apple display, including nano-texture glass, safely and effectively,” reads Apple’s description of the cloth on its product page. Sounds perfect if you need to clean a Pro Display XDR with the nano-texture glass screen. That already costs $5,999 — the nano-texture glass is a $1,000 upgrade from the standard model — and if... Continue reading…

Photo by PATRICK T. FALLON/AFP via Getty Images At a press conference on Monday, the Biden administration announced a policy that will require insurance companies to reimburse up to eight over-the-counter at-home COVID-19 tests for their customers beginning January 15th, as first reported by the Associated Press. The administration said in a Twitter thread that the “update” is a part of a larger plan to “increase access to COVID-19 testing.”Under the new policy, insured Americans will either have to purchase the test kits under their insurance or submit receipts to their insurance for reimbursement. A family of four under the same plan would be eligible to be reimbursed for up to eight COVID tests each, totaling 32 tests per month. The plan will also require consumers wanting... Continue reading…

Photo by Chris Welch / The Verge Beats’ best earbuds yet, the Beats Fit Pro, were only available in the United States immediately upon their release a few months ago. Apple then launched the earbuds in China, but now they’re set to become much more widely available on January 28th. That’s when the Beats Fit Pro will launch across Canada, Europe, and Japan.According to a tweet from the Apple-owned brand, preorders for the “worldwide” release will begin on January 24th before the buds hit shelves on the 28th. The Beats Fit Pro include flexible wingtips that help them (comfortably) stay anchored in your ears without coming loose — even during exercise.According to Engadget, in Europe the Beats Fit Pro will be priced at £200 / €230; in Canada they’ll cost $250 CAD; and... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge A ransomware attack last week has left an Albuquerque area jail without access to its camera feeds and rendered automatic door mechanisms unusable. Inmates have been confined to their cells as a result, while technicians struggled to bring systems back online.As first reported by the Albuquerque Journal, visitor access to the Metropolitan Detention Center was completely suspended as the jail was put into lockdown. All internet services at the jail were also knocked offline, leaving staff unable to look up inmate records.All county internet services at the jail were also knocked offline, leaving staff unable to look up inmate recordsBased on the lack of camera coverage, all inmates within the facility were placed on lockdown from the... Continue reading…

The NLRB said Amazon broke labor laws in the original election. | Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge The second union election at an Amazon warehouse in Bessemer, Alabama will begin on February 4th, according to a notice posted Tuesday by the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), which you can read below. The election is a redo of the one that was carried out in 2021, the results of which were declared invalid by the regulatory agency after reports that Amazon had broken labor laws during the union drive.The election will be carried out almost a year after workers originally voted on whether to unionize Amazon’s BHM1 facility. The union lost that election nearly two-to-one but disputed the results, taking issue with a mailbox that employees feared Amazon had access to. The mailbox was installed by the USPS, at Amazon’s request, and at... Continue reading…

Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge Turo, the peer-to-peer car-sharing service, has filed for its initial public offering, the latest transportation-related startup to sell its shares on a public stock exchange. The company proposes to sell $100 million of stock, but that figure could change as Turo gets closer to its public debut.Founded in 2010, the San Francisco-based company allows people to rent out their personal cars to other customers, much like Airbnb does for homes. In its S-1 filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission, Turo claims it has 85,000 active hosts (meaning vehicle owners), 161,000 active vehicles, and 1.3 million active guests over the period of 12 months ending September 30th, 2021.opting for an old-fashioned IPO rather than a SPACUnlike... Continue reading…