The Verge

Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge Rumors for Apple’s upcoming 2022 iPhone refresh are continuing to roll, with Twitter leaker DylanDKT claiming that the iPhone 14 Pro lineup will feature a pill-shaped hole-punch design for its front-facing camera, with the bulk of Apple’s Face ID hardware being placed under the display (instead of an eyesore of a notch).The report corroborates earlier rumors from well-regarded Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo from late last year, which also claimed that the 2022 iPhone 14 Pro and 14 Pro Max would be shifting over to a hole-punch cutout for the camera.

Photo by Annette Riedl/picture alliance via Getty Images Getting a COVID-19 vaccine is associated with only a small change to the menstrual cycle, according to a new study using data from the birth control app Natural Cycles. The study follows widespread reports of heavier and longer periods from people who had recently been vaccinated after the start of the COVID-19 vaccination campaign in the United States.“This is reassuring for health and reproductive health,” says Alison Edelman, a study author and professor in the department of obstetrics and gynecology at Oregon Health and Science University. “It’s also validating in regard to patients reporting that they’d experienced something.”Longer, heavier periods were always a plausible side effect of COVID-19 vaccination. Any stress on the... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Mozilla, the nonprofit organization that makes the Firefox web browser, announced Thursday that it would be pausing the ability to accept cryptocurrency donations following significant backlash spurred in part by a Mozilla founder, Jamie Zawinski (via Business Insider).Zawinski, who stopped working for mozilla.org in 1999, tweeted scathing criticism to a December 31st Mozilla tweet promoting that it accepted cryptocurrency donations. Mozilla began accepting bitcoin for donations in 2014.“Everyone involved in the project should be witheringly ashamed of this decision to partner with planet-incinerating Ponzi grifters,” Zawinski said on January 3rd. (Cryptocurrencies have come under significant scrutiny for their impact on the... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge E3 — one of the largest video game trade shows of the year — will once again be an online-only event this summer, the ESA has announced, citing ongoing concerns around the COVID-19 pandemic. The news, first reported by VentureBeat, marks the third year in a row that E3 will have skipped its in-person event due to the pandemic.“Due to the ongoing health risks surrounding COVID-19 and its potential impact on the safety of exhibitors and attendees, E3 will not be held in person in 2022,” the ESA commented in a statement to VentureBeat. “We are nonetheless excited about the future of E3 and look forward to announcing more details soon.”E3 will miss a third straight year in personThe ESA had originally planned to bring back E3 as an... Continue reading…

James Davison, driver of the #15 Chevrolet races during the eNASCAR iRacing Pro Invitational Series race at virtual Chicago Street Course on June 02, 2021 in Chicago, Illinois. | Photo by Chris Graythen/Getty Images One of the paid subscription services that experienced sudden growth during the pandemic has been iRacing. While real-life racing leagues were on hiatus, they used the detailed and realistic sim racing service as an esports broadcasting platform, and enough new people started playing to grow its base of racers on PC from 110,000 at the beginning of 2020 to over 200,000 today.Now iRacing.com Motorsport Simulations says it has acquired Monster Games, Inc. (MGI). That Minnesota-based studio developed the first four games under the NASCAR Heat brand and its most recent title, SRX: The Game, for play on PC and the PlayStation and Xbox consoles.A press release announcing the purchase is careful to note, “The iRacing development team will... Continue reading…

The Eargo 6 automatically adjust to a user’s environment. | Image: Eargo While a lot of health tech shown at CES is doomed to become vaporware, there’s reason to believe that 2022 is going to be a big year for hearables. Case in point: Eargo, a CES regular since 2015, is announcing the Eargo 6. The buds are the sixth iteration of the company’s smart hearing aids and feature nifty new tech that automatically adjusts sound levels on the go.Hearing aids work by converting sound picked up by a microphone into a digital signal that’s then amplified. They can also amplify certain sounds, like your voice, while also dampening background noise. Eargo’s are registered as an FDA Class II exempt device, meaning they are a medium-risk device with specialized controls.Given that this is Eargo’s sixth version of its... Continue reading…

Photo by Sean O’Kane / The Verge General Motors completely redesigned the compute architecture that powers its next-generation “hands-free” driving system thanks to US semiconductor company Qualcomm.The automaker’s Ultra Cruise system, which will make its debut in the 2024 Cadillac Celestiq electric sedan, will be the first advanced driver assist system (ADAS) to use Qualcomm’s new Snapdragon Ride Platform. The size of “two laptops stacked together,” GM claims the new architecture will have the processing power equivalent to “several hundred” personal computers.“two laptops stacked together”GM first announced Ultra Cruise during an investor event last year, describing it as a massive leap over the company’s Super Cruise system, which allows for hands-free driving... Continue reading…

Photo by Brad Barket/Getty Images for Vulture Festival This story originally appeared in Hot Pod Insider, The Verge’s subscription audio industry newsletter. For more stories like this, you can subscribe here.Something’s happening at NPR, and everyone has a theory as to what. But first, the impetus. On Tuesday, All Things Considered host Audie Cornish announced she’s leaving the program after nearly a decade as its host. Her departure, which she says on Twitter is her joining many others in the “great resignation,” marks three hosts of color to leave the network in recent months. (Noel King of Morning Edition left in November for Vox Media — disclosure that Vox also owns Hot Pod — and Lulu Garcia-Navarro of Weekend Edition joined The New York Times in late September.) This also follows a... Continue reading…

Six days into 2022 and we’ve already had one of the weirdest collisions of gaming culture and the wider world. Yesterday, during Pope Francis’ weekly general audience in which he said a few prayers, made a few addresses, and casually shamed voluntarily childfree people for preferring the company of their pets to tiny, screaming humans most of us cannot possibly afford, a troupe of jugglers / acrobats / general circus folk performed to a jazzy ska-esque rendition of “Megalovania” from Toby Fox’s Undertale.

Roborock’s latest robot vacuum is getting closer to the Rosie the Robot of our dreams. | Image: Roborock The devices that will be vying for a spot in your home this year Continue reading…

In this photo illustration a Google Ads logo of an online advertising platform developed by Google is seen on a smartphone and a pc screen. | Photo Illustration by Pavlo Gonchar/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images Fossil fuel companies and their close allies are some of the top spenders on Google ads that look similar to search results, according to a new analysis by The Guardian and climate think tank InfluenceMap.The two groups searched for 78 terms related to climate change on Google and then looked at the ads that popped up on the platform. Of more than 1,600 ads, over one in five were from companies “with significant interests in fossil fuels.” The top twenty advertisers included fossil fuel giants ExxonMobil, Shell, and Aramco. Consulting firm McKinsey and investment firm Goldman Sachs, which have been criticized for working with fossil fuel companies, were also big spenders.“Google is letting groups with a vested interest in the continued... Continue reading…

Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge We are officially in 2022. Know what that means? That’s right: It means Microsoft has failed at its stated goal of bringing Android 11 to the Surface Duo by the end of 2021.Attentive readers may recall that Microsoft said the following this past September: “We remain committed to providing updates to Surface Duo, and we’re working to bring Android 11 to existing customers before the end of this year.” Okay, so the company wasn’t exactly promising Android 11 by the end of 2021 — but that was the heavily implied intention, and it likely gave some Surface Duo users a lot of hope.“We’re working to bring Android 11 to existing customers before the end of this year.”As Windows Central first reported, Duo devices still haven’t received... Continue reading…

Snap wants to trademark the word Spectacles for its smart glasses | Photo by Amanda Lopez for The Verge Snap is suing the US Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) for rejecting its application to trademark the word “spectacles” for its digital eyewear camera device. But the USPTO has maintained that “spectacles” is a generic term for smart glasses and that Snap’s version “has not acquired distinctiveness,” as required for a trademark.In its complaint filed Wednesday in US District Court in California, Snap claims that the Spectacles name “evokes an incongruity between an 18th century term for corrective eyewear and Snap’s high-tech 21st century smart glasses. SPECTACLES also is suggestive of the camera’s purpose, to capture and share unusual, notable, or entertaining scenes (i.e., “spectacles”) and while also encouraging users to make... Continue reading…

A pretty fly. | Image: HP HP will release business laptops of all shapes and sizes this year, but the ones the C-suite will likely have their eyes on are members of the Elite Dragonfly line. If its predecessors are anything to go by, the Elite Dragonfly G3 will be a light, powerful, beautiful, and undoubtedly expensive Windows PC. The HP Elite Dragonfly Chromebook, more intriguingly, will bring a Chrome OS platform to the line for the first time. That could be the premium, well-built device for which Chrome OS fans in the business sphere have been waiting.The HP Elite Dragonfly Chromebook features a haptic trackpad (the first one we’ve seen on a Chromebook to date), a fingerprint sensor, and a Sure View Reflect privacy screen. For a better conference call... Continue reading…

Volkswagen Nearly five years after it first revealed its ID Buzz concept at the Detroit auto show, Volkswagen is finally ready to show off a production-ready version of the beloved vehicle. VW CEO Herbert Diess tweeted that the “legend returns” on March 9th, along with a gif of the automaker’s iconic Microbus.A staple of coastal California’s towns, the VW Microbus’ reincarnated as an electric vehicle was never a foregone conclusion. It wasn’t until an outpouring of positive feedback that VW decided to greenlight the concept for production. And even then, it won’t be road-ready until 2023.

Photo illustration by Mairo Cinquetti/NurPhoto via Getty Images A chatbot may help reduce the likelihood a person develops an eating disorder, according to a new study. For women at a high risk for an eating disorder, going through a dialogue with a bot developed by researchers reduced concern over body weight and shape — a factor that contributes to their risk.Previous research showed that digital prevention programs are more effective when they’re guided by a human moderator, says study author Ellen Fitzsimmons-Craft, an assistant professor of psychiatry at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis. But it’s hard to get funding in the United States for programs that prevent mental health conditions. The team thought a chatbot could be a cheaper, more scaleable version of such a... Continue reading…

Photo by James Bareham / The Verge If you own Apple’s ninth Gen iPad, or the previous-gen iPad Air (pre-USB-C days), this Smart Keyboard is compatible — and selling for just about its lowest price yet at Woot. Normally $150 or so at most other retailers, you can snag this snap-on keyboard that covers your iPad’s screen when it’s not in use for just $104.99. This accessory also works with the seventh- and eighth-gen iPads, as well as the 10.5-inch iPad Pro from 2017.This is a good price, and it comes with a one-year warranty through Apple. Though, it’s possible that you might want a keyboard for your iPad that offers a trackpad, too. Don’t worry, those exist, and buying one won’t cost you much more than this Smart Keyboard. Brydge’s $129.99 10.2 Max Plus keyboard case... Continue reading…

Image: BMW BMW has revealed a new in-car technology it’s calling Theatre Screen at this year’s CES. It’s not clear when or if this massive 31-inch, 32:9 display will be made available to consumers, but BMW suggests it can be fitted somehow into the ceiling of luxury cars, descending to transform the back seats into a “private cinema lounge.”The screen itself has an 8K resolution of roughly 8000 x 2000 and can play content with a 16:9, 21:9, or 32:9 aspect ratio. It’s running Amazon’s Fire OS operating system, which means it should have access to most modern video streaming services and other Fire TV apps that can stream over the car’s own 5G connection. It’s a touchscreen display, and there are also small touchpad controls built into the rear... Continue reading…

Photo Illustration by Grayson Blackmon / The Verge The US secretary of transportation wants to talk about innovation, infrastructure, and electric vehicles — and a little about Tesla Continue reading…

Ten bucks could get you 30 tacos. | Image: Taco Bell Taco Bell has announced a subscription that lets you redeem one taco per day for 30 days, and it’s called the Taco Lover’s Pass. The way it works is simple: you pay $10 for the pass in Taco Bell’s app and get access to a secret menu that lets you pick which taco you’ll like to redeem at a participating location. You’ll be able to get a single taco per day and can choose from the:

Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge Update 8:46AM ET, January 6th: Target has sold out of consoles for now. We hope you had some luck on your side today.For those who have yet to nab a PlayStation 5 or Xbox Series X, today Target is giving you another shot. The retailer listings are live for the $499.99 PS5 with a disc drive, the $399.99 PS5 Digital Edition, and the $499.99 Xbox Series X. Target does their restocks early in the morning, where listings come online and read as “Sold out” before they go live and the Add to Cart button appears — which is any moment now.To make sure you have the best chance at landing the console, make sure you’re signed into your Target account, with preloaded payment information, and double-check that your billing and shipping address is... Continue reading…

The Eufy Security Video Doorbell Dual uses two cameras to keep an eye on your front door. | Image: Eufy Eufy, Anker’s smart home brand, is trying to solve the video doorbell’s biggest blindspot with a new dual-camera option. The Eufy Security Video Doorbell Dual has two cameras: a 2K camera up top to capture the face and body of a visitor and a 1080p camera down below to monitor packages left on the doorstep. At CES 2022 this week, the company also announced a new Garage Cam, which is a garage door controller and camera in one.The concept of two cameras in a video doorbell is an interesting one, helping solve the problem most camera doorbells have where they either show you a tall, skinny video so you can see packages as well as people, but not much context outside that. Or, you get a wide view that gives more context but misses out on... Continue reading…

Screenshot: Intel After teasing the news earlier this week, Intel has officially announced a new 12th-gen desktop CPU that’s capable of boosting to 5.5GHz on a single core out of the box. The news came during Intel’s CES 2022 presentation, when it said the KS-series desktop processor would be shipping later this quarter, but there was no mention of pricing.The full name of the chip is the Core i9-12900KS, and Tom’s Hardware notes the “S’’ suffix suggests it’ll be a limited edition. As well as hitting a maximum of 5.5GHz on a single core (a 300MHz improvement over what we saw with the i9-12900K), an onstage demonstration of the new CPU powering Hitman 3 showed the processor running at a sustained 5.2GHz across all its performance cores. No details were... Continue reading…

From left to right, the Galaxy S22 Ultra, S22 Plus, and S22. | Screenshot: Unbox Therapy A video from Unbox Therapy has shown off what appears to be three dummy units of Samsung’s upcoming Galaxy S22 series of phones, giving an early look at the design of the handsets. Although the video has now been delisted, it’s been reuploaded on other channels, and a screenshot was taken by 9to5Google. The video emerged alongside other details of the upcoming phones, including camera specs, and images of a new fast charger.This isn’t the first time footage of Galaxy S22 dummy units has leaked online. Twitter leaker OnLeaks posted similar footage in the middle of last month. Unbox Therapy’s video appears to corroborate these previous designs, and also shows the handsets more clearly.

What if instead of coffee, your Keurig dispensed alcoholic drinks? Well, Keurig actually made a gadget like that — a $300 cocktail-making pod machine called the Drinkworks Home Bar that turned disposable pods into cold beverages. Only Keurig and Anheuser-Busch mysteriously shut down that venture just three weeks ago, going so far as to appoint a settlement administrator to offer refunds. Which leaves a perfect space in the market for a competitor to step in: Black & Decker of dustbuster, power tool and small kitchen appliance fame.The $300 Black + Decker Bev is coming this spring with what might be the most practical (and least stylish) take on the robot bartender yet. Unlike every competitor I could find on the web, it literally looks... Continue reading…

As part of the deal, AMC Networks will own the anime streaming service Hidive, which has Lupin the 3rd. | Image: Sentai AMC Networks (not the movie theater chain) has acquired the anime distributor Sentai from the Cool Japan Fund investment fund, the company announced Wednesday. As a result of the deal, AMC Networks will now own the anime-focused streaming service Hidive, which will join the company’s roster of targeted streaming services that already includes AMC Plus, Acorn TV, Shudder, Sundance Now, and ALLBLK. Terms of the deal weren’t disclosed.The acquisition is the latest signal of the growing importance of anime content to entertainment companies. Perhaps the most notable anime push was Sony’s $1.175 billion purchase of anime streaming service Crunchyroll from AT&T, which brought Crunchyroll and another anime streaming giant, Funimation, under... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge AT&T’s latest subscriber figures make it seem like HBO and its sister service HBO Max are doing pretty well — great, even! In a regulatory filing this week, AT&T revealed that it beat its projected year-end goal with 73.8 million total subscribers between HBO and HBO Max (even after its breakup with Amazon). Not too bad, right?But that win comes after a year of highly anticipated movie debuts meant to balloon subscriber numbers, and it’s still tens of millions of subscribers behind rivals like Disney Plus and Netflix. The numbers also come with some pretty big caveats. In other words, hold the applause.For one, AT&T’s figures (earlier reported by Variety) conflate two separate services — HBO, its cable business, and HBO Max, its... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge TikTok has already conquered our phones and TVs at home, but its next target will ensure you really can’t escape from cute pet videos, impressive feats, and oddly satisfying clips. According to a report from TechCrunch, the popular short-form video platform has partnered with Atmosphere, a startup that drums up the content to ambiently play in the background when you’re eating at a restaurant, lounging in a hotel, or sitting in a waiting room.Atmosphere already delivers content to places like Taco Bell, Texas Roadhouse, Burger King, and even Meineke, letting clients choose from a number of “channels” that suit different environments. And now, TikTok will get a channel dedicated to curated videos from the platform.Atmosphere essentially... Continue reading…

Image: Apple Apple released a new trailer for its upcoming Fraggle Rock Apple TV Plus reboot on Wednesday (officially titled Fraggle Rock: Back to the Rock), and it seems like the new series will be bringing back all of the hallmarks of the original show. The new trailer features charming puppets, a catchy song, and a dumb joke to kick things off that I actually found kind of funny, and you can watch it all here. The 13-episode series debuts on January 21st.Apple TV Plus has become something of a destination for Fraggle Rock. In April 2020, the company debuted the first in a series of shorts called Fraggle Rock: Rock On!, and in May 2020, it acquired past seasons of the original show. (Seems like someone over at Apple is a Fraggle Rock fan. Maybe... Continue reading…

The Samsung Home Hub is a one stop shop for your SmartThings home. | Image: Samsung Samsung introduced its first standalone SmartThings smart home controller at its CES 2022 keynote this week. The Samsung Home Hub is designed to be a central place for a household to control and monitor their smart home without having to buy a $4,000 smart fridge.The portable, 8.4-inch touchscreen tablet has Samsung’s Bixby voice assistant built-in and will use AI to anticipate what you might need (we’ll see how that pans out). The Home Hub sits vertically in a charging dock and has two microphones and two speakers for hearing notifications and giving voice commands. Based on the images the company has shared so far, it appears to run Android.Samsung says at launch, the Home Hub will “be able to connect to every product within the... Continue reading…

Photo by Jeff Schear/Getty Images for The Recording Academy Both the Grammy Awards and the Sundance Film Festival have changed their 2022 plans due to a rise in COVID-19 cases across the country (via CNBC and Indiewire). The Grammy Awards show has been postponed until further notice, and the Sundance Film Festival will go virtual, rather than risk an in-person event.The Grammy Awards was postponed last year because of the pandemicThe 64th Grammy Awards ceremony was scheduled for January 31st, but as noted in a post on the Grammy Awards website, CBS and the Recording Academy have decided to push it back “after careful consideration and analysis with city and state officials, health and safety experts.” There isn’t mention of a rescheduled date, but CBS and the Recording Academy say that “will be... Continue reading…

Behaviour Interactive, developer of co-op survival horror game Dead By Daylight, has decided to remove certain cosmetics from the game after years of complaints that they were being used in racist harassment against Black players. Announced as part of a developer update, the cosmetics will be removed in a forthcoming patch, and players who have unlocked the cosmetics will be compensated with in-game currency. In its update, Behaviour Interactive wrote:“Members of the community have shared their experiences with people targeting and harassing them while using some of these masks. These reports were disheartening to hear, and we absolutely condemn this behaviour. We are not comfortable having these masks in the game when they are used as... Continue reading…

Amazon Alexa is “coming soon” to Fossil Gen 6 watches | Photo by Victoria Song/The Verge Although Fossil launched two new smartwatches at CES today, there’s one big elephant in the room: the upgrade to Wear OS 3 won’t arrive for several months. To take the sting out of the wait, Fossil snuck in another new feature for its Gen 6 smartwatches: Amazon Alexa. As for when Alexa will arrive, you’ll have to settle for “coming soon.” Hopefully before Wear OS 3.In a statement to 9to5Google, Fossil says the update will come in the first half of 2022. This tracks with what Fossil told The Verge in a CES briefing, in which spokesperson Robyn Sills said Alexa would come to the Gen 6 devices “early this year.” Fossil sent me both the Skagen Falster 6 and the Razer x Fossil Gen 6 smartwatch, and yup, there’s a widget just for Alexa. If... Continue reading…

This new Tablo box is built to grab TV from the air and record it. | Image: Tablo The new Tablo ATSC 3.0 Quad HDMI is a DVR meant for the next generation of broadcast TV — which, if all goes according to plan, will involve 4K HDR content being sent out over the airwaves for free. It can record up to four channels at once onto an external hard drive, letting you watch programs back on your schedule, not broadcasters’.In the age of internet streaming, cable, and satellite, it can be hard to remember that there are still local TV stations broadcasting their programs over the airwaves, which anyone can watch for free if they have an antenna and receiver. But for some enthusiasts, viewing broadcast television is the new cord-cutting — and it’s those signals Tablos are made to record and playback.ATSC 3.0 supports 4K HDR... Continue reading…

Image: Everdrone AB A man in Sweden is alive today thanks to — in part — a drone. The 71-year-old had a heart attack while shoveling snow in December and was resuscitated by a nearby doctor after a drone flew in a defibrillator, Everdrone reported Tuesday.Someone having a heart attack needs help within 10 minutes in order to survive. Everdrone’s Emergency Medical Aerial Delivery (EMADE) service is designed to deliver help as quickly as possible — it allows emergency dispatchers to send a drone carrying the device to a caller’s home, kickstarting the lifesaving process before the ambulance arrives at their home. In this particular patient’s case, it took three minutes for the services to deliver the defibrillator to his home. A bystander, who happened to... Continue reading…

If you’ve ever felt indecisive about what color vehicle to buy, BMW may have the car for you. The German automaker showed off its new color-changing paint technology at the 2022 Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas that shares more in common with a Kindle than you’d think at first glance.Relying on E Ink, the electronic paper technology used in e-readers, and the old Pebble watch, the color-changing paint technology is making its debut on a concept version of the BMW iX that is being presented at CES.

Image: Instagram Instagram head Adam Mosseri says the company has started testing two new feed settings, including the much-requested chronological option.In a video shared today, Mosseri demonstrated a new menu with three options for how Instagram’s feed will display posts. The “Home” setting is what users are familiar with — a feed Instagram creates based on what it thinks will interest each user, ranked using an algorithm. A new “Favorites” feed will be populated with content from a subset of accounts a user chooses (Mosseri says he uses it for siblings, certain creators, and friends). And finally, a “Following” feed will return what many users have been asking for: a chronological stream of posts from accounts you follow.Mosseri promised the... Continue reading…

Photo by Andrew Hawkins / The Verge Volvo announced a new advanced driver assist system called Ride Pilot system, in which its vehicles drive themselves on certain highways without any human supervision. Ride Pilot will be available as a subscription service to customers in California, the company announced at the 2022 Consumer Electronics Show.It’s an ambitious plan that carries its own risks and sets Volvo apart from its competitors, many of which are planning to launch self-driving technology as part of a robotaxi service rather than production cars for personal ownership. But Volvo believes that by limiting the operational domain — or conditions under which the car can drive autonomously — to just highways, it is creating vehicle technology that is not only safer but... Continue reading…

Not that a vertical screen is the best for YouTube. | Image: Google Google has announced that cars with its services built-in will be getting the ability to play YouTube videos while parked later this year, starting with Volvo. For those with a V90, XC40 Recharge, or other supported cars, this should make waiting in a parking lot more bearable since you’ll be able to see videos on your car’s built-in screen, which is probably going to be slightly larger and more ergonomic than a phone.Google also seems to leave the door open for other video apps as well, so it’s possible other developers could let you access their content from your car’s infotainment system.“Hey Google, warm up my car.”You’ll also be able to control some Volvo cars using Google Assistant from outside the car — in a video embedded in... Continue reading…

Image: SGW Global If you’re a fan of Android Auto but hate having to plug in your phone, the Motorola MA1 could be worth a look — it’s a USB dongle that turns your wired Android Auto-equipped car into one that can connect to your phone wirelessly. The MA1, which is available for $90 starting today, pairs with your phone using Bluetooth and then transmits data over 5Ghz Wi-Fi. Given that only a few cars support wireless Android Auto from the factory (especially compared to the ones that support the wired version), this gadget could make for a relatively easy and inexpensive upgrade.Of course, wireless Android Auto does have its drawbacks — since it’s not plugged in, your phone won’t be charging as you navigate with maps or listen to music using your car’s... Continue reading…

Razer is no stranger to wild CES prototypes, and CES 2022 is no exception: the company revealed its new Project Sophia concept, which aims to build an entire modular desktop computer into a desk that looks like a Star Trek LCARS console come to life.Razer has had modular computer aspirations before. There was 2014’s Project Christine, a precursor to Project Sophia that imagined a desktop tower that was built out of easily swappable Jenga-like bricks. 2020’s Tomahawk took a more practical approach to that concept, based on Intel’s Element NUC designs. But Project Sophia feels like Razer’s conceptual tendencies turned to 11. The desk is designed to feature 13 different swappable module slots, where users can add in a wide... Continue reading…

EMB 1/5 1pm et | Razer Razer’s lineup of gaming chairs is expanding into new territory with the Enki Pro HyperSense, a chair that can vibrate and wobble to the action happening in your games and movies. This model houses a haptic engine near the wheels that should deliver jolts of haptic feedback through the chair. Additionally, the Enki Pro HyperSense should tilt backward or lift you vertically by 1.5 inches with around 1G of force. It’s all done with up to a 5ms response time.If this sounds familiar, what Razer’s going for is similar to D-Box’s movie theater seats that can rumble and move. In fact, Razer collaborated with D-Box to incorporate the haptics and movements into the Enki Pro HyperSense. Razer’s seems to differ in one key way: it’s on wheels. The... Continue reading…

Google is announcing no fewer than 13 different new software features at CES 2022, ranging from AirPods-like fast switching to promised software that will mirror your Android text apps on a Chromebook. It’s part of an initiative that Google calls “Better Together” but that the rest of the industry is more likely to refer to as “catching up to Apple’s ecosystem.”The biggest updates come to Google’s “Fast Pair” framework, an Android UI designed to make pairing Bluetooth headphones easier. This year, Google will extend it to support auto-switching between devices, faster pairing to Android TV and Google TV, and more. It will also adopt the Fast Pair framework for installing new smart home devices using the upcoming Matter standard, which... Continue reading…

This 2018 image for Philips Hue coming to Razer Synapse is so much better than the assets Razer provided for this story. | Image: Philips Most of Razer’s products live in the entertainment center, or near the PC, but it wants to expand its reach to every corner of your home — or at least, everywhere you use smart lights. At CES 2022, the company announced that it intends to launch a Razer Smart Home app for mobile, which it says is a “simple, yet powerful tool that puts complete, unified control into the user’s hands.” With it, Razer plans to make it easier to set up, customize, and sync all of your lights, regardless of the manufacturer. It plans to share more details at this link.Razer has been toying with this idea of tapping into other smart lights before. Currently, gamers who have Razer’s Synapse PC software can sync a Philips Hue Bridge (and the lights connected to... Continue reading…

Fast Pairing Bluetooth headphones on Google TV | Google Google plans to spend the next few months beefing up the Bluetooth headphone capabilities on Android phones. It plans to update its Fast Pair technology to include features that iPhone and AirPod users have long enjoyed. With supported headphones (which presumably are forthcoming in 2022 but have not yet been announced), audio sources including Android phones, Chromebooks, Android TV, and select Windows PCs will be auto-switching.Google will also begin supporting full head tracking for spatial audio on Android, adapting sound based on your head movements. It already supports basic spatial audio for a few music services right now. Unfortunately, that’s all the detail the company is providing on spatial audio right now — which means... Continue reading…

HTC HTC is announcing a new wrist-based controller for its Vive Focus 3 virtual reality headset. The wireless Vive Wrist Tracker fits like a watch around a user’s arm, tracking the orientation and position from hand to elbow. It’s designed to complement the business-focused headset’s existing controllers, particularly for simulation and training experiences where body position is important. It’s also part of a larger suite of new features HTC revealed at CES, including a 5G-powered VR experience.The Wrist Tracker looks a lot like a small, light, and specialized version of the Vive Tracker device HTC debuted in 2017. It includes a strap and a toggle indicating whether the tracker should be on a left or right arm, but unlike the... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Update January 5th, 11:45AM ET: Both versions of Sony’s console are on sale at Best Buy, although availability will vary by location.Update January 5th, 12:15PM ET: Best Buy has sold out of PlayStation 5 consoles for now. We are continuing to monitor further console restocks from Best Buy and other retailers.If you’re currently shopping for a PlayStation 5 console, you have another chance right now at Best Buy. The electronics retailer just opened up a fresh batch of PlayStation 5 consoles for $499.99, and as of 11:40AM ET, also started selling the even-harder-to-get $399.99 PS5 Digital Edition.Be sure to log in and queue up on Best Buy’s site, with your billing and shipping info saved. Click the “Add to Cart” button on the right to... Continue reading…

Up to 400 miles of range and a price that starts at $39,900 for some buyers Continue reading…

Cadillac announced a pair of autonomous vehicle concepts that are a definite improvement over last year’s toaster-shaped thingamajig, but also seem designed to appeal to the 1 percent of the 1 percent of the 1 percent. (Not that there’s anything wrong with that. Rich people like cars and robots.)The Cadillac InnerSpace (shout out, Dennis Quaid) is a fully autonomous luxury coupe with an electric drivetrain and vibes to spare. The concept will join others in the automaker’s Halo Concept Portfolio, which includes the aforementioned toaster-shaped vehicle and a single-seater electric vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL) aircraft.shout out Dennis QuaidHere are some more pictures of this slice of deadliness. Also, the roof opens up? I... Continue reading…