The Verge

Photo by SERGEI SUPINSKY/AFP via Getty Images Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has dominated headlines for the last month, with updates being prioritized across newspapers, TV outlets, and social media. But coverage has also popped up in a space that’s less known for handling breaking news: podcasts. Ukraine-focused podcasts or seasons have launched from places like NPR, the BBC, and CNN, with at least 11 designated series popping up in total. Most incorporate firsthand reporting, many publish daily, and some even update multiple times per day.A podcast isn’t usually the preferred format for such a quickly moving story since audio shows can be difficult to turn around — or build an audience for — on short notice. But the creators of these series tell The Verge that the process is worth... Continue reading…

Dials and buttons, oh my! Continue reading…

Sony is announcing new versions of its PlayStation Plus subscriptions today, its long-rumored answer to Xbox Game Pass. PlayStation Plus is now a combination of Sony’s two current subscription services, PlayStation Plus and PlayStation Now. Two new PlayStation Plus subscription options will include access to multiplayer gaming alongside a catalog of select PlayStation games to install or stream.These new tiers will start to becoming available in June in Asia, followed by North America, Europe, and the rest of the world. As part of the launch, PlayStation Now will no longer be available as a standalone service.PlayStation Plus Essential is priced at $9.99 monthly and will include the same PlayStation Plus benefits that exist today with... Continue reading…

An artistic rendering of the Intuitive Machines lander on the Moon Later this year, American artist Jeff Koons will be displaying some of his latest sculptures in their most exotic location yet: the surface of the Moon. Thanks to a new collaboration, Koons will create some new sculptures that will travel to the lunar surface on a robotic lunar lander made by Houston-based company Intuitive Machines.Intuitive Machines’ lander is called Nova-C, which the company has been developing in partnership with NASA. For the last few years, NASA has been actively working toward sending humans back to the Moon through its Artemis program. And as part of that effort, NASA has been working with commercial companies to develop a whole fleet of vehicles — from smaller robotic landers and rovers to landers capable of... Continue reading…

Otter.ai made its name as a slick, AI-powered transcription service. But as this type of automated transcription becomes more commonplace, the company is expanding its remit — adding a host of features, including AI-generated meeting summaries, with the aim of turning users’ Otter accounts into collaborative hubs for work.The goal is to make Otter bigger than transcriptions and cater to the company’s growing number of enterprise customers. “A year ago, most of [our customers] were individuals, but more and more professionals are using it,” Otter.ai CEO Sam Liang told The Verge in an interview. “The new Otter makes it a one-stop for all your meeting contents and collaboration needs.”When accessing accounts on the web, Otter users will... Continue reading…

Yandex, a multi-billion dollar tech company based in Russia, had been operating autonomous vehicles in Michigan before the invasion of Ukraine. | Yandex Yandex, the multi-billion dollar Russian tech company that’s been operating a small fleet of autonomous vehicles in Ann Arbor, Michigan, laid off over two dozen US-based workers earlier this month, claiming that its vehicle licenses were suspended by Michigan’s state regulators, The Verge has learned. But Michigan says this just isn’t true.In the days following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Yandex paused its AV testing in Ann Arbor, as well as its tests with six-wheeled delivery robots at several college campuses in Ohio and Arizona. But the pause was only supposed to be temporary — the company said it hoped to resume those operations at a later date.Yandex claims it was informed on March 9th that its vehicle licenses were suspended... Continue reading…

Microsoft has started testing ray tracing support for Minecraft on Xbox Series X / S consoles. A new Minecraft Preview build is available to Xbox Insiders, and it includes limited ray tracing support. The latest test build is also marked as optimized for Xbox Series X / S, suggesting that a next-gen patch is coming soon.I’ve been testing out the latest Minecraft Preview, and have been able to successfully enable some ray tracing support. It’s not a simple switch, though. Minecraft’s ray tracing is enabled through additional resource packs, and there’s no easy way of downloading and installing these in the Xbox version of the game right now. There’s a workaround, though. You can host a Minecraft session on a Windows PC with the packs... Continue reading…

The NTH-100 offers a great option for audio mixing Continue reading…

MIT will once again require standardized test scores for admission | Photo by Maddie Meyer/Getty Images The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) said Monday it’s reinstating requirements that students provide scores from the SAT or ACT standardized tests for future admissions. At the start of the pandemic, many schools waived standardized test requirements for incoming students or, like MIT, made reporting them optional.The temporary change was meant to relieve some of the unprecedented stresses and obstacles students graduating from US high schools in 2020, 2021, and 2022 were facing. In 2020, the College Board, which administers the SAT, said millions of students had been unable to take the test as scheduled in the spring of 2020 due to COVID-19 restrictions. It asked colleges and universities to be flexible in their admissions... Continue reading…

Graphics by Michele Doying / The Verge 2A US lawmaker has proposed a large-scale trial of government-backed digital cash. The Electronic Currency and Secure Hardware (ECASH) Act, introduced by Rep. Stephen Lynch (D-MA), would direct the Secretary of the Treasury to publicly test an “electronic version” of the US dollar. While the bill’s odds of passing likely remain low, it demonstrates governments’ increasing interest in launching alternatives to cryptocurrency.The ECASH Act would require the Secretary of the Treasury to establish a program called the Electronic Currency Innovation Program (ECIP). ECIP would oversee a series of pilot programs for what the bill dubs “e-cash”: Treasury Department-issued legal tender that can be used without private intermediaries like banks... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge TikTok appears to be testing a new Watch History feature that should save you from the mental anguish of trying to locate that video you could’ve sworn you saved, as reported by TechCrunch. It looks like TikTok may finally give us a straightforward way to browse through a running list of the videos we’ve seen on the app.

That could mean hundreds of dollars in savings — if everything goes smoothly. | Image: Asus Asus says it’ll be lowering the price of its RTX 30-series cards (it lists the 3050, 3060, 3070, 3080, and 3090) by up to 25 percent. To list some examples based on Best Buy’s pricing, a 25 percent price reduction would take a Tuf 3060 12GB from $550 to $412.50, a Strix 3070 8GB from $825 to $618.75, and a Tuf 3080 12GB from a whopping $1,500 to $1,125 (though do note that Asus is saying the reductions will be up to 25 percent, and it hasn’t released details for any specific cards).The company says that consumers will see the lower prices “starting on April 1st, 2022” and coming to “different models throughout the springtime.”The explanation is likely tariffs, not tricksYes, I also narrowed my eyes and furrowed my brow when I heard... Continue reading…

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine is affecting an unexpected community: cross-stitchers who buy patterns on Etsy. Slate published a piece describing how American cross-stitchers have been “devastated” by Etsy’s recent suspension of Russian storefronts, including cross-stitch patterns shops that are — to the surprise of some crafters — heavily concentrated in Russia.Cross-stitch is a type of hand embroidery where crafters stitch designs on to fabric with X’s, often using a pattern as a reference. Designs range from fairly simple or incredibly intricate, and they start as low as $3 but can go for “much more” for complex pieces. Etsy is a popular place for cross-stitchers to find digital patterns, and a few weeks ago, cross-stitchers on Reddit b... Continue reading…

Image: ApeCoin DAO Bored Ape Yacht Club NFT holders can buy new merchandise items from Yuga Labs — but they can only use the newly-launched ApeCoin to do it, according to an announcement in the BAYC Discord server. Yuga Labs, which has a large stake in the organization backing ApeCoin, will get more ApeCoin (and more control over the organization) as NFT holders pay for their merch.That is, assuming they can. Continuing cryptocurrency’s trend of “money but worse,” users complained they were having trouble checking out.

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge On March 24th, EU governing bodies announced that they had reached a deal on the most sweeping legislation to target Big Tech in Europe, known as the Digital Markets Act (DMA). Seen as an ambitious law with far-reaching implications, the most eye-catching measure in the bill would require that every large tech company — defined as having a market capitalization of more than €75 billion or a user base of more than 45 million people in the EU — create products that are interoperable with smaller platforms. For messaging apps, that would mean letting end-to-end encrypted services like WhatsApp mingle with less secure protocols like SMS — which security experts worry will undermine hard-won gains in the field of message encryption.The main... Continue reading…

The iPhone SE might not be meeting Apple’s sales expectations. | Photo by Allison Johnson / The Verge While luxury electronics like the PS5 and graphics cards may still be selling out left and right, the demand may not be as high for easier-to-make budget offerings. According to a report from Nikkei Asia, Apple will be making 20 percent fewer iPhone SEs in the next quarter than it originally planned and 10 million fewer AirPods for all of 2022. Noted analyst Ming-Chi Kuo provided specific numbers in his note about the demand for the SE, saying that he expects Apple to ship 15 to 20 million SEs in 2022, as opposed to his previous estimate of 25-30 million (that’s somewhere between a 22 and 66 percent decrease for the year).The reports don’t point to supply chain issues or chip shortages, which have plagued much of the electronics... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Apple could pay an even larger periodic fine if the Dutch competition regulator doesn’t approve of its latest proposal to address its demands to allow dating apps to use alternate formats of payments. The Netherlands Authority for Consumers and Markets (ACM) has fined Apple the maximum of €50 million (~$55 million USD) for failing to satisfy its order, and the fine on Monday marks Apple’s 10th penalty.Apple’s new proposal, submitted on the 27th, is currently under review by the ACM, which says it may force Apple to pay another round of fines “with possible higher penalties.” The Dutch regulator has been levying its fines in weekly €5 million (~$5.5 million USD) increments, but the ACM makes it clear that this amount is subject to... Continue reading…

SpaceX SpaceX says it will no longer build new vehicles of its Crew Dragon capsule, the spacecraft the company uses to take humans to and from the International Space Station, according to a report in Reuters. The plan for now is to cap the Crew Dragon fleet for carrying humans at four, which SpaceX will re-fly again and again to get crews to space.“We are finishing our final [capsule], but we still are manufacturing components, because we’ll be refurbishing,” SpaceX President Gwynne Shotwell told Reuters. After each flight of a Crew Dragon, the spacecraft must go through a refurbishment process in Florida, where certain hardware is tweaked or swapped out to make the vehicle flight-ready again. SpaceX did not respond to a request for comment.“... Continue reading…

You can currently save $300 on the Surface Pro 8 at Best Buy. | Photo by Becca Farsace / The Verge Monday doesn’t have to be all bad, especially when we’ve collected some of the best deals on the internet to ease you into your week. Take the latest version of the Microsoft Surface Pro 8, for instance, which you can currently grab in a high-end configuration at Best Buy for $1,299.99 instead of $1,599.99. This powerful tablet comes equipped with an 11th Gen Intel Core i5 CPU, 16GB of RAM, and 256GB of storage that can be supplemented with SD cards if you need a little extra space. The 13-inch, 120Hz display on the Pro 8 also features 2880x1920 resolution but can also be paired with an external monitor, thanks to its pair of Thunderbolt 4 ports. It even has a 3.5mm audio jack if you’re still using headphones that plug into something,... Continue reading…

A keyboard with a lot of great ideas, well executed Continue reading…

Bandai Namco One Piece is getting a new video game. During a video presentation celebrating the 25th anniversary of One Piece, Bandai Namco announced that the celebrated manga / anime series will be getting a new RPG with an original story written by series creator Eiichiro Oda.One Piece Odyssey is a new open-world game in which the Straw Hats have treasures to find a mysterious island to explore. The game is being developed by ILCA, a Japanese studio that recently worked on the Pokemon Brilliant Diamond / Shining Pearl remakes, as well as Dragon Quest XI and Nier Replicant. Though the announcement trailer didn’t show too much outside of cutscenes and exploration, we do know that there will be turn-based combat and that players will have the crew... Continue reading…

Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge Our iPhones are so much more than just phones. Sure, they’re where we store our photos, books, music, and movies, but they also have the apps we use daily for work, socializing, ordering groceries, transportation, managing finances, and even our health. Used for so many different things, it’s easy to quickly take up all of the phone’s storage — which can become a nightmare.But don’t panic. If you’re on the verge of running out of space, you’re not doomed, and you don’t necessarily need to delete every photo or upgrade your phone. Here we’ll guide you through nine things you can do to create space, many of which are free, quick, and easy.First, figure out what’s eating up your storageCheck what’s taking up the most of the space on... Continue reading…

Find My adds a ton of perks to this item tracker Continue reading…

Eric Schmidt speaks at a technology summit in Washington, DC. | Photo by Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images Former Google CEO Eric Schmidt’s foundation poured money into the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy over the past year, according to a report from Politico. The foundation’s close ties with the office raised ethics concerns with internal watchdogs.Schmidt held a number of roles at Google and parent company Alphabet, including CEO, executive chairman, and technical advisor. He stepped down from that last role in 2020. Now, he sits on the boards and invests in tech companies, including a number focused on artificial intelligence. The Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) directs science funding and helps steer AI policy — one of the reasons Rachel Wallace, then the office’s general counsel, raised concerns... Continue reading…

Screenshot: Cameron Faulkner / The Verge Gran Turismo 7 developer Polyphony Digital is apologizing for the changes recently introduced to the game’s economy and is promising improvements, along with a million free credits. These changes come after the game had a massive outage last week, which was the result of an update that also made changes to how players could earn credits by actually playing the game rather than through microtransactions.In a post on the PlayStation Blog, Polyphony president Kazunori Yamauchi apologized for “the frustration and confusion caused last week with our patch updates which resulted in, not only a server outage but also adjustments to the in-game economy which were made without a clear explanation to our community.” As a “goodwill gesture,” the... Continue reading…

The white-colored model costs $700, while the others cost $30 more. | Samsung Samsung’s latest smart monitor, the 32-inch 4K M8, is now available to reserve in four colors: white, blue, green, and pink. The white-colored option will cost $699.99, while the other colors cost $30 more. Samsung announced the M8 during CES 2022, though it didn’t share a price or that it would arrive in multiple colorways. The company still hasn’t shared a release date. And for now, you can only reserve — not outright purchase — an M8 monitor. After you reserve by entering your e-mail address, you’ll eventually be able to preorder one, and Samsung says your purchase will include a $100 Samsung credit to use in the future.Its colorful design and thin profile could make the M8 fit in with a group of M1 iMacs. Compared to a more relevant... Continue reading…

Reddit has brought back its April Fools’ Day project. | Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Reddit said Monday that it’s bringing back its r/Place April Fools’ Day experience for four days beginning April 1st. Alex Le, Reddit executive vice president for strategy and special projects said in a blog post that the move was meant to showcase “the magic of online communities, conversation, and collaboration.”The r/Place board, which launched on April 1st, 2017 featured a large, white pixel grid on which logged-in Reddit users could place colored pixels one at a time every five minutes just by tapping on it. It was wildly popular, attracting some 16 million tiles from more than 1 million users (but of course had its share of weird and crude images as well). And, r/Place was the brainchild of Josh Wardle, whose name you might... Continue reading…

Photo by Loren Grush / The Verge President Joe Biden is requesting a whopping $26 billion for NASA for 2023, roughly $2 billion more than the space agency received for the current fiscal year, according to newly released budget documents from the White House. If enacted as is, a third of that budget would go toward NASA’s Artemis program — the agency’s ambitious initiative to send humans back to the Moon.Roughly $7.5 billion is being set aside for Artemis, which aims to send the first woman and first person of color to the Moon as early as 2025. Part of that funding will go toward the development of a new lunar lander capable of taking humans to and from the lunar surface— a recent addition to the Artemis master plan.Roughly $7.5 billion is being set aside for Artemis... Continue reading…

Coda producers Philippe Rousselet (L), Fabrice Gianfermi (R) and Patrick Wachsberger (C) posing with Code’s Best Picture award. | Frederic J. Brown/Getty After years of Hollywood working to re-establish the Oscars as a must-see TV event with tweaks to the ceremony and broadcast, the 94th Academy Awards singlehandedly reminded its viewership that nothing lands quite like genuinely unscripted moments that take everyone by surprise as they’re captured and broadcast in real time.Though Netflix brought more than a few contenders that were favored to win at to this year’s Academy Awards, Apple’s Coda made history last night by becoming the first streaming movie to nab a statue for Best Picture — an achievement made even more impressive by how few Oscars the film was nominated for (three) compared to the competition. While The Power of the Dog didn’t take home the award of the night, director... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge A prolific hacking group run by teens Continue reading…

For the next few weeks, we’re showing you how to run various commonly used benchmarks on your PC. Reviewers like myself find these very helpful in comparing laptops we test to each other. But you don’t have to rely on us — you can easily run these benchmarks yourself on your own PC. Geekbench is one of the easiest and fastest ones to run and will show you how your device stacks up against the competition in a few key areas.Within Geekbench 5 (the latest release), there are a few different tests you can run. Geekbench CPU measures your processor’s performance, simulating both single-core and multi-core usage scenarios. When the test is complete, you’ll get both a single-core and a multi-core score. Geekbench Compute, by contrast, e... Continue reading…

Coda’s stars after winning big at the awards. | Photo by David Livingston/Getty Images CODA has become the first film from a streaming service to win Best Picture at the Oscars, in a sign of the growing dominance of streamers like Apple, Netflix, and Amazon at Hollywood’s most prestigious awards ceremony. The Apple TV Plus film follows the struggles of Ruby Rossi (Emilia Jones), the only hearing member in a deaf family, as she tries to explore a life away from her family. Apple acquired the rights to CODA for $25 million in a bidding war after its premiere at the Sundance Film Festival last year.As well as winning Best Picture, CODA’s Troy Kotsur won Best Supporting Actor for his role in the film, and its writer-director Siân Heder also took away the award for Best Adapted Screenplay. Kotsur is the first Deaf actor to... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Amazon workers claim they weren’t all properly alerted as what they thought was smoke filled the third floor at a Bessemer, Alabama warehouse on Friday, according to a report from the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union (RWDSU) (via Input). While workers on the third floor were told to clock out, go on unpaid voluntary time off (VTO), and evacuate, employees on the other floors were allegedly left to continue working as an unidentified vapor spread throughout the facility. The “smoke” was later found to be vaporized oil from a malfunctioning compressor.According to the RWDSU’s timeline of events, workers on the third floor evacuated around 1:30PM. Hours later, workers on the first floor started seeing the smoke-like substance... Continue reading…

Users could previously watch delayed simulcasts for free on Crunchyroll. | Photo Illustration by Rafael Henrique/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images Crunchyroll will no longer offer free ad-supported streaming for newly-released episodes, the anime streaming service announced in an update on its site (via Gizmodo). Viewers who want to watch episodes of new or continuing series will have to upgrade to one of Crunchyroll’s premium plans, which start at $7.99 / month.Users didn’t need a subscription to watch simulcast titles before the change, but there was a tradeoff — Crunchyroll would delay the release of new episodes by one week for free users, while subscribers could watch them one hour after their premiere in Japan. This was something I (and a lot of other people using Crunchyroll for free) happily dealt with as long as I actually got to watch the new episodes.The new policy... Continue reading…

Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge Apple is reportedly planning to release an iPad Pro with the rumored M2 chip sometime between September and November of this year, according to Apple tracker Mark Gurman’s Power On newsletter. Gurman expects Apple to issue a major update for the upcoming generation of iPad Pros, which will supposedly include support for MagSafe charging.As Gurman points out, Apple last gave the iPad Pro a significant update in 2018, when Apple introduced a design with harder corners, an edge-to-edge display, and a USB-C connector. This update came about a year and a half after the release of the iPad Pro 10.5 in 2017.The new iPad Pro is also rumored to have a glass backingApple is on track to repeat the same pattern this year, as it launched the most... Continue reading…

Photo by STEFANI REYNOLDS/AFP via Getty Images The Academy Awards return this weekend to celebrate a standout year of film releases. With vaccinations now widely available, theaters saw record-breaking ticket sales as moviegoers seemed more willing to return to auditoriums to watch highly anticipated releases. But theaters haven’t completely edged out streamers — Netflix swept up a dozen nominations for its critically acclaimed drama The Power of the Dog and several more for its doomsday comedy Don’t Look Up.Folks with traditional cable bundles or an antenna are already teed up to watch the event live on ABC when it airs this evening. But if you’re short the hardware or a cable box, several services will carry the coverage as well.Who is hosting the Oscars?Wanda Sykes, Regina... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Apple Pay will no longer support Russian card payment system Mir, closing a loophole that let Russians continue to use the service amid economic sanctions put on the country, according to a report from Reuters.“Apple has informed NSPK [Russia’s National Payment Card System] that it is suspending support of ‘Mir’ cards in the payment service Apple Pay,” a translated announcement on Mir’s site reads. “Since March 24, uploading new ‘Mir’ cards to the service has been unavailable.” The company also notes any Mir cards previously added to Apple Pay will stop working over “the next few days.” Apple Pay first added support for Mir cards last year.Many Russian users have already been cut off from Apple Pay and Google PayAccording to The... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Uber has secured a 30-month — or two-and-a-half-year — license to keep its ridesharing services up and running in London, according to a report from the BBC. This marks the close of a lengthy battle with the city’s transportation agency, Transport for London (TfL), over Uber’s safety protocols.

When not in use, Samsung’s Frame TV can be used to display more than 1,400 works of art. | Image: Samsung Now that Samsung’s new Frame TVs are available for preorder, the 2021 model is selling at a new all-time low in multiple configurations until April 5th (or while supplies last). Typically $1,499.99, Woot is selling the HDR-compatible, 55-inch QLED TV for $899.99, which is $100 cheaper than the previous low we saw during Black Friday and in the run-up to the Super Bowl. The 65-inch model is also on sale for $1,399.99 instead of $1,999, and both TVs come with a one-year warranty from Samsung.While the 2021 model lacks the matte, anti-reflective display found on this year’s model, they’re both designed to display artwork when not in use, allowing them to blend in more easily with your home’s decor. When turned on, they function as... Continue reading…

US government agencies are already barred from using Kaspersky products. | Photo by Jakub Porzycki/NurPhoto via Getty Images The US Federal Communications Commission has added Russian cybersecurity company Kaspersky Lab to its list of entities that pose an “unacceptable risk to US national security,” according to a report from Bloomberg. This is the first time a Russian company has been added to the list, which is otherwise made up of Chinese companies, like Huawei and ZTE.Businesses in the US are barred from using federal subsidies provided through the FCC’s Universal Service Fund to purchase any products or services from the companies on the list. In addition to Kaspersky, the FCC also added China Telecom and China Mobile International USA to its list on Friday.Kaspersky says the decision was “made on political grounds”“I am pleased that our national... Continue reading…

Mike Frazzini has led Amazon’s gaming arm since 2009. | Photo by Andrew Burton/Getty Images Amazon Games studio head Mike Frazzini is stepping down from his role to focus on family, according to a report from Bloomberg. Frazzini has helped lead Amazon’s game division since 2009 and played a role in building the company’s game studio.“Mike was there at the beginning of Amazon Games, and his leadership and perseverance helped build the games business from the ground up,” Amazon spokesperson Ryan Jones said in a statement to Bloomberg. “Our recent successes with New World and Lost Ark are the result of the long-term, customer-focused vision for games he helped establish. We are very grateful for all his contributions, and wish Mike the very best.”Amazon didn’t immediately reply to The Verge’s request for comment.Amazon Games... Continue reading…

Collecting satellite data for research is a group effort thanks to this app developed for Android users. Camaliot is a campaign funded by the European Space Agency, and its first project focuses on making smartphone owners around the world part of a project that can help improve weather forecasts by using your phone’s GPS receiver.The Camaliot app works on devices running Android version 7.0 or later that support satellite navigation. The way satellite navigation works, phones or other receivers look for signals from a network of satellites that maintain a fixed orbit. The satellites send messages with the time and their location, and once it’s received, the phones note how long each message took to arrive, then use that data to figure... Continue reading…

Photo Illustration by Grayson Blackmon / The Verge Converting a laptop into a ‘slabtop’ is surprisingly freeing Continue reading…

Tesla has been sued by civil rights watchdogs for racial segregation at its Fremont, California factory. | Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge The Los Angeles Times has a great piece that interviews three former Tesla employees about their experiences with racism, discrimination, and retaliation at the company, which is well worth a read. The story acts as a way to contextualize a lawsuit that the automaker is currently facing, where the California Department of Fair Employment and Housing alleges that the company has a “racially segregated workplace.”While the experiences described in the lawsuit and in the Times’ story are similar (and equally disturbing), being able to read actual interviews helps connect names, faces, and individual experiences to the situation at Tesla’s facility in California.“They were waiting for me to make a mistake”The workers have unique... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Valve’s next Steam Next Fest, an event where players will be able to try out demos of upcoming PC games right from Steam, will take place from June 13th through June 20th, the company has announced.Valve is promising there will be “hundreds of demos” this year, and while it hasn’t shared what might be playable for the upcoming event, there were some notable games featured last June, including Sable and Toem. It seems likely that Valve will promote games that are great for the Steam Deck, and hopefully by that time, many more people will have gotten their highly-anticipated reservations. (Sadly, my projected Q3 order availability means I’ll very likely miss out, at least when it comes to trying games out for the handheld.)The mid-June... Continue reading…

Photo by Becca Farsace / The Verge This may sound familiar, but there’s something wrong with the latest software update for Google’s Pixel 6 phones. As Google tweaks the version of Android it distributes to phones running its custom Tensor chip, there have been some odd issues, but instead of problems with Wi-Fi or a slow thumbprint scanner, this time, it’s affecting another key feature: notifications. They still pop up on the phone just as regularly, but for some reason, the strength of the vibration is now significantly weaker than it was before.Adjusting the vibration settings has no effectI’ve had my phone’s sounds set to silent for years, so any difference in the notification buzz is immediately an issue. It’s also noticeably softer for incoming calls, and some... Continue reading…

No kidding. | Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge 2022 is going to be a big year for Wear OS. Google’s rumored to be making its own Pixel Watch (again). Older Wear OS 2 watches are expected to finally make the transition to Wear OS 3. Samsung’s promised that Google Assistant will be coming to its Galaxy Watch 4 in the “coming months.” But there’s something notably missing from this Wear OS lineup: Fitbit.Since Google and Samsung first announced their partnership at last year’s Google I/O, Fitbit CEO James Park hasn’t been coy. He’s said multiple times that a premium Fitbit smartwatch running Wear OS was in the works. This year will be the one where Wear OS 3 debuts on a wider scale. It would’ve been stellar timing to unveil a Wear OS Fitbit. However, a 9to5Google report notes that... Continue reading…

Roberta and Ken Williams, founders of Sierra and influential game designers | Photo by John Storey/Getty Images Ken and Roberta Williams, two of the most influential figures in video game history, are bringing the original 1976 text adventure Colossal Cave Adventure to virtual reality, as well as Mac and Windows PC.It sounds pretty straightforward when I put it like that, right? And then I remind you that the game in question looked like this: Photo by Autopilot (Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0) Colossal Cave Adventure running on a PDP-11/34 with a monitor. And then I remind you that Roberta and Ken have been retired for the past 25 years.And then I remind you that — while Roberta and Ken made King’s Quest and Phantasmagoria AND are credited with the first graphical adventure game ever in Mystery Quest AND founded... Continue reading…