The Verge

“By the way, I’m much more than just a voice-activated timer.” | Photo by Dan Seifert / The Verge If you regularly use an Alexa device, you’ve probably been upsold by Amazon’s assistant at some point. Ask Alexa to carry out some basic task like setting a timer, and it will finish its response with a cheery “By the way, did you know I could [insert feature you’ve never heard of here].” As highlighted in a recent report from Bloomberg, this is because Amazon knows that users aren’t really getting stuck into the full range of Alexa’s capabilities.Bloomberg’s report is based on internal Amazon docs, and features some interesting statistics about Alexa usage. Here are the ones we found most eye-catching:

Huawei has officially announced the P50 Pocket, a clamshell-style folding smartphone that has a circular, 1-inch external display for quick access to notifications and widgets. The device launches in China today, though US sanctions (which mean Huawei can’t use key tech like Google’s Android OS) mean the P50 Pocket won’t make any impact in the West.Huawei teased the handset earlier this month with a photoshoot focused on the P50 Pocket Premium Edition that appeared in Harper’s Bazaar China. This version of the device was created with Dutch designer Iris van Herpen. It has a gold or silver finish, and a 3D pattern on the exterior surface that’s typical of van Herpen’s work, resembling feathers or leaves. The P50 Pocket... Continue reading…

Adata teases first PCIe 5.0 NVMe M.2 SSDs. | image: Adata Samsung and Adata are both teasing PCIe 5.0 SSDs ahead of January’s big CES event. With read/write speeds up to 14/12 GBps, this new generation of solid state storage is essentially twice as fast as the fastest PCIe 4.0 drives.Adata teased two prototypes of its first PCIe 5.0 NVMe M.2 SSDs with capacities up to 8TB. The so-called Project Nighthawk SSD is designed using a Silicon Motion SM2508 controller capable of sequential read/write speeds up to 14/12GBps, while the Project Blackbird SSD features an InnoGrit IG5666 controller for 14/10GBps read/write speeds. Adata will hopefully provide more details at CES which begins January 5th, unless COVID derails it again. Image: Samsung Samsung’s targeting enterprise... Continue reading…

Photo by Octavio Jones/Getty Images Over the last couple of weeks, several Apple Stores around the US have closed due to rising COVID-19 infections among staff members, and a report by Bloomberg lists seven locations in the US and Canada that have shut down operations within the last day or so. The Apple Stores listed include Dadeland and The Gardens Mall in Florida, Lenox Square in Atlanta, GA, Highland Village in Houston, TX, Summit Mall in Ohio, Pheasant Lane in New Hampshire, and Sainte-Catherine in Montreal, Canada.According to the report, shutdowns are usually called when 10 percent of the store’s staff has tested positive. These spikes are occurring as the CDC reports omicron has become the dominant strain of the virus spreading throughout the US. Apple’s response... Continue reading…

Photo by Patrick Pleul/picture alliance via Getty Images The metaverse and Web3 are two trends supposedly set to revolutionize the digital world. But the richest man IRL, Elon Musk, is not keen on either. In a recent interview, the SpaceX and Tesla CEO said he couldn’t see a compelling use-case for the VR-driven metaverse, and derided Web3 — a nebulous concept in which internet services are rebuilt around blockchain and cryptocurrency — as “more marketing than reality,” adding “I don’t get it.”Musk admitted that he might just be “too old” to understand these new technologies. “Am I like one of those people who was dismissing the internet [in] ‘95 as some fad or something that’s never going to amount to anything?” he suggested, before noting that in 1995 he was very much one of the... Continue reading…

Former Huawei sub-brand Honor has teased the launch of its first foldable smartphone, the Honor V. An image shared on its Weibo and Twitter accounts teases the design of the device, showing a telltale hinge between the two halves of the device. The Weibo post says the “folding flagship is about to be released,” though no exact launch date has been announced and Honor declined to comment.Honor has been open about its desire to release a foldable for some time. As early as 2019, the company’s CEO George Zhao told CNET that he was interested in producing a foldable under the Honor brand, but expressed concerns that the device would be too expensive for Honor’s younger target market. In June this year, reports emerged that development of... Continue reading…

Image: TCL After briefly halting sales of its 6-Series and 5-Series Google TVs due to sluggish, buggy software, TCL this evening announced that the TVs are back. “Recent software updates have allowed us to make significant improvements on the stability and speed of the TCL televisions featuring Google TV,” spokesperson Rachelle Parks said by email. “With these updates, this product now represents the powerful performance that TCL and Google believe is the future of TV.”The Google TVs represent TCLs effort to take a platform agnostic approach with its TV hardware; the company is best known for its popular sets that come preloaded with Roku software, but it has also manufactured Android TV products. The 6-Series (R646) and 5-Series (R546) are the... Continue reading…

A gift card offering access to thousands of books from Amazon or Barnes and Noble is a great present for bookworms. | Photo by Chaim Gartenberg So the holidays are just days away, and you’re panicking because you still haven’t found a gift yet. Perhaps the present you wanted to give simply won’t arrive in time, or maybe you’ve just been too busy — or lazy — to pick something up (no judgment there). Whatever the reason, don’t worry; thanks to the internet, procrastinators, busy bees, and even lazy folks can still buy some great digital gifts without needing to leave their house.The only problem? There are tons of digital gifts to choose from, ranging from streaming subscriptions to concert tickets, and finding the right one can be overwhelming. That’s why we’ve rounded up a few gift ideas across a number of popular categories, including film and travel, so you quickly choose,... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Intel has reportedly notified employees that anyone who remains unvaccinated will need to get the COVID-19 vaccine or submit an exemption by January 4th. Otherwise, they face being put on unpaid leave, according to The Associated Press and The Oregonian.In the December 7th memo obtained by both publications, Intel HR boss Christy Pambianchi said unvaccinated employees will need to seek an exemption or get weekly tests, even if they’re working from home. She also reportedly told employees that the company will review medical and religious exemptions up until March 15th of next year. The company initially put the January 4th vaccine deadline in place last month, but didn’t specify what would happen to unvaccinated employees if they didn’t... Continue reading…

President Biden details plans to make coronavirus tests easier to find amid the surge of the omicron variant. | Photo by Drew Angerer/Getty Images President Biden said today that Americans will soon be able to order free COVID tests from a government-run website, which is not yet available. “We’ll have websites where you can get them delivered to your home,” he said of the 500 million at-home tests the government is purchasing to combat the Omicron surge.Details on this website are murky, however. White House press secretary Jen Psaki said today that “We will have more information as it is available including what the website looks like,” she said, adding, “We will make the website available as soon as these tests are available.“President Biden also said that his administration is working with Google to make it easier for Americans to find COVID-19 testing locations. “We’ve... Continue reading…

Mint Mobile says it will comply with the board’s decision. | Image: Mint Mobile The National Advertising Review Board has denied Mint Mobile’s appeal defending its use of the word “unlimited” in its advertising since its unlimited prepaid plan includes a high-speed data cap of 35GB per month. That’s not unusual — most unlimited plans include a cap on high-speed or “premium” data — but Mint actually slows customers down to unreasonably slow 2G speeds after 35GB. That is unusual, even in an industry that has rendered the term “unlimited” virtually meaningless, and the ad board sides with AT&T’s argument that it’s slower than a customer would reasonably expect.Carriers and MVNOs have throttled heavy data users more or less since unlimited plans made a comeback. And to be sure, the vast majority of wireless customers... Continue reading…

Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV) is followed by reporters as he leaves a caucus meeting with Senate Democrats at the US Capitol Building on December 17th, 2021 in Washington, DC. | Photo by Anna Moneymaker / Getty Images The future of America’s electricity grid hangs in the balance as Democrats try to salvage their giant environmental and social spending bill. After West Virginia Sen. Joe Manchin imperiled Democrats’ Build Back Better bill — which would have transformed the grid and helped stave off catastrophic climate change — environmental advocates are figuring out a plan B.The most recent version of Democrats’ environment and social spending bill included $555 billion to tackle climate change, which would have been the biggest US investment ever on the crisis. At the heart of the bill was a plan to wean the power grid off fossil fuels. But over the weekend, Manchin (who has earned millions off investments in coal) seemingly killed those plans by s... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge A new blog post from Meta marks the six-month anniversary of its newsletter publishing platform, Bulletin. Amid its plugs for the writers who publish work on the service, the company lets us know just how many publishers it has on board to help compete with companies like Substack and Twitter: 115.Unlike Substack, the buzziest newsletter platform of the moment, you can’t just start writing with Bulletin — Meta has continued to add writers to the platform in batches instead of having a public sign-up process. While the number implies that the company isn’t doing a huge push to get people on the platform as fast as possible, that does appear to be on purpose, at least to some extent (there’s always the possibility it hasn’t been as... Continue reading…

The second-gen Echo Show 8 makes for a popular gift that will arrive in time for Christmas. | Dan Seifert / The Verge Christmas is just around the corner, and if that news fills you with panic instead of excitement, we’ve got your back. For those who are behind on your holiday shopping, there are still a ton of great gifts you can buy that will arrive in time, some of which are even on sale. Below, we’ve rounded up the best and organized them based on category, covering everything from smart displays and TVs to gaming accessories and laptops.Of course, if you’re looking for more ideas, our recently-updated 2021 Holiday Gift Guide is always a great place to browse. And if you’re really down to the wire and need a gift day-of — shipping deadlines are approaching fast, after all — we’ve also rounded up the best digital gifts you can buy and deliver... Continue reading…

“Habenero” Jack Dorsey did some spicy tweets last night.The Twitter founder and Block CEO tweeted out some thoughts on crypto and “Web3” that managed to exasperate some of the idea’s biggest boosters. This wasn’t the kind of Web3 criticism we’ve seen time and again — Dorsey didn’t come at them with a “right-clicker mentality” or anything so trivial. Instead, Dorsey went for the metaphorical jugular: he said users don’t actually own Web3, which is a movement that prides itself on decentralization and community.In reality, Dorsey said, it’s big venture capital firms like Andreessen Horowitz, which has dedicated more than $3 billion to investments in the space (and has made investments in several dozen crypto companies, including OpenSea... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge New forensic analysis indicates that representatives of the United Arab Emirates government installed Pegasus spyware on the phone of Hanan Elatr, wife of murdered journalist Jamal Khashoggi, just months before her husband was killed. The analysis was conducted by Toronto-based privacy and security research laboratory Citizen Lab on behalf of The Washington Post, which reported the findings on Tuesday.According to the Post’s report, a forensic investigation of two Android phones owned by Elatr revealed that an unknown person used one of the phones to visit a website that uploaded Pegasus spyware onto the phone. This took place after security agents at the Dubai airport had confiscated the phone from Elatr. Further analysis from Citizen... Continue reading…

Adidas Forum Tech Boost Series X | Image: Microsoft Adidas and Microsoft have collaborated on three different pairs of shoes this year to commemorate the 20th anniversary of Xbox, and now the final shoe from that partnership has been officially revealed. Unlike the previous releases, these Forum Tech Boost Series X shoes are available for purchase globally, going on sale from Adidas and other retailers, and are currently in stock on Microsoft.com for $140.The overall design and coloring are in place to mimic Microsoft’s latest flagship console, with black netting and a green liner inside that’s similar to the Xbox Series X’s fan vent, and a sphere Xbox logo on the side is drawn from the Elite controller. Image: Microsoft Adidas Forum Tech Boost Series X Like... Continue reading…

Image by DuckDuckGo DuckDuckGo, the company best known for its privacy-focused search engine of the same name, is working on a desktop browser that should bring the same focus on avoiding being tracked to your entire web experience. In a post on its blog, DuckDuckGo CEO Gabriel Weinberg offers a glimpse at what the upcoming browser will look like and notes that we can expect it to perform the same way its browsing app does on mobile.Weinberg explains that the desktop browser will offer “robust privacy protection” by default, without you having to toggle on any hidden security settings. Like the mobile app, the desktop equivalent will come with the same “Fire” button that instantly erases all of your browsing history, stored data, and tabs in one click.I... Continue reading…

Warner Bros. A fantastic setup to a tepid sequel Continue reading…

Chipotle’s Digital Kitchen for Pickup & Delivery kind of looks like a regular Chipotle | Image: Chipotle Chipotle announced it’s opening a new “Digital Kitchen” restaurant this month in Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio (about 40 miles south of Cleveland) — which will exclusively accept online orders.Hungry customers should avoid knocking on that pickup window expecting to have their order takenThe prototype location will offer its pickup-only drive-thru “Chipotlane,” some outdoor seats and tables for eating (no dining room), and a walk-up window. Hungry customers should avoid knocking on that pickup window expecting to have their order taken. Instead, order online or on the Chipotle app and then check back at the window or roll up to the drive-thru. Image: Tabasco Imagine begging the Chipotle worker at the window to let you... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Verizon has sent an email to customers to let them know they’re getting opted in to its Custom Experience data collection scheme after reports came out about it being turned on by default for some users. If you (understandably) trashed the email without reading it, the TL;DR is that Verizon’s program collects data about your apps and web browsing activity to help “provide you more personalized experiences with Verizon.” But of course, Verizon says, you have a choice — you can turn it off anytime because your privacy is important to it (though not important enough to make the program opt-in instead of opt-out).Custom Experience is a sort of spin-off / successor / rebrand of Verizon Selects, which people were enrolled into when they used... Continue reading…

TikTok says it has not found any videos threatening school violence on December 17th | Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge TikTok said Friday that it’s working to remove “alarmist warnings” about a supposed day of school violence that was rumored to take place on Friday, December 17th. A supposed threat of a nationwide day of violence at schools across the country, that allegedly started as a TikTok challenge, prompted some districts to cancel classes Friday even as law enforcement mostly determined that the threats were not credible.TikTok said on Twitter that the warnings violated its misinformation policy, which prohibits the spread of hoaxes or warnings about hoaxes that treat them as real. After searching “exhaustively,” Tiktok said it had not found content on its platform promoting violence at US schools on Friday, despite the widespread but... Continue reading…

Tencent is acquiring Turtle Rock Studios. | Image: Turtle Rock Studios Tencent is adding to its already large roster of video game studios by acquiring Slamfire, the parent company of Back 4 Blood developer Turtle Rock Studios. Turtle Rock will be “retaining its independent operations” in California and the current leadership team will still run the studio, according to a press release.Tencent is behind some of the biggest games on the planet. It owns the studio behind the hugely popular MOBA League of Legends; the developer of the mobile hits Call of Duty: Mobile, Honor of Kings, and Pokémon Unite; and has a 40 percent stake in Epic Games, the developer of Fortnite and Unreal Engine. And the company has made many significant investments just this year, including acquiring British game studio Sumo, buying... Continue reading…

The MQ-Series of Vizio TVs supports voice controls through the remote. | Image: Vizio The Christmas holiday is just one week away. I repeat: seven days from now is Christmas Eve. Let that sink in for a moment, but don’t panic just yet. There is still time to get gifts in time for the holidays before we reach cutoff times for shipments, though we’re getting a little tight on time. Just because you’re cutting it close doesn’t mean you have to overspend. Today, we have a bunch of great deals at a variety of price points — many of which can make exceptional gifts for a friend, family member, or yourself.Starting off, Vizio’s midrange 70-inch MQ7 4K LED TV (M70Q7-J03) with voice controls and HDR is just $749.99 at Best Buy. That’s a $350 discount on quite a large TV. You may ask, “How can I gift a 70-inch TV to just one... Continue reading…

If Clockwork Aquario had come out in the early ’90s, it would have cost me a lot of quarters. It’s the kind of arcade game that lures you in: big sprites, bright colors, inventive worlds, a bubbly soundtrack. You see it, and you want to play it. Unfortunately, I never got the chance to experience it in an arcade because it was never actually released. But a few decades later, it’s finally available in a new format — you can now play it on both the PS4 and Nintendo Switch.Clockwork Aquario was initially a victim of the game industry’s shift to 3D games. Development started in 1992 at Westone Bit Entertainment, a now-defunct studio best-known for the Wonder Boy series. The game was completed after two years, but by that time, arcades had... Continue reading…

Photo by Joe Raedle/Getty Images Tax preparation service H&R Block filed a lawsuit against Block, Inc. (formerly Square, Inc.) for trademark infringement on Thursday, CNBC reported.“Today’s filing is an important effort to prevent consumer confusion and ensure a competitor cannot leverage the reputation and trust we built over more than six decades,” said H&R Block president and CEO Jeff Jones in a press release.H&R Block claims that Square’s new name competes directly with Block in several areas of financial services, including a recently purchased tax service named Cash App Taxes — previously Credit Karma Tax — a $0 tax filing service similar to H&R Block.

Image: NASA Every Friday, The Verge publishes our flagship podcast, The Vergecast, where co-hosts Nilay Patel and Dieter Bohn discuss the week in tech news with the reporters and editors covering the biggest stories. On the final Vergecast of 2021, Nilay and Dieter invite Verge managing editor Alex Cranz and senior space reporter Loren Grush to the show to cover the last bits of news before the holiday break.Next week on Christmas Eve, we will see the James Webb Space Telescope — successor to NASA’s famed Hubble telescope — finally launch into space. Loren explains what the JWST will be used for, how the telescope will launch, and the complications with its launch along the way.In the second half of the show, Nilay, Dieter, and Alex go through... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge The California Department of Fair Employment and Housing (DFEH) is looking into how Google treats its Black female employees, according to a report by Reuters. The report says that the regulator has been asking employees questions about harassment and discrimination, after receiving formal complaints.The report doesn’t make any mention of the DFEH bringing charges against Google as it did with Activision Blizzard and says that the interviews being conducted don’t necessarily mean that Google could face charges.Black women made up 1.8 percent of Google’s workforce in 2021According to a diversity report Google released earlier this year, Black women make up around 1.8 percent of its workforce and departed the company at a higher than... Continue reading…

Horseshoe crabs are bled at the Charles River Laboratory in South Carolina. | Timothy Fadek Conservationists fear that horseshoe crabs, a 450-million-year-old living fossil, will be pushed to the brink of extinction because of the value of their blood to the pharmaceutical industry. Horseshoe crab blood provides a natural source of limulus amebocyte lysate (LAL) which is used to test vaccines, drugs, and medical devices to ensure that they aren’t contaminated with dangerous bacterial toxins called endotoxins. With hundreds of thousands of horseshoe crabs captured and bled of their milky-blue blood each year, conservation groups are now stepping up their advocacy efforts and taking legal action to help save horseshoe crabs and the other species that rely on them.Fortunately, there’s already an alternative to horseshoe crab... Continue reading…

The Gävle Goat before and after its most recent arson attack this year. | Photo by MATS ASTRAND,PERNILLA WAHLMAN/TT News Agency/AFP via Getty Images If you’ve never heard of the Gävle Goat before, there are just two critical pieces of information you need to know.First: the Gävle Goat is a giant straw statue of a goat erected every Christmas in the Swedish town of Gävle. It’s essentially a massive Yule Goat, a traditional symbol of the Yuletide season in areas of Scandinavia and Northern Europe, and was first installed in the town in 1966. The most recent incarnation stands 42 feet high and weighs 3.6 tonnes.Second: every year, someone tries to set the goat on fire. And most years, they succeed — including this one.As the BBC reported this morning: “A giant straw goat that has become an annual highlight in the Swedish city of Gavle has been burned by an arsonist. A man in his 40s... Continue reading…

Amazon investors want an audit of the company’s workplace safety | Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Citing the recent scrutiny on its employees’ working conditions, a group of Amazon shareholders has filed a resolution asking the board of directors to commission an independent audit on workplace health and safety at the company. The resolution calls for the audit to be conducted with input from Amazon employees and experts in workplace safety and surveillance.“As Amazon strives to be ‘the Earth’s Safest Place to Work,’ a review is needed of the practices that have made the company a leader in workplace injuries and a target for criticism and regulation,” the shareholders’ resolution reads. “With surveillance and productivity quotas linked to high injury rates, we urge Amazon to commission an independent audit of these practices.”If... Continue reading…

Toss a coin to the physicist who agreed to this interview Continue reading…

FedEx is the first customer to receive electric delivery vans from General Motors’ new EV-focused company BrightDrop. The logistics giant says it will integrate the EVs into its fleet starting in 2022.BrightDrop, which is GM’s new dedicated electric delivery van spinoff, said it delivered five of its larger-sized EV600 delivery vans to FedEx, the first in a planned 500-vehicle order. The EV600, which went into production last fall, has 600 cubic feet of cargo space, can travel up to 250 miles on a full battery, and has a gross vehicle weight of less than 10,000 pounds.The vans were delivered to FedEx’s facility in Inglewood, California, where they will be housed and maintained. FedEx plans to begin deploying BrightDrop’s vehicles on... Continue reading…

Image: Nintendo Nintendo has expanded its Expansion Pack for the Switch, adding five new Sega Genesis titles to the most expensive tier of its online subscription service. Those titles are Altered Beast, ToeJam & Earl, Dynamite Headdy, Sword of Vermilion, and Thunder Force II.The Expansion Pack subscription tier costs $49.99 annually for an individual subscription or $79.99 for a family membership (compared to $19.99 / $34.99 for a regular Switch Online subscription). For the extra cash, subscribers get access to larger back catalog of games. Both tiers include classic NES and Super NES titles like theThe Legend of Zelda and Super Mario World while the Expansion Pack adds games from the Nintendo 64 (like Super Mario 64) and the Sega Genesis (known as... Continue reading…

Chris Noth played Mr. Big in Sex and the City and its sequel series And Just Like That. | Photo by Jason Howard/Bauer-Griffin/GC Images Peloton has removed a viral ad starring Chris Noth, the actor who plays Mr. Big in HBO Max’s Sex and the City and its sequel series And Just Like That, after Noth was accused of sexual assault. Peloton says it’s stopped promoting the videos until it “learns more” about the accusations.In a story published by The Hollywood Reporter on Thursday, two women alleged that Noth assaulted them in 2004 and 2015 respectively. One of the women said that “seeing that [Noth] was reprising his role in Sex and the City set off something in me.” She added: “For so many years, I buried it,” but decided it was time “to try to go public with who he is.” Noth has denied the allegations against him and claims the sexual encounters were consensual.“Every... Continue reading…

Microsoft is finally signaling the end of the legacy Control Panel in Windows 11. The software giant introduced a number of changes in its Settings section of Windows 11 earlier this year, and this month the company has started testing even more ways to replace Control Panel functionality.In new test versions of Windows 11, Microsoft has moved the advanced network settings into a new page in the Settings app, which includes sharing options for folders, printers, and network discovery options. Some entry points to the network and device settings in Windows 11 also now redirect to the Settings app, instead of forcing you into the Control Panel. The Control Panel in Windows 11. Elsewhere, links to the section of the... Continue reading…

Image: LG In 2021 LG added an OLED-based monitor for pros to its lineup, and now the company has revealed the follow-up UltraFine OLED Pro monitors it’s planned for 2022. While its first effort was only available as a $3,999 31.5-inch 4K monitor, next year’s version will include a 27-inch variant. Image: LG Naturally, the 32BP95E and 27BP95E still feature the precise lighting control you’d expect from an OLED panel; however, these screens aren’t meant for gaming or even TV and movie watching. The promise LG’s DisplayHDR 400 True Black technology ensures that if you’re editing photos or video, everything looks the way it truly should. They’ll also ship with detachable self-calibration sensors and monitor hoods and use the LG... Continue reading…

It was never about the people Continue reading…

Unconfirmed threats on TikTok led some schools to cancel classes | Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge School districts across the United States are cancelling classes on Friday, December 17th due to reports of threats that are supposedly being made on TikTok. Districts in California, Texas, Minnesota, and Missouri have said they plan to close down Friday in response, according to the districts and local media reports. Elsewhere, districts have said they plan to have heightened police presence or have emailed parents to say they’ve been investigating the allegations.But so far, there’s little evidence that the threats are credible — or even exist. The districts and local police departments largely say they’ve heard about a trend referencing the possibility of shootings or bombings on December 17th, but it’s not clear how many have seen a... Continue reading…

The U.S. Federal Trade Commission has opened an in-depth antitrust probe of Meta’s plan to buy the popular VR fitness app Supernatural, according to a new report by The Information.The probe means that antitrust regulators are starting to scrutinize the-company-formally-known-as-Facebook’s interest in scooping up VR startups, not just its traditional social media acquisitions. According to The Information’s Josh Sisco, Meta’s previous five virtual reality acquisitions, including its deal for the studio behind hit game Beat Saber, weren't probed by the government because the purchase prices were too small. “But those regulators are slowing down the $400 million-plus Supernatural deal, according to two people with knowledge of the... Continue reading…

GSC Game World has scrapped its plans for NFTs in S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2. | Image: GSC Game World S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: Heart of Chernobyl will no longer include NFTs, developer GSC Game World announced Thursday. The news arrives after a heavily criticized announcement Wednesday and after the studio posted and then deleted an explanation on Thursday that initially tried to explain it would, in fact, still have NFTs.“Based on the feedback we received, we’ve made a decision to cancel anything NFT-related in S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2,” the new statement says. “The interests of our fans and players are the top priority for the team. We’re making this game for you to enjoy — whatever the cost is. If you care, we care too.”

GSC Game World deleted a tweet elaborating why it plans to offer NFTs. | Image: GSC Game World Update December 16th, 6:44PM ET: 11 minutes after we posted this story, GSC Game World announced it was canceling “anything NFT-related in S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2.” Guess that explains why the earlier explanation was deleted. Our original story follows.S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: Heart of Chernobyl developer GSC Game World posted a now-deleted statement on Twitter elaborating on its widely criticized plans to add NFTs to the game. In short, the company said it will be using funds earned from the NFTs to help with development.“S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: Heart of Chernobyl is truly the biggest and the most complex game we have ever created,” GSC Game World said. “All the funds that we earn during the development process (including the potential income from NFT)... Continue reading…

Behold, the EX-8S | Image: Echelon While Peloton is the most familiar name in connected fitness, Echelon’s bikes are probably the ones you’ve seen before without noticing. Echelon’s bikes are among the first that pop up when you google “cheaper Peloton alternative,” and it’s also the company behind Walmart’s $497 connected bike. (You might also remember them from last year’s Amazon Prime Bike debacle.) Well, now one of Peloton’s biggest rivals is back with a new premium bike — the EX-8S, and it is extremely extra.For starters, the bike sports a 24-inch 1080p curved touchscreen. Echelon says that’s to create a more immersive experience and that the screen itself also flips open 180-degrees for off-bike workouts. It’s also got not one but two light-up flywheels that can be... Continue reading…

There used to be a joke that every game was turning into a Fortnite-style battle royale, and here to make that bit a reality is Babble Royale, a new Scrabble-style competitive online multiplayer game from designer Frank Lantz’s Everybody House Games (best known for Universal Paperclips and Hey Robot).Despite the fact that it feels like a joke meant to clown on Fortnite, PUGB, and other last-person-standing games in the genre, Babble Royale is very much a real game, currently available on Steam in early access for both PC and Mac.

Illustration by Richard Parry Great gifts that will cultivate curiosity, creativity, and so much more Continue reading…

Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge GameStop has announced a special in-store sales event for the hard-to-get Sony PlayStation 5 console, taking place on December 17th. The restock event requires a subscription to GameStop’s Pro membership — which normally runs $14.99 per year but is currently discounted to $9.99 once added to your cart. GameStop lists all its participating retail locations on its site, which spans over 700 stores across the US. While this event is being hosted at many locations, GameStop has indicated that quantities will be limited.According to Matt Swider’s The Shortcut, GameStop will have around 60 disc-based PS5 bundles at participating stores. The bundles will supposedly consist of a PS5 console, Marvel’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales Ultimate Edition,... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Facebook’s parent company Meta has alerted 50,000 users of Facebook and Instagram that their accounts were spied on by commercial “surveillance-for-hire” schemes around the globe.The users were targeted by seven entities and located in more than 100 countries, according to an update posted on Meta’s news page today.Targets included journalists, dissidents, critics of authoritarian regimes, families of opposition, and human rights activists, the post said. The surveillance was uncovered in a monthslong investigation in which Meta identified spying groups and removed them from the platform.“These companies are part of a sprawling industry that provides intrusive software tools and surveillance services indiscriminately to any customer —... Continue reading…

Dan Ammann, the CEO of Cruise, the autonomous vehicle company that is a wholly owned subsidiary of General Motors, is stepping down, the automaker announced late Thursday. Kyle Vogt, the co-founder of Cruise and its chief technology officer, will take over as interim CEO.Ammann is the latest CEO of an AV company to step aside as the industry struggles to meet its own over-inflated expectations about the future of driverless cars. Earlier this year, John Krafcik announced that he was stepping down as CEO of Waymo after helping lead the company since 2015.GM didn’t provide a reason for Ammann’s departureGM didn’t provide a reason for Ammann’s departure except to say he was leaving to “pursue other opportunities.” A spokesperson for... Continue reading…

France’s foremost privacy regulator has ordered Clearview AI to delete all its data relating to French citizens, as first reported by TechCrunch.In its announcement, the French agency CNIL argued that Clearview had violated the GDPR in collecting the data and violated various other data access rights in its processing and storage. As a result, CNIL is calling on Clearview to purge the data from its systems or face escalating fines as laid out by European privacy law.Clearview rose to prominence in 2020 after a New York Times investigation highlighted the company’s massive data collection efforts. In particular, the company offered the unique ability to identify subjects by name, drawing on data scraped from public-facing social... Continue reading…