The Verge

Instacart is adding a fuel surcharge to defray the high price of gasoline | Photo by Smith Collection/Gado/Getty Images Grocery delivery platform Instacart announced Friday that it was joining the list of companies adding a temporary fuel surcharge to customers’ orders, intended to help offset higher-than-normal gas prices its driver-shoppers are paying.In a blog post on its website, the company said it would implement the $.40 per order charge “over the next month,” but not when it takes effect. The post states that “every cent of the new, temporary fuel surcharge will be passed directly onto the shopper” and that it will launch “in the coming days.” Company spokesperson Charlotte Healow said in an email to The Verge that the policy would be in effect for one month after implementation. Asked if the charge would apply to electric or hybrid vehicles as... Continue reading…

Mind the gap tube platform warning sign on a London Underground station platform on 5th March 2022 in London, United Kingdom. | photo by Mike Kemp/In Pictures via Getty Images With gas prices painfully high, there’s a new plea coming from the international agency established to secure the globe’s oil supply: drive less to avoid a deeper energy crunch. That was the key takeaway from a 10-point plan the International Energy Agency (IEA) released today as the world nears peak oil demand season.“As a result of Russia’s appalling aggression against Ukraine, the world may well be facing its biggest oil supply shock in decades, with huge implications for our economies and societies,” IEA Executive Director Fatih Birol said in a press release. “We can also take action on demand to avoid the risk of a crippling oil crunch.”“The world may well be facing its biggest oil supply shock in decade”If advanced economies —... Continue reading…

Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge Microsoft may be making it more difficult to share your gameplay captures to Twitter, based on changes to Xbox Insider builds reported by Windows Central. Right now, on my Xbox Series X, I can post a screenshot or video directly to Twitter through the Xbox’s interface, but according to Windows Central, Insider builds have removed that option and instead direct you to share from your phone.Sharing Xbox captures from your phone isn’t new — I actually find it to be a pretty smooth experience. If you select a capture on your Xbox and then the option to share to mobile, your phone should pop a notification directing you right to that capture in the Xbox app so you can save and post it wherever you’d like.You might have to tweet clips from... Continue reading…

GIF: Apple Universal Control is one of the coolest software tricks that Apple has come up with in years, and it’s a perfect example of what’s possible when a company has full control both over hardware and the software that runs on those devices. There are similar concepts, like Logitech Flow, but nothing quite so polished or deeply integrated at the operating system level as Universal Control.When using Universal Control, you can use the keyboard and cursor from your Mac to control an iPad sitting beside it — and the opposite scenario also works. If you’ve got a Magic Keyboard for an iPad Pro, you can use that accessory’s keyboard and trackpad to control a Mac.To use Universal Control, your Mac needs to be running macOS 12.3 or later, while... Continue reading…

Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge Microsoft says it has worked closely with Valve to get Xbox Cloud Gaming working on the Steam Deck. While Steam Deck users have been able to access the Xbox game streaming service, it wasn’t possible to use the handheld controls to play games. Microsoft has now released a beta version of Microsoft Edge for the Steam Deck that includes full support.“We worked closely with Valve and the Xbox Cloud Gaming team to bring support for Xbox Cloud Gaming (Beta) with Xbox Game Pass Ultimate through Microsoft Edge Beta for the Steam Deck,” says Missy Quarry, a community manager for Microsoft Edge. “We’re particularly excited about this ourselves as we feel it can open new opportunities in the Linux gaming community.”

Humble Bundle With the war in Ukraine entering its third week, Humble Bundle is releasing a charity game bundle with all proceeds supporting relief efforts in the country. In the announcement, Humble wrote:

We here at The Verge use benchmark utilities a lot to compare computers to each other and figure out which ones are the most powerful. But that’s not their only purpose. You may also want to run them just to see how your own PC stacks up to the competition and make sure it’s running as well as it’s supposed to.One of the easiest utilities for beginners to run is Cinebench R23. This program uses your CPU to render a 3D image and evaluates how well it does that. It’s free and only takes 10 minutes to run.Here’s how to do it. Here’s what Cinebench looks like in the app store. How to Download CinebenchIf you’re using a Mac, search for Cinebench in the App Store. If you’re on Windows, you can find it in the... Continue reading…

Another win for Ukraine’s Minister of Digital Transformation. | Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge PayPal is expanding the services available to its Ukrainian users and waiving fees to help with humanitarian efforts in the country during Russia’s ongoing invasion. According to a news release, Ukrainians will be able to send and receive peer-to-peer PayPal or Xoom payments, and the company won’t apply its normal fees to either side of the transaction (h/t CNN Business).PayPal also says that it’s giving Ukrainians the ability to transfer money out of their accounts onto Mastercard and Visa cards. Citizens who have fled the country will also be able to access these features if they set up a Ukrainian PayPal account. The company says Ukrainians will be able to send and receive funds in US and Canadian dollars, as well as British pounds... Continue reading…

Halo is coming to Xbox Game Pass Ultimate. Not the games (which, after all, are already available on the streaming service), but Halo: The Series — the upcoming live-action Paramount Plus adaptation of the sci-fi shooter, which debuts on March 24th.And to make sure that Game Pass Ultimate subscribers don’t miss out on the latest installment in the franchise, Microsoft is offering customers a free 30-day membership to Paramount Plus starting on March 23rd (a day before the show starts) so that they can be ready to tune in when the show arrives the following day.Halo (the TV show) is technically set in a different continuity than the existing video games, books, and other Halo content that’s come before. The show takes place a new... Continue reading…

The 2022 Hummer EV was barely out of the starting gate before it got hit with its first recall. General Motors issued a recall last week for at least 10 of the electric pickup trucks after determining that there was something wrong with the software that powers the taillights. (Yep, you read that right. Cars are basically just rolling computers now.)The official cause of the problem is the “[e]mbedded software in the microcontroller in the taillamp assembly,” according to the recall notice filed with the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.The software bug can affect one or both of the taillightsThe software bug can affect one or both of the taillights, causing them to be partially illuminated or all-the-way ineffective.... Continue reading…

Anne Hathaway as Rebekah Neumann and Jared Leto as Adam Neumann in WeCrashed. | Apple TV+ Apple’s WeWork drama is yet another podcast reborn as a TV show Continue reading…

Share part of a Twitter Spaces conversation with a clip. | Image: Twitter Twitter is testing a new feature for its Spaces audio rooms that allows a host to share a clip of recorded Spaces on their timeline. The feature is now available to “certain Hosts on iOS.” Everyone on iOS can see and listen to clips, while those on Android and the web will be able to “real soon,” according to Twitter. Clips will live on Twitter for 30 days, company spokesperson Joseph J. Nuñez said in a statement to The Verge.

Image: Dyson It’s hard to escape the Dyson Airwrap online. Beauty influencers gush about its powers all over TikTok, Instagram, and YouTube. But you may want to hold off on investing in one. Dyson announced on Thursday that it’s coming out with a new version of the Airwrap later this summer — and this one will be able to curl hair in both directions. The new Airwrap with all the attachments will cost $599.If you’re unfamiliar with the original Airwrap, it’s a hair curler that relies on something called the Coanda effect instead of heat. It uses a high-pressure motor to pull the hair onto the barrel, allowing users to style their hair “with air” while reducing the risk of heat damage. If you’ve ever seen it in action, it almost looks like hair... Continue reading…

Photo by Sean O’Kane / The Verge In a rare move, Porsche announced that it is planning on building its own network of electric vehicle charging stations. It also announced that it aims to have 80 percent of its sales be electric vehicles by 2030.The move was outlined during the automaker’s annual meeting, in which it also revealed plans to expand its portfolio of EVs with an all-electric Macan compact SUV and 718 sports car.Porsche EV owners currently rely on third-party companies for their charging needs. The automaker, which sells the Porsche Taycan in addition to some plug-in hybrid models, has a partnership with EV charging provider Ionity, a joint venture with Ford, BMW, Daimler, and Porsche-parent company Volkswagen. But now, Porsche has expressed willingness... Continue reading…

Photo by Becca Farsace / The Verge Every Friday, The Verge publishes our flagship podcast, The Vergecast, where Verge editor-in-chief Nilay Patel discusses the week in tech news with the reporters and editors covering the biggest stories.This week on The Vergecast, the show focuses on the reviews for the Apple products announced at last week’s “Peek Performance” event: iPhone SE, the iPad Air, the Mac Studio, and the Studio Display. Nilay, who reviewed the Studio Display, and managing editor Alex Cranz are joined by Allison Johnson, who reviewed the iPhone SE, Monica Chin, who reviewed the Mac Studio, and Dan Seifert, who reviewed the iPad Air.Each guest walks us through their reviewing process — what they found surprising, where they found restrictions, how it... Continue reading…

Image: Polyphony Digital Gran Turismo 7, one of the biggest PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 5 games of the year so far, is back online after a 30-hour outage. A broken update resulted in longer than expected server maintenance yesterday, leaving players frustrated at the limited offline mode available in Gran Turismo 7.Much of Gran Turismo 7, including its career mode and multiplayer, was unplayable for 30 hours, and developer Polyphony Digital took more than 24 hours to provide an update on the problems after the maintenance extension. Polyphony Digital has now apologized for the problems, and the game is back online with a new and functional 1.08 update.“Immediately before the release of the 1.07 update, we discovered an issue where the game would not start... Continue reading…

It has extended server maintenance due to an issue. | Image: Sony Gran Turismo 7, one of the biggest PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 5 releases of the year so far, suffered through server maintenance for over a day because of an issue found with the game’s latest update. “Due to an issue found with Update 1.07, we are extending the current server maintenance period,” reads a notice on the Gran Turismo website from Thursday morning. “We will confirm the completion time as soon as possible.”On Friday morning, a 354MB 1.08 patch was released and has been downloaded by players on PS5 and PS4 systems. However, even after downloading it and waiting through a lengthy installation/copying process, the game still wouldn’t connect to its servers. We tried it on our systems and could confirm it still showed an... Continue reading…

The price of compatibility Continue reading…

Photo by Loren Grush / The Verge At last, the rocket has arrived Continue reading…

This inexpensive indoor air quality monitor can only say, not do Continue reading…

Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge The free tier of Google Stadia launched back in 2020, so access to Google’s cloud game streaming service is readily available to a wide range of people across a list of countries. If you want to try it out yourself but don’t feel like ponying-up the $69 for the official Stadia Controller, you thankfully don’t need to let that stop you.You can, of course, buy one from Google if you choose to. And if you want to play wirelessly on the Chromecast Ultra, the company’s Stadia Controller is currently your only option to do that. But on PC and mobile, the service also works wirelessly with most popular console gaming controllers, including the Xbox Series X / S controller and the PlayStation 4’s DualShock 4 controller. Even controllers dating... Continue reading…

Sony’s noise-cancelling WH-1000XM4 are on sale among other headphone deals We’re all about headphones in today’s deals post. Regardless of your brand of choice, we’ve found a variety of models and styles available at sizeable discounts. All of these headphones occupy a spot in our roundup of the best noise-canceling headphones, so they’re definitely worthy of your consideration.First off, we’ve got the Sony WH-1000XM4 headphones. Normally, these headphones cost $348, but they’re discounted to $278 at both Amazon and Best Buy. We’ve seen this model hit a slightly lower price before, but this is the best price we’ve seen since Black Friday. The XM4 features a number of improvements over Sony’s previous over-ear, noise-canceling headphones, including multi-point Bluetooth connectivity and better noise... Continue reading…

Everything’s great, apart from the typing feel Continue reading…

Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge Last month, Allison P. Davis wrote a widely read article in New York titled “A Vibe Shift Is Coming.” In it, she posited that the third year of our pandemic would reveal an obvious, and perhaps wrenching, evolution of the culture. A vibe shift, she wrote, is “a relatively simple idea: In the culture, sometimes things change, and a once-dominant social wavelength starts to feel dated.”I have been thinking about Davis’ piece more or less ever since. In particular, I’ve been working on how to apply it to my chosen field: tech journalism, which is driven as much by social wavelengths as any other part of our culture. For some time, I had been attempting to work out which stories felt relevant in 2022 that may not have in, say, 2020. Today,... Continue reading…

Image: Withings While Withings isn’t a stranger to wrist-based sleep tracking, the company announced today that it’s adding a new diary feature to its most novel sleep monitoring gadget — the Withings Sleep mat.The mat, which is placed under a person’s mattress, automatically collects biometric sleep data like heart rate, sleep stages, and snoring. The new Sleep Diary feature allows users to combine their own observations along with the data collected from the mat. That information is then compiled into a new dashboard that aggregates sleep data over time. Users can then generate a PDF report that can be shared with doctors.According to Withings’ press release, the diary feature was developed with the input of sleep physicians and is based on medical... Continue reading…

The Galaxy A73 5G in three colors. | Image: Samsung Alongside its Galaxy A53 5G and A33 5G, Samsung also snuck out an announcement for the Galaxy A73 5G, a new top-tier phone in the midrange A-series with a high resolution 108-megapixel camera. According to the company’s press release, the Galaxy A73 5G will be available in “select markets” from April 22nd, at a price that’s yet to be announced.Although the A73 also features a slightly bigger 6.7-inch display than the A53’s 6.5-inch panel, the big spec bump here appears to be its camera. At 108-megapixels, it’s one of the highest resolution phone cameras around. It outstrips the Galaxy A53, which only has a 64-megapixel main camera, and is the same as what Samsung has included on its flagship Galaxy S22 Ultra. High megapixel counts... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge More than half of the images on the web are missing alt text, according to Microsoft. Image labels (alternative text) are key for many who are blind or low vision, as they provide screen readers with text to read aloud. Microsoft is now attempting to fill the gap with auto-generated alt text for images on the web.Existing screen readers currently read out “unlabeled graphic” if there’s no description of an image at all which isn’t very helpful. Microsoft Edge has now been updated to improve the screen reader experience for all of the images on the web without alt text.“When a screen reader finds an image without a label, that image can be automatically processed by machine learning (ML) algorithms to describe the image in words and... Continue reading…

Pete Davidson playing Chad as an astronaut on SNL. | Photo By: Kyle Dubiel/NBC/NBCU Photo Bank via Getty Images Saturday Night Live star Pete Davidson is no longer scheduled to fly on Blue Origin’s space flight later this month, the space tourism venture has announced. No reason was given for Davidson’s departure, only that the date of the launch has shifted from its original March 23rd date.“Blue Origin’s 20th flight of New Shepard has shifted to Tuesday, March 29. Pete Davidson is no longer able to join the NS-20 crew on this mission,” Blue Origin spokesperson Sara Blask said in a statement.Davidson was scheduled to be an “honorary guest” (an inclusion designed to build hype) alongside five paying customers on Blue Origin’s fourth crewed flight. Previous guests have included Star Trek actor William Shatner, GMA anchor and former football... Continue reading…

The NLRB says Gerald Bryson’s firing is a clear case of retaliation. | Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Amazon is facing a lawsuit in federal court from the National Labor Relations Board. The watchdog has asked a judge to issue an injunction forcing Amazon to give labor activist Gerald Bryson his job back. Amazon fired Bryson in April 2020, in what the NLRB says is a clear case of Amazon retaliating against him for protesting unsafe working conditions at its JFK8 warehouse in Staten Island, NY.According to the NLRB, the Section 10(j) injunction it’s pursuing is intended to temporarily make a situation right when the court case could take too long to fix the alleged issue. In this case, Bryson has been fighting to get his job back for almost two years, according to The New York Times. The NLRB petition (which you can read in full below)... Continue reading…

There may soon be an extra step when switching carriers. | Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge T-Mobile will be adding a new layer of security to its port-out process with the addition of a PIN, according to the company. According to The T-Mo Report, which obtained an internal document, the new number transfer procedure would require users to obtain a six-digit PIN from T-Mobile’s app or site and provide it when attempting to change their number to a different provider, which could make it harder for bad actors to steal phone numbers in “SIM swapping” attacks.In a statement to The Verge, T-Mobile Media Relations confirmed the company is “putting Number Transfer PINs in place to add an additional layer of security to protect customers from unauthorized port outs. These PINs will be put in place soon.”According to The T-Mo Report,... Continue reading…

Hogwarts Legacy, the upcoming open-world Harry Potter RPG, got its first proper gameplay reveal from developer Avalanche Software ahead of its release date later this year at a special PlayStation State of Play stream that showed off 14 minutes of footage from the game.(Despite the Sony-hosted debut, Hogwarts Legacy isn’t a PlayStation exclusive and will also be released on PC, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X / Series S in addition to the PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 5.)Players will get to create their own character, be sorted into one of the four Hogwarts houses, and take classes (although they’ll be starting Hogwarts as a late-fifth-year student, presumably to avoid a serious RPG starring an 11-year-old.)Live your own Hogwarts... Continue reading…

Image: Respawn Entertainment Respawn has opened pre-registration on Android for Apex Legends Mobile, the upcoming mobile version of the battle royale hit. If you pre-register, Respawn says you’ll be “among the first” to play the game when it launches in your region, and you’ll also get exclusive in-game items.Respawn launched Apex Legends Mobile in 10 countries last month, and while it’s unclear when it will be available in the US or more widely, the studio indicated in a press email that the game is set to launch this year. However, if you’re in Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Macau, it’s unclear if you can pre-register. On the Apex Legends Mobile website, Respawn says that “Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Macau will be included in the global pre-registration” (emphasis Respawn’s),... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge TikTok’s experiment with Snapchat-style stories is continuing, with the company further rolling out the feature to a larger group of users today. If you’ve gotten the feature, you’ll be greeted with a new banner when you launch the app encouraging you to create a story.In a statement provided to TechCrunch, TikTok noted that “Currently, we’re expanding a pilot test, which provides creators with additional formats to bring their creative ideas to life for the TikTok community,” although that doesn’t say how many users are currently included in the test or what the future rollout of the feature will look like.Adding a video or photo to a story works extremely similarly to taking a photo or video for TikTok’s standard feature, with the... Continue reading…

Photo by John Lamparski / Getty Images Spotify’s production deal with Prince Harry and Meghan Markle will finally result in a podcast series this summer with the launch of Meghan’s first show.The series is long overdue. Spotify signed a deal with Harry and Meghan’s production company, Archewell Audio, in December 2020 to produce and host podcasts for the service, but it’s so far only resulted in a single one-off episode.Archewell discussed policies to “minimize the spread of misinformation”It also seemed like the deal could be on the rocks. In January, as Spotify was being scrutinized for its deal with Joe Rogan, Archewell Audio released a statement saying it had raised “concerns” to Spotify about “the all too real consequences of COVID-19 misinformation on its platform.”... Continue reading…

The ESPN app has been updated with support for Apple’s SharePlay feature, which lets you watch videos over FaceTime together with family and friends. The feature is particularly well suited for live sports, which the ESPN app (by virtue of offering built-in access to Disney’s ESPN Plus streaming service) offers a fairly considerable amount of.Once updated, users will be able to watch ESPN Plus streams, along with original ESPN video content in the app and “TV Everywhere” content within the app that users have authenticated with an additional login. As is the case with most SharePlay content, everyone that’s participating in a shared stream has to have access to the service in question — so if you’re the only one with an ESPN Plus... Continue reading…

An instructor at the Fort Leonard Wood Chemical School, who is designated as an agent handler, carries the VX nerve agent to contaminate a jeep in one of the eight chambers used for training chemical defense on April 18, 2003 at Fort Leonard Wood, Missouri. | Photo by Brendan Smialowski/Getty Images It took less than six hours for drug-developing AI to invent 40,000 potentially lethal molecules. Researchers put AI normally used to search for helpful drugs into a kind of “bad actor” mode to show how easily it could be abused at a biological arms control conference.All the researchers had to do was tweak their methodology to seek out, rather than weed out toxicity. The AI came up with tens of thousands of new substances, some of which are similar to VX, the most potent nerve agent ever developed. Shaken, they published their findings this month in the journal Nature Machine Intelligence.The paper had us at The Verge a little shookThe paper had us at The Verge a little shook, too. So, to figure out how worried we should be, The... Continue reading…

The fully stacked vehicle is about to crawl to its launchpad Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Netflix has for years ignored the fact that many of us are mooching off our friends’ and families’ accounts. But the streaming king now appears to be reconsidering its look-the-other-way policy, a shift that comes as Netflix’s growth slows and its annual production budget for churning out new hits creeps ever higher. In other words, Netflix needs more money.The company this week announced that it’s testing a password-sharing crackdown that could curb the number of accounts mooching off account holders outside their own households. As part of this test, Netflix will soon offer users in Chile, Costa Rica, and Peru the ability to add up to two additional members to their Netflix membership as sub-accounts. In Costa Rica, this will cost... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Snap is banning anonymous messaging features from third-party apps that integrate with its platform over concerns that they could be used for bullying and harassment. The change comes after a lawsuit last year sought to hold Snap liable for misuse of its platform linked to the death of a teenager who was being bullied on two Snapchat-connected apps. The third-party apps, Yolo and LMK, both had anonymous messaging features and were suspended by Snap shortly after the suit was filed.“While we know that most Snapchatters used these anonymous integrations in fun, engaging, and entirely appropriate ways, we believe some users might be more prone to engage in harmful behavior — such as bullying or harassment — if they have the shroud of... Continue reading…

It costs as much as three DualSense controllers, and you can’t remap rear triggers to its paddles Continue reading…

Image: Metro Goldwyn Mayer Amazon’s purchase of MGM for $8.45 billion is complete, without a public response from the FTC on whether or not it will challenge the deal. Reports have suggested for months that the FTC was considering a challenge, and The Wall Street Journal noted earlier this month that Amazon certified it had given the FTC all necessary information, setting a mid-month deadline that it would close the deal, with or without a response from the agency and its new leader, Lina Khan.After initially declining to comment on the deal’s closure, the FTC did send a statement to The Verge. The FTC’s office of public affairs director, Lindsay Kryzak, says “The FTC does not comment on any particular matters. However, we reiterate that the Commission does not... Continue reading…

The company’s been focusing a lot on big screens lately... | Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Google is making some tweaks to the Play Store to make it easier for people with big screen devices to find apps that’ll take advantage of the display real estate. According to a post on its Developers blog, the company has some changes planned for how apps are ranked and promoted, how reviews are displayed, and the alert messages you might see if you’re browsing apps on a tablet, foldable, or Chromebook.In the post, Google says that it will update how the Play Store ranks and features apps on big-screen devices, with the logic taking account of factors like the support of different device orientations, keyboard support, and more. The company says that the change, which will take place “in the coming months,” is meant to “prioritize... Continue reading…

Photo by -/AFP via Getty Images As the Russian invasion of Ukraine moves into its third week, unconventional actors continue to target Russian state-backed businesses with a string of hacks and data leaks — the latest apparently referencing pro-hacktivism comments made by Hillary Clinton.The targeted organization is Transneft, the Russian state-controlled oil pipeline giant. On Thursday, leak hosting website Distributed Denial of Secrets published a link to 79GB of emails from the Omega Company, the research and development division of Transneft.Headquartered in Moscow, Transneft is the largest pipeline company in the world. As a state-owned Russian enterprise, it is now blocked from receiving investments from the US market under the terms of sanctions against... Continue reading…

Image: Samsung We’re getting closer to seeing all the new TVs announced back at CES start making their way to consumers. Today, Samsung announced that it’s officially taking preorders for its sizable 2022 lineup. And for the first time, the company is sharing the full details and pricing on its long-rumored, semi-announced QD-OLED consumer TV, which is now officially called the S95B.The S95B is a 4K QD-OLED set that will come in two sizes: the 55-inch model runs $2,399.99, and the 65-inch model costs $3,499.99. (Amazon is already offering discounts on both sizes.) Those are significantly higher prices than you’d pay for a standard LG OLED, but Samsung Display’s QD-OLED panel should deliver superior color accuracy at high brightness levels, even... Continue reading…

Kaley Cuoco as Cassie Bowden in The Flight Attendant. | HBO Max Though Kaley Cuoco’s Cassie Bowden was still a mess by the end of The Flight Attendant’s first season when she’d become one of the top suspects in a high-profile murder, she had made a more than respectable amount of progress towards getting her life together on all fronts. In addition to helping find the real killer, Cassie also resolved to finally get sober after years of struggling with alcoholism, and it all seemed very much like things might be looking up for the well-meaning flight attendant.That may still be the case on some level, but in the first trailer for The Flight Attendant’s second season, Cassie once again finds herself smack dab in the middle of another convoluted set of circumstances despite all the work she’s put into... Continue reading…

Illustration by William Joel / The Verge Google is releasing the second Android 13 developer preview on Thursday, and it includes a major new feature: apps will have to ask your permission to post notifications. iOS has had a similar feature for years, and it’s a very useful way to make sure only certain apps send you notifications. I’m glad to see that Google plans to bring something like it to Android.Based on Google’s blog post, it sounds as if asking for permission will be a requirement for Android 13 apps. “Apps targeting Android 13 will now need to request the notification permission from the user before posting notifications,” Dave Burke, a VP of engineering for Android, says in the post. Image: Google Google’s example of what a notification... Continue reading…

Tile has announced that it’s rolling out its new “Scan & Secure” feature in its app this week, allowing anyone with the Tile app to run a scan to see if there are any unwanted Tile tags or trackers near you that shouldn’t be there.The safety feature (which was announced last fall alongside Tile’s newest tracking tags) has been a long time coming and offers both iOS and Android users the ability to check for unwanted tags. Apple offers a similar app for Android, which lets users scan for similarly malicious AirTag trackers, too.All trackers — whether they be Tile tag, Apple AirTags, or from another company — carry the potential for abuse by stalkers, and while these devices have been around for years, the recent surge in popularity h... Continue reading…

Image: Apple When Apple introduced the M1 Ultra — the company’s most powerful in-house processor yet and the crown jewel of its brand new Mac Studio — it did so with charts boasting that the Ultra capable of beating out Intel’s best processor or Nvidia’s RTX 3090 GPU all on its own. The charts, in Apple’s recent fashion, were maddeningly labeled with “relative performance” on the Y-axis, and Apple doesn’t tell us what specific tests it runs to arrive at whatever numbers it uses to then calculate “relative performance.”But now that we have a Mac Studio, we can say that in most tests, the M1 Ultra isn’t actually faster than an RTX 3090, as much as Apple would like to say it is.To hear Apple tell it, the M1 Ultra is a miracle of silicon, one that... Continue reading…

Anker’s impressive Soundcore Liberty 3 Pro earbuds, which illuminate when placed into the charging case, are on sale for just $129.99 today. | Photo by Chris Welch / The Verge This St. Patrick’s Day, you’re certainly in luck — that is, if you’re on the market for an affordable pair of noise-canceling earbuds. That’s because Anker is currently selling the excellent Soundcore Liberty 3 Pro for $129.99 on Amazon today, which is a $40 discount and the best price we’ve seen on the true wireless earbuds this year. These platform-agnostic earbuds deliver a lot of features and value for the price. We were impressed by their powerful sound quality as well as the fact they support LDAC (Sony’s higher-bitrate wireless streaming protocol) and multipoint Bluetooth, which allows you to connect them to two devices at once. That’s a feature not even Sony’s flagship 1000XM4 earbuds, which is our top pick for best... Continue reading…

Smokey the cat is his full glory on the Echo Show 15’s large display. | Photo by Jennifer Pattison Tuohy / The Verge As screens proliferate in our homes, it’s nice to put them to good use outside of when you’re using them. Just like your computer has a screensaver, your Echo Show smart display can be set to show pretty pictures when it’s not on active duty serving up YouTube recipes or streaming your favorite tunes and TV shows. In fact, all the smart displays in the Echo Show line double as more-than-capable digital photo frames.The current Echo Show range includes the Echo Show 5, Echo Show 8, Echo Show 10, and the newest picture-perfect addition, the Echo Show 15, The simplest way to use one of these devices as a digital photo frame is to use Amazon’s Photos service, which has free unlimited storage of photos for Amazon Prime members. But there... Continue reading…