The Verge

The Alpha Motor Ace electric coupe design. | Images: Alpha Motor Corporation Alpha Motor Corporation is nominally an electric vehicle startup. It has spent the last year pumping out retro-futuristic design after retro-futuristic design, one of which just won the award at this year’s LA Auto Show for best electric coupe. But for every new vehicle design Alpha Motor Corporation has released, there are more questions left unanswered. How is the startup funded? What are its plans to build these vehicles? What exactly is Alpha Motor Corporation?Bengt Halvorson at Green Car Reports put up a mighty effort trying to track down some of those answers in August. He found some, sort of — it appears that the startup was founded, and perhaps funded, by the same person (or people behind) another EV startup called Neuron, which... Continue reading…

You should now be able to download iOS 15.2 | Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Apple’s iOS 15.2, which includes a ton of features and fixes, has started to become roll out to iPhones after an extensive beta period. According to Apple’s release notes, posted by 9to5Mac and MacRumors, the update includes:

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge TikTok says that around 430 songs exceeded 1 billion video views on the platform this year, three times as many songs as last year, as noted in 2021’s Year on TikTok Music Report. Some of the most popular songs in this bracket garnered around or above 20 billion views in videos that use them as soundtracks.Over 175 trending TikTok songs made it to the Billboard Hot 100 this yearTikTok’s yearly recap also includes some numbers on how these songs performed when not attached to a TikTok video. Over 175 trending TikTok songs made it to the Billboard Hot 100 this year, up from 90 in 2020. TikTok also takes credit for helping a number of artists skyrocket themselves to stardom, like ex-Verizon employee Tai Verdes, who made it to the... Continue reading…

Tracker Detect works on Android 9 and above. | Image: Apple Apple has released an app called Tracker Detect, which the company says will let Android users search for AirTags or other Find My-compatible trackers, such as the Chipolo One Spot tracking tag (via CNET). According to the app, it looks for devices that have been separated from their owners — if it finds any, it will let you play a sound on it so you can locate it, and it will give you instructions on how to figure out who the AirTag belongs to and how to disable it if need be.Apple announced that this app was coming in June, promising that it would allow Android users to find potentially malicious trackers being used without their knowledge. Unlike on iOS, though, it doesn’t seem like this app will constantly do scans in the background... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge If you haven’t been able to secure a PlayStation 5 or Xbox Series X, you might be in luck. Walmart is opening orders for Sony’s $499.99 PS5 Disc Edition and Microsoft’s $499.99 Xbox Series X (online only) at 3PM ET today, December 13th.Several previous drops have been limited to people who pay for its Walmart Plus subscription, but this one is open to everyone in the US — no extra fees necessary.Remember, it’s usually the first who gets the worm, but not always. If you miss out on the first wave at Walmart, the retailer usually releases more in 10-minute intervals, with the next being at 3:10PM, 3:20PM, and so forth until it runs out of stock. For your best chance, try reloading the page just a few seconds before 3PM ET, and possibly... Continue reading…

Microsoft is now selling its own Xbox Red Ring of Death poster to commemorate the release of the Power On: The Story of Xbox docuseries. The six-part documentary is a warts and all look at 20 years of Xbox highs and lows, including the infamous red ring of death.The Xbox 360’s red ring of death was represented by three out of the four LEDs on an Xbox 360 turning red, a problem that affected a lot of initial consoles as failure rates were incredibly high. It indicated a hardware failure, and it meant Xbox 360 owners had to send their console in for repair.In chapter five of Power On, former Xbox chief Peter Moore reflects on the mistake that cost Microsoft more than $1 billion to fix. “By the time we looked at the cost of repairs, the... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge We’ve heard you: many of you are still trying to secure a new video game system, and we’ve done what we can to help people find them. But now, a year after the “next-gen” PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X, and Xbox Series S consoles debuted, they’re still in short supply — and the same goes for Nintendo’s Switch and Switch OLED.The retail sales trackers at NPD Group said console hardware sales in November have fallen off by 38 percent to $883 million in November compared to the same month in 2020, which is when the new PlayStation and Xbox launched.That drop comes despite a still-intense desire to obtain the systems, as well as the availability of a new version of Nintendo’s console. This past November, the Switch still dominated sales,... Continue reading…

White House / Flickr President Biden is expected to sign an executive order on Monday that would make it easier for Americans to access a broad swath of federal services and benefits, like renewing a passport or accessing retirement benefits.“This executive order is really focused on how the federal government delivers services to the public and ensuring that we deliver a high quality product to the public,” Neera Tanden, senior advisor to the president, told reporters on a press call on Monday. “So, we looked at the points of greatest friction for people with their government like filing taxes, applying for Social Security benefits, waiting in TSA lines, and focused on ways to reduce that friction.”The executive order streamlines government services that... Continue reading…

Or just right click > save image to save yourself $$$. | Image via OpenSea How much have you ever lost on a typo? Probably not hundreds of thousands of dollars. But that’s just what happened to one unlucky individual this weekend, who accidentally sold a Bored Ape NFT for $3,000 instead of $300,000 — all because of a misplaced decimal point.As first reported by CNET, the NFT’s owner Max (or maxnaut) listed the NFT for sale on Saturday. Max, who describes himself as a “solo-traveller, bored ape, marketing agency owner & NFT investor,” had meant to price the NFT at 75 ether (around $300,000) but accidentally typed 0.75 ether instead (roughly $3,000). Before they could correct the mistake, the NFT had been snapped up, apparently by a bot programmed to find and buy undervalued listings. You can see the drama play... Continue reading…

Adobe knows there’s a bigger audience of would-be creators out there than full-on pros, so it’s launching a new app that attempts to open up some of its more powerful tools to amateurs. The app, called Creative Cloud Express, offers basic versions of image and video editing tools, letting users work with layers, AI effects, and a huge font library, all with a simplified interface that’s supposed to make the features easier to use.“A lot of people need something simple and more accessible, and these customers are increasingly content-first and more focused on outcomes than process,” Scott Belsky, Adobe’s chief product officer, tells The Verge. Creative Cloud Express is designed so new users don’t have to “endure the learning curve” of... Continue reading…

A modern handheld that celebrates the classics Continue reading…

LiveWire, the electric motorcycle company spun out of Harley-Davidson, is going public by merging with a special acquisition company, or SPAC. The transaction will net LiveWire approximately $545 million at a pro forma enterprise value of approximately $1.77 billion, Harley-Davidson says in its announcement. LiveWire is the latest electric vehicle company to go public by merging with a SPAC, which are also known as “blank check” companies.LiveWire is merging with AEA-Bridges Impact Corp. (ABIC), a SPAC formed by John Garcia and Michele Giddens, two private equity executives based in New York and London, respectively. Garcia and Giddens teamed up last year with the express purpose of merging with a business that is working toward the... Continue reading…

Photo by Dan Seifert / The Verge Microsoft’s intriguing Surface Laptop Studio with an articulating display and a plinth platform to keep cool is seeing its first decent price drop since its release a few months ago. The base configuration that normally costs $1,599.99, and comes with an Intel Core i5-11300H processor, 16GB of RAM, and 256GB of storage, is down to $1,399.99 at Best Buy for today only. That’s more than a tithe off the plinth, though you’ll need to have a free Best Buy account to get this deal.This is a good price if you want a laptop that has a display that can be positioned in multiple arrangements, much like the Surface Studio desktop. Though, this deal isn’t for everyone to whom the Surface Laptop Studio tries to appeal, namely creative types who need... Continue reading…

You need to own an NFT that costs hundreds of thousands of dollars. Or do you? Continue reading…

Illustration by Kristen Radtke Small businesses say their livelihoods are threatened even when they aren’t running afoul of copyright and trademark claims Continue reading…

Sony’s new PS5 covers. | Image: Sony Sony is finally announcing its own custom covers for the PS5. The console covers will be available in black, red, pink, blue, and purple, and will work on both the regular PS5 and PS5 Digital Edition. Sony is releasing the black and red PS5 console covers in January in most markets where the PS5 is sold, with the other colors to follow in the first half of 2022.The new covers are designed to match the colors found on new pink, blue, and purple DualSense controller options. These new colors will be available in January, with the purple version being sold in the UK, US, and Germany through Sony’s PlayStation direct early access program. Other retailers will stock the purple DualSense controller on February 11th. Image:... Continue reading…

Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge Peloton has responded to a plot-line in HBO Max’s new Sex and the City reboot, And Just Like That..., turning around a commercial in less than 48 hours after the company’s stock continued to plummet in reaction to events on the TV show over the weekend.(Spoiler warning: the following discusses a major plot point from the first episode of And Just Like That...)The plot point in question involved the sudden death of Mr. Big (Chris Noth), who suffers what appears to be a heart attack after enjoying a 45-minute Peloton workout. That workout happened to be led by a character played by a real-life Peloton instructor (Jess King).Peloton says it approved King’s appearance in the show, but knew nothing about Big’s death. “We were not made... Continue reading…

Photo by Jakub Porzycki/NurPhoto via Getty Images Toyota is charging drivers for the convenience of using their key fobs to remotely start their cars. According to a report from The Drive, Toyota models 2018 or newer will need a subscription in order for the key fob to support remote start functionality.As The Drive notes, buyers are given the option to choose from an array of Connected Services when purchasing a new Toyota, and one of those services — called Remote Connect — just so happens to include the ability to remotely start your car with your key fob.The key fob’s remote start functionality is tied to the audio package that comes with the carBuyers are offered a free trial of Remote Connect, but the length of that trial depends on the audio package that’s included with the... Continue reading…

Photo by Olivier Douliery-Pool/Getty Images Long-time Fox News Sunday host Chris Wallace is leaving the network to join CNN’s upcoming streaming service, CNN Plus, as noted in a press release from CNN.The new show will be available when its streaming platform launches in 2022The 18-year Fox News veteran announced his departure during his final Fox News Sunday, stating that he “wants to try something new.” Sources close to the situation told CNN that Wallace’s long-term contract with Fox was expiring this year, and he wasn’t looking to renew it.Shortly after Wallace’s announcement, CNN revealed that Wallace will be hosting a weekday show on CNN Plus that features interviews with figures from the world of politics, sports, business, and culture. The new show will be available... Continue reading…

Sony’s entry-level buds stick to the fundamentals Continue reading…

Photo by TIM VIZER/AFP via Getty Images An Amazon warehouse in Edwardsville, Illinois collapsed following a bout of severe weather and tornados that ripped across the Midwest and South on Friday night. According to a report from Reuters, at least six deaths have been confirmed, and a number of workers are still unaccounted for.A post on Illinois’ Collinsville Emergency Management Agency’s Facebook page called the collapse a “mass casualty” incident. It later posted an update with a photo of the event’s aftermath, showing a large portion of the warehouse completely torn away by the storm.

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge A second Tesla employee within one month has filed a lawsuit alleging sexual harassment at the workplace, according to reports by Reuters and Business Insider. Erica Cloud, an assembly line worker at Tesla, filed a lawsuit in California’s Alameda County Superior Court, claiming that she experienced “continuous and pervasive” sexual harassment in the factory where she worked.Cloud’s managers are allegedly retaliating against herAs noted by Reuters, Cloud’s lawsuit alleges that her manager hugged and massaged her, and claims that she was also subject to her manager’s vulgar and sexual remarks. It also accuses Tesla of not doing enough to address possible sexual harassment in the workplace. Cloud’s managers are allegedly retaliating... Continue reading…

Echo smart displays — like this Echo Show 15 — can show you when your Amazon packages are arriving. | Photo by Jennifer Pattison Tuohy / The Verge Echo smart speakers and smart displays have a handy feature that can show and tell you when there’s a package sitting on your doorstep and even what’s in it. While this can be helpful most of the time, around the holidays it could seriously ruin some surprises.Avoid making any Grinch-like moves this holiday and manage your Amazon shopping notifications in the Alexa app to help keep the magic alive. Alongside options for tailoring package announcements, the notifications section of the app also has a number of settings you can toggle on or off to help make the voice assistant a little more helpful when it comes to purchases you make on Amazon. Below are a few of the most useful that you might want to tweak this holiday season.How to... Continue reading…

Photo Illustration by Rafael Henrique/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images Microsoft Teams has rolled out a fix for the dangerous bug that could prevent Android users from calling 911 — and you’ll want to install it ASAP (via Android Police). In his analysis of the issue on Medium, Mishaal Rahman, the senior technical editor at Esper, explains that Microsoft has corrected the issue in an update for the Teams app.If you didn’t end up uninstalling Teams, make sure to update it as soon as you canA user on Reddit initially discovered the bug when trying to call 911 from their Pixel 3, prompting an explanation from Google. The company said that the issue is triggered by an “unintended interaction” between the Android operating system and the Teams app. It only affects users with devices running Android 10 or... Continue reading…

New England Patriots cornerback Stephon Gilmore (24) stretches during the New England Patriots practice session in Foxborough, MA on Oct. 22, 2020. | Photo by Barry Chin/The Boston Globe via Getty Images You only have to look at the negative response to Ubisoft’s NFT gaming announcement and the number of people chortling along with Keanu Reeves to confirm that reactions to non-fungible tokens range from disbelief to outright dislike. However, that hasn’t stopped DraftKings and the NFL Player’s Association from signing a new deal for a “gamified NFT collaboration.” The sports betting company plans to launch its collections during the 2022 - 2023 season.As far as how the operation will work, the details are scarce. The press release describes a combination that sounds similar to the NBA Top Shot / NFL All Day model with buying and trading, plus the ability for registered owners of NFTs to use their collectibles like many trading... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Former Apple employee Cher Scarlett says the company didn’t adequately live up to its half of a settlement, so she won’t withdraw her complaint to the National Labor Relations Board as agreed, according to Forbes.Scarlett says that her settlement with Apple required it to post “a company-wide memo clarifying employee rights including discussing pay & working conditions,” “in a prominent and visible location on the People site.” She says that the company did post a notice to its site, but that it was only up during the week that Apple employees were given off for Thanksgiving. “I’d argue all day that 7 days while no one is online for a holiday is absolutely not prominent and visible,” Scarlett tweeted on Thursday.

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Amazon Web Services (AWS) has provided an explanation as to what caused the outage that downed parts of its own services, as well as the third-party websites and online platforms that utilize AWS. In a post on the AWS website, the company explains that an automated process caused the outage, which began around 10:30AM ET in the Northern Virginia (US-EAST-1) region.The spike in congestion prevented the company’s operations team from using its real-time monitoring system“An automated activity to scale capacity of one of the AWS services hosted in the main AWS network triggered an unexpected behavior from a large number of clients inside the internal network,” Amazon’s report says. “This resulted in a large surge of connection activity... Continue reading…

Photo by Thomas Ricker / The Verge This Amazon-led casting standard for TVs could challenge Apple AirPlay and Google Cast Continue reading…

Image: Apple A report from the Financial Times acts as a reminder of what Apple’s App Tracking Transparency settings do and do not do to protect your privacy (via Ars Technica). While asking apps to not track you does keep them from collecting and selling data tied to your personal advertising identity, it doesn’t keep developers from collecting any information about you at all.The feature, introduced in iOS 14.5, is meant to prevent app-makers from tracking what you do and selling that information to advertisers. Companies like Facebook cried foul when it was introduced, saying that it would hurt their ability to show targeted, personalized ads, and therefore hurt businesses that relied on those ads.Companies have turned to aggregated and... Continue reading…

Keanu Reeves owns crypto, but thinks the concept of NFTs is just funny | Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge By now, you’ve probably heard of NFTs enough to have an opinion about them, and, as it turns out, so has Keanu Reeves.

Diarmuid Early competes in the second round of the Financial Modeling World Cup. | Image: Financial Modeling World Cup | YouTube Microsoft is sponsoring an esports competition with prizes totaling $10,000. The game? Well, it’s not exactly a game — it’s Microsoft Excel.Every year, the top Microsoft Excel users (players?) from around the world face off in the Financial Modeling World Cup (FMWC) (via PCWorld). The qualifying rounds already took place, leaving just eight Excel masters to compete for the FMWC crown. The quarter-finals, semifinals, and final round all take place today at 12PM ET via a YouTube livestream and the ESPN app.According to the FMWC rules, competitors are presented with a one to five-page long case study during each round. Case studies contain real-world problems, along with six to 15 questions that vary in complexity — the more complex a... Continue reading…

Image: Blue Origin via YouTube This morning, space tourism venture Blue Shepard successfully launched its third crew of passengers to space and back on the company’s New Shepard rocket, the first time a group of six people has flown together on the vehicle. The crew included GMA host Michael Strahan and Laura Shepard Churchley, the eldest daughter of Alan Shepard — the first American in space and the namesake for the New Shepard rocket.New Shepard lifted off just after 10AM ET on Saturday morning from Blue Origin’s launch facility in Van Horn, Texas. The entire flight lasted just over 10 minutes from liftoff to touch down. Riding inside a crew capsule on top of the New Shepard rocket, the six-person crew climbed to an altitude of 351,225 feet, or more than 66 miles... Continue reading…

Image: Apple The first season of Invasion on Apple TV Plus feels a little incomplete. Across its 10 episodes, which chart a handful of humans grappling with an alien invasion, the story slowly teases out the reality of what’s happening. There are hints here and there — a haunting artificial voice, a mysterious alien-killing weapon, a kid with seizures that may or may not show the future — but the biggest reveal of all doesn’t even happen until the very last shot in the final episode. It still managed to pull me in — but that pull has a lot to do with potential. Rather than standing on its own, the initial season of Invasion feels like the first chapter of a much grander science fiction epic.Invasion gets off to a slow start. Unlike most stories... Continue reading…

Things have chilled out considerably this week, both in terms of how cold it has become in parts of the US and how few deals there are compared to the hectic Black Friday and Cyber Monday extravaganza. However, that’s not to say there aren’t some fantastic offers happening both in-store and online. We’ll be keeping a close eye on deals in the next few weeks to make sure you get what you’re looking for ahead of the holidays.Alright, let’s get to the deals.Save $40 on the third-gen AirPodsI can’t remember the last time an Apple product was discounted so swiftly. That’s what is happening to the third-gen AirPods, which debuted at $179, but are now just $139.99 at Amazon (the correct price will reflect at checkout). While they resemble... Continue reading…

YouTuber “Mint Blitz” found a way to soar through the air in Halo Infinite. | Image: Mint Blitz on YouTube On Monday, a jaw-dropping Halo Infinite video kept showing up on my Twitter feed that looked like something out of a Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild speedrun.The video, from Australian YouTuber “Mint Blitz,” begins with Master Chief armed with a massive hammer behind a Warthog vehicle. In an impressive sequence taking place over a matter of seconds, Mint Blitz swings the hammer to send the Warthog flying while almost simultaneously using Master Chief’s new grappling hook on the vehicle to slingshot himself into the air like Spider-Man. As he’s soaring high above Zeta Halo’s treetops, he uses the thruster powerup — and then, inexplicably, just keeps flying forward. After 39 seconds in the air, he finally lands, gracefully setting... Continue reading…

This morning, Jeff Bezos’ spaceflight company Blue Origin is slated to launch another crew of customers to the edge of space and back. The crew cabin will be a little more crowded than usual: a total of six passengers will ride to space inside Blue Origin’s New Shepard tourist rocket, the largest group the company has ever sent up on one flight.That makes this flight a bit unusual. The launch also comes after an FAA investigation into the safety of Blue Origin’s rockets came to an inconclusive resolution.On board are a mixture of celebrity guests and paying spaceflight enthusiasts. Notably, Michael Strahan, a host for Good Morning America and former NFL rusher for the New York Giants, will be flying, along with Laura Shepard... Continue reading…

Still searching for endgame Continue reading…

The Matrix Awakens single-handedly proves next-gen graphics are within reach of Sony and Microsoft’s new game consoles. It’s unlike any tech demo you’ve ever tried before. When we said the next generation of gaming didn’t actually arrive with Xbox Series X and PS5, this is the kind of push that has the potential to turn that around. And it’s free to download on those consoles right now, so you should really give it a go.Just don’t expect it to make you question your reality — the uncanny valley is still alive and well. I jacked into The Matrix Awakens today after watching our exclusive interview with Keanu Reeves and Carrie-Anne Moss — they play Neo and Trinity, I’m sure you know — and hearing breathless praise around... Continue reading…

The return of a proper feed could come soon. | Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Instagram head Adam Mosseri used his story to answer people’s questions about the company’s plan to bring back the much-missed chronological feed, which he promised during his appearance at a Senate hearing on Wednesday. In a Q&A on Friday, he said that the company is testing out two versions of the feature and that it’s “targeting early next year” as a release window.One version of the chronological feed would let you “pick your favorites and they show up at the top in chronological order,” he said. The other would let you see the posts from everyone you’re following in chronological order, though he didn't mention how recommended posts would be interspersed. Images: Adam Mosseri Instagram wants to release the... Continue reading…

Apple Inc. CEO Tim Cook attends China Development Forum (CDF) 2018 | Photo by Visual China Group via Getty Images/Visual China Group via Getty Images Tim Cook has pushed Apple’s value within close range of $3 trillion, and a lot of that has to do with the former operations lead’s ability to manage a relationship with China, where many of its products are made and, increasingly, many of them are sold. A report this week from The Information relies on unnamed sources and internal documents to peel back some of the details about Apple’s ties with China.A 1,250-word MOU between Apple and China’s National Development and Reform Commission reportedly runs for five years and accounted for $275 billion in spendingThat includes a request Apple reportedly received in 2014 or 2015 about a small group of uninhabited islands that China and Japan apparently have a dispute over in terms of who... Continue reading…

Photo by Becca Farsace / The Verge OnePlus released the Android 12-based OxygenOS 12 to the OnePlus 9 and 9 Pro this week, but the company has already pulled it following reports of bugs and issues from users.“We are aware of the issues caused by the OxygenOS 12 update and our software team is fixing them,” OnePlus said in a statement to Android Police. “We will suspend this software update and roll out a new iteration as soon as possible.”The release has been widely panned. Android Police called it “just awful,” highlighting the need to toggle settings to get the 120Hz display to work again and that some menus “straight-up crash” as examples of issues. 9to5Google agreed: “For a so-called ‘stable’ release, OxygenOS 12 is riddled with bugs and issues that honestly make... Continue reading…

Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge In 2017 — long before Apple declared that cloud gaming could only exist on the iPhone if it jumped through gigantic hoops — Sony was preparing to launch its PlayStation Now cloud gaming service on mobile phones, a confidential document reveals.It could have been the single biggest expansion of Sony’s PS Now game service in years. Originally, the service streamed PS2 and PS3 games to smart TVs, Blu-ray players, and the PS3 and PS Vita, but cut off all those original platforms in late 2017 (coincidence?) to focus on the PlayStation 4 and Windows PC instead. While it recently added 1080p streaming and a PS5 client, it’s never been offered on Android, iOS, or Mac.But according to a confidential document unearthed by The Verge from the... Continue reading…

Photo by Vlad Savov / The Verge Sometimes when technology bugs out, I like a good and heavy analysis on why something didn’t work as intended. Mishaal Rahman, former editor in chief at XDA Developers, wrote an excellent explainer on why a 911 call on a Google Pixel 3 with Microsoft Teams failed during a real emergency — aptly titled: “How a bug in Android and Microsoft Teams could have caused this user’s 911 call to fail.”Rahman’s story explains the recent situation of a Pixel 3 user frantically trying to call 911 but attempts kept freezing the phone.

The company won’t be doing a company-wide pay raise to match rising prices. | Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Google parent company Alphabet announced its fifth quarter in a row of record profits ($18.9 billion) and second straight quarter of record revenue ($65.1 billion) in October, but a company executive told employees that Google wouldn’t automatically adjust their salaries to account for inflation. According to CNBC, Google’s VP of compensation Frank Wagner told employees at a company all-hands meeting on December 7th that Google doesn’t “have any plans to do any type of across-the-board type adjustment” when asked about the inflation rate in the US.Wagner did hint that the company’s compensation budgets “reflected” the higher cost of labor that comes with increased prices, according to CNBC. However, he said that the company would... Continue reading…

Last night’s Game Awards had some really cool surprises. We got a new Alan Wake announcement, we got the slit scared out of us by Slitterhead, and an adorable pot friend (like an actual friend in a pot, not a cannabis companion) dropped some Elden Ring lore on us. But there was one surprise that left me and my colleagues at The Verge confused, curious, and breathless for more: what game has alligator brides in it and how can we get our hands on it?Ming-Na Wen, savior of China and Boba Fett’s right hand, appeared during the Game Awards to present the award for Best Narrative (which, by the way, went to the very well-deserving Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy). During her speech, she mentioned that as the mother of a gaming-obsessed kid,... Continue reading…

You can now get the Switch OLED dock without the Switch OLED | Photo by Cameron Faulkner / The Verge If you’ve wanted to get your hands on the Nintendo Switch OLED’s dock, you’re in luck — Nintendo is now selling it on its online store for $70, $10 more than the original dock. The newer version of the dock has a slightly more rounded design, comes in white, and (most importantly for some gamers) trades one of its USB 2.0 ports for an ethernet jack.It’s nice to have the option to buy a second dock for your Switch OLED, should you need an extra or a replacement. You could also pick one up if you’ve got a non-OLED Switch and your dock is getting to the point where it needs a replacement. Nintendo’s own FAQ says the OLED’s dock is compatible with the regular Switch, though you may need to do a software update to get full functionality.If... Continue reading…

Illustration by Ori Toor It’s a good idea to prepare ahead of time in case of problems Continue reading…

Photo by Jay Peters / The Verge Many of Fitbit’s wearables are currently enjoying solid discounts at multiple retailers. A pair of highlights we noticed include the Fitbit Charge 5, normally $179.99, which has been discounted to just $130 at Amazon and Best Buy. Additionally, the Fitbit Versa 3 has been lowered to $179.99 from its regular $229.99 price tag at Best Buy.While the Fitbit Charge 5 does suffer from a relatively small touchscreen, the lightweight design and excellent battery life are a far more tempting offer at this price point. Read our review.We haven’t had a chance to review the Versa 3 yet; however, our wearables reviewer, Victoria Song, definitely recommends this Apple Watch look-alike at this price.Two variations of Samsung’s 8.7-inch Galaxy Tab... Continue reading…

Illustration by Ori Toor Viral photos are becoming a sore spot for protected sites Continue reading…

Photo by Jack Taylor/Getty Images The UK’s High Court has approved the extradition of Julian Assange to the US. The decision reverses a ruling by a lower court in the UK that blocked the extradition on the grounds that imprisonment in the US was a threat to Assange’s mental health and increased his risk of suicide.The US government has now successfully appealed this decision by offering a number of assurances to British judges. These include assurances that Assange won’t be held in a “supermax” high-security prison during pretrial or if convicted (unless he “commits any future act which renders him liable to such conditions of detention”) and that the US will allow Assange to serve any final sentence in his native Australia, if he wishes.As reported by Sky News,... Continue reading…