The Verge

The BoostCharge Pro 3-in-1 Wireless Charging Pad with MagSafe | Image: Belkin Belkin has a pair of new wireless Apple Watch chargers it’s announcing today, which are notably the first third-party chargers to support the newly added fast charging on the Apple Watch Series 7.The larger of the two is the $149.95 BoostCharge Pro 3-in-1 Wireless Charging Pad with MagSafe, which follows in the footsteps of last year’s 3-in-1 Belkin charger. In addition to adding Series 7 fast charging, Belkin has ditched the odd sculptural design on the previous model in favor of a more normal-looking flat rectangular pad that will probably fit better on a nightstand. Image: Belkin The BoostCharge Pro 3-in-1 Wireless Charging Pad with MagSafe The new charger aims to hit the perfect trio of Apple charging:... Continue reading…

Photo by The Chosunilbo JNS/Imazins via Getty Images In the past several days, a number of headers, profile pictures, and tweets have disappeared across the wide network of BTS fan Twitter accounts. The culprit, the account owners say, is a recent barrage of fake DMCA takedown notices. Outcry from fans resulted in #TwitterMaliciousDMCA trending worldwide on Wednesday night.The owner of a fan account with over 233,000 followers, which posts videos, photos, and memes related to the South Korean band, claims that their original header and profile picture, as well as multiple tweets including their own screenshots and memes, have been taken down by the trolls over the past few weeks.Per the owner’s screenshots, the attackers appear to have reposted the account’s header on a spoof website in... Continue reading…

If you’re still stuck on level 1 of the Halo Infinite Battle Pass, fear not, as 343 Industries’s promised changes to progression are now live.The existing Halo Infinite Battle Pass makes it difficult to level up, as you’re limited to completing daily or weekly challenges instead of earning XP for every game you play. While that isn’t changing yet, 343 Industries has added “Play 1 game” challenges, which will “help make sure you consistently progress through the Battle Pass by playing matches the way you want,” according to Halo community manager John Junyszek.

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Microsoft is planning to add a new price tracker to its Edge browser, as well as a new feature that will let people easily change their passwords if they’ve been leaked online. The price tracking feature will be available soon and is designed to track products you’ve recently viewed and alert you of price changes.Microsoft has focused a lot on shopping improvements with its Edge browser and already has price comparison, price history, and built-in coupons in Edge. “This feature is coming soon and will be built into the browser, so you just need to browse as you normally would, and Microsoft Edge will let you know if any of the items you’ve recently looked at have changed in price,” explains Liat Ben-Zur, a Microsoft executive working on... Continue reading…

Why it bought an audiobook company Continue reading…

“Hey Jared, just read this and you’ll understand what NFTs are, ok?” | Photo by Nic Antaya/Getty Images Along with their usual dose of sports, beer, and violence, NFL fans will also get a digital token included with the purchase of tickets to certain games this season. Yes, they are NFTs from the NFL.The blockchain will never forget that you paid to see a Detroit Lions gameThe first Virtual Commemorative Ticket game already happened on November 7th when the Cardinals played the 49ers, and the next one is scheduled for Thanksgiving during the Bears / Lions matchup. NFL club business development senior vice president Bobby Gallo says, “Leveraging the emerging world of NFTs is a new and exciting way for us to create additional value and to further engage with fans who attend select games by providing a virtual commemorative ticket. There is... Continue reading…

Starbucks has opened an Amazon Go themed store in Manhattan | Starbucks Starbucks has opened a new “pickup cafe” in New York City that uses Amazon Go’s “just walk out” cashierless tech, the companies said Thursday. The store in midtown Manhattan is designed for customers who want to buy coffee or a snack quickly and can’t possibly wait the extra minutes they’d normally spend interacting with a barista or cashier.The new store on 59th Street between Park and Lexington Avenues is one of three Starbucks Pickup locations the Seattle coffeemaker plans to open this year. It has the full Starbucks menu and a “curated assortment of food and beverages” in its Amazon Go market section, including sandwiches, salads, and snacks. Starbucks’ senior vice president of global growth and development, Katie Young, said in a... Continue reading…

I watched some Radiohead concert footage with my good friend here. Kid A Mnesia Exhibition isn’t a traditional video game Continue reading…

Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge A Democratic senator launched an investigation into how publishers license ebooks to libraries on Thursday, calling on nine major ebook aggregators to provide details on the licensing agreements they make with libraries.Sen. Ron Wyden (D-OR), along with Rep. Anna Eshoo (D-CA), sent letters demanding that aggregators like Overdrive and EBSCO provide them with examples of standard ebook licensing agreements for every major publisher they work with, including Penguin Random House and Simon & Schuster.“Many libraries face financial and practical challenges”“Many libraries face financial and practical challenges in making e-books available to their patrons, which jeopardizes their ability to fulfill their mission,” the lawmakers wrote.... Continue reading…

Google’s new Pixel Stand wireless charger. | Image: Google Despite more than a few issues with the preorder process and shipping, Google’s Pixel 6 and Pixel 6 Pro have made their way into the world, and now the company is ready to sell an upgraded version of its Pixel Stand for wireless charging on your desk or side table. This new stand costs $79, just like the first-gen model did when it launched in 2018 with the Pixel 3.Like the original, it automatically adjusts the phone’s UI for docked use to pull up photo frames or shortcuts to your Nest Security cameras and can switch into do not disturb mode at night.However, this time around, Google is trying to justify that relatively high price by offering faster charging. The new Pixel Stand can charge compatible phones at up to 23 watts, which,... Continue reading…

Nreal Nreal’s augmented reality glasses are coming to the US through a Verizon partnership. The $599 Nreal Light glasses will appear in 20 Verizon stores nationwide on November 30th and be available for purchase online December 2nd. The glasses are compatible with several recent 5G-enabled Samsung phones and one OnePlus 5G device.The Nreal Light is one of the only consumer-focused AR headsets on the market. The Light glasses launched first in Korea last year, and they’ve since expanded to Japan and Germany. They support projecting 3D images into real space using reflected micro OLED displays, while outward-facing cameras let the glasses scan real space and pin virtual objects — like screens or game boards — into particular locations. The... Continue reading…

After numerous leaks hinted that a new fighting game with Warner Bros. characters was in the works, Warner Bros. Games finally put the rumors to bed with the announcement of MultiVersus. The announcement was a three-minute trailer showing off a healthy chunk of gameplay and some of the initial roster of characters including Bugs Bunny, Steven Universe, and, curiously, Arya “A Girl Has No Name” Stark.MultiVersus is a free-to-play Smash Bros-like game director Tony Huynh says is focused on teamwork and social play. Characters are designed to be mixed and matched together with strengths that augment one another. In the video, you can see Steven Universe using his signature shield to protect his partner, while Wonder Woman whisks her... Continue reading…

Motorola has announced the latest version of its budget Moto G Power smartphone, which keeps the $199.99 starting price point and three-day battery life, but with additional camera, display, and spec improvements.The new Moto G Power (which I’m referring to as the 2022 model for sanity’s sake, especially considering that it’ll be out sometime in “the coming months”) has a lot in common with the company’s previous model released earlier this year. The new model looks to improve on most aspects of the device in one way or another, though.The screen is now slightly smaller, at 6.5 inches instead of 6.6 inches, but adds a faster 90Hz refresh rate for smooth scrolling. RAM has been bumped up from 3GB to 4GB, and the two storage tiers have... Continue reading…

For casual users, this $160 4G phone is good enough Continue reading…

Team red is at it again The AMD Ryzen 7 5800X has been discounted at Newegg, letting you save up to $75 with the promo code BFPAYA526. This brings the total down to $374, the lowest price we’ve seen for this particular processor. As an added bonus, this CPU comes packaged with a free month of Xbox Game Pass Ultimate.The 5800X is part of the latest Zen 3 architecture and uses the same AM4 socket used by AMD's previous generation of processors, which for most people should allow you to swap in this new CPU without having to invest in a new motherboard. This eight-core CPU has a base clock speed of 3.8GHz but is capable of up to a 4.7GHz boost clock speed. While this CPU is quite powerful, Newegg has also discounted the 5900X and 5950X to $524 and $746,... Continue reading…

Last month, Nvidia settled the age-old question once and for all — yes, it can run Crysis, whatever it is, as long as it can stream the company’s GeForce Now cloud gaming service. To prove it, Nvidia’s now giving away a copy of Crysis Remastered for free with every new six-month GeForce Now subscription, as well as the first wave of customers who’ve already subscribed or preordered GeForce Now’s impressive new RTX 3080 tier. It’s a limited-time offer.You don’t even have to play that copy of Crysis using GeForce Now, by the way — it’s a full PC copy delivered via the Epic Games Store, and you can run it on your gaming desktop or laptop too. It’s yours to keep even after your subscription is over. Nvidia says it’s the first time GeForce... Continue reading…

Photo by Dan Seifert / The Verge Ring is releasing some holiday-themed Quick Replies to add some cheer to its doorbell’s automatic answering feature. Instead of the usual “We can’t answer the door right now, but if you’d like to leave a message, you can do it now” types of messages, you can instead have your Ring greet visitors by saying “We’re busy wrapping presents right now,” or have it automatically thank delivery workers for bringing gifts to your door.According to Ring, Quick Replies are available on pretty much every Ring doorbell. While the feature is free, you’ll have to be a paying subscriber if you want any visitor responses to your doorbell’s “Happy Holidays!” greeting to be recorded (though you can watch them happen live without a Ring Protect plan).Like... Continue reading…

Alex Castro / The Verge Today, Spotify is finally rolling out its real-time lyrics feature globally, after previously only offering it in a limited selection of countries.The lyrics themselves are provided by Musixmatch, which claims to offer lyrics for “over 8 million” titles. and will be accessible on basically every platform where Spotify has an app. This includes iOS, Android, desktop computers, gaming consoles, and smart TVs. The feature is available to both free and premium listeners.As well as using the lyrics to sing along yourself, there’s also a social element which allows you to share lyrics to social media. Spotify says the feature will be available across the “majority” of its music library.Here’s how to access the lyrics (and share them) as... Continue reading…

Walmart and drone delivery company Zipline are launching a delivery service in Pea Ridge, Arkansas — the first commercial drone delivery service offered by Zipline in the US. Customers will be able to choose from “thousands of products,” though are restricted to health and wellness items like “over the counter allergy medicine, bandages, ibuprofen.”The project’s launch shows there’s continuing belief in the potential of drones to perform commercial deliveries. But the technology’s slow rate of adoption (Walmart first tested drone deliveries back in 2015) and the lack of large-scale implementations (the Pea Ridge service only covers a 50-mile radius) also shows there are plenty of questions to be answered if drone deliveries are to... Continue reading…

The Pixel 6. | Photo by Becca Farsace / The Verge Google has responded to allegations that the Pixel 6 and Pixel 6 Pro don’t charge as fast as some have expected, confirming that their charging speeds are a deliberate tradeoff for better battery life. It follows a report from Android Authority which found that the phones’ maximum power draw was around 22W, well short of the 30W that Google’s latest USB-C charging brick is technically capable of.Writing in a community support post, a spokesperson for Google confirmed that the maximum power draw of the Pixel 6 and Pixel 6 Pro are 21W and 23W respectively when used with its 30W USB-C charging brick. They added that charging speeds also decrease as the phones’ batteries fill up to preserve their longevity.In their post, they note that... Continue reading…

The new Halo-themed Xbox Series X. | Photo by Tom Warren / The Verge Microsoft has been having a hell of a time celebrating 20 years of Xbox this week, adding 76 new games to the Xbox backward compatibility library, launching a Halo-themed Xbox Series X, and a 20th anniversary translucent controller. But, true to the company’s habit of corporate mischief, it’s also been leavening its announcements with plenty of Easter eggs.The new hardware that launched this week features the best looking Xbox Series X console and controllers we’ve seen so far, particularly the stylish translucent one. All of this new hardware also includes some hidden secrets, too. For example, Reddit users have discovered that the Halo-themed Xbox Series X console has a hidden Zeta Halo symbol on the front. Image: R... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Microsoft is rolling out a new November update for Xbox consoles that will make it a lot easier to swap your controller between a console and a PC or laptop. Instead of having to trawl through menus to change connections, the update lets you switch between previously connected devices by simply double tapping the controller’s pair button.This feature has been available on modern Xbox Series X / S controller since their launch last year, but the new firmware update brings this option to Xbox One controllers with Bluetooth support and the Xbox Elite 2 controller. However, you’ll only be able to use it to quickly switch between a Bluetooth device and an Xbox console, and not two Xbox consoles.

Boost Mobile is introducing a full year of service for just $100. | Image: Dish Now that Boost Mobile will be on the AT&T network, after its owner Dish signed with AT&T back in July 2021, the MVNO is changing things up with its service plans. Today, Boost is announcing the first of many so-called “Carrier Crusher” plans it will be rolling out this holiday season.If you’re paying for your unlimited cellular service plan but have been living on a Wi-Fi connection since 2020, Boost Mobile is offering an interesting proposition for new and existing customers. You can get 12 months of unlimited talk and text, plus 1GB of 4G or 5G data per month, for just $100 for the year (plus tax) from Boost. This works out to $8.33 per month (again plus tax), considerably less than even the lowest cost prepaid plans. Both current and... Continue reading…

Ed Sheeran (right) serenades a Squirtle with sunglasses (left). | Image: Niantic Niantic has released details of Pokémon Go’s upcoming Ed Sheeran collaboration in a new blog post, a little over a day after first teasing the surprising crossover. The event kicks off on November 22nd at 2pm ET (11am PT), and will run for a little over a week until November 30th. The main feature appears to be a performance of some sort from Ed Sheeran, though what form this will take (a pre-recorded video? A virtual Ed avatar?) isn’t at all clear.Niantic says the performance will include songs from Sheeran’s new album, titled = (yes, the name of the album is the equals sign), and that it’ll be accessible from the News section of the Pokémon Go app. Right now, this section is just a news feed of announcements and blog posts, so this... Continue reading…

Mario Kart Live: Home Circuit, Nintendo’s AR-powered Mario Kart game that lets you race physical toy karts around your home with the Nintendo Switch, just got updated to version 2.0 with a much-requested feature: splitscreen local multiplayer.Previously, multiplayer Mario Kart Live: Home Circuit was a complex and costly endeavor. You’d need two karts — the base game only comes with one — as well as two Nintendo Switch consoles, and the action would play out on each player’s Switch screen. With the 2.0 update, you can hook up one Switch to a TV so both players can stay on the couch as they race their karts around the room.There’s also a new Relay Race mode that allows for multiplayer games with just a single kart. Between two and four... Continue reading…

© Disney © & TM Lucasfilm I have some terrible news: Disney has confirmed you’ll never get to try the “real” retractable lightsaber whose very existence, subsequent reveal, and patented design made us giddy back in April and May of this year.While the incredible disappearing lightsaber replica will indeed feature at Disney’s new Star Wars: Galactic Starcruiser hotel — a Westworld-esque experience for the very wealthy where stays cost upwards of $4,800 and yet is already sold out for its first four months — GameSpot and IGN report that Disney won’t be letting you touch that lightsaber for yourself.“Unfortunately, that lightsaber isn’t for guests to use or purchase. It’s strictly for use by the performers,” writes IGN.“Trowbridge confirmed in a group interview... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Cher Scarlett, an Apple engineer who helped organize pay equity surveys and anti-harassment / discrimination campaigns at the company, will be leaving the company and requesting the withdrawal of a complaint she made to the National Labor Relations Board (or NLRB), according to a report from Bloomberg. The software engineer announced on Twitter that Friday would be her last day at Apple. Scarlett’s lawyers told The Verge that she had reached a private settlement with the company, but she declined to provide details about the terms when asked by Bloomberg.Scarlett is leaving voluntarily, according to Bloomberg, unlike some other organizers who were fired from the company after speaking out. During her time at Apple, she was reportedly... Continue reading…

Photo by Rasit Aydogan/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images Streamlabs has promised to remove “OBS” from the name of its livestreaming software, Streamlabs OBS, following backlash from streamers and the open-source livestreaming platform OBS Studio. OBS Studio says it asked Streamlabs not to use its name, which stands for “Open Broadcaster Software,” only to have the company do so anyway. Streamlabs has also been accused of copying the website of another broadcasting software, with all the drama hashed out on Twitter.The controversy started when Lightstream, another livestreaming app maker, tweeted out screenshots of its website right beside Streamlabs’, saying, “Hey, can I copy your homework?” suggesting that Streamlabs copied Lightstream. Stu Grubbs, the CEO of Lightstream, later retweeted the... Continue reading…

Photo by Sean Krajacic - Pool/Getty Images The Kyle Rittenhouse trial in Kenosha, Wisconsin has once again gone off track because of basic technology problems: Rittenhouse’s defense attorneys today requested a mistrial because prosecutors sent them a drone video via email, which compressed the video in size. This is after earlier arguments about what pinch-to-zoom does or does not do, and the judge struggling with the screenshot features on his Galaxy S20.Rittenhouse faces five felony charges for shooting three men and killing two of them last year during a protest in Kenosha. CNN reports the motion for a mistrial is focused on when and how defense attorneys received a copy of a drone video showing the shootings that was shown to the jury in open court.Rittenhouse’s lawyers say... Continue reading…

Image: Mattel Here are some facts. Mattel promoted a new toy Barbie car on Wednesday by showing off a full-size mockup at the 2021 LA Auto Show. The mockup was, according to Roadshow, based on an all-electric Fiat 500e. Not long after, Mattel’s stock pared back early-morning losses and finished the day’s trading slightly in the green.Now, are those things related? Probably not. But weirder things have happened, especially lately. Hertz announced a deal with Tesla and hired Tom Brady to make commercials, and then Elon Musk said the deal wasn’t done. Rivian passed every automaker in market cap except for Toyota and Tesla despite only shipping a few electric pickup trucks. Startups like Faraday Future, Canoo, and Lordstown Motors have collectively... Continue reading…

One of 13 remaining copies of the Official Edition of the Constitution. | Image: Sotheby’s Say you want to buy an early printing of the US Constitution, but you’ve only got a couple of bucks. Normally, you’d be out of luck, but maybe not today: over the last week, a collective has formed to raise enough money to buy a rare early printing of the Constitution at auction, raising money from anyone who wants to chip in online.The document is expected to sell at Sotheby’s for as high as $20 million — what would seem to be an insurmountable price for a crowdfunding initiative. And yet, somehow, the collective has raised $27 million to date. And they still have more than 24 hours to go.There’s a lot going on here, so I’m just going to break it down piece by piece:

Meta Reality Labs Haptics company HaptX claims Meta (formerly Facebook) copied its patented designs in a glove that the tech giant revealed yesterday. HaptX — a longtime player in the virtual and augmented reality industry — says parts of the glove appear “substantively identical” to its own work using pneumatics to simulate physical touch.“We welcome interest and competition in the field of microfluidic haptics; however, competition must be fair for the industry to thrive,” said HaptX founder and CEO Jake Rubin in a statement. “While we have not yet heard from Meta, we look forward to working with them to reach a fair and equitable arrangement that addresses our concerns and enables them to incorporate our innovative technology into their future... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Instagram’s standalone messaging service Threads will cease to exist by the end of 2021, Meta has confirmed to TechCrunch. The app will display a notice prompting users to return to Instagram starting November 23rd.Threads was a similar idea to Facebook Messenger — it allowed users to send and receive Instagram DMs in a dedicated messaging interface outside of the main app. It had a collection of quirky features, including automatic statuses that the app could set for you based on what your phone was doing. All of those tools will be available in Instagram itself by the time Threads shuts down, the company said in a statement to TechCrunch.“We’re bringing the fun and unique features we had on Threads to the main Instagram app.”Meta... Continue reading…

PlayStation leadership has asked Activision Blizzard how it will address the allegations in the shocking Wall Street Journal report about the embattled studio, according to Bloomberg. PlayStation boss Jim Ryan reportedly informed employees of the action in an email.“We outreached to Activision immediately after the article was published to express our deep concern and to ask how they plan to address the claims made in the article,” Ryan wrote, reports Bloomberg. “We do not believe their statements of response properly address the situation.”Activision Blizzard and Sony didn’t immediately reply to a request for comment. We’ve asked Microsoft and Nintendo if they have communicated concerns to Activision Blizzard.The WSJ alleges Kotick... Continue reading…

My Amazon pods are headed to the recycler Continue reading…

EV startup Fisker Inc. has revealed the production version of its first electric vehicle, the Ocean SUV, at the 2021 LA Auto Show. It’s largely similar to the first prototype that debuted at the 2020 Consumer Electronics Show, though there are a few new standout features — including a 17.1-inch touchscreen that rotates from portrait to landscape orientation.“When you use your phone and type on it, you hold it like this, and when you take a picture or if you want to watch a movie, you turn the phone around,” Fisker Inc. founder and CEO Henrik Fisker said while miming a phone during a livestream of Wednesday’s event. “In our vehicle we have a screen, on a push of a button, it changes from portrait mode to landscape mode. It just rotates.... Continue reading…

Kia revealed the EV9 SUV, an extra-large concept EV with Soul-like angularity and an estimated range of up to 300 miles. Like the previously unveiled EV6, the EV9 will be built on Hyundai’s new Electric-Global Modular Platform (E-GMP) that the automaker says will serve as the basis for an entire family of planned EVs. The concept made its debut at the 2021 Los Angeles Auto Show.The EV9 may have the angles of a Soul, but it has the body of a Telluride. The concept SUV measures 194 inches in length, 81 inches in width, 70 inches in height, and has a wheelbase of 122 inches. That’s taller, longer, and wider than the Kia Telluride and certainly would fall into the category of “dangerously huge SUVs” if it ever gets made.The EV9 may have... Continue reading…

Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge A new iOS update is starting to hit phones — no, not the seemingly feature-packed iOS 15.2, but iOS 15.1.1, which Apple says will solve an issue with calls dropping. According to the update note, the new version of iOS “improves call drop performance on iPhone 12 and iPhone 13 models.”While we haven’t seen large amounts of users complaining about their new-model iPhones dropping more calls than normal, it’s nice to see that Apple is paying attention to how its phones perform as, well, phones.15.1.1 is worth updating to if you’ve been having issues with calls droppingYou can update to iOS 15.1.1 by going to Settings > General > Software Update. If you find updating to be a pain and haven’t been experiencing any call issues, though, it... Continue reading…

Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge In order to use the EKG feature on the newly available Withings ScanWatch, people have to first get the tool unlocked through a prescription from a healthcare provider — a first for EKG-enabled smartwatches on the market. Other smartwatches like the Apple Watch let people start using the feature right out of the box.The requirement was part of Withings’ Food and Drug Administration authorization, which says that the device can track heart rhythms and detect atrial fibrillation “when the monitor is prescribed or used under the care of a physician.” The extra step of obtaining a prescription came out of the company’s initial conversations with the agency, Shikha Anand, Withings’ chief medical officer, told The Verge.“We don’t imagine... Continue reading…

Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge If you’re looking to buy a 2022 Chevrolet (or nearly any GM vehicle) this winter, you might want to invest in a warmer pair of sweatpants: the company has announced that due to the ongoing chip shortage, it’ll no longer be able to offer heated or ventilated seats on virtually all its upcoming SUVs and pickups, as first reported by Automotive News.“By taking these measures, it will enable continued production and delivery of inventory to help respond to the strong customer and dealer demand for all our products as the industry continues to rebound and strengthen,” a letter to dealers from GM obtained by Automotive News reads.The change went into effect earlier this week on November 15th and affects a wide range of Chevy and GMC... Continue reading…

Photo by Becca Farsace / The Verge Google quietly rolled out a Pixel 6 update that addresses fingerprint scanner issues, as first reported by XDA Developers. The update details have been confirmed in a post on a Google Support page, which vaguely notes that it includes “minor bug fixes and some fingerprint sensor performance improvements for Pixel 6 and 6 Pro,” without really giving us any details about how the sensor was improved.Dan Siefert called out the fingerprint reader in our reviews of the Pixel 6 and Pixel 6 Pro last month, noting that it’s often finicky to use or slow to recognize your print. Google responded by saying that the scanner’s “enhanced security algorithms” may result in sluggish or unreliable performance. Google never really indicated whether the... Continue reading…

Rage shake your phone to tell Instagram about a problem | Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Instagram head Adam Mosseri said Wednesday that the company has added two new features to improve user experience, including a “rage shake” that will let users report a problem more quickly. If you’re using the app and it isn’t working as it’s supposed to, shake the phone while the app is open, and a pop-up screen will ask, “Did something go wrong?” with space for you to report the issue.This feature will give Instagram feedback that will help it prioritize bug fixes, Mosseri said. “You can explain exactly what happened, how you ended up in that place, and all of the emotions and feels that you’ve got going on, and we’ll have someone take a look at it,” he said.

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Discord has been quietly building its own app platform based on bots over the past few years. More than 30 percent of Discord servers now use bots, and 430,000 of them are used every week across Discord by its 150 million monthly active users. Now that bots are an important part of Discord, the company is embracing them even further with the ability to search and browse for bots on Discord.A new app discovery feature will start showing up in Discord in spring 2022. Verified apps and bots (which total around 12,000 right now) will be discoverable through this feature. Developers will be able to opt into discoverability, once they’re fully prepared for a new influx of users that can easily find their bots.Bots are powerful on Discord,... Continue reading…

A repair tutorial from iFixit shows a user accessing the internal electronics of an iPhone | iFixit Wednesday morning, Apple announced that the company will soon make parts and repair manuals available to the general public, reversing years of restrictive repair policies. The new policy represents a seismic shift for a company that has fought independent repair for years by restricting access to parts, manuals, and diagnostic tools, designing products that are difficult to fix, and lobbying against laws that would enshrine the right to repair.But Apple didn’t change its policy out of the goodness of its heart. The announcement follows months of growing pressure from repair activists and regulators — and its timing seems deliberate, considering a shareholder resolution environmental advocates filed with the company in September asking... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Robinhood has revealed that “several thousand entries” in a list obtained by hackers included phone numbers, indicating that a November 3rd security breach compromised more information than the company originally reported. More precisely, the list contains around 4,400 phone numbers according to Motherboard, which reportedly obtained the list from a “proxy for the hackers.”Earlier this month, Robinhood reported that an employee falling victim to a social engineering attack led to hackers obtaining 5 million customers’ emails, and 2 million customers’ names. Additionally, around 300 customers had more details like zip codes and dates of birth stolen, while 10 customers had “more extensive account details revealed.” Phone numbers weren’t... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Update November 17th, 1:00PM ET: Verizon’s waves of PlayStation 5 consoles on its site have ended for today, as it now only shows out of stock. We’ll be sure to keep you up to date when we hear about the next restocks from Verizon and all the usual retailers.If you’re shopping for Sony’s next-gen console, it may feel like a PlayStation 5 is one of the scarcest materials on the planet. The PS5 launched more than a year ago, yet it remains difficult to get a hold of one. Things have gotten a bit easier recently, with more frequent restocks from retailers and directly through Sony, but the struggle is real.But right now, Verizon customers can pick up the standard, disc-based PS5 for $500 directly from the carrier. The console listing is... Continue reading…

Photo by Drew Angerer/Getty Images Activision Blizzard shareholders issued a letter calling for the resignation of CEO Bobby Kotick and two long-serving members of the board of directors a day after the Wall Street Journal reported Kotick not only knew about numerous cases of sexual harassment at the company but worked to cover them up.“As new reporting indicates, and in contrast to past company statements, CEO Bobby Kotick was aware of many incidents of sexual harassment, sexual assault, and gender discrimination at Activision Blizzard,” wrote the SOC Investment Group, which works on behalf of union pension funds invested in Activision Blizzard and other companies. “We, therefore, call on Mr. Kotick to resign as CEO of the company.”The letter also calls for the... Continue reading…

Illustration by Anuj Shrestha Netflix’s secret sauce is something none of us ever see Continue reading…

Amazon’s first TV has an appealing price and useful features but isn’t on par where it counts Continue reading…