The Verge

The remote interface featuring a large touchpad and shortcut buttons. | Photo by Thomas Ricker / The Verge Google has updated its Google Home Android app to add a built-in remote for Android TV, Google TV, and other devices like the Nvidia Shield. The feature, which was spotted by 9to5Google, is a helpful option if you misplace a physical remote control. To use it, head to the page in the Google Home app for the device you want to control, and then tap “Open remote” in the bottom left corner of the page.Although the Google Home remote feature is only available on Android for now, its eventual launch on iOS has the potential to be the far more useful addition. That’s because Android users already have the option of using a similar software remote via the Google TV app as well as a remote tile in quick settings. iOS users, meanwhile, don’t... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge The EU’s second-most senior court, the General Court, has upheld a 2017 ruling by the European Commission which found that Google broke antitrust law in how it used its search engine to promote its shopping comparison service and demote those of its rivals.Google and its parent company Alphabet appealed the decision, but the General Court today dismissed that appeal and upheld a fine of €2.4 billion ($2.8 billion). Google and Alphabet now have the option to appeal the decision yet again with the EU’s highest court, the European Court of Justice (ECJ).This is one of three antitrust cases pursued against GoogleThis outcome is significant as it strengthens antitrust arguments made by the EU’s influential competition commissioner... Continue reading…

The UI will look familiar to anyone who’s played the original games. | Screenshot: Grand Theft Auto: The Trilogy — The Definitive Edition Gameplay footage from Rockstar’s upcoming remaster of its PS2-era Grand Theft Auto trilogy has appeared online, after gameplay footage was apparently uploaded from early copies. VGC has collected together three YouTube uploads and one Reddit post, which between them show over an hour of footage of Grand Theft Auto III, Grand Theft Auto: Vice City, and Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas.Although Grand Theft Auto: The Trilogy — The Definitive Edition is just one day away from release, Rockstar hasn’t shared any substantial gameplay footage from the remastered games. A trailer released last month focused almost exclusively on cutscenes from the three games rather than the gameplay enhancements Rockstar is promising for the almost two-decade-old... Continue reading…

It seems like the doctors were just at Theranos for show Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Epic v. Apple judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers says Apple must comply with an order to let developers add links and buttons to external payment options, denying the company’s motion for a stay. “Apple’s motion is based on a selective reading of this Court’s findings and ignores all of the findings which supported the injunction,” her new order reads.Judge Gonzalez Rogers issued her order after a Tuesday hearing concerning the blockbuster antitrust lawsuit, which Fortnite publisher Epic Games filed in 2020 and which went to trial this year. During the hearing, Apple said it needed more time to rewrite its anti-steering policies — rules that bar app developers from linking to payment methods besides the iOS App Store.“This will be the first... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Meta, the new name for the parent company that oversees Facebook and Instagram, suddenly wants to be less creepy. According to a post on the Meta for Business blog, the company is blocking advertisers from using detailed ad targeting options that show ads based on your engagement in “sensitive” areas including race or ethnicity, religious views, political beliefs, sexual orientation, health, and a whole lot more.“We’ve heard concerns from experts that targeting options like these could be used in ways that lead to negative experiences for people in underrepresented groups,” Graham Mudd, Meta’s vice president for marketing and ads writes in the post.Meta emphasizes that detailed targeting options aren’t actually based on your physical... Continue reading…

Iñaki Godoy will play Luffy in Netflix’s One Piece live action show. | Image: Netflix Netflix has revealed five key cast members for its upcoming show based on the hugely popular manga and anime franchise One Piece. The cast, announced Tuesday, will play characters in the Straw Hats crew, the central group of the series.The currently announced cast stars:

Illustration by Ana Kova Public skin image datasets that are used to train algorithms to detect skin problems don’t include enough information about skin tone, according to a new analysis. And within the datasets where skin tone information is available, only a very small number of images are of darker skin — so algorithms built using these datasets might not be as accurate for people who aren’t white.The study, published today in The Lancet Digital Health, examined 21 freely accessible datasets of images of skin conditions. Combined, they contained over 100,000 images. Just over 1,400 of those images had information attached about the ethnicity of the patient, and only 2,236 had information about skin color. This lack of data limits researchers’ ability to... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Apple has announced that Johnson & Johnson’s current CEO, Alex Gorsky, will join its board of directors. Gorsky’s move to Apple’s leadership team (he’ll step down from his role at J&J in January) comes at a time when the company is focusing even more on health and how it can make data more accessible to users and their doctors.In the press release announcing Gorsky’s role at Apple, Tim Cook calls him “a visionary in healthcare” who has a “passion for technology.” Apple hasn’t kept its ambitions in health a secret — the Apple Watch is largely seen as a fitness device, and its users can contribute data to various studies. Recent updates to iOS and watchOS have brought new health features that make it easier to share medical records with... Continue reading…

Valve’s $400 Steam Deck gaming handheld runs Linux, but it can play Windows games too. Many of them, anyhow! Some of the biggest games on Steam use anti-cheat software that doesn’t play nice with the Proton compatibility layer which lets Windows games work. That’s changing this year, with both Epic’s Easy Anti-Cheat (EAC) and BattlEye confirming to The Verge that support is on the way, and Epic says it takes “just a few clicks.” Valve says BattlEye support is as easy as an email.But will game developers let their games take advantage? Not necessarily! We reached out to every developer of every top EAC and BattlEye game on Steam. Initially, only four of them gave us a definite yes, but it seems we’ve got at least one more on the way.H... Continue reading…

An artistic rendering of SpaceX’s Starship lunar lander, developed in partnership with NASA, on the surface of the Moon | Image: SpaceX NASA is pushing back its target date for returning humans to the Moon, now eyeing a crewed lunar landing in 2025 instead of 2024 as originally planned. NASA blames the delay on recent lawsuits over contracts for the agency’s lunar lander, as well as changes to the scope of some of NASA’s programs and the COVID-19 pandemic.The space agency is eyeing a human lunar return with its flagship program, called Artemis. As part of the initiative, NASA hopes to land the first woman and the first person of color on the Moon this decade while working to figure out sustainable ways to live and work on the lunar surface. Artemis relies on a complicated suite of vehicles, including the Space Launch System, or SLS, a massive new rocket NASA has been... Continue reading…

Photo by Albert L. Ortega/Getty Images Unity, which makes the popular Unity game development engine, announced an intent to acquire the tools, pipeline, technology, and some engineering staff from Weta Digital, which is perhaps best known for its work on the The Lord of the Rings movies. Weta Digital was co-founded by LOTR director Peter Jackson and has worked on huge entertainment franchises like Game of Thrones, The Planet of the Apes, and many Marvel movies.The deal is a major bid by Unity to bring powerful new tools to visual effects (VFX) teams, game developers, and other industries that rely on computer graphics. It’s also a big move to compete with Epic Games’ Unreal Engine, which has been used by Industrial Light & Magic in The Mandalorian and by League of Legends... Continue reading…

Image: Ecobee Ecobee now gives you the option to pair its smart home monitoring devices with a professional security service. With the company’s new Smart Security service, which replaces the Haven service it formerly offered, you can enable 24/7 professional monitoring (which is still in beta) for an additional $10 / month as a part of the Complete subscription plan. This price is half of what Ring now charges for its Pro plan that comes with a professional live monitoring service.Ecobee’s Smart Security service uses the RapidSOS emergency response platform to send crucial data to emergency responders. It relays your home’s entry and exit data to first responders, as well as any video and audio snippets captured by Ecobee devices.Ecobee is offering... Continue reading…

Image: FuboTV Sports-focused streaming TV service FuboTV has surpassed 1 million subscribers, the company announced today. The news came as part of FuboTV’s third-quarter financial earnings report: it ended Q3 with 944,605 subscribers but crossed the million figure after the quarter closed.“FuboTV’s achievement of hitting the 1 million subscriber mark since the third quarter ended is an extraordinary milestone by any measure but particularly remarkable given the momentum of our business over six short years,” said co-founder and CEO David Gandler. FuboTV is also highlighting its growth in revenue, advertising earnings, and viewing hours. The latter reached 284 million hours of streamed content during the quarter, up 113 percent year over year. In his... Continue reading…

Image: Workhorse The new CEO of struggling EV startup Workhorse admitted Tuesday that he’s not sure the company’s C-1000 electric van can stand up to the kind of punishing work required by delivery companies. In other words, Workhorse’s EV isn’t a workhorse.“As I’ve talked to the big customers at UPS, FedEx, others, they expect to have these trucks last 15 to 20 years and go 15 to 20,000 miles a year and carry up to seven or 8,000 pounds of payload,” CEO Rick Dauch said during a revealing conference call about the company’s third-quarter financial results. “I’m pretty darn sure the C-1000 can’t meet those kind of stringent requirements. Okay? That’s the bad news.”More bad news? Not only does Workhorse have to redesign its flagship C-1000 delivery... Continue reading…

After an image of a Discord survey inquiring about users’ attitudes on NFTs went viral, social media erupted as people speculated if Discord would be the newest participant in the NFT scam race / gold rush.It’s not... yet.

Google launched a new app called Relate, a voice assistant that recognizes impaired speech. | Image: Google Google launched a beta app today that people with speech impairments can use as a voice assistant while contributing to a multiyear research effort to improve Google’s speech recognition. The goal is to make Google Assistant, as well as other features that use speech to text and speech to speech, more inclusive of users with neurological conditions that affect their speech.The new app is called Project Relate, and volunteers can sign up at g.co/ProjectRelate. To be eligible to participate, volunteers need to be 18 or older and “have difficulty being understood by others.” They’ll also need a Google account and an Android phone using OS 8 or later. For now, it’s only available to English speakers in the US, Canada, Australia, and New... Continue reading…

Keeping your earbuds clean is helpful, hygienic, and easy. Earbuds have been the listening choice of many for ages, and sales of wireless earbuds took off when Apple removed the headphone jack of the iPhone 7 and released AirPods. Since then, seemingly every brand under the sun, and even some resurrected from the depths, have released true wireless earbuds. Some are small and cheap. Some are big and expensive. Some have one-size-fits-most hard plastic designs. Some have user-replaceable rubber tips that accommodate different size ears. But one thing that unites all earbuds is that, eventually, they get disgustingly gross, with a buildup of earwax and debris that can hinder sound quality and reduce overall volume output. As a result, you should take the time to clean them once in a while.Here... Continue reading…

Image: Samsung Samsung has announced its next-generation RAM tech made for mobile devices, which it says can be used in future smartphones but also in servers, cars, and “the metaverse.” While Samsung’s press release doesn’t mention how its new LPDDR5X RAM chips could help people enter the “digital reality,” the tech should help make devices run faster and last longer.Putting the buzzwords like metaverse, AI, and 5G aside, Samsung is promising some real improvements to speed and power usage: it says its next-gen RAM will have 1.3-times faster processing speeds versus the previous-gen LPDDR5, will be capable of higher densities (up to 64GB per chip), and will use 20 percent less power than the last generation. Some of these improvements, according to... Continue reading…

Image: Netflix Netflix just brought its new gaming service to all subscribers on Android, but now it has officially come to iOS. The service gives users access to a limited selection of mobile games without ads or in-app purchases.A tweet from Bloomberg reporter Mark Gurman confirms that the five launch games are already available as individual downloads from the App Store. These include Stranger Things: 1984, Stranger Things 3: The Game, Shooting Hoops, Teeter (Up), and Card Blast. The just-announced game Hextech Mayhem: A League of Legends Story — which will cost $10 on Switch and PC — will be free to Netflix subscribers.

Photo by Monica Chin / The Verge Tim Sweeney has made many headlines this year as the main character of Epic’s turbulent courtroom war with Apple. But on Tuesday, the CEO appears to have revealed an equally noteworthy side of himself: He’s a Dell XPS 17 user.Sweeney’s affinity for the XPS 17 dates as far back as September of this year. The executive tweeted a link to Dell’s XPS 17 purchase page on the 19th, remarking that the laptop had “great options, simple view, customer-friendly defaults, reasonable prices, easy checkout.” Further down the thread, Sweeney complained that the high prices of entry-level workstations often drive developers to purchase gaming PCs instead.Almost two months later, a new tweet suggests that Sweeney has joined the ranks of XPS 17 users.... Continue reading…

Among Us — the incredibly easy-to-play, viral backstabbing game where you spend the majority of your time lying to your friends while doing cutesy inane tasks aboard a rickety deathtrap — is getting perhaps one of its biggest updates yet: one that will decidedly change the game and one that’s more than a little inspired by a popular mod that got squashed under the momentum of the official franchise.As you’ll read in the full blog post, version 2021.11.09 introduces crewmate roles for the very first time, giving your humble workers superpowers, like being able to tell who’s dead (Scientist), sneak through the same vents as the imposters (Engineer), or shield other crewmates from getting killed (Guardian Angel). There’s a new type of... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Walmart is hosting yet another restock event for the PlayStation 5. The latest one is happening today at 3PM ET / 12PM PT. The retailer has seemingly alternated between offering consoles exclusively to those paying for its Walmart Plus plan and others that are a free-for-all for regular customers, comparatively speaking. Today’s restock fits in the latter category, so you can head over to Walmart’s site to get either the $499.99 PlayStation 5 console that has a Blu-ray disc drive or the $399.99 Digital Edition that omits the disk drive.As usual, we recommend logging in to an account you might already have or creating one. It can help to have your billing and shipping info already saved in your account, reducing the time it takes to... Continue reading…

Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge Soon after the iPhone 13 launched, repair experts found that swapping out iPhone 13 screens would break Face ID unless you also moved over a tiny control chip from the original screen. It’s a complex process that makes one of the most common types of repairs prohibitively difficult for independent repair shops. (Apple-authorized repair shops, on the other hand, have access to a software tool that can make a phone accept a new screen.) For indie repair shops, things may get easier soon, however, as Apple tells The Verge it will release a software update that doesn't require you to transfer the microcontroller to keep Face ID working after a screen swap.The current transfer procedure looks to be quite challenging, requiring time, special... Continue reading…

Riot is bringing a new League of Legends experience to Netflix Games.Riot Forge, a publishing subsidiary of Riot Games dedicated to smaller, self-contained games within the League of Legends universe in collaboration with Bit.Trip developer Choice Provisions, announced its latest game: Hextech Mayhem: A League of Legends Story.Hextech Mayhem is a rhythm game in which you bounce League of Legends characters Ziggs and Heimerdinger to the beat of the music, unleashing city-busting bombs along the way. In addition to being available on Switch and PC on November 16th, the game will also be available at a later date to Netflix subscribers.Netflix recently announced it’s integrating games into its mobile app. While the initial offering of... Continue reading…

Illustration by Michelle Rohn The model talks about her new book, copyright law, online harassment, and OnlyFans Continue reading…

Photo by Jeff Fusco/Getty Images for Comcast This morning many Comcast Xfinity subscribers woke up without their usual services. Reports indicate the system was down, or at least unsteady, in areas stretching from Chicago to Philadelphia, New Jersey, and South Carolina. Looking at DownDetector, issues had been reported earlier in the Bay Area, but it’s unclear if those are connected to the problems people saw this morning.Comcast has released a statement regarding the outage. According to a spokesperson, “Earlier, some customers experienced intermittent service disruptions as a result of a network issue. We have addressed the issue and service is now restoring for impacted customers, as we continue to investigate the root cause. We apologize to those who were affected.” It appears... Continue reading…

Image: Netflix If you’re still reeling from the end of Squid Game season one, get ready to board the emotional rollercoaster once again because season two is coming.

The Surface Laptop SE is designed for schools. | Image: Microsoft Microsoft is going head to head with Chromebooks with a new $249 Surface Laptop SE, its most affordable Surface yet. While the software giant has attempted to compete with the popularity of Chrome OS in US schools for years, the Surface Laptop SE is the company’s first true Chromebook competitor.Surface Laptop SE will be sold exclusively to schools and students, starting at $249. It’s part of a much broader effort with Windows 11 SE, a new student edition designed to compete with Chrome OS that will ship on a range of low-cost laptops in the coming months. You can read all about Windows 11 SE right here. Image: Microsoft The Surface Laptop SE is all plastic. Surface Laptop SE is every bit the low-cost Windows... Continue reading…

Lego has announced its latest supersized Star Wars set: an $800, 6,785-piece replica of the iconic AT-AT tank, most famously seen assaulting the Rebel base on Hoth in The Empire Strikes Back.Unsurprisingly, the new set is part of the Lego Ultimate Collector Series lineup, which has offered ultra-accurate (and ultra-pricey) recreations of classic Star Wars ships and characters for years, like the recently released Republic Gunship or the adorable R2-D2.And while Lego has released plenty of AT-AT sets before, none of them are anything close to as cool as the new one, which stands 24.5 inches high and measures 27 inches long, with posable legs and removable sides to show off the interiors. The troop carrier is also fit to... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Netflix is finally mixing games into its gargantuan library of content. It’s a huge power play and a markedly different approach from rival services that are primarily focused on snapping up IP. It’s a new way for Netflix to keep subscribers hooked on its service — and gaming could just be its winning play for continued streaming dominance.Netflix has been experimenting with gaming for a hot minute, but the global rollout of games within the Netflix app itself, announced last week, marks a significant shift in the streamer’s strategy for getting those games to its users. (Games began rolling out to Android devices last week, but the company says that an iOS launch is “on the way.”) Netflix’s games will now be accessible to users much... Continue reading…

Windows 11 SE is a new edition of Windows for students. | Image: Microsoft Microsoft has created a new edition of Windows 11 designed for students and schools. Windows 11 SE will ship exclusively on low-cost laptops that are built for K-8 classrooms, and it marks another attempt by Microsoft to take on Google’s range of Chromebooks and their popularity in US schools.Microsoft has struggled to understand why schools and students have flocked to Chromebooks. The company tried an S Mode previously that essentially locked Windows 10 down to apps from the Microsoft Store. The restriction was more of an irritation for end users and schools, as there weren’t enough apps available in the Microsoft Store for it to make sense. Image: Microsoft Windows 11 SE comes with all the key Microsoft 365... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge All signs point to Sony’s PlayStation store opening the floodgates for yet another PS5 restock today at 2PM ET / 11AM PT. Before you get too excited, however, keep in mind that the chances for just anyone to waltz in and get one at that time are low. That’s because this one is apparently being hosted for people who received invites to purchase a console.Sony opened up registration for a PS5 invite in mid-October and promised that it would host November restocking events for those lucky enough to have been extended an invite. So for today’s restock, it’s likely that those who registered in October are now having their chance to get a console. If you recall registering a while ago, you should check your inbox now.Thankfully, all hope... Continue reading…

Illustration by Kristen Radtke / The Verge If you’re a longtime listener of The Vergecast, then you know that USB-C comes up a lot. Anytime our colleague Chaim Gartenberg joins the show, there is going to be a brief aside about the complications of USB-C and the many varieties of USB-C cables.The reason USB-C can be complicated is that we have one plug that does multiple things — from low power to ridiculously high 240-watt power. From basic data to super high-speed data. Thunderbolt. Display monitors. Audio. The dream of a single cable and plug is great, but it’s also confusing.For today’s Vergecast, we wanted to take a step back and focus an entire episode on what USB-C is, where it’s at today, and what’s in store for its future. How do we know what cable to buy? Why is... Continue reading…

Decent hardware saddled with old and tired software Continue reading…

Photo by Axelle/Bauer-Griffin/FilmMagic Apple CEO Tim Cook has confirmed that he has invested his personal money in cryptocurrency during a discussion today at the New York Times’ Dealbook conference. “I think it’s reasonable to own it as part of a diversified portfolio,” the CEO said during a conversation with Andrew Ross Sorkin. “I’m not giving anyone investment advice, by the way,” he quickly followed up, without specifying which specific cryptocurrencies he has invested in.“I’ve been interested in it for a while. I’ve been researching it and so forth ... I think it’s interesting,” the CEO continued.Although Cook confirmed his own investment in cryptocurrency, he was a lot more guarded about Apple’s plans as a company. He ruled out investing the company’s cash balance in... Continue reading…

Photo by Wyze Wyze, the brand that’s known for its budget-friendly line of smart home products, has just introduced a new affordable security device to its ecosystem: the Wyze Floodlight Cam. Photo by Wyze The wired Wyze Floodlight Cam sits at a price of $84.99 (plus $14.99 for shipping), which is quite a bit lower when compared to other floodlight cams in the same range. Ring’s Floodlight Cam Wired Plus, for example, sells for $179.99. On the higher end of the scale, the Arlo Pro 3 Floodlight Camera costs $249.99, and the same goes for the feature-filled Ring Floodlight Cam Pro.In terms of specs, it actually surpasses its direct competitor — the Ring Floodlight Cam Wired Plus — and it’s also almost $100 less. The Wyze... Continue reading…

Photo by Dan Seifert / The Verge Google’s second-gen Nest Hub already comes with the ability to help you track your sleep pattern, thanks to its Soli-powered Sleep Sensing feature, but now Google is rolling out an update that should help you get a more detailed look at the quality of your slumber. According an announcement post on the company’s Keyword blog, the Nest Hub will now display a Sleep Staging chart that shows your various stages of sleep, including how long you were awake or experiencing REM, light, or deep sleep. Photo: Google Google is also adding an update to the Nest Hub’s sound detection. Instead of capturing all the sounds in your room while you sleep, it should only track the coughs and snores it detects from your calibrated... Continue reading…

Photo Illustration by Grayson Blackmon / The Verge Better, faster, smaller chargers Continue reading…

After two months, the Elizabeth Holmes trial has settled into some particular rhythms. Reporters and curious onlookers line up in the early hours of the morning for access to the trial, clutching coffees from the Starbucks down the street. Holmes shows up in colorful masks, often holding hands with her mother. And Judge Edward Davila lectures everyone sitting in the public section of the courtroom about typing too loudly.I was in the courtroom last month for one such admonition. Apparently, jurors had been complaining that the typing noises from people taking notes about the trial — which isn’t recorded and doesn’t have a call-in line — were distracting them from paying attention to the testimony. Davila keeps threatening to kick... Continue reading…

Image: Qualcomm While a lot of talk about the metaverse has focused on virtual reality experiences that use a VR headset to put people in digital environments, other approaches use augmented reality (AR) or mixed reality (XR) to blend digital and physical elements. Today at the Augmented World Expo, Qualcomm is revealing its Snapdragon Spaces XR Developer Platform, a kit that will help devs expand existing apps and create new ones to take advantage of AR devices you wear on your head.Today’s announcement doesn’t include mention of new hardware, however, Qualcomm is lining up some important partners for the mixed reality future that it’s been planning for the last decade. They include Niantic and its recently revealed Lightship platform for “real-world... Continue reading…

For the aesthetic Continue reading…

Illustration by Richard Parry Great gifts don’t always require you to splurge Continue reading…

Typewriter-style keycaps plus five emoji-focused keys. | Image: Logitech Logitech has a trio of colorful new peripherals coming to the US this month: a $99.99 Pop Keys keyboard, a $39.99 Pop Mouse, and a $19.99 Desk Mat. In contrast with Logitech’s usual sensibly styled and office-appropriate peripherals, these Studio Series devices are bright and cutesy. They’re each available in three color-coordinate schemes: yellow and black; pink; and purple and yellow options.If you’ve been eyeing the kinds of colorful, typewriter-styled keyboards that have flooded TikTok in recent months but want a model from a well-known household name, then the Pop Keys could be worth a look. You can read my full impressions of the keyboard in my review or read on for a summary along with my initial impressions of the mouse.Both... Continue reading…

Expect to see plenty of great deals on 4K TVs as we get ever closer to Black Friday at the end of the month. But one of those must-see deals is happening today at Best Buy. The latest version of Hisense’s 55-inch U7G Series TV normally costs $850, but the retailer is selling it for $650 while also throwing in three months free of Apple TV Plus. The TV comes equipped with a 120Hz panel with support for Dolby Vision, HDR 10, and HDR10 Plus. Google Assistant is available right out of the box, as are major streaming apps, including YouTube, Disney Plus, HBO Max, and more.For the money, it seems tough to find a TV that’s better equipped to provide fast refresh rates for PS5 and Xbox Series X games than the U7G.Note this model also is... Continue reading…

You.com Google Search organizes the way billions of people think about facts and data, and for years, it’s been organized around a principle dubbed “one true answer”: the idea that most people are looking for something best answered by a succinct factual snippet. But that’s not the only way people might navigate the web, and today, a company called You.com is trying something different: a search engine built around sorting and comparing results.You.com, founded by two former Salesforce employees, is opening today in public beta and announcing a $20 million funding round led by Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff. The service abandons the linear list of links you’ll find in most general-purpose search engines, opting for a grid of answers organized by... Continue reading…

Peloton is moving into strength training with its latest product, the Peloton Guide, a TV-connected camera that can display workouts and track your movements in real time to help make sure you’re doing things properly.Peloton Guide is also the company’s cheapest product yet, set to cost $495 at launch in “early 2022” for a bundle that includes the Guide camera, the company’s newly updated Peloton Heart Rate Band, and a remote. You’ll have to provide other workout equipment like weights or resistance bands on your own, though.Additionally, Guide owners will need a $12.99 per month membership (the same price that Peloton charges for its app-only subscription) to use the service, although if you already own a Tread or Bike and pay for... Continue reading…

Photo by Michele Doying / The Verge Hey hey, Tuesday’s back again. Today’s a relatively tame one, but Aria has a fun piece on the website that we’ll tease below, along with a whole debacle around attributing podcast plays to Facebook. We’re talking user agents, yes, and then we’re getting into the wild world of podcast prefixes. It’s gonna get wonky up in here; let’s get to it.Music meets podcasting(First up: Aria has a programming announcement — I’ll let her take it away.)Morning, y’all! Aria here. I wrote a story for all of you about a funny feature popping up in podcasts: full musical tracks with lyrics and vocals.Maybe you’re thinking, “Well, that sounds messy. Songs with words? Within a format that’s already… mostly words?” That’s an appropriate reaction. At... Continue reading…

Photo by Jay Peters / The Verge Fitbit released its Charge 5 fitness tracker with a brand new design and a color screen in September, but it launched without two key software features: an electrocardiogram (ECG) app and Fitbit’s new Daily Readiness Score, which recommends how hard you should work out. More than a month after the Charge 5’s release, those features are now rolling out.The ECG app takes a reading of your heart’s rhythm to assess for atrial fibrillation. To take the reading, open the app, put your fingers on the stainless steel panels on each side of the Charge 5, and wait for 30 seconds. Image: Fitbit Each side of the Charge 5 has a stainless steel panel where you place your fingers during an ECG test. ECG apps are showing up... Continue reading…

Image: Motional Motional, the autonomous vehicle company that is a $4 billion joint venture between Hyundai and Aptiv, announced the city in which it would launch its fully driverless robotaxi service in 2023, and surprise, surprise, it’s Las Vegas.Motional first began testing its autonomous vehicles in Las Vegas through a joint partnership with Lyft nearly four years ago. The testing began as a weeklong pilot between Aptiv and Lyft during the annual Consumer Electronics Show in 2018 and has since gone on to complete over 100,000 passenger trips.Motional as a joint venture was first announced in March 2020, when Hyundai said it would spend $1.6 billion to catch up to its rivals in the autonomous vehicle space. Aptiv, a technology company formerly... Continue reading…