The Verge

This Chromebook didn’t blow me away, but I think the next one could be great Continue reading…

Illustrations by Alex Castro / The Verge Today on YouTube’s official blog, chief product officer Neal Mohan published “Look at 2022: Community, Collaboration, and Commerce,” where he announced new product features coming to YouTube this year.Neal also joined our podcast The Vergecast with Verge editor-in-chief Nilay Patel and streaming reporter Catie Keck to chat further about these new features coming to YouTube — including more editing tools for Shorts, interactive live streaming, monetization, a new YouTube TV interface, and more.Also in the theme of 2022, the discussion also covers this year’s most talked-about tech trends: NFTs and the metaverse.Here is a brief example of what you could possibly do with NFTs on YouTube, according to Neal Mohan:

The K70 RGB Pro. | Image: Corsair Corsair’s latest mechanical keyboard is the K70 RGB Pro, which adds a numpad to the K70 RGB TKL released last year while retaining many of its other improvements. These include reduced input latency, as well as a detachable USB cable and standard key layout that should make it easier to customize the K70 RGB Pro with third-party accessories.The K70 RGB Pro is designed first and foremost as a gaming keyboard, with an emphasis on speed and responsiveness. It internally scans for keypresses at 4,000Hz and can report them to an attached PC at up to 8,000Hz. Compared to more typical 1,000Hz keyboards, this should result in reduced input latency. The K70 RGB Pro is also available with Cherry MX Speed switches, which need to be pressed less... Continue reading…

Universal Pictures At this point in the Jurassic World franchise, humanity’s more or less just there to make sure that the dinosaurs have enough to eat as they once again ascend to the top of food chains across the entire planet. Everyone in Jurassic World Dominion’s latest trailer can feel this undeniable truth creeping up on them — not because of some sort of deep sense about how the balance of power is shifting on the planet, but because they can literally see living dinosaurs running around in their backyards like they run the place.The new trailer once again introduces us to dino-whisperer Owen Grady (Chris Pratt) and former Jurassic Park operations manager Claire Dearing (Bryce Dallas Howard) as the world continues to deal with the fallout of Dr.... Continue reading…

The fictional Cougars team from Playmakers. | Image: ESPN When ESPN canceled Playmakers, a critically acclaimed and popular drama about the lives of professional football that ran for a single season in 2003, they were pretty transparent about why: it had pissed off the NFL. “It’s our opinion that we’re not in the business of antagonizing our partner, even though we’ve done it, and continued to carry it over the NFL’s objections,” said Mark Shapiro, the then executive vice president of ESPN. “To bring it back would be rubbing it in our partner’s face.”At the time, Playmakers was the highest-rated program on ESPN, outside of actual Saturday and Sunday primetime football games. Now, almost 20 years later, Playmakers is hard to come by. You can buy it on DVD and probably download it using... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Inside the weird world of celebrity NFTs Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Gmail offers you several customizable formats — so many that you can have multiple Gmail accounts and they can all look completely different. For example, you can have all of your emails in one long list, you can separate your messages into multiple tabs, or you can have your inbox split into unread and read messages.In addition to that, there are several other ways to organize your inbox, from adding a reading pane to coming up with your own categories for organizing emails. Here’s how you can customize your Gmail interface and explore all of the options.How to change your inbox layout:

The Galaxy S22 phones come in three different sizes. | Photo by Chris Welch / The Verge It’s that Samsung time of year again when an Unpacked event announces new Galaxy S flagship phones to be the latest iPhone-fighters. In fact, it’s another year of Samsung triplets: the new models are the Galaxy S22, Galaxy S22 Plus, and Galaxy S22 Ultra. This time, they bring along Note-like functionality with the S-Pen — and the S22 Ultra even comes with one. But how do these stack up to last year’s S21 line? Is it a worthwhile upgrade? Should you sit this one out or hop on the S22 train and get that preorder in? Let’s break down the new Galaxy S22 lineup vs. its predecessor, the S21 line.Galaxy S22 vs. Galaxy S21What a difference a year makes — or doesn’t. In fact, you could think of this as an incremental year. The Samsung Galaxy... Continue reading…

The Key Light Mini is compatible with Elgato’s Stream Deck. | Elgato If you want to appear your best during a video call, or in any kind of video appearance, investing in a key light is a smart move (in addition to getting a good webcam, of course). And there’s a new, versatile option available starting today from Elgato called the Key Light Mini. Priced at $99.99, it’s a portable, rechargeable option that can be mounted magnetically to any surface, or attached via its 1/4-inch tripod mount to a camera’s hot shoe mount adapter, or onto a tripod (one isn’t included, though).Having multiple ways to mount the Key Light Mini is a distinguishing feature, but there’s more to this model, which helps to justify its somewhat high price. It has physical controls for adjusting its brightness or color temperature.... Continue reading…

Photo by Sean Hollister / The Verge Carvana gave me more than I ever dreamed it was worth — how? Continue reading…

Photo by Andrew Hawkins / The Verge The Biden administration announced a five-year $5 billion plan to shore up the nation’s patchy electric vehicle charging network, tapping into funds that were approved as part of the bipartisan infrastructure law signed last year.The funds represent a broader effort by President Biden’s administration to reduce carbon emissions and fight human-caused climate change. Despite a rise in EV sales over the last few years, at least 25 percent of all carbon emissions come from the transportation sector, most of which is represented by tailpipe emissions.Congress approved $7.5 billion for EV charging infrastructure as part of the bipartisan infrastructure law, $5 billion of which will be available to states to create a “network of EV... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge YouTube TV users are about to get some much-requested features baked into their streaming experience, including a wider rollout of picture-in-picture support for iOS — finally.Speaking with The Vergecast, YouTube chief product officer Neal Mohan said while he couldn’t share an exact date, picture-in-picture support on iOS should arrive “hopefully in the next few months” for YouTube TV users. The feature has been available to Android users for quite a while, but support for YouTube TV users on iOS is long overdue.During a lightning round of feature requests during the tail end of the show, Mohan also confirmed a handful of other support news exclusively to The Verge. YouTube TV announced support for surround sound last summer, but the... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge YouTube is expanding the ways creators can monetize their content, interact with viewers, and generate new ideas for their channels. The new features are being teased today in a lengthy blog post by YouTube’s chief product officer, Neal Mohan, and will roll out throughout the year.Firstly, YouTube Shorts is getting a trove of new features and tools this year. On the creator side, YouTube says it plans to roll out new video effects, editing capabilities, and the ability to reply to comments by creating a Short — much like creators do on TikTok.Plus, YouTube plans to introduce new ways for creators to monetize Shorts, including by expanding avenues for branded content, bringing Super Chat to Shorts, and eventually, enabling the... Continue reading…

Bose’s Quiet Comfort 35 II are just $179 today when you buy them from Bose. Noise-canceling headphones can be useful, allowing you to easily silence outside noise so you can better concentrate or simply tune out more easily while working, studying, or traveling. Unfortunately, many noise-canceling headphones can cost well over $250, including popular standouts like Sony’s WH-1000XM4 and Apple’s AirPods Max.If you’re looking for a stellar set for less, however, Bose is currently offering $129 off the QuietComfort 35 II, selling the over-ear headphones for $179 instead of $299. That’s $150 less than you’d pay for Bose’s newer QuietComfort 45, which are some of the best noise-canceling headphones you can buy. Despite their age — the QC35 II launched in 2017 — the last-gen headphones remain a comfortable and more... Continue reading…

Illustration by Claudia Chinyere Akole Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery — and the most profitable way to make a mobile game Continue reading…

The 42mm Connected Calibre E4 (left) and the 45mm model (right) | Image: Tag Heuer Tag Heuer has officially debuted its fourth-generation of luxury Wear OS-powered smartwatches, the Connected Calibre E4 series, offering a faster and more powerful processor, longer battery life, an improved displays, and additional software features. Tag Heuer is also bringing back the smaller 42mm size alongside the “standard” 45mm version, which the company didn’t offer back when the E3 series was released in 2020.From the outside, the new 45mm Connected Calibre E4 has a more streamlined design than the 2020 model, with less chunky buttons and a more pronounced crown to help navigate around the watch. It has a more traditional design, though, with a flat sapphire crystal covering the OLED panel and a pricier titanium option. The... Continue reading…

An artistic rendering of Proxima d, a likely exoplanet around Proxima Centauri. | Image: ESO / L. Calçada Our nearest neighboring star, Proxima Centauri, may be harboring an extensive solar system, as scientists believe they’ve found a third planet orbiting it. It’s a find that re-emphasizes just how commonplace planets outside our Solar System may be — and it provides us with a third possible world nearby to study and potentially explore.Located a little more than 4 light-years from Earth, Proxima Centauri has long captured the imagination of scientists and sci-fi enthusiasts as a prime place to visit if we ever venture far outside our Solar System. The celestial object became even more intriguing in 2016 when astronomers found a planet orbiting around it. Called Proxima b, the planet is located in the star’s habitable zone, where... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Twitter has just delivered its first major business update with new CEO Parag Agrawal at the helm. Its average monetizable daily active users (mDAU) rose to 217 million, a modest increase of 13 percent year over year, but below the 218.6 million some analysts expected, CNBC reports. Twitter added just six million new mDAUs since laster quarter: one million in the US and five million internationally. Overall revenue from 2021 was $5.08 billion, an increase of 37 percent year on year.Although the lines are all pointing in the right direction, Twitter has been hoping to grow far more rapidly than this. By the end of 2023, Twitter has said it hopes to hit 315 million average monetizable daily active users. If it continues to add users at... Continue reading…

Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge Update 8:18AM ET, February 10th: PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X consoles have sold out on Target’s website for now. Some Target locations may have a small selection of Xbox Series X consoles in-store, though you’ll want to call ahead first to check.Target is once again restocking PlayStation 5 consoles today. The major retailer now has the standard $499.99 PS5 console on sale, while the $399.99 Digital Edition and the $499.99 Xbox Series X are active on its website, which indicates that the inventory is about to become available shortly. Online options for the Xbox may be limited to the $34.99 per month All Access subscription package, with direct purchases available in-store only. For all of these, availability will depend on your... Continue reading…

Image: FREDERIC J. BROWN/AFP via Getty Images Microsoft’s gaming strategy is getting interesting Continue reading…

Workers assemble Model S Sedans at the Tesla Fremont factory in 2012. | Photo by Patrick Tehan/MediaNews Group/Bay Area News via Getty Images Tesla has been sued by a state civil rights agency for operating what it describes as a “racially segregated workplace” in California.The California Department of Fair Employment and Housing (DFEH) filed the lawsuit late on Wednesday, after the automaker published a blogpost pre-empting and denying the charges.DFEH director Kevin Kish said in a statement: “After receiving hundreds of complaints from workers, DFEH found evidence that Tesla’s Fremont factory is a racially segregated workplace where Black workers are subjected to racial slurs and discriminated against in job assignments, discipline, pay, and promotion creating a hostile work environment.”Warning: racist language and slurs as reported from DFEH’s case follow.The DFEH’s... Continue reading…

The Nord CE 2. | Image: OnePlus OnePlus has another entry in its Nord lineup coming next week: the Nord CE 2. The handset is the successor to last year’s Nord CE, and aims to be a more affordable, stripped-down counterpart to its mid-range Nord 2. The CE stands for “Core Edition,” similar to Samsung’s FE or “Fan Edition” Galaxy devices. The Nord 2 CE will launch on February 17th.The Oppo sub-brand is advertising that the Nord 2 “takes the best parts of Nord 2 and puts it into an even more affordable package.” Features include 65W fast-charging, a 3.5mm headphone jack, and support for up to 1TB of microSD expandable storage. A teaser video shows the phone will have a hole-punch notch on the top left of its display. Image: OnePlus The phone’s... Continue reading…

A new voice command feature is available in the second PS5 beta. | Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge Sony’s latest PS5 beta, which began rolling out Wednesday, adds support for a new “Hey PlayStation!” voice command you can use to open games, apps, and settings and control movies and songs. I’ve been able to test the new feature, and to my surprise, it actually works quite well, and I could see it being a genuinely useful way to navigate the console’s UI.One thing I was happy to see was that the voice command feature was opt-in — if that holds once the software update is released widely, that means you’ll have to actively choose if you want your PS5 to be listening to your voice. After I installed the beta, I had to dig into the PS5’s settings to a new “Voice Command (Preview)” section to turn it on.When you do, your PS5 will show... Continue reading…

100Mbps for $30 a month — or free, through a federal program. | Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge AT&T has announced that it’s offering a new tier of its low-cost Access from AT&T plan, which lets eligible customers get “up to 100 Mbps of symmetrical speeds” for $30 per month — a big upgrade from where the 10 or 25 megabits per second for $10 per month the plan used to max out. The $30 price-point may seem like a steep increase, but anyone who’s eligible and applies to the Affordable Connectivity Program can get up to $30 off their internet bill, which would essentially make the highest-tier Access plan free.Of course, the higher speeds are dependent on your address, with AT&T noting on its website that 100 Mbps is only available in limited areas. Your household income will also have to be under a certain amount to be eligible for... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Disney today reiterated its commitment to expanding its sports streaming portfolio, with Disney boss Bob Chapek confirming that the company is bidding for the NFL Sunday Ticket. Disney also plans to innovate its product around sports-centric features and its still-vague metaverse plans.Chapek confirmed the NFL Sunday Ticket news in an interview with CNBC during which he discussed Disney’s first quarter earnings for fiscal 2022. Asked by CNBC’s Julia Boorstin whether securing the rights is part of Disney’s roadmap, Chapek responded, “we’re bidding for it.” If the investment creates value for Disney shareholders, he added, “we’ll go ahead and do it, but the moment that it’s not, we’ll back out. And we hope it is.”During the company’s... Continue reading…

To close out a presentation that did not feature Mother 3 or Mario Kart 9, Nintendo debuted the trailer for a hotly anticipated Japanese RPG series that hasn’t had a new entry in several years. No, not The Sequel To The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild: it’s Xenoblade Chronicles 3.The trailer felt very much like a Xenoblade game, featuring agonized possible 14-year-olds ruminating on the nature of war, weapons accented with neon lights, and lots of characters running in gorgeous valleys with unfathomably large structures in the background.According to Nintendo’s press release, “Players will step into the roles of protagonists Noah and Mio amid turmoil between the hostile nations of Keves and Agnus.”Though the trailer didn’t... Continue reading…

Nintendo Switch Sports. Fresh off of launching the much-anticipated Pokémon Legends: Arceus, Nintendo held its first Direct presentation of 2022. And it was a big one: the livestream was 40 minutes long and featured surprises like a portable take on No Man’s Sky, the return of Super Mario Strikers, and a Wii Sports revival. Oh, and Mario Kart 8 is about to get a whole lot bigger.If you weren’t able to catch the whole thing, here are the most important reveals.Super Mario Strikers is backMario’s soccer spinoff is back after a long absence. Nintendo revealed Mario Strikers: Battle League, a sequel to the GameCube original, which looks to include the same wacky gameplay that makes it sort of like Mario Kart but for soccer. It also features support for up to... Continue reading…

You can now record and listen to past talks. | Image: Reddit Reddit Talk, the platform’s audio-only chatrooms, now support recordings. As outlined in a post on Reddit’s blog, this means you can now listen to previous talks as well as use playback tools that let you jump to certain timestamps, pause / unpause recordings, and fast-forward or rewind them. This should make it even easier for users to record and distribute live podcast-like sessions. Image: Reddit Talk is coming to Reddit’s desktop app “later this month.” Reddit also announced that it’s expanding Talk to the web and is bringing some handy features (that are already available on mobile) along with it. This includes the ability for listeners to raise their hands to speak and a way for moderators to mute users... Continue reading…

Mario Kart 8 Deluxe for the Nintendo Switch is getting a massive influx of new content, with Nintendo announcing that it’ll be steadily adding 48 remastered courses from previous Mario Kart games to the title over the next two years as part of its new “Booster Course Pass” DLC.Similar to how Nintendo released additional Super Smash Bros. Ultimate DLC characters, the reprised Mario Kart 8 Deluxe courses will be added in six waves of eight courses each released over the next two years. Given that Mario Kart 8 Deluxe current has 48 courses, the expansion pass will double the number of courses available to players once it finishes up in 2023. The first wave of courses is set to arrive on March 18th, and will include Coconut... Continue reading…

Will this drama never end? | Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge New Peloton CEO Barry McCarthy’s first day is not off to a good start.The company, which announced a major leadership shakeup at its Q2 earnings call on Tuesday, held an all-hands meeting meant to welcome McCarthy. Outgoing CEO John Foley was also in attendance. The all-hands was referenced in a blog penned by Foley revealing he was stepping down. While this is par for the course when companies change leadership, CNBC is reporting the meeting was cut short when angry ex-employees — who were just terminated — crashed the party.Citing anonymous sources, the CNBC report says that current and former staffers flung accusations of mismanagement and vented about yesterday’s terminations. As part of cost restructuring measures, Peloton let... Continue reading…

Heather Morgan was arrested on Monday, and goes by the online persona “Razzlekhan.” | Image: Forbes Yesterday, the Department of Justice announced it had finally recovered almost all the Bitcoin stolen in the 2016 Bitfinex hack with its “largest financial seizure ever.” The DOJ was, however, immediately upstaged — when people discovered that one of the people accused of helping launder billions of dollars of Bitcoin had posted rap videos to the internet.She calls herself the “Crocodile of Wall Street.”I’ve lost track of how many hours I just spent immersing myself in her music, writing, and Content to get an idea of what her deal is. And let’s just say that even her wacky viral videos (which have now largely vanished from her YouTube channel) did not prepare me for the full razzle-dazzle.Anyhow, here’s just a taste of what I found... Continue reading…

Frozen Mazda | Photo by Jakub Porzycki/NurPhoto via Getty Images Some Mazda drivers in and around Seattle this week discovered they could no longer change the radio station or play anything else in their cars after listening to the local NPR station KUOW (via GeekWire).The issue affected owners of various Mazda vehicles with model years ranging from 2014 to 2017 that were tuned in to the station. According to KUOW, it’s been happening for weeks.

A size comparison between the S22 Ultra, S22 Plus, and S22. | Photo by Chris Welch / The Verge The latest iteration of Samsung’s flagship Galaxy series is official. The company announced the Galaxy S22, S22 Plus, and S22 Ultra during its Unpacked event today, ending months of speculation, particularly regarding the S22 Ultra. The standard S22 starts at $799.99, while the S22 Plus and S22 Ultra are priced at $999.99 and $1,199.99, respectively. Each is available for preorder starting today and scheduled for release on February 25th.The new S22 models look similar to the outgoing lineup, with a few iterative upgrades. They all offer screens with a max refresh rate of 120Hz, which allows for smooth scrolling, and feature an ambient light sensor that will automatically adjust color and saturation levels to match your environment.... Continue reading…

Photo by Spencer Platt / Getty Images Canada Unity 2022, the group of anti-vaccine protestors who have snarled traffic in Ottawa and earned accolades in the right-wing media, wants to talk to you about Bitcoin.A handful of the group’s organizers held a press conference on Facebook Live Wednesday that quickly devolved into a presentation on the popular form of cryptocurrency, confusing many of their supporters who were watching online.“Are we at a press conference for Freedom Convoy 2022 or having some guy shove Bitcoin down our throats?” one commenter griped. “Very disappointed! I came to see updates about progress made by our Truckers.”“Very disappointed!”The convoy protests began in late January, after a loose affiliation of truckers banded together to drive from... Continue reading…

Image: Nintendo Nintendo is bringing the Mario Strikers soccer series to the Switch with a new title called Mario Strikers: Battle League. The company debuted the game at Wednesday’s Nintendo Direct.In Battle League, teams of five will compete against each other in arcade-y soccer action. You won’t just be passing and kicking to try and score goals — you’ll also be able to tackle your opponents, send items their way, and use impressive special shots, all while playing as characters from the cast of the Mario universe. You’ll also be able to equip gear that affects stats like speed and strength.For multiplayer, up to eight players can play together locally on one Switch. Nintendo is also offering online play. You’ll also be to make online clubs with... Continue reading…

Disney Plus series Obi-Wan Kenobi will be available to stream on May 25th, the company announced Wednesday. The series will see Ewan McGregor reprise his role after playing the iconic Jedi across the prequel trilogy between 1999 and 2005. Joining McGregor will be Hayden Christensen, who’s playing Anakin Skywalker after his transformation into Darth Vader, as well as series newcomers Moses Ingram and Kumali Nanjiani.Beyond its cast, plot details on Obi-Wan Kenobi have been relatively thin. We know it’ll be set roughly 10 years after the events of Star Wars: Episode III — Revenge of the Sith and will see Obi-Wan watching over a young Luke Skywalker on his home planet of Tatooine.

Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge Samsung just announced its highly anticipated Galaxy S22 lineup, but many who have tried to preorder the new smartphones report that they can’t actually complete their purchases. Many are reporting issues or just a blank screen that seems to load indefinitely at checkout, and that’s also where I ran into problems when trying to buy a few combinations of both locked and unlocked models of the phones.Here are just a few examples of people writing to Samsung’s support account on Twitter asking for help:

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Apple has acknowledged an iOS 15 bug that may have recorded interactions with Siri on some devices, regardless of whether the user opted out, according to a report from ZDNet. The bug automatically enabled the Improve Siri & Dictation setting that gives Apple permission to record, store, and review your conversations with Siri.“We stopped reviewing and are deleting audio received from all affected devices”Apple tells The Verge that it identified the bug shortly after the release of iOS 15, stopped reviewing any recordings inadvertently received, and is deleting info received from affected devices. After discovering the bug, the company turned off the feature for “many” users and corrected the opt-in setting when it released iOS 15.2.... Continue reading…

Photo by Sam Byford / The Verge Microsoft has announced a set of best practices called the Open App Store Principles for its Windows app store and future game console marketplaces. They amount to Microsoft directly promising not to do things that Google and particularly Apple have been accused of — like gaining unfair advantages over the developers that rely on their app stores. The principles are intended to allay fears about Microsoft’s recent Activision Blizzard acquisition and to distance the tech giant from two of its biggest rivals, whose app store restrictions have spurred lawsuits and legislation.Microsoft says the Open App Store Principles are “grounded in app store legislation being considered by governments around the world,” including the United States and... Continue reading…

Stephen King’s Firestarter novel tells the story of a young family on the run from the US government as it attempts to capture them and better understand the superhuman mental abilities they all developed after being exposed to an experimental chemical. Universal and Blumhouse’s upcoming adaptation of the book is likely to hit many of the same notes found in the source material and in Mark L. Lester’s 1984 film of the same name. But the new Firestarter’s first trailer leads with an energy that feels decidedly rooted in 2022, and it’s difficult to say whether that’s a good thing or not.Firestarter revolves around haggard psychic dad Andy McGee (Zac Efron), whose ability to influence people’s minds in the novel appears to be reworked as... Continue reading…

Horizon Forbidden West comes out on February 18th, and while Sony has spent the bulk of its time showcasing the upcoming open-world title on the powerful next-gen hardware of the PlayStation 5, the game is also coming out for the older PlayStation 4 lines of consoles. To prove it, developer Guerrilla Games has shown off a — extremely brief — preview of the game running on a vanilla PlayStation 4 for the first time.Since Horizon Forbidden West was first announced in June 2020, Guerrilla Games has almost exclusively shown footage of the Horizon Zero Dawn sequel on the PS5. A short blog post at the end of January showed off PS4 Pro clips, but base PS4 gameplay has been scarce until now (a scant nine days before release).The 22-second... Continue reading…

It’s fast and secure, but there are better options outside the walled garden Continue reading…

SEATTLE, WASHINGTON - OCTOBER 22: Protestors line up as Andy Jassy the CEO of Amazon speaks at the ceremonial ribbon cutting prior to opening night for the NHL’s newest hockey franchise at the Climate Pledge Arena on October 22, 2021 in Seattle, Washington. | Photo by Bruce Bennett/Getty Images Tech giants’ climate plans aren’t as aggressive as they sound, according to an assessment of 25 of the world’s biggest companies published on Monday. The plans many companies have put together rely too much on offsetting their emissions through unreliable methods rather than setting specific targets to prevent pollution in the first place.“We set out to uncover as many replicable good practices as possible, but we were frankly surprised and disappointed at the overall integrity of the companies’ claims,” Thomas Day, lead author of the new study released by the nonprofit NewClimate Institute, said in a statement.The report, which includes both tech giants and other companies operating in sectors like shipping and brick-and-mortar... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Microsoft has long argued that its Xbox store should be treated differently than the app store ecosystem around PCs or phones. The software giant takes a 30 percent cut on digital game purchases through its Xbox store, just like Apple takes from software purchased on its App Store. While Microsoft defended this business model during the Epic v. Apple trial last year, the Xbox maker is now hinting that it needs to make its Xbox store more open in a move that could change its Xbox console business model in the future.Microsoft has unveiled a series of app store principles today that are similar to the ones it laid out two years ago. The principles are designed to “ensure we’re providing the best possible experience for creators and... Continue reading…

Image: Sony Microsoft says the Call of Duty franchise and other popular cross-platform Activision Blizzard games will remain available on PlayStation if and when its $68.7 billion acquisition goes through.“To be clear, Microsoft will continue to make Call of Duty and other popular Activision Blizzard titles available on PlayStation through the term of any existing agreement with Activision,” Microsoft says. “And we have committed to Sony that we will also make them available on PlayStation beyond the existing agreement and into the future so that Sony fans can continue to enjoy the games they love.”This means that in addition to Call of Duty, other Activision Blizzard titles, like Diablo and Overwatch, should also remain available as... Continue reading…

Discovery and WarnerMedia are one step closer to merging | Photo Illustration by Pavlo Gonchar/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images The merger of Discovery and WarnerMedia got one step closer to fruition on Wednesday, with the deal clearing an antitrust review from US government agencies, according to a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). Once finalized, the merged company will be one of the biggest media conglomerates in the US, blending Warner Bros.’ TV and movie assets with Discovery’s huge catalog of television programming.According to the SEC filing:

Photo by Clive Rose - Gran Turismo/Gran Turismo via Getty Images AI agents have bested humans at many games, from chess to Go to poker. Now, the machines can claim a new high score on the classic racing video game series Gran Turismo.Sony announced today that its researchers have developed an AI driver named GT Sophy that is “reliably superhuman” — able to beat top human drivers in Gran Turismo Sport in back-to-back laps. You might think this an easy challenge. After all, isn’t racing simply a matter of speed and reaction time and therefore simple for a machine to master? But experts in both video game racing and artificial intelligence say GT Sophy’s success is a significant breakthrough, with the agent showing mastery of tactics and strategy.“Outracing human drivers so skilfully [...] represents... Continue reading…

The new Galaxy S22 lineup | Image: Samsung At Samsung’s first Galaxy Unpacked event for 2022, the company introduced a new lineup of Galaxy S22 phones: the Galaxy S22 and Galaxy S22 Plus. Samsung also announced the Galaxy S22 Ultra with an included stylus. It is essentially a successor to the once-popular Galaxy Note line.Samsung claims the S22 Ultra has a faster response time for the S-Pen. The other changes are a bit more minor, including a slight redesign and updated night capabilities in the camera. The Galaxy S22 and the S22 Plus are also a bit iterative, despite being Samsung’s mainline flagships. These phones are very similar to the previous year’s models but are more durable and have better portrait mode capability.Finally, there’s also a new high-powered Android tablet... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge It’s time for the next Nintendo Direct, which means it’s also time to dust off that bingo card of Nintendo-related announcements. This 40-minute presentation is airing on Wednesday, February 9th, at 5PM ET / 2PM PT, and there are, frankly, so many games that we're hoping to see. Perhaps Hollow Knight: Silksong will make its awaited return with a release date in tow, or maybe we’ll get some more gameplay footage of Bayonetta 3.Nintendo has a lot of other big games slated to come out in 2022 that could see the spotlight in this presentation. Games like Triangle Strategy, Kirby and the Forgotten Land, and Advance Wars 1+2: Re-Boot Camp will likely get a mention, as they are releasing in the next couple of months. But it’d be great to get... Continue reading…