The Verge

Facebook Reality Labs Facebook is adding 2D apps from third-party developers to its Oculus Quest virtual reality platform. The new feature is aimed at giving people more tools to work in VR using the Progressive Web App (PWA) framework. It’s starting with Facebook, Instagram, collaboration app Smartsheet, and email client Spike, then adding Dropbox, Monday.com, Mural, My5, Pluto TV, and Slack in the future.Oculus has supported a 2D browser (which opens as a flat window in virtual space) for some time, and you could sideload 2D apps on the Quest, which runs a version of Android. Some Oculus apps also blur the line between VR and 2D apps: Horizon Workrooms, for instance, will support Zoom calls in the future. Facebook Messenger launched on Quest earlier this... Continue reading…

At this year’s Facebook Connect, the platform revealed something called the Presence Platform, a new way for developers to create mixed reality experiences for the Oculus Quest virtual reality headset. It includes a suite of AI tools for developers that makes the mixed reality experience more immersive, helping to combine the virtual world with physical reality.The system includes three main tool sets: Insight SDK, Interaction SDK, and Voice SDK. Insight, which builds on the the Passthrough API that launched this summer, lets developers overlay virtual objects on the Oculus Quest’s passthrough video feed. Facebook is also adding a system called Spatial Anchors that will let developers “lock” a virtual object to a specific physical area... Continue reading…

Image: EA In the years since Respawn and EA launched Apex Legends, the shooter has carved out its place among a crowded field of contenders. Other games have tried to enter the market and failed to make much impact alongside the other battle royale titans like Call of Duty: Warzone, PUBG, and Fortnite. Still, despite a healthy player base and competitive scene, a new update, dubbed Escape, arrives following one of the roughest seasons since the debut, and it might be exactly what the game needs.Last season’s new character, Seer, drew criticism from many players until Respawn nerfed his special abilities. Then that change led to its own controversy, as players accused the developers of intentionally releasing heroes with overpowered abilities to... Continue reading…

A lock icon will appear in the Phone app when a call is end-to-end encrypted. | Image: Google In the coming weeks, Google is rolling out end-to-end encrypted phone calls on its Google Fi MVNO, the search giant announced today. When enabled, the feature means that no one, not even Google, can listen in on the contents of a call. Although it’s possible to have end-to-end encrypted audio calls through services like FaceTime and WhatsApp, Google Fi’s new feature makes it the default for regular phone calls.The feature is a little limited in its current form. Google’s end-to-end encryption will only kick in for calls between two Android phones, where both users are Google Fi subscribers. So, for now, at least, iPhone Google Fi subscribers won’t benefit. Google says you’ll know when a call is end-to-end encrypted because it’ll play a... Continue reading…

Nintendo is now offering a free demo of Metroid Dread, meaning you can try one of the best games of the year at no cost before plunking down the cash to buy the full game. You can grab the demo from Nintendo’s website (click the “Download Demo” link) or on the eShop on your Switch.If you’re on the fence about Metroid Dread, I really recommend you download the demo to give the game a shot. If you’ve played a 2D Metroid, you’ll probably feel right at home, as Dread is an excellent evolution of action and exploration the games are known for. But the game mixes up the formula a bit with tense chase sequences where you’re fleeing from powerful robots called E.M.M.I. The boss fights are also quite good, though there are a few too many of... Continue reading…

You can now buy Google’s newest Pixels, pending availability. | Photo by Becca Farsace / The Verge Google’s new Pixel 6 and Pixel 6 Pro have been announced, reviewed, and are now up for order. These Pixels promise new designs, new cameras, a uniquely designed Google Tensor CPU, and more.This year’s Pixel phones come in two sizes: the standard Pixel 6 and the larger, triple-camera equipped Pixel 6 Pro. The base Pixel 6, with 128GB of storage, starts at $599, while the Pixel 6 Pro runs $899 and up if you prefer to go above the base 128GB.What’s newThe Pixel 6 and 6 Pro look mostly nothing like prior iterations, with a metal-and-glass design highlighted by a rear camera bar that is slightly reminiscent of the classic Nexus 6P. The smaller Pixel 6, which cannot truly be considered small by any stretch of the imagination, has a... Continue reading…

The new Pixels are the best phones Google has ever made Continue reading…

Sony’s PlayStation games on Steam are now published by PlayStation PC LLC instead of PlayStation Mobile. Forum posters at Resetera noticed the change yesterday, and it appears the PlayStation PC company was formed earlier this year. It could mean we’ll see Sony use more PlayStation PC branding in the future.Sony has been gradually growing its presence on PC over the past year, after Horizon Zero Dawn arrived on Steam in August 2020, followed by Days Gone in February. Sony is also bringing God of War to PC on January 14th and the remastered Uncharted: Legacy of Thieves Collection at some point in 2022. Days Gone is now published by PlayStation PC. Sony’s head of PlayStation Studios, Hermen Hulst, revealed in June... Continue reading…

Brendan Hunt, Cristo Fernández and Jason Sudeikis in “Ted Lasso” | Image: Apple Comcast’s X1 platform has slowly added apps to its library over the years, and this morning on the company’s earnings call, CEO Brian Roberts announced that the Apple TV app would join the roster soon, while Comcast’s Xfinity Stream app will launch on Apple TV devices.Comcast’s tech platform, which already has apps for Netflix, Amazon, YouTube, and Disney+ in the US, isn’t just on its cable boxes anymore. It underpins the Xfinity Flex streaming platform, the XiOne streaming set-top box, and new XClass 4K TVs that recently launched from Hisense. Image: Comcast XClass 4K TV Two models of the TV are available, in 43- and 50-inch sizes, for $298 and $348, respectively. Like other smart TVs in their price range —... Continue reading…

‘Shadow Planet’ was made by Robin Sloan and Jesse Solomon Clark, aka The Cotton Modules, using OpenAI’s Jukebox AI music model. The scare is over and the fun can begin. That’s how I tend to think of creative endeavors involving artificial intelligence these days. We’ve moved past, I think, hyperbolic claims about AI making human art redundant and can now enjoy all the possibilities this technology affords. In that light, Shadow Planet — a new album made as a three-way collaboration between two humans and AI — shows exactly what sort fun can be had.Shadow Planet is the creation of writer Robin Sloan, musician Jesse Solomon Clark, and Jukebox, a machine learning music program made by OpenAI. After an off-the-cuff Instagram conversation between Sloan and Clark about starting a band (named The Cotton Modules), the two began exchanging tapes of music. A seasoned... Continue reading…

One of the core promises of the Nintendo Switch — the ability to easily play multiplayer games on the go — has long been undone by a flimsy piece of plastic. While the original Switch model technically made it possible to whip out the tablet for some impromptu Mario Kart, the terrible kickstand made this impractical at best and dangerous (for your Switch’s screen) at worst. The latest iteration of the hardware finally fixes that — along with the showcase feature, a much-improved OLED screen — and makes the dream of spontaneous Mario Party tournaments a reality, at last.This week Nintendo is releasing Mario Party Superstars, a sort of greatest hits collection for the digital board game series. It includes boards from the early Nintendo... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge The company is attempting to minimize its own research Continue reading…

Photo by Drew Angerer/Getty Images Activision Blizzard CEO Bobby Kotick sent a letter updating employees on the further steps he and the company will take to change its image in the wake of multiple sexual harassment and discrimination lawsuits. Most notably, Kotick says that Activision Blizzard will employ a zero-tolerance harassment policy, waive arbitration in sexual harassment and discrimination claims, and the billion-dollar-net-worth CEO will take a massive pay cut — earning only $62,500 per year in total compensation until the board of directors feels certain diversity, equity, and inclusion goals are met. (Earlier this year, Activision Blizzard shareholders approved a $155 million pay package for Kotick.)The letter outlined other goals for the company, including... Continue reading…

Image: Ford BlueCruise, the “hands-free” driver assist feature that Ford sees as a viable competitor to GM’s Super Cruise and Tesla’s Autopilot, won’t reach car owners until the first quarter of 2022, the company’s executives said Wednesday night. The automaker had originally planned on pushing an over-the-air (OTA) software update activating BlueCruise for select Ford customers before the end of 2021.In an earnings call with investors, Ford CEO Jim Farley said the company’s engineers needed a little more time to make the advanced driver assistance system (ADAS) easier to use for customers.“We wanted to improve the customer experience,” Farley said. “So we pushed it back in terms of an OTA because we want it to be much simpler for the customer... Continue reading…

Photo by Andrew Hawkins / The Verge Rad Power Bikes announced that it had raised $154 million from investors as it seeks to grow its e-bike empire in the US and abroad. The company now claims it is the “most funded electric bike company in the world,” a little more than a month after Amsterdam-based VanMoof made the same claim.For over a year, Rad Power Bikes and VanMoof have been in a neck-and-neck race to raise enough investment cash to help capitalize on the bike boom while also smoothing out the rough edges of their direct-to-consumer business models. Last month, VanMoof announced that it had raised $182 million over two years, with almost 200,000 bikes on the road currently and a five-year goal of getting 10 million people on VanMoof e-bikes.Now, Rad Power Bikes is... Continue reading…

Cloud gaming may have finally arrived — for some Continue reading…

You can save up to $700 on LG’s brilliant C1 OLED today at multiple retailers. | LG You can save up to $700 on one of the best TVs for gaming today, the LG C1. Right now, BuyDig’s digital storefront on eBay is selling the 55-inch model for $1,297 instead of $1,500, while adding $120 of eBay credit and a four-year extended warranty. Meanwhile, Costco and Amazon have the 65-inch versions for $1,800 and $1,797, respectively, though you’ll need to be a Costco member to take advantage of its discount. If you are a Costco member, however, the OLED TV comes with an Allstate Protection Plan — an extended three-year warranty for your TV — and a $100 streaming credit toward Google Play, Paramount Plus, Showtime, or several other services.No matter which C1 model you buy, however, all sport several features gamers in particular... Continue reading…

Facebook Connect 2021 event site Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg is set to deliver the opening keynote to the Facebook Reality Labs event, Facebook Connect, this Thursday, October 28th at 1PM ET / 10AM PT.The annual VR / AR announcement and live demonstration event is in its eighth year and was formally called “Oculus Connect” due to its focus on virtual reality technologies. With word on a Facebook rebranding looming, the event is the perfect stage for the 17-year-old company to announce big changes along with the possible announcement of a new “pro” Oculus VR headset.When and where can I watch the Facebook Connect event?The keynote starts at 1PM ET / 10AM PT on Thursday, October 28th. The event will be streamed live from the Facebook Connect event page, which can be... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Tesla’s Sentry mode, the feature that uses the car’s cameras as a surveillance system to catch would-be thieves and vandals, has been upgraded to let owners view a livestream, Electrek reports. The “Sentry Mode Live Camera Access” feature is rolling out with Tesla’s 2021.36.8 software update, but only appears to work with the manufacturer’s iOS app at present. An Android release is yet to be confirmed.“You can now remotely view your car’s surroundings when parked to confirm the safety of your environment before returning to your car,” is how Tesla’s release notes describe the new feature. It’s a significant upgrade for the vehicle’s Sentry Mode feature, which originally launched in 2019. Although there have been workarounds, Sentry... Continue reading…

Twitter user @Jatodaro demonstrates how to use the new ‘Scale to fit below built-in camera’ feature. | @Jatodaro via Twitter A new support document released yesterday details a “Scale to fit below built-in camera” option in macOS that will forcibly scale apps to only use the display below the notch. It’s a temporary workaround for apps that don’t currently play nice with the notch on Apple’s new MacBook Pros.The camera notch cutout on Apple’s latest laptops was meant to enable a more expansive edge-to-edge screen. But as we saw yesterday, owners of the new MacBook Pro models have seen both apps and the OS misbehave, whereby app menus and status bar items can get hidden under the camera cutout. The scale-to-fit workaround fixes this, but results in the type of large bezels the notch was meant to negate.The scaling feature was demonstrated by artist @Jatodaro... Continue reading…

Illustration by William Joel / The Verge Photographs from a historic moment in tech news history, the day a Gizmodo reporter published hands-on pics of the then-not-yet-announced iPhone 4, are now missing. And they’re not alone — vast quantities of pictures from G/O Media sites like The Onion, Jalopnik, and Deadspin (as well as Gizmodo) have been removed, reportedly intentionally, according to Gawker.A recent Gawker report highlights that Buzzfeed has also been wiping many older images from the web. Still, Buzzfeed’s reason for doing so is relatively apparent after management explained the copyright claims on old photos deemed some of them “high-risk.”Both cases are examples of “link rot,” where content on the internet is drastically changed because it either disappears... Continue reading…

Photo by Dan Seifert / The Verge In 2020, Samsung weathered the pandemic by posting a record high for revenue in the third quarter of 66.96 trillion won. The company just revealed that it set another record for the same period in 2021, reaching 73.98 trillion won, or about $63 billion. While its revenue was up about 10 percent, Samsung says its profits grew by 26 percent from last year to hit 15.82 trillion won ($13 billion).Despite a shortage of key chips worldwide, the memory chips and processors Samsung makes that go into everything from servers to mobile phones are in as much demand as ever. Shifts to hybrid work mean have companies buying more SSDs, CPUs, and RAM for serversSamsung will “reorganize” to focus on quantum dot 4K TVs instead of LCDsAs the world’s... Continue reading…

Photo by Alienware Alienware’s new Aurora R13 gaming desktop comes with Intel’s newly released 12th Gen Alder Lake chip and a brand-new design. You can choose anything from the Core i5-12600KF up to an i9-1200KF, as well as a range of Nvidia graphics cards. Photo by Alienware The R13 also shows off Alienware’s redesigned Legend 2.0 chassis, which comes with an increased amount of internal space that’s supposed to promote better airflow. It also offers the option of a clear side panel that tacks on an extra $70 to your purchase. You can still open the case without any tools, making it easy to upgrade components or start customizing.On the AMD side of things, Alienware introduced the Aurora Ryzen Edition R14 that ships with up to an AMD... Continue reading…

Image: Apple One of the new features that iOS 15 has promised to offer is the ability to share your iPhone and iPad screen during FaceTime sessions so that you can enjoy films, music, and other media along with friends and family. While this new feature, called SharePlay, did not ship with the first version of iOS 15, it has been included in iOS 15.1 and can now be enjoyed — to a limited extent.Currently, you can share content from Apple TV and Apple Music — assuming both of you are subscribers — and a few other apps. I had no problem sharing a YouTube video, for example; other apps that are supported include HBO Max, Hulu, and Disney Plus (but not Netflix). It can be presumed that the list of shareable apps will continue to expand.It’s quite easy... Continue reading…

Image: Apple Apple’s App Privacy Report, announced at WWDC 2021, has made its way onto iPhones with the first release of the iOS 15.2 beta, according to MacRumors. The new screen in Settings gives users an overview of what information their apps have access to and what they’re sharing.According to Apple’s WWDC announcement, the feature will show you what permissions apps have and how often they accessed them over the past week (for example, it could show that your weather app accesses your location every hour). The report will also show you which other web domains the app contacted and let you compare that with the sites you visited directly in the app to give you a better idea of who could be seeing your data. Apple’s Safari... Continue reading…

Myung J. Chun / Los Angeles Times via Getty Images A Hollywood union representing tens of thousands of production workers will soon decide whether to ratify agreements that will, among other labor protections, enforce better pay from streaming services.The International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees (IATSE) announced Tuesday that it reached a tentative three-year “area standards” agreement with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP) that “delivers our members a fairer deal on streaming,” according to the union’s international president Matthew Loeb. AMPTP represents major Hollywood studios that include, among others, Netflix, Apple, Amazon, Disney, Paramount, and Warner Bros.A spokesperson for the union told The Verge that lawyers are still working out... Continue reading…

Photo by Sean Hollister / The Verge After a rollercoaster of a year on the stock market fueled by WallStreetBets retail trading, GameStop is going full meme and looking to build a “Web3” platform, according to a flurry of job listings posted to its careers site on Monday. One of those ads, discovered by CoinDesk, is a LinkedIn listing for a “Head of Web3 Gaming” in which the company says it's looking for someone to “accelerate the future of gaming and commerce” based on blockchains.If you’re lucky enough to have never heard the phrase “Web3,” it’s often used to describe a decentralized, crypto-based internet. That tracks with the other job listings, which indicate that GameStop is developing some sort of NFT platform, likely based on Ethereum. While sometimes job... Continue reading…

Images: Future Motion California startup Future Motion has revealed two new versions of its funky self-balancing electric rideable it calls Onewheel, with more range, power, and better ergonomics.The most capable of the two is the new $2,200 Onewheel GT, which Future Motion says was “completely redesigned from the ground up.” It employs a higher-voltage control system that pushes more power to the motor — Future Motion says the GT is the “first 3 horsepower Onewheel.” The GT is pulling that power from a battery pack made up of 21700 lithium-ion batteries (the same size cell that powers many of Tesla’s current vehicles), which give it a whopping 32 miles of range on a full charge.Performance aside, Future Motion says the Onewheel GT now has concave... Continue reading…

One less cable to run makes this look more achievable | Image: TCL If you need to elevate the audio experience for your second guest bedroom’s Roku TV, TCL’s new soundbar may be the one for you. The Roku TV Wireless Soundbar (announced at CES 2021 as the Alto R1) is TCL’s vision of a simple and easy audio drop-in solution for $179.99 that only works with Roku TVs but not any other Roku streaming box.As far as soundbars go, the unit is bare bones with no HDMI or audio ports. TCL is saying this is by design for a clutter-free entertainment center where the only cable you need to route is the power cable — all other functions are wireless using Wi-Fi 802.11ac. A part of the “Roku TV Ready” lineup of products the company is putting out, this soundbar uses the existing Roku TV remote and lets you pair the... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge The European Commission has opened a formal competition investigation into Nvidia’s acquisition of chip designer Arm. The deal, which would see Nvidia purchase the UK-based company from SoftBank for $40 billion, was announced in September 2020.In a press release, the EU’s Executive Vice President Margrethe Vestager said that Nvidia buying Arm could make it harder for other manufacturers to access Arm’s technology, hurting much of the semiconductor industry (which is already facing supply problems). At the heart of concerns is Arm’s neutrality. Arm licenses its chip designs to a broad range of companies including Apple, Samsung, and Qualcomm, many of which compete with one another and Nvidia. There are fears that having Nvidia control... Continue reading…

Image: Google Android 12 has launched along with Google’s new Pixel 6 lineup and brings with it a new look that Android VP of product management Sameer Samat called “the biggest design change in Android’s history.” That’s in reference to Material You, which applies a new set of principles for creating interfaces, in addition to changes that will help Android adjust to bigger screens. We’ve already gotten a hint of how the look affects usability across the updated OS and Google’s own apps, but now the focus is expanding to reach more of the apps made by others.Today at Google’s Android Developer Summit, the company announced that Material You is available in Jetpack Compose, so app designers can more easily adopt the look in their own products. ... Continue reading…

At this year’s Android Dev Summit, Google announced an upcoming update for devices with larger screens, which includes tablets, foldables, and devices that run ChromeOS. Google is calling the update 12L, and it’s supposed to make Android 12 run smoother on big screens. We first heard the possibility of a “12.1” update in late September, and it looks like many of the rumored features are true.12L optimizes the layout of a device’s UI, adjusting the placement of the home screen, lock screen, notifications, Quick Settings, and more. Google notes that any screen 600 density-independent pixels (dp) and above will display a two-column layout that makes use of the entire screen. In the example Google shows, the Quick Settings menu is pushed... Continue reading…

Deepfakes have made a huge impact on the world of image, audio, and video editing, so why isn’t Adobe, corporate behemoth of the content world, getting more involved? Well, the short answer is that it is — but slowly and carefully. At the company’s annual Max conference today, it unveiled a prototype tool named Project Morpheus that demonstrates both the potential and problems of integrating deepfake techniques into its products.Project Morpheus is basically a video version of the company’s Neural Filters, introduced in Photoshop last year. These filters use machine learning to adjust a subject’s appearance, tweaking things like their age, hair color, and facial expression (to change a look of surprise into one of anger, for example).... Continue reading…

Intel’s 12th Gen Alder Lake chips have finally arrived, ushering in a new era of the company’s chips, lead by the flagship Core i9-12900K CPU, which Intel promises is the “world’s best gaming processor.”The company has been teasing Alder Lake since CES 2021 in January, and it revealed a lot more details on the specifics of its hybrid architecture approach at its 2021 Architecture Day in July. But today’s announcement marks the culmination of those efforts in the form of actual hardware that you can buy and use.Intel is kicking things off with three new chips, led by the Core i9-12900K model, which offers a total of 16 cores (split between eight performance forced “P-cores” and eight efficient “E-cores”) and 24 threads and is capable... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Five Chinese students are suing Apple for not providing a charger with the iPhone 12, first reported by Vice. Apple stopped including EarPods and wall chargers with iPhones in 2020, opting only to include a USB-C to Lightning cable in its packaging. According to Apple, ditching the charger and EarPods is supposed to reduce carbon emissions and preserve raw materials.There’s some skepticism as to whether Apple really did this to cut costs, rather than save the environment, as the transition to 5G could make iPhones more expensive to make. Skipping out on chargers and EarPods could be a way for Apple to save a buck, and forcing customers to purchase accessories separately may help increase profits.The students’ argument in court, which... Continue reading…

Photo by Samir Hussein/WireImage This morning, Vice published an extensive investigation examining the rumors that future worm-rider Timothée Chalamet had a previous life as an Xbox 360 controller modder. The investigation includes contributions from Aric Toller, a lead researcher and trainer at Bellingcat, a journalism outfit regularly known for investigating war crimes.The collaboration between the two noted journalism outfits is extensive. Vice reporters Matthew Gault and Emanuel Maiberg worked with Toller to examine images of Chamalet’s hands, and specifically a scar on his left ring finger, and compare them to screenshots of the hands of anonymous Youtuber ModdedController 360. They also carefully examined images of a young Chamalet’s bedroom that the actor had p... Continue reading…

Meet Sam Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Apple Music is coming to a gaming console, and it’s the PlayStation 5. The new app lets Apple Music subscribers stream music on Sony’s latest console, similar to what was already available with Spotify. Audio can play in the background while you’re gaming or just play on its own. Instructions on how to set up Apple Music for your PS5 are available right here. Image: Sony Apple Music running on the PlayStation 5 This is the PS5’s second major integration with an Apple service; both Sony and Microsoft’s next-gen gaming platforms launched with the Apple TV Plus app last year. Sony extended the partnership to offer six months of free Apple TV Plus membership to PS5 owners earlier this year. Having Apple Music on a... Continue reading…

The stickers appear in Stories posts, and can link out to external sites. | Image: Instagram Instagram’s link stickers, which let you include hyperlinks in Stories in the form of stickers, will now be available to everyone on the platform, the Facebook-owned social media network has announced. Instagram started testing link stickers in June, but until now the feature has been limited to verified accounts or accounts with a large number of followers.According to the social network, link stickers are useful for anyone from businesses linking out to their products to activists linking out to external resources. But Instagram concedes that anyone can benefit from link sharing to engage with their followers. It also says that accounts repeatedly sharing misinformation or hate speech will lose access.The successor to the swipe upT... Continue reading…

For a limited time, Samsung’s 55-inch, art-inspired QLED is down to $998, its best price to date. | Samsung Nobody will deny the unique appeal of the Samsung Frame TV, which you can currently find at both Amazon and Best Buy for $300 off its original MSRP. While the price is a bit steep for a 55-inch 4K TV, you’re really paying for the aesthetics and the QLED panel. When removed from its stand, the Frame TV is virtually indistinguishable from a framed piece of artwork on the wall, even going so far as to include an ambient art mode that’s designed to transform the HDR TV into a piece of decor rather than a passive appliance. The 2021 model offers some impressive specs as well, including support for Amazon’s Alexa, four HDMI ports, a 120Hz refresh rate, and the Tizen smart platform, which enables access to most major streaming services without... Continue reading…

The US Copyright Office is expanding a legal shield for fixing digital devices, including cars and medical devices. This morning, the office submitted new exemptions to Section 1201 of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, which bars breaking software copy protection. The resulting rules include a revamped section on device repair, reflecting renewed government pressure around “right to repair” issues.The Register of Copyrights recommends Section 1201 “anti-circumvention” exemptions every three years, a process that has offered legal protections for everything from unlocking cellphones to ripping DVD clips for classroom use. In addition to renewing these and several other exemptions, this latest rulemaking adopts repair-related... Continue reading…

Image: Amazon Amazon is now making its own TVs, and today marks the release of the company’s Omni and 4-Series Fire TVs. As the 4K HDR sets start making their way to customers, Amazon is making one more last-minute announcement: it plans to add support for Apple’s AirPlay 2 and HomeKit features “soon.”AirPlay 2 makes it easy to play content on the TV screen from an iPhone, iPad, or Mac. And HomeKit integration will allow the Omni and 4-Series TVs to be controlled by Siri or the Home app; it also makes it easy to include them in smart home routines.Amazon has already rolled out AirPlay 2 and HomeKit to some of its “Fire TV Edition” TVs from Toshiba and Insignia. Curiously, these features have yet to come to the company’s standalone Fire TV... Continue reading…

The new regular AirPods get a lot right even before the gimmicky spatial audio part Continue reading…

Dating app Hinge is adding new audio features, letting users answer the “getting to know you” prompts on their profile using audio clips and exchange voice notes in chat.The new features will roll out Wednesday globally and are the latest example of apps using voice to add a new dimension to digital dating. Rival services like Bumble and Happn have already added voice notes to their app, and one app, String, only lets users communicate with their voice. For many people, the sound of someone’s voice can be an important part of attraction, and exchanging voice notes is a more expressive way to communicate. Image: Hinge Users will be able to exchange voice notes in chat. If users want to add a voice prompt to... Continue reading…

Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales Apple’s new MacBook Pro notch is misbehaving. Early adopters have discovered inconsistencies in how Apple handles the notch across macOS and in individual apps, resulting in unexpected behavior where status bar items can get hidden under the notch. These inconsistencies make it feel like Apple has forgotten, in areas of macOS, that it has built a notch into the MacBook Pro.Snazzy Labs owner Quinn Nelson has posted two videos on Twitter demonstrating some of the early notch issues. The main video demonstrates what appears to be a bug in macOS. Status bar items like Apple’s battery indicator can get hidden underneath the notch when status bar items are extended.

PIXAR Have you ever really wondered about Buzz Lightyear’s origin story? Not the action figure, which helped make Toy Story so beloved, but the actual space ranger? Well, Disney and Pixar sure are hoping so with the upcoming feature Lightyear. It’s described as “the definitive origin story of Buzz Lightyear” and the first trailer makes it look like a Star Wars-style sci-fi adventure, complete with cool spaceships and futuristic alien worlds. The movie even casts an action movie star, with Chris Evans handling Buzz’s voice. Angus MacLane, who co-directed Finding Dory, is serving as director.Lightyear was actually first announced last year, but you’d be forgiven for forgetting about it: the reveal was part of a massive wave of more than 50... Continue reading…

If your Echo speaker is flashing, Alexa is either listening or trying to tell you something. | Photo by Dan Seifert / The Verge You’ve got one of Amazon’s Echo smart speakers set up and it’s super handy for playing music, checking the weather, setting an egg timer — all hands-free. But then it starts flashing different colors at random times: red, green, yellow, orange... it’s almost like it’s trying to communicate with you. Which, in fact, it is.When your Echo speaker is flashing its LED at you, there is a really easy way to figure out what it wants. Just say, “Alexa, what does your light mean?” But that would be a really short blog. So, for those of us who don’t like talking to our smart speakers, I’ve made this quick cheat sheet to explain what all those flashing lights mean.The LED light is Alexa’s status and notification indicator. Depending on which... Continue reading…

The existing tortoiseshell color is also getting new lens options, like sunglass. | Image: Amazon Amazon’s Echo Frames, the Alexa-enabled eyeglasses equipped with tiny speakers and microphones, are getting updated with new quality-of-life features like the ability to automatically wake up from power-saving sleep mode when you put them on your face, and a shortcut to quickly phone a contact of your choosing.The new features are rolling out on November 10th, the same day Amazon is releasing new gray and blue colors of the Echo Frames for $249.99 which. Along with the existing tortoiseshell frames, these new colors will be available with new lens options for polarized sunglass and blue-light filters for $269.99. These lens options launched earlier this year, but until now they’ve only been available with the black frame option.H... Continue reading…

Image: DJI DJI has announced a follow-up to its Osmo Action camera, and it’s got a completely new design — the Action 2 drops the Osmo name and focuses on modularity with a suite of additional parts and accessories that attach to the camera magnetically.The camera module itself is small (it's 39mm square and 22mm deep) and includes a 12MP sensor capable of 4K recording, a lens that provides a 155-degree field of view, and a 1.76-inch OLED touchscreen covered by Gorilla Glass. Using magnets, you can attach another touchscreen (which also boosts the battery life and adds an array of microphones), an extra battery, or a variety of mounts that let you attach it to tripods or GoPro mounts, or even wear the camera as a necklace. I... Continue reading…