The Verge

Clubhouse Clubhouse is getting a bunch of new features next month, including one many people have wanted: in-app recording. Starting in October, app users will be able to record a room, save it to their profile and club, or download it. Clubhouse is calling the feature “replays.” Creators and moderators are the ones who can record, and they can toggle that option on or off. Rooms must be public to be recorded.Along with full recordings, users will be able to create 30-second shareable clips in rooms that allow it. The app is also gaining a search feature so people can type a keyword or name and receive the rooms, people, clubs, and bios that match. Finally, spatial audio is also now coming to Android devices after rolling out to iOS devices in... Continue reading…

Photo by Vlad Savov / The Verge The USB Implementers Forum (USB-IF) — the group that maintains the USB standard across its many varied incarnations — has introduced new, official logos for companies to use to brand their USB-C cables and packaging to go with its USB4 and 240W power standards. The goal is a noble one, aiming to help ease the confusion about the different types of USB-C cables (which can differ widely in things like charging and data transfer speeds) when you’re buying one.Naturally, the USB-IF, in its... unique wisdom, has chosen to simplify things the only way it knows how: a slew of new logos that will soon adorn packaging for cables and chargers to help indicate to customers what charging and data speeds their devices support. Because nothing says... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) on Thursday said it’s looking into tightening rules around cell phone service, in an effort to rein in SIM swapping scams and port-out fraud, two ways fraudsters can access a person’s cell phone account and phone number for nefarious purposes.The agency says in a statement it has received numerous complaints “from consumers who have suffered significant distress, inconvenience, and financial harm” due to SIM swapping and port-out fraud. And, the FCC said, recent data breaches have exposed customer information that could make it easier for bad actors to carry out these kinds of attacks successfully.SIM swapping is when someone hijacks your cell phone number so they can intercept two-factor... Continue reading…

Photo by Dieter Bohn / The Verge After announcing plans for digital car keys in its phones during the Galaxy S21 launch, Samsung is finally starting to add support for the feature. Samsung says support for the ultra wideband (UWB) and NFC-enabled digital car keys will hit South Korea first, and it will only work with one car to start — the all-electric Genesis GV60.On devices that support UWB — the Samsung Galaxy S21 Plus and Ultra, Note 20 Ultra, and Galaxy Z Fold 2 and 3 — Samsung promises “passive entry,” meaning you can unlock and lock your car without pulling your phone out of your bag or pocket. With your phone nearby, you’ll also be able to start your car and make adjustments to mirrors, seats, and more. Image: Samsung How keys for the... Continue reading…

The Zephyrus G14 is still great, but it’s no longer on top Continue reading…

Cryptocurrency mining rigs sit on three-storeys of racks inside the BitRiver Rus LLC cryptocurrency mining farm in Bratsk, Russia, on Friday, Nov. 8, 2019. | Andrey Rudakov/Bloomberg via Getty Images China is cracking down on Bitcoin mining, and some experts fear that the cryptocurrency’s environmental footprint could become dirtier as a result.Bitcoin is incredibly energy hungry. To create new coins, miners race to solve complex puzzles using specialized machines. As a result, Bitcoin is estimated to use as much electricity annually as the entire country of Poland. Until this year, a majority of that electricity came from a mix of coal and hydropower in China. Last week, China sounded the death knell for Bitcoin mining within its borders when it made all cryptocurrency transactions and mining illegal — although most mining operations fled earlier in the year when bans were announced in provinces where most had previously set up... Continue reading…

Image: Lucasfilm Both Marvel and Star Wars can get a little too serious for their own good. Their stories are often so focused on what happened before, or what’s coming next, that they forget about the fact that people are tuning in to watch thrilling adventures about superheroes and space wizards. What I’m saying is, both franchises often put canon ahead of fun. But Disney Plus has offered them a chance to cut loose a little in the form of the animated anthologies What If…? and Star Wars: Visions. The two series take very different approaches to the concept of messing with established stories and characters — and some extra freedom means that Star Wars ends up being a lot more exciting.The premise of What If…? is pure comic book fodder: each episode... Continue reading…

The Amazon Halo View and the Fitbit Charge 5. | Image: Amazon / Fitbit In the image above there are two wearables. One is Fitbit’s recently released Charge 5, a $179.95 fitness tracker designed to measure everything from your heart rate to your sleep and even your skin temperature. The other is Amazon’s new $79.99 Halo View fitness tracker, which Amazon says can measure everything from your heart rate to your sleep and skin temperature. Ten points if you can tell me which is which.The Halo View was just one of a host of new devices announced by Amazon at its now annual fall hardware event this week. But while many of Amazon’s new products feature completely original designs and features, like its cute Astro “home robot” or Ring-branded home surveillance drone, there were a handful that bear a striking... Continue reading…

Image: Wyze Wyze, the budget-focused tech company that now sells everything from security cameras to headphones, has launched a new smart scale with four built-in electrodes capable of measuring everything from body fat percentage to body water percentage. In addition to weighing humans, there is also a dedicated mode to let you weigh your “baby, pet, luggage, or your kid’s absurdly heavy backpack,” Wyze says. The Scale S follows the original Wyze Scale released last year, but it’s $5 cheaper with a price of just $15.Weight is displayed on the built-in 3.5-inch LED display, while a companion app (of course) allows you to set goals and track progress over time. It can sync data with Fitbit, Google Fit, and Apple Health and track data for up to... Continue reading…

Cross-app group chats between Instagram and Messenger. | Image: Facebook Facebook will now let you start cross-app group chats between Messenger and Instagram, the company announced Thursday. The update is a big step forward in Facebook’s ambitions to make its apps work better with each other. To be able to use the cross-app communications, you’ll have to opt in, and Facebook says that “over 70% of eligible people on Instagram have updated to the new Messenger experience.”The company is bringing other new features to the messaging apps in addition to cross-app group messaging. Polls will be available in group DMs on Instagram and in cross-app chats so you can, for example, vote on where to grab lunch. Facebook has added group typing indicators to Messenger, so you can see when multiple people are drafting a... Continue reading…

Sony Santa Monica Kratos’ voice actor, Christopher Judge, says he’s the reason why God of War: Ragnarok was delayed. In a tweet, Judge writes that he needed multiple surgeries in 2019 and that God of War developer Sony Santa Monica studios delayed the game so he could recover and continue voicing video games’ favorite problematic dad.

Corsair When it comes to PC components and accessories, there isn’t much that Corsair itself doesn’t make. The company’s adding gaming monitors to its list of offerings with today’s announcement of a 32-inch model called Xeneon. It uses a 1440p quantum dot IPS 16:9 aspect ratio panel that has a 165Hz refresh rate to display fast-paced content. Other standout specs include AMD FreeSync Premium and Nvidia G-Sync compatibility for adaptive sync to eliminate screen tearing when the frame rate fluctuates. It also has 100 percent coverage of the SRGB color gamut, and on its back, there are plenty of ports, which I’ll expand upon later.Corsair is utilizing its well-known presence in the market to go up against not just other monitor manufacturers,... Continue reading…

Apple’s MagSafe Battery attaches to any iPhone 12 or 13 model. | Dieter Bohn / The Verge The Apple MagSafe Battery pack recently launched in July, and we are now finally seeing the first significant discount on the magnetic power bank that usually costs $99. The MagSafe ecosystem may still be a bit underdeveloped, and there are some compelling alternatives from other manufacturers, but the little battery is a svelte option for juicing up an iPhone 12 or 13 on the go.With 1,460mAh and 11.3Wh, the MagSafe battery doesn’t earn its praise on specifications alone, but it has the software integration that no other power bank — magnetic or wired — has, with on-screen animations and charge levels visible, so you know exactly how much charge is left. Not only can it charge certain iPhones, but while it’s recharging via its built-in... Continue reading…

Some of the very best games on PlayStation 5 so far are old titles made new — so it’s fitting that Sony is officially acquiring Bluepoint Games, the acclaimed studio that specializes in remasters. It’s the team that brought us the Demon’s Souls and Shadow of the Colossus remakes, as well as fantastic remasters of the first three Uncharted games, the cult-classic Gravity Rush, and both the Metal Gear Solid HD Collection and Ico & Shadow of the Colossus Collection for previous gen consoles. Bluepoint was behind the excellent 2013 port of Flower to the PS4 as well.That’s not the only reason Sony’s Bluepoint buy isn’t surprising though. The company spilled the beans in June when it bought Returnal developer Housemarque, but accidentally... Continue reading…

Apple Watch | Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge People who get irregular pulse notifications on an Apple Watch but don’t have atrial fibrillation — the condition the feature focuses on detecting — could still have another type of problem with their heartbeat, according to a new study.The findings show that even if someone with a concerning alert from their Apple Watch doesn’t get an atrial fibrillation diagnosis, they may not be in the clear, says study author Marco Perez, the director of the Inherited Arrhythmia Clinic at Stanford University Medical Center. “Even if you didn’t find atrial fibrillation, we were finding a lot of people who had something else that probably needed some clinical attention,” he says.The analysis, published in the journal Circulation, was done using... Continue reading…

Wccftech There have been rumors that Asus partnered with Noctua, maker of very quiet PC case fans and this silent, fan-less CPU cooler, to make a custom Nvidia RTX 3070 desktop graphics card that looks like no other. While its existence has leaked a few times, picked up by PC Gamer in recent months, Wccftech was quick to spot that an Asus employee in Vietnam posted images of the graphics card and other info to the Asus ROG Vietnam Facebook page. Those assets have since been taken down, but not before Wccftech was able to snag the photos and take note of the details.This new GPU, apparently called the RTX3070-08G-NOCTUA, won’t be as affordable as your average RTX 3070 (MSRP of $499), plus the cost of a couple of Noctua fans. Asus’ Facebook page... Continue reading…

It’s a strange thing that one of the most enjoyable physical interfaces I use in my day-to-day life is on a kettle. The Stagg EKG Electric Kettle, specifically, a $150 appliance that’s almost entirely controlled through a single, magnificent dial that is a strong contender for the best way to turn on a kettle (a competition that, admittedly, lacks much competition).Using the Stagg is a delightful experience of tactility. The main control is a single dial/button located on the front right of the base. Turning it on takes just a single press, a deep, solid click that lets you know through touch and sound that you’ve turned on the kettle. Turning it off is a similar single press, another resonant click to announce that the kettle is off.... Continue reading…

It is rare for a big company to come out and categorically deny an entire report, but that’s what Nintendo just did — the Japanese corporate entity issued a press release insisting Bloomberg’s seeming revelation that Nintendo was pushing developers to build 4K-resolution games for an upcoming but potentially canceled “Switch Pro” handheld was entirely incorrect.Nintendo writes the report “falsely claims that Nintendo is supplying tools to drive game development for a Nintendo Switch with 4K support” and insists that it’s “not true.” Separately, it says that it has no plans for any new Nintendo Switch other than the slightly refined OLED model that’ll be out next week.On Thursday morning, Zynga spokesperson Sarah Ross also denied the... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Epic Games announced Thursday that it would be making its parent verification services free for all developers in order to make it easier to build games that keep kids safe online.Epic Games bought SuperAwesome, a safe kidtech company, last September. With this new addition to the company, Epic Games was able to launch its Kids Web Services (KWS) program, allowing developers to “verify the identity of parents or guardians when granting their children permission to use features that collect personal information.” Once a parent is verified through the system, they receive what Epic calls the “ParentGraph,” which makes it simpler to offer verification through other games on the Epic platform.Epic says that this system not only protects... Continue reading…

The Nreal Air smart glasses. | Image: Nreal Augmented reality company Nreal is launching a cheaper, iOS-compatible, more compact version of its smart glasses. The new Nreal Air glasses are supposed to ship starting in December 2021 across Japan, China, and South Korea. The price isn’t set, but Nreal says they’ll cost “a fraction of the price” of its earlier Nreal Light glasses, which started selling for around $600 last year.Based on Nreal’s description, the new Nreal Air glasses have some core similarities with the Nreal Light glasses from 2020. Both are designed to look like relatively normal sunglasses and pitched as ideal for projecting a virtual big-screen display in front of your eyes. They’re both using micro OLED displays for their augmented reality optics and are powered... Continue reading…

Bluestacks X brings Android games to the browser. | Image: Bluestacks BlueStacks started off life as an Android emulator for Windows more than 10 years ago, allowing anyone to run native Arm-based or x86 Android apps on Windows PCs and tablets. Now BlueStacks is transitioning to the cloud, bringing Android games to the browser and across iOS, Windows, macOS, Android, and Linux devices, and even inside Discord.BlueStacks X launches today as the only cloud gaming service that offers free streaming of mobile games across multiple platforms and devices. BlueStacks has built its hybrid cloud technology under its now.gg brand to make this possible, combined with Amazon’s AWS Graviton servers. BlueStacks X also offloads part of the compute and graphics rendering to local devices thanks to advancements in modern... Continue reading…

Dolby Atmos isn’t the reason you should buy it Continue reading…

Spotify Spotify is making podcasts on its platform more interactive. The company announced today that podcasters who create their shows in Anchor, its creation software, will be able to build interactive polls and Q&As into their programs. Listeners across 160 markets will be able to engage with them. For now, the functionality is only available to Anchor podcasters — not even for people who use Megaphone, Spotify’s podcast hosting platform — and it only works on the Spotify app.To view a poll or Q&A, you’ll see it at the bottom of your Spotify mobile app. Once you respond to a poll, you’ll be able to see how others voted, while Q&A answers will be sent to the podcaster privately. These podcasters can then choose to pin and publicly display the... Continue reading…

Photo by Cameron Faulkner / The Verge Backbone Labs has acknowledged the issue that hampers the use of its excellent iPhone gaming controller with the new iPhone 13 Pro and 13 Pro Max. As we noticed last week, the iPhone 13 Pro’s thicker camera bump means the phone doesn’t sit neatly in the Backbone One controller, either sticking out on one side or causing the bridge on the back to slightly buckle. It’s not unusable, but it’s not great.“We spent a tremendous amount of time meticulously crafting every surface of Backbone One (both bits and atoms) and even designing universal support for the iPhones available when it was released,” a Backbone representative wrote in an official post on Reddit. “As a result, we’re disappointed in the situation at hand. Several folks on the... Continue reading…

DISH and Boost Mobile hope to bring in new 5G customers with their own phone, the Celero5G. | DISH/Boost Mobile After acquiring Boost Mobile as part of the Sprint and T-Mobile merger in 2020 and snapping up Republic Wireless for its 5G network earlier this year, Dish is finally ready to turn Boost Mobile into the fourth wireless carrier that the FCC envisioned.Its opening salvo? The satellite television provider is introducing an exclusive budget 5G phone for Boost Mobile’s prepaid customers.The Celero5G is a “custom-built phone” for Boost Mobile, according to its spokesperson. Just like T-Mobile’s Revvl or AT&T’s Radiant, it has unique branding that you won’t find anywhere else. For a carrier that is trying to expand its user base, this is certainly an unusual way to get there. After all, most other carriers try to dangle the latest flagship... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Microsoft is launching its Xbox Cloud Gaming (xCloud) service in Australia, Brazil, Mexico, and Japan. The software giant has been testing streaming Xbox Game Pass Ultimate games in these markets over the past few months, and is now ready to greatly expand the reach of its xCloud technology.XCloud will be available to Xbox Game Pass Ultimate subscribers in Brazil and Mexico later today, meaning it technically launches in Australia and Japan in the early hours of October 1st. Xbox Cloud Gaming will be available through the dedicated Android and Xbox Windows apps, or via the web for iOS and other devices.Microsoft is now offering Xbox Cloud Gaming in 26 countries, thanks to this big expansion. “Since cloud gaming is powered by custom... Continue reading…

Xbox Series X console. | Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge Microsoft’s Xbox chief, Phil Spencer, says console supply issues will continue into 2022. In an interview with The Wrap, spotted by Video Games Chronicle, Spencer admits the Xbox supply issues will last for the rest of the year and into 2022 due to supply chain complications beyond just a chip shortage.“I think it’s probably too isolated to talk about it as just a chip problem,” says Spencer. “When I think about, what does it mean to get the parts necessary to build a console today, and then get it to the markets where the demand is, there are multiple kind of pinch points in that process. And I think regretfully it’s going to be with us for months and months, definitely through the end of this calendar year and into the next calendar... Continue reading…

Getty Images A preview of arguments to come Continue reading…

Amazon has settled a dispute with two workers that the National Labor Relations Board said were fired for their activism. In April 2020, the company fired Emily Cunningham and Maren Costa after they had organized a protest against Amazon’s work with oil and gas companies, as well as raising concerns with the company’s coronavirus measures at its warehouses. In a joint statement, Costa and Cunningham said that the company would have to pay them lost wages as well as inform employees that they couldn’t be fired for organizing. They haven’t mentioned whether they would be getting their jobs as UX designers back.At the time of the NLRB’s ruling, Amazon said that it disagreed with the findings, and that Costa and Cunningham had been fired... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Facebook has shared the internal research about the impact of Instagram on teenage mental wellbeing reported on by The Wall Street Journal earlier this month. The Wall Street Journal reported that the files showed Instagram knew the social media network has a negative affect on teens’ mental health. Facebook has pushed back on the WSJ’s characterizations of its research, saying that “it is simply not accurate that this research demonstrates Instagram is ‘toxic’ for teen girls.”The research slide decks are available on Facebook’s newsroom here, split into two PDFs. We’ve also embedded the PDFs at the bottom of this story. Notably, the two PDFs have been annotated by Facebook in an effort to provide context.Following Facebook’s release... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Several Chinese companies have filed a class-action complaint against Amazon for banning them from the Amazon marketplace over their use of paid reviews, a new complaint filed on September 13th claims. In the last year, Amazon has cracked down on companies soliciting paid reviews on its platform, claiming to have permanently banned 600 Chinese brands across 3,000 seller accounts.The companies listed in the complaint, doing business as Sopownic, Slaouwo, Deyixun, Cstech, Recoo Direct, Angelbliss, and Tudi, are seeking “recovery of funds that are being illegally and improperly withheld by Amazon” and are filing the class action to “stop any further misappropriation and misuse of funds that are legally and rightfully due to thousands of... Continue reading…

Photo by PATRICK T. FALLON/AFP via Getty Images Virgin Galactic is cleared to resume flights of its SpaceShipTwo space plane, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) said Wednesday, after capping a safety investigation into issues that came up during the company’s July flight carrying its founder Richard Branson. During that mission, SpaceShipTwo strayed from its designated airspace on its descent from space, and Virgin Galactic didn’t tell the FAA about it when it was supposed to.With the investigation now closed, the FAA required Virgin Galactic to make changes “on how it communicates to the FAA during flight operations to keep the public safe,” it said in a statement. Virgin Galactic said that includes “updated calculations to expand the protected airspace for future flights”... Continue reading…

Photo by Cameron Faulkner / The Verge Don’t get me wrong; we’re excited about Nintendo’s new OLED Switch — the number of preorders in The Verge newsroom confirms it. But what about the more powerful Switch that so many of us thought was around the corner? A new Bloomberg report suggests that the global chip shortage is why plans fell through for a “Switch Pro” with upgraded hardware from Nvidia and 4K resolution.The outlet, which previously reported on the device, backs up those reports by saying it’s identified at least 11 developers, like Zynga, who have received 4K Nintendo Switch development kits. Specifically, Bloomberg claims employees heard from Nintendo that they should design games to target the higher resolution. In response, Nintendo told Bloomberg its reporting... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge TikTok has agreed to settle a lawsuit with Bev Standing, the voice actress who said she was behind the app’s original text-to-speech voice. Standing sued TikTok in May, saying that the app was using her voice without permission. A robotic version of what sounded like Standing’s voice had been in the app for months, speaking over what felt like every other video at the time.A lawyer for Standing said the settlement was still being finalized and details around payment could not be disclosed. “They’ve reached an amicable resolution,” Robert Sciglimpaglia, who represents Standing, said in a phone call with The Verge. Sciglimpaglia said TikTok would license Standing’s voice as part of the agreement, but it’s up to TikTok whether or not to... Continue reading…

Photo by Sean O’Kane / The Verge The 2022 Escalade is heading into production, but it’ll be missing a key feature when the first customers pick up their new ride: the hands-free driving mode known as Super Cruise. It’s the latest feature to get the axe as a result of the global semiconductor shortage, which has been an especially big drain on the auto industry.The shortage is also forcing Cadillac to hold off on adding Super Cruise to the CT4 and CT5 sedans, according to Roadshow. With the Bolt currently not on sale due to the massive battery recall, that means parent company General Motors’ most advanced technological feature is currently not available on any new car.“[W]e’re confident in our team’s ability to find creative solutions to mitigate the supply chain... Continue reading…

A new version of the excellent Nest Hello video doorbell (pictured) will arrive in 2022. | Photo by Florence Ion for The Verge Google is working on a successor to the excellent Nest Hello doorbell, which it recently rebranded the Nest Doorbell (wired). The new Nest Doorbell will support 24/7 recording, will work with the Google Home app (not the Nest app), and should launch in 2022.Rishi Chandra, GM of Google Nest, shared the news in a blog post on the Google Nest Community forum today. “We commit to being more transparent with you on where we are taking the camera portfolio,” writes Chandra. “We know that those with wired doorbell connections prefer to have a doorbell that can also support 24/7 continuous video history (via the Nest Aware subscription). We are excited to share that we will be launching a 2nd generation of Nest Doorbell (wired) in 2022.”There... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Twitch is adding new tools in the fight against harassment on the platform. Twitch announced it will be adding phone verification chat controls that will allow streamers to require a viewer to have a verified phone number in order to chat. Additionally, Twitch is tweaking the existing email verification settings to give creators greater control over who gets to chat.

Photo by Chris Welch / The Verge Sonos developed a system called “Concurrency” that could make multiple voice assistants interoperable on its smart speakers but had to put its plans on hold because of Google, a new Washington Post report explains.Concurrency does more or less what its name suggests by allowing Google Assistant and Amazon’s Alexa to be used side by side. “Sonos today sells speakers that let you choose between Alexa and Google, but only one can operate at a time — you have to disable one before you can use the other. In the Concurrency demo, talking to both of them required nothing more than saying their names,” The Washington Post shares about Sonos’ demo.Sonos wants voice assistants to work togetherThe basic idea behind relying on multiple... Continue reading…

Photo by Joe Raedle/Getty Images On Tuesday, Elon Musk accused Jeff Bezos and his companies of using the legal system to slow SpaceX’s progress during a talk at the 2021 Code Conference. Just a few hours later, Amazon — which is working on a competing satellite-based internet project — sent The Verge an unsolicited 13-page list of lawsuits, government petitions, and other legal actions that SpaceX has taken over the years.“Attached is a list of some of the times SpaceX has sued the U.S. government on procurement matters and protested various governmental decisions,” a spokesperson for Amazon’s satellite division, Project Kuiper, wrote in the email. “It is difficult to reconcile their own historical record with their recent position on others filing similar actions.”“... Continue reading…

Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge Apple’s Find My app has been a very useful (and reassuring) feature, allowing you to locate a misplaced (or stolen) phone so that you can retrieve it (or contact the authorities, if that’s safer). With the expansion of Find My to a variety of other objects, especially via Apple’s AirTags, it’s become even more useful.And now that iOS 15 brings with it the capability to locate your phone even if the battery has run out or it’s been turned off — if you’ve got the right phone — the utility of Find My has become even greater.You will be able to locate a shut-off phone if you have the following:

The Pro 8 offers Thunderbolt 4 support, a 120Hz display, a better camera, more storage, and more. During its recent Surface event, Microsoft launched the largest upgrade of its flagship Intel-powered Surface Pro lineup in years: the Surface Pro 8. The new 2-in-1 machine boasts a 120Hz display, Thunderbolt 4 support, and new processors, but all of those improvements come at a cost — literally. Whereas the Surface Pro 7 starts at $549.99, the Surface Pro 8 starts at $1,099.99, meaning it’s nearly double the price. And that’s also before you factor in the cost of Microsoft’s new stylus and detachable keyboard, two add-ons that are more like necessities if you intend to use the 2-in-1 as advertised.With all that said, is it worth upgrading or picking up the Pro 8 over the last-gen model when it launches on October 5th? To help make your... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge For years, Apple has let you redownload many built-in apps from the App Store that you may have deleted, but store listings for those apps had a distinct difference from others: there was no way to leave a rating or review. That appears to have changed recently, though, as you can now review Apple’s apps in the store.In a cursory, unscientific scan of some of Apple’s apps, many of them don’t have overwhelmingly positive scores. Files, Apple Maps, and Home all had ratings between three and three-and-a-half stars. Apple News is currently sitting at 2.3 stars. As 9to5Mac observed, Podcasts has a whopping two-star rating.There aren’t a lot of ratings yetThat said, most of Apple’s apps just don’t have many ratings — many don’t break triple... Continue reading…

Photo by Dan Seifert / The Verge These days, you have to pay for the privilege Continue reading…

Photo by Sean O’Kane / The Verge General Motors announced a new “end-to-end” software platform for its cars called “Ultifi” — a play on the name Ultium, which is the automaker’s new electric vehicle battery architecture. GM says the new software will enable over-the-air (OTA) updates, in-car subscription services, and “new opportunities to increase customer loyalty.”The automaker envisions the new software powering everything from the mundane, like weather apps, to potentially controversial features like the use of in-car cameras for facial recognition or to detect children to automatically trigger the car’s child locks. The Linux-based system will also be available to third-party developers who may want to create apps and other features for GM customers.GM is... Continue reading…

Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge The iPhone 13 Pro Max can charge a bit faster than other models, according to tests done by YouTuber ChargerLAB (and backed up by other tests), which show that the phone sips up to 27 watts of power when plugged into a compatible charging brick. If you have a 13 Pro Max and want to fill up its massive battery as fast as possible, you may want to look into getting a 30W charger that, according to tests cited by @duanrui1205, can charge it from zero to full in less than 90 minutes.This appears to be an upgrade from the previous generation — 9to5Mac reports that the iPhone 12 caps out at around 22W charging speeds. That’s about a 5W boost, which is nothing to sneeze at. The benefit of a bigger charger is limited to the Pro Max, according... Continue reading…