The Verge

If you’ve ever felt indecisive about what color vehicle to buy, BMW may have the car for you. The German automaker showed off its new color-changing paint technology at the 2022 Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas that shares more in common with a Kindle than you’d think at first glance.Relying on E Ink, the electronic paper technology used in e-readers, and the old Pebble watch, the color-changing paint technology is making its debut on a concept version of the BMW iX that is being presented at CES.

Image: Instagram Instagram head Adam Mosseri says the company has started testing two new feed settings, including the much-requested chronological option.In a video shared today, Mosseri demonstrated a new menu with three options for how Instagram’s feed will display posts. The “Home” setting is what users are familiar with — a feed Instagram creates based on what it thinks will interest each user, ranked using an algorithm. A new “Favorites” feed will be populated with content from a subset of accounts a user chooses (Mosseri says he uses it for siblings, certain creators, and friends). And finally, a “Following” feed will return what many users have been asking for: a chronological stream of posts from accounts you follow.Mosseri promised the... Continue reading…

Photo by Andrew Hawkins / The Verge Volvo announced a new advanced driver assist system called Ride Pilot system, in which its vehicles drive themselves on certain highways without any human supervision. Ride Pilot will be available as a subscription service to customers in California, the company announced at the 2022 Consumer Electronics Show.It’s an ambitious plan that carries its own risks and sets Volvo apart from its competitors, many of which are planning to launch self-driving technology as part of a robotaxi service rather than production cars for personal ownership. But Volvo believes that by limiting the operational domain — or conditions under which the car can drive autonomously — to just highways, it is creating vehicle technology that is not only safer but... Continue reading…

Not that a vertical screen is the best for YouTube. | Image: Google Google has announced that cars with its services built-in will be getting the ability to play YouTube videos while parked later this year, starting with Volvo. For those with a V90, XC40 Recharge, or other supported cars, this should make waiting in a parking lot more bearable since you’ll be able to see videos on your car’s built-in screen, which is probably going to be slightly larger and more ergonomic than a phone.Google also seems to leave the door open for other video apps as well, so it’s possible other developers could let you access their content from your car’s infotainment system.“Hey Google, warm up my car.”You’ll also be able to control some Volvo cars using Google Assistant from outside the car — in a video embedded in... Continue reading…

Image: SGW Global If you’re a fan of Android Auto but hate having to plug in your phone, the Motorola MA1 could be worth a look — it’s a USB dongle that turns your wired Android Auto-equipped car into one that can connect to your phone wirelessly. The MA1, which is available for $90 starting today, pairs with your phone using Bluetooth and then transmits data over 5Ghz Wi-Fi. Given that only a few cars support wireless Android Auto from the factory (especially compared to the ones that support the wired version), this gadget could make for a relatively easy and inexpensive upgrade.Of course, wireless Android Auto does have its drawbacks — since it’s not plugged in, your phone won’t be charging as you navigate with maps or listen to music using your car’s... Continue reading…

Razer is no stranger to wild CES prototypes, and CES 2022 is no exception: the company revealed its new Project Sophia concept, which aims to build an entire modular desktop computer into a desk that looks like a Star Trek LCARS console come to life.Razer has had modular computer aspirations before. There was 2014’s Project Christine, a precursor to Project Sophia that imagined a desktop tower that was built out of easily swappable Jenga-like bricks. 2020’s Tomahawk took a more practical approach to that concept, based on Intel’s Element NUC designs. But Project Sophia feels like Razer’s conceptual tendencies turned to 11. The desk is designed to feature 13 different swappable module slots, where users can add in a wide... Continue reading…

EMB 1/5 1pm et | Razer Razer’s lineup of gaming chairs is expanding into new territory with the Enki Pro HyperSense, a chair that can vibrate and wobble to the action happening in your games and movies. This model houses a haptic engine near the wheels that should deliver jolts of haptic feedback through the chair. Additionally, the Enki Pro HyperSense should tilt backward or lift you vertically by 1.5 inches with around 1G of force. It’s all done with up to a 5ms response time.If this sounds familiar, what Razer’s going for is similar to D-Box’s movie theater seats that can rumble and move. In fact, Razer collaborated with D-Box to incorporate the haptics and movements into the Enki Pro HyperSense. Razer’s seems to differ in one key way: it’s on wheels. The... Continue reading…

Google is announcing no fewer than 13 different new software features at CES 2022, ranging from AirPods-like fast switching to promised software that will mirror your Android text apps on a Chromebook. It’s part of an initiative that Google calls “Better Together” but that the rest of the industry is more likely to refer to as “catching up to Apple’s ecosystem.”The biggest updates come to Google’s “Fast Pair” framework, an Android UI designed to make pairing Bluetooth headphones easier. This year, Google will extend it to support auto-switching between devices, faster pairing to Android TV and Google TV, and more. It will also adopt the Fast Pair framework for installing new smart home devices using the upcoming Matter standard, which... Continue reading…

This 2018 image for Philips Hue coming to Razer Synapse is so much better than the assets Razer provided for this story. | Image: Philips Most of Razer’s products live in the entertainment center, or near the PC, but it wants to expand its reach to every corner of your home — or at least, everywhere you use smart lights. At CES 2022, the company announced that it intends to launch a Razer Smart Home app for mobile, which it says is a “simple, yet powerful tool that puts complete, unified control into the user’s hands.” With it, Razer plans to make it easier to set up, customize, and sync all of your lights, regardless of the manufacturer. It plans to share more details at this link.Razer has been toying with this idea of tapping into other smart lights before. Currently, gamers who have Razer’s Synapse PC software can sync a Philips Hue Bridge (and the lights connected to... Continue reading…

Fast Pairing Bluetooth headphones on Google TV | Google Google plans to spend the next few months beefing up the Bluetooth headphone capabilities on Android phones. It plans to update its Fast Pair technology to include features that iPhone and AirPod users have long enjoyed. With supported headphones (which presumably are forthcoming in 2022 but have not yet been announced), audio sources including Android phones, Chromebooks, Android TV, and select Windows PCs will be auto-switching.Google will also begin supporting full head tracking for spatial audio on Android, adapting sound based on your head movements. It already supports basic spatial audio for a few music services right now. Unfortunately, that’s all the detail the company is providing on spatial audio right now — which means... Continue reading…

HTC HTC is announcing a new wrist-based controller for its Vive Focus 3 virtual reality headset. The wireless Vive Wrist Tracker fits like a watch around a user’s arm, tracking the orientation and position from hand to elbow. It’s designed to complement the business-focused headset’s existing controllers, particularly for simulation and training experiences where body position is important. It’s also part of a larger suite of new features HTC revealed at CES, including a 5G-powered VR experience.The Wrist Tracker looks a lot like a small, light, and specialized version of the Vive Tracker device HTC debuted in 2017. It includes a strap and a toggle indicating whether the tracker should be on a left or right arm, but unlike the... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Update January 5th, 11:45AM ET: Both versions of Sony’s console are on sale at Best Buy, although availability will vary by location.Update January 5th, 12:15PM ET: Best Buy has sold out of PlayStation 5 consoles for now. We are continuing to monitor further console restocks from Best Buy and other retailers.If you’re currently shopping for a PlayStation 5 console, you have another chance right now at Best Buy. The electronics retailer just opened up a fresh batch of PlayStation 5 consoles for $499.99, and as of 11:40AM ET, also started selling the even-harder-to-get $399.99 PS5 Digital Edition.Be sure to log in and queue up on Best Buy’s site, with your billing and shipping info saved. Click the “Add to Cart” button on the right to... Continue reading…

Up to 400 miles of range and a price that starts at $39,900 for some buyers Continue reading…

Cadillac announced a pair of autonomous vehicle concepts that are a definite improvement over last year’s toaster-shaped thingamajig, but also seem designed to appeal to the 1 percent of the 1 percent of the 1 percent. (Not that there’s anything wrong with that. Rich people like cars and robots.)The Cadillac InnerSpace (shout out, Dennis Quaid) is a fully autonomous luxury coupe with an electric drivetrain and vibes to spare. The concept will join others in the automaker’s Halo Concept Portfolio, which includes the aforementioned toaster-shaped vehicle and a single-seater electric vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL) aircraft.shout out Dennis QuaidHere are some more pictures of this slice of deadliness. Also, the roof opens up? I... Continue reading…

Image: GM General Motors is going to sell fully autonomous vehicles to regular people by the middle of the decade, the company’s CEO Mary Barra declared during her speech at the 2022 Consumer Electronics Show. It was a bold claim that is sure to cause waves in the auto industry, especially as it continues to grapple with its own over-inflated expectations about the future of driverless cars.Barra didn’t offer further details about the kind of vehicle it will sell, which markets it will target, how it will address liability in the event of a crash, and most importantly, whether owners will be able to sleep in their autonomous vehicles.To date, there are no self-driving cars for sale to consumers as personally owned vehicles. Autonomous vehicles,... Continue reading…

Walmart struck a deal with General Motors-backed BrightDrop to reserve 5,000 of the company’s electric delivery vans, the companies announced today. The retail giant says it will integrate the EVs into its fleet in the coming years.BrightDrop, which is GM’s dedicated electric delivery spinoff, will sell to Walmart both of its vehicles: the EV600 and the EV410. The EV600, which went into production last fall, has 600 cubic feet of cargo space, can travel up to 250 miles on a full battery, and has a gross vehicle weight of less than 10,000 pounds. The smaller EV410 features 400 cubic feet of cargo space and can cover 250 miles on a single charge.FedEx is expanding its order with BrightDropMeanwhile, FedEx is expanding its order with... Continue reading…

Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge General Motors CEO Mary Barra announced electric versions of the automaker’s Chevy Equinox and Blazer SUVs, both of which will be available in 2023. The electric Chevy Equinox will retail for a suggested price of $30,000, which could help drive broader adoption of electric vehicles in the US.The announcement came during Barra’s keynote address for the 2022 Consumer Electronics Show, at which the company also revealed its electric Chevy Silverado pickup truck.Most EVs on the market today are more expensive than their gas equivalentsMost EVs on the market today are more expensive than their gas equivalents, though EV sales numbers are still ticking up as more models become available. GM is hoping that a more affordable EV with a... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Google’s $500 million acquisition of Israel-based startup Siemplify is supposed to help the company bolster its own cloud security initiative, Chronicle, according to a report from Reuters. In a blog post announcing the deal, Google describes Siemplify as a security orchestration, automation, and response (SOAR) organization and plans to integrate its capabilities into Chronicle.“Siemplify allows Security Operation Center analysts to manage their operations from end-to-end”“Siemplify is an intuitive workbench that enables security teams to both manage risk better and reduce the cost of addressing threats,” Sunil Potti, the vice president of Google Cloud Security, states in the blog post. “Siemplify allows Security Operation Center... Continue reading…

The Razer X Fossil Gen 6 might not have RGB but it can still match your keyboard. | Photo by Victoria Song / The Verge Fossil usually shows up to CES with a hoard of smartwatches, but last year was a weird one for Wear OS. Google and Samsung announced a new unified version of Wear OS, but the catch was that non-Samsung watches — including Fossil’s — won’t be eligible for an upgrade until mid to late 2022. Given the circumstances, this year, Fossil is keeping it relatively simple with a limited-edition Razer smartwatch and an updated version of the Skagen Falster.Before you ask, no, the Razer X Fossil Gen 6 smartwatch does not come with RGB lighting. It does, however, come with three Razer-branded watch faces — including a “Chroma” face that you can customize to match Razer’s other Chroma products. It’s technically not RGB, but you can enable “breathe”... Continue reading…

This is Tile’s second embedded PC partnership. | Image: Tile, Lenovo No one likes misplacing expensive gadgets, but especially not a laptop. If you were thinking about copping one of Lenovo’s newly announced ThinkPad X1s, good news. Tile and Lenovo are teaming up to make the computers findable via the Tile app, even when the laptops are offline.This is Tile’s second embedded PC collaboration — the first was with HP. As for which Lenovo laptops are compatible, the list includes the X1 Carbon 10th gen, X1 Yoga 7th gen, and the X1 Nano 2nd gen. To enable the feature, download and install the Tile Windows app from the Microsoft Store. From there, activate the ThinkPad as if it were a Tile tracker. Once that’s done, should you misplace your shiny new laptop, you can find it using the Tile app for iOS or... Continue reading…

Photo by Monica Chin / The Verge Lenovo’s newest Yoga 9i convertible laptop is embracing one of the more fun trends of ‘90s and early ‘00s computer design: shortcut keys. While plenty of laptops have added handy shortcuts to the Function row on the keyboard, few are making keys that have one express purpose. Now Lenovo is planning to release a laptop in 2022 with five of them.The 1-Click Function keys all sit to the right of the keyboard. There’s a key for switching between performance mode and a battery-sipping Smart Power mode that sacrifices a little power to boost battery life. Another key lets you toggle between light and dark mode in Windows 10 (or 11? does this laptop ship with 10 on it?), and the Vibe Check (lol) key toggles between the various built-in audio... Continue reading…

Here’s the new ThinkPad X1 Nano, which looks a lot like the old ThinkPad X1 Nano. At CES 2022, Lenovo announced updates to three of its most premium laptops on the market: the ThinkPad X1 Carbon 10th-gen (that’s right, this is the tenth one), the ThinkPad X1 Yoga seventh-gen, and the ThinkPad X1 Nano second-gen. The Carbon and the Yoga will be available in March (starting at $1,639 and $1,749, respectively), and the Nano is coming in April (starting at $1,659).These are some heavy hitters. The X1 Carbon and the X1 Yoga are two of the most established and beloved laptops in the business sphere. The X1 Nano is newer to the scene but was one of our favorite laptops that we reviewed last year — it’s the lightest ThinkPad ever made, and it packs impressive power into that chassis.The X1 Nano was one of our favorite... Continue reading…

Here’s the ThinkBook Plus Gen 3. Lenovo has announced the new ThinkBook Plus Gen 3, which has two (two!) screens. There’s one 17.3-inch primary screen (like, the regular one), and there’s another eight-inch screen on the keyboard deck. Various other models that have tried this form factor (namely, Asus’ gaggle of Duo products) have put the secondary screen in the back of the deck and pushed the keyboard to the front. But Lenovo has instead put the keyboard on the right side of the chassis, smushing the keyboard to the left.While the ThinkBook Plus Gen 3’s look takes a bit of getting used to, I definitely prefer this layout to those of the Duos. You don’t have to buy a separate palm rest, and you don’t look and feel like a T. rex when you’re typing. (I know that... Continue reading…

Lenovo Lenovo impressed us in 2021 with its Legion 5 Pro, a 16-inch QHD+ laptop that delivered excellent gaming performance at a price that undercut many of its key competitors, like Razer and Asus. It also got bonus points for being powerful without being too thick or heavy.Like many companies during CES 2022, Lenovo is upgrading the specs of its Legion 5 Pro for this year, and despite my never-dying thirst for new chassis design, it seems like Lenovo may have another hit on its hands without having to change all that much (here’s to hoping Lenovo stocks it at more retailers than just Walmart). Though, according to the company, the chassis is thinner than the previous generation.The new Legion 5 Pro will be available in the standard storm... Continue reading…

CALIFORNIA, UNITED STATES - 2021/08/16: Flames from the Dixie fire approach powerlines. | Photo by Ty O’Neil/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images California utility company PG&E was found at fault for sparking another massive inferno. This time it was the Dixie wildfire, the second largest in state history. Electrical distribution lines sparked the blaze after coming in contact with a tree, according to the results of an investigation completed by state firefighting agency Cal Fire yesterday.The Dixie Fire raged for more than three months last year, burning over 1,300 structures and killing one person. In perhaps its most traumatic episode, the blaze tore through the town of Greenville one August evening — growing explosively overnight. By morning, it had decimated most of the historic Gold Rush town. “We lost Greenville tonight,” local Rep. Doug LaMalfa (R-CA) said as he held... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Meta reportedly pulled the plug on a custom operating system that was supposed to power upcoming virtual and augmented reality headsets, although its full reasoning and future plans still aren’t clear. The Information reported the news today, saying the company formerly named Facebook suspended development of a project called XROS — named after XR, an umbrella term for AR / VR — in November. That leaves Meta with the Android-based operating system used in Quest (previously Oculus) VR devices, something that offers convenience but also makes Meta dependent on another company’s OS.The Information article reports that XROS development began in 2017 and had more than 300 people working on it. It’s apparently synonymous with the “reality... Continue reading…

There’s a video doing the rounds on Twitter today that supposedly shows “how Walmart envisions Shopping in the #Metaverse.” In it, a virtual avatar browses shelves of virtual groceries, picking and tossing items into a shopping cart with all the grace of stop motion skeleton in a ’50s adventure film. Responses to the clip have been suitably mocking, criticizing the VR experience for its pointless skeuomorphism and outdated visuals.This is appropriate, given that the video is actually four years old.Current metaverse demos still look like this sloppy ad from 2017A quick Google reveals that the clip was made for Walmart by a digital agency in 2017 to “impress influencers at SXSW” (an example of an obscure capitalist ritual known as a... Continue reading…

Amazon announced that it will buy an undisclosed number of electric delivery vans from Stellantis in 2023. The automaker has said that it will roll out an all-electric version of its Ram ProMaster commercial van that year.Stellantis, which is the company that formed last year from the merger of Fiat Chrysler Automobiles and the French PSA Group, has not officially revealed the electric vans. But Amazon says it will be the first commercial customer when they eventually enter production, with the two companies working together to put “thousands” of electric vans on the road.Amazon has been working with Rivian, the buzzy electric vehicle company that went public last year in one of the biggest IPOs ever, on a fleet of electric delivery... Continue reading…

Amazon announced that it will buy an undisclosed number of electric delivery vans from Stellantis in 2023. The automaker has said that it will roll out an all-electric version of its Dodge ProMaster commercial van that year.Stellantis, which is the company that formed last year from the merger of Fiat Chrysler Automobiles and the French PSA Group, has not officially revealed the electric vans. But Amazon says it will be the first commercial customer when they eventually enter production, with the two companies working together to put “thousands” of electric vans on the road.Amazon has been working with Rivian, the buzzy electric vehicle company that went public last year in one of the biggest IPOs ever, on a fleet of electric delivery... Continue reading…

From left to right, the Nokia 2760 Flip, C100, G400, C200, G100. | Image: HMD HMD, the company behind modern Nokia-branded phones, has announced five new “US exclusive” phones coming in the first half of this year. None of these are flagships: there’s only one 5G device, and all five are set to retail for under $250. HMD has also revived a classic Nokia design as a modern feature phone — the Nokia 2760 — a flip phone that inherits its name from the original 2007 handset.The company isn’t fully detailing the specs of the five phones today and says it plans to release this information closer to each handset’s launch. Instead, it’s emphasizing that the phones will be available across a wider range of US wireless providers, which now include Dish Wireless and Consumer Cellular in addition to T-Mobile and TracFone.T... Continue reading…

Photo by Yichuan Cao/NurPhoto via Getty Images The market’s only gotten weirder since Theranos Continue reading…

An artistic rendering of the Callisto system inside the Orion crew capsule for Artemis I | Image: Lockheed Martin When NASA debuts its new massive deep-space rocket for the first time in the coming months, a familiar voice assistant and video teleconferencing tool will be going along for the ride. A version of Amazon’s Alexa voice assistant and Cisco’s Webex videoconferencing platform will be included on the flight to space, part of a technology demonstration to see if these tools might benefit future astronauts flying to distant destinations like the Moon and Mars.The upcoming flight is known as Artemis I, and it’s the first test mission in a series of flights planned for NASA’s Artemis program — an initiative to send the first woman and the first person of color to the surface of the Moon. Tentatively set for March, Artemis I will mark the... Continue reading…

The Asus ROG Rapture GT-AXE16000. | Image: Asus Asus’ latest router is the ROG Rapture GT-AXE16000, and it says it’s the “world’s first quad-band Wi-Fi 6E gaming router.” That doesn’t quite make it the world’s first quad-band Wi-Fi 6E router overall (Netgear announced a quad-band Orbi system last October which you can already buy), but this is the first such system to specifically target gamers, and as a standalone router its starting price is cheaper than comparable mesh systems.Quad-band routers, as their name suggests, broadcast a total of four wireless bands for connectivity. Asus’ latest router has a 2.4GHz band, two 5GHz bands, and a fancy new 6GHz band. The three highest frequency bands each offer a theoretical maximum speed of 4,804Mbps, which drops to 1,148Mbps for the... Continue reading…

Vivo has announced the V23 and V23 Pro, the latest phones in the company’s mainstream V series that sells a ton in India and other Asian countries.The most unusual feature is the Sunshine Gold model’s ‘color-changing’ exterior that apparently shifts colors completely when exposed to sunlight. Vivo says the material took two years to research and develop; if you leave it in the sun for about thirty seconds, the phone will turn to blue-green before gradually returning back to the original gold. Plot twist: these phones are both gold. The other standout feature is the display’s notch that houses two selfie cameras, a 50-megapixel main unit and an 8-megapixel ultrawide on both phones. The selfie camera system also... Continue reading…

Stellantis The iconic American brand will only sell electric vehicles by 2028 Continue reading…

WeMo’s first video doorbell supports HomeKit and HomeKit Secure Video. And then there were three... At CES 2022 this week, Wemo announced the immediate availability of the Wemo Smart Video Doorbell, a HomeKit video doorbell that works with HomeKit Secure Video. It joins the Logitech Circle View and Netatmo Smart Video Doorbell camera as the only currently available residential HomeKit video doorbells.The $250 wired doorbell from the Belkin smart home brand is a short, chunky black device measuring 4.9 inches high. It has a 178-degree vertical field of view, 4MP high-resolution camera with “enhanced night vision and optimal zoom clarity,” according to the press release. It also features IP55 weatherproofing and works on 2.4 and 5 GHz Wi-Fi. Image: Wemo The Wemo Smart Video Doorbell... Continue reading…

Image by Belkin Belkin is adding the Immerse earbuds to its existing Soundform true wireless lineup. The earbuds come with hybrid active noise cancellation (ANC) technology, which should deliver audio free of background noise. Image by Belkin In case you haven’t heard of the “hybrid” form of ANC, SoundGuys describes it as two microphones located on the inside and outside of each earbud, which detect and cancel out sound coming from your environment. The other forms of ANC put the mic on the inside or outside of the earbud, which isn’t always as efficient for filtering out noise.The Immerse earbuds have a pretty long battery life as well. Each earbud is supposed to get eight hours of play time on a single charge, and when combined... Continue reading…

Image: Samsung Samsung now makes the biggest, curviest, you-have-to-see-it-to-believe-it PC monitors out there; two Verge editors recently replaced their multi-monitor setups with a single 49-inch Samsung Odyssey G9 when it went on sale for $999 the other week. But the company’s not satisfied simply filling your horizontal field of view with 49 inches of real estate — today at CES, it’s revealing an even bigger 55-inch curved screen with a special stand that lets you flip the gigantic monitor vertically, so the screen curves right over your head.It’s called the Samsung Odyssey Ark, and the company is pitching it as a real product that it’s planning to bring to the United States in the second half of the year. We don’t have a price or firm release... Continue reading…

Samsung’s new barrel-shaped Freestyle projector was just announced at CES. The 1080p projector goes up for preorder today for $899. What matters more than its spec sheet, according to Samsung, is that this highly portable and swiveling visual lightshow with integrated speaker and voice control is coming to support your carefree “lifestyle” and nomadic “experiences.”Olds, in other words, need not apply.How can I be certain of this? Because when I, a curmudgeonly old, showed the Freestyle to my 13-year-old daughter under strict embargo, her first reaction was, and I quote: “I want that. A fake window on my wall would be so pretty.” A sampling of one teen is surely correct.The 1.83 pound (0.83kg) LED projector is capable of producing... Continue reading…

During Sony’s keynote presentation at CES 2022, the company rolled out the Vision-S EV we saw last year, along with a new concept SUV dubbed Vision-S 02. But the big surprise (this time) is the launch of Sony Mobility, a new company it’s starting that will focus on electric cars. While the tech industry has been focused for several years on whether or not Apple might produce a vehicle, Sony already showed us a working prototype packed full of its technology, and now it’s going a step further.Sony will establish an operating company “Sony Mobility Inc.” in the spring of 2022, through which the company intends to explore entry into the EV market.Sony posted several demo videos on YouTube featuring both Vision-S prototype EVs. Some, like... Continue reading…

You know what kind of video game movie Uncharted will be. You know it in your heart. But just in case you don’t know that you know it, you can now watch PlayStation Pictures’ entire live-action recreation of the infamous scene from that one Uncharted video game where Nathan Drake gets dragged out of an airplane by a rope ladder consisting of gigantic pieces of cargo and somehow manages to survive, without any cuts or annoying plot to get in the way.There is a lot of green screen. Lots of baddies go down. Very young actors appear to do acrobatic things. Action abounds, just as Sony promised it would in the company’s CES 2022 presentation this evening, where it also revealed it’s pivoting into electric cars.I am now adequately prepared... Continue reading…

The Aonic 40 is made of aluminum alloy and glass-filled nylon. | Image: Shure Shure has expanded its headphone lineup with the release of the new Aonic 40. The Aonic 40 are a set of wireless over-ear headphones with adjustable active noise cancellation, Environment Mode, 40mm composite drivers, USB-C quick charging, and an estimated 25 hours of battery life with ANC turned on. Priced at $249, this new model sits below the current $299 Aonic 50 in Shure’s lineup — which earned a nod in The Verge’s best noise-canceling headphones of 2021 — and shares some features like a user-customizable EQ through the ShurePlus Play app.The Aonic 40 are available nowWhile the Aonic 40 have a slightly revised look taken from their older sibling, with an aluminum build and a collapsible design, 2020’s Aonic 50 remain at the top... Continue reading…

Sony has confirmed the name of its next VR headset: unsurprisingly, it’s going to be called PlayStation VR2. Sony Interactive Entertainment president and CEO Jim Ryan announced the name as part of Sony’s CES 2022 presentation, in a move reminiscent of two years ago when the PS5 logo was first revealed on stage in Vegas amid much fanfare. (It looked like the PS3 and PS4 logos but with a 5.)Sony still hasn’t shown off what the headset itself will look like, but we know quite a bit about its technical specs already. PS VR2 will work with the PS5, of course, and Sony also detailed the controllers — now officially named Sense controllers — all the way back in March. The headset supports haptic feedback, eye tracking, 4K HDR, 90/120Hz frame... Continue reading…

A built-in display can show animation, system info, and more. | Image: Asus ROG, one of Asus’s gaming brands, has announced the Strix Flare II Animate, a mechanical keyboard that gets its name from the LED display built into it, which can play animations or display logos, similar to the dot-matrix displays ROG’s built into the lids of some laptops.Asus calls this tech the AniMe Matrix LED display, and says you can use it to show all sorts of things; custom images and animations, system info like battery life, time, and date, and even audio visualizations. It’s blingy, to say the least, and more eye-catching than an illuminated logo. That could be a good thing though — this keyboard will cost $220, so it has to justify that price somehow. Gif: Asus Yes, ROG’s all-caps font does make it... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Activision Publishing, a subsidiary of Activision Blizzard, filed a lawsuit Tuesday against EngineOwning, a company that advertises cheats for Call of Duty games and other popular online shooters, and is seeking to shut down software that allows people to cheat in any Activision-published game.“By this lawsuit, Activision seeks to put a stop to unlawful conduct by an organization that is distributing and selling for profit numerous malicious software products designed to enable members of the public to gain unfair competitive advantages (i.e., to cheat) in the COD Games,” Activision said. “These ongoing activities damage Activision’s games, its overall business, and the experience of the COD player community.”According to the lawsuit,... Continue reading…

The OnePlus 10 Pro | OnePlus Rather than announce all of the details of the OnePlus 10 Pro flagship, OnePlus is choosing to space out the details in drips and drabs. First, it released an official teaser image that revealed the design of the phone alongside a China release date of January 11th. Now, it’s announcing the phone’s specs, which include the newest Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 processor, ultra fast charging, and a 5,000mAh battery.If you’ve been keeping up on Android news the past few months, none of these details will come as a surprise. Flagship Android phones in the US all tend to feature Qualcomm’s most powerful processor and if there’s any interesting news here, it’s that OnePlus is getting a small jump on Samsung and becoming the first major smartphone to... Continue reading…

Photo by Sean O’Kane / The Verge General Motors is no longer the top seller of vehicles in the US as reported Tuesday by CNBC. The Detroit powerhouse lost the crown to Toyota, which reportedly sold about 114,000 more vehicles than GM in 2021.GM reported Tuesday that total sales were down almost 13 percent last year due to semiconductor shortages. Vehicle and technology companies worldwide have been faced with production difficulties due to chip shortages, and GM has had to cut features from some vehicles, such as wireless chargers and HD radios, due to supply issues.

The second EV to feature the German automaker’s coveted performance branding Continue reading…

Image by Robinhood Robinhood has introduced a new experience geared towards trading noobs, and the company says its personalized stock recommendations could help beginners get a sense of the technical side of trading.If you’re a new user and haven’t added anything to your Investment Profile, you’ll get the option to choose “Get help with your first investment” from the Investing tab. Robinhood will then present you with a questionnaire that asks what your investment goals are, how long you plan on investing your money, and more.Based on those answers, Robinhood will recommend a personalized portfolio containing four diverse exchange-traded funds (ETFs), with additional information about each fund and why Robinhood picked it for you. Once you’ve reviewed... Continue reading…

Dell’s new 32-inch UltraSharp videoconferencing monitor supports 4K in more ways than one — the first, obvious for a display, is its 3840 x 2160 panel. But it also has a built-in 4K webcam, perfect for the age of Zoom meetings and working from home. Better still, you can connect to the monitor with a single USB-C cable, which will provide a video signal to the screen and send 90W of power back to your laptop.The monitor’s official name is the U3223QZ (Dell’s naming is catchy as ever), and its webcam uses a Sony 4K HDR STARVIS CMOS sensor. That’s similar to the imaging tech that Dell uses for its $200 external UltraSharp webcam, but unlike that device, the monitor has two built-in microphones. Dell also says that you’ll be able to... Continue reading…