The Verge

Photo by Joe Scarnici/Getty Images for Fortune Google is giving four of its top execs a significant pay bump, raising their salaries from $650,000 to $1 million, just weeks after the company told staffers it wouldn’t automatically adjust salaries to account for inflation. The new executive salaries were disclosed in an SEC filing.The executives receiving the $1 million base salaries are chief financial officer Ruth Porat, senior vice president Prabhakar Raghavan (who is in charge of Google search); senior vice president and chief business officer Philipp Schindler; and president of global affairs and chief legal officer Kent Walker. All four executives are eligible to “participate in a maximum $2,000,000 annual bonus program, based on contributions to Google’s performance against... Continue reading…

Verizon is the latest carrier to offer a mobile data plan without monthly caps on its fastest network speeds. | Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Verizon has updated its unlimited plans in anticipation of new 5G spectrum coming online tomorrow soonish. The new plans cost the same and include the same level of access to the carrier’s Nationwide and Ultra Wideband 5G networks, but the priciest Get More plan receives a notable upgrade: unlimited monthly “premium data.” That puts it on even terms with the other major carriers’ top-tier unlimited plans.The plans previously known as Start, Play More, Do More, and Get More Unlimited are now called 5G Start Unlimited, 5G Play More Unlimited... you get the idea. The Get More plan ($90 / month for one line with autopay) previously included 50GB of premium data each month — once customers reached that limit, they’d be subject to slowdowns... Continue reading…

Ti or Ti?It’s a question that’s plagued Nvidia fans for years, ever since the company started appending the “Ti” designation to its most powerful GPUs, like the RTX 3090 Ti that Nvidia just announced at CES 2022.But how do you pronounce “Ti”? There are two camps: those who pronounce it “tie,” like the neck garment or the first syllable of “titanium,” while others fervently insist that it’s pronounced as initials: “tee-eye.” Not even Nvidia seems to know which is right, as the company’s CES presentation showed — different presenters switched back and forth between saying “tie” and “tee-eye” from one segment to the next.Should “GeForce” be called “Gee-Eee Force”? Of course not. Do you say “Ertex” instead of RTX? Preposterous. But... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge The highly addictive clock app is testing a feature that should save you the trouble of having to DM the most share-worthy clips from your For You page with friends. TikTok has introduced a “Repost” button that works a little like Twitter’s retweet feature — but it doesn’t appear to be available to everyone yet.Several sites earlier reported on the feature, and social media consultant Matt Navarra tweeted an image of the button on December 19th. TechCrunch today reported a more detailed explanation of how the tool works in practice, including that it seems to be limited to the For You feed from the share menu rather than throughout the TikTok app. (Videos that are shared can similarly be un-shared from this menu as well.)Additionally,... Continue reading…

Hyundai has already showed off some practical robotics concepts last month in the lead-up to the 2022 Consumer Electronics Show. Now the South Korean automaker is going full galaxy brain with the introduction of a new “Mobility of Things” concept that it claims will power a whole slew of objects, from household plants and book shelves, to ambulances and autonomous passenger pods.The spectrum of things that can be roboticized (for lack of a better term) is “unlimited,” said Dong Jin Hyun, vice president and head of Robotics Lab of Hyundai Motor Group, in a statement. “The goal is for robotics to enable all kinds of personal mobility, connected to communicate, move and perform tasks autonomously.”“The goal is for robotics to enable all... Continue reading…

Photo by Cameron Faulkner / The Verge As is usually the case for CES, there is an abundance of gaming laptops being announced for release in early and mid-2022 that have at least two of the following traits in common: they have Intel’s 12th Gen H-series processors, or they support AMD’s Ryzen 6000-series processors, and they have Nvidia’s new RTX 3070 Ti or RTX 3080 Ti graphics chips. What’s more, many of them will also support DDR5 RAM at 4,800MHz. It’s a great time to be shopping for a laptop, as these seem faster than ever.There are always outliers we won’t catch, and we’ll be making more passes at this through the week, but there are currently well over a dozen laptops coming that have some combination of these components. We’ve covered the biggest CES 2022... Continue reading…

Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge Google is bringing an update to older Pixel devices to fix a dangerous bug that prevents users from calling 911, as noted by a post on a Google support page. The bug stems from an unintended interaction between the Android OS and Microsoft Teams — it only affects devices with Android 10 or later and could occur if you have Teams installed but aren’t signed in.The update resolves the “issue preventing emergency calls in certain conditions”On the support page, Google notes that the update resolves the “issue preventing emergency calls in certain conditions while some third-party apps are installed.” It’s available on devices running Android 12 (including the Pixel 3 and up), but the update hasn’t rolled out to the Pixel 6 and Pixel 6 Pro... Continue reading…

Image: Targus In addition to designing several new products for people trying to keep germ-free during a pandemic, Targus is targeting iPhone users with this new Cypress Hero EcoSmart Backpack that has built-in Apple Find My technology. Image: Targus The Cypress Hero EcoSmart backpack includes Apple’s Find My technology. In turn, users can also use their backpack to track a lost iPhone by pressing a button in the backpack. The backpack has an integrated battery that’s replaceable and can be recharged via USB, which Targus claims will provide better protection from thieves than a simple tag. Like the other bags in the Cypress Hero EcoSmart line, Targus says this one is built using approximately 26 recycled water bottles.C... Continue reading…

Self-driving tractors could be coming to a farm near you. | Image; John Deere Agricultural equipment maker John Deere has announced its latest piece of autonomous farming kit: a package of hardware and software that combines machine learning with the company’s GPS-powered auto-steer features to create a “fully autonomous tractor.”The technology to support autonomous farming has been developing rapidly in recent years, but John Deere claims this is a significant step forward. With this technology, farmers will not only be able to take their hands off the wheel of their tractor or leave the cab — they’ll be able to leave the field altogether, letting the equipment do the work without them while monitoring things remotely using their smartphone.“This is not a demo. It’s not a concept machine. It’s something we’ve... Continue reading…

A long-brewing battle between wireless carriers and airlines Continue reading…

Qualcomm and Microsoft are partnering to develop a new, customized Snapdragon augmented reality chip that’ll power future AR glasses within Microsoft’s ecosystems. The new partnership was announced at Qualcomm’s CES 2022 keynote.“We’re announcing that we’re developing a custom augmented reality Snapdragon chip for next-generation, power-efficient, very lightweight AR glasses for the Microsoft ecosystem,” said Qualcomm CEO Cristiano Amon. “And we’re integrating into that chip platform software from both companies: the Microsoft Mesh platform, and the recently announced Qualcomm Snapdragon Spaces XR development platform. Snapdragon Spaces will be fully integrated into Microsoft Mesh, and this platform will be available for... Continue reading…

The line consists of 12 colors with cheesy gaming-inspired names. | Image: Xbox/OPI OPI and Xbox are collaborating on a new lineup of gaming-inspired nail polishes that also unlock in-game content for Halo Infinite and Forza Horizon 5. The vibrant line of 12 nail polish colors is available today in the US at Ulta Beauty. Purchasing colors in the line qualifies for redeemable codes to unlock an exclusive Ford GT livery in Forza Horizon 5 as well as an armor coating in Halo Infinite.The OPI x Xbox collection colors have some unique names, ranging from lighthearted and fun to full-on gamer cringe: Quest for Quartz (rose quartz), Pixel Dust (shimmery mauve pink), Racing for Pinks (crème rose), Suzi is My Avatar (pink-nude), Trading Paint (crème apricot), Heart and Con-soul (crimson), The Pass is Always Greener (pastel... Continue reading…

Just playing co-op Spiritfarer while enjoying Asus-branded chips and soda. Hit me up on my Asus phone if you want to chill. | Asus The iPad Pro is likely the most powerful gaming tablet you can currently buy — and likely the most popular — but Asus is announcing a Windows-based gaming tablet that may go toe-to-toe in terms of power but will vastly exceed Apple’s tablet in terms of game and accessory compatibility on day one.The ROG Flow Z13 has been announced at CES 2022, and it’s a tablet with a 13.4-inch display and a kickstand. Impressively, Asus will offer configurations of the Z13 with Intel’s Core i9-12900H 45W processor and Nvidia’s RTX 3050 Ti with 40W of total graphics power — both of which are incredible achievements in a 12mm-thick tablet. The Z13 is essentially a high-end gaming laptop that’s been crammed into a much thinner form factor, complete with... Continue reading…

Sure, you could play Titanfall 2, but many newer games should run just fine here. | Asus Asus has delivered some big upgrades to its ROG Zephyrus G14 and G15 laptops for 2022. These lines have already been beloved for great battery life, solid performance for gaming and creative work, and aggressive pricing. The most notable feature improvements for both laptops include the Windows Hello IR camera (both laptops previously omitted a webcam), while the G14, with its 14-inch display, has a 50 percent bigger trackpad, along with a jump to 16:10 aspect ratio displays from its previous 16:9 (the G15, which has a 15.6-inch display, is still 16:9).That’s not all, though. The G14 features up to AMD’s new Ryzen 9 6900HS processor, paired with a Radeon RX 6800S graphics chip. This offers 105W of graphical power by taking advantage of... Continue reading…

Asus At CES 2022, Asus announced the ROG Swift OLED gaming monitor that comes in a 48-inch (PG48UQ) or a 42-inch (PG42UQ) size. Now, 48-inch OLEDs aren’t novel at this point, but the 42-inch size is a brand-new innovation for 2022. LG debuted its 42-inch C2 OLED this week, and Asus says it’s the first company to adapt a similarly-sized model into its own product. Asus hasn’t shared a release date or price for these monitors, but you know the usual disclaimer about OLEDs: don’t expect them to be cheap.The PG42UQ, like the 48-inch model, has a 4K (3840 x 2160) display, an impressive 1,000,000 to 1 contrast ratio, a lightning-fast 0.1ms response time, a 120Hz refresh rate, 10-bit color with 98 percent coverage of the DCI-P3 color space, and... Continue reading…

Liu Junfeng / Costfoto/Future Publishing via Getty Images China has rolled out a pilot version of an app that allows users to store and pay with digital yuan, also known as e-CNY, as reported by the South China Morning Post. And no, the digital yuan isn’t a cryptocurrency — it was developed by the People’s Bank of China (PBOC) to replace banknotes and coins; thus, it isn’t a decentralized form of payment, nor will it operate on the blockchain.Although it might sound like we already pay with digital cash when we use a credit card or an online payment service like PayPal and Apple Pay, the digital yuan isn’t anything like that. e-CNY is essentially physical cash converted into a digital form, and it’s been in the works since 2014. According to CNBC, distribution of the digital currency will take... Continue reading…

Qualcomm’s vision of a Digital Chassis vehicle | Image: Qualcomm Qualcomm has announced several new expansions of its partnerships with major car companies to provide hardware and software platforms for connected vehicles at CES 2022, partnering with Volvo, Honda, and Renault to add more functionality to their upcoming cars.Qualcomm already has a full suite of automotive platforms, which it collectively calls the Qualcomm Digital Chassis. The goal is to provide automakers with a variety of tools they can use to help make their cars more intelligent and more connected (although companies can pick and choose which of the platforms they want to use). Those include:

This robot follows the fish. | Image: @ronen_segev on Twitter Something interesting swam across my Twitter feed recently: a video of a goldfish that seemed to be controlling a robotic fish tank with wheels, with the contraption following the direction the fish was swimming. “Oh no,” I thought. “They gave this goldfish a robot, and now it’s unstoppable.”Thankfully, it doesn’t seem like it was done as a part of some evil plot. The goldfish mech suit was posted by Ronen Segev, a researcher on a team that was looking into how animals navigate. Helpfully, Segev links to a full research paper in the Twitter thread, which should offer more insight into the project.

Anker has a new GaN charger that the company announced at CES 2022, the $79 Anker Nano II 100W (also known as the Anker 736 charger), which the company says is “the world’s smallest 100W gallium nitride wall charger.”The new Nano II 100W charger offers a pair of USB-C ports and a single USB-A port, and it uses Anker’s second-generation GaN II technology that the company debuted earlier this year on its other Nano II chargers.More power in a smaller packageIt’s also worth noting that the 100W output is only for a single device at once — if more than one gadget is plugged in, the Nano II 100W will divvy up wattage according. But the 100W output here is enough to charge most laptops at full speed, which is a nice improvement over... Continue reading…

Anker Anker has announced the B600 Video Bar, a nifty video conferencing toolkit that houses everything that meeting-goers need. It rests upon your monitor (or TV), and the webcam portion of the Video Bar features a 2K sensor capable of 30 frames per second capture. It offers field-of-view adjustment, autofocus, and like most fancy webcams these days, it supports an AI-powered zoom feature and image enhancement. Within the device, there’s also a microphone array. It uses an AI algorithm to make noisy environments sound quiet on the other end.The Video Bar also packs two features that aren’t commonly included with a webcam: a key light and speakers. I’d assume that a large percentage of people who work from home don’t have ideal lighting... Continue reading…

Acer Acer’s Nitro 5 gaming laptop lineup has become more refined and feature-packed over time, and the new versions announced at CES 2022 make it even more appealing. Like before, the Nitro 5 for 2022 comes in two sizes, 15.6 inches and 17.3 inches, and you can choose between a 1080p or a QHD display. What’s new for this year is that its chassis design ditched those angular corners and added some extra pizazz to its lid. Also of note is that you can get one with either the latest 12th-Gen Intel processors (starting with a Core i5 12700H and going up to an Core i7 12700H) or one of AMD’s Ryzen 6000-series processors (starting with the Ryzen 5 6600H, going up to the Ryzen 7 6800H). Both versions can stock up to Nvidia’s new RTX 3070 Ti graphics... Continue reading…

Acer is announcing updates to its Swift X line of ultraportable laptops at CES 2022, each sporting 12th Gen Intel Core processors and, on the 16-inch model, a discrete Intel Arc GPU.The 2022 versions of the laptops come in two screen sizes (and both have a 16:10 aspect ratio): a 14-inch model with a 2240 x 1400 resolution and a 16-inch model with an up to 2560 x 1600 resolution. While the 16-inch version has the Intel Arc GPU, the 14-inch model is available with Nvidia’s GeForce RTX 3050 Ti laptop GPU or integrated graphics.Both models run Windows 11 and are equipped with two Thunderbolt 4 ports, two USB-A ports, an HDMI 2.0 port, and a fingerprint reader. And both sound like they’ll be relatively light — Acer says the 14-inch model... Continue reading…

Intel has announced its third-generation update for its “Intel Evo” certification program at CES 2022, adding new requirements for better video calls for future devices, expanding the certification to include larger and more powerful laptops, and new foldable designs.The Evo branding (itself an extension of Intel’s original Project Athena program) was introduced in 2020 alongside Intel’s 11th Gen Tiger Lake chips as a simple and easy way for customers to know that they’d be getting a laptop that checked certain basic performance and experiential metrics.Specifically, in addition to offering one of Intel’s 11th Gen U-series or Y-series chips, Evo-branded laptops had to get over nine hours of “real-world” battery life, wake from sleep... Continue reading…

The HP EliteBook 1040 G9 has a 14-inch IPS display. | Image: HP HP debuted its new commercial laptops at CES 2022, including its convertible Elite x360 devices, EliteBook 800 and 600 lineups, as well as its ProBook 400 G9 series laptops. Each Windows 11 laptop comes with Intel’s 12th Gen processor, which was just introduced last October.The HP Elite x360 1040 G9 and HP EliteBook 1040 G9 have almost the same internals; one of the main differences is that the Elite x360 is a convertible device with a touchscreen, while the latter is just your typical clamshell laptop. Each device has a 14-inch 16:10 IPS display, supports up to 2TB of storage, and comes with optional 5G connectivity.While the Elite x360 supports up to 16GB of DDR5 SODIMM memory and 2TB of storage, the EliteBook 1040 G9 comes with up... Continue reading…

Intel has announced its latest 12th Gen Alder Lake featuring the company’s new hybrid architecture at CES 2022 with its first laptop chip using the new design, led by the Core i9-12900HK, which Intel boldly claims is “the fastest mobile processor. Ever.”Intel’s first wave of 12th Gen Alder Lake chips on desktop last fall were one of its biggest successes in years, allowing the company to offer a chip that could beat or compete with AMD’s Ryzen 9 5950X flagship across productivity and gaming. And now, Intel is bringing that same new approach to chip design — with its Arm-esque performance and efficiency cores — to laptops, starting with its most powerful 45W H-series models of chips.But the laptop world also has gotten a lot more... Continue reading…

The layers of JWST’s sunshield undergoing tests on the ground before its launch | Image: Northrop Grumman/Alex Evers NASA’s next-generation James Webb Space Telescope has successfully deployed its sunshield — a critical feature the observatory will use to keep its instruments extra cold during the course of its mission. The unfurling of the sunshield marks the end of perhaps the most complicated deployment the observatory must pull off in order to properly function while in space.“This is a really big moment,” Bill Ochs, the project manager for JWST at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, said to the mission team after the deployment was complete. “I just want to congratulate the entire team. We still got a lot of work to do but but getting the sunshield out and deployed is really, really big.”The James Webb Space Telescope, or JWST, is NASA’s... Continue reading…

China’s state news agency, Xinhua News, has released a bizarre James Bond-themed parody video mocking the US and UK’s crackdown on Huawei. It really needs to be seen to be believed. The English-language video was spotted by Gizmodo and has been released both on Xinhua’s New China TV YouTube channel as well as its China Xinhua News Twitter account, with both accounts carrying a warning about their affiliations with the Chinese state.I mean, where do we even start with this video. There’s the fact that our protagonist is called James Pond, in what appears to be an unwitting reference to the series of ’90s video games based on an anthropomorphic mudskipper of the same name. Or what about the fact that one secret agent is supposedly doing... Continue reading…

Image: Nvidia At its CES 2022 virtual keynote, Nvidia is announcing a partnership with AT&T to offer six months of GeForce Now cloud gaming service for free. New and existing AT&T customers with a 5G-capable device and qualifying plan can claim the promotion through the service provider, allowing them to stream free-to-play titles and supported PC games they already own on the go with the cloud gaming service.This promotional offer is for Nvidia’s Priority tier of GeForce Now, not the new RTX 3080 one we recently enjoyed. The Priority tier normally costs $49.99 for a prepaid six-month period (or $9.99 monthly) and includes enough GPU power to add raytracing to some older games at 1080p resolution and at up to 60fps (though you won’t see that in... Continue reading…

Razer Razer isn’t using CES 2022 as a moment to show off a bold, new laptop concept. Instead, it’s asserting its dominance in the gaming laptop world by announcing refreshed Blade laptops that are barely different on the outside but with marked improvements on the inside.Starting with the biggest updates, the Blade 14, Blade 15, and Blade 17 each feature the jump to faster DDR5 RAM (Razer’s goes up to 4,800MHz), along with support for AMD’s latest Ryzen 9, or Intel’s new 12th Gen processors, depending on the model you want. Additionally, Razer’s 2022 update will offer support for up to Nvidia’s new RTX 3070 Ti and the 3080 Ti mobile graphics chip. You’re likely to find these specs in many gaming laptops being announced during this year’s... Continue reading…

Anker’s Nebula Cosmos Laser 4K. | Image: Anker Anker sub-brand Nebula has a new projector that runs Android TV 10.0 called the Cosmos Laser 4K. It’s designed to be portable with a pair of 30W speakers baked right in for spontaneous gaming or movie nights wherever you might be. The ALPD 3.0 laser tech can project 4K images at 2400 ANSI lumens. That’s respectable, but likely too dim to produce a decent image in anything but a darkened room.It unfortunately looks like it won’t run Netflix natively, just like other Android TV 10.0 projectors we’ve reviewed. Instead Anker says the Cosmos Laser comes with a “4K streaming dongle” to push content off your phone.3 second autofocus and keystone correctionOther features include fast (3 second) autofocus and automatic keystone correction... Continue reading…

Image: Hisense Hisense is one of those brands that’s easy to sleep on when you’re shopping for a new TV. But over the last few years, the company has built a strong reputation for delivering much better picture quality than you’d typically expect from TVs that sell at similar prices. And for 2022, Hisense is trying to offer a TV that won’t disappoint regardless of your budget.At the top of the heap of this year’s “ULED” TVs is the flagship U9H Series. It’s got Mini LED backlighting (with over 1,280 dimming zones), quantum dot HDR, a peak brightness of 2,000 nits, support for 4K gaming at 120Hz, FreeSync variable refresh rate, and an upgraded processor for improved responsiveness.Under that comes the U8H, the latest in the well-reviewed U8 series,... Continue reading…

Image: Samsung Samsung and LG have embraced cloud gaming this winter with support for Google Stadia and Nvidia’s GeForce Now in their television sets — but neither brand of TV will include Nvidia’s best quality streams for now. Nvidia cloud gaming boss Phil Eisler confirmed to The Verge that TVs will start at 1080p, and it sounds like the company’s 4K HDR streams will stay exclusive to the company’s own Nvidia Shield TV set-top through the first half of 2022.But afterward, that may change — depending on your TV’s processor.“The TVs use many different SOCs with different performance levels capable of decoding our streams at 60 FPS, so we’re focused on 1080p first,” Eisler explains. “We’ve rolled that out with LG first in December and with Samsung... Continue reading…

The Fusion 5G arrives on AT&T’s shelves this Friday, January 7th. | Image: AT&T AT&T has announced the Fusion 5G, a budget phone with a couple of features previously reserved for much more expensive devices: mmWave 5G and wireless charging. It will cost $219 (or $6.12 per month if you’d rather go that route) when it goes on sale this Friday, January 7th.Support for mmWave is a bit rare in the under-$300 class — many budget phones only offer the more common but (currently) mediocre sub-6GHz 5G rather than faster but hard-to-find mmWave. In fact, back in the heady, early days of 5G in the US, phones like the Google Pixel 4A were sold in two variants: a cheaper version with sub-6GHz only and a more expensive one with mmWave. A couple of years later, it’s still tough to find a mmWave signal, but at least you don’t... Continue reading…

Nvidia has a new budget GPU king, announced at CES 2022: the RTX 3050, which starts at $249 and undercuts the company’s previous entry-level RTX graphics card, the $329 RTX 3060, by a solid $80.As with the other RTX GPUs, the RTX 3050 is built on Nvidia’s Ampere architecture and promises to offer the company’s most affordable entry to ray-traced gaming at 60fps (albeit at 1080p), along with 8GB of GDDR6 memory. The RTX 3050 also offers Nvidia’s third-generation Tensor cores to enable things like its AI-based DLSS upscaling, despite the lower price. A new entry-level GPU from Nvidia... if you can find oneAccording to Matt Wuebbling, Nvidia’s VP of global GeForce marketing, 75 percent of customers are still using the... Continue reading…

Nvidia is launching new G-Sync monitors that let you pick between 1440p and 1080p modes. While the majority of PC gamers still use 1080p (67 percent according to Steam), many are considering the upgrade to 1440p. Nvidia is hoping its new G-Sync monitors could ease the transition, particularly for those looking for an esports display.These new 27-inch esports displays include up to 360Hz refresh rates, support for Nvidia’s Reflex Analyzer system latency tool, an esports vibrance mode that uses mini LED backlights to enhance the color profile of the panel, and a special 25-inch 1080p mode.These monitors are really designed for competitive players who play titles like Valorant, CS:GO, Overwatch, or Rainbow Six Siege. All of these games... Continue reading…

AMD has announced a new gaming software feature at CES 2022: Radeon Super Resolution, which promises to bring AI-powered supersampling improvements to almost any game, even if it hasn’t been specifically updated to support AMD’s FidelityFX Super Resolution.According to AMD, Radeon Super Resolution (RSR) is built on the same algorithm as FidelityFX Super Resolution, but it’s integrated into AMD’s Adrenalin software suite as a driver-based feature, allowing it to work on a far wider range of games.Once it rolls out, gamers will be able to simply enable RSR in Adrenalin, lower the resolution in their games, and get the boosted performance benefits from the new software. RSR works on any of AMD’s RDNA-based GPUs, and promises to offer... Continue reading…

BioWare Game Pass is starting the new year off strong with the announcement that Mass Effect Legendary Edition will be among the first games to arrive on the service in January. The alien dating simulator cleverly disguised as an epic space opera trilogy arrives on Game Pass console and PC on January 6th. So if you’ve ever wondered what a Garrus Vakarian is and why people are so obsessed with wooing what looks like a rock-plated chicken lizard, now’s your chance.Other titles coming to Game Pass in January include roguelike cave explorer Spelunky 2, the award-winning, time-warping Outer Wilds, and a preview of the four-person co-op shooter The Anacrusis.Coming with the enthusiastic endorsement of The Verge’s Andrew Webster, Gorogoa, a... Continue reading…

AMD is going for a full overhaul of its laptop hardware at CES 2022, with a full slate of new discrete GPUs for laptops: a new line of RX 6000S models designed for beefing up graphics on thin-and-light gaming laptops and an expanded line of RX 6000M GPUs for more traditional gaming laptops.The RX 6000S series of chips is kicking off with three new designs: the RX 6800S, the RX 6700S, and the RX 6600S. AMD says that the new GPUs will enable powerful gaming laptops that are 20 percent thinner and under 4.5 pounds in weight, with a goal of maximizing power efficiency. The 6000M series is getting a pair of new entry-level chips — the RX 6500M and RX 6300M — and souped-up versions of some of its existing models, including the... Continue reading…

Image by Lenovo Lenovo has a new smart clock, and unlike its prior models, the updated Smart Clock Essential comes with Alexa instead of Google Assistant — basically making it an Echo Dot turned smart clock. Most of the major changes to the clock have to do with Lenovo passing the baton to Alexa, but there are still some smaller changes worth noting as well.You can still set an alarm, timer, and reminders, as well as control your smart home with the device; any product that’s compatible with Alexa will also work with the Smart Clock Essential. Additionally, you can stream audio from Amazon Music and other streaming platforms, which the smart clock plays from its 3W speaker, a spec that remains unchanged from the previous model.The fabric case that... Continue reading…

Image: Sony Sony is setting some pretty grand expectations with its 2022 TV lineup — led by the introduction of the world’s first consumer QD-OLED TV. The company’s current and well-regarded OLED sets use panels from LG Display that are tuned with Sony’s own processing. But the new flagship Bravia XR A95K TV will include a QD-OLED (quantum dot organic light emitting diode) panel manufactured by none other than Samsung Display. It’ll come in 65-inch and 55-inch sizes, with both coming in at 4K resolution.It was rumored that Samsung Electronics might announce a QD-OLED 4K TV at CES 2022, but that hasn’t panned out so far. So it’s Sony that gets the prime spotlight instead. Samsung Display has been developing QD-OLED for a number of years, and the... Continue reading…

Image: Sony Here’s the so-called “weird Sony” gadget for CES 2022: the Bravia Cam is a new video camera that will come bundled with the company’s very fanciest TVs (like the new QD-OLED A95K) and sold as an optional add-on for the rest of the lineup. You’ll be able to make video calls with it, but Sony is cramming in way more functionality than the simple stuff. The question is really whether any of the Bravia Cam’s many tricks will actually work worth a damn in the real world.First, and this is the part I’m instinctively most wary of, the Bravia Cam will allow you to control 2022 Sony TVs with gesture controls from the couch. Want to power your TV off with a close of your fist? Have at it. Or you can pause your content or adjust the volume by... Continue reading…

Image: Sony Sony makes arguably the best OLED TVs that you can buy. They outperform LG’s own OLED sets in picture quality despite the fact that both companies use very similar panels from LG Display. That’s because Sony applies its own image processing to everything that you see on-screen. Even when the company adopts a new display technology, it leans on decades’ worth of TV hardware expertise to fine-tune everything.And now that Sony’s got a good handle on OLED, it’s time for a new challenge: Mini LED. As part of its 2022 TV lineup, which also features one of the world’s very first QD-OLED TVs, Sony is introducing its first Mini LED LCD TVs. The Z9K series will offer 8K resolution in 75- and 85-inch screen sizes, while the X95K sticks to 4K with... Continue reading…

Image: TCL Last year, TCL announced an “XL” TV series that aimed to offer very big 85-inch displays for prices below what you’d pay for a similarly enormous set from, say, Samsung or LG. And in the first week of 2022, the XL lineup is going even larger. Today TCL is introducing a new 98-inch 4K QLED TV that’s available for purchase immediately. The 98R754 is a Google TV-based set that offers features like 4K gaming at 120Hz.As for the price, TCL is only saying that the latest XL model “starts at under $8,000.” So, that probably translates to $7,999. Even at that asking price, TCL claims the 98-inch QLED is “accessible” and honors the company’s “commitment to deliver powerful picture performance and big-screen immersion at an accessible price... Continue reading…

“Amber hunters” on a quest for a Jurassic Park-style discovery of dinosaur remains sift through mounds of the precious resin in Myanmar — a lucrative trade that captivates palaeontologists but also fuels a decades-long conflict in the far north. | Photo credit should read LILLIAN SUWANRUMPHA/AFP via Getty Images Colonialism is so entangled in earth sciences that its ugly legacy still influences research today. Scientists are struggling to undo the damage that colonization has had on their fields, which have been dominated mostly by white men from wealthy nations over the years.The latest evidence is a study published last week that finds that 97 percent of fossil data in a major, global database comes from authors based in North America and Western Europe— indicating that scientists from western nations hold a global “monopoly over palaeontological knowledge production.” The authors say it’s a symptom of researchers from those nations “parachuting” into other countries and taking what they find away with them.Once researchers return to their... Continue reading…

Google’s latest Nest Hub is on sale today for just $59.99, its second-best price to date. | Photo by Dan Seifert / The Verge If you were secretly hoping for a smart home display for Christmas but didn’t receive one, today you can treat yourself to one of the best for almost half its usual price. Right now, you can grab Google’s second-gen Nest Hub — our pick for one of the best smart displays — for its second-best price to date at B&H Photo, Best Buy, and Adorama. Typically $99.99, it’s currently on sale for $59.99, which is only $10 shy of its all-time low during Black Friday. As mentioned in our review, Google’s small second-gen smart display remains an excellent digital photo frame for displaying images from Google Photos, and it offers automatic and reliable sleep-tracking features. It’s also a better speaker than its predecessor and grants you access to... Continue reading…

TCL’s new laptop, the TCL Book 14 Go. | Image: TCL TCL, which is perhaps best known for its lower-cost TVs, smartphones, and tablets, is expanding into laptops with the TCL Book 14 Go. The company is also targeting an affordable cost with this new laptop, pricing it at $349 — though that budget price means it doesn’t have the most impressive specs.The new Windows 11 laptop has a 14.1-inch display with a 1366 x 768 resolution and a 16:9 aspect ratio, and TCL is promising its 40Wh battery will last for 10 to 12 hours. It’s an ARM-based laptop with a Snapdragon 7c CPU, and it also has an Adreno 618 GPU. And the laptop can connect to LTE networks, so you can get on the internet while away from a Wi-Fi connection. It only has 128GB of onboard storage, though you can expand that with an SD... Continue reading…

The TCL Nxtpaper 10S tablet reduces blue light by 10 percent. | Image by TCL TCL introduced a lineup of new tablets at CES this year, which includes its latest iteration of the NxtPaper and budget-friendly Tab series.The NxtPaper 10S offers a similar “paper-like” display and a focus on combatting eye strain as its eight-inch predecessor. But this isn’t electronic paper. It’s a 10.1-inch IPS display that TCL says reduces blue light by 50 percent and has an anti-glare finish. Unlike the previously released NxtPaper tablet, the 10S comes with a proprietary T Pen to jot down notes and boasts a bigger 8,000mAh battery. The NxtPaper 10S is set to go on sale for $249 in Europe and China next month. Image: TCL The budget-friendly TCL Tab 8 comes with 4G LTE connectivity. TCL’s Tab 8 4G is... Continue reading…

TCL will debut a total of eight new phones globally in 2022, but it’s kicking the year off by introducing two models coming exclusively to the US: the TCL 30 XE 5G and TCL 30 V 5G. The 30 XE 5G offers a 6.52-inch 90Hz display and will be sold initially at T-Mobile with other carrier availability later in the year. The 30 V 5G will be exclusive to Verizon, with sub-6GHz and mmWave 5G connectivity. With these new devices, TCL looks to be playing to its strengths in the budget market.The TCL 30 V 5G boasts a slightly bigger 6.67-inch 1080p display with a standard 60Hz refresh rate. It uses a Snapdragon 480 5G chipset with 4GB of RAM and 128GB of storage. The 30 V includes a 50-megapixel main rear camera and a 5-megapixel ultrawide,... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Hello and welcome to 2022. It remains winter, y’all. I haven’t seen the sun in seemingly weeks, but we’re pushing through, surviving on podcast news for warmth and cheeriness.Now, let’s get to the news. There’s not a ton to discuss today, but I do have a new report that I’m excited to share with you all. Let’s start there.EXCLUSIVE: Podcast ads gone wrongThis morning, I published a story on The Verge about the ongoing push to make programmatic advertising work in podcasting and the struggles podcasters are already experiencing. The idea behind the transition is to allow advertisers to easily and automatically bid on podcast ad inventory and have those ads targeted against specific audiences. This is why we’ve seen podcast platforms... Continue reading…