The Verge

IssueI was forced to manually shut down Chrome and reboot my computer — losing dozens of tabs.Quick fixUse Shift-Ctrl-T on a PC or Shift-Command-T on a Mac to restore tabs. You can also use History to restore complete Chrome windows, including all groups and tabs.The full storyOver the weekend, I needed to use my somewhat elderly MacBook Pro — the one I usually use for work — for a Zoom call. Unfortunately, I had been running several work projects and had two iterations of Chrome going, each with about 40 or 50 tabs. (Okay, I had a couple of other apps going as well.) As a result, when I began to run Zoom, the computer started to go on strike.I didn’t have time to start winnowing out which tabs I could easily lose or save them as... Continue reading…

Apple Apple’s 2022 MacBook Air with an updated design, M2 processor, MagSafe charging, and a slightly bigger display will soon be available for preorder, starting at $1,199. Preorders have begun, and orders placed will begin shipping Friday, July 15th. If you have a hard time preordering online for delivery (preorders don’t typically sell out, but ship dates often get pushed back very quickly), here’s a tip: try to order online right at 8AM ET on launch day, July 15th, with your order set as an in-store pickup.The release of this model follows behind the 2022 MacBook Pro with a Touch Bar, which had the honor of being Apple’s first laptop to debut the M2 chip. In terms of how the M2 performs, my colleague Monica Chin’s review concluded that... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Microsoft is rolling back a planned change to block Visual Basic for Applications (VBA) macros by default in a variety of Office apps. Announced earlier this year, Microsoft had been planning to prevent Office users from easily enabling certain content in files downloaded from the internet that include macros, in a move to improve security against malicious files. Microsoft had been testing this change ahead of a planned rollout to all Microsoft 365 users in June, but suddenly reverted the block on June 30th.BleepingComputer reports that Microsoft notified IT admins last week that it was rolling back the VBA macro block based on feedback from Office users testing the changes. “We appreciate the feedback we’ve received so far, and we’re... Continue reading…

Starlink Maritime now available. | Image: Starlink Starlink’s internet-from-space service continues expanding to new use cases with the launch of Starlink Maritime. What started in the home before expanding to stationary RVs is now available for boats on the move, at a cost of $5,000 a month. SpaceX is targeting merchant vessels, oil rigs, and wealthy owners of superyachts with the service.Starlink Maritime also requires a one-time $10,000 purchase of two ruggedized high performance Starlink dishes which ship in about two weeks, according to the US order page. By comparison, the hardware for Starlink’s Residential and RV services costs $599 and includes a single (smaller) “Dishy McFlatface” (as the dish is known to fans), with monthly subscriptions of $110 for the home service or $135... Continue reading…

Paddington is one of the hundreds of titles affected. | Screenshot: Paddington Sony is removing access to hundreds of movies and TV shows on its PlayStation Store service next month, meaning users that previously paid for titles such as Paddington and The Hunger Games will no longer be able to watch them. The shutdown affects users in Germany and Austria, according to legal notices posted on the two regional sites, and covers films produced by StudioCanal.The shutdown will come into force on August 31st, exactly one year after Sony discontinued movie and TV show purchases through its digital store. At the time Sony said that its customers will still be able to access previously purchased content. Notices posted on the PlayStation website blame “evolving license agreements with content providers” (via machine... Continue reading…

(L to R) Russian cosmonauts Sergey Korsakov, Oleg Artemyev, and Denis Matveev pose with the flag of the Luhansk People’s Republic | Image: Roscosmos Telegram On Thursday, NASA issued a statement strongly condemning the actions of three Russian cosmonauts aboard the International Space Station, who recently posed with flags considered anti-Ukraine propaganda. In pictures posted by Russia’s state space corporation Roscosmos, the cosmonauts are seen holding flags of the Luhansk People’s Republic and the Donetsk People’s Republic — two Russian-backed separatist regions in eastern Ukraine.“NASA strongly rebukes Russia using the International Space Station for political purposes to support its war against Ukraine, which is fundamentally inconsistent with the station’s primary function among the 15 international participating countries to advance science and develop technology for peaceful... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge TikTok is facing multiple lawsuits from parents who say their children died of strangulation attempting the “blackout challenge,” after the app showed them videos of other people trying it. One suit filed against the company in June alleges that at least seven specific children died last year while attempting the challenge, which the complaint says “encourages users to choke themselves with belts, purse strings, or anything similar until passing out.” All the children who reportedly died were under 15 years old.We’re not going to get into the distressing details of the cases, but you can read the full complaint below for more background on some of the children, and how they ended up doing the challenge.The most recent lawsuit was... Continue reading…

Photo by Alexi Rosenfeld/Getty Images Amazon Prime subscribers in the US are getting a new benefit as part of their subscription, the company has announced. Today, they’ll be able to redeem a free year of Grubhub Plus, the monthly subscription service that offers free food delivery on orders over $12 from participating restaurants. Grubhub Plus normally costs $9.99 a month.According to Amazon, free deliveries associated with Grubhub Plus are available from hundreds of thousands of restaurants across over 4,000 cities in the US. After the year is up, Grubhub will automatically start charging $9.99 a month for continued access. Existing Grubhub Plus subscribers can still make use of the promotion, which will be applied at the start of their next billing cycle. Canceling Prime... Continue reading…

Actor Johnny Depp appears in the courtroom at the Fairfax County Circuit Courthouse in Fairfax, Virginia, on May 27, 2022. | Photo by Steve Helber / AFP / Getty Images Bloomberg reports a licensing deal with Netflix will provide funding for the production of Johnny Depp’s first film following the actor’s bitter defamation lawsuit against his ex-wife Amber Heard for describing herself as “a public figure representing domestic abuse” in an op-ed.According to the report, Netflix is footing some of the bill for French actress / director Maiwenn Le Besco’s La Favorite, a period film centering on France’s King Louis XV (Depp) and Madame Jeanne Bécu du Barry (Le Besco), the king’s third mistress whose association with him ultimately led to her being guillotined during the French Revolution. Though neither Netflix nor Why Not Productions, the French studio behind the project, have announced La Favorite, the... Continue reading…

Red Dead Online. | Image: Rockstar Games Red Dead Online will no longer receive “major themed content updates” in part because Rockstar Games is pulling resources into the next Grand Theft Auto title, the studio said Thursday. Fans have wondered if Red Dead Online has been abandoned, and while the game isn’t being shut down, Rockstar won’t be making as much content for it moving forward.“Over the past few years, we have been steadily moving more development resources towards the next entry in the Grand Theft Auto series — understanding more than ever the need to exceed players’ expectations and for this next entry to be the best it can possibly be — and as a result, we are in the process of making some changes to how we support Red Dead Online,” Rockstar wrote in a blog post.... Continue reading…

Photo by Sean Hollister / The Verge GameStop has been on a wild ride ever since it reached meme stock status, and the company has recently been dabbling in Web3 technologies like NFTs and crypto. More recently, it’s also been laying off employees without much explanation. On Thursday, GameStop internally announced an unspecified number of layoffs — reportedly including some from the popular publication Game Informer — and publicly revealed that it has fired its CFO with a terse press release.GameStop CEO Matt Furlong announced the round of layoffs to staff in a memo obtained by CNBC and Kotaku. It’s completely unclear how many people are affected or in which divisions, though Furlong writes in the memo that “we’re making a number of reductions to help us keep things... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge In the first six months of 2022, Web3 projects have lost more than $2 billion to hacks and exploits — more than all of 2021 combined.That’s according to research from blockchain auditing and security company CertiK, which on Thursday released its quarterly Web3 security report covering Q2 of this year. The report paints a sobering picture of a cryptocurrency space still plagued by hacks, scams, and phishing schemes while also facing relatively new threats like flash loan attacks.CertiK puts particular focus on this last category of threat, which has been created by the invention of flash loans: a decentralized finance mechanism that lets borrowers access extremely large amounts of cryptocurrency for very short periods of time. If used... Continue reading…

Illustration by Kristen Radtke / The Verge; Getty Images The Washington Post reports that Elon Musk’s $44 billion deal to buy Twitter is “in peril,” based on three anonymous sources who told the paper that the billionaire’s camp has “stopped engaging in certain discussions around funding” for the agreement. Musk isn’t going it alone in his attempt to buy Twitter, with others like Larry Ellison, the venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz, Fidelity, the crypto exchange Binance, and the state investment firm of Qatar among those pitching in a few billion as a part of the effort.The idea that a “drastic” change of direction on the deal is close to happening is supposedly due to concerns that Twitter’s data regarding spam and bots on the platform is not verifiable. The report comes just hours... Continue reading…

Secret Service Director James Murray is retiring from his post for a new position as Snap’s chief security officer at the end of the month, Snap confirmed to The Verge on Thursday.Murray’s private sector move was first reported by The Washington Post on Thursday, shortly after the longtime protective service official’s departure from government was announced by the Secret Service in a public statement. Murray will join Snap, Snapchat’s parent company, next month and will report directly to CEO and co-founder Evan Spiegel.“We’re thrilled to welcome Jim Murray to Snap and look forward to him joining our team on August 1st,” Pete Boogaard, Snap spokesperson, said in a statement to The Verge.“We’re thrilled to welcome Jim Murray to Snap”I... Continue reading…

A snapshot of Apple’s homepage from January 27th, 2007 shows the iconic iPhone clownfish wallpaper. | Screenshot: Umar Shakir / The Verge via Wayback Machine After 15 years of the iPhone’s existence, the clownfish wallpaper from Apple’s infamous 2007 presentation is finally making its way to the devices — at least for some developers running the latest iOS 16 build. Twitter user Jack Roberts shed light on the wallpaper, sharing a screen capture of the Clownfish option under the Collections section in iOS 16 Beta 3. The tweet then gained large attention after it was retweeted by Bloomberg reporter Mark Gurman.The magical photo of a baby and adult clownfish living in a green anemone is the first image ever presented during Steve Jobs’ reveal of the original iPhone and its glorious-at-the-time 3.5-inch display, but oddly, Apple never shipped it as a built-in wallpaper image. The full version of... Continue reading…

Photo by James Bareham / The Verge Two fatal Tesla crashes are being examined by investigators at the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. Reuters reported that NHTSA opened a special investigation into a recent fatal crash in California, in which a Tesla driver killed a pedestrian. And an agency spokesperson confirmed to The Verge that a crash that took place on July 6th in Florida is also under examination.The crash in Florida took place on Interstate 75, just south of Gainesville, where a Tesla vehicle smashed into the rear of a stationary tractor-trailer that was parked at a truck stop. Two people inside the Tesla, the driver and a passenger, were killed, according to Fox 35. A spokesperson for NHTSA said the agency was aware of the crash and was... Continue reading…

Photo: Bungie Did you save up a couple hundred bucks for the foam-firing Nerf version of Destiny’s legendary Gjallarhorn rocket launcher that went on preorder today? Hope you don’t live in Canada — because buyers are reporting they’re being asked for more than twice the price just to get it shipped to their door. The company says it’s working on a solution.

Illustration by Michele Doying / The Verge Twitter told reporters on Thursday that it kicks over 1 million spam accounts off of its platform a day, according to a report from Reuters. That’s double the number CEO Parag Agrawal stated in a May Twitter thread, though the company maintains its long-held position that bots make up less than 5 percent of its active user base. The number of spam accounts and how Twitter deals with them has become a sticking point in recent months, as Elon Musk threatened to back away from his buyout of the company citing concerns the company is downplaying the scale of the problem.In May, Agrawal tweeted about spam to discuss the situation “with the benefit of data, facts, and context.” In the thread, he said the platform suspends “over half a million... Continue reading…

Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge An “erratic” pedestrian attacked a Waymo autonomous vehicle late Tuesday evening in Tempe, Arizona, smashing the windshield and injuring the safety driver, the company said. It was the latest incident of people in Arizona attacking Waymo vehicles — and occasionally their safety drivers — as the company ramps up its commercial service in the state.According to the company, a Waymo vehicle was traveling down the street in autonomous mode at 3AM on July 5th when a pedestrian ran out in front of it. The safety driver saw the pedestrian and switched the vehicle into manual mode, bringing it to a full stop before the person leaped onto the hood. The person, whom Waymo spokesperson Nick Smith described as “erratic” then punctured the... Continue reading…

Sunny Balwani, former Theranos president Ramesh Balwani, the former business partner and romantic interest of Elizabeth Holmes, defrauded investors and patients of the blood testing company Theranos, a jury found today.Balwani, who goes by Sunny, faced 10 counts of wire fraud and two counts of conspiracy to commit wire fraud. He was found guilty of all counts and faces up to 20 years in prison for each count.Holmes was convicted of four counts of fraud against investors in January after a months-long trial. She was found not guilty on charges of defrauding patients.Balwani joined Theranos in 2009 as president and chief operating officer. He also supervised the company’s labs. Balwani initially met Holmes when she was 18, and they began dating after she’d already started the... Continue reading…

Charlie Cox as Matt Murdock and Vincent D’Onofrio as Wilson Fisk in Marvel’s Daredevil. | Disney Plus The unexpected return of Vincent D’Onofrio’s Kingpin in Hawkeye and Charlie Cox’s Daredevil in Spider-Man: No Way Home were both highlights in their respective stories that made clear Marvel’s plan to work those characters back into the MCU post-Netflix. While a new Daredevil series is in the works, it turns out that Matt Murdock and Wilson Fisk will actually be making their next appearance in Disney Plus’ upcoming Echo show.According to The Hollywood Reporter, both Cox and D’Onofrio have signed on to reprise their roles as crime-fighting lawyer Matt Murdock / Daredevil and brutal crime lord Wilson Fisk / Kingpin for Echo, the Hawkeye spinoff centering Maya Lopez (Alaqua Cox). Hawkeye’s final few episodes gradually revealed that in... Continue reading…

Ubisoft After suffering in development hell for the last few years, Skull and Bones — Ubisoft’s live-service pirate game — is finally seeing the light of day. The developer showed off new footage of the game as a part of its Ubisoft Forward event highlighting all the timbers you’ll get to shiver and buckles you’ll get to swash.Skull and Bones takes place in the waters of the Indian Ocean during what was known as the “golden age of piracy.” Players start off marooned on an island and must work to build their reputation — known as infamy — in order to become the most feared pirate on the high seas. Infamy seems to be at the core of the game. Players can engage in all kinds of activities from looting, hunting other pirates, and treasure hunting to... Continue reading…

Gif: SnoopyTech Asus accidentally leaked a promo video for its apparently upcoming Zenfone 9 on its YouTube channel, and the phone’s got some very interesting quirks and features, to borrow a phrase (via XDA, TechGoing). Perhaps the most interesting (at least for the people who could take or leave a headphone jack) is what Asus has done with the side-mounted fingerprint sensor, which the video labels as the “smart key”: it shows a creepy CGI hand swiping through a webpage by sliding its finger along the side of the phone.It’s not exactly unusual to have some sort of gesture built into the fingerprint reader — phones like Samsung’s Galaxy Z Flip / Fold 3 let you bring down the notification shade with a similar swipe. (And those phones are far from the... Continue reading…

A slideshow of texts are projected onto the side of the Hidden Gem during a demonstration against deep-sea mining. | Photo by Charles M. Vella/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images The race is on to figure out how to protect the ocean abyss as deep-sea mining operations look to extract minerals like nickel, cobalt, and copper from the sea floor. But there’s one potential risk to the deep-sea environment that tends to fall under the radar. Not only will mining dredge up the seafloor, but it’ll also create a lot of noise that poses its own problems for marine life, according to a newly published paper in the journal Science.People have talked about mining the deep sea for minerals for decades, and that future is almost here. Driven by a need for more of the minerals used in everyday gadgets and batteries, the first efforts to raid polymetallic nodules at the bottom of the ocean for these resources could begin in... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Twitter has started testing a new CoTweets feature this week with users of the social network. The CoTweets feature allows two accounts to co-author a tweet and both be tagged in a single tweet. Twitter has confirmed to The Verge that this new feature is now live for some users for a limited amount of time after the company started experimenting with the idea earlier this year.“We’re continuing to explore new ways for people to collaborate on Twitter,” explains Twitter spokesperson Joseph J. Nuñez in a statement to The Verge. “We’re testing CoTweets for a limited time to learn how people and brands may use this feature to grow and reach new audiences, and strengthen their collaborations with other accounts.”In a tweet from the Twitter... Continue reading…

Comedian Lewis Black is the latest comedian to sue streamer Pandora over publishing rights. | Photo by Paula Lobo/NBC/NBCU Photo Bank via Getty Images Comedian Lewis Black filed suit against SiriusXM-owned audio streamer Pandora on Thursday, arguing that the company ran recordings of his performances without obtaining the copyright to his written work.It is the latest escalation in the messy fight between comedians, streamers, and the performing rights organizations that have recently stepped in to standardize spoken-word copyright in the digital age. This suit, along with several others filed against Pandora, seeks back pay for millions of dollars worth of publishing royalties and to fundamentally change the way copyright for comedy functions. If the comedians win, it could have major ramifications for Pandora, Spotify, and other audio streamers.Publishing rights for spoken-word... Continue reading…

Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales Tesla plans to open up its Supercharger network to non-Tesla electric vehicles in the US in late 2022, according to a White House memo.The company has been allowing non-Tesla EVs to use its Supercharger plugs in several cities in Europe as part of a limited pilot program but has been quiet about when US charging stations would be available to non-Tesla EV owners. A “fact sheet” published by the White House on June 28th and noticed by InsideEVs indicates that those EV owners may be able to use Superchargers as soon as the end of this year.“Later this year, Tesla will begin production of new Supercharger equipment that will enable non-Tesla EV drivers in North America to use Tesla Superchargers,” the White House states.“Tesla will... Continue reading…

Image: Bungie If you were worried that the real-life foam firing version of the infamous Gjallarhorn rocket launcher from Destiny would be disappointingly kid-sized, you can put those fears to rest: Bungie has just revealed what an actual blaster looks like — and when fans can get it. Preorders for the over 4-foot-long, 1:1 scale blaster began July 7th at 10AM PT / 1PM ET, and existing Gjallarhorn owners get dibs. If you’re looking to purchase the prop-grade Nerf LMTD blaster first, you needed to unlock it in-game in the Destiny 2 Bungie 30th Anniversary Pack before July 7th at 9AM PT before you can join the “virtual waiting room” for your purchase. So at the time we originally wrote this post, you had just over a week.... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Dish says SpaceX has been lying to customers about how a plan to expand the use of certain airwaves for 5G could disrupt its Starlink internet-from-space service. SpaceX sent a “manipulated filing” to the Federal Communications Commission in an attempt to prove the expanded 5G usage would lead to substantial interference, writes Dish and a group of other companies known as the 5G for 12 GHz Coalition. They write that SpaceX is conducting “a public misinformation campaign” against 5G.“This tactic, which is commonly used by Elon Musk, is not only disingenuous, but it promulgates an anti-5G narrative that is harmful to American consumers who deserve greater competition, connectivity options and innovation,” the Coalition writes in a... Continue reading…

Philips is discounting bundles of its outdoor lighting tech until July 17th. | Image: Philips Even with Amazon Prime Day 2022 right around the corner, kicking off on Tuesday, July 12th, there are lots of early Prime Day deals to check out, in and out of Amazon. One of the standouts is on Philips Hue smart lights. There’s a promotion that’ll knock 15 percent off your total when you buy two or more outdoor lights. This includes outdoor lighting strips, accent lighting, as well as other Hue essentials you may want, like the Hue outdoor sensor and Hue Bridge, the latter of which lets you easily control and coordinate your smart lights through an app. This promotion will go lights out after July 17th.If you’ve been itching to invest in a new wearable to get fit and keep closer track of your notifications, Wellbots is offering Verge... Continue reading…

Delivery service Instacart is rolling out a new Uber Pro-like incentive program for its shoppers called Cart Star. Cart Star’s tiered incentives are available in three categories: gold (for 200 points); platinum (for 1,000 points); and diamond (for 2,000 points). Shoppers earn points based on the number of orders they complete in the preceding three-month span. To maintain their place in the program, shoppers must keep an average customer rating of 4.7.The company’s highest diamond tier offers more exclusive benefits. Diamond shoppers will be able to have first access to delivery batches before stores open. They will also have access to two days of caregiving for a child, senior, or pet per quarter for the cost of $1 per hour or $10... Continue reading…

A server room at a Microsoft data center. Data centers like this have lithium-ion batteries that keep their systems running in the event of a power outage. | Image: Microsoft Microsoft says its data centers could soon provide backup power to electric grids transitioning to renewable energy. The data centers already have lithium-ion batteries on-site so that they can keep running during a power outage. Now, that backup system could also shore up grids in need of more batteries to store energy produced by growing numbers of solar panels or wind farms.That kind of energy storage is absolutely critical for any city or region trying to get its grid to run on renewables. Microsoft’s newest data center in Dublin, Ireland, due to come online next year, will be the company’s first full-scale attempt at providing that service.Energy storage is absolutely criticalUnlike coal or gas, solar and wind energy ebb and... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Meta is introducing a new account system for its virtual reality headsets, changing a 2020 requirement that most users log in with Facebook. The new “Meta accounts” don’t require users to sign up for Facebook, and they come with a slew of other updates to Meta’s VR social interface.Meta accounts will start rolling out in August 2022 for new and existing Quest users. If you’ve been using a Facebook account with a Quest headset (including a Facebook account merged with an earlier Oculus account), you’ll need to create a Meta profile that month. If you’ve been logging in with an Oculus account, you can keep using it until January 1st, 2023, as previously promised. If you migrate your account, you’re supposed to see all the VR apps you... Continue reading…

Inscryption. Roguelike sensation Inscryption is coming to console: today, Sony revealed that the diabolical deck-building card game will be launching on both the PS4 and PS5. There’s no word yet on when the port will be available, but it will include some PlayStation-specific features like haptic feedback that “enhances every grisly action.” Inscryption first made waves when it released on PC last year and recently made its way to Mac and Linux.The news comes as part of a handful of indie game announcements from Sony. In addition to Inscryption, the company announced PlayStation versions of Cursed to Golf, Signalis, Cult of the Lamb, Schim, and the retro RPG Sea of Stars. A new version of Q-Games’ The Tomorrow Children, called the Phoenix Edition,... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Netflix has announced that, beginning today, it’s rolling out spatial audio for select original programming. The feature should deliver more immersive sound, particularly for customers who are listening to a TV show or movie with headphones. Netflix has collaborated with Sennheiser to convert surround sound mixes into an expansive spatial audio presentation that can be played through stereo speakers or headphones; you don’t have to buy anything new or own a proper surround system for this to work. According to Netflix, spatial audio “is compatible with all devices, all streaming plans, and does not require surround sound speakers or home theater equipment.”“Netflix spatial audio helps to translate the cinematic experience of immersive... Continue reading…

According to a report by Insider, Elon Musk is the father of twin children with current Neuralink executive Shivon Zilis. Insider shared a court document from this May with Zilis and Musk petitioning for a name change for both children, making “the children’s last name to be their father’s, and for their mother’s last name to be contained in their middle name.” CNN Business obtained a Travis County, Texas, court docket showing the petition was filed in April 2022 and obtained in May.Seemingly in response to the article, Musk tweeted, “Doing my best to help the underpopulation crisis. A collapsing birth rate is the biggest danger civilization faces by far,” followed by “mark my words, they are sadly true.”

Illustration by Grayson Blackmon / The Verge Whether your wallet is ready or not, Amazon Prime Day 2022 is less than a week away. The annual two-day super sale — which grants Prime subscribers access to a deluge of discounts, promotions, and bonafide deals — remains one of the best times of the year to pick up a range of tech outside of Black Friday and Cyber Monday, whether you plan to shop at Amazon or one of the many other retailers running counter sales elsewhere.This year’s Prime Day kicks off on July 12th, once again establishing itself as the premier shopping event of the summer. Instead of rounding up every minor price cut and promotion we see, however, we plan to collate only the best deals on the products we know and love, from 4K TVs and noise-canceling headphones to... Continue reading…

VW says it hopes to eventually produce 240 GWh of battery capacity. | Image: VW Volkswagen said it would invest $20.38 billion to build electric vehicle batteries, a move the company says will create 20,000 jobs and generate $20.38 billion in annual sales. The automaker will create a new company called Power Co to oversee the vast effort as VW races to secure enough capacity, materials, and supplies to power its EV ambitions.Power Co will manage VW’s entire battery supply chain, from research and development of new technologies to the mining of the raw materials to end-of-life recycling. The news was announced at a groundbreaking ceremony for the company’s first battery plant in Salzgitter, a city in Germany’s Lower Saxony.Power Co will manage VW’s entire battery supply chain“The battery cell business is one of... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro Mere weeks after the ESA announced that, no, seriously this time, E3 will make an in-person return in 2023, it’s ready to share some more details. In a press release, the ESA announced that it’s partnering with ReedPop, the production company known for running the Penny Arcade Expo and New York Comic Con, to facilitate the industry event.“We are thrilled to bring back E3 as an in-person event with ReedPop, a global leader in producing pop culture events,” said ESA CEO Stanley Pierre-Louis.According to the press release, E3 2023 will return to its home at the Los Angeles Convention Center. It’s the same convention center that was so inundated with attendees at last week’s Anime Expo that it produced some truly horrifying pictures (that... Continue reading…

The new $1,495 rower is meant to save space and money Continue reading…

An artistic rendering of JWST fully deployed in space. | Image: ESA The last six months for the James Webb Space Telescope have been packed full of tasks Continue reading…

Photo: Lego How tall is Bowser, the fire-breathing dragon-turtle-lizard thing who regularly roils the Mushroom Kingdom as Mario’s chief nemesis? It is the age-old question, and there’s no single answer. But if you’ve been holding back on Lego’s cutesy interactive Mario sets because their Super Koopa didn’t meet your satisfaction, I might have the set for you.You’re looking at Lego’s 2,807-piece “The Mighty Bowser,” a supersized $270 version of the reptile that looks ready for some of the biggest boss fights we’ve ever seen in the games. It’s the biggest Lego Super Mario build yet, and much bigger than the original: Photo: Lego Here’s the original Lego Bowser for comparison. While the company hasn’t told us quite how tall... Continue reading…

Image: Reddit Compared to other social networking sites, Reddit has taken a slow and limited approach to features that carry a stain of self-promotion or branding. Even a decision to add simple profile pages that users could fill with their own posts faced criticism. Browsing the site, you’re more likely to see posters using variations of the site’s mascot, Snoo, in their profile picture than the selfies that dominate Twitter or Facebook. Now, we’ll see how the community responds to Reddit’s offer of “blockchain-backed Collectible Avatars.” In case you’re wondering, yes, these are non-fungible tokens (NFTs) that are available for purchase in the Reddit Avatar Builder.These limited-edition avatars, which purchasers can then customize in the Avatar... Continue reading…

CD Projekt Red has launched new single player title based on the Gwent card game from The Witcher series. Gwent: Rogue Mage is a roguelike deckbuilder, in which players enter a procedurally-generated map and fight their way through a series of monsters and bosses using a deck of card-based abilities and characters deployed on the battlefield.The game is set hundreds of years before the events of The Witcher 3, with players taking on the role of the mage Alzur as he attempts to create the first ever Witcher. However, the story is mostly just set-dressing, with game director Vladimir Tortsov telling IGN: “We do not treat this expansion as an official addition to The Witcher lore.”The game is available today on PC, iOS, and Android, and... Continue reading…

MI5 Director General Ken McCallum (left) and FBI Director Christopher Wray (right). | Photo by Dominic Lipinski/PA Images via Getty Images The heads of the FBI and UK domestic security service shared a platform for the first time to issue dire warnings about the threats posed by the Chinese government’s espionage operations, BBC News reports. FBI Director Christopher Wray and MI5 Director General Ken McCallum were speaking at a joint event at MI5’s London headquarters in front of an audience that included business CEOs and senior figures from universities.“The Chinese government is set on stealing your technology—whatever it is that makes your industry tick—and using it to undercut your business and dominate your market,” the Wall Street Journal reports Wray said in the speech. The FBI director added that the benefits of keeping a piece of technology confidential may... Continue reading…

The Galaxy Watch 5 Pro (left) and the Galaxy Watch 5 (right). | Image: Evan Blass / 91Mobiles 3D renders of Samsung’s upcoming smartwatches, the Galaxy Watch 5 and Galaxy Watch 5 Pro, have appeared online thanks to leaker Evan Blass and 91Mobiles, a month ahead of their expected launch in August. The renders show the two watches from every angle, and line up with other leaked details about the two devices.First up is the Galaxy Watch 5 Pro, the more premium of the two and the rumored successor to last year’s Galaxy Watch 4 Classic. The bad news is that the rumors about the watch no longer featuring a physical rotating bezel appear to be true — there’s no sign of the fan-favorite mechanism in these renders. There’s also only mention of one model size, 45mm, rather than the two sizes we saw last year (46mm and 44mm). ... Continue reading…

Download it before Saturday if you want the experience. | Screenshot by Umar Shakir / The Verge If you’ve wanted to experience the impressive visuals in The Matrix Awakens: An Unreal Engine 5 Experience and haven’t downloaded it yet, you’ll want to act fast — according to Unreal Engine’s website, it’ll be removed from the PlayStation and Xbox stores on Saturday, July 9th. After that date you’ll still be able to play and download it, but only if you added it to your library before the cutoff.The Matrix Awakens, released in December 2021 for the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series S / X, is meant to act as a tech demo showing off the “power and potential” of Epic’s next-generation graphics engine, with its ray traced lighting and “metahumans.” It features digital replicas of Keanu Reeves and Carrie-Anne Moss, a car chase turret sequence,... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge It’s been a few years since Blizzard has hosted an in-person version of BlizzCon, its fan convention, but it sounds like that’s going to change in 2023. The company, known for huge franchises like World of Warcraft and Diablo, is “committed to bringing back BlizzCon in 2023,” Blizzard boss Mike Ybarra told the Los Angeles Times.“We previously announced we’re taking a pause on BlizzCon while we reimagine it for the future but do want to return to a live event that enables us to celebrate the community,” Ybarra said. “We recently hired a new leader of BlizzCon, April McKee, who is hard at work on that plan. ... We are committed to bringing back BlizzCon in 2023.”It’s not clear when the event might happen, and when reached for comment,... Continue reading…

Jason Mewes and Kevin Smith as Jay and Silent Bob. Had Kevin Smith not canceled one of his comedy shows in 2018 after suffering an unexpected heart attack, the Clerks director might not have survived to use his brush with death as the basis for Lionsgate’s upcoming Clerks III. Though the specter of humanity’s mortality is what brings Dante, Randal, Jay, and Silent Bob back together in Clerks III’s first trailer, the relatively dark circumstances also remind them that they’ve still got valuable time left to make some of their dreams come true.Clerks III’s first trailer zooms in on Dante (Brian O’Halloran) and Randal (Jeff Anderson) just as he’s having a heart attack at the Quick Stop, where the two have been for decades. While Randal’s heart attack doesn’t kill him, it does leave him... Continue reading…