The Verge

Kyle Rittenhouse can rejoin Facebook if he wants, after being acquitted of murder charges in November. | Photo by Sean Krajacic - Pool/Getty Images Facebook on Wednesday removed a block on searches for the name Kyle Rittenhouse that it had put into place following his arrest for an August 2020 shooting in Wisconsin that left two people dead and a third seriously injured. Last month, a jury in Kenosha acquitted Rittenhouse on all charges.In the days following the shooting, the company removed Rittenhouse’s profile from Facebook and Instagram and blocked users from creating new profiles using his name, to prevent copycats from spreading misinformation. By the end of that week, Facebook was blocking searches for “Kyle Rittenhouse,” as well as removing expressions of praise or support for him on the platforms.“After the verdict in Kenosha we rolled back the restrictions we had in... Continue reading…

The Honor 60 series. | Image: Honor Honor, the former Huawei sub-brand that split from the Chinese tech giant last year, has announced its latest handsets for the Chinese market. The Honor 60 and Honor 60 Pro are two midrange handsets powered by Qualcomm’s recent Snapdragon 778G Plus processor, but otherwise, they’re very similar to the Honor 50 series phones released earlier this year, right down to having similar dual-ring camera bumps on the rear of each phone.A notable new feature for both new phones is support for hand gesture controls, which let you perform actions like making the “Okay” gesture or raising your hand to perform camera controls like switching between its front and back cameras, or enabling picture-in-picture mode. The phone can recognize five hand... Continue reading…

Massive tech companies like Google, Amazon, Netflix, and more have had a huge impact on the way we live our lives, and have had incredible levels of financial success. Another thing many of these companies have in common is that their founders are no longer necessarily in control; they’ve either stepped down, started sharing power with others, or in some cases possibly even been pushed out.This week alone, Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey stepped down as CEO, and Salesforce founder Marc Benioff became a co-CEO. They’re not alone.

The Verizon logo can return to your living room and you’re technically still a cord-cutter ($399 Verizon Stream TV Soundbar shown) | Image: Inside Verizon YouTube Channel Verizon already sells accessories like phone cases and chargers, but in addition to electronics like digital picture frames and tablets, there are also... soundbars. Verizon announced today that it’s releasing two new soundbars with a built-in Verizon Stream TV streaming box. The $399.99 Stream TV Soundbar and $999.99 Stream TV Soundbar Pro are both built by Bang & Olufsen, with the Pro model sporting a similar housing to the even more expensive Beosound Stage, but with nine drivers inside instead of 11.The concept of a soundbar with streaming hardware hidden inside is nothing new, as Roku, JBL, and others have some options to reduce the clutter in your entertainment center.Since Verizon’s Stream TV system is a skinned Android TV... Continue reading…

Respawn Entertainment has decided to end sales of the original Titanfall game.

Windows 11’s taskbar is a giant step back in usability compared to Windows 10, and now Microsoft is starting to make improvements. A new update that’s currently being tested by Windows Insiders brings the clock and date back to the taskbar on secondary or multiple monitors. It’s a change that multiple monitor users will appreciate, as many have had to install third-party apps like ElevenClock just to get this basic functionality in Windows 11.I’ve not been shy about criticizing the changes made to the taskbar in Windows 11. I hate the new taskbar, so I’m happy to see Microsoft make this initial change. There’s still much more to be improved, and hopefully we see the return of being able to drag and drop files onto taskbar apps and the... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge TikTok has announced that it’s rolling out Creator Next, a single hub for all of the platform's monetization tools, and it also outlined some updates for its existing creator tools (via TechCrunch). In a post on TikTok’s newsroom, the short-form video platform explains that alongside Creator Next, it’s also widely introducing its tipping feature, which lets users send money directly to their favorite creators.This is part of TikTok’s larger efforts to retain creators and prevent them from hopping on other networks that pay creators, like Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, and Snapchat. When the platform was just a year old in 2019, users struggled to find ways to earn money natively through the app, as they had to secure deals and... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Microsoft is opening up its invite-only Xbox testing rings for more console testers to get access to the very latest features. Xbox testing includes many levels, and the Alpha and Alpha Skip-Ahead rings typically include the bleeding edge of Xbox dashboard features that may not debut publicly for months.Microsoft keeps these Alpha rings invite-only, reserved for those who regularly provide feedback through other Xbox testing rings. Now, Microsoft is inviting Xbox testers to complete a survey to be considered for the Alpha or Alpha Skip-Ahead rings.“You will receive a notice on your console if you are selected to participate,” says Austin Olney, an Xbox program manager. “There are limited spots available, so completing the survey does... Continue reading…

Photovoltaic modules at a solar power plant near Golmud, Qinghai province, China, on Saturday, Sept. 11, 2021. | Qilai Shen/Bloomberg via Getty Images 2021 is on course to break a global record for renewable energy growth, according to the International Energy Agency’s latest Renewables Market Report. That’s despite skyrocketing commodity prices, which could bog down the transition to clean energy in the future.With 290 GW in additional capacity expected to be commissioned by the end of the year, 2021 will smash the record for renewable electricity growth that was just set last year. This year’s additions even outpace a forecast that the International Energy Agency (IEA) made in the spring.“Exceptionally high growth” would be the “new normal” for renewable sources of electricity, the IEA said at the time. Solar energy, in particular, was on track to take the crown as the “new king... Continue reading…

Spotify Wrapped 2021 | Image: Spotify Spotify has released its eagerly anticipated Wrapped experience revealing the most listened to artists and albums for (most of) 2021. This year, it’s adding even more social media-friendly features that help you share your favorite music with a customized movie, aura, or playing cards. Naturally, you can share Spotify’s auto-created images on your timeline and, for the first time, directly to TikTok. It’s sure to spark discussions with friends and provide valuable marketing for Spotify that competitors like Apple and YouTube can’t seem to match.Here’s how to find your Spotify 2021 Wrapped experience. To get all of the interactive features, you’ll need to open the Spotify mobile app — it’s not available on the desktop or web version. If... Continue reading…

Image: Google Google has a bevy of new features coming soon to Android, including new widgets for YouTube Music, Google Play Books, and Google Photos; new Android Auto features; and updates for Google Assistant and Google Photos. The company detailed the new features in a blog post.The biggest car-based addition is that from today Pixel 6, Pixel 6 Pro, and Samsung Galaxy S21 owners will be able to use their phones as a car key with “compatible BMW vehicles” in select countries. Google announced it was working on the car key feature for Android 12 in May, specifically citing BMW as one of the manufacturers with which it would work. Google says the feature will be available “on all BMW 2020 & 2022 model year vehicles,” and that it hopes to add more... Continue reading…

General Motors announced that it will construct a new cathode factory in North America for its electric vehicle batteries. The factory, which will be built under a joint venture with South Korea’s Posco Chemical, will process cathode active material (CAM), which represents about 40 percent of the cost of an EV battery cell.Much like the rest of the auto industry, GM is racing to boost its EV offerings, vowing to spend $27 billion on the development and production of 30 new electric vehicles by 2025. To accomplish this enormous feat, the company is trying to get a stronger grasp on its supply chain, which includes battery manufacturing. The company has said it will spend over $4 billion on the construction of two battery factories in... Continue reading…

Barnes & Noble has once again remembered that it ostensibly wants to sell e-readers and has announced the Nook GlowLight 4, a $149 e-reader that offers a refreshed design, more onboard storage, and USB-C charging to the company’s lineup.The last dedicated Nook e-reader, the GlowLight 3, was announced 49 months ago (to the day) on November 1st, 2017, although Barnes & Noble did give the Nook brand a shot in the arm earlier this year with a new, Lenovo-made budget tablet.The new GlowLight 4 doesn’t appear to move the needle much compared to the 2017 model, though. The display is an identical six-inch, 300ppi e-paper display with an integrated backlight and adjustable color temperature functionality, although the company has slimmed... Continue reading…

Photo: Marvel Studios In the third episode of Hawkeye, Kate Bishop (Hailee Steinfeld) does something very unexpected: she requests a USB dongle in the midst of a battle.The highlight of the episode is a scene where Kate and her reluctant mentor, Clint Barton (Jeremy Renner), are fighting their way through the Tracksuit Mafia amidst some hectic New York City traffic. While Clint drives, Kate goes through his collection of trick arrows. Most are the kind of comic book goofiness you’d expect: one arrow creates a bubbling purple foam; another becomes destructively huge. Later, though, Clint hands Kate something much less useful in a fight: an arrow with a USB-A port on the end. “God, I hope he’s got a dongle to make this useful,” Kate quips afterward. (It turns... Continue reading…

Jabra’s latest earbuds impress on voice quality but arrive without the company’s signature feature Continue reading…

All CVS Pharmacy locations in the US now offer Spoken Rx prescription labels for blind and vision-impaired patients. | Photo by Victoria Arocho/Bloomberg via Getty Images CVS Pharmacy is expanding its Spoken Rx audio prescription labels to be available in all its pharmacies, after a trial run last year. The feature, developed as part of a collaboration with the American Council of the Blind, is part of the CVS Pharmacy mobile app and can read prescription information — like dosage and directions — aloud in English or Spanish.To use the spoken labels, CVS Pharmacy patients register for a CVS account, download the smartphone app, and enroll in Spoken Rx. The patient’s future prescription labels will then be tagged with an RFID label. The enrollment process can be done over the phone or in person at a CVS pharmacy. When the patient holds the prescription bottle four inches from their smartphone, the app... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Reddit is introducing some big changes on Wednesday by adding new real-time features. Perhaps the biggest update is that the number of upvotes, downvotes, and comments will go up or down as they happen. That could give you a more accurate idea of the popularity of a post as you’re reading it, but I could also see people hitting an upvote or downvote in response to seeing others do the same.Another change is that Reddit will show the number of people reading a post when there are five or more people looking at it. Reddit won’t just show who’s reading, though; it’s also introducing a typing indicator that will pop up when two or more users are typing a comment. And when new top-level comments come in, Reddit will show a new pill-shaped... Continue reading…

Microsoft is creating its first standalone version of Microsoft Teams for small businesses. Microsoft Teams Essentials will be priced at $4 per user per month and provide access to the core meeting features of Teams without the typical Office app bundling that requires a more expensive Microsoft 365 plan. This standalone version makes Teams even more of a Zoom competitor, as Microsoft is dropping its Slack-like channels functionality in favor of a more simplified chat interface and a focus on meetings and video calls.“It’s the first standalone offering of Microsoft Teams designed specifically with small businesses in mind,” explains Jared Spataro, head of Microsoft 365. “It brings together features small businesses need to serve... Continue reading…

Vice President Kamala Harris speaking at an event at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center on November 5th, 2021 | Image: NASA/Taylor Mickal Today, Vice President Kamala Harris’ office released a new framework for US space policy, detailing how the Biden administration plans to approach commercial, civil, and military space activity moving forward. Called the United States Space Priorities Framework, the document keeps many of the same space priorities from the previous administration but adds a new emphasis on using space to help combat climate change and investing in STEM education.The new framework comes ahead of today’s National Space Council meeting, the first one to be held under the Biden administration. Harris, who chairs the National Space Council, will convene the policy advisory group at the United States Institute of Peace in Washington, DC, at 1:30PM ET today.T... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Match Group will pay Tinder’s co-founders and original team $441 million to settle a years-long lawsuit over allegations that Match Group purposely undervalued the startup in an effort to avoid paying out billions of dollars in equity. The settlement comes a few weeks after the trial began in the New York Supreme Court, which has included testimony from the plaintiffs, including Tinder co-founder and former CEO Sean Rad, and the defense, including IAC chairman and founder Barry Diller. (IAC owned Match Group up until last year when it spun out into its company.)The plaintiffs were originally seeking a $2 billion payout. They first filed the lawsuit in 2018, a year after Match Group merged Tinder into its dating app portfolio, resulting... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Shortly after Google rolled out the Android 12 update in October, users started noticing that they’re unable to use any of the apps in the Amazon Appstore, as reported by 9to5Google. Reports of the issue cropped up on the Amazon forum over a month ago, and there’s no timeline for a possible fix (via Liliputing).“We are aware and working to resolve an issue impacting app performance and launches for the small number of Amazon Appstore users that have upgraded to Android 12 on their mobile devices,” Amazon spokesperson Troy Edwards told The Verge. “This issue does not impact Amazon Fire Tablets or Fire TV devices.”One user, Lovingboth, describes their experience with the issue in the thread on Amazon’s forum:

The Samsung Galaxy A13 will be an AT&T exclusive starting December 3rd, 2021, before being available on T-Mobile and Samsung.com in early 2022. | Samsung With 2022 and CES just around the corner, Samsung is ready to introduce new updates to its popular and budget-friendly A-series, which has helped keep sales strong for the Korean company despite supply woes for the flagship Galaxy S21. This time around, both the Galaxy A13 5G and A03S are getting a bit more expensive while confirming some new hardware and 5G connectivity for the A13.Samsung Galaxy A13 5GUnlike the 4G-only Galaxy A12, the new A13 will be able to access 5G networks, specifically, with the sub-6GHz bands available on T-Mobile and AT&T. The A13’s 5G readiness partly explains its new $249.99 price. That’s a whopping $70 increase from its $179.99 predecessor and slightly cheaper than the $279.99 Galaxy A32 5G with similar... Continue reading…

2021 is shaping up to be the year of party games on the Switch. This year, Nintendo has released new entries in the WarioWare and Mario Party franchises, and now it’s completing the party trilogy with Big Brain Academy: Brain vs. Brain. It’s the continuation of a series that started with Brain Age on the Nintendo DS, which, alongside the likes of Wii Sports and Wii Fit, helped solidify the company’s “blue ocean” strategy of reaching a nontraditional gaming audience. Each “Brain” game is exactly what it sounds like: a collection of digital brainteasers. The twist in the latest is that its focus is almost exclusively on multiplayer play.At its most basic, Big Brain Academy is a mini-game collection where each of the games is divided into... Continue reading…

The last-gen Apple Watch Series 6 is just $299 at Best Buy. | Vjeran Pavic / The Verge Cyber Monday may be over, but Cyber Week continues. If at any point this past weekend you missed out on an Apple Watch deal you were keeping tabs on, fret not, you can still pick up the 40mm, GPS version of the Apple Watch Series 6 for just $299 at Best Buy. That’s a $100 discount on the otherwise $399 wearable, which offers built-in sleep tracking, a blood oxygen sensor, and an always-on display. It’s a more affordable alternative to Apple’s new Series 7, with features you won’t find in the similarly priced Apple Watch SE.For new subscribers, Best Buy’s also throwing in six months free of Apple Fitness Plus, an exercise service that integrates nicely with the Apple Watch and offers fitness classes. Note, however, this deal is only... Continue reading…

Nuro, a leader in autonomous delivery vehicles, is kicking off a new service in California in partnership with 7-Eleven. The company will deliver convenience store products to customers in its autonomous Toyota Prius vehicles, which will include a safety driver behind the wheel, before eventually shifting over to its fully driverless R2 delivery vehicles.The service will only be available to residents who live in proximity to the 7-Eleven store at 1905 Latham Street in Mountain View, from 8AM–9PM, seven days a week. Customers can order items like pizza, chips, beverages, and household items through 7-Eleven’s “7NOW” delivery app, although age-restricted items, like alcohol and cigarettes, won’t be available.Orders will be delivered... Continue reading…

The Ear 1 earbuds and case, now in black. | Image: Nothing Nothing’s Ear 1 earbuds, which launched earlier this year in a fetching white and transparent plastic color scheme, will soon come in black. The new Nothing Ear 1 black edition still features transparent plastic in its construction, but now it’s accompanied by matte black plastic. The new color scheme will be widely available from December 13th at the same price as the original white versions: $99 / £99.Aside from the new design, these earbuds are functionally identical to what Nothing released earlier this year. You still get up to 5.7 hours of battery life from the earbuds with noise canceling turned off, dropping to four hours if you turn it on. Alongside the case, you get a maximum of 34 hours. The earbuds are also IPX4 water... Continue reading…

Getty ‘The buck stops with you?’ Continue reading…

Image: Microsoft Microsoft has launched a new Windows software-themed ugly sweater on its Xbox Gear Shop dedicated to the infamous Windows game Minesweeper.It’s well done: not only is the whole Minesweeper level shaped like a Christmas tree, but it’s also got mines masquerading as snowflakes and “buttons” to minimize the window or exit the game if you so desire, plus the classic wavy Windows logo that hearkens back to Windows 3.1. (If you’re wondering why the sweater has “1990” remaining mines, that’s a reference to the year Minesweeper first came out.)

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Microsoft is tacking on a “buy now, pay later” extension to Edge that prompts users to use short-term financing service Zip (formerly QuadPay) when making a purchase on the browser.The option to sign up and use Zip will appear on checkout pagesThe company introduced the service earlier this month, and now some users are reportedly seeing it integrated into their browsers after updating to Edge version 96, as noted by Ars Technica. The option to sign up and use Zip will be displayed on checkout pages, appearing in the same area where you’d enter your credit card number on Edge (or access a previously used one), and will sometimes be ingrained in the checkout page itself. Zip will pop up when Edge detects that your purchase costs... Continue reading…

Amazon workers protested outside a warehouse last year | Spencer Platt / Getty Images Amazon is facing new questions over failed COVID protections in its fulfillment centers, spurred on by New York Attorney General Letitia James. After more than a year of protests from workers and inquiries from legislators, James is now seeking a court order to require Amazon to appoint a monitor to oversee health and safety measures at its warehouse on Staten Island. As part of the same motion, James asked the company to reinstate fired worker Christian Smalls, who led public protests against Amazon last year, accusing the company of failing to keep employees from contracting the virus at work.According to James, Amazon has rolled back many of its health and safety measures at the warehouse, known as JFK8. The Staten Island warehouse,... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Twitch is furthering its efforts to reduce harassment with a new tool that uses machine learning to detect people who may be attempting to evade bans. It’s the company’s latest addition to combat things like hate raids, where streamers’ chats are overrun with trolls sending hateful messages.The new tool, called Suspicious User Detection, can identify users as “likely” or “possible” people who have evaded bans from a streamer’s channel. The machine learning model powering the tool identifies potential evaders by evaluating things such as their behavior and characteristics about their account and compares that information against accounts that have been banned from a streamer’s channel.Messages from “likely” evaders won’t be sent to... Continue reading…

Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge Meta has delivered a new batch of features for Quest headsets in an update rolling out today. The changes include cloud backups, a mixed reality camera mode, and other settings that round out the Quest’s already impressive feature set.I’m most excited about the cloud backups feature, which gives you a way to restore user-specific data to your apps, including game saves and headset settings, if you need to replace, update, or reset your Quest. This is one of those things that I’m surprised the Quest didn’t support already, and I found out the hard way that it didn’t a few weeks ago. Nevertheless, I’m glad that it’s here now. It can be activated within the “Device” tab in the settings menu. The mixed reality camera also... Continue reading…

Image: Giulio Zompetti Apple device collector Giulio Zompetti has photographed a prototype 29W Apple charging brick, and it may be one of the rare instances where the product-in-progress may look better than the final version. What makes it special is that you can literally see Apple’s design process because of the clear plastic shell, unlike the retail version where the internals are hidden by opaque white plastic.Zompetti also tweeted another clear prototype, a pair of AirPods that live up to the “Air” name. The retro-futuristic look of the densely packed electronics makes me wish Apple would actually sell see-through gadgets again.

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Location tracking can be very handy — it’s convenient when an app can tell you, say, where the nearby restaurants or gas stations are — but it’s also a privacy issue. Do you want all your wanderings registered by Google? Are you comfortable knowing that Mark Zuckerberg’s minions know where you are at all times? (Well, not that Mark Zuckerberg has minions, but you know what I mean.)In this article, we’ll take a look at how to stop location tracking on your Android phone (and your Google account) and how to delete your location history from your OS and from some of the more popular apps. As always, note that versions of Android can differ, and many manufacturers use overlays as well, which can change the locations of various commands —... Continue reading…

Cyber Monday sales were down 1.4 percent year over year, according to a report from Adobe Analytics. Shoppers spent $10.7 billion this year, $100 million less than the $10.8 billion consumers spent in 2020.“Consumers were not waiting around for discounts on big shopping days like Cyber Monday and Black Friday”Amazon’s holiday shopping report only backs Adobe’s claims that Cyber Monday sales took a dip — the commerce giant didn’t report that this year’s Cyber Monday was the “biggest” day of shopping as it has done in the past. In 2019, Amazon said that Cyber Monday was the platform’s “single biggest shopping day in the company’s history,” while in 2020, Thanksgiving weekend was described as the “largest holiday shopping season” in... Continue reading…

If you missed out on a few great deals during Cyber Monday or Black Friday, don’t worry, you still have another chance to save big on some popular tech products. It’s “Cyber Week,” meaning that many retailers are still delivering some of the best deals of the year for you to grab all week long. Below, we’ve curated some of the top discounts you can still take advantage of on wireless noise-canceling headphones, earbuds, phones, laptops, TVs, video games, and more. Take a look, and if you like what you see, you may want to buy the product sooner than later. These particular deals could disappear at a moment’s notice.If they do sell out, fret not. It’s very likely that December will bring some repeat deals, plus new sales because of the... Continue reading…

Illustration by William Joel / The Verge Facebook cryptocurrency chief David Marcus announced today that he’s leaving the company. The former PayPal executive joined Facebook in 2014 to run Messenger but eventually took over plans to launch a new cryptocurrency and wallet, known at the time as Libra and Calibra, respectively.Novi VP of product Stephane Kasriel will take overAfter some pre-Meta name changes, the digital wallet launched with a small pilot in October under the name Novi but only in two countries (the US and Guatemala) and support for a single form of crypto, the Paxos stablecoin. The currency that spurred so much ire from regulators and politicians around the world, now called Diem, has yet to appear.In posts on his Facebook page and Twitter, Marcus says,... Continue reading…

Image: The Markup A new browser extension promises to show you which products in your Amazon search results are sold by brands that are either owned by or are exclusive to Amazon, giving you a better idea of who’s selling what you’re buying. It’s called Amazon Brand Detector, and it uses a list of Amazon brands created by The Markup, along with filters and other techniques (detailed here) to detect and highlight products that are a part of Amazon’s Our Brands program.The Markup created this extension after its investigation into how Amazon ranks its in-house brands in search results and says the tool (available for Chrome-like browsers and Firefox) is designed to make searches more transparent. When we tested it, it obviously highlighted Amazon Basics... Continue reading…

The key to the Levels Health system is a device that constantly monitors glucose levels in your bloodstream Real-time glucose tracking for fitness-based purposes is here, but it’ll cost you Continue reading…

The patch apparently fixes some problems with rain. | Image: Rockstar Rockstar’s next Title Update for Grand Theft Auto: The Trilogy – The Definitive Edition looks to address a huge list of issues with the buggy remasters.The game has had a rough launch, and many of the fixes appear to clean up some of the more meme-worthy problems with the games. A lot of the fixes are about rain. Many spelling errors have apparently been fixed. I spotted two fixes for “a hole in the game world” in Grand Theft Auto: Vice City – The Definitive Edition. There are also two fixes for CJ’s face obscuring the camera in Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas – The Definitive Edition, which (sadly) may address the absolutely incredible bug shown in this video:

The BMW Concept XM | BMW BMW has revealed a new concept plug-in hybrid electric vehicle, the first in its M class to get an electric motor, the company announced. The BMW XM will go into production at the company’s Spartanburg, South Carolina, plant beginning in late 2022, the company said in a news release.The concept BMW XM has a V8 engine combined with an electric motor to provide 750 horsepower and 737 foot-pounds of torque. BMW spokesman Jay Hanson clarified in an email to The Verge that while the production version of the XM will have a V8 engine paired with a plug-in hybrid system, “horsepower and torque figures should be considered preliminary at this time.”The company said the unusual front-end design, with two large nostril-shaped openings, shows off... Continue reading…

Netflix still has some big releases in store this year — including Don’t Look Up and the second season of The Witcher — but the streaming service is also looking forward to its 2022 lineup. Today, the company released its slate for genre shows and movies coming next year, and while we knew some of them (last month, Netflix revealed that Stranger Things 4 would be coming out next summer), there were also some new confirmations. Most notably, both the live-action adaptation of Neil Gaiman’s The Sandman and The Witcher spinoff Blood Origin will debut on the streaming service in 2022.Outside of those heavy hitters, there are also plenty of shows returning — Alice in Borderland’s season 2, Locke & Key season 3, The Umbrella Academy season 3... Continue reading…

With Final Fantasy XIV Endwalker launching in early access this week and officially on December 7th, Square Enix is warning players that they might face the longest log-in queues and wait times the game has ever seen.In a blog post, Square Enix stated that while it has optimized servers in anticipation of heavy traffic, the global chip shortage has prevented the addition of new servers that would help alleviate congestion problems. As such, players can expect to wait longer than normal to log into game servers, visit new Endwalker specific areas, and experience instanced content-like duties.Square Enix also offered tips that players can use to ensure their Endwalker experience is the best it can be. If players are experiencing higher... Continue reading…

Photo by PATRICK PLEUL/POOL/AFP via Getty Images On Black Friday, SpaceX CEO Elon Musk sent an anxious email to his company’s employees, urging them to work over the weekend on SpaceX’s Raptor engine line and describing the production situation as a “crisis.” In the email, a copy of which was obtained by The Verge, Musk argued that the company faces a “genuine risk of bankruptcy” if production doesn’t increase to support a high flight rate of the company’s new Starship rocket next year.The Raptor is SpaceX’s massive methane engine that will be used to propel the company’s next-generation launch system, called Starship. SpaceX plans to use Starship to take people to deep space, and in April, NASA awarded SpaceX a $2.9 billion contract to develop Starship as a lunar lander to transport... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Twitter will now let private individuals request takedowns of pictures or videos featuring them. The company announced the change this morning, extending an existing ban on private information to cover media. It’s aimed at preventing harassment or invasions of privacy and includes exceptions for posts that are “shared in the public interest or add value to public discourse.”“Sharing personal media, such as images or videos, can potentially violate a person’s privacy, and may lead to emotional or physical harm,” reads a Twitter Safety blog post announcing the change. “The misuse of private media can affect everyone, but can have a disproportionate effect on women, activists, dissidents, and members of minority communities.” Twitter will... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Three ex-Google employees claim that Google has a contractual obligation to abide by its well-known “don’t be evil” policy, and they are suing the company for allegedly terminating them for calling out Google’s “evil” doings, via NPR.“Don’t be evil” has been a part of Google’s Code of Conduct since the early 2000sThe former workers Sophie Waldman, Rebecca Rivers, and Paul Duke were fired — in addition to a fourth employee, Laurence Berland — in November 2019 for allegedly violating the company’s data security policies, however, they claim they didn’t leak any confidential information. Earlier this year, the acting head of the National Labor Relations Board said that Google “arguably violated” US labor laws by firing the three... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Qualcomm appears to be collaborating with Razer on a new gaming handheld developer kit built around its upcoming Snapdragon G3X processor. Leaked slides published by VideoCardz call the device a “Snapdragon G3X Handheld Developer Kit,” suggesting it will primarily be aimed at software developers and manufacturers to help them build their own software and hardware powered by Qualcomm’s mobile gaming technology.Alongside it, VideoCardz has also obtained slides detailing Qualcomm’s next flagship smartphone processor, the Snapdragon 8 Gen 1. The name shows off Qualcomm’s new branding for its mobile chips announced last month. The processor will reportedly be manufactured using a 4nm process, with a CPU that’s 20 percent faster and 30... Continue reading…