The Verge

Image: Apple Apple’s upcoming show starring Jon Stewart, The Problem with Jon Stewart, will debut on Apple TV Plus on September 30th, the company announced Monday. Apple describes the show as a “multiple-season, single-issue series, taking a deep dive on the issues affecting us most.” It will also have a companion podcast, which will “extend the conversation from each episode.” New episodes of the TV show will premiere every other week, while new episodes of the podcast will be released weekly.Apple released a short teaser to promote the premiere date that features Stewart wondering, “what the hell happened to my face?” You can also listen to a teaser of the podcast right now, though it’s only 15 seconds long and doesn’t give us a great idea of... Continue reading…

Image: Instagram If you haven’t given Instagram your birthday, it’s about to start asking for it a whole lot more — and it’ll eventually be required for you to use the app. Instagram started requiring that new users add their birthdates in 2019, but if you had an older account, it was possible to skate by without providing that info. Now it seems that’ll become increasingly more difficult.According to the press release, Instagram will ask you for your birthday when you open the app, if you haven't already added it to your profile. You’ll be able to ignore it, but only up to a certain point — eventually, Instagram says, you’ll have to add your birthday if you want to keep using the app. Instagram also says that if it doesn’t have your birthday, it’ll ask... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge The next platform to host a rush on stocks like GameStop and AMC could be PayPal, as CNBC reports the company hired a brokerage industry vet to lead the effort. CNBC points out that Rich Hagen served as Ally Invest president after that company acquired a startup he co-founded called TradeKing, and now his LinkedIn page lists him as the CEO of Invest at PayPal.The meme stock trading action of the last year may have convinced PayPal it can’t let Robinhood or Square take over the market of retail investors who want to easily trade individual stocks.Regulatory slaps on the wrist and financial nihilism haven’t stalled activity on those apps. However, it may be a while before PayPal is a tool in the arsenal of r/WallStreetBets. PayPal’s CEO... Continue reading…

Photo by Matt King / Getty Images Streamer Ben “DrLupo” Lupo has signed a deal to stream exclusively on YouTube Gaming, following in the footsteps of other well-known streamers like Jack “CouRage” Dunlop and Rachell “Valkyrae” Hofstetter in moving from Twitch to YouTube. Lupo’s first YouTube Gaming stream will take place on August 31st.Lupo already has a sizable presence on YouTube, with more than 1.7 million followers. But in switching to the Google-owned platform, he’s moving on from his large audience on Twitch, where he has 4.5 million followers.A Loaded PR representative declined to comment on the terms of Lupo’s YouTube Gaming deal. In December 2019, Lupo signed a deal with Twitch that was reported to be worth millions of dollars per year. The Amazon-owned... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Apple Music is pushing more extensively into classical music. Today, Apple announced that it has acquired Primephonic, a service that specializes in streaming the classical genre, and will incorporate the app’s functionality and playlists into Apple Music. The result will be “a significantly improved classical music experience,” Apple said in a press release. There will also be a standalone Apple Music classical app coming sometime in 2022.Effective immediately, Primephonic is no longer accepting new customers, and the service as it exists today will shut down on September 7th.Apple says Primephonic’s playlists and “exclusive audio content” will be first to be integrated into Apple Music. Down the line, it’ll add “the best features... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge The company has taken a strong stance on safeguarding its customers’ data — but some employees don’t believe it protects theirs Continue reading…

TikTok parent company ByteDance is acquiring Chinese virtual reality headset maker Pico. CNBC confirmed the news today after it was rumored last week and verified by Chinese publication Nweon. ByteDance told CNBC in a statement that Pico’s “comprehensive suite of software and hardware technologies, as well as the talent and deep expertise of the team, will support both our entry to the VR space and long-term investment in this emerging field,” saying it was “optimistic about the future of VR and its alignment with our mission.”Pico is known for its Neo lineup of standalone virtual reality headsets, most recently the Pico Neo 3. It caters to both consumer and professional customers, and a June IDC report estimates that Pico is the third... Continue reading…

Photo by Andrej Sokolow/picture alliance via Getty Images For years, we’ve been told that electric autonomous taxis can help fight climate change by reducing air pollution. But new research from Harvard Law School suggests these supposedly “zero emissions” vehicles could actually exacerbate many of the problems we are facing today.A new study led by Ashley Nunes, a fellow at the Labor and Worklife Program at Harvard Law School, concluded that fleets of electric autonomous taxis could “dramatically increase energy consumption and emissions that contribute to climate change — not reduce them.”“While electric vehicles themselves have lower emissions than traditional gasoline-powered ones, our work shows that deploying electric robocabs en masse on America’s streets could actually increase the... Continue reading…

In the annals of gaming history, there’s no controller better known than the three-pronged piece of plastic that shipped with the Nintendo 64. That’s likely for a few reasons. There’s the unique design, which renders it instantly and unmistakably recognizable as the N64’s gamepad. There’s the popularity of the console, which helped cement Nintendo as one of the definitive names in gaming.But the most important part of the N64 controller isn’t the design or the box it attached to: it was the joystick, which introduced millions to a new way of controlling games and paved the way for modern 3D gaming that’s virtually standard today.Nintendo didn’t invent the joystick, but it did popularize itNintendo didn’t invent the joystick or the... Continue reading…

Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge It’s almost unspoken wisdom at this point that you should think twice about buying some costly Apple products in the late summer months, as the company usually announces new stuff during its annual September event. But if you really need or want an iPad with a few pro-level features (but without the high cost of the iPad Pro), this $100 off deal at Amazon and Best Buy on the iPad Air released in 2020 might be what you’re after.Normally $599 for the 64GB version, you can get it now for $499, matching the lowest price we’ve seen yet. This model has a 10.9-inch display, and like the 11-inch and 12.9-inch iPad Pro, it charges via USB-C and supports the latest Apple Pencil. Uniquely, it sports a Touch ID sensor within the power button along... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge ATF investigators used a controversial technique to investigate arson incidents connected to the 2020 police protests Continue reading…

Image: Gumroad Gumroad is announcing a new pricing structure today that streamlines the fees and features of its platform, making it easier for creators to get started selling products or memberships online. Gumroad was one of the early “help people sell things online” businesses, but this change is a sort of reset for the company as the space grows even more crowded.The first major change is an end to Gumroad’s free and paid “Pro” tiers. Previously, Gumroad locked features like using a custom domain name or offering HD video streams behind a $10 per month subscription. That caused some confusion from users just starting out — did it make sense to commit to paying upfront? Now everyone receives the same features without having to pay extra or worry... Continue reading…

Fossil Gen 6 watches | Fossil Fossil has announced its fall 2021 smartwatch lineup running Wear OS, which it is calling the Gen 6 Touchscreen. As with the Gen 5 Fossil watches, the Gen 6 will come in a few different styles and sizes and there will also be versions sold under the Michael Kors brand. Prices will start at $299 and they’ll be available for preorder immediately. It does not appear that Fossil will offer LTE options.Unfortunately, these watches will be shipping with the current Wear OS 2 software and not the new Wear OS 3 that runs on the latest Samsung Galaxy Watches. Fossil says that it’s going to offer upgrades to Wear OS 3 for Gen 6 watches in 2022, though exactly when in 2022 is a trickier question. Google has said that Wear OS 2 watches wouldn’t... Continue reading…

A child plays an online mobile game. | Photo by Visual China Group via Getty Images Chinese gaming platforms like Tencent and NetEase must limit online gaming to minors to just three hours per week following new rules imposed by regulators on Monday, according to Bloomberg citing state media reports. The change is being made in response to growing concern over gaming addiction and a broader crackdown on China’s tech giants.Children under the age of 18 will now be restricted to one hour of gaming from 8pm to 9pm on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday; and on public holidays. That’s a change from the previous limit of 1.5 hours of online gameplay on most days. Gaming companies must restrict online game play outside those hours, according to Reuters, and must have a real name verification system in place to ensure the new rules... Continue reading…

You might have heard that Neon Genesis Evangelion, the seminal 1995 anime series seemingly about giant mech battles but far deeper and more disturbing than that, is coming to Blu-ray for the very first time in the US, UK, and beyond. What you might not have heard: when that news was first announced nearly two weeks ago, it was just for a $275 limited-edition Neon Genesis Evangelion’s Ultimate Edition whose stateside release of just 5,000 copies sold out in the blink of an eye.Today, GKids is rectifying that with a five-disc Standard Edition that costs just $60 and will actually ship a month earlier than those $275 copies, technically making it the actual first official Blu-ray release in the United States when it arrives November 9th.... Continue reading…

Leah Lamarr is currently featured as the Clubhouse icon. | Image: Clubhouse Clubhouse began rolling out a iOS app update on Sunday that enables spatial audio support. The Android update is “coming soon,” according to the company. The feature works by introducing subtle spatial cues that position speakers on Clubhouse calls into three-dimensional space around your head, making the remote listening experience a better approximation of being in a room full of people. It works best with headphones, either Bluetooth or wired.Clubhouse tweeted out a video allowing you to hear for yourself how it sounds.

GoPro Hero 10 Black leaks in full. | Image: WinFuture Images and specs of the GoPro Hero 10 Black have apparently leaked in full. According to WinFuture, which accurately leaked the redesigned Hero 9 Black at this same time last year, the new flagship GoPro action camera will look pretty much the same as last year’s miniature cam only with a more powerful GP2 processor of GoPro design inside for improved overall performance.The new GP2 processor is expected to provide a major boost in performance with support for 5.3K videos shot at a smooth 60fps, or 4K video recorded at 120fps which is useful for slo-mo. That’s an improvement from 5K30 and 4K60 on last year’s flagship. The Hero 10 Black can also record at 2.7K and 240fps for even more motion control but at reduced resolution. There’s... Continue reading…

Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge The upcoming Apple Watch will feature its first new hardware design in years, according to Bloomberg reporter Mark Gurman’s Power On newsletter. Gurman says the Apple Watch Series 7 will have “a flatter display and edges,” seemingly continuing Apple’s quest to flatten the sides of every product in its lineup.The display is said to be slightly larger than the current panels found in the Series 6, and the cases’ sizes will also be a little bigger than before, with each model getting a 1mm bump to 41mm and 45mm. Unverified leaked images last week suggested the same 41mm and 45mm sizing. Gurman says Apple will include multiple new watch faces to make the most of the extra screen real estate.Physical appearance aside, the Series 7 will also... Continue reading…

A satellite image of Hurricane Ida over the Gulf of Mexico. | GOES-East NOAA Hurricane Ida is pummeling Louisiana as an “extremely dangerous” storm after strengthening rapidly over the weekend. The hurricane swirled towards the coast with winds of 150 miles per hour, accompanied by a life-threatening surge of water, forecasters with the National Hurricane Center warned on Sunday.“This will be one of the strongest hurricanes to hit anywhere in Louisiana since at least the 1850s,” Louisiana Governor John Bel Edwards said at a press conference on Saturday. The storm made landfall just before noon local time, near Port Fourchon, Louisiana.Ida already had wind speeds of 103 miles per hour on Saturday night. Just six hours later, the storm had strengthened into a major hurricane with wind speeds increasing to 130... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Finally a fun iPhone 13 rumor! If Apple holds to its traditional schedule we’re mere weeks away from a new iPhone, and until now the rumors have been slight and, dare I say boring. Yet noted Apple prognosticator and analyst Ming-Chi Kuo is now claiming the iPhone 13 could have the ability to make satellite calls built right in, according to MacRumors.The X60 would likely be supporting another element of 5GIn a note to investors, Kuo claims that the iPhone 13 will be able to connect directly to low earth orbit (or LEO) satellites thanks to a customized Qualcomm X60 baseband chip. LEO satellites are probably best known as the backbone of Elon Musk’s Starlink internet service which relies on satellites in a lower orbit to beam internet... Continue reading…

The Astra LV0006 sliding across the launch pad after an engine failed to fire. | NASASpaceflight Astra’s first rocket launch since it the company went public wasn’t exactly the success the company hoped for. An engine failing to fire a second into the launch caused the rocket to hover sideways before attempting to reach orbit. The flight safety crew purposely stalled the engines 2 minutes and 28 seconds into the flight after a piece of the rocket appeared to break off.Before returning to earth it had reached an altitude of 31 miles.The two-stage Launch Vehicle 0006 (or LV0006) was originally scheduled to launch from the Pacific Spaceport Complex in Kodiak, Alaska on Friday, August 27. That launch was delayed until August 28 after the rocket’s guidance system called an abort. According to Space the initial abort was due to an... Continue reading…

Illustration by Claudia Chinyere Akole Tinder doesn’t quite work for those living a ‘nomadic’ lifestyle Continue reading…

An easy way to upgrade your headphone microphone Continue reading…

Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge A new PS5 model started appearing in Australia, Japan, and parts of the US earlier this month, with a new stand design and a mysterious reduction in weight. Thanks to a teardown video from YouTuber Austin Evans, the mystery has now been solved: Sony has changed the heatsink that helps cool the PS5.The new heatsink is significantly smaller than the original, and makes up for the entire weight reduction of 300 grams (0.6 pounds), according to Evans. It’s not clear why Sony has swapped out the heatsink so early on in the PS5’s lifecycle, but Evans does note that his particular unit ran hotter as a result — with rear exhaust temperatures around 3 to 5 degrees higher. That could be down to manufacturing variance, though. I... Continue reading…

A recent T-Mobile data breach coughed up the information of more than 50 million people, including some who aren’t current customers or never were. The 21-year-old hacker who says they’re responsible for the attack already did an interview with the Wall Street Journal calling its security “awful,” and now CEO Mike Sievert is speaking out.This is T-Mobile’s fifth incident in four yearsSievert says he’s taking a moment to update us now that the breach is contained and the investigation is “substantially complete.” “Keeping our customers’ data safe is a responsibility we take incredibly seriously and preventing this type of event from happening has always been a top priority of ours,” he writes.It’s true that these attacks happen to many... Continue reading…

Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes leaves the Robert F. Peckham Federal Building with her defense team in downtown San Jose, Calif., on Tuesday, May 4, 2021. | Photo by Nhat V. Meyer/MediaNews Group/The Mercury News via Getty Images With just a few days left until Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes faces criminal fraud charges at trial, newly unsealed court documents (via NPR) reveal evidence that her lawyers may cite in her defense.If you don’t remember the details from the scandal as described in a book, documentary, and more than one podcast series, Theranos told investors it developed revolutionary blood test technology capable of amazing results based on just a few small drops. Theranos had been valued at as much as $9 billion before reports exposed its inaccurate results and use of modified machines by other companies to perform crucial testing instead of its own Edison device. The company folded in 2016, and federal prosecutors charged Holmes and Balwani... Continue reading…

Yesterday, we wrote how Microsoft’s Windows 11 won’t technically leave millions of PCs behind — the company told us it won’t actually block you from installing Windows 11 on a PC with an older CPU, so long as you download and manually install an ISO file all by yourself. But it turns out even that technicality has a technicality. Microsoft is now threatening to withhold Windows Updates from your copy of Windows 11 — potentially even security updates — if you take that route.We’re not sure why the company didn’t mention it in our original briefing, but Microsoft has since told The Verge that unsupported PCs won’t be entitled to receive Windows Updates, and that even security and driver updates may be withheld.CYA or genuine threat?I... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge An antitrust lawsuit filed against Google and its Play Store by several state attorneys general echoed the Epic vs. Apple battle, and a new document highlights how and why Google’s app store is so similar. MLex senior correspondent Michael Acton points out the new complaint, which arrived Friday night from lawyers appointed to represent consumers (that’s us) in a potential class-action lawsuit that joins the states and Epic Games in accusing Google of abusing its monopoly power and of anti-competitive behavior. Image: MLex, CONSOLIDATED FIRST AMENDED CLASS ACTION COMPLAINT, CASE NO. 3:20-CV-05761-JD - 42 Perhaps most telling is a mention that popular subscription services like Spotify, Netflix, and Tinder have tried... Continue reading…

MagSafe makes for a convenient charger around the house The ecosystem of MagSafe chargers for the iPhone 12 might not be very expansive, but it’s hard to go wrong with Apple’s base magnetic wireless charger — especially when it’s discounted to $30 at Amazon. The magnetic puck can provide the iPhone 12 Mini with up to 12 watts of power or the iPhone 12 and 12 Pro with up to 15 watts, so long as you use a 20-watt power brick. It can also top off other iPhones that support wireless charging without magnets. In fact, it can power up any device that supports Qi charging, including AirPods.It’s not too late to seek out some fun and adventure before the summer winds down, and this GoPro deal could help you document it. The GoPro Hero 9 Black is a rugged little action cam capable of capturing 5K... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Apple made waves this week by announcing a $100 million settlement with small app developers who sued the company. But despite the changes announced yesterday, nothing is really changing for developers — the App Store is too big and too reliant on in-app purchase fees for that to happen.Apple’s settlement includes several new policies that it says “clarif[y]” the App Store’s rules. Developers can now contact customers about alternative payment methods using data collected from their app (so long as the notification itself is done outside their apps), which they had previously been barred from doing. Apple promises to keep the App Store Small Business Program, which reduces Apple’s revenue cut down to 15 percent for developers who make... Continue reading…

Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge Apple has announced a service program to fix failing receivers on iPhone 12 and 12 Pros (via 9to5Mac). The company says that non-Mini or Max phones made between October 2020 and April 2021 may have an issue where no sound comes out of the earpiece when making or receiving calls, and that it’ll fix the issue for free as part of the new program. According to Apple, the problem is caused by a component in the receiver module failing.Apple’s page says that only a “very small percentage” of devices may be affected. While it can be hard to tell what Apple means by “small percentage” (it infamously used the phrase when describing the number of butterfly keyboards that experienced issues), it doesn’t appear that the earpiece issue is widespread... Continue reading…

Image: ViacomCBS Paramount Plus has ordered a new documentary-style comedic series titled Players that will delve into a fictional professional League of Legends esports team.The series is co-created and executive produced by Tony Yacenda and Dan Perrault, the comedic minds behind Netflix’s critical breakout American Vandal, which memorably gave us a pair of riveting — albeit disturbed — mysteries about fictional crimes involving dick vandalism and the mastermind behind an explosive diarrhea incident.Players, also a mockumentary, will follow an esports team gunning for a championship after years of misfortune. The series will involve a clash of egos between a 17-year-old rookie, the team’s “prodigy,” and a veteran 27-year-old. What could possibly go... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge The city of Chicago has sued food delivery services DoorDash and Grubhub for allegedly using deceptive and unfair tactics that hurt restaurants during the coronavirus pandemic. The two lawsuits accuse the services of a panoply of misconduct, including falsely advertising delivery services for restaurants without their consent, charging misleading fees to customers, and hiding the costs that they added to a meal.“It is deeply concerning and unfortunate that these companies broke the law during these incredibly difficult times, using unfair and deceptive tactics to take advantage of restaurants and consumers who were struggling to stay afloat,” said Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot, who filed the complaints alongside Acting Business Affairs... Continue reading…

Ivermectin tablets. | Photo by Soumyabrata Roy/NurPhoto via Getty Images TikTok, Reddit, and Facebook are dealing with waves of content about ivermectin, an anti-parasite drug that has picked up traction among anti-vaxxers as a COVID-19 treatment. Sales of ivermectin meant for animals, as well as calls to poison control centers, have increased enough that the FDA issued a consumer update explaining why people shouldn’t take it to treat or prevent COVID-19.

In June, we wrote that Windows 11 will leave millions of PCs behind, seemingly because their processors aren’t as new and fully featured as Microsoft would like.This morning, Microsoft revealed a change of plan to The Verge: it won’t technically abandon those millions of PCs, because you’ll be able to manually install the downloadable Windows 11 ISO on whatever you want. The company’s also extending its official CPU compatibility list to a bunch of Intel’s most expensive Xeon workstation processors and its most expensive line of Core X desktop CPUs — and, tellingly, the less powerful Intel chip it shipped in its Surface Studio 2, so it no longer has to defend the idea of abandoning a flagship product that it still continues to sell... Continue reading…

Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge Peloton has said that the US Department of Justice (DOJ) and Department of Homeland Security (DHS) have subpoenaed it for documents and information related to its reporting on injuries caused by its Tread Plus treadmill (via ABC News). The company released this information in its annual 10-K form, citing the investigations by the agencies, as well as the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), as risks to be disclosed to its investors. You can read excerpts of the document below.

A liquid oxygen tank parked outside a field hospital in New York in April, 2020 | Photo by BRYAN R. SMITH/AFP via Getty Images Demand for oxygen to treat COVID-19 patients is spiking during the latest pandemic surge, leaving liquid oxygen in short supply for other uses, including water purification and rocket launches. As supplies get redirected to hospitals, other industries are scrambling to figure out alternatives.“We’re actually going to be impacted this year with the lack of liquid oxygen for launch,” Gwynne Shotwell, president of SpaceX, said earlier this week. “We certainly are going to make sure the hospitals are going to have the oxygen that they need, but for anybody who has liquid oxygen to spare, send me an email.”“anybody who has liquid oxygen to spare, send me an email”While oxygen is extremely common in the atmosphere, hospitals need high... Continue reading…

Microsoft At times, Twitter can be a bad place, amplifying some of the worst opinions and people on the internet. But on some days, the platform can remind us there are still decent humans doing good work to make the world a better, less shitty place.Long ago, an Xbox user who goes by Noukon on Twitter purchased a Pac-Man ghost avatar for a dollar. Over the years, as the Xbox user interface underwent changes and iterations, Noukon’s avatar got smaller and smaller until it was little more than a tiny blue square lost in the endless gray sea of the Xbox avatar display. Dismayed yet defiant, Noukon shared his problem on Twitter but expressed resolve to keep the cherished avatar.“I bought this gamerpic for 80 Xbox Points in 2006,” Noukon tweeted.... Continue reading…

Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales Every Friday, The Verge publishes our flagship podcast, The Vergecast, where co-hosts Nilay Patel and Dieter Bohn discuss the week in tech news with the reporters and editors covering the biggest stories.This week on The Vergecast, Nilay, Dieter, and managing editor Alex Cranz talk with senior reporter Adi Robertson about why OnlyFans planned to prohibit sexually explicit content on its platform and then quickly reversed its decision days later.In the second half of the show, the crew pivots to discuss Tim Cook’s first 10 years as Apple CEO and the rumors about some Apple products coming this fall.There’s a whole lot more in this episode — like a new gadget to remix Kanye West songs and Elon Musk’s humanoid Tesla robots — so listen... Continue reading…

Lordstown Motors has hired a new CEO, Daniel Ninivaggi, just two months after its previous chief executive and founder resigned after misleading investors. Ninivaggi comes from an automotive background and recently wrapped up a seven-year stint as a member of Hertz’s board of directors, where he helped oversee the rental car company’s very public bankruptcy and restructuring.That experience could come in handy. Lordstown Motors needs someone at the helm who can steer the company through the adversity that lies ahead — including, mainly, surviving past early 2022, which is when the startup says it expects to deliver its first electric pickup trucks and when it will also run out of money unless it finds new funding. But Lordstown Motors’ s... Continue reading…

Microsoft is announcing today that it won’t block people from installing Windows 11 on most older PCs. While the software maker has recommended hardware requirements for Windows 11 — which it’s largely sticking to — a restriction to install the OS will only be enforced when you try to upgrade from Windows 10 to Windows 11 through Windows Update. This means anyone with a PC with an older CPU that doesn’t officially pass the upgrade test can still go ahead and download an ISO file of Windows 11 and install the OS manually.Microsoft announced its Windows 11 minimum hardware requirements in June, and made it clear that only Intel 8th Gen and beyond CPUs were officially supported. Microsoft now tells us that this install workaround is... Continue reading…

Astell & Kern Astell & Kern’s latest portable music player is as high-tech as it is extravagantly expensive. The $2,399 A&ultima SP2000T releases in October, and it stands out from the brand’s previous models like the Kann and Kann Cube with a new triple amp system. These things are never affordable, and the price might seem especially out there if you’re content with listening to music from a streaming service on your phone. But there’s some real engineering swagger in effect here.Astell & Kern managed to fit a tiny tube amp inside of this device. Specifically, it uses a Korg Nutube 6P1, which conceptually operates just like larger tube amps, only it’s small enough to fit in a device that can go in your pocket. To avoid any interference that the... Continue reading…

Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge Peloton has dropped the price of its original Bike by $400, making it $1,495. This price reduction comes alongside the company’s 2021 financial earnings, which showed that the company grew less than expected, and lost more than it had predicted (via CNBC). The company reports that in the fourth quarter of its 2021 financial year, it had a net loss of just over $313 million.While the company’s financial results certainly give it a reason to want to boost growth, this isn’t the original Peloton Bike’s first price drop. Its previous price point of $1,895 was the result of a price drop that happened alongside the introduction of the Bike Plus last September, which took it down from its original $2,245 price tag.Peloton says it wants to... Continue reading…

Image: Rivian Buzzy (and extremely well-funded) EV startup Rivian has filed paperwork with the Securities and Exchange Commission to go public. Rivian will be doing a traditional initial public offering, bucking the recent trend of electric vehicles going public by merging with a special purpose acquisition company, or SPAC.The company, which is backed by Amazon and Ford, announced that it submitted a draft registration statement for the IPO in a press release. The draft will initially remain confidential, though Bloomberg has reported that Rivian is seeking a valuation as high as $80 billion. The IPO date is expected to be sometime before the end of this year. When it happens, Rivian will add to a fundraising war chest that is already over $10... Continue reading…

Toyota has halted its autonomous shuttle service in Tokyo’s Olympic village after one of its vehicles collided with a visually impaired athlete, Reuters reported. Technically, the vehicle was not driving autonomously but was under manual control at the time of the incident.Toyota had been operating dozens of its “e-Palette” shuttles during the Olympics as a demonstration of a far-out concept the company first showed off in 2018. Back then, the automaker said its e-Palettes, which are modular battery-electric vehicles without traditional controls like steering wheels or pedals, could operate either as ride-hailing shuttles or mobile retail spaces.Toyota saw the Olympics as an opportunity to demonstrate its new technology. The boxy... Continue reading…

A laptop that knows its business Continue reading…

Yesterday marked the release of Google’s $449 Pixel 5A with 5G, and the company has just released a two-minute video that celebrates one of the phone’s very best hardware features. No, it’s not the new IP67 dust and water resistance. It’s not the larger screen or the biggest battery in a Pixel yet.It’s all about the headphone jack, or “the circle” as this very Jony Ive-esque spot constantly refers to it. Google is truly getting out there with its YouTube advertising, and you’ve probably never seen a video about a headphone jack quite like this. I mean, the ad uses footage of a space station docking to underline the “satisfying feeling of click” you get when plugging headphones into Google’s latest phone.My favorite part is when it... Continue reading…

The Razer Basilisk Ultimate is just one of many big sales in today’s roundup A wide variety of Razer gaming accessories are a featured deal of the day today at Amazon. It’s advertised to get you “up to 30 percent off,” but there are deeply discounted products with items marked down as much as 40, 50, and 60 percent. Some notable ones to check out are the Razer Basilisk Ultimate wireless mouse for $94.99, the BlackShark V2 wired headset for $79.99, and the Huntsman TE TKL keyboard for $79.99.Amazon-owned Eero launched its Eero 6 line of Wi-Fi 6 mesh routers late last year, and today it's on sale for a new low price that even beats the recent Prime Day discount. You can pick up the Eero 6 router and two extenders at Amazon for $195, a 30 percent discount. If you’re not familiar with mesh networks, they can be... Continue reading…

Photo by Sean O’Kane / The Verge Waymo is getting out of the lidar selling business. The Alphabet-owned company said it would no longer sell its laser sensors to other companies, ending a nearly three-year-old revenue stream for the self-driving leader. The news was first reported by The Information.Lidar, which stands for Light Detection and Ranging, are laser sensors that are seen as an essential component for self-driving cars. The sensors are placed on the roofs of autonomous vehicles, as well as the sides and grilles, where they send out thousands of laser points to map the surrounding environment.Waymo first began manufacturing its own lidar sensors in early 2017 as a way to dramatically reduce the costs of its autonomous vehicle business. At the time, the... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro For slackers west of the Appalachians there was some bad news — Twitter went down. An outage unplugged many people beyond the East Coast of the US starting at around 8:30AM ET, with reports from as far north as Toronto and as far south as Arkansas. Image: DownDetector.com DownDetector Twitter outage reports. Twitter has not updated its status page to note any particular issue, but DownDetector and other social media platforms are hosting the suddenly silenced voices of your favorite Midwestern cities. Since I live in Michigan, I’ve one of them, which didn’t make this any easier to figure out. There don’t appear to be any wider CDN problems or issues with a cloud service like AWS, but remember, the answer is... Continue reading…