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by Nicole Wetsman on (#5NNKR)
The Food and Drug Administration granted full approval to the Pfizer / BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine, another landmark in the historic immunization campaign. The vaccine was previously available to people over the age of 12 in the United States under an emergency use authorization. Now, it’s officially licensed in the United States.With full approval, Pfizer and BioNTech can directly market the shot to consumers. The vaccine will be marketed under the name Comirnaty to people over 16. It will still be available to people 12-15 years old under an emergency use authorization.“The FDA’s approval of this vaccine is a milestone as we continue to battle the COVID-19 pandemic,” acting FDA Commissioner Janet Woodcock said in a statement. “While... Continue reading…
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The Verge
| Link | https://www.theverge.com/ |
| Feed | http://www.theverge.com/rss/index.xml |
| Updated | 2025-07-29 00:02 |
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by Cameron Faulkner on (#5NNKS)
The Bose QuietComfort 35 Series II, often referred to in shorthand as the QC35 II, are just about the cheapest they’ve ever sold for today. Woot has new, black-colored units with a one-year Bose warranty for $195. According to pricing data from CamelCamelCamel, this is $5 cheaper than the previous best price on record. These aren’t the latest noise-canceling headphones to hit the market. They released in late 2017, and the reasons they’re still popular are because of their solid sound quality, comfort, a dedicated voice assistant button, and an effective noise cancellation effect. One thing you might not like about them, though, is that they recharge via a Micro USB port.A new set of Bose headphones appeared in an FCC filing recently,... Continue reading…
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by Ian Carlos Campbell on (#5NNKW)
Photo: Geoffrey Short / Netflix Four years after news broke that work had begun on a live-action adaptation of beloved sci-fi anime Cowboy Bebop, the series finally has a release date. Netflix announced today that Cowboy Bebop will come in for a landing on November 19th, and here are some new photos to prove it.Since Netflix confirmed it was working on Cowboy Bebop, the streaming service has been decidedly tight-lipped on details. It announced the show’s cast in 2019 and, earlier this year, that original composer Yoko Kanno would return to the live-action series. But there still hasn’t been an official trailer or a casting announcement for series regular “Radical Edward.” Photo: Geoffrey Short / Netflix Now at least Netflix is sharing photos of... Continue reading…
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by Kim Lyons on (#5NNKT)
YouTube’s Partner Program has passed the 2 million creator mark | Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge YouTube’s Partner Program, which allows users to make money off their videos, has passed the 2 million creator mark, the company said Monday. The platform has helped turn YouTube into a viable business for top creators like PewDiePie and Jenna Marbles, but it’s also been the cause of consternation for the company when eligible partners — often those same top creators — do something that reflects poorly on the platform and temporarily drives away advertisers.Creators who qualify for the Partner Program — you need at least 1,000 subscribers and 4,000 hours of overall watch time on your channel in the past 12 months — can earn money through ads, subscription fees, donations, livestreaming, and YouTube Premium revenue.The Google-owned... Continue reading…
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by Alexandra Marvar on (#5NNHC)
Illustration by Claudia Chinyere Akole The pandemic brought rampant growth for local food distribution platforms Continue reading…
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by Chris Welch on (#5NNHB)
The company’s most refined earbuds yet Continue reading…
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by Andrew Webster on (#5NNHA)
Supercell, the Finnish developer best-known for mobile hits like Clash of Clans and Brawl Stars, announced its next game today — and it looks to be a big departure. Called Everdale, it’s described as “a peaceful building game based on cooperation and friendship.” There are plenty of mobile games about building towns or villages, but Everdale’s hook is that you’ll do that alongside other players.Here’s the basic set-up:
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by Thomas Ricker on (#5NNHD)
A DIY Simpsons TV that plays 11 seasons of episodes. | Image buba447 Reddit user buba447 has created an iconic Simpsons TV with working dials that plays episodes of the long-running animated sitcom whenever it’s turned on.The palm-sized TV was designed in Fusion 360 and printed using an Ender-3 Pro from Creality, according to its creator. Inside you’ll find a tiny Raspberry Pi Zero running Jessie Lite connected to the 640x480 display. The top dial turns on the TV (actually, just the display and speaker) while the lower dial adjusts the volume. Its 32GB SD Card is loaded with 11 seasons of compressed episodes that play in random order. The whole thing is powered by a USB port with a cable running out the back.
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by Tom Warren on (#5NNF5)
Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge Sony has quietly launched a revised PS5 model in Australia. Press Start, an Australian-based gaming site, reports that the revised PS5 models include a new screw for the base stand that no longer requires a screwdriver. Sony reportedly swapped in a new screw with a grip around the top so it can be easily adjusted by hand.Press Start also reports that these updated PS5 models are around 300 grams (0.6 pounds) lighter than the original, but it’s not clear what Sony has removed or changed to bring the weight down. The new PS5s ship with a CFI-1102A model number, instead of the CFI-1000 found on the original. Image: Press-start The updated PS5 stand screw. Australia appears to be the first country to take stock of... Continue reading…
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by Sam Byford on (#5NNBJ)
The port configuration on the current M1 Mac Mini. | Photo by Chris Welch / The Verge Apple is planning a new model of the Mac Mini that will replace the pro-focused Intel-based model it still sells, according to Bloomberg reporter Mark Gurman’s Power On newsletter. A “high-end, M1X Mac Mini” is expected “in the next several months,” and is said to have “an updated design and more ports than the current model.”Apple released a Mac Mini with its own M1 processor late last year, but that model was intended as a replacement for the entry-level machines, and consequently had fewer ports than the higher-end Intel version introduced in 2018. The M1 Mini has two fewer Thunderbolt ports, only one of which can be used for an external display, although a second monitor can still be hooked up over HDMI.If the “M1X” nomenclature... Continue reading…
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by Kim Lyons on (#5NMZW)
Angelina Jolie stars in Eternals, coming to theaters November 5th. | Marvel I think I have found the max number of streaming shows I can keep up with/commit to at once and that number is three and a half. I just added Manifest back into the rotation because Netflix dropped season three and The White Lotus ended. Good timing, thanks, streaming channels! A few quick recaps of the past week’s shows:The White Lotus finale. While the theme song will forever haunt me, this deeply unsettling show remained unsettling to the very end. I didn’t love it but I can’t stop thinking about it, so figure that out for me. Kathryn VanArendonk has an interesting interview in Vulture with WL creator Mike White who says he accepts the criticism of the show.Ted Lasso episode 5 (official title: Rainbow): If it makes me a sap, fine,... Continue reading…
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by Kim Lyons on (#5NMS3)
Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge As conditions in Afghanistan continue to deteriorate and the Taliban gain control of its major cities, it’s been a challenge for its citizens to get accurate information about what’s happening from moment to moment. Rest of World tells the story of Kabul-based startup Ehtesab, which relies on crowdsourced reports from vetted users to track everything from electricity outages to bombings to traffic jams, and feeds the information to its app, which then sends out push notifications.
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by Kim Lyons on (#5NMP3)
American Airlines is one of six commercial airlines ordered to assist with evacuations from Afghanistan | Photo by Joe Raedle/Getty Images Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin III on Sunday activated stage 1 of the Civil Reserve Air Fleet (CRAF), ordering six commercial airlines to provide passenger planes to help evacuate people from US military bases in the Middle East, the Department of Defense said in a news release. The planes won’t fly in or out of the Kabul airport in Afghanistan, but will help transport Afghans and US citizens who have arrived at bases in Bahrain, Qatar, and the United Arab Emirates. The plan calls for 18 planes total; four from United Airlines, three each from American Airlines, Atlas Air, Delta Airlines, and Omni Air, and two from Hawaiian Airlines. The DoD said in the release it doesn’t expect the CRAF activation to have a major impact on... Continue reading…
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by Kim Lyons on (#5NMM7)
Facebook has released a content transparency report it initially withheld | Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Facebook released a report (.pdf) late Saturday about its most-viewed posts in the first quarter of 2021 that it had initially shelved reportedly because it made the company look bad.As first reported by the New York Times, which obtained a copy of the Q1 report before Facebook released it, the most-viewed link on Facebook between January and March of this year was a since-updated news story that suggested a Florida doctor’s death may be linked to the COVID-19 vaccine.Facebook policy communications manager Andy Stone tweeted Saturday that the criticism Facebook received for not releasing the report “wasn’t unfair,” but tried to unpack the complexities of how it handled that most-viewed link:“News outlets wrote about the south... Continue reading…
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by Kim Lyons on (#5NM3G)
This is the Saygus V2, which authorities say was never released. A Utah man who touted a revolutionary new smartphone for several years but failed to produce one, has been charged by the US Attorney’s office in Utah with securities fraud. a new filing shows. Chad Leon Sayers solicited approximately 300 investors to invest $10 million in Saygus, promising “imminent billion-dollar success,” according to the Justice Department.Instead of using the funds he raised to create the promised smartphone, he paid personal expenses and debts, and paid older investors with funds he raised from newer ones, which the US Attorney’s office in Utah called “Ponzi-like.” Sayers allegedly spent $2.17 million of the money raised on office rent, about $800,000 of the funds to settle other lawsuits, $500,000 on legal fees,... Continue reading…
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by Kim Lyons on (#5NM25)
Samsung now lets you store your vaccine card in Samsung Pay | Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Samsung devices that support Samsung Pay can now store digital versions of users’ COVID-19 vaccination cards, through a partnership with healthcare nonprofit The Commons Project, the smartphone company announced.Users have to first download the free CommonHealth app from the Google Play store, and follow the instructions to access their COVID-19 vaccine record, from participating pharmacies, health systems, and health providers (not all providers are connected to the system yet). Once the user has access to their COVID-19 credential within the CommonHealth app, they can add it to their Samsung Pay wallet. The Covid-19 Vaccine Pass will then be available on the Samsung Pay app home page. Samsung Samsung Pay lets... Continue reading…
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by Kim Lyons on (#5NM03)
Aaliyah attends the 2000 MTV Movie Awards | Photo by Kevin Mazur/WireImage The 1996 album “One in a Million,” by Aaliyah finally came to streaming platforms on Friday, almost 20 years after the singer’s death in a 2001 plane crash. A huge star in the 1990s and early 2000s, much of Aaliyah’s music has been missing from streaming platforms for the past two decades. As Billboard magazine reported in a lengthy feature earlier this month, Aaliyah’s uncle, music producer Barry Hankerson, and her estate, controlled by her mother Diane Haughton and brother Rashad Haughton, have been at odds for years.According to Billboard, Hankerson has made a distribution deal to release the entire catalog of Blackground Records— which includes Aaliyah’s music as well as recordings from other artists including Timbaland & Magoo,... Continue reading…
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by Kim Lyons on (#5NKVE)
China has passed a user data privacy law | Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge China has passed a new privacy law aimed at protecting users’ personal data, state media reported. The new law comes as Chinese tech firms have come under renewed scrutiny in the country, and sets rules around how companies handle users’ information. The law takes effect on November 1st.The law—formally called the Personal Information Protection Law— was passed by China’s legislature on Friday, Reuters reported, and calls for companies to get users’ consent before collecting personal data, and has rules for how companies should ensure users’ data is protected when it’s transferred outside of China. Tech companies that handle personal information must have a designated person tasked with overseeing its protection, and companies must... Continue reading…
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by Kim Lyons on (#5NKSV)
Clubhouse has removed some info from users in Afghanistan as a safety measure | Clubhouse Social audio app Clubhouse has joined other social platforms in taking steps to protect the privacy and safety of its users in Afghanistan. Earlier this week, the platform reset tens of thousands of its Afghan users’ bios and photos, and made their accounts more difficult to discover in search. A spokesperson for Clubhouse said the actions didn’t affect the users’ followers, and all of the changes can be reversed if a user prefers.
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by Kim Lyons on (#5NKPB)
Drivers held a protest against Prop 22 in October. The measure passed in November, however. | Photo by FREDERIC J. BROWN/AFP via Getty Images California’s gig workers law, which allows companies like Uber and Lyft to treat workers as independent contractors— not employees— has been ruled unconstitutional and unenforceable by a judge. Voters approved the law as ballot initiative Proposition 22 in November, with companies like Uber, Lyft and DoorDash spending more than $200 million to campaign for the measure. Labor organizations, including the Service Employees International Union, opposed it.California Superior Court Judge Frank Roesch ruled Friday that the law illegally “limits the power of a future legislature to define app-based drivers as workers subject to workers’ compensation law,” adding that “The entirety of Proposition 22 is unenforceable.” He also ruled that it was... Continue reading…
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by Antonio Di Benedetto on (#5NKPC)
This weekend, it’s not just the red Apple Watch Series 6 getting a discount. | Vjeran Pavic / The Verge The red Apple Watch Series 6 has already seen an array of big discounts, but you don’t always get nice pricing on the more subtle colorways. Amazon and Walmart are both currently offering $75 off the handsome navy-colored watch, as well as the white model, bringing them down to $325. Walmart also has a few more colors available at the same price, and both offer the red at an additional $6 markdown. In addition to a myriad of fun colors, Apple’s latest and greatest wearable also offers built-in sleep tracking, a blood oxygen sensor, and an always-on display. Read our review.Amazon and Google may be paving the way toward a smarter home, but not every device under the sun touts smart capabilities yet. Luckily, there are devices like... Continue reading…
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by Mitchell Clark on (#5NKB2)
Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge Peloton’s rumored rowing machine may finally be on the way, according to text that 9to5Google discovered in the Peloton Android app. When looking through the app’s code, 9to5 discovered references to the rowing machine we’ve been hearing about for the past couple of years — including instructions on how to do a rowing stroke, as well as language suggesting Peloton will offer real-world water scenery that people could view on a screen while rowing.Bloomberg wrote about plans for a Peloton rower nearly two and a half years ago. More recently, there have been job listings mentioning a rower, and Peloton’s CEO has made multiple comments about rowers and rowing. If information about the rower is starting to show up in the app’s code,... Continue reading…
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by Allison Johnson on (#5NKB3)
The Pixel 5 (top) and 4A 5G (bottom) will likely sell out soon. | Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge Amidst the news of a new Pixel phone this week, Google quietly indicated that it’s the end of the road for two other Pixel devices: the Pixel 4A 5G and the Pixel 5. Both are currently listed on Google’s online store as sold out, and remaining stock at other retailers likely won’t last long. A company spokesperson offered the following statement:
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by Jay Peters on (#5NKB4)
Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge On Wednesday, Facebook released a report about what content was most viewed by people in the US last quarter. It was the first time it had released such a report. But according to The New York Times, Facebook was working on a similar report for the first quarter of 2021 that it opted not to share because it might have reflected poorly on the company.The New York Times, which obtained a copy of the report, says that the most-viewed link in the first quarter had a headline that could promote COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy, which has been an issue on the social media platform. The headline read, “A ‘healthy’ doctor died two weeks after getting a COVID-19 vaccine; CDC is investigating why.” The article was published by The South Florida Sun... Continue reading…
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by Richard Lawler on (#5NKB5)
Image: Alex Castro / The Verge On Thursday the video and image sharing site OnlyFans announced plans to ban “sexually-explicit content” starting October 1st. While we’re still not sure exactly why it’s changing so drastically, it just sent out an updated Terms of Service policy to the creators who’ve built the site detailing exactly what won’t be allowed going forward.Comparing the new OnlyFans Acceptable Use Policy to the old one makes the additions clear:Do not upload, post, display, or publish Content on OnlyFans that:
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by Joey Roulette on (#5NKB6)
A photo showing the hole drilled during Perseverance’s first sample collection attempt, that left the rover’s sample tube empty. | NASA/JPL-Caltech NASA’s Mars rover, Perseverance, is getting ready for another attempt, in the coming weeks, to scoop up Martian rocks after its first attempt earlier this month didn’t play out as engineers expected. The rover’s sample-caching arm worked, engineers say, but the sampling tube turned up empty.Now the rover, a science lab on wheels that landed on Mars in February, will drive to a new location called Citadelle for a second shot at picking up its first rock sample. This time, to make sure a sample is actually collected, engineers will wait for images of the sample tube to come back before it gets processed and stowed inside the rover’s belly.‘No sample? What do you mean no sample?’“We were just super excited that the hardware worked from... Continue reading…
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by Jay Peters on (#5NKB7)
Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge While many video games might feel nearly effortless to play, letting you make impossible jumps, drive cars at breakneck speeds, cast magic out of thin air, and so much more, actually making those games is a superhuman feat of its own. Just one game often requires the efforts of a huge team laboriously crafting every minute detail, and very little of it that comes easy, as detailed by numerous developers who spoke to IGN’s Rebekah Valentine in this article that you should read.Valentine’s article has a lot of fascinating stories from developers answering this question: “What is a thing in video games that seems simple but is actually extremely hard for game developers to make?”Take elevators, for example, which, in a video game, aren’t... Continue reading…
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by Sean O'Kane on (#5NKB8)
Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge General Motors is expanding its recall of the Chevy Bolt to include all models — including the two new versions released earlier this year — after multiple fires in the electric vehicle’s battery packs caused by defects in the LG Chem cells found inside.GM is warning owners not to charge their Bolts in or near their homes overnight, and to park the vehicles outside when not being charged. It’s also asking owners not to charge their Bolts above 90 percent, or to deplete the battery to below 70 miles of remaining range.Owners should follow these guidelines until replacement modules — the groups of batteries that make up the pack — are ready. It’s not clear when that will be, though. GM says it will “only begin replacing battery modules... Continue reading…
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by Mitchell Clark on (#5NKB9)
Photo by Pradeep Gaur/Mint via Getty Images We’ve made suggestions to Jeff Bezos about what he could do with his hundreds of billions of dollars before, and we’re certainly not the only ones to do so — but it seems like we’ve all been thinking small. While the public has been calling on Bezos to end world hunger or buy vaccines for almost two-thirds of the planet’s population, Bezos has been able to live out every child’s wildest dream by putting a soft-serve ice cream tap in his house, according to ice cream machine maker CVT Soft Serve.
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by Kim Lyons on (#5NJY1)
Facebook has started hiding friends lists from accounts in Afghanistan | Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Facebook’s head of security policy said the company is putting into place security measures for users in Afghanistan, including hiding “friends” lists and adding a tool to quickly lock down accounts. Nathaniel Gleicher said in a thread on Twitter that Facebook made the changes based on feedback from activists, journalists, and civil society groups.As the Taliban have regained control of the country over the past week, the group has found ways to push its messages on social media, despite being banned by YouTube and Facebook. NBC News reported Friday that people in Afghanistan fearful of the Taliban were deleting from their social media accounts and phones any photos that could show a connection to Western countries, the former Afghan... Continue reading…
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by Andrew Marino on (#5NJTZ)
Photo by Dan Seifert / The Verge 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, we’ve got a cast of Nilay, Dieter, Verge managing editor Alex Cranz, Verge reviewer Allison Johnson, and Verge deputy editor Dan Seifert. The crew discusses reviews for the Google Pixel 5A, Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 3, and Z Fold 3, as well as some other news in the tech world like the T-Mobile data breach that exposed the personal info of more than 47 million people.In the second half of the show, Alex, Dieter, and Nilay discuss the tech news you may have missed — like Intel’s new PC gaming GPUs, Facebook’s new... Continue reading…
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by James Vincent on (#5NJV0)
After a dense presentation about the undeniably impressive work Tesla is doing with AI, the company’s self-anointed Technoking, Elon Musk, capped the evening by bringing out a dancer in a spandex suit. Behold, said Musk: my Tesla Bot.The dancer in the suit, he said, was the model for a new humanoid robot Tesla will produce in the near future. After the dubstep and applause had faded, the vaguest of briefing slides promised that the Tesla Bot will stand five feet, eight inches (1.7m), weigh 125 pounds (56kg), have “human-level hands,” and eliminate “dangerous, repetitive, boring tasks.”A robot is just a Tesla without wheels, says MuskMusk said that building a human-replacement robot — something no company in the world is close to... Continue reading…
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by Mitchell Clark on (#5NJQV)
Image: Duolingo At Duolingo’s virtual conference, the company is announcing that it will add a family plan to its app, along with new games and puzzles to help people learn languages that use non-Latin alphabets, such as Japanese or Arabic. One of the main new features is a tab that will appear for some languages, which shows users a grid of letters in an alphabet, along with the sounds they make. (If you’re an Android user, the feature may sound familiar as it’s been available on that platform, but now it’s coming to iOS and the web.)The family plan will give six people (the subscriber, who becomes the family manager, and five others) the benefits of Duolingo Plus, which includes no ads, unlimited hearts, mastery quizzes, and more. It costs $120 a... Continue reading…
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by Kim Lyons on (#5NJQW)
Stitch Fix stylists — who choose outfits for its customers — quit in droves after the company ended its flexible scheduling policy, according to a new report from BuzzFeed News. And at least one worker told BuzzFeed that employees felt like they were “training the algorithm” which also helps choose customers’ clothing, suggesting the company may be heading toward relying more on computer-generated recommendations instead of human stylists.During a call with investors after its June earnings announcement, new CEO Elizabeth Spaulding (who started the job August 1st) said Stitch Fix stylists “play a very active role in training our machine learning models with our data science team for outfits, which our ability to generate algorithmic... Continue reading…
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by Richard Lawler on (#5NJQX)
Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge The news about T-Mobile’s latest data breach is only getting worse, as the company announced new details from its investigation. While someone in possession of the leaked data said they had obtained information for as many as 100 million customers, including driver’s license info, IMEI numbers, and more, T-Mobile’s first statement put the figure at 47 million or so and did not mention the IMEI / IMSI data.Now, T-Mobile has confirmed that for the 7.8 million on-contract, or postpaid, customers it already counted in the breach, data stolen includes the information mentioned Thursday (first and last names, dates of birth, Social Security numbers, and driver’s license / ID numbers), as well as phone numbers and IMEI / IMSI information. IMEI... Continue reading…
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by Antonio Di Benedetto on (#5NJN2)
Tile Mate trackers feature replaceable batteries | Image: Tile Whether you use iOS or Android, the Tile Mate (2020) is a great Bluetooth tracker that’s designed to help you keep watch over your personal stuff. This $15 discount on a four-pack from Amazon and Best Buy is a great value for people getting started with Bluetooth trackers or someone building an arsenal of them. Unlike Apple AirTags, they can remotely ping your phone and also have an innovative design, known as a hole, for easily attaching to things without additional accessories. Similar to AirTags, and to the benefit of humankind, they have user-replaceable batteries.The Roku Streambar is an all-in-one solution for your TV’s streaming and audio needs, and is currently $30 off from several retailers, including Amazon, Best Buy, B&H,... Continue reading…
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by Barbara Krasnoff on (#5NJJ3)
Setting up a brand-new space Continue reading…
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by Andrew Webster on (#5NJJ2)
The WarioWare series has always been about chaos. Its self-described micro-games are so fast and strange that by the time you understand what’s going on, the game has already moved on to something new. Switch owners will be able to get a taste of that with the upcoming WarioWare: Get It Together — and from what I’ve seen, it might be the most chaotic take on the series yet. Nintendo recently took me through a brief hands-off demo of the game, running through a couple of different modes. The one unifying factor between them all seemed to be a desire to take the micro-game concept to absurd new levels of mayhem.The main change is that there is now a cast of characters you can play as, all plucked from the WarioWare universe. And each has... Continue reading…
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by Jay Peters on (#5NJJ4)
Epic liberally borrowed ideas from Among Us for its Impostors mode. | Image: Epic Games This week, Epic Games added a new mode called Impostors where players complete tasks on a ship while two impostors sneakily try to teleport as many agents off the ship as they can. If that sounds like a familiar gameplay loop to you, you’re not the only one who feels that way — fans immediately noticed that the mode borrows heavily from Among Us, a social deduction game that exploded in popularity in 2020 and was built by a tiny indie studio.The team at Innersloth, the developers of Among Us, are justifiably upset with Epic’s blatant repurposing of its hit game. But despite the underhanded tactics by Epic, Impostors’ polish and surprising connections to the ever-expanding Fortnite story could be a preview of the future of Epic’s smash... Continue reading…
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by Nicole Wetsman on (#5NJG1)
When American experts first started to worry that COVID-19 vaccines weren’t working quite as well against delta as they did against earlier coronavirus strains, they didn’t have much domestic data to go on. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention was only collecting data on post-vaccination COVID-19 cases if they led to hospitalization or death — the agency wasn’t doing big-picture tracking of COVID-19 in vaccinated people. Only a few states and counties were collecting and publicizing that information.The CDC was doing some analysis, but it wasn’t sharing the information quickly, frustrating experts who hoped for a more dynamic picture of how the delta variant was affecting vaccinated people. The agency finally released some... Continue reading…
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by Jon Porter on (#5NJDV)
Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Google has confirmed it’s shutting down the standalone “Android Auto for Phone Screens” app with Android 12. Instead, anyone who wants a driving-friendly interface for their Android phone should use the Google Assistant driving mode, which is available within Google Maps, or the native Android Auto interface available in select cars.“For those who use the on phone experience (Android Auto mobile app), they will be transitioned to Google Assistant driving mode,” Google said in a statement. “Starting with Android 12, Google Assistant driving mode will be the built-in mobile driving experience. We have no further details to share at this time.” Google says that the experience isn’t changing for anyone using Android Auto in compatible cars.... Continue reading…
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by Sam Byford on (#5NJBX)
The MagDart charger has a hefty cooling fan. Earlier this month Realme launched MagDart, its MagSafe-a-like ecosystem of magnetic wireless charging products. The headline device is a 50W brick that Realme professes to be the fastest magnetic wireless charger in the world — it’s supposed to be able to charge a 4,500mAh battery from 0 to 100 percent in 54 minutes.Naturally I was interested in trying this for myself. Realme sent me a 50W MagDart charger, a 65W SuperDart wall charger to plug it into, and a Realme Flash “concept phone” with built-in MagDart compatibility. (The only other Realme phone to work with MagDart is the new GT flagship, and even that requires a specialized case.)The Flash isn’t a commercial device, but it’s a very nice phone nonetheless. That’s mostly because... Continue reading…
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by Jon Porter on (#5NJAB)
“Set your working location to make scheduling easier.” | Image: Google Google is adding an option to its Calendar service to let you show where you’re working on any given day of the week, the company has announced. The feature will start rolling out from August 30th for users on select Google Workspace plans, and will be accessible via Calendar’s settings menu alongside its existing working hours options, as well as on the weekly calendar view below where it shows each day’s dates. Available work locations include “Office,” “Home,” “Unspecified,” or “Somewhere else.”According to Google, the option is being added so it’s “easier to plan in-person collaboration or set expectations in a hybrid workplace.” It follows a surge in the popularity of home and hybrid working due to the pandemic. This has meant... Continue reading…
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by Jon Porter on (#5NJ78)
Overloaded with features Continue reading…
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by Zoe Schiffer on (#5NJ4T)
Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Apple is delaying its mandatory return to offices until at least January 2022, citing a surge in COVID-19 cases. The company will give employees a month’s notice before they have to return to in-person work.In an internal email sent this evening, Deirdre O’Brien, senior vice president of people and retail, encouraged employees to get vaccinated and noted that Apple retail stores remain open.“I know there are feeling of frustration that the pandemic is not yet behind us,” she wrote. “For many colleagues around the world, this period has been a time of great tragedy, suffering, and heartbreak. Please know that we are all here to support one another and stand with one another during such challenging times.”The company, which previously... Continue reading…
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by Sean O'Kane on (#5NJ1Z)
Tesla CEO Elon Musk says his company is working on a humanoid robot and that it will build a prototype “sometime next year.” The humanoid robot will leverage Tesla’s experience with automated machines in its factories, as well as some of the hardware and software that powers the company’s Autopilot driver assistance software.Musk, who has spoken repeatedly about his fears of runaway artificial intelligence, said the Tesla Bot is “intended to be friendly,” but that the company is designing the machine at a “mechanical level” so that “you can run away from it, and most likely overpower it.” It will be five feet, eight inches tall, weigh 125 pounds, and have a screen for a face. The code name for the bot inside the company is “Optimus,”... Continue reading…
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by Kim Lyons on (#5NHKR)
Image: Alex Castro / The Verge Video sharing site OnlyFans, best known for its creators’ adult videos and photos, will prohibit sexually explicit content starting October 1st. First reported by Bloomberg, the company says it is making the changes because of pressure from its banking and payment provider partners, though a BBC investigation found that the company had been lenient on creators who had posted illegal content.“In order to ensure the long-term sustainability of our platform, and to continue to host an inclusive community of creators and fans, we must evolve our content guidelines,” OnlyFans said in a statement emailed to The Verge.Creators on the platform will still be allowed to post nude images as long as they comply with the site’s acceptable use... Continue reading…
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by Sean Hollister on (#5NJ0P)
Photo Illustration by Jakub Porzycki/NurPhoto via Getty Images Earlier today, OnlyFans stunned the world by revealing it would ditch the thing it’s famous for: sexually explicit videos and photography. Yes, OnlyFans is banning porn, starting October 1st. But at least one publication wasn’t completely shocked by the decision — because it came in the middle of a BBC investigation into how the video sharing site was knowingly letting creators slide despite publishing illegal content on the internet.Instead of banning an account or sounding the alarm, the company explicitly recommends in a “compliance manual” that moderators should first issue a series of three warnings about why each piece of content has been removed. Unless it’s a successful creator, of course, in which case “accounts with higher... Continue reading…
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by Mitchell Clark on (#5NHZH)
Photo by Dan Seifert / The Verge Samsung’s new foldables are quite impressive, and the company has focused on making them as durable as possible — but sometimes, accidents happen. We asked Samsung how much it would cost to replace a Z Flip or Z Fold 3’s screen should something happen to it, and here’s what the company told us.Samsung provides a one year warranty with the phones, so if your screen breaks in a way that’s covered, you shouldn’t have to pay for a repair. Out of warranty, fixing the interior folding screen of a Z Fold 3 costs $479. Doing the same for a Z Flip 3 costs $369. Thankfully, the external displays are much less expensive — fixing a broken outer screen will set you back $149 for the Fold and $99 for the Flip.Out of warranty, the Fold’s folding... Continue reading…
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by Ian Carlos Campbell on (#5NHZJ)
Image: Frame.io Adobe announced on Thursday that it’s acquiring the company behind popular collaborative video production software of the same name, Frame.io, for $1.275 billion. Adobe says it tried to create its own collaboration software on its own, but settled on buying Frame.io because some customers were already using it in their workflows, Bloomberg reports.Frame.io takes the frequently time consuming process of reviewing edits and footage, and makes it asynchronous and on the web, Google Workspace-style. Editors, clients, and whoever else can use the company’s cloud-based software to store and view footage, and leave feedback on edits, just by sharing a link. Frame.io also offers integrations with popular video editing software like Adobe’s... Continue reading…
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