The Verge

Gary Vaynerchuk (left) spent hours taking selfies with fans. Hype and hustle at Gary Vaynerchuk’s NFT conference Continue reading…

Ethan Peck’s Spock is about to engage in some shenanigans. | Image: John Medland/Paramount Plus In the age of thunderingly loud blockbusters and hyper-serial prestige television, Star Trek has struggled. The J.J. Abrams films tried to reinvent Star Trek for the mega action film era, and Star Trek: Discovery tried to reinvent it for serial TV. And others, like Picard and Lower Decks, have just tried to play to the fans with intense nostalgia and in-jokes. They’ve all been Star Trek, but they haven’t had quite the same impact as the original series or the Star Trek series of the ‘90s. Watching Star Trek: Strange New Worlds feels like watching The Next Generation or Voyager or even The Original Series. It’s Star Trek updated pitch perfectly for 2022, and that’s in large part because it knows what we want: filler episodes.The... Continue reading…

Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge Another NFT on the wall Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Mozilla will let extensions use the most privacy-preserving blocking techniques on network traffic Continue reading…

The device now tracks breathing disturbances and generates a comprehensive sleep report Continue reading…

The new reporting flow in action. | Image: Twitter Twitter’s redesigned process for reporting policy violations on its platform is now widely available, the company has announced. It’s designed to handle everything from reports about misinformation and spam, to harassment and hate speech. The redesign has been in testing since December last year, and uses a so-called “symptoms-first reporting flow” that’s designed to make it easier to report bad behavior. It’s now available in “most countries” across web, iOS, and Android.The company outlined how the new process works in a blog post last year. Previously, Twitter’s process would ask which policy has been broken, and then ask for more details. Instead, the new flow asks for details on what’s happened, before getting more granular about... Continue reading…

Photo by Ezra Shaw/Getty Images Rapper Jay-Z and Twitter founder Jack Dorsey have teamed up to launch a bitcoin-focused financial literacy project named The Bitcoin Academy. The project consists of free bi-weekly classes, offered in-person and online, for residents of the musician’s childhood home: the Marcy Houses public housing complex in Brooklyn, New York City.The team-up is not surprising considering the pair’s long, shared history in business and bitcoin. Dorsey’s digital-payments company Block (née Square) bought a majority share in Jay-Z’s Tidal streaming service in 2021, and the two have used their personal bitcoin holdings to fund a trust designed to promote the use of cryptocurrency in Africa and India.Attendees will be learn “about Bitcoin specifically... Continue reading…

This is second Brompton e-bike recall since April 2021. | Photo by Thomas Ricker / The Verge If you own a Brompton folding electric bicycle sold between May 2019 and March 2022 you should stop riding it immediately. According to the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) agency in the US, ten owners of Brompton e-bikes have reported objects getting trapped between the mudguard and front tire causing the wheel to lockup and crash. So far, this has resulted in two hospitalizations and nine injuries including “head and facial impact, broken bones, shoulder dislocation, bruising, and chipped teeth.”Owners of the recalled models — which include the Brompton Electric M2L, H2L, M6L, and H6L — are urged to contact an authorized Brompton dealer to request a free repair. The fix involves replacing the front mudguard stay and flap to... Continue reading…

Ikea’s upcoming record player. | Image: Ikea Ikea, which has never been scared to dive into new product categories, has announced plans to release a record player as part of its new Obegränsad collection this fall. The record player was designed in collaboration with house music supergroup Swedish House Mafia, and has a chunky design in line with a lot of the other consumer electronics Ikea has produced. Alongside it, the Swedish retailer has also announced an armchair and desk as part of the collection.This technically isn’t the first record playing device that Ikea has announced. Way back in 2018 it announced a turntable made in collaboration with Teenage Engineering that it hoped to release the following year. But according to a Teenage Engineering support page, the player... Continue reading…

Ikea’s upcoming record player. | Image: Ikea Ikea, which has never been scared to dive into new product categories, has announced plans to release a record player as part of its new Obergränsad collection this fall. The record player was designed in collaboration with house music supergroup Swedish House Mafia, and has a chunky design in line with a lot of the other consumer electronics Ikea has produced. Alongside it, the Swedish retailer has also announced an armchair and desk as part of the collection.This technically isn’t the first record playing device that Ikea has announced. Way back in 2018 it announced a turntable made in collaboration with Teenage Engineering that it hoped to release the following year. But according to a Teenage Engineering support page, the player... Continue reading…

Windows 11 File Explorer with a Home page and Tabs | Image: Microsoft It’s been about four years since Microsoft tested and then abandoned an attempt at adding tabbed browsing to the File Explorer in Windows 10, and now a new Windows 11 preview build released today is giving it another shot. EarTrumpet developer Rafael Rivera spotted hints of the test in March before Microsoft confirmed that the feature, as well as the new Home screen for File Explorer you can see above, is coming to Windows 11.A post on the Windows Insider Blog explains that Build 25136 is testing a File Explorer browser with tabs so you can jump back and forth across folders without popping open a new window. However, even if you’re a Windows Insider and your PC is set to receive Dev Channel builds (for people who are willing to... Continue reading…

Striking Distance Studios Everybody’s going to space Continue reading…

The Last of Us Part I is finally coming to PCs. | Image: Naughty Dog Earlier today, a forum post at ResetEra pointed out a leaked listing on the PlayStation Direct site (via IGN) that confirmed the previously rumored PS5 remake of The Last of Us — the first one, that is — and its release date of September 2nd. There was also word that a PC version is “in development.” That sets up Joel and Ellie’s adventure to follow in the footsteps of the PC ports for updated older PlayStation exclusives like God of War, Uncharted: Legacy of Thieves Collection, and Horizon: Zero Dawn.Now, during the Summer Game Fest 2022 event, the team from Naughty Dog confirmed all of that news with the official trailer, a few more details about the HBO series, and more information about the standalone multiplayer game they’re making... Continue reading…

Apple’s AirTag location tracker is on sale at Amazon and Best Buy. | Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge If you’re an iPhone owner planning on traveling this summer, today’s deal on Apple AirTag location trackers has arrived at the perfect time. Right now, you can buy Apple’s ultra wideband-capable Bluetooth tracker to keep track of your luggage and other items for just $24 instead of $29 from Amazon and Best Buy (until 10PM PT today or June 10th at 1AM ET). That might be a small discount, but it’s also a rare one and the best price we’ve seen.This is an excellent tracker that works best with Apple devices and is ideal for those deeply embedded within the Apple ecosystem. It’s conveniently also IP67 water and dust resistant with user-replaceable batteries. Plus, the tracker also offers a few privacy and security features, like end-to-end... Continue reading…

Image: Meta Meta has decided to not sell the first version of its full-fledged AR glasses, codenamed Orion, and will instead distribute them to developers so they can build software experiences for the device and future versions, a person familiar with the matter told The Verge. The company is also shelving plans to release a smartwatch with a detachable display and two cameras in favor of a design better suited to control a later version of the glasses.The first version of the AR glasses, which have been in development for three years, was always going to be geared toward developers and early adopters, but executives hadn’t decided whether to sell them broadly until now, the person said. Employees working in Meta’s Reality Labs division building... Continue reading…

The Portal Go, released in 2021. | Photo by Jennifer Pattisson Tuohy The Verge Meta plans to stop making consumer versions of its Portal video calling hardware and instead pivot the product line to focus on use cases for businesses, like conference calling.The change in strategy, first reported by The Information and confirmed to The Verge by a source familiar with the matter, comes as Meta is reassessing its ambitious hardware plans against investor concerns about the billions of dollars it’s spending on projects that have yet to pay off financially. A spokesperson for Meta declined to comment.The Portal line debuted in 2018 with two displays meant as dedicated video calling stations. They also supported apps for activities like listening to music on Spotify and streaming videos on the Food Network. But the... Continue reading…

Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge It has only been a few days since Apple introduced a new generation of its custom chip family with the M2 and a round of updated laptops, including the new MacBook Air and 13-inch MacBook Pro. But even though the WWDC 2022 keynote is over, the rumor mill never stops. Now, there are more reports about what’s next in Apple’s pipeline, and several of the items will feel very familiar.Over at Bloomberg, Mark Gurman’s latest report based on his sources claims that updated 14- and 16-inch M2-based MacBook Pros could ship at the end of this year or in early 2023. These will come with M2 Max chips that expand on the 10 CPU cores and 32 GPU cores of their highest-end predecessor with 12 CPU cores and up to 38 GPU cores.Make room for more... Continue reading…

Photo by Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images Apple retail workers at the Grand Central store in New York are unionizing with the Communications Workers of America (CWA) rather than Workers United as originally planned. The move is part of a broad organizing push at Apple retail stores across the country, where workers in Maryland, Georgia, and Kentucky have announced union campaigns. If any of the stores are successful, it will represent the first union of Apple employees in the United States.In a press release, both unions framed the move as a positive step toward consolidating worker power across the country. “CWA has a national plan that will lead to density and collective power for Apple Retail workers,” said Lynne Fox, international president of Workers United. “It is... Continue reading…

Street Fighter V is one of 11 games included in the Humble bundle. | Image: Capcom If you’re hyped up today for gaming news, there’s a very special deal running now that you should check out. Humble has a new bundle collecting a whole slew of big Capcom hits from the last few years, including some remastered PS2-era classics. Some of the most notable include Street Fighter V, Devil May Cry 5, and Monster Hunter: World. As is often the case with a Humble bundle, proceeds go to charities, the developers, and Humble itself. This one has contributions going toward the ACLU and The Trevor Project.As for the bundle itself, you can get in on the full package of 11 titles for $20 (or more, if you are in the charitable mood). At full price, these Capcom games are valued at $224 — so you’re getting a huge discount of over 90... Continue reading…

Image: Spotify This article first ran in Hot Pod Insider, The Verge’s audio industry newsletter.Spotify wants to make audiobooks the next pillar of its business. On Wednesday, company executives pitched the audiobooks business to investors as their next target for industry domination. When they launch the audiobooks vertical (which is TBD), it could have huge ramifications not only for Spotify’s own business, but for the publishing industry as well.“We believe that audiobooks, in their many different forms, will be a massive opportunity,” Spotify CEO Daniel Ek said. “And just as we’ve done in podcasting, expect us to play to win.”“Just as we’ve done in podcasting, expect us to play to win.”Spotify’s first big step into that business is its... Continue reading…

The federal government is upgrading its investigation into over a dozen incidents of Tesla vehicles using Autopilot that crashed into emergency vehicles. The probe is now designated as an “Engineering Analysis,” which is the second and final phase of an investigation before a possible recall.This next phase will involve additional tests and crash analyses “to explore the degree to which Autopilot and associated Tesla systems may exacerbate human factors or behavioral safety risks by undermining the effectiveness of the driver’s supervision,” the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) said in documents posted on its website Thursday.Exploring how Autopilot may “exacerbate human factors or behavioral safety risks”The... Continue reading…

Photo by STEFANI REYNOLDS/AFP via Getty Images Today, NASA announced that it is putting together an independent team of researchers this fall to study sightings of unidentified aerial phenomena, or UAPs, the updated term now used to refer to UFOs. The space agency says it plans to study these sightings from a scientific perspective but also stressed that “there is no evidence UAPs are extra-terrestrial in origin.”The study team, to be led by astrophysicist David Spergel under NASA’s Science Mission Directorate, will attempt to identify what data is out there on UAPs and figure out how to best capture data on UAPs in the future. NASA noted that the limitations in sightings make it hard to come to logical conclusions about where UAPs come from. The researchers will also try to... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Google Chrome has built-in phishing detection that scans pages to see if they match known fake or malicious sites (using more than just the URL, since scammers rotate those more quickly than it can keep up). And, now, that tech is getting better. Google also says that, in Chrome 102, it will use machine learning that runs entirely within the browser (without sending data back to Google or elsewhere) to help identify websites that make unsolicited permission requests for notifications and silence them before they pop up.As Google explains it, “To further improve the browsing experience, we’re also evolving how people interact with web notifications. On the one hand, page notifications help deliver updates from sites you care about; on... Continue reading…

iOS users can try on various brands within the Amazon app. | Image: Amazon Amazon is now letting iOS users virtually try-on shoes, the company announced in a blog post. Amazon customers in the US and Canada are able to try on shoes for various brands including New Balance, Adidas, Reebok, and more.In this virtual try-on, customers can simply point their camera at their feet and scroll through a variety of shoes to see how they look from different angles. But, the tool can’t be used to determine shoe size. While the new feature is currently available for iOS customers with an iPhone 7 or newer, Amazon confirmed in its blog post that it will be available for Android customers soon.In 2017, Amazon launched an in-app augmented reality feature that let customers preview how a piece of furniture would look in... Continue reading…

Porsche’s electric bike shopping spree isn’t over. The German automaker announced Thursday that it would be acquiring Fazua, an e-bike drivetrain manufacturer that specializes in lightweight motors.After buying a 20 percent stake in the company earlier this year, Porsche said it would acquire all of Fazua’s shares, making it the latest e-bike company to come under the automaker’s control. Porsche acquired a majority stake in Croatian e-bike company Greyp (pronounced like the fruit) late last year.Fazua is an intriguing purchase for Porsche and could indicate the direction of the company’s future lineup of e-bikes. The Fazua Drive System, which unites the battery with the motor into one single unit, weighs only 4.6kg (10 pounds) and... Continue reading…

Solar panels were installed on four buildings on the Microsoft campus in Mountain View, California. | Photo by Tony Avelar/Bloomberg via Getty Images Even though more companies than ever are proclaiming that they’re powered by renewable energy, those claims are usually exaggerated, new research shows. That disconnect between a company’s claims and reality could jeopardize global efforts to stop climate change.The problem stems from companies’ reliance on Renewable Energy Certificates (RECs) to back up their green claims. A company receives a REC by paying to support renewable energy projects around the world. When brands say that they’re powering their business with 100 percent renewable energy, they’re typically still using electricity generated by fossil fuels; they’re just buying up renewable energy certificates to try to cancel out the environmental impact of their energy use.T... Continue reading…

Image: the Dynamic World project A new dataset from Google shows the features on the surface of the Earth in near real time, the company announced Thursday. The tool, called Dynamic World, uses deep learning and satellite imagery to develop a high-resolution land cover map that shows which bits of land have features like trees, crops, or water.Land cover maps usually take a long time to produce, and there are big gaps between the time images are taken and when the data is published. They also often don’t have a detailed breakdown of what’s on the ground in a particular area — a city would be classified as “built-up” (a designation for human-altered landscapes) even if there are big sections with parks, for example.Dynamic World classifies the land cover type for... Continue reading…

Summer Game Fest Summer Game Fest isn’t quite E3 — which was unceremoniously canceled earlier this year. But it’s become one of the year’s big game events, and it’s kicking off with a livestream this afternoon.Game Fest host Geoff Keighley has tried to set expectations for the show this year, saying it won’t be filled with “megaton shocks” and will involve mostly known titles. “We’ve got a couple of new game announcements in the show and hopefully some surprises if everything holds. But it definitely is a show that’s primarily focused on stuff that is announced,” he said in a Twitter Spaces session.When does Summer Game Fest start?Summer Game Fest’s livestream starts on Thursday, June 9th, at 11AM PT / 2PM ET.The show will be immediately followed by... Continue reading…

I always thought the DJI Mini 2 was the perfect drone for most pilots — either beginners looking for a reliable drone or experienced pilots who want a more portable solution. Aside from its compactness, it was also affordable at $449 and provided very good, if not quite great, image quality. The newly announced DJI Mini 3 Pro drastically improves image quality, but at a starting price of $759 (with the remote controller), it is no longer easy to recommend for everyone.But I can also see the argument that the price hike is justified. After all, you are getting a lot more than you ever did with the Mini 2. For one, obstacle avoidance sensors open up the possibility of autonomous flights. The aperture is large and makes night images and... Continue reading…

The OnePlus 10 Pro. | Photo by Allison Johnson / The Verge A higher-capacity version of this year’s OnePlus flagship, the 10 Pro, is releasing in the US and Canada on June 15th, the company announced today. This model comes with 12GB of RAM and 256GB of storage, up from 8GB and 128GB, respectively, in the base level model. It will retail for $969 in the US and $1,249 in Canada and be available in whatever color you want, so long as it’s black.OnePlus said it would eventually release this higher-capacity model in the US when it first launched the OnePlus 10 Pro in the country in April (the 12GB / 256GB model was already available in some other markets, like the UK). In the US, it’ll retail for $70 more than the 8GB model, whose MSRP sits at $899. It’ll support 5G on Verizon and T-Mobile’s... Continue reading…

After months of carefully dancing around the truth of what’s going on Jordan Peele’s new horror Nope, Universal’s final trailer for the film at last reveals the reason why everyone in it is terrified of the sky, and it has very little to do with the weather.The sudden death of Otis Jr. (Daniel Kaluuya) and Emerald Haywood’s (Keke Palmer) father Otis Sr. (Keith Haywood) is what initially sends the brother and sister reeling, and left with the task of figuring out what to do with the family’s ranch full of rodeo horses in the new trailer. Though both of the siblings are ready to step up to the plate in their father’s absence, Otis Jr. (who goes by “OJ”) can’t shake the feeling that their father was murdered — not by a person per se, but... Continue reading…

Image: Dell Today Dell is launching the 2022 revision of its XPS 13 to include Intel’s latest 12th-gen Alder Lake CPUs that add more cores and a hybrid architecture, while saying the new version is its thinnest and lightest 13-inch XPS ever. The new laptop is 13.9mm thick (0.55-inches) and weighs as little as 2.59 lbs, compared to its predecessor’s 14.80 mm (0.58-inches) and 2.64 lb starting weight for a non-touchscreen model. The new XPS 13 is available starting today in the US and Canada, starting at $999 with Windows 11 or $949 for an Ubuntu 20.04-equipped Developer Edition.The flagship XPS 13 has gone from previewing the future of laptops when Dell introduced the InfinityEdge design with thin bezels in 2015, to kind of stale a few years later,... Continue reading…

Dell’s new XPS 13 2-in-1 is a tablet now. | Image: Dell Dell is totally overhauling its XPS 13 2-in-1 laptop today by revealing a new design that’s a tablet instead of a thin laptop with a reversible hinge. The 2022 model swaps the reversible hinge for an XPS Folio keyboard case, which is much like Apple’s Magic Keyboard for the iPad. It magnetically connects to the XPS 13 2-in-1 and allows the device to transform into a laptop instead of a standalone tablet.The magnetic XPS Folio will support three angles: 100 degrees, 112.5 degrees, and 125 degrees, and there’s even a magnetic stylus that attaches to the top of the device to charge. Dell has designed the XPS Stylus for both right- and left-handed usage, and it should run for around 50 days on a full charge. Both the folio and stylus will... Continue reading…

Mengxin Li / The Verge If you were passing through Art Basel Miami in December, you might have heard about a Pudgy Penguins club night. The founder Cole Thereum was there, surrounded by penguin artwork on the wall and even etched into ice. The artist behind it all, Antoine Mingo, was there too, sipping a gin and tonic in the back of the venue, but he kept a lower profile. He drew the faces and bodies that made up the penguins, but his connection to the project has stayed under the radar. Unlike Cole, no one at the party recognized him.The Miami event was a high point in Mingo’s unusual career as an NFT artist. Tokens built from his art have sold for upwards of $400,000 even as he remains largely on the sidelines. As far as the NFT world is concerned, the real... Continue reading…

Microsoft is planning to bring a lot more games to Xbox Cloud Gaming later this year, allowing Xbox Game Pass Ultimate subscribers to stream most of their own game library. “We’re excited to share that later this year, it’s our intent to roll out the ability for Xbox Game Pass Ultimate members to play, from the cloud, select games they already own or have purchased outside the Xbox Game Pass library,” says Will Tuttle, Xbox Wire editor in chief.This expansion will make Xbox Cloud Gaming a lot more valuable, opening the service up to potentially thousands of more games. Microsoft only says “select games,” so it’s clear not every single Xbox game will be available, and the company isn’t saying anything more about its plans. But it looks... Continue reading…

There’s nothing particularly novel about the actual Xbox app. If you’ve used xCloud, you’ve seen this interface before. Playing games on the new Xbox app made for TVs feels like a big deal. There’s no console and no hidden HDMI streaming device. Yet, in my brief hands-on demo, games like Halo Infinite and Forza Horizon 5 loaded quickly and — most importantly — they played well with both Xbox and PlayStation 5 wireless controllers. And if you aren’t a Game Pass subscriber, you’ll still be able to jump into Fortnite immediately through the app for free after you sign in with a Microsoft account.The app aims to provide a console-like experience to people who don’t want the cost and cruft of buying and setting up a console. It lets you pair a Bluetooth headset to hear audio and chat with Xbox friends, and Xbox save data gets synced over the cloud, letting... Continue reading…

Image: Microsoft Microsoft is launching its Xbox TV app later this month, allowing owners of Samsung’s 2022 smart TVs and monitors to play Xbox games without a game console. Xbox Game Pass Ultimate subscribers will be able to access more than 100 games through Samsung’s 2022 smart TVs, streaming through the cloud powered by custom Xbox Series X hardware. Fortnite is even available to stream free of charge if you’re not a Game Pass Ultimate subscriber.The Xbox TV app will work very much like Netflix does on TVs and will be available from Samsung’s gaming hub on June 30th in 27 countries. You simply log into your Microsoft account in the app and stream Xbox games just like you would through Xbox Cloud Gaming in a browser. Image:... Continue reading…

Image: Microsoft Xbox announcing a host of planned improvements to its hardware and services today. In addition to cloud gaming improvements and new supported platforms for the Xbox app, it was announced that Xbox will expand its Design Lab store with even more customization options.This includes new pastel colors — soft pink, orange, green, and purple — as well as new Camo Top cases with matching side caps — Mineral Camo, Arctic Camo, Forest Camo, Sandglow Camo, and Blaze Camo. These colors join the already expansive roster of personalization options that Xbox has been steadily adding to the Design Lab, including metallic finishes and rubberized grips. The Xbox Design Lab already has millions of different combinations. The Xbox... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Xbox is announcing that everyone’s favorite gaming platform, Microsoft Edge, is getting a number of new features that prioritize cloud gaming integration and personalization for the blue browser. Microsoft has been consistently growing and improving support for Xbox Cloud Gaming across multiple platforms and is clearly taking steps to optimize this service on browsers by providing it with more gaming-forward features.Some of the additions include a personalized gaming homepage that provides easier access to the Xbox Cloud Gaming library and a built-in efficiency mode that reduces resource usage of the browser when a game is launched. Edge will also be getting “Clarity Boost” to help improve the fidelity of games streamed over the... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Microsoft is bringing Xbox Cloud Gaming to Argentina and New Zealand today. Xbox Game Pass Ultimate subscribers will be able to stream more than 100 games to phones, tablets, and PCs today, as well as Samsung TVs later this month thanks to a new Xbox TV app.“We’ve continuously heard from gamers in Argentina and New Zealand that accessing Xbox Cloud Gaming is a priority and we’re thrilled to make it a reality,” says Catherine Gluckstein, vice president and head of product for Xbox Cloud Gaming.Much like Xbox Cloud Gaming elsewhere, anyone will be able to use the service to play Fortnite free of charge, or you’ll need to be an Xbox Game Pass Ultimate member to access the more than 100 games available on the service.This Xbox Cloud... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Microsoft is working on Project Moorcroft, a program designed to bring early game demos to Xbox Game Pass subscribers. The demos will be similar to the limited levels and early samples of games that fans would typically spend hours waiting in line to play at E3 or PAX.These early game demos have largely been lost in the transition to virtual game conferences during the pandemic, and they’re key for indie developers trying to generate awareness for their titles. Sarah Bond, Microsoft’s head of gaming ecosystem, describes Project Moorcroft as a way to bring back that E3-like experience.“Why don’t we take Game Pass, and make it like the show floor?” says Bond. “Why don’t we make it possible for a developer to take a piece, a level of... Continue reading…

Mengxin Li / The Verge So let’s say you bought an NFT. Not because you want to make a bunch of money and you’re just going to flip it — we’ll call those people the JPEG flippers — and not because someone sold you on a big idea about “community” and you didn’t buy an NFT so much as a link to a Discord — those are the yacht clubbers — but you bought it because you just liked the way the thing looked. Maybe you’re a collector, maybe this is the first valuable piece you’ve ever acquired. Either way, you bought it not to sell it or use it. You bought it to look at it. You want to hang it up in your home!On one hand, you have plenty of ways to get your digital art on display. It’s just a picture, after all. (You could even — gasp — just print the thing and hang it... Continue reading…

Image: Microsoft Microsoft released the final version of its next big Windows 11 update (22H2) to Release Preview testers on Tuesday, and accidentally made it available to PCs that aren’t officially supported. Oops.Twitter and Reddit users (via WindowsLatest) were quick to spot the mistake, with hundreds of Windows Insiders able to upgrade their Windows 10 machines on older CPUs. Microsoft has strict minimum hardware requirements for Windows 11, leaving millions of PCs behind, so the mistake will once again highlight the company’s controversial upgrade policy. Image: AceRimmer412 (Reddit) An unsupported PC gets offered Windows 11. Windows 11 officially requires Intel 8th Gen Coffee Lake or Zen 2 CPUs and up, with very few... Continue reading…

Apple is adding an easy method to swap your eSIM to a new iPhone in the upcoming iOS 16 release. Twitter user Carson Waldrop has spotted (via MacRumors) that iOS 16 supports transferring eSIM cards from an existing iPhone to a new one using Bluetooth. The switch looks effortless, allowing you to easily transfer your phone number when you buy a new iPhone.Currently in iOS if you purchase a new iPhone and you use an eSIM you have to contact your carrier to get the eSIM reissued. While some carriers make this effortless through QR codes in their mobile apps, others force you to go to a store to transfer an eSIM. Apple’s new eSIM swap support in iOS 16 looks like it will remove some of these headaches, but MacRumors points out that it’s... Continue reading…

Google integrates hyperlocal data from PurpleAir’s network of sensors. | Screengrab by Thomas Ricker / The Verge Google Maps on both iOS and Android has a new Air Quality layer that can be useful when planning your next hike or bike ride in good times, or to plan your escape from smog and smoke in bad.The new layer displays an Air Quality Index (AQI) overlay directly onto the map grid using government data gathered from agencies like the EPA in the US to show how healthy the air is in general. Better yet, it also presents data collected from PurpleAir’s network of sensors to report hyperlocal conditions at the street level. Clicking on the AQI readings dotted around Google Maps provides more information on the health impact of the air quality, time and source of the last reading, and links to learn more.PurpleAir’s relatively low-cost sensors... Continue reading…

The app lets you “schedule a break” after a set period of time. | Image: TikTok TikTok is adding a series of new features that are designed to stop you from disappearing inside its infinite feed of addictive short-form videos, the service has announced. A new tool will show a reminder after using the app for a prolonged, user-defined period of time, adding a new safeguard to existing daily limits. Teenage users (between the ages of 13 and 17) will be prompted to use the screen time limiting tool if they spend over 100 minutes in the app in a single day.TikTok is also adding a new screen time dashboard that shows a summary of app usage. Statistics include the amount of time the app has been opened, a breakdown of daytime and nighttime usage, and an overall counter for the amount of time spent in the app daily. ... Continue reading…

Photo by Andrew Hawkins / The Verge The Biden administration is revealing a new set of standards to help accelerate the installation of 500,000 electric vehicle chargers across the US by 2030.The new standards give states guidelines on awarding contracts for EV charging projects, directing the companies who get them to build chargers that are convenient, affordable, and accessible to the broadest number of people. And they outline the types of projects that won’t receive federal money, including proprietary charging stations that can only be accessed by one company’s vehicles, like Tesla’s Supercharger network.The new standards come as much of President Joe Biden’s climate change fighting agenda remains stalled in Congress. The president was able to secure $5 billion in... Continue reading…

Images of the prototype device published by Bloomberg. | Image: Bloomberg Meta has halted development of a smartwatch with two built-in cameras, Bloomberg reports. The device — codenamed “Milan” — had reportedly been planned for release in spring 2023 at a price of around $349. Technical issues, as well as general cost-cutting at Meta, are reportedly to blame for the cancellation. The existence of the watch had previously been reported by The Verge last year.Most smartwatches, including the Apple Watch, currently don’t feature any cameras at all, so Meta had hoped that the presence of not one but two cameras could have differentiated its wearable in a competitive market. The first would have been a 5-megapixel front-facing camera contained within a small display notch for use with video calls, while a... Continue reading…

A glimpse into the new Vivaldi Mail 1.0. | Image: Vivaldi Vivaldi has launched its own free built-in email client, Mail 1.0, with Vivaldi's Calendar and Feed Reader integrated.Mail 1.0 also grants users the option to add multiple email accounts, including Google and existing calendar services. As a result, users should be able to organize their emails and manage schedules, to-do lists, feeds, and more without leaving their browser.The new email client is similar to Gmail and Microsoft Outlook, with messages that are searchable and organized into multiple folders or views. Yet Vivaldi also offers a few slightly more unique ways to customize and manage emails, calendars, and feeds. Image: Vivaldi There are toggle buttons you can turn on and off and a search bar at the... Continue reading…

Cyberpunk: Edgerunners. | Image: Netflix With all of the drama surrounding Cyberpunk 2077’s initial launch, it would be easy to forget that there’s another exciting project on the way: an anime spinoff from famed studio Trigger. (That’s the same team behind projects like Promare, Little Witch Academia, and Kill la Kill.) The Netflix series was first announced back in 2020, and now we finally have the first trailer for Cyberpunk: Edgerunners. It’s hard to tell precisely what is going on in the one-minute-long clip, but it sure looks incredible.If you’re curious about the actual premise, here it is: