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by Catie Keck on (#5N91V)
Image: Marvel Following a high-stakes lawsuit over Disney’s day-and-date release of Marvel’s Black Widow on its Premier Access streaming platform and the company’s compensation of the film’s star Scarlett Johansson, the head of Disney today defended both the company’s payouts to talent as well as its decisions around various pandemic movie releases.During the company’s third-quarter earnings call, Disney boss Bob Chapek explained the company’s multi-pronged approach to releasing its films throughout the pandemic, which included theatrical exclusives, straight-to-digital releases on Disney Plus, and a hybrid of both that saw films debut on Disney’s paid Premier Access platform the same day they premiered in theaters. Premier Access was chosen as the... 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 12:17 |
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by Mitchell Clark on (#5N8Y2)
Image: Amazon Your Amazon packages may be getting an express ticket — Amazon has finished building its $1.5 billion air hub, located at the Cincinnati / Northern Kentucky International Airport, and has started operations there. Amazon started building the 800,000-square-foot facility in 2019, and it now boasts robots, miles of conveyor belts, and more.A big benefit of having a centrally located place to process packages and get them on planes is speed — that’s why UPS has a hub in Louisville, Kentucky; FedEx ships many packages through Memphis, Tenessee; and DHL has a hub in the same airport as Amazon. Amazon’s press release says that the cargo hub will help with the “rapid transport of customer packages throughout the U.S.” Jeff Bezos also made that... Continue reading…
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by Ian Carlos Campbell on (#5N8VR)
Apple rolled out a small but meaningful update to senior executive Eddy Cue’s job title on Thursday that features an area of interest the company has long been focused on: services (via 9to5Mac). Eddy Cue is a longstanding veteran at Apple who helped build iTunes and the App Store, but his new title of “Senior Vice President, Services” reflects the company’s increasingly important side hustle, if not outright transformation into a media business and subscription peddler.Prior to Thursday, Eddy Cue was senior vice president of internet software and services, with responsibilities that included overseeing the iTunes Store, Apple Music, Apple Pay, Maps, Search Ads, iCloud, and iWork. His new job description emphasizes Apple’s subscription... Continue reading…
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by Richard Lawler on (#5N8VS)
Illustration by James Bareham / The Verge Specifically citing concerns about a rise in cases of the delta variant of COVID-19, Facebook confirmed a Bloomberg report that it has pushed back plans for US workers to return to the office until next year.
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by Justine Calma on (#5N8SD)
Bill Gates, billionaire and co-chair of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, speaks during the One Planet Summit in New York, U.S., on Wednesday, Sept. 26, 2018. | Mark Kauzlarich/Bloomberg via Getty Images The bipartisan infrastructure deal could unlock a new stream of private funding for climate tech — and Bill Gates wants in on the action. Gates’ climate investment fund says that if the infrastructure bill moves forward, it will match $1.5 billion in government funds and put that money toward projects that are developing green technologies.Breakthrough Energy, Gates’ climate fund, laid out four different uses for the money: developing green hydrogen fuels, sustainable aviation fuels, energy storage, and technologies that take carbon dioxide out of the air. It said on Twitter that the money could “fast-track” commercial demonstration projects across the US.“Scale them up to a pretty gigantic level”“Critical for all these climate... Continue reading…
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by Ian Carlos Campbell on (#5N8SE)
Photo by MARCO LONGARI/AFP via Getty Images WhatsApp and other apps are reportedly blocked in Zambia during ongoing general elections being held in the country Thursday, according to digital rights organization Access Now and internet monitor NetBlocks. The block, affecting state-owned internet providers and other private networks, could be cutting off voters from a vital form of communication during a contentious election.Lusaka Times, a local Zambian news organization, writes that officials from Zambia’s Ministry of Information and Broadcast Services considered shutting down internet access in the lead-up to election day, citing a desire to stop the spread of election misinformation. A dramatic decrease in election day internet traffic from WhatsApp, Twitter, Instagram, and... Continue reading…
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by Barbara Krasnoff on (#5N8SF)
Photo by Michele Doying / The Verge I’ve often wondered if part of the reason that there is so much venom spewed on Twitter and other social media is that it’s difficult to actually recognize pieces of text on a screen as being from real, feeling human beings.I was nudged into this thought by a recent Washington Post story about Brianna Wu, who had been the target of extreme harassment several years ago during the GamerGate situation. She is apparently getting contacted by some former members of that group, who are sending apologies and regrets for their past actions. The story reminded me of something that happened to me way back when, during the days of the BBS (bulletin board system).Bear with me for a couple of paragraphs while I set the stage.First, for those who... Continue reading…
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by Sean Hollister on (#5N8NX)
Every PC graphics card we’ve reviewed in months has come with a disclaimer — if you can find one at all, you won’t be able to buy it for anywhere near its MSRP. And yet somehow, we’ve stepped into a bizzaro world where a few retailers listed the brand-new AMD Radeon RX 6600 XT for at or under its $379 suggested retail price, as PC Gamer notes today.Stock appears to have run out of the US cards while I was writing this post, but the UK cards still seem to be in stock, including a Sapphire RX 6600 XT Pulse for £374.99 at Overclockers and an XFX RX 6600 XT QICK 308 for £359.99 at eBuyer.The US cards included a PowerColor AMD Radeon RX 6600 XT Fighter for $379.99, and a Gigabyte RX 6600 XT Eagle with triple fan for $379.99 as well, both at... Continue reading…
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by Tom Warren on (#5N8NY)
The updated Mail app for Windows 11. | Image: Microsoft Microsoft is improving some of the built-in apps available in Windows 11. Windows Insiders in the Dev Channel can now test new updates to the Snipping Tool, Calculator, Mail, and Calendar apps. Some of the updates are minor, but all are designed to match the new visual style in Windows 11.Microsoft is replacing the classic Snipping Tool and Snip & Sketch apps in Windows 11 with a new Snipping Tool app that combines the best features of both apps. The Win + Shift + S keyboard shortcut will be the main way to take a screenshot in Windows 11, and it will activate the snipping menu with various options for selecting what content to screenshot. Image: Microsoft The updated Snipping Tool now has a dark mode. Once a... Continue reading…
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by Nicole Wetsman on (#5N8K7)
Photo by Becca Farsace / The Verge Samsung’s new Galaxy Watch 4 has a feature that can calculate body fat percentage and muscle mass, the company announced yesterday. It’s the latest tech company to offer a body composition feature, joining Amazon, which has a body fat percentage feature in its Halo Band.Body fat is generally a better way to assess health than weight, but it’s often calculated using a metric called the body mass index (BMI), which is crude and inaccurate. If wearables prove accurate, they could give people a better resource to monitor their health, Diana Thomas, a mathematician who studies body weight regulation at West Point, told The Verge in June.The Galaxy measures body composition using a technique called bioelectrical impedance analysis (BIA),... Continue reading…
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by Andrew J. Hawkins on (#5N8K8)
Audi released details of a new concept car this week called the Skysphere, a self-driving roadster that can change shape at the touch of a button.The sleek, villainous-looking convertible pairs an electric powertrain with luxury amenities for a result that even Batman would find a bit over the top. Notably, the vehicle features an adaptable wheelbase that can change size based on the driving mode, as well as a digital cockpit with a retractable steering wheel and pedals that stow away when the car drives itself.It’s a more fantastical outlook on the future than some of the German automaker’s other recent conceptsIt’s a more fantastical outlook on the future than some of the German automaker’s other recent concepts. But that doesn’t... Continue reading…
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by Ash Parrish on (#5N8K9)
Epic Games It’s another day ending in -y so Fortnite is having a new crossover event. Today, Fortnite players can complete quests in order to earn a new Free Guy skin and emote. It was inevitable that Free Guy would get a Fortnite crossover in some way. Fortnite is slowly gobbling up every video game and pop culture IP known to man, so it’s only natural that the video game movie would get a piece of that action, too. After all, Free Guy is the closest we’ve ever gotten to an actual Fortnite movie — for now. (Which is exactly the threat it sounds like.)The “Dude” skin is a super beef-ified version of Ryan Reynolds’ character Guy and looks like the kind of person who routinely sets off the lunk alarm at Planet Fitness. Dude curiously has a blue... Continue reading…
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by Makena Kelly on (#5N8KA)
Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge On Thursday, Verizon announced a range of new public commitments to protect low-income consumers in connection with its proposed acquisition of Tracfone. The commitments are part of a deal with public-interest groups and communications workers unions, who have agreed to support the acquisition on the basis of today’s announcement.For its part of the deal, Verizon pledges to continue to provide Tracfone’s Lifeline subsidy programs for at least three years after the merger closes. Verizon is also promising to offer a subsidized 5G program for low-income Tracfone users. According to the Communication Workers of America (CWA), over 1.7 million Tracfone customers depend on the Lifeline program.The CWA, Public Knowledge, and the Benton... Continue reading…
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by Jon Porter on (#5N8FZ)
Hummingbird’s second-generation electric bike gets a lot right Continue reading…
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by Adi Robertson on (#5N8G0)
Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Google has banned a company that sold Android users’ location data for COVID-19 mapping and other purposes, Motherboard reports. SafeGraph was one of several companies that collected geolocation records through plug-ins in other Android apps, then aggregated it for organizations including The New York Times and Centers for Disease Control.According to Motherboard, Google told developers in June that they had to remove SafeGraph’s software development kit within seven days. Motherboard says it’s not clear whether SafeGraph is still collecting any data from Android apps, and The Verge has reached out to Google and SafeGraph to confirm.SafeGraph’s ban follows an earlier crackdown on location-collecting apps. In December 2020, Google and... Continue reading…
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by Mitchell Clark on (#5N8CY)
Image: ToneStone ToneStone is an app designed to make producing music easy, even for users without any musical experience, and it’s created by people who worked on Guitar Hero and Left 4 Dead. Even though the app is officially being announced today, it’s still in closed beta, and there’s a waitlist for those who want to try it out. As a music production hobbyist, ToneStone’s interface and game-like features very much seem like my kind of jam, based on videos I’ve seen of the app and my conversation with founder Greg LoPiccolo.If you’ve never heard of LoPiccolo, you’ve probably heard of games he helped make. He worked at Harmonix, the studio that made music-based games like Rock Band and Guitar Hero. Another ToneStone founder is Tom Leonard, who has... Continue reading…
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by Andrew Webster on (#5N8CZ)
Photo: Nickelodeon It’s been some time since we’ve heard news about Netflix’s live-action adaptation of Avatar: The Last Airbender, but today the streaming company is finally revealing details: namely, the cast for some major roles. The show will feature Gordon Cormier (The Stand) as Aang, Kiawentiio (Beans) as Katara, Ian Ousley (13 Reasons Why) as Sokka, and Dallas Liu (Shang-Chi and the Legends of the Ten Rings) as Zuko.The live-action adaptation was first announced in 2018 and ran into some trouble last year when Avatar creators Michael Dante DiMartino and Bryan Konietzko stepped away from the project citing creative differences with Netflix. “I realized I couldn’t control the creative direction of the series, but I could control how I responded,” D... Continue reading…
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by Tom Warren on (#5N8A0)
Microsoft has been the subject of many memes about its Xbox naming decisions in recent years. The Xbox Series X follows the Xbox One X, and the Xbox Series S is the successor to the Xbox One S, and before that there was the Xbox One. That’s led to the internet making memes about one Xbox One X box, and a series of Xbox Series X boxes. After many Xbox box memes, Microsoft has now started openly mocking its Xbox naming decisions.In a video on Instagram, Microsoft has made its own Xbox box meme, which includes an Xbox Series X, an Xbox Series X box, an ex-boxed Xbox Series X next to its box, a series of ex-boxed Xbox Series X next to their boxes, and a series of ex-boxed Xbox Series X next to their boxes in the shape of an X. Dizzy yet?
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by Monica Chin on (#5N8A1)
Good looks, but average performance Continue reading…
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by Chaim Gartenberg on (#5N87E)
Photo by Becca Farsace / The Verge This week was supposed to be the first day of Google’s big reentry into flagship smartwatches. Samsung is back on board after years of Tizen-based wearables, with its new Galaxy Watch 4 that runs the new, revitalized Wear OS 3. It’s the smartwatch OS that merges the best of Google and Samsung’s discrete platforms together.But there was just one issue: Google was strangely absent from the proceedings. In fact, aside from a few oblique mentions of working with Google on the software, you might have watched Samsung’s whole presentation and not even caught that the new watches were running on Wear OS at all.On the one hand, this is extremely par for the course for Samsung. It’s practically a running gag at this point that Samsung goes... Continue reading…
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by Jon Porter on (#5N87F)
The Honor Magic 3 Pro. | Image: Honor Honor has announced its first flagship smartphones since being sold off by former parent company Huawei: the Magic 3 series. The lineup consists of three phones, the Magic 3, Magic 3 Pro, and Magic 3 Pro Plus. They’re coming first to mainland China, but Honor says they’re getting a global release at a later date.When they launch globally, the phones will come with Google’s apps and services, which Honor wasn’t previously able to include while a subsidiary of Huawei due to US sanctions. It should make the Magic 3 series much more competitive outside of China compared to Honor’s recent Huawei-era phones, which had to rely on Huawei’s own services and AppGallery to download software. This setup came with significant drawbacks. ... Continue reading…
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by Brandon Widder on (#5N87G)
With decent sound and a stable connection, the Elite 65t were once our go-to alternative to the AirPods. | Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales It seems like the market for true wireless earbuds becomes more and more crowded each week, with products like Samsung’s Galaxy Buds 2 and Nothing Ear 1s being two of the latest contenders to jump into the already-burgeoning field. And while the Jabra Elite 65t are beginning to show their age in comparison and are by no means top of the field, they’re still a great pair of earbuds with enjoyable sound and a customizable fit, not to mention a two-year warranty that covers any potential damage they may sustain from prolonged exposure to sweat or dust. Normally $80, you can pick up the copper-black model at Best Buy for $50, slightly more than their best price. Read our review.When talking TV recommendations with the rest of The Verge s... Continue reading…
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by James Vincent on (#5N854)
Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Reddit, the self-declared ‘front page of the internet,’ says it is now valued at more than $10 billion after raising an additional $410 million in funding, with the final round expected to grow to up to $700 million. The company continues to build and sanitize its business, removing racist, misogynist, and otherwise controversial communities, as it prepares to go public at some point in the future.“We are still planning on going public, but we don’t have a firm timeline there yet,” Reddit’s co-founder and CEO Steve Huffman told The New York Times in an interview. “All good companies should go public when they can.”The company previously raised $250 million in funding earlier this year for a valuation of $6 billion. But Huffman told the... Continue reading…
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by James Vincent on (#5N835)
Google is adding a bunch of new features to Google Meet, making it easier for users to control and direct meetings. However, exactly which controls will be available depends on whether you are using Meet as a regular user or as part of a Google Workspace team.The main update is that all users will now be able to assign up to 25 co-hosts per meeting, who will have access to host controls. This will let them limit who can share their screen and send chat messages, as well as mute all participants with a single click, end the meeting, and control who can enter the meeting (though this last feature is only available to certain Google Workspace versions). Previously, assigning co-hosts was only available to Google Workspace for Education... Continue reading…
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by Jon Porter on (#5N80M)
Image: Spotify Spotify’s updated Wear OS app is releasing “over the coming weeks,” Spotify has announced, and it’ll support offline playback on smartwatches running Wear OS 2.0 and up. The new functionality was announced in May alongside the news of Google’s collaboration with Samsung on the next-generation of the wearable operating system, Wear OS 3.The fact that offline downloads will be available on Wear OS 2 means that it’s not exclusive to upcoming Wear OS 3 watches like Samsung’s recently announced Galaxy Watch 4 and the Galaxy Watch 4 Classic. Spotify says it should work on watches from the likes of Fossil, Mobvoi, and Suunto. Meanwhile Google’s new YouTube Music Wear OS app, which also supports offline listening, is exclusive to Wear OS 3.S... Continue reading…
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by James Vincent on (#5N80N)
Roboute Guilliman, primarch of the Ultramarines, takes on the Black Legion. | Image: Games Workshop Games Workshop is preparing to launch Warhammer Plus, a niche subscription streaming service for fans of the sprawling, lore-dense Warhammer universe (or rather, universes: the sci-fi world of Warhammer 40,000, and fantasy setting of Warhammer Age of Sigmar). The company now says Warhammer Plus will not only be available on iOS and Android through a number of dedicated apps, but also on Apple TV, Amazon Fire TV, and Roku services.The launch comes at a rather awkward time for Games Workshop, given that some fans are currently boycotting the firm after a recent change to its intellectual property policy. Warhammer 40k in particular has an extremely vocal and active fanbase (check out r/Grimdank for a taste) that produce memes, cosplays,... Continue reading…
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by Mitchell Clark on (#5N7MS)
Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Zoom has announced a new Focus mode, which it says is meant to keep students from getting distracted while in a virtual classroom, while still allowing the teacher to keep an eye on everybody. When activated, Focus mode will make it so that a meeting’s participants won’t be able to see each other’s videos or screen shares, while the host is still able to see everyone’s webcams. It provides some of the control found in Webinar mode, without the complexity and lack of flexibility that comes with it — for instance, a teacher could turn on Focus mode while presenting, and then turn it off when it’s time for a class discussion. And, while hosting a Webinar costs money, Focus mode appears to be available to free accounts, based on my testing.T... Continue reading…
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by Jay Peters on (#5N7HJ)
Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Three prominent Blizzard employees have been let go from the company, as first reported by Kotaku, marking the latest departures from the studio following a major sexual harassment lawsuit brought by the state of California. Diablo 4 game director Luis Barriga, lead designer Jesse McCree, and World of Warcraft designer Jonathan LeCraft are not employed at Blizzard anymore, according to Kotaku. Activision Blizzard confirmed the departures in a statement to The Verge after we published this story, but declined to comment on whether or not Barriga, McCree, and LeCraft were fired.“We have a deep, talented roster of developers already in place and new leaders have been assigned where appropriate,” a Blizzard spokesperson said. “We are... Continue reading…
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by Sean O'Kane on (#5N7KB)
Lordstown Motors is looking to essentially loan out some space at the massive former General Motors factory it owns, as the troubled startup gets closer to building its first production-quality Endurance pickup trucks later this year. Interim CEO Angela Strand shared Wednesday that Lordstown is in “serious discussions... with several potential partners” who may build vehicles or do other types of work at the plant alongside the startup — meaning the startup could act like a sort of WeWork for manufacturing.“This is a critical strategic pivot for us, a decision that we believe will lead to significant new revenue opportunities for Lordstown at the same time as production of the Endurance is ramping up,” Strand said.“Our current... Continue reading…
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by Ash Parrish on (#5N7HH)
Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Today, Twitch has issued a statement announcing the steps it’s taking to protect its marginalized streamers.“We’ve seen a lot of conversation about botting, hate raids, and other forms of harassment targeting marginalized creators,” Twitch writes. “You’re asking us to do better, and we know we need to do more to address these issues.”Twitch says it’s identified “a vulnerability in our proactive filters, and have rolled out an update to close this gap and better detect hate speech in chat.” It also says it will implement more safety features in the coming weeks, including improvements to the account verification process and ban evasion detection tools.This statement is in response to the hashtag #twitchdobetter, which was an effort... Continue reading…
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by Ian Carlos Campbell on (#5N7HK)
Image: Nestflix, Lynn Fisher It’s been notoriously difficult to watch lost classics like Vincent Chase’s Aquaman or The Rural Juror — in part because they’re not real — but thanks to the launch of Nestflix, that’s all changing. Those movies are from Entourage and 30 Rock, respectively, created as gags or plotlines, but Nestflix, “the platform for your favorite nested films and shows,” will let you browse them anyway.The basic premise behind designer Lynn Fisher’s Netflix alternative is “what if every fake show or movie featured in a real show or movie lived on a single platform?” The result is something that looks a lot like that red-and-black-colored streaming service you might be familiar with, populated with fake TV show and movie listings for projects that... Continue reading…
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by Brandon Widder on (#5N7FN)
Photo by Chris Welch / The Verge Like in previous years, Samsung used its latest Galaxy Unpacked event to announce a slew of new devices, including the Galaxy Z Fold 3 and Galaxy Z Flip 3. The two smartphones are already available for preorder starting at $1,799.99 and $999.99, respectively, and will launch alongside the Galaxy Buds 2 and a handful of other devices on Friday, August 27th.How to preorder the Galaxy Z Fold 3The Galaxy Z Fold 3 is Samsung’s latest foldable, yet it seems to take a cue directly from the Note, adopting S Pen support as well as an optional flip case designed to hold the stylus when not in use. The forthcoming device appears to be more rugged, too, with IPX8 water resistance, tougher aluminum in the hinge, and a protective film that is... Continue reading…
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by Sean Hollister on (#5N7FP)
Photo by Chris Welch / The Verge It’s been easy to dismiss folding phones as the stuff of science fiction, even after they became a reality two years ago. They were too expensive, too large, too compromised to make sense for most. Some flips instantly flopped. But in 2021, a folding phone appears to have just killed off Samsung’s long-running Galaxy Note — and I’m starting to wonder if they’ll destroy the flagship Galaxy S as well.That’s because last month, Samsung promised to make foldables mainstream. And at $999, with fewer compromises than ever, Samsung’s new Z Flip 3 sounds dangerously close to a complete replacement for Samsung’s $999 Galaxy S21 Plus. For the same price, they’ve both got 6.7-inch 120Hz AMOLED screens, the latest Snapdragon 888 processors, the... Continue reading…
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by Ian Carlos Campbell on (#5N7DH)
The US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) is looking into a recent partnership between Uber and grocery delivery service Gopuff, according to a new report from The Information. Gopuff agreed to list its collection of grocery and liquor store items on Uber Eats in May, expanding Uber’s delivery abilities to an even greater degree as it competes with other companies like DoorDash and Instacart.The FTC is concerned that the deal “could hamper competition in online sale and delivery of alcohol and convenience-store items,” according to The Information. Gopuff’s been growing on its own recently, acquiring the BevMo liquor store chain to use as stores and delivery centers, almost like Amazon warehouses for alcohol. The FTC is reportedly also... Continue reading…
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by Ian Carlos Campbell on (#5N7DJ)
Photo by Silver Screen Collection/Getty Images The Criterion Collection has announced plans to release a six-film slate of classics on 4K Blu-rays for the first time, including a rerelease of Orson Welles’ American epic Citizen Kane.Besides the perennial film buff favorite, Criterion is also releasing the following films as part of its initial collection of ultra high-definition Blu-rays:
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by Jay Peters on (#5N7BP)
Twitter has changed the way the platform looks, including changing the font to its Chirp font. | Image: Twitter Twitter is rolling out its Chirp font to the Twitter app and feed, meaning that your daily scrolling might look a little different than you’re used to.Twitter’s main account posted about the change Wednesday. I’m personally seeing the new font on the web and on the iOS app, but one colleague isn’t seeing it anywhere, so it may not have rolled out to everyone yet.
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by Richard Lawler on (#5N78N)
Test Wireless Emergency Alert message | Image: FEMA At approximately 2:20PM ET, FEMA conducted a test of both the Emergency Alert System (EAS) and the Wireless Emergency Alerts (WEA) covering radio, TV broadcasts, and mobile devices in the US, but you might not see it on your phone. That’s because this time around, unlike the Presidential Alert test in 2018, it only reached phones with a setting to receive test messages and by default, most phones are set to opt-out.According to this document (PDF) from the FCC, on Android phones, there should be a Wireless Emergency Alerts section in your settings menu with an option for “State/Local Test alerts” that you can turn on or off. The process described for iOS is more complicated, but Apple’s support page explains how you can opt-in:
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by Chaim Gartenberg on (#5N7BQ)
A few weeks after 1Password started rolling out the Windows version of the redesigned 1Password 8, the company is now showing off the Mac version of the update, which is also available today to try in early access.Like the Windows version, 1Password 8 on the Mac features an overhauled design, which aims to make it clearer when items are being shared, who they’re shared with, and better labeling of groups in the sidebar. There’s also a new search bar, which shows suggestions as you search (similar to Apple’s Spotlight or Alfred), and an updated version of Watchtower, which shows a comprehensive overview of your overall password security.Lastly, the new app overhauls the editing window, which the company says includes a... Continue reading…
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by Makena Kelly on (#5N78M)
There’s a new bill introduced in the Senate Wednesday targeting the power dominant tech firms like Apple and Google have over the app store market.The bipartisan “Open App Markets Act,” introduced by Sens. Richard Blumenthal (D-CT), Marsha Blackburn (R-TN), and Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) would ban app stores from forcing developers to use the store’s payment systems. It would also bar companies from punishing developers that offer lower prices on a separate app store or through their own payment systems, along the lines of Apple’s public dispute with Epic Games. Notably, the bill would also make it unlawful for companies like Apple to use non-public data from their stores to build competing products against companies using their service.“... Continue reading…
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by Andrew J. Hawkins on (#5N78P)
Image: Nuro Nuro is building two new facilities in Nevada for its autonomous delivery robots. The first is an end-of-line manufacturing facility, where it hopes to soon begin cranking out its large toaster-shaped vehicles at scale. And the second is a closed-course test track, where it will validate its bots before sending them out in to the wild. The company says it will spend $40 million to construct the facilities, both of which will be located in southern Nevada.Nuro, which was founded by ex-Google engineers in 2018, has been testing its driverless grocery delivery service in Arizona and Texas for months now, and hopes to begin ramping up a more official commercial service in several states next year. The company was recently approved to begin... Continue reading…
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by Brandon Widder on (#5N78Q)
Photo by Becca Farsace / The Verge As expected, Samsung took the wraps off the Galaxy Watch 4 and the aptly titled Galaxy Watch 4 Classic during its Galaxy Unpacked event this morning, confirming recent leaks and introducing the first two devices built on Google and Samsung’s co-developed smartwatch platform, Wear OS 3. Both watches also sport Samsung’s new Exynos W920 processor, 1.5GB of RAM, 16GB of storage, and come with a host of health-related features thanks to the inclusion of Samsung’s 3-in-1 BioActive sensor.Although neither model is set to arrive until August 27th, both are available for preorder starting today at varying price points.How to preorder the Galaxy Watch 4The Galaxy Watch 4 is essentially the next iteration of the Galaxy Watch Active 2. The... Continue reading…
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by Richard Lawler on (#5N75S)
Illustration by Grayson Blackmon / The Verge Google released the first public beta for Android 12 during its I/O event in the spring, and now Beta 4 is rolling out to compatible devices. Instead of a few previously unseen features like earlier beta releases, this version moves things into the “platform stability” section of the timeline. Android 12 beta release schedule For users trying to dive into the next version of Android as soon as possible, this means things are stabilizing as development proceeds toward a release candidate. The people this release is really important for are Android developers, who can test their apps for compatibility now that the APIs, features, and layout have been locked down. With Google introducing the biggest system redesign in... Continue reading…
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by Jon Porter on (#5N75T)
Google Pay on Wear OS. | Image: Google Today’s smartwatch news has been dominated by Samsung’s new Wear OS 3-powered wearables, but Google wants you to know it hasn’t forgotten about smartwatches running Wear OS 2. Updates to Google Pay, Messages, and other third-party apps will be coming to current devices in addition to Wear OS 3, giving existing owners something to look forward to as they roll out over the coming weeks.For starters, Google Pay’s support for contactless payments from smartwatches is expanding to 16 new countries: Belgium, Brazil, Chile, Croatia, Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, Hong Kong, Ireland, New Zealand, Norway, Slovakia, Sweden, Taiwan, Ukraine, and United Arab Emirates. It’s previously been possible to use Google Pay from smartphones in these... Continue reading…
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by Ash Parrish on (#5N75V)
Image: Enhance Games The greatest Tetris game of the last decade is finally coming to the Switch. As a part of today’s Indie World Showcase, Nintendo announced that Tetris Effect: Connected will arrive on the Switch October 8th.Coming off its timed exclusivity period with Xbox and Xbox Game Pass, Tetris Effect: Connected is the multiplayer expansion of 2018’s Tetris Effect. Designed by Tetsuya Mizuguchi, the creator behind the trippy musical shooter Rez, Tetris Effect combined speedy block stacking with slick and impossibly pretty visuals and sounds. In Tetris Effect, classic Tetris gameplay remained unchanged. Players still dropped various shaped blocks into brain-pleasing configurations, clearing rows as stacks of blocks slowly piled up. But Tetris Effect... Continue reading…
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by Ashley Carman on (#5N75W)
Instagram Instagram has been in the news this summer after Black soccer stars in England were bombarded with racist messages following their team’s Euro 2020 final loss. Today, the company’s trying to prevent some of that behavior from happening again with the introduction and expansion of three safety features.Among them is something called “limits.” Turning this on prevents anyone who doesn’t follow you, or who recently followed you, from commenting or sending a DM. The feature is available to everyone globally today, and Instagram points out that it’ll likely be most useful to businesses and creators who expect a flurry of responses. Of course, turning comments or DMs off entirely would also work, but Instagram says this is a solution for... Continue reading…
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by Nicole Wetsman on (#5N75X)
The National Institutes of Health is giving a booster dose to 200 kidney transplant patients who did not have an immune response to the COVID-19 vaccine in a new trial that launched yesterday.Many transplant patients, who have to take immunosuppressant drugs to keep their bodies from rejecting a new organ, don’t produce enough antibodies — or don’t produce antibodies at all — after getting the COVID-19 vaccine. The study will check to see if a third shot of an mRNA vaccine, given on top of the normal two-shot regimen, will generate antibodies closer to the levels seen in healthy people.There are some indications that a third dose might help some people. In France, health officials started recommending in April that immunosuppressed... Continue reading…
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by Andrew Webster on (#5N731)
Boyfriend Dungeon. Nintendo’s most recent Indie World Showcase was full of lots of cool games, as per usual. But the best part is that many of them are out today.That includes Axiom Verge 2 (a sequel to a Metroid-like adventure from 2015), Boyfriend Dungeon (a hack-and-slash game where you can romance your weapons), Necrobarista: Final Pour (the director’s cut of a visual novel about coffee and death), Islanders (a procedurally generated strategy game where players build island communities), Slime Rancher (where players run an alien ranch), Curious Expedition 2 (described as “a turn-based narrative roguelike set in a reimagined version of the late 19th century”), and Garden Story (a Zelda-like action-adventure game where you play as an adorable grape).O... Continue reading…
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by Jon Porter on (#5N732)
Image: Evan Blass / Twitter (tweet now deleted) Here’s everything Samsung might unpack (and unfold) on August 11th Continue reading…
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by Jay Peters on (#5N733)
Google search now has an interactive periodic table you can check out to learn a lot more about the elements. You can find it by searching for “periodic table” and clicking the “explore elements” button on the right side of the page or by navigating to it directly right here.I wasn’t the best chemistry student growing up, but I’ve had a lot of fun clicking on different elements and learning about things like an element’s atomic mass, melting point, and seeing a 3D model of each element, which I find particularly cool. Each element that I’ve clicked on also includes a short fact — like that thallium was used as the murder agent in an Agatha Christie novel, apparently The periodic table is being announced alongside a few... Continue reading…
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by Brandon Widder on (#5N734)
Photo by Chris Welch / The Verge It’s official: Samsung’s Galaxy Buds Plus are now considered last-gen. During today’s Galaxy Unpacked event, the company announced their long-rumored successor, the Galaxy Buds 2, a new set of true wireless earbuds that look to refine Samsung’s recent formula instead of reinvent it.In terms of design, they’re not drastically different from the Galaxy Buds Plus. Each earbud is lighter and features a more rounded exterior. The Galaxy Buds 2 will also be available in four distinct colors (dark gray, green, purple, and white), and each earbud features a three-point microphone, active noise cancellation, and three sizes of silicone ear tips. Like Google’s Pixel Buds A-series, they also come paired with a wireless charging case, one that... Continue reading…
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