The Verge

Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge iFixit plans to start offering Steam Deck replacement parts this summer, iFixit’s Kevin Purdy tells The Verge. Valve first announced in February that the repair experts at iFixit would be one of the authorized sellers of replacement parts but did not give a specific timeline as to when they would be available. The vast majority of consoles aren’t easily user repairable, so making official Steam Deck replacement parts available, even if they aren’t out just yet, is a good thing for consumers. And hopefully, it will push other hardware makers to do the same in the future.We’ve asked iFixit if it can share information about which parts you’ll be able to get and how much they’ll cost. In Valve’s official Steam Deck teardown video from... Continue reading…

Google Fiber workers voting whether to unionize | Illustration: Alex Castro / The Verge Voting is open for workers for a Google Fiber subcontractor in Missouri, who are deciding whether to unionize as part of the Alphabet Workers Union (AWU), a division of the Communication Workers of America. If successful, the 12 workers, who are employed by staffing agency BDS Connected Solutions as workers at Google Fiber stores, would be the AWU’s first bargaining unit to be recognized by the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB).The workers have to mail their ballots back to the NLRB by March 24th, when they’ll be counted by the agency’s regional office.Google spokesperson Jennifer Rodstrom noted in an email to The Verge that the AWU petition filed with the NLRB mentions BDS, but not Google. “We have many contracts with both... Continue reading…

Russian technology company Yandex said that it was “pausing” its autonomous vehicle and sidewalk robot testing in the US. The news was first reported by Automotive News.The company said it was idling its robotaxi fleet in Ann Arbor, Michigan, as well as a delivery service with Grubhub powered by its six-wheeled sidewalk robots. “We hope to resume the operations in the future,” a spokesperson said.The news comes as Russia’s invasion of Ukraine continued to send shockwaves around the world. The conflict has sparked a fierce outcry among Western nations, leading many to cut business ties with Russian companies. On Friday, Russia announced it was blocking access to Facebook.The news comes as Russia’s invasion of Ukraine continued to... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Some of the most popular programming on Hulu will now head to Peacock. A contract between the streaming services’ parent companies Disney and Comcast to stream NBCUniversal shows to Hulu has been terminated.“The Hulu agreement was terminated,” NBCUniversal spokesperson Lisa Scalzo confirmed to The Verge.The partnership will see episodes of NBCUniversal-owned shows like Saturday Night Live and The Voice debut on Peacock, rather than Hulu, after airing on pay-TV. Because Hulu will no longer be paying for some of NBC’s biggest titles, the deal could give Hulu the financial freedom to pursue more originals.The change will likely go into effect next broadcast season, possibly around September and October. The termination will not wipe all... Continue reading…

Illustrations by Alex Castro / The Verge Nintendo has temporarily put its Russian eShop into maintenance mode, the company said in a notice on its Russian website, which appears to mean that players in the country can’t buy digital games from the store.“Due to the fact that the payment service used in Nintendo eShop has suspended the processing of payments in rubles, Nintendo eShop in Russia is temporarily placed into maintenance mode,” according to a Google-translated version of the message. “We apologize for any inconvenience caused.” It’s unclear what payment service Nintendo uses. The Verge has reached out for more information.Many gaming companies have taken action in protest of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. EA and CD Projekt Red have halted sales of their games in... Continue reading…

It’s hard to guess a song in the first few seconds. If you’ve finished your Wordle, Worldle, and Octordle and have more room in your heart for more Wordle-alikes, may I suggest trying out Heardle.app? It’s a guessing game where you’re given progressively longer snippets of a pop song and get six tries to figure out what it is. It’s a fun twist on the Wordle format, especially for those of us who are significantly more interested in music than words like “knoll” or “vivid.”An interesting twist with Heardle is that it gives you a skip button. Mechanically, it makes sense — with Wordle, you’re only going to get closer to the answer by guessing a word and seeing what letters are or aren’t in the correct answer. But when you’re guessing a song, hearing a new snippet will give you more... Continue reading…

Photo by Tom Warren / The Verge If you own any wireless Xbox controller from the current or previous generation, you already have a great option for playing controller-based games on a PC or smartphone. The key to the adaptability of these controllers is their support for both the Xbox Wireless protocol and Bluetooth. After Apple rolled out iOS 14.5 with support for wireless Xbox controllers and Microsoft tested and rolled out firmware updates for the older Bluetooth-equipped Xbox One controllers and the Elite 2 (matching the functionality of newer Series X models), these controllers went from being the only de facto option for Xbox or PC gamers to one of the most versatile options for use across consoles, phones, tablets, and Windows PCs.Connecting to all these... Continue reading…

The Nintendo Switch only comes with 32GB of internal storage, which is minuscule if you plan on having more than just a handful of games and apps downloaded to your handheld console. The solution is to use a microSD card to expand the Switch’s storage. But what’s the easiest way to do that? And if you already have a microSD card and want to use a new one with more capacity, how do you migrate your files? Don’t worry; we’ll walk you through it all.Before you begin, it’s always a good idea to back up your games to a desktop computer using a microSD card. Of course, any title downloaded from the Nintendo eShop (they’re tied to your account) can be archived and downloaded again directly, if needed. But it takes a lot longer to download... Continue reading…

The newest Microsoft Flight Simulator is one of the most demanding games ever made — and yet you can now play it on a shitty PC (or an original Xbox One) with the power of Microsoft’s cloud. There’s just one big hole: you can’t play currently play Xbox with a mouse and keyboard because Xbox Cloud Gaming only supports gamepads (and touch) for now. But according to Microsoft Flight Simulator boss Jorg Neumann, that’s about to change: mouse and keyboard control is coming.Neumann spilled the beans in a Flight Simulator video Q&A (via Windows Central), where he says it will be platform-level support, meaning, theoretically, any Xbox cloud game could offer mouse and keyboard control. Here’s my transcript of the most relevant part:

The S22 Ultra (left) and regular S22 (right). | Image: iFixit The release of Samsung’s latest flagship smartphone means we’ve got another excellent iFixit teardown to enjoy, which offers a great look at the insides of the Galaxy S22 and S22 Ultra.The teardown gives us a look at how Samsung has gone about integrating its S Pen stylus into the Galaxy S22 Ultra, as well as the new vapor chamber for keeping the phone cool during use. But the most interesting discovery relates to the vibration motor inside the S22 devices, which iFixit notes is now built into the bottom speaker rather than the top.The speculation is that Samsung is trying to catch up to the performance of the iPhone’s Taptic Engine, but it’s doing so with a component that takes up less internal space. The changes Samsung has made to... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Russia’s communications agency Roskomnadzor announced Friday that it is blocking access to Facebook in Russia. It cited 26 cases of “discrimination against Russian media and information resources by Facebook” since October 2020, in addition to the more-recent restrictions Facebook has placed on Russian state media outlets.In response, Meta president of global affairs Nick Clegg tweeted in response to the move, saying “Soon millions of ordinary Russians will find themselves cut off from reliable information, deprived of their everyday ways of connecting with family and friends and silenced from speaking out. We will continue to do everything we can to restore our services so they remain available to people to safely and securely express... Continue reading…

Here’s the Gigabyte Aero 16, an option for creators with deep pockets. | Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge The thing nobody tells you about working as a professional laptop reviewer is that everyone in your life who you are even somewhat acquainted with will, at some point, ask you what laptop they should buy.There are variations, of course. There’s “Which laptop should I buy for my son?” or “Which laptop should I buy for my sister?” or “Which laptop should I buy to start my podcast?” I’ve heard them all. I imagine most laptop reviewers on the internet can say the same.My answers are very often disappointing. I think people often expect that because I use these things for my job, I’ll be able to give them the perfect recommendation immediately. But — as I imagine many gadget reviewers will tell you — that’s much harder than you think.H... Continue reading…

More devices need to follow in the footsteps of Apple’s recent (bigger) MacBook Pros | Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge Gadgets are getting too thin, again.These past few weeks saw some of the latest victims of the seemingly unending drive towards making our devices as thin as possible, no matter the consequences. Samsung’s Galaxy S22 and S22 Plus — what will undoubtedly be some of the most popular Android phones of the year — are thinner than last year’s models and held back by disappointing battery life. The new Dell XPS 15 is “exceptionally thin and light” but barely lasts four hours on a charge and runs nearly as hot as the sun. And the OnePlus 10 Pro is a flagship smartphone that can somehow be snapped in half with your bare hands.It seems that despite over a decade of chasing the thinnest, lightest phones and computers around to the detriment of... Continue reading…

Image: ULA 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.There is an Apple event next week, so Dan Seifert comes on to talk about what we can expect. He thinks there will be some new hardware but isn’t completely sold that we will see anything with a new design.Loren Grush comes on to talk about the conflict in Ukraine and how it’s affecting space flight. She also gives Elon and SpaceX the appropriate credit for delivering Starlink to Ukraine after a tweet requesting it.And there was a Rivian debacle this week, so Andrew Hawkins comes on to tell us about how vehicle pricing went up by as... Continue reading…

Photo by Vjeran Pavic I’m moving on from media Continue reading…

Photo by Jakub Porzycki/NurPhoto via Getty Images EA is halting sales of its games and content in Russia and Belarus in response to the invasion of Ukraine, the publisher announced Friday. On Wednesday, the company said that it was removing Russian teams from its FIFA and NHL games, but Friday’s actions go a significant step further.“We have made the decision to stop sales of our games and content, including virtual currency bundles, in Russia and Belarus while this conflict continues,” EA said in a blog post. “As a result, our games and content will no longer be available for purchase in our Russian region storefront on Origin or the EA app, including through in-game stores. We are also working with our platform partners to remove our titles from their stores and stop the sale of new... Continue reading…

Apple is phasing in its return to offices | Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Apple will begin phasing in its planned hybrid work pilot on April 11th, bringing employees back to the office one day a week to start, according to an email from CEO Tim Cook to Apple employees, which was seen by The Verge. Apple originally announced its plans for a hybrid work pilot in November.In the third week of the pilot, Cook writes, employees will come in twice a week, with the full hybrid pilot — where workers will come into the office on Monday, Tuesday, and Thursday and work “flexibly” on Wednesday and Friday — would go into effect May 23rd. The timing may vary from office to office depending on local conditions, Cook added.“For many of you, I know that returning to the office represents a long-awaited milestone and a... Continue reading…

The QuietComfort 45s are on sale at Best Buy | Photo by Chris Welch / The Verge If you’re in the market for some new headphones or earbuds, Bose has got you covered. Currently, you can find the Bose QuietComfort 45 headphones at Amazon or Best Buy for $279, matching their lowest price. The Verge staffer Chris Welch reviewed the QuietComfort 45 headphones for us and was generally impressed by the overall comfort and effective noise cancellation of these headphones.The Bose QuietComfort Earbuds are also on sale, discounted from their regular $279 price to $219.99 at Amazon and Best Buy. These earbuds have been available for as low as $199.99 before, but they haven’t been available for that price since early January. Chris Welch also reviewed these earbuds for us and praised their sound quality and noise-cancellation... Continue reading…

After years of zooming through deep space, a presumed leftover piece of a Chinese rocket slammed into the Moon today, just as space tracking experts expected it would. At least, it should have hit the Moon around 7:30AM ET this morning, as long as the law of gravity has not changed. The collision brings an end to the rocket’s life in space and likely leaves a fresh new crater on the Moon that may be up to 65 feet wide.The now-expired rocket has caused quite a buzz this past month. First of all, the vehicle was never intended to crash into the Moon, making it a rare piece of space debris to find its way to the lunar surface by accident. Additionally, there was some confusion over its identity, with various groups trying to nail down... Continue reading…

Russia’s lower house of parliament has passed a law punishing “fake news” with up to 15 years in prison, according to Reuters. The rule would impose fines or jail terms for spreading false information about the military, as well as fines for people who publicly call for sanctions against Russia. Courts would mete out the harshest sentences for fake news that leads to “serious consequences.”According to earlier coverage from The Moscow Times, the bill is meant to penalize people who knowingly “distort the purpose, role and tasks of the Russian Armed Forces, as well as other units during special military and other operations,” including people who spread information about Russian war losses.“Literally by tomorrow, this law will force... Continue reading…

Justin H. Min stars as Yang, an android at the end of his life Continue reading…

The PS5 and Xbox Series X / S versions of Grand Theft Auto V will launch on Tuesday, March 15th, as will a separate version of GTA Online that — for the first time — won’t require the base game to play.Rockstar Games shed some light on what’s coming a few weeks ago when it teased that development on GTAVI was underway. But today, it’s providing some more details of what you can expect from the updated games and how character migration will work if you’re a fervent GTA Online player.As for GTAV, there will be graphical touchups throughout, and it will offer three graphics settings: a 4K fidelity mode with ray tracing, a comparatively stripped-back, upscaled 4K (1080p on Series S) performance mode that runs faster at 60 frames per... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge In a blog post published Friday morning, Microsoft president Brad Smith confirmed the company “will suspend all new sales of Microsoft products and services in Russia.”It didn’t go into further detail about what that looks like or specify what meaningful financial impact the move will have on its businesses, as CD Projekt Red did yesterday while announcing a ban on services to Russia and Belarus. In response to a request for more information by The Verge, a spokesperson said the company had nothing more to share at this time.“we are coordinating closely and working in lockstep with the governments of the US, EU, and the UK”Microsoft is only the latest tech company to announce a stop in some of its services to Russia following... Continue reading…

ZAPORIZHZHIA, UKRAINE - MARCH 4: A screen grab captured from a video shows a view of Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant during a fire following clashes around the site in Zaporizhzhia, Ukraine on March 4, 2022. | Photo by Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images A fire broke out at the site of Ukraine’s largest nuclear power plant during an apparent Russian attack, Ukrainian officials told the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). The fire at the Zaporizhzhia power plant has been put out and did not affect the nuclear reactors’ safety systems. Radiation levels at the plant remained the same, the IAEA reported early morning on March 4th.The fire started when a projectile hit a training building near one of the plant’s reactors, the agency said. The incident heightened concerns about vulnerabilities at Ukraine’s nuclear facilities during Russia’s invasion. This is the first time war has broken out in a place so heavily reliant on nuclear energy. Ukraine typically gets over half of its... Continue reading…

Image: Disney Disney Plus will be adding a cheaper, ad-supported subscription tier sometime in “late 2022,” the company announced today. The tier will come to the US first before expanding internationally in 2023.Crucially, Disney hasn’t said how much cheaper the advertisement-supported version of Disney Plus will be compared to the standard, ad-free plan (which currently costs $7.99 per month or $79.99 per year) or when exactly it’ll be launching the new tier of service.Adding cheaper options with ads has become increasingly popular among subscription services. HBO Max last year introduced a $10 per month plan that shaved $5 off the ad-free price, although in addition to adding commercials, the cheaper plan also is limited to HD content (and not... Continue reading…

The last few games that Tomoya Asano has worked on all have a few things in common. A producer at Square Enix, Asano’s most recent titles have been attempts at reimagining the classic Japanese role-playing game for modern audiences, harking back to the glory days of turn-based Final Fantasy adventures. They also all have extremely weird names like Bravely Default, Octopath Traveler, and Various Daylife. That trend continues with the release of Triangle Strategy on the Nintendo Switch today.“We do want the titles to have a uniqueness to them,” Asano tells The Verge. “We also try to be careful that it’s not outrageously weird to the point that consumers can’t remember the name of the game.”At first glance, Triangle Strategy doesn’t seem... Continue reading…

The Essential Phone heritage is clear. | Image: Osom Osom, the company formed by Essential’s employees after the startup went under, has released new details about its upcoming OV1 phone, including a very familiar list of build materials. Meant to compete with flagships from Apple, Google, and Samsung, the OV1 will have a stainless steel and titanium housing, a ceramic back, Corning Victus cover glass, and a Qualcomm processor.The stainless steel is for the phone’s frame, while titanium will be used for accents like the power and volume buttons as well as the ring around the camera bump, according to Android Police. It sounds like the phone will have a heft to it — Osom says the OV1 will be “noticeably bigger” than the Essential Phone, which had razor-thin bezels and a 5.7-inch screen.... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Google’s testing a darker dark mode for its Android search app (via Android Police), according to 9to5Google. This new shade still isn’t the same as the one presented in Google’s test of a pitch-black dark mode on desktops last month. Rather, the one spotted in the mobile app is darker than the usual dark gray but still lighter than pitch black. I momentarily had the pitch-black search page on desktop, but shortly after, it switched back to dark gray.The new dark mode in Google’s mobile app could be more attractive for devices with OLED displays looking to save battery life, or who just prefer to use dark mode more. Android Police said that the new shade is available Google’s latest 13.8 beta in the Google Play Store which you can get v... Continue reading…

Photo by Tayfun CoÅkun/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images Apple is beginning to change its mask requirements for employees, according to Bloomberg. Vaccinated corporate staffers will not have to wear a mask at offices where “local indoor-mask mandates have been eliminated,” while masks will be optional for retail workers at “a small number of locations” beginning Friday, the publication says.Just last week, Apple began to drop mask requirements for Apple store customers in several states. At the time, employees were still required to wear masks, but it appears Apple is beginning to relax those rules for some. Apple had previously dropped mask requirements for some stores and offices in June, but brought them back in July.Apple didn’t immediately reply to a request for comment from The Verge.... Continue reading…

He reiterates that employees can work fully remote if they want. | Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Twitter will be fully re-opening its offices and bringing back business travel starting on March 15th, according to a post written by CEO Parag Agrawal. In his note (see the full text below), Agrawal reiterates the policy put into place by former Twitter lead Jack Dorsey, saying that employees will be allowed to work remotely full-time if that’s what they’re comfortable with.While Agrawal says that he wants Twitter employees to work wherever they “feel most productive and creative” and that the company is committed to “truly flexible work,” his statement does lean a lot on the benefits of office work. It mentions how difficult distributed work is while also saying that “office visits, team meetings, and events all bring that culture to... Continue reading…

Lemoore, California July 2021. Westlands Solar Park, near the town of Lemoore in the San Joaquin Valley of California. | Carolyn Cole / Los Angeles Times via Getty Images Clean energy just had a record-setting year in the US, but without a drastic shift in policies, oil and gas will continue to dominate the US energy sector for the next three decades, according to two new energy reports released today.The Energy Information Administration’s (EIA) annual energy outlook forecast that the US, the world’s top producer of oil and gas, will continue to produce record amounts of crude oil and gas through 2050 if it continues down its current path. Petroleum and gas will also continue to be the country’s “most-consumed” sources of energy through the middle of the century unless something changes. “Though renewable sources grow faster, there is still a large established base of fossil fuel use that we simply do... Continue reading…

Illustration by Kristen Radtke / The Verge A telecoms blackout has reportedly hit Sumy Oblast in northeastern Ukraine, marking one of the most serious communications disruptions of the conflict so far.The blackout was reported by the internet shutdown tracker NetBlocks on March 3rd at 8:23PM local time (1:23PM ET).NetBlocks said that residents had reported massive blasts at a thermal power plant and electrical substation. A power outage tracker monitoring the region also said that it was no longer receiving data for Sumy Oblast.Sumy Oblast is one of 24 administrative regions, known as “oblasts,” that make up Ukraine and has a population of roughly one million people.

Joe Cavaretta/Sun Sentinel/Tribune News Service via Getty Images The US government’s New Car Assessment Program (NCAP), also known as the five-star safety rating, is getting a major update. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) announced Thursday a set of new proposals for the federal program aimed at curbing the surge in pedestrian deaths.For the first time, NHTSA will consider the inclusion of advanced driver-assistance system (ADAS — sorry for all the acronyms!) features, like automatic emergency braking, blind-spot detection, and lane-keep assistance. These ADAS features, which are quickly becoming standard in most vehicles today, could become essential criteria for a five-star safety rating from the government.Traditionally, NHTSA assigns safety ratings to new cars and... Continue reading…

New Twitch policy will ban accounts that spread misinformation | Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Twitch said Thursday it will ban users who repeatedly spread harmful misinformation on its platform. The streaming site said the new rules won’t apply to users based on “individual statements or discussions” on a channel but to users “whose online presence is dedicated to (1) persistently sharing (2) widely disproven and broadly shared (3) harmful misinformation topics,” the new policy states. Twitch considers such users “harmful misinformation superspreaders.”The company chose those three criteria because, when grouped together, they “create the highest risk of harm including inciting real world harm,” according to a blog post outlining the new policy.Twitch stressed in the blog post that the update “will likely not impact you or... Continue reading…

Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge Coming off a fraught month, Peloton is now extending free at-home trials for its Bike, Bike Plus, and Tread from 30 to 100 days.According to Peloton’s website, this is a limited-time offer for new customers who buy a Peloton machine between March 3rd, 2022, 5PM ET and March 22nd, 2022, 2:59AM ET. Essentially, the program allows customers to buy a new Peloton device, try it for a little over three months, and then return the machine for a full refund if it’s not to their liking. Returns will get free pickups, and Peloton says it’ll also cover shipping fees. While the trial starts once the machines are delivered, Peloton says that buyers will get immediate access to the Peloton app once their orders are confirmed.That said, there’s... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Reddit is now categorically banning its users, globally, from posting links to Russian state-sponsored media outlets, including RT and Sputnik.It’s possibly the most concrete deplatforming of those channels yet — because while Apple, Google, Meta, Microsoft, Twitter, YouTube, and many others have paused their ads or removed content or restricted discoverability or stopped actively promoting content, and both Facebook and YouTube have blocked content in the EU specifically, none of those is the same thing as a blanket site-wide global ban on all links.In a blog post (via Engadget), Reddit says it’s already been rejecting ads “that target Russia or originate from any Russia-based entity, government or private,” notes that the moderators... Continue reading…

Photo Illustration by Rafael Henrique/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images In the latest salvo from hacktivists working in support of Ukraine, an Anonymous-linked group has defaced a website belonging to Russia’s Space Research Institute (IKI) and leaked files that allegedly belong to the Russian space agency Roscosmos.As reported by Vice, hackers appear to have breached one subdomain of the IKI website, although other subdomains remain online. The compromised part of the site relates to the World Space Observatory Ultraviolet project (WSO-UV), a project similar to the Hubble Space Telescope and planned for launch in 2025.A popular Twitter account tied to the loosely organized Anonymous movement shared details Thursday morning and attributed the action to a group known as v0g3lSec.

Image: Netflix Netflix’s foray into trivia continues with its newly announced series Trivia Quest, an interactive experience that will launch April 1st.Much like its other interactive series like Black Mirror: Bandersnatch or Netflix’s similarly trivia-centered Cat Burglar — which launched last month — Trivia Quest is a narrative interactive experience, meaning each “win” will help move the story along. For Trivia Quest, correctly answering the game’s questions will also help free the friends of the protagonist, Willy, who vows to save hostage citizens of Trivia Land captured by a knowledge-hungry villain named Evil Rocky.Trivia Quest is the latest show to join Netflix’s growing slate of interactive titles. It’s the second game, after Cat Burglar, to... Continue reading…

Verizon announced a new Plus Play streaming hub | Verizon Verizon announced Thursday that it’s launching a new platform in partnership with Netflix, Peloton, Disney Plus, and other streamers as a hub for customers to “discover, purchase and manage some of their favorite subscriptions.” Called Plus Play, the platform will launch with a select group of customers and brands at the end of the month, with a wider launch later this year, the company said in a news release.Plus Play will centralize streaming subscription services with no additional cost to Verizon subscribers. Plus Play will let Verizon customers manage subscriptions across devices and provide information about deals on content services, like its discount for access to the Disney Plus / Hulu / ESPN Plus bundle and other promotional... Continue reading…

One of my biggest computer pet peeves is copying and pasting text. Not the actual mechanism of getting words from one document to another, but the way that modern computers insist on trying to be overly helpful and copying not just the text I want, but all the formatting that comes with it, mucking up my emails and my documents.Pure Paste is a neat new menubar app for macOS that aims to fix that: when it’s open, it automatically strips out any formatting on text you copy, allowing you to paste clean, unformatted text every time. There’s also an option to only clear formatting when you ask Pure Paste to (either through clicking on the menubar icon or through a keyboard shortcut).For those worried about security concerns, the developer... Continue reading…

The Wikimedia Foundation has issued a statement supporting Russian Wikipedia volunteers after a censorship demand from internet regulators. On Tuesday, tech and communications regulator Roskomnadzor threatened to block Wikipedia over the Russian-language page covering Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, claiming it contained “false messages” about war casualties and the effects of economic sanctions, among other things.“On March 1st 2022 the Wikimedia Foundation received a Russian government demand to remove content related to the unprovoked invasion of Ukraine posted by volunteer contributors to Russian Wikipedia,” reads the statement sent to The Verge via email. “As ever, Wikipedia is an important source of reliable, factual information in... Continue reading…

Image: CD Projekt Red CD Projekt Red, the Poland-based developer of popular games like Cyberpunk 2077 and the operator of the GOG store, is cutting off sales of its products to Russia and Belarus.“In light of the Russian military invasion in our neighboring country of Ukraine, until further notice the CD PROJEKT Group has made the decision to halt all sales of our games to Russia and Belarus,” the company said on Twitter. “Today, we begin working with our partners to suspend digital sales and cease physical stock deliveries of CD PROJEKT Group products, as well as all games distributed on the GOG platform, to the territories of Russia and Belarus.”In a report to investors, the company estimated that “the approximate cumulative share of Russia and Belarus in... Continue reading…

ULA’s Atlas V rocket flies on Russia’s RD-180 engine. | Image: ULA Russia’s state space corporation Roscosmos has issued its latest round of threats in response to global sanctions, this time claiming Russia will no longer sell rocket engines to the United States. Most rocket launches in the US should not be affected, but the decision could change how cargo is sent to the International Space Station.The head of Roscosmos, Dmitry Rogozin, announced the new policy in an interview with the Russia 24 TV channel. “Today we have made a decision to halt the deliveries of rocket engines produced by NPO Energomash to the United States,” Rogozin said in the interview, according to Russia’s state press site Tass. “Let me remind you that these deliveries had been quite intensive somewhere since the mid-1990s.”... Continue reading…

This hot-swappable keyboard ticks a lot of boxes Continue reading…

Image: Bowers & Wilkins Bowers & Wilkins is today announcing its first Dolby Atmos soundbar. The Panorama 3 is the company’s answer to the Sonos Arc and other high-end Atmos speakers — and it’s priced accordingly at $999.Bowers & Wilkins says that with the Panorama 3, there’s “no need for an external subwoofer” or other added components. The soundbar measures 2.5 inches high and contains 13 drivers — including twin built-in subwoofers — that can reach up to 400W of amplification. (Sonos does not disclose the wattage of its Arc speaker.) As this is an Atmos soundbar, there are also up-firing speakers. Bowers & Wilkins says the Panorama 3 was tuned by the same engineering team as the loudspeakers at the iconic Abbey Road Studios. Image: Bowers... Continue reading…

HTC’s slow-motion fall from smartphone grace is reportedly set to continue in 2022, with the company said to be working on a new “metaverse”-focused phone in April as the remnants of the once-flagship smartphone company continues to desperately cling to whatever zeitgeist term it can to stay afloat, according to DigiTimes.The news comes from Charles Huang, HTC’s general manager for the Asia-Pacific region, who reportedly commented at MWC 2022 that the company would be introducing a new high-end smartphone next month with unspecified “metaverse” features. Details are slim, including any specs, markets it’ll be released in, or even what kind of AR or VR features the new device will offer.The news sounds a lot like HTC’s last major... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge A small group of US Twitter users will now see crowdsourced notes under tweets flagged as misleading. The user-generated notes are part of a program called Birdwatch, launched in 2021 by Twitter to address misinformation on the platform.Birdwatch allows contributors to write context notes and sources under tweets and rate whether existing notes are helpful. A pilot program with 10,000 contributors has been underway since last year, but only visible on a separate Birdwatch site — now, some Twitter users will see notes with high ratings directly under tweets and be able to rate their usefulness. Image: Twitter “By empowering people to do this together, they can add helpful and informative context for people from... Continue reading…

Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge For a lot of people, music is an integral part of working out. But not everyone wants to schlep their phone around while hitting the trails or working up a sweat. That’s where smartwatches can come in pretty handy. While nearly every smartwatch lets you control music on your phone, a good number can also play music on-device.Whether it’s an Apple Watch, Samsung Galaxy Watch 4, Garmin, Fitbit or Wear OS watch, you’ve got a lot of options for listening to music. Much of it will depend on which service is supported and what OS your watch runs on. Some will have options for offline playback, either through downloadable playlists or onboard music storage. If your smartwatch has LTE, you may also be able to stream music directly to your... Continue reading…

Russia’s Aeroflot is losing its ticket-booking software provider. | Photo by Mario Tama/Getty Images Sabre, one of the largest airline ticket booking companies in the world, is terminating its distribution agreement with Russian air carrier Aeroflot, the company announced Thursday. The move could further restrict Russian air travel, which has already seen its planes banned from most Western countries’ airspace.State-owned Aeroflot is the flag carrier and the largest airline in the Russian Federation. The airline has about 200 aircraft in its fleet and travels to 146 destinations around the world. Being shut out of online booking software could make it difficult for the airline to operate domestically.Sabre said it is taking “immediate steps” to remove Aeroflot from its global distribution system, which is used by travel agencies,... Continue reading…