The Verge

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Apple is reportedly gearing up to release several new Macs with an M2 chip later this year, according to Bloomberg reporter Mark Gurman’s Power On newsletter. Gurman expects the company to debut a 13-inch MacBook Pro, Mac Mini, 24-inch iMac, and a redesigned MacBook Air, all outfitted with the rumored M2 chip.The M2 chip will be slightly faster than its predecessorApple hasn’t offered any hints about the potential M2 chip, but Gurman thinks its CPU will be slightly faster than the M1’s, and that it will share the same eight-core architecture. Its graphics cores, however, may jump from seven or eight to nine or 10. Come 2023, Gurman thinks Apple may release Pro and Max versions of the M2 chip — just like it did for the M1 chip — as well... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge On Saturday, attackers stole hundreds of NFTs from OpenSea users, causing a late-night panic among the site’s broad user base. A spreadsheet compiled by the blockchain security service PeckShield counted 254 tokens stolen over the course of the attack, including tokens from Decentraland and Bored Ape Yacht Club.The bulk of the attacks took place between 5PM and 8PM ET, targeting 32 users in total. Molly White, who runs the blog Web3 is Going Great, estimated the value of the stolen tokens at more than $1.7 million.“They all have valid signatures”The attack appears to have exploited a flexibility in the Wyvern Protocol, the open-source standard underlying most NFT smart contracts, including those made on OpenSea. One explanation... Continue reading…

Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge Barry McCarthy, Peloton’s new CEO, weighs an app store and new subscription model as potential ways to kickstart the company’s stagnant sales, as stated in an interview with the New York Times’ DealBook.“It could be an open platform and part of the creator economy”McCarthy, who served as the former chief financial officer of Spotify and Netflix, says his vision for Peloton may include an app store open to third-party content. “Today, it’s a closed platform — but it could be an open platform and part of the creator economy,” McCarthy tells the NYT. “What other apps would you put on it? Could it be running an app store?”He also downplays the importance of hardware when it comes to Peloton’s fitness equipment. McCarthy suggests the most... Continue reading…

The SEC has responded to Musk’s letter. | Photo by Patrick Pleul/picture alliance via Getty Images The Security and Exchange Commission (SEC) has responded to Tesla CEO Elon Musk’s claims that the agency has subjected him and his electric car company to “endless, unfounded investigations,” first reported by the Wall Street Journal. In a letter to Judge Alison Nathan, the SEC refutes Musk’s allegations that it’s ignoring its commitment to distribute $40 million in fine money to Tesla shareholders, which Musk and Tesla had paid as part of a 2018 settlement.The SEC is still working on a plan to distribute $40 million to Tesla shareholders“Given the complexity of the distribution, it has taken time to develop the plan of allocation,” SEC official Steve Buchholz writes in the letter. “That process is nearing completion and, barring any... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Epic Games is hiring its US-based contingent workers full-time and with benefits, Epic confirmed to The Verge. The Fortnite developer is extending the offer to quality assurance (QA) testers, as well as other “eligible” contract-based employees.The news first surfaced in an employee-facing memo obtained by The Verge. In the memo, the company writes it will “offer full-time at-will employment to eligible US-based contingent workers,” and that “many of those offers will be effective April 4th, 2022.” But it also notes that some workers won’t receive the offer, citing “there are a few exceptions in which it makes sense for both the worker and Epic to maintain contingent worker status.”“Most but not all” are quality assurance (QA) testersE... Continue reading…

Look at all the numbers! | Screenshot by Jay Peters / The Verge Vampire Survivors is an Early Access roguelike on Steam that has completely sunk its teeth into me.Each round starts simply: you have just one weapon to take on a few baddies. The weapon autofires, so you only have to worry about moving your character to avoid enemies and scoop up experience gems. But as you level up, get more weapons, and fight more monsters, your screen quickly becomes filled with a smorgasbord of magical weapons and fearsome enemies covering nearly every inch of the screen. Like so: Screenshot by Jay Peters / The Verge Despite this apparent chaos, I promise you I felt fully in control. The sensory barrage of colors and sounds can almost feel like being in an arcade or a casino — which is... Continue reading…

The MT3 Susuwatari keycap set on an aluminum Epomaker GK68XS. | Photo by Dan Seifert / The Verge I know Saturdays are usually for sleeping in, but I hope you don’t sleep on this round of deals. Drop has a very special sale on its exclusive collection of MT3 profile keycaps for Cherry-style mechanical keyboards. You can buy two base or ortholinear sets of keycaps and get them for the price of one when you use code MT3FREE until Sunday, February 20th. That may sound like a jumble of confusing jargon for the mechanical keyboard uninitiated, but that’s ok, because we’re here to help people learn as well as save.Drop’s signature MT3 keycaps have a deeply scalloped contour for your fingers to gently rest in as you type. They fit most Cherry MX keyboard switches — the most commonly used type out there — and they’re made of high quality... Continue reading…

Photo by Steve Russell / Toronto Star via Getty Images A labyrinth of Facebook groups and right-wing media Continue reading…

Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge Microsoft shocked the tech and gaming world on January 18th when it announced it would acquire Activision Blizzard in a $68.7 billion deal, by far the biggest ever in gaming. Activision Blizzard, one of the most storied developers on the planet, had been reeling for months from multiple scandals, including California’s lawsuit accusing the company of creating a culture of “constant sexual harassment,” an explosive Wall Street Journal report suggesting CEO Bobby Kotick was both aware of that harassment and that he himself was accused of mistreatment by women, as well as labor protests from Call of Duty workers.Microsoft’s Phil Spencer, at the time the company’s Xbox chief, reportedly responded to the accusations from the WSJ article two... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge On Thursday, I wrote that Twitter was having a rough February after experiencing issues for the second time in a week, and on Friday, the company was dealing with a strange iMessage bug. If you were on an Apple device and texting a tweet to your buddy on an Apple device, the first and last characters in the tweet wouldn’t show up. As reported by 9to5Mac, tweet previews sent via iMessage seemed to be missing the first and last characters of the tweet, making them read oddly.Myself and another Verge writer experienced this bug as well. Here’s how Apple’s Messages app on my iPhone, Mac, and Apple Watch displayed a tweet I wrote yesterday: Screenshots by Jay Peters / The Verge Can you guess what letters are missing?... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge The story of BitConnect doesn’t include any rapping Forbes bloggers slash money launderers or dubiously-obtained ape JPGs, but this “pyramid-on-Ponzi” case has spawned a court ruling (PDF, embedded below, via @stephendpalley) that should serve as a warning for influencers: they could be held liable for peddling shady crypto investments.In case you’ve forgotten this particular scam, BitConnect’s promoters told its victims that if they handed over their Bitcoin for a period of time, their crypto would be used by an automated trading bot that would return huge profits. None of that was true, and the operators instead paid off older investors with funds from the new ones, bringing in $10 million per week at its peak. All told, the scam... Continue reading…

Photo by Artur Widak/NurPhoto via Getty Images Skype announced this week that its US users can use it to dial 911 from their home computer, and that its software can share their location with emergency services if needed. The US is the latest addition to the list of regions with Skype emergency service calling; until now it was only available in Australia, Denmark, Finland, and the UK.Skype’s move to enable 911 calls comes with a few limitations, but could be crucial for users who still have an adequate Internet connection when they lose access to a cellphone or landline in an emergency.In a “Notice & Disclosures” warning that appears before opting in to location-sharing, Skype cautions that the service doesn’t operate the same as a traditional phone call. Users are encouraged... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Banning cheaters doesn’t always work because they can usually make another account. So games like Call of Duty are increasingly looking for ways to make it less fun for people to exploit their games — and the latest idea gives honest players a cheat of their own. The new “Damage Shield” in Call of Duty Warzone’s new Ricochet anti-cheat software makes a cheater’s bullets bounce right off you, so you can close in while they hilariously flail around and then destroy them yourself.You can see YouTuber TimTheTatman show it off right here, roughly a minute and 13 seconds into this video:In a blog post announcing the feature, Activision says it only activates “when the server detects a cheater is tampering with the game in real-time,” and... Continue reading…

Debuting only a week ago, Lost Ark has shot to the top of the Steam charts, amassing over 1 million concurrent players making it the most played game on Steam (based on number of concurrents) of all time. Developed by Smilegate RPG, Lost Ark is a Korean MMO that debuted there in 2018 before being localized in English and brought to the west via a partnership with Amazon Games. Though it’s only been around in the US and Europe for a short time, it has over 200,000 viewers on Twitch right now and has beaten games like Dota 2, CS:GO, and PUBG in all-time number of concurrent players on Steam.So what the hell is a Lost Ark anyway? I spent a week investigating this new gaming hotness, eager to see if it has what it takes to become my newest... Continue reading…

Equipment installed as part of the Petra Nova Carbon Capture Project stands at the NRG Energy Inc. WA Parish generating station in Thompsons, Texas, U.S., on Thursday, Feb. 16, 2017 before it closed in 2020. | Photo by Luke Sharrett/Bloomberg via Getty Images Carbon capture tech that’s often sold as a solution for cutting greenhouse gas emissions from heavy industry — the most difficult sector to decarbonize — is still far off track from accomplishing that, according to a recent analysis by financial services firm ING.The pipeline of new carbon capture and storage (CCS) projects, which aim to remove CO2 from power plants’ and industrial facilities’ emissions, is growing. But the majority of projects expected to come online this decade don’t tackle industrial pollution. Instead, the biggest growth is expected to be in carbon capture paired with fossil fuel power plants, similar to how the majority of the 40 million metric tons of CCS capacity the world has today is used in natural gas... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Salesforce employees are protesting the company’s reported plans to launch non-fungible token (NFT) services. Thomson Reuters Foundation News reports that around 400 employees signed a letter that’s circulated within the cloud software company’s messaging channels, calling on it to abandon crypto plans it apparently discussed internally last week. The letter cites the negative environmental effects of NFTs as well as their status as “unregulated, highly speculative financial assets.”CNBC reported last week that Salesforce plans to launch an “NFT cloud” sales platform that could let users create and release token-based content, potentially even competing with the dominant OpenSea NFT marketplace. Salesforce market strategy director... Continue reading…

Google has a new version of its Roboto font, and it’s bringing serifs back: the aptly named Roboto Serif, designed in collaboration with Greg Gazdowicz of Commercial Type to create a more readable serif companion to its Roboto Sans typeface.The new font isn’t just the old Roboto letters with some serifs slapped on, though: rather, each letter was redrawn from scratch to create a font that “thinks about Roboto, but is a new and original design,” according to Google UX manager Rob Giampietro. The new font still uses the same vertical proportions of Roboto Sans, making it possible to mix the serif and sans-serif versions in a single design.It probably also helps that chunkier, retro-styled serif typefaces are coming back in style in a... Continue reading…

Google Nest camera users have been complaining about cold-weather charging issues. | Photo by Dan Seifert / The Verge Has your Google Nest Doorbell been draining its battery faster than normal or stopped working altogether, even when hooked up to your doorbell wires? That’s because it doesn’t like being left out in the cold. A new support page published this week by Google, confirms that Google’s newest smart video doorbell, the Google Nest Doorbell (Battery), and its Google Nest Cam (Battery), can’t charge at temperatures below 32 degrees Fahrenheit.The update comes on the heels of complaints by users in the Google Nest forum that their Nest Doorbells were draining their batteries faster than normal this winter, even when hooked up to doorbell wiring to maintain their charge. Cold weather will also affect the batteries in the new Google Nest Cam. But... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge The medical journal Health Affairs spent years planning its special issue on health and racism, which it published at the beginning of February. The journal wanted to reach new readers by promoting the issue through targeted advertisements on Twitter and YouTube.That’s why it was so frustrating when Twitter and Google blocked its ads before they could go up, says Patti Sweet, the director of digital strategy at Health Affairs. The journal’s Google ads account was also suspended. Sweet wrote a blog post outlining that frustration last week, saying she thought the use of the word “racism” was the trigger for the rejections.But Twitter and Google say the ad rejections didn’t have to do with the language around racism — rather, they were... Continue reading…

Photo by Mario Tama/Getty Images Former President Donald Trump’s upcoming social network, called Truth Social, is currently listed on the App Store with an “expected” February 21st launch date (Presidents’ Day), but The New York Times reports that the release has been pushed to March.Based on screenshots on the App Store, Truth Social looks like it will be quite similar to Twitter, which was Trump’s preferred social network before he was permanently banned following the January 6th riots at the US Capitol. Truth Social will be his second attempt at making some kind of new platform; he launched a blog in May, but it was shut down in less than a month. The new app is being made by the Trump Media and Technology Group (TMTG), Trump’s media company helmed by former US... Continue reading…

Photo: Portuguese Navy A bunch of burning lithium-ion batteries could complicate the recovery of the massive, abandoned cargo ship in the Atlantic Ocean containing thousands of Porsches, Volkswagens, Bentleys, and Lamborghinis.The batteries of an unknown number of electric vehicles have caught fire aboard the ship, captain Joao Mendes Cabecas of the port of Hortas, which is the nearest port to the ship’s location, told Reuters. It’s unclear at this time whether the batteries are what sparked the fire. Experts in putting out battery fires will be needed to extinguish the blaze.“The ship is burning from one end to the other... everything is on fire about five meters above the water line,” Reuters quotes Cabeças saying.“The ship is burning from one end to the... Continue reading…

Photo by Jay Peters / The Verge Platform-exclusive content is one of the best ways to juice hardware sales, and Ye, the artist formerly known as Kanye West, announced via Instagram that his next album, Donda 2, “will only be available on my own platform, the Stem Player. Not on Apple Amazon Spotify or YouTube.”While Ye’s reasoning is separate from other artists who’ve recently spoken out about Spotify’s Joe Rogan situation and the stark difference between his $200 million deal vs. how much it pays them, the conclusion is the same. As he wrote in another post, “Today artists get just 12% of the money the industry makes. It’s time to free music from this oppressive system. It’s time to take control and build our own. Go to stemplayer.com now to order.”The album is... Continue reading…

Photo by Jay Peters / The Verge There’s more to consider beyond specs and price Continue reading…

Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge Every Friday, The Verge publishes our flagship podcast, The Vergecast, where co-hosts Nilay Patel and Dieter Bohn discuss the week in tech news with the reporters and editors covering the biggest stories.In today’s episode, Nilay and Dieter, along with managing editor Alex Cranz and reviewer Monica Chin, discuss all the phones, laptops, and GPUs announced and reviewed this week — including Monica’s review of the Asus ROG Zephyrus G14 and some previews of Mobile World Congress 2022.In the second half of the show, senior reporter Ashley Carman updates the crew with the latest podcast industry news, including Spotify reportedly paying $200 million for Joe Rogan’s podcast and buying two of the most prominent podcast marketing and ad... Continue reading…

The 8BitDo Pro 2 is one of the best controllers you can currently buy for the Nintendo Switch. | Sam Byford / The Verge The Nintendo Switch is a great console, but its Joy-Con controllers aren’t exactly made for traditionalists looking for a more familiar controller design. Thankfully, there are excellent third-party alternatives like 8BitDo’s Pro 2, which is currently on sale at Amazon for $44.99 instead of $49.99 when you clip the on-page coupon located below the price.We called the 8BitDo Pro 2 the best Switch controller you can buy when we reviewed it last year, one that takes a cue from the original Super Nintendo controller and offers some added functionality over Nintendo’s Switch Pro Controller. 8BitDo’s Pro 2 lacks some of the features found on Nintendo’s first-party offering — including HD rumble and Amiibo support— but it includes hand grips... Continue reading…

A no-frills gaming headset that works great on anything thanks to its 3.5mm cable Continue reading…

Image: Snapchat Snapchat users will have a new way of keeping tabs on friends. The company announced today it would introduce real-time location sharing, meant to be used as a temporary buddy system while friends and family are en route to a date or headed home, for example.The feature is similar to the Find My app on iOS, where users who’ve opted in can see and share precise location. The Snapchat setting can be enabled for 15 minutes or a few hours with individual users, and is only available between mutual friends on the app. In order to lower the risk of stalking or being pressured to constantly share location, users can pause sharing without sending the other party a notification, Snapchat says. The feature is off by default and there is no option... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge If you’re a member of GameStop’s PowerUp Pro Rewards program, you can grab an Xbox Series X bundle if you head down to your local GameStop. This exclusively in-store event begins when their doors open, and while some GameStop stores don’t open until 11 AM local time, some can open as early as 9 AM, so check the hours of your local participating GameStop to plan accordingly.The bundle being offered includes the console, a pair of wireless controllers, three months of Xbox Game Pass Ultimate, and a $50 GameStop gift card. And while GameStop didn’t reveal the price of the bundle, it should cost around $655, the total of all the accessories when paired with the console.There are a number of best practices we recommend with every restock,... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Mainstream adoption means being listed in the App Store Continue reading…

A flight trying to land at the London airport. | Screenshot: Big Jet TV As Storm Eunice batters the walls of my flat in South London, I’m taking solace in the fact that I don’t have to do anything difficult like land a plane on a day like today. So naturally I, along with roughly 180,000 other people, have been gripped by a live stream from London’s Heathrow airport, where Big Jet TV is using a Panasonic HC-VX1 with 24x zoom to show the difficulties pilots are facing as they come in to land against gale-force winds.Each landing is genuinely hair raising, with aircraft routinely approaching the runway sideways as they’re buffeted by the wind measuring in excess of 60mph. But what would already be an interesting live stream is made fascinating by Big Jet TV’s host, who pivots between knowledgeable... Continue reading…

FX chairman announcing the series in 2020. | Screenshot: Disney FX’s upcoming TV series based on the Alien films will be set on Earth “70-odd years from now” which is before Sigourney Weaver’s Ellen Ripley character in the franchise’s timeline, FX chairman John Landgraf tells The Hollywood Reporter.The show is being headed up by Noah Hawley, who previously won acclaim for his Fargo TV series inspired by the Coen brothers movie of the same name. Filming for the Alien TV show is due to take place after season five of Fargo, which will be filmed “this winter.”Landgraf previously confirmed that the Alien TV show would be set on Earth when the project was announced in late 2020. But knowing the show’s time period means we can have some fun speculating about how it might tie into the rest of the... Continue reading…

The Felicity Ace burning in the middle of the Atlantic. | Photo: Portuguese Navy A massive, abandoned cargo ship is burning in the Atlantic with 3,965 Volkswagen Group vehicles on board, about a quarter of them from Porsche, according to Bloomberg. Porsche estimates that 1,100 of its vehicles are on board the Felicity Ace, a cargo ship about the size of three football fields. Volkswagen Group is also home to brands like Audi, Bentley, Bugatti, Lamborghini, and VW.The Felicity Ace was heading from Germany to a port in Rhode Island when it issued distress signals Wednesday morning, reporting a fire in one of its cargo decks. All 22 crew members were successfully evacuated and did not need medical attention, according to a statement by the Portuguese Navy. The owner of the vessel is now developing a plan to recover... Continue reading…

Paris added many new dedicated bicycles lanes in 2020. | Photo by CHRISTOPHE ARCHAMBAULT/AFP via Getty Images Paris officials plan to ban private vehicles from the historic heart of the city by early 2024 in a move designed to decrease congestion and improve air quality in the French capital, the city has announced. Targeting 2024 represents a two year delay on the original 2022 timeline, which was announced last May by the city’s mayor, and French presidential hopeful, Anne Hidalgo. The ban is part of a wider push to improve conditions in the city ahead of it hosting the 2024 Olympic Games.The so-called “tranquil zone” will focus on the city’s first four arrondissements, according to The Local, and includes the city’s two islands on the Seine which host the Notre-Dame cathedral and Sainte-Chapelle. City authorities say that the current plan is... Continue reading…

It’s official: you can mark off February 25th in your calendar as a day to spend hours battling enemies and solving puzzles in a twisted fantasy world. What? Elden Ring? No, I’m talking about The Legend of Zelda: Majora’s Mask. Nintendo has confirmed that the cult classic Zelda game will be added to Nintendo Switch Online’s N64 library next week.Majora’s Mask was released in 2000 and is visually similar to its predecessor, the seminal Ocarina of Time. It’s a darker and very different game, however, built around a repeating three-day cycle where Link has to figure out how to save the world from imminent destruction by the moon. A remake for the 3DS, called The Legend of Zelda: Majora’s Mask 3D, was released in 2015.Nintendo 64 games are... Continue reading…

A clubby experience in Horizon Worlds. | Image: Meta Facebook has bet its future on virtual reality and the metaverse, rebranding to Meta and spending billions a year to build hardware and software that extends beyond traditional social media. But the company has, at least so far, shared little with the public about how well its early bets are performing.Meta’s highest-profile bet right now is a social VR platform for the Quest headset called Horizon Worlds. It was recently featured in Meta’s Super Bowl ad, and Zuckerberg called it “core to our metaverse vision” on the company’s most recent earnings call. During a virtual Meta all-hands earlier this week — yes, the Metamates one — the company’s chief product officer, Chris Cox, gave employees a previously unreported update on Horizon’s... Continue reading…

Photo by Patrick Pleul/picture alliance via Getty Images Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk, one of the wealthiest men in the world (depending on the day) says the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has tried to “chill” his free speech in an “unrelenting investigation” of him and the automaker he co-founded. The SEC, Musk’s attorneys allege, “has broken its promises” in a 2018 settlement over a tweet Musk posted saying he had funding secured to take Tesla private.“Worst of all, the SEC seems to be targeting Mr. Musk and Tesla for unrelenting investigation largely because Mr. Musk remains an outspoken critic of the government,” the letter states, “the SEC’s outsized efforts seem calculated to chill his exercise of First Amendment rights rather than to enforce generally applicable laws in... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge In case you missed out on the news from early February, Amazon Prime will see its first price increase in four years starting tomorrow, February 18th, for new subscribers. The annual cost will rise from $119 to $139, or if you pay monthly, it will go from $12.99 to $14.99. If you pay monthly, you’ll have no choice after tomorrow but to take the hit. Per Variety, the cost of the Prime Students membership plan will increase from $6.49 to $7.49 per month. All of this info is listed on Amazon’s support page.However, if you have the means to front the fee for an annual Prime membership, doing so today will save you $20 compared to if you were to do the same thing tomorrow. That locks you in for a year of service at the $119 rate.Current... Continue reading…

Photo by Michael S. Schwartz/Getty Images Spotify reportedly paid Joe Rogan at least $200 million to commit to podcasting on the platform exclusively for three and a half years, according to a New York Times report. That number, while astronomical, is double what had previously been reported in The Wall Street Journal as Rogan’s deal price — $100 million — and has continued to be used widely in the media without correction from Spotify’s team.This news comes after a volatile month for the audio company and one in which musicians, podcasters, employees, and the medical community scrutinized the company’s work with the controversial podcaster. In January, a group of medical community members penned a letter to the company asking it to remove a Rogan episode they said peddled... Continue reading…

HUNGA TONGA-HUNGA HA’APAI, TONGA – DECEMBER 24, 2021: In this image 2. of a series created on January 19, 2022, Maxar overview satellite imagery shows the Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha’apai volcano on December 24, 2021, before the eruption on January 15th , 2022 in Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha’apai Islands, Tonga. | Photo by Maxar via Getty Images The volcanic eruption that rocked the Pacific island nation of Tonga in January was so powerful it blasted ash all the way up to the mesosphere, the third and coldest layer of Earth’s atmosphere. Rising 58 kilometers (36 miles) above Earth, the volcanic plume was likely the tallest ever measured by satellite, according to NASA.NASA was able to measure the plume because two weather satellites happened to be in the right place at the right time. Those satellites took still images and infrared observations that give a play-by-play of the eruption from above.In just 30 minutes or so following the eruption, ash, steam, and gas from the underwater volcano rose from the surface of the ocean all the way up to the mesosphere. A second blast... Continue reading…

In the lead-up to Destiny 2’s The Witch Queen expansion, players got the chance to interact with Savathûn, the game’s newest villain. In a PR stunt cleverly disguised as Savathûn hijacking the Destiny 2 Twitter account, the titular Witch Queen shot off some fire tweets, excoriating anyone foolish enough to wander into her mentions.Savathûn started her social media takeover with the tweet, “I am unburdened—hollow, filled only with potential. Weightless. Pure,” which, honestly, is a mood. When the official Xbox account replied somewhat snarkily, Savathûn unleashed all four barrels of The Fourth Horseman, kicking off her short but brilliant Twitter career.

Audi RS E-tron GT has an option for the company’s Digital Matrix LED, an Adaptive Driving Beam technology that’s not currently available in the US model. | Photo by Andrew Hawkins / The Verge The National Highway and Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) announced a final ruling this week that permits automakers to finally add Adaptive Driving Beams (ADB) for vehicles on US roads.Adaptive headlights, available on many vehicles in Europe, Canada, and Japan, have been prohibited in the US due to rigid and outdated federal regulations. Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards (standard no. 108) specified requirements for lamps and reflectors dating back to 1967, which standardized binary hi / low beams, which as a result stifled newer headlight technology.But now, after the passage of President Joe Biden’s $1 trillion infrastructure bill late last year, NHTSA was directed to amend FMVSS no. 108. The agency was given two years to... Continue reading…

Keep a DM convo at the top of the list. | Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Twitter is now rolling out pinned DMs, the company announced Thursday. The feature was previously only available to Twitter Blue subscribers, but it’s now coming to everyone on Android, iOS, and the web.The feature doesn’t seem to be fully rolled out just yet. I have access to it on the iOS app, but not on Twitter’s web app. On the iOS app, you can swipe to the side on a conversation to reveal a pin, and if you tap that, the conversation will be moved to a new “Pinned conversations” section at the top of your DM inbox.

Years ago, one of my PC building buddies swore by Crucial Ballistix memory. I’m pretty sure I bought Corsair Dominator instead. Are people like me why Micron just decided to retire the Ballistix brand for good? Your guess is as good as mine because Crucial ain’t talking, but it’s definitely a thing that just happened. Crucial Ballistix is officially end-of-life, rep Chelsea Garecht confirmed to The Verge, and the company will focus on Micron DDR5 memory and Crucial-brand memory and SSDs instead.It’s making me all nostalgic for the days when RAM brands seemed to matter.got any good RAM stories?There was a time you could theoretically buy worse RAM, or at least RAM from a notably less reputable manufacturer, for your desktop or laptop... Continue reading…

Image: NTSB A civil lawsuit has been filed accusing Tesla and a service manager at one of its stores of negligence stemming from a fiery crash that killed a 20-year-old man, Reuters reports.Nicholas Garcia and a passenger, Jazmin Alcala, died in a crash on September 13th, 2021, while driving in his 2021 Model 3 after its underbody struck the road’s surface as it drove through an intersection near his home in Coral Gables, Florida. The car quickly went out of control, left the road, and struck two trees before it was engulfed in flames.In the lawsuit (included below, via PlainSite), a lawyer for Garcia’s family argues the sedan’s suspension failed, causing the bottom to hit the road and igniting the batteries, and leading to sparks shooting out... Continue reading…

A screencap of the “Breakers” mechanic in Peloton’s Lanebreak game. | Image: Peloton Finally, some less dramatic news from Peloton: its Lanebreak in-app video game is finally here for Peloton Bike and Bike Plus owners.You can find Lanebreak in the “More Rides” menu at the bottom right of a Peloton bike’s tablet. The game itself sort of looks a lot like riding a light cycle in Tron, but it takes elements from rhythm games. Essentially, you can switch between six virtual “lanes” by turning the bike’s resistance knob. The farther right you go, the higher the resistance. There are also game mechanics — dubbed by Peloton as “Moments” — that relate to your resistance and how fast you’re pedaling. For instance, “Beats” are blue bars that give you points for being in a certain lane. “Breakers” are orange sections where you’re... Continue reading…

Crunchyroll has come to the Nintendo Switch just in time for those of you waiting to binge all of Demon Slayer season 2 on the go.

Another rocky day for the social media platform. | Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Twitter’s having a rough February. Following some problems last Friday, the social network experienced some issues on Thursday as well. It doesn’t seem to be a full-on outage, but there were a handful of small issues.I was having trouble loading tweets on profiles in my browser, and a few Verge staffers noticed problems as well. App researcher Jane Manchun Wong chronicled a couple issues, but said Twitter made a change to mitigate things.Twitter confirmed there was an issue Thursday in a statement to The Verge. “Earlier today, we experienced a technical bug that briefly impacted how Tweets were loading for people on Twitter,” company spokesperson Shaokyi Amdo said. “This issue has since been resolved.”Earlier on Thursday,... Continue reading…

Netflix Each Stranger Things season so far has featured either eight or nine episodes, but according to series co-creators Matt and Ross differ, the upcoming fourth season is going to be a little different as it starts to bring the story of Eleven and her friends to its impending close.Today, Netflix shared an open letter from the Duffer Brothers detailing elements of Stranger Things’ fourth season, which they described as “the beginning of the end,” and announcing that the show’s fifth season will be its last.“Seven years ago, we planned out the complete story arc for Stranger Things,” the brothers explained. “At the time, we predicted the story would last for to five seasons. It proved too large to tell in four, but — as you’ll soon see for... Continue reading…

Photo by Sean O’Kane / The Verge Consumer Reports is swapping the Tesla Model 3 for the Ford Mustang Mach-E as its new top electric vehicle pick for 2022. The designation is sure to give Ford a morale boost as it seeks to outpace Tesla in the race to become the number one EV manufacturer in the US.Tesla has long dominated CR’s EV rankings, with the Model 3 holding the position for the past two years. But the publication says a variety of factors, including ride quality, reliability, and the in-car user experiences, have led it to crown a new winner in the Mustang Mach-E.“Make no mistake, the Model 3 is still a great choice, and Consumer Reports recommends it,” CR’s deputy editor Jeff Bartlett writes today. “But the Mustang Mach-E is also very sporty, plus it’s more... Continue reading…

Alex Castro / The Verge This story originally ran in Hot Pod, The Verge’s preeminent audio industry newsletter. You can subscribe here for more scoops, analysis, and reporting.Spotify announced yesterday its acquisition of Podsights and Chartable, two companies known for tracking pixels that allow marketers, advertisers, and podcasters to measure the success of their shows. This is a big deal, to state the obvious, if for no other reason than if podcasters have avoided Spotify’s podcast world up until now, well, they’re probably going to have to start engaging. Both these platforms are critical to the space to show advertisers that their marketing is being heard and acted upon and that podcast ads are effective and worthy of a budget.As for its plans,... Continue reading…