The Verge

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Twitter is testing new prompts on iOS and Android that warn before you jump into a conversation that could get heated. In one example, there’s a prompt dropped right into a conversation in progress that says “conversations like this can be intense.” In another, which seems like it appears if you try to reply to one of those intense conversations, is titled “let’s look out for each other” and lays out three bullet points to encourage empathetic and fact-based conversations.You can get a look at the prompts in the tweet below:

What If..?’s finale debuted on Disney Plus today, and it brought some bigger multiversal mayhem with it. But fans may have already gotten the big reveal of the finale spoiled for them all the way back in August… thanks to a Hyundai Tucson commercial?Spoilers for “What If… The Watcher Broke His Oath” and What If…?’s first season below:Marvel projects are no stranger to commercials and product placement, of course, but the Hynduai commercial (part of a series of ads that the company has been doing together with Disney Plus) marks a particularly strange turn — one that mashes storytelling with advertising.The main conceit of the bulk of What If…?’s early episodes was that the series was an anthology, providing standalone tales in... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Brandon Silverman, the founder and CEO of the Facebook-owned analytics tool CrowdTangle, is leaving the company, according to an internal farewell post to colleagues posted Wednesday that was seen by The Verge.His departure comes as Facebook is under pressure to publicly share more data about the content that spreads on its service. CrowdTangle, a free tool that lets anyone track popular posts across Facebook and Instagram, is at the center of that debate. In recent years, it has been used to show that far-right personalities are regularly the most engaged-with accounts on Facebook. That irritated some Facebook executives who felt that the data being shared by CrowdTangle was incomplete, and earlier this year, the CrowdTangle team was... Continue reading…

Image: Valve Valve has posted an official teardown of its upcoming handheld gaming PC, the Steam Deck. Before diving into the teardown, though, the company spends about a minute to strongly caution against taking one apart unless you’re sure you know what you’re doing.“Even though it’s your PC — or it will be once you’ve received your Steam Deck — and you have every right to open it up and do what you want, we at Valve really don’t recommend that you ever open it up,” a Valve representative said in the video. “The Steam Deck is a very tightly designed system, and the parts are chosen carefully for this product with its specific construction, so they aren’t really designed to be user-swappable.” Image: Valve The inside of a... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Apple will require developers that offer a way to create accounts in their apps to also offer a way to delete them, starting with app submissions on January 31st, 2022, the company shared Wednesday. The account deletion requirement was originally announced alongside several other changes to Apple’s developer guidelines at WWDC 2021.Account deletion is a minor convenience, but considering how often apps require accounts and how easy it is to delete an app without ending your relationship with the company connected to it, it’s welcome. Apple’s announcement suggests only that developers “allow users to initiate deletion of their account from within the app,” so it’s possible implementations of these account deletion features could bump you... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Facebook is slowing down the release and development of some new products and features to make sure they won’t bring more scrutiny towards the company or harm children, according to a report by The Wall Street Journal. The “reputational reviews” come as Facebook is facing backlash from the public and policymakers after a wave of reports citing Facebook’s own research showing ways Instagram could have a negative effect on teen girls’ mental health. Facebook was also slammed in congressional hearings by whistleblower Frances Haugen, who shed more light on Facebook’s internal research, as well as its business model and algorithms.Some of Facebook’s recent public actions and statements back up the idea that it’s being extra careful right... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge For weeks, Facebook has stared down mounting anxiety over a leaked internal study about the harmful effects of Instagram on teenage girls — and Tuesday night, Mark Zuckerberg finally responded to the scandal personally. In an open letter to Facebook staff, Zuckerberg scoffed at concerns raised by whistleblower Frances Haugen, doubling down on earlier Facebook claims that the report has been misinterpreted.“If we’re going to have an informed conversation about the effects of social media on young people, it’s important to start with a full picture,” Zuckerberg wrote. “We’re committed to doing more research ourselves and making more research publicly available.”But for researchers who study social media, the internal study that sparked... Continue reading…

Photo by KEREM YUCEL/AFP via Getty Images Medical device company Medtronic issued an urgent recall of the remote controller for certain insulin pumps because they’re vulnerable to hacks. It’s possible for someone to copy the signals sent from the controllers to the pumps and deliver or block a dose of insulin, which could be dangerous for diabetic patients using the pumps.In the recall statement, Medtronic said that it wasn’t aware of any situations where this type of hack has occurred. The company was first made aware of the issue in 2018 after an independent cybersecurity researcher found the vulnerability and told users about the problem. That initial alert told users how to disable the remote control feature when they weren’t using it.Now, the company says people shouldn’t... Continue reading…

Boeing’s CST-100 Starliner spacecraft | Photo by GREGG NEWTON/AFP via Getty Images Two NASA astronauts originally slated to launch on an upcoming flight of Boeing’s new Starliner spacecraft have been reassigned to an upcoming SpaceX flight instead, as delays continue to push back Starliner’s next flight to space. Astronauts Nicole Mann and Josh Cassada were supposed to be among the first human passengers on Starliner during its first crewed flights in the coming years. Now, they’ll fly together on SpaceX’s fifth crewed mission to the International Space Station, which is slated to take place in the fall of 2022.Mann and Cassada were first assigned to fly on Starliner in 2018. Mann was supposed to fly on the Starliner’s first crewed test flight, along with Michael Fincke and Butch Wilmore — a critical test to prove... Continue reading…

Like the Smash Direct before it, Animal Crossing: New Horizons is getting its own showcase coming October 15th. The Animal Crossing Twitter account revealed the news, promising 20 minutes of updates and announcements of what to expect for Nintendo’s bucolic hit of the pandemic.

Images: Halide Halide is one of the best photography apps on the iPhone, and the company has just updated its app with a new macro feature, designed to perfectly complement the new macro mode that Apple added with this year’s iPhone 13 Pro models.But Halide’s 2.5 update doesn’t just add support for the iPhone 13 Pro’s existing macro feature that Apple made. It takes things a step further and adds a macro mode for older iPhones, too, using Apple’s Neural Engine for “AI-based detail enhancement,” which uses a neural network to squeeze extra detail out of the close-up shot, even when you crop in.The “official” macro mode on the iPhone 13 Pro and 13 Pro Max uses the new ultra-wide lens that Apple offers on its more premium models, which — unlike the... Continue reading…

Photo by Jakub Porzycki/NurPhoto via Getty Images General Motors will debut the all-electric Chevy Silverado at the 2022 Consumer Electronics show in January in Las Vegas, Nevada, as part of CEO Mary Barra’s opening keynote address.The Silverado EV will be the second electric truck announced by GM, following the pickup version of the resurrected Hummer. The Silverado is one of the flagship vehicles in the company’s much larger push into electric vehicles — an effort that GM described in greater detail on Wednesday during an investor event where it also announced a new version of its hands-free driver assistance system. It will be the first electric truck for the Chevy brand, though, and it’s sort of fitting that it will debut at CES, considering that the production Bolt EV was r... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge After years of teases, General Motors is finally pulling the curtain back on its next-generation “hands-free” driver-assist technology.Dubbed Ultra Cruise, the new system uses sensors like cameras, radars, and lidar to control a vehicle’s steering, acceleration, and braking. GM says the system can be used on 2 million miles of paved roads and in “95 percent” of driving scenarios. Though which vehicles will get Ultra Cruise is still a mystery; GM says it will be available in a handful of premium vehicles in 2023, though the automaker wouldn’t disclose specific models.The news was announced as part of GM’s two-day annual investor event, in which GM also revealed its plan to double revenues by 2030 as it seeks to become a software... Continue reading…

A man collects garbage, including plastic waste, at the beach of Costa del Este, in Panama City, on April 19, 2021. | Photo by LUIS ACOSTA/AFP via Getty Images It doesn’t get at the root of the problem Continue reading…

AT&T allegedly played a pivotal role in the creation of One America News Network (OAN), a right-wing outlet frequently criticized for spreading false news stories, according to a Reuters report. Based on court documents and other sources, Reuters recounts the telecom giant’s executives telling OAN creator Robert Herring Sr. that they wanted a conservative outlet that could sit alongside Fox News and balance out more liberal channels.“They told us they wanted a conservative network,” Herring reportedly said in a 2019 court deposition. “When they said that, I jumped to it and built one.”Reuters’ story draws on records from the companies’ tumultuous legal history, including an OAN complaint against AT&T and a retaliation lawsuit filed... Continue reading…

Select Nest thermostats will soon be able to tell you when you are using green energy. | Image: Google Nest Google has announced several new features for its Nest thermostats centered around helping the smart home become a bigger partner in the battle against climate change. These features are wrapped up in a new service called Nest Renew.The service will use intelligent automation to allow the thermostats to communicate with energy providers and make it easier for Nest users to know when there is cleaner and / or cheaper energy on their local power grid. The device will then automatically adjust to use that energy at optimal times without you having to do a thing.Nest Renew is the “First program of its kind,” said Google CEO Sundar Pichai, and it is entirely opt-in. It includes six main features:

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Twitch has confirmed that it has suffered a major data breach. “We can confirm a breach has taken place,” says a Twitch spokesperson on Twitter. “Our teams are working with urgency to understand the extent of this. We will update the community as soon as additional information is available.”Hackers have so far leaked data that includes source code for the company’s streaming service, an unreleased Steam competitor from Amazon Game Studios, and details of creator payouts. An anonymous poster on the 4chan messaging board released a 125GB torrent earlier today, which they claim includes the entirety of Twitch and its commit history.

Today let’s talk about Facebook whistleblower Frances Haugen’s testimony before the Senate: the good, the bad, and what ought to happen next.For more than three hours on Tuesday, Haugen addressed a subset of the Senate Commerce Committee. She appeared calm, confident, and in control as she read her opening remarks and fielded questions from both parties. While she brought more nuance to her critique than most Facebook critics — she supports Section 230, for example, and opposes a breakup of the company — she also said the company should declare “moral bankruptcy.”“becoming an almost trillion-dollar company by buying its profits with our safety”“This is not simply a matter of certain social media users being angry or unstable, or about... Continue reading…

Myung J. Chun / Los Angeles Times via Getty Images Members of a union representing tens of thousands of television and film production workers announced this week that its members voted overwhelmingly to authorize a nationwide strike over stalled negotiations on several new contracts. A strike could severely disrupt production across Hollywood — but only if the union determines its discussions for improved pay on streaming productions and better working conditions aren’t moving forward.The International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees (IATSE) announced Monday that 90 percent of its roughly 60,000 members participated in the vote, with 98 percent of those casting their ballots in favor of a strike authorization. What that meant isn’t that a strike was necessarily imminent, but... Continue reading…

iPhone 13 Mini and iPhone 13 Pro Max | Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge I wanted to spend more time with both the iPhone 13 Mini and the iPhone 13 Pro Max before I weighed in with a final verdict on their respective batteries. I’ve updated my full reviews of each to reflect my impressions after using them for a couple weeks, but I figured it might be helpful to lay out what I’m seeing separately.The long and the short of it is that, in both cases, the batteries exceeded my expectations. Apple really did improve on the feature that matters most to most people: these phones last longer than their predecessors.It’s easy to talk about the battery life on the iPhone 13 Pro Max. It’s ridiculous. It goes and goes, lasting so long that I had to actively work to kill the thing in less than a full day by just... Continue reading…

So are bigger cameras Continue reading…

Smooth operators Continue reading…

Photo by Matt McClain-Pool/Getty Images On Tuesday, Facebook whistleblower Frances Haugen appeared before a Senate Commerce Committee subcommittee in one of the most significant hearings for the company over the last few years.Haugen’s testimony followed bombshell reporting from the Wall Street Journal last month that detailed the ways in which Facebook’s products can inflict harm on users. The Journal stories were based on a series of internal reports at Facebook that Haugen leaked to the newspaper. One specific set of reports suggested that Facebook knew Instagram was “toxic” for teenage users, especially young girls.“Facebook has put profits ahead of people,” Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) said on Tuesday. “I hope we will discuss whether there is such a thing as a safe... Continue reading…

Illustration by Maria Chimishkyan If you think your PC is infected with some kind of malware or you just want to do a scan as part of a digital cleanup, Windows has a built-in security tool that can help you on your way — no third-party software to install or pay for. It’s called Windows Security.Once upon a time, Windows Security was called Windows Defender Security Center, but the app is largely similar. Searching “Windows Defender” in the Start menu will bring up Windows Security, and even now, Microsoft often refers to its actual antivirus scanning as Windows Defender.Microsoft’s built-in anti-malware software used to be thought of as totally worthless, but these days, it can hang with big names like Kaspersky and Avast in independent tests (blocking 99.7% of... Continue reading…

Image: Microsoft Microsoft’s Xbox team is partnering with Adidas to create limited-edition Xbox sneakers. The collaboration will see Adidas produce an Xbox sneaker to mark 20 years since the original release of the Xbox console. The sneakers include the Xbox logo and translucent green details.While this appears to be a limited-edition sneaker that Microsoft will use for giveaways, there will also be a separate Xbox-inspired sneaker available for purchase later this year. “This is just the beginning of our partnership with adidas, and over the next few months we’ll continue to mark our 20th anniversary by launching additional sneakers inspired by past and present Xbox console generations, including the first-ever sneaker available for purchase by our... Continue reading…

Ifeoma Ozoma poses for a portrait outside her home in New Mexico on February 20th, 2021. | Photo by Gabriela Campos for The Verge When Ifeoma Ozoma came forward with allegations of discrimination and racism at Pinterest, she was prepared. She had a list of reporters on deck to share her story. She’d already hired a lawyer. Then she started hearing from other tech workers who also wanted to speak out. “The general lack of awareness around options and resources was shocking,” she says.Now, she’s aiming to fix that.On Wednesday, Ozoma launched the Tech Worker Handbook — a comprehensive online resource to help employees who want to speak out. “Deciding to go toe-to-toe with a powerful and well-resourced corporation is difficult for many reasons,” the website reads. “Access to information about how to find legal counsel, file a complaint with a governmental... Continue reading…

Samus Aran’s new adventure is caught between action and exploration Continue reading…

It’s not 4K, but it sure looks good Continue reading…

Snapchat’s Spotlight Challenges | Image: Snap Snapchat is adding another way for creators to earn cash. The app is launching a feature called Spotlight Challenges, which will reward a handful of creators each week for making videos using specific Lenses, doing certain activities, or playing a chosen sound inside the app’s TikTok competitor, Spotlight.Around three to five creators will be awarded cash for each challenge, with the winners being chosen from among the most-viewed eligible videos. Payments will be divided among winners from prize pools that “typically range from $1k to $25k,” with the minimum payout being $250, according to Snap. There’ll be multiple challenges every week.Snap is still paying millions to creators of top Spotlight videosThe challenges offer a new way... Continue reading…

The new iPad Mini is $25 off today, the first discount we’ve seen on the 8.3-inch tablet. | Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge At $499, the latest iPad Mini isn’t cheap. Luckily, Adorama is currently taking $25 off of the 64GB, Wi-Fi-equipped model in all four colorways, bringing the final sale price down to $474. The latest model is equipped with Apple’s new A15 Bionic processor and a 12MP rear camera, not to mention Apple’s Center Stage feature, which allows the front-facing camera to digitally pan and zoom in order to keep you in the frame.In our review, we also praised the design of the sixth-gen iPad Mini, the larger screen, and the fact that the new tablet offers USB-C support, though, we disliked that it lacks a headphone jack. And while today’s discount isn’t a huge one, it is one of the first we’ve seen on the Apple slate since it launched just over a... Continue reading…

After a year of the pandemic, we asked Americans if their trust in big tech companies has changed — and if the biggest ones should be broken up Continue reading…

Photo by ROBYN BECK/AFP via Getty Images Uber is rolling out several new features designed to improve the most dreaded trip imaginable: the airport trip. In select cities, customers can book a ride to the airport 30 days in advance and even send their flight information to their driver so they can track its progress in real-time. The company is also deploying machine learning to improve curbside pickups.As airport traffic steadily increases in the wake of the pandemic, Uber sees an opportunity to strengthen its position as the first choice for pickups and drop-offs for air travelers, as well as make improvements for drivers, who have long complained about the current chaotic system.To start out, Uber is rolling out its Uber Reserve advance booking feature to more airports... Continue reading…

Illustration by William Joel / The Verge Twitch appears to have been hacked, leaking source code for the company’s streaming service, an unreleased Steam competitor from Amazon Game Studios, and details of creator payouts. An anonymous poster on the 4chan messaging board has released a 125GB torrent, which they claim includes the entirety of Twitch and its commit history.The poster claims the leak is designed to “foster more disruption and competition in the online video streaming space.” The Verge is able to confirm that the leak is legitimate, and includes code that is as recent as this week. Video Games Chronicle first reported details on the leak earlier today.The leak includes the following:

The Polar Grit X Pro (shown in copper colorway) features a sapphire lens and rugged FKM strap. | Photo by Thomas Ricker / The Verge Polar is making a number of updates to its family of sport watches today. This includes the launch of the Polar Grit X Pro for outdoor multisport enthusiasts, alongside feature and design tweaks to the company’s “premium” Vantage V2 multisport watch and Polar Unite fitness watch.The Grit X Pro is an update to the Grit X launched last year. For an extra $70/€70, the $499.90/€499.90 Pro model adds a tougher sapphire lens and a durable yet supple FKM watch band. It also adds Track Back routing to help you return to your starting point on unknown trails, Performance Tests to measure your V02max fitness level, and quick access to altimeter, coordinates, and compass via always-on dashboards. Otherwise, you’re pretty much looking at the same... Continue reading…

The 10.4-inch tablet. | Image: HMD After years of focusing on phones, HMD is releasing its first Android tablet under the Nokia brand name — something we haven’t seen since the real Nokia launched the N1 Android tablet back in 2014.The T20 is a 10.4-inch tablet designed to be used for working and studying from home. Pricing starts at $249.99 in the US where it will be available from November 17th, while in the UK the tablet will be available from today starting at £179.99 for the Wi-Fi version, or £199.99 for the LTE model.As you might expect from its affordable price point, the Nokia T20 is not a powerhouse of an Android tablet. It’s powered by a modest Unisoc Tiger T610 processor, and in the US and UK comes with 4GB of RAM, and 64GB of expandable storage. HMD reckons... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Messaging app Telegram gained a “record” 70 million new users on Monday, as Facebook experienced a nearly six-hour long outage across its services, Telegram CEO Pavel Durov announced. Encrypted messaging app Signal also reported gaining “millions” of new users on the same day. Both apps compete mainly with Facebook’s WhatsApp, although the outage also took down Facebook Messenger, and left users unable to send messages on Instagram.70 million new users is an increase of over 10 percent compared to the 500 million monthly active users Telegram had as of January this year, the last time it reported a similar surge in new signups. Coincidentally, this last increase in users was also helped by problems at Facebook. In January, WhatsApp... Continue reading…

Google Maps will soon show users in the US the most fuel-efficient route. | Image: Google Google announced a suite of new features that it says will help people who use their platforms make more sustainable choices. The new services focus on reducing planet-heating greenhouse gas emissions and are primarily found on Search, Maps, Travel, and Nest.But before we get into the details of how their new tools work, a quick note of context; some environmental advocates have called out companies for shifting responsibility for the climate crisis onto individual consumers. Holding big corporate polluters accountable for their emissions far outweighs any one consumers’ individual impact. And Wednesday’s announcements from Google aren’t really designed to reduce the company’s own carbon footprint.Holding big corporate polluters... Continue reading…

Canon has announced what’s easily the oddest glass yet for its EOS R mirrorless camera system: a dual 5.2mm f/2.8 fisheye. The fisheye lenses are 60mm apart and are designed for creating 3D VR images and video content; Canon calls out the Oculus Quest 2 as a potential hardware destination and says this is “the world’s first digital interchangeable lens that can capture stereoscopic 3D 180° VR imagery to a single image sensor.”The lens can be used to shoot up to 8K footage on the EOS R5, which appears to be the only camera it’ll work with. Canon is releasing a 1.5.0 firmware update for the R5 as well as a Premiere Pro plug-in and a standalone file conversion app called EOS VR Utility. Canon calls this combination the EOS VR System and... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge T-Mobile has announced that it’s cutting the price of its 5G-powered home internet service by $10, bringing it back to the $50 price that it charged during its pilot program. That $50 a month gets you internet with no data cap, speeds that T-Mobile estimates will be anywhere from 35 to 115 Mbps, and a router capable of turning 5G and LTE into Wi-Fi (which you’ll have to return if you ever cancel the contract-free plan).T-Mobile is adamant that your bill won't be higher than $50 — in its press release it says there’s no installation fees, activation fees, or equipment rental fees. It seems to view this as a kind of apology for all the fees traditional ISPs like Xfinity and Charter have charged. It’s pretty self-congratulatory, but it’s... Continue reading…

Mark Zuckerberg posted a staunch defense of his company in a note to Facebook staffers, saying that recent claims by an ex-employee about the social network’s negative effects on society “don’t make any sense.”On Tuesday, a former Facebook product manager named Frances Haugen testified before Congress about a trove of internal documents she gave to The Wall Street Journal. The focus of the hearing was on Facebook’s internal research that showed Instagram can have a negative effect on young people, but Haugen took the opportunity to also attack the company’s business model and News Feed algorithm. One of her main arguments was that Facebook’s business of selling ads based on engagement leads it to keep users on the service at all costs,... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Late Monday night, Google filed for a court order to produce documents from longtime Google critic Luther Lowe, as part of its ongoing federal antitrust case, US vs. Google.The motion arises from an apparent breakdown in negotiations between Google and Lowe’s employer, Yelp. Yelp has agreed to document production from a number of its employees, but has resisted on Lowe in particular, leaving Google to ask the court for a subpoena that would compel email archives and other documents.“Yelp cannot deny Google the documents it needs to defend itself”“Yelp’s allegations against Google conceived and advanced by Mr. Lowe, are a central part of the government’s case,” the filing reads. “Now that the very governmental action Yelp advocated... Continue reading…

I regret to inform you that Intel has again made a terrible ad to showcase how absolutely not mad it is about Apple switching to its own processors. This one, called “Breaking the Spell,” follows a classic format — people are put in a room and told about features supposedly coming to MacBooks. Then, after they get all excited, the twist! They were actually being told about Windows computers, powered (of course) by Intel. The folks in the ad (which the fine print says are “real people paid for their time and opinions”) are speechless and then clamor to buy or take the laptops, presumably now that they’ve awoken to the possibilities of the PC.It’s an ad format that’s never been great, but the real kicker is that it makes absolutely no... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Twitter announced Tuesday that it’s dropping a feature from its live broadcasts tool, but the company is removing it in service of making your video broadcast quality better.What’s gone? Now, you aren’t able to invite guests to join you in a broadcast via audio ahead of going live. That feature was added in March 2020. Now, when you go live, your broadcast will just feature you and whoever else happens to be in the frame, though people can still post in the chat or tap to add a heart to interact with you while you’re broadcasting.

Photo by Chris Welch / The Verge Apple today released a firmware update for its AirPods Pro and AirPods Max that introduces new options for finding the pricey products if you happen to misplace them. These capabilities were first promised for iOS 15 but didn’t quite make the launch; thankfully, it didn’t take Apple much longer after that to roll them out. Both 9to5Mac and MacRumors reported on today’s release.Using Apple’s Find My app, it was already possible to view the location where your AirPods were last paired with your iPhone or play a sound to make them easier to dig out of the couch cushions. But this new update greatly expands that functionality. Now you can activate Lost Mode and have millions of other iPhones, iPads, and Macs aid in the search should your... Continue reading…

A glowing Amazon Echo. | Photo by Dan Seifert / The Verge Amazon has added a valuable new feature to Alexa: you can now opt to have more time to finish your statement or question before Alexa responds to you. The feature could be useful if you wish you had a bit longer before Alexa replied to what you were saying, but it’s also a useful accessibility feature, particularly for people with speech impediments who may need more time to say something. If you want to enable this, you can turn it on in the Alexa app.The company has also added the ability for Android users to type requests in the Alexa app. This feature might be handy for when you don’t want to use your voice to ask Alexa a question, but it too could be a boon for accessibility. This feature, which was first added to the iOS version... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Amazon might be working on its own smart fridge, according to a new report from Insider. "Project Pulse," as the project is titled internally, is reportedly being developed by the same Amazon "physical-stores unit" that worked on the company's high-tech Amazon Go stores.Project Pulse "is designed to track your inventory and purchase habits, predict what you want, and have it delivered," Insider writes. The fridge could also track expiration dates, suggest recipes based on the products in your fridge, and offer an easy way to order more food from an Amazon Fresh or Whole Foods grocery store.Amazon already introduced a microwave — why not a fridge?Amazon's foray into fridges has apparently been in the works for at least two years, I... Continue reading…

Microsoft is launching Windows 11 virtually today, and the company is promising a “first-of-its-kind 6D streaming event,” featuring Allen Stone and Tate McRae. I’m not entirely sure what a “6D musical experience” is, but Microsoft’s website promises multiple camera views during its stream and even a free Windows 11 NFT.Microsoft describes its Windows 11 NFT as a “one-of-a-kind cryptographic token that lives in your digital wallet and unlocks valuable experiences and rewards.” Again, I’m not sure what valuable experiences and rewards this will unlock, but we’ll find out at 8PM ET / 5PM PT when the Windows 11 launch stream goes live.

A screenshot from Battlefield 2042. | Image: EA EA is making Battlefield 2042 a little bit more accessible across generations. The company announced Tuesday that the digital Standard Edition of Battlefield 2042 on PS5 and Xbox Series X / S now includes the Cross-Gen Bundle, which gives you access to both the PS4 and the PS5 or Xbox One and Xbox Series X / S versions of the game. Previously, the Cross-Gen Bundle was only available with the more expensive digital Gold and Ultimate editions of Battlefield 2042.It’s important to note that this cross-gen benefit has only been added to the digital Standard Editions for next-gen consoles. If you buy the digital Standard Edition on PS4 or Xbox One, where it is $10 cheaper than it is on the PS5 and Xbox Series X / S, you won’t get the... Continue reading…

Scroll’s ad-free subscription web service is shutting down as an independent entity in “approximately” 30 days, the company announced in an email to subscribers. The service — which was purchased by Twitter earlier this year — will instead be rolled into the burgeoning Twitter Blue premium subscription as “Ad-Free Articles.”In its current form, Scroll is a $5-per-month service that offers ad-free browsing to hundreds of websites, including The Atlantic, BuzzFeed News, G/O Media, USA Today, and Vox Media — which, full disclosure, includes The Verge. It works by using a combination of third-party cookies and browser extensions to stop websites from showing ads to paid subscribers.

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Photo by Justin Sullivan / Getty Images Facebook has chosen to respond to whistleblower Frances Haugen in the most cowardly way possible: by hiding Mark Zuckerberg, the man ultimately responsible for Facebook’s decisions, and beginning the process of trying to smear and discredit Haugen.This is some Big Tobacco bullshit — precisely what sleazeball PR guru John Scanlon was hired to do when Jeffrey Wigand blew the whistle on tobacco company Brown and Williamson. Scanlon’s task was to change “the story of B&W to a narrative about Wigand’s personality.”Of course, that strategy “backfired completely,” Vanity Fair reported in 2004. It probably won’t work here, either. One senator, Edward Markey of Massachusetts, has already called Haugen “a 21st-century American hero,” adding that... Continue reading…