The Verge

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge YouTube Music is lifting one of its most annoying limitations — but only in Canada. Today, YouTube announced that beginning November 3rd, customers in Canada will be able to continue listening to their music in the background while doing other tasks on their phone or when the screen is off.Background listening will support both the standard ad-supported, personalized radio mixes and any uploaded content you’ve added to your account.This is the first time that YouTube Music has offered the feature without requiring that customers step up to a Premium subscription to get it. As for when listeners in other countries can expect to get the same convenience, for now, YouTube is only saying to “stay tuned for additional information and... Continue reading…

This is a big week for the Nintendo Switch. The Switch with an OLED screen and Metroid Dread launch Friday, October 8th. Whether you’re a Switch veteran, or you’re prepping for your first console with the $350 OLED model, there are some excellent deals on must-have, cartridge-based titles you should know about. The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword HD, Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, and New Pokémon Snap are each $20 off. Amazon is the only retailer honoring this deal for all three games, but Best Buy and Walmart are hosting some deals, too. Monster Hunter Rise is $20 off, but only at GameStop.All of these are noteworthy deals because they’re rarely discounted games. Nintendo sometimes hosts price cuts, but only for a select batch of games —... Continue reading…

Photo by Phil Walter/Getty Images Jeff Bezos’ spaceflight venture Blue Origin is launching William Shatner — aka Captain James T. Kirk of the USS Enterprise — to space on the company’s New Shepard rocket. At 90 years old, he’ll become the oldest person to fly to space, surpassing legendary aviator Wally Funk, who flew on the first crewed flight of New Shepard this summer.TMZ first broke the news that Shatner would be flying on the next New Shepard flight, which is currently scheduled for October 12th out of Blue Origin’s launch facility in West Texas. The outlet claimed the Shatner’s flight will be filmed as part of a documentary. Shatner will be joined by two other customers announced earlier by Blue Origin: Chris Boshuizen, a former NASA engineer who co-founded the... Continue reading…

Facebook whistleblower Frances Haugen appears on 60 Minutes. The whistleblower behind the leak of an enormous cache of Facebook documents to the Wall Street Journal, Frances Haugen, went public on 60 Minutes on Sunday, revealing more of the inner workings the most powerful social media platform in the world. Revealing her identity on national television, Haugen described a company so committed to product optimization that it embraced algorithms that amplify hate speech.“It’s paying for its profits with our safety,” Haugen told 60 Minutes host Scott Pelley.According to a since deleted LinkedIn profile Haugen was a product manager at Facebook assigned to the Civic Integrity group. She chose to leave the company in 2021 after the dissolving of the group. She said she didn’t “trust that they’re... Continue reading…

Eternals comes to theaters November 5th | Marvel So we had the big heel turn that’s been hinted at all season, plus some big moments for two of the show’s couples, which made Ted Lasso’s penultimate episode of season two very stressful to watch (for me, at least). I have no idea how they will wrap it all up in the finale; I think we’re headed for a cliffhanger on at least one front.There’s too much good on streaming right now, it’s really a nice problem to have.Here’s this week’s trailers roundup:EternalsA brand-new trailer for Marvel’s Eternals has some of the action sequences we’ve seen in prior teaser/trailers, plus, a first look at Brian Tyree Henry as Phastos, along with his husband and son, apparently the first queer couple in the MCU to appear on the big screen (h/t G... Continue reading…

The BepiColombo mission snapped this photo of Mercury on October 1st. | ESA/BepiColombo/MTM Photos from a fly-by of Mercury, the least-explored planet in our solar system, show ithas a crater-riddled surface that resembles Earth’s Moon.The photos came from BepiColombo, a joint mission between the European Space Agency (ESA) and the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) that launched from Europe’s Spaceport in 2018. The mission has two linked orbiting spacecraft, the Mercury Planetary Orbiter and the Mercury Magnetospheric Orbiter. The mission is planned to reach Mercury’s orbit in late 2025.BepiColombo aims to gather more information about Mercury and its composition, and how it evolved so close to our Sun. Temperatures on Mercury can exceed 350 degrees Celsius, or about 660 degrees Fahrenheit.ESA explains where the... Continue reading…

Blue Origin’s New Shepard spacecraft lifts off from the launch pad on July 20th. | Photo by Joe Raedle / Getty Images Saturday Night Live returned this weekend and the show wasted no time taking aim at the weird billionaire space tourism race that unfolded over the past few months. Guest host Owen Wilson played former Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos in a sketch about a fictional new show called Star Trek: Ego Quest, about “the voyages of the SS New Shepard and its crew of random weirdos,” whose mission is “to just sort of fly around space goofing off in a ship that looks like a penis,” according to the voiceover.You’ll recall the real Bezos traveled to the edge of space in Blue Origin’s New Shepard rocket in July, along with a crew that included his brother Mark (played in the sketch by Wilson’s brother Luke), 82-year-old pilot and space legend Wally Funk, and... Continue reading…

An autonomous Cruise vehicle in San Francisco | Photo by Andrej Sokolow/picture alliance via Getty Images Ford and General Motors told a federal judge they’re planning to settle a trademark battle over the term “Cruise” to describe hands-free driving. Attorneys for the automakers said they’re working out the terms of the settlement and asked the court for a conditional dismissal. The two sides will report back within 60 days if they’re unable to come to an agreement.Ford announced BlueCruise as the name for its hands-free driver assist feature in April. The legal skirmish began in July, when GM filed a trademark infringement lawsuit claiming that the name BlueCruise was too close to its autonomous vehicle subsidiary Cruise, as well as Super Cruise, the name of the hands-free driving tech GM introduced in 2017. GM said in its complaint... Continue reading…

Kodiak (Kody) the Steller’s sea eagle, who escaped the National Aviary in Pittsburgh September 29th | National Aviary A Steller’s sea eagle escaped from its enclosure at the National Aviary in Pittsburgh last Saturday, and despite the valiant efforts of the Aviary staff, and numerous sightings in the local neighborhood posted to social media, Kodiak —Kody to his friends— is still on the loose and we are all a little worried about him, to be perfectly honest.This is a bird that would be difficult to miss: he’s large (although in Pittsburgh we probably wouldn’t call him “giant” because “Giant Eagle” is a grocery store chain here), with a yellow beak, white tail and white feathers on the tops of his wings. He’s bigger than a bald eagle, and has a wingspan of about six feet. Kody has been spotted in and around the Pittsburgh neighborhood where the Aviary... Continue reading…

A Superman cover that may be among the NFTs available from DC | DC DC is giving away free non-fungible tokens (NFTs) of its superhero comic book covers to people who register for its October 16th FanDome event. The NFT drop is set for October 5th, and those who register for FanDome will receive one free, randomly-selected NFT, and become eligible for a second free NFT if they post about their first one on social media.The NFTs will come in three levels of rarity; common, rare, and legendary, and will include Batman, Superman, Green Lantern, Wonder Woman, and Harley Quinn options.DC is working on the NFTs with Palm NFT Studio, which the comic maker chose for its “environmentally sustainable and energy efficient” technology, which let the company mint “millions of NFTs for fans with near zero cost,” a... Continue reading…

Photo Illustration by Rafael Henrique/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images After YouTube TV and NBCUniversal announced a “short” extension on Thursday to keep more than a dozen channels on the live TV service, YouTube TV and NBCUniversal say they have finalized a deal — meaning NBC-owned channels will stay put on YouTube TV.“We’re thrilled to share that we’ve reached a deal to continue carrying the full NBCUniversal portfolio of channels,” according to a Saturday update to YouTube’s blog. “That means you won’t lose access to any of their channels, and YouTube TV will continue to offer 85+ networks for $64.99. We appreciate NBCUniversal’s willingness to work toward an agreement, and we also appreciate your patience as we negotiated with them on your behalf.”With a deal reached just days after it looked as... Continue reading…

Photo by Sean O’Kane / The Verge Tesla has bucked the wider trend of declining sales brought on by the global chip shortage in the third quarter this year, as it sold 241,300 cars — a total of 102,000 more vehicles than the same quarter last year. It’s the most Tesla has ever sold in a quarter (and for some added perspective, the company sold 367,500 in all of 2019).The company managed to deliver more vehicles once again despite the fact that major automakers saw huge drops this past quarter. General Motors, the largest automaker in the US, said Friday morning that it only sold 446,997 vehicles in the third quarter — a 33 percent drop from the same period last year.Tesla has avoided similar problems in part because it has been sourcing different semiconductors and... Continue reading…

Microsoft’s next version of Windows, Windows 11, is coming October 5th. In many ways, it’s already here — the free update has been available for Windows Insiders to download and test for months, and recent versions like the Release Preview will likely be indistinguishable from the final operating system.We’ll have a full review from Tom Warren next week, but in the meanwhile we thought we’d give you a look at how The Verge at large feels about upgrading to the new OS — by asking every other prominent Windows user on the team to install the most recent version on their own home computers, and gathering their impressions.Here’s how it’s going so far.On a home-built desktop (Core i7-7700K, RTX 3060 Ti) and a 2017 Dell XPS 15 laptop... Continue reading…

Twitter banned the former president in January | Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Former President Donald Trump has filed a lawsuit in Florida seeking to force Twitter to reinstate him, arguing the platform’s ban violates the First Amendment and Florida’s new social media law.Trump is seeking a preliminary injunction of Twitter’s ban, according to the complaint filed in the Southern District of Florida late Friday. The former president argues that Twitter, “coerced by members of the United States Congress,” is censoring him, describing the social media platform as “a major avenue of public discourse.” Trump seeks to be temporarily reinstated on Twitter while he continues his efforts toward permanent reinstatement.Twitter “exercises a degree of power and control over political discourse in this country that is... Continue reading…

The Anki Vector. | Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge There's something in our complicated human brains that immediately develops a connection to anything with eyes. Don't believe me? Ask the Anki Vector that lived on my desk for several months. This pocket-sized robot got my attention with its bulbous, non-threatening body. But the second it looked up at me with a quizzical look in its eyes and uttered my name, I knew I would die for this tiny forklift. It’s worth noting that the Anki Vector can be programmed to do a variety of things if you have the time to mess around with an SDK, but I brought this robot home because it was cute, not because I needed a project.I’d watch with amusement as the little gadget puttered around my desk, occasionally looking back at me as if seeking my... Continue reading…

The AirPods Pro Max boast great sound and a comfortable, albeit heavy, build. | Photo by Becca Farsace / The Verge There’s no way around it: the AirPods Max aren’t cheap. For the money, however, Apple’s plush headphones offer a commendable set of features, including superb effective noise cancellation, terrific sound quality, and foolproof controls that are designed to make even the smallest adjustments that much easier to carry out. They also work with Apple’s spatial audio feature, which helps create a surround effect and adds another level of immersion when watching content via Netflix, Disney Plus, and other supported streaming platforms.Normally $550, you can pick them up in a multitude of colors at Woot for $470, one of their best prices to date, for the next two months or until supplies last. Just don’t expect much in the way of protection... Continue reading…

A screenshot from Super Monkey Ball Banana Mania. | Image: Sega As a kid, I remember spending hours playing Super Monkey Ball and Super Monkey Ball 2 on the GameCube with my sister. The games are lighthearted and colorful, have fun single-player and multiplayer modes, and the monkeys feel like something out of a Saturday morning cartoon. I haven’t touched the series since, and I figured Banana Mania would be the perfect nostalgia trip for me. While it is a lot of fun, I also found it surprisingly frustrating.Banana Mania is a remaster of the first three Super Monkey Ball games: Super Monkey Ball, Super Monkey Ball 2, and Super Monkey Ball Deluxe. If you’re not familiar with the series, the Monkey Ball games are mostly about rolling monkeys in translucent balls through increasingly challenging... Continue reading…

Getty Images ‘Do I have an independent recollection of when I sent this email from seven years ago?’ Continue reading…

Rivian has filed to go public | Photo by David Becker/Getty Images Electric vehicle maker Rivian, backed by Ford and Amazon, filed for an initial public offering on Friday on the Nasdaq exchange. The company filed its IPO confidentially with the Securities and Exchange Commission in August, and it was made public today.According to the S-1 filed with the SEC, Rivian had a net loss of $994 million on revenue of zero for the first half of 2021. Its net loss for full year 2020 was $1.02 billion, the filing shows. The company expects to trade under the ticker symbol RIVN.“We are a development stage company and have not generated material revenue to date,” Rivian writes in the filing. “Vehicle production and deliveries began in September 2021.” We recently tried its first consumer vehicle, the R1T electric... Continue reading…

Samantha Bee, Mark Cuban, CEO and Co-Founder Carlos Watson, and Jeb Bush speak onstage during Ozy Fest 2017 | Photo by Bryan Bedder/Getty Images for Ozy Fusion Fest 2017 In the space of six days and five New York Times reports from media columnist Ben Smith, Ozy Media has gone from a largely unknown content producer to closing its doors. The eight-year-old media startup was unrecognizable to most. It operated in anonymity despite a roster including some well-known journalists, the high-profile guests who appeared on CEO Carlos Watson’s show, or NYC subway riders who were occasionally inundated with advertisements for its Ozyfest event.Ozy Media acknowledged that its COO and co-founder pretended to be a YouTube executive on a conference call.If you don’t follow too many reporters on Twitter, you might not have heard, but last weekend the first New York Times report revealed two shocking things about Ozy... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Xbox is making it easier to find accessibility information for games, according to an announcement from the company at its Accessibility Showcase. Games in the Microsoft store will have accessibility feature tags, so players with disabilities can make sure games have the features they need before buying or downloading them. The tags are appearing in the store for members of the Xbox Accessibility Insiders League (XAIL) starting today and will eventually roll out to all Xbox users.The tags address an issue commonly expressed by players with disabilities: they often have to do their own research to figure out which games they can play. Listing certain features in the store consolidates information that can be frustrating to track down,... Continue reading…

Sony appears to be reintroducing an old concept for two of its newer Playstation 5 games — game trials. Sony will now let you try the PS5 versions of Death Stranding: Director’s Cut and Sackboy: A Big Adventure for free if you live in the United Kingdom, for six hours and five hours, respectively.PlayStation owners first spotted Sony’s new offer via email. “Ever wanted to try some of the most popular games from PlayStation Studios before committing to the full game? Now you can,” the email reads. Sony says the games are redeemable on the PlayStation Store until October 28th at 11:59PM, and the trial starts as soon as you select “Download Trial” on console or “Add to Library” on the web. The Verge has reached out to Sony for more... Continue reading…

Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge Learning a new language on an Android device? If the language uses a different alphabet or employs accents that your primary language does not, you may need to add a new software keyboard to your phone.Luckily, Google’s standard Gboard keyboard includes a plethora of language-related keyboards; at last count, it offered over 500 languages over 40 different writing systems. If you’ve already installed Gboard in the US, you’re likely already set up with US English. But it’s not difficult to add one or more new keyboards and quickly switch from one language to another. Here’s how to install and use one or more of the many languages available. (Note: this was tried out using a Pixel 3 phone and Android 12; your interface may vary.)First,... Continue reading…

Photo by Dan Seifert / 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.This week: lots of events and showcases! Nilay, Dieter, and Verge managing editor Alex Cranz start the show with coverage of all the devices announced at Amazon’s fall hardware event. Say hello to Astro — Alexa on wheels — along with a video chat gadget for kids, an Echo Show to hang on your wall, new wearable devices, and a whole lot more.Google also held an event this week focusing on its core search functions with products like Google Maps, Google Lens, and of course, shopping and e-commerce. The crew discusses the important... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge NBC has an excellent story that takes a look at the trend of young adults attempting to buy prescription or recreational drugs from dealers on Snapchat — and ending up with fentanyl instead. The report tells the story from the perspective of several parents who have lost children and who suspect that they bought the pills using the popular chatting app. It also goes into how Snapchat is trying to deal with the problem and the difficulties that come with that moderation, both for parents and law enforcement.Some parents suspect their children were trying to obtain painkillers to deal with various pains that weren’t being addressed by doctors or dentists, while some say their kids were trying to escape a world of emotional turmoil. In at... Continue reading…

Photo by EDUARDO MUNOZ ALVAREZ/AFP via Getty Images Since the dawn of time (around five or six months ago), people all over the world (Twitter users in the United States) have been puzzling over a very important question: why doesn’t the COVID-19 vaccine card fit in a wallet?

Discord is ending its Stage Discovery | Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Discord said Friday it’s going to sunset its Stage Discovery tool on October 4th, less than six months after it launched.Rolled out in June, Stage Discovery was designed to help users find its social audio rooms called Stage Channels. It used machine learning to curate a list of channels a user might be interested in joining. Stage Channels have been a hit, Discord says, but it’s been keeping an eye on Stage Discovery to evaluate whether it’s meeting its goal of helping people find community.“In listening to our communities and admins directly, we’ve learned that we still have work to do in regards to server onboarding and moderation,” Discord said in a release announcing the decision. “We’re going to take some time to rethink the... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Days after announcing new safety tools designed to protect streamers against hate raids, Twitch is experimenting with a new feature that will allow users to pay money to promote a stream. Rumors have been circulating on social media that the new feature is in the works, and a Twitch spokesperson has now confirmed to The Verge that it is testing the feature with a small number of streamers.“We are launching an experiment to a small number of growing channels that enables their communities to purchase promotions to highly visible parts of Twitch,” a Twitch spokesperson said.Twitch went into detail about the new paid boost feature during its Patch Notes program. Check out the relevant portion of the program here.The promotion works like... Continue reading…

Image: Netflix South Korean internet service provider SK Broadband is suing Netflix to pay for the increased network costs and bandwidth usage the streaming service’s content has drawn in South Korea, Reuters writes. The company cites Squid Game and D.P., two popular Korean Netflix dramas, as part of the cause.SK Broadband’s demand for payment isn’t unfounded. A South Korean court sided with the ISP in June, The Korea Herald writes, suggesting Netflix was responsible for the demands its content puts on SK. Counter to Netflix’s request that it not be charged — since customers are the ones streaming, and they already pay for it — the court said the company has “the obligation of paying the price for the services to SK Broadband.” SK estimates the cost... Continue reading…

Image: Google Google has stopped working on its Plex service, which aimed to let you do your banking through the Google Pay app. The service was supposed to let users sign up for checking or savings accounts offered by a variety of traditional banks that the user would then manage through the app. According to a report by the Wall Street Journal, Google canceled the project due to a series of missed deadlines and because an executive who pushed for the project left the company.Plex wasn’t meant to put Google in direct competition with banks, according to reports that came out before the company revealed the program and information from its official announcement. Instead, Google planned to partner with a variety of financial institutions that would... Continue reading…

Photo: Nikola Motor Company A federal judge has administratively closed a $2 billion patent infringement lawsuit hydrogen trucking startup Nikola filed against Tesla in 2018, essentially pulling it off the Northern District Court of California’s docket because the two companies stopped responding. Nikola has until October 6th to show cause as to why the case should continue. Otherwise, the case of Nikola v. Tesla will be dismissed.Nikola “has dropped the ball, and this 2018 action is languishing without explanation or apparent good cause,” Judge James Donato wrote in an order to show cause published this week. “Consequently, the case is administratively closed. Nikola is ordered to show cause in writing by October 6, 2021, why the case should not be dismissed for... Continue reading…

Seinfeld has officially moved over to stream on Netflix today, with a new 4K upgrade that promises to make the show look better than ever. But while Netflix has upgraded the iconic “show about nothing” to even crisper resolution, Netflix is hewing to the same strategy that Hulu and other HD releases of the show have used: a more modern-looking 16:9 aspect, instead of offering the original 4:3 aspect ratio in which the show originally aired.The aspect ratio isn’t a new problem for Seinfeld fans, dating back to the original HD remaster that was produced in 2008 for TBS HD’s syndicated reruns, which were newly made scans of the original film (hence the ability to add back the wider frames that never made it into the initial broadcast) in... Continue reading…

Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge Apple’s iPhone 13 lineup just launched last week, but some users ran into a frustrating issue where they couldn’t use their Apple Watch to unlock their new phones while wearing a face mask. The company had promised that a fix was on the way, and it appeared earlier this week in an iOS 15.1 beta, but now, the fix is live for everyone as part of the iOS 15.0.1 release.Apple’s official patch notes also say that the update includes other bug fixes, but the company didn’t specify what those might be. The update clocks in at 553.7MB on my iPhone 12 Mini. Here are Apple’s iOS 15.0.1 update notes, taken from my iPhone 12 Mini. In April, Apple added the ability to use your Apple Watch to unlock a Face ID-equipped phone while... Continue reading…

Ring’s founder Jamie Siminoff announced a new video doorbell this week, from another company. | Image: Blink In December 2017, Amazon spent $90 million to acquire Blink, a Kickstarter-funded startup that developed a super energy-efficient chip to power its battery-operated smart home security cameras. In January 2018, Blink announced its first video doorbell. The next month, Amazon dropped a cool billion on Ring, a smart home security camera company known for essentially inventing the video doorbell. The writing was on the wall for Blink. It seemed apparent to industry analysts that it had been snapped up for its innovative tech, which surely would be pumped into the bigger, badder Ring.Fast forward three years, and Ring’s founder, Jamie Siminoff, walks out onstage at Amazon’s latest hardware bonanza event and announces Blink’s first-ever... Continue reading…

Photo by Dan Seifert / The Verge A major annoyance of using a Samsung phone is finally getting fixed, as the company seems to have finally pulled ads from some of its stock apps. One Verge staffer reports that they aren’t seeing ads in the Samsung Weather, Samsung Pay, and Samsung Health apps, though they said they had to force quit and reopen the Health app to remove the ad banner. 9to5Google says that it’s seeing that ads have been removed as well.The move is expected — the company had promised in August that it would remove ads from apps including Samsung Weather, Samsung Pay, and Samsung Theme “later this year” — but it’s good to see that Samsung is following through.When asked for comment, Samsung didn’t confirm that the removals were effective now, pointing to... Continue reading…

PS Plus subscribers gain access to online multiplayer, monthly freebies, and more. | Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Anyone who owns a PlayStation 4 or PlayStation 5 should consider becoming a PlayStation Plus subscriber — it’s one of the best deals in gaming, after all. Thankfully, if you’re not currently a subscriber or want to extend your membership, you can pick up a year of PS Plus at Eneba for $37 by using promo code VergePSPLUS at checkout. Once subscribed, you’ll be able to take advantage of a variety of perks, including 100GB of cloud storage, online multiplayer, exclusive member discounts, and free monthly titles. If you own a PS5, you’ll also be able to play select PS4 games like God of War and The Last of Us through the PS Plus Collection. Our Verge-exclusive deal is only valid through October 3rd, however, so you’ll want to hustle.If... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge When video of a congressional hearing goes viral, it’s often for all of the wrong reasons. Thursday’s Senate Commerce Committee hearing into the mental health effects of Instagram on teenagers was no different.A clip of Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) went viral on Twitter Thursday, contextless, asking Facebook Head of Global Safety Antigone Davis if the company would “commit to ending finsta?” A seemingly absurd and laughable question to anyone under the age of 30. A “finsta” isn’t a Facebook or Instagram product; it’s a slang term used by younger users to describe a secondary shitposting account not beholden to the perfection expectations of one’s primary account and grid. There are no Lightroom Presets gleaning over a finsta post, and... Continue reading…

Photo by MANDEL NGAN/AFP via Getty Images Twenty-one current and former employees of Jeff Bezos’ space company Blue Origin published a damning essay on Thursday saying the company “turns a blind eye to sexism, is not sufficiently attuned to safety concerns, and silences those who seek to correct wrongs.”Co-authored by Blue Origin’s former head of employee communications Alexandra Abrams, the essay describes multiple accounts of sexist and dismissive behavior from some of the company’s “one-hundred percent” male senior technical and program leaders and says “professional dissent at Blue Origin is actively stifled.”The employees accuse the company’s CEO, Bob Smith, of brushing off dissent by discouraging staff from raising questions during internal town halls, asking a... Continue reading…

Microsoft is launching Office 2021 on October 5th, and the company is finally detailing the features and pricing today. Office 2021 will be the next standalone version of Microsoft’s Office suite, designed for businesses and consumers who want to avoid the subscription version of Office.Office Home and Student 2021 will be priced at $149.99 and include Word, Excel, PowerPoint, OneNote, and Microsoft Teams for PC and Mac. Office Home and Business 2021 is priced at $249.99 and will include everything in the Home version and Outlook for PC and Mac, alongside the rights to use all of the Office apps for business purposes. Image: Microsoft The new Office 2021 design. Office 2021 will include the collaboration... Continue reading…

Twitter is currently banned in Nigeria | Illustration by Alex Castro Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari said Friday that he would lift the country’s ban on Twitter if the company met certain conditions. Nigeria’s government suspended Twitter “indefinitely” in June, accusing the social media platform of “activities that are capable of undermining Nigeria’s corporate existence.” The ban followed a few days after Twitter removed a threatening tweet by Buhari that it said violated its policy against abusive behavior.According to a transcript of Buhari’s Friday remarks, which he made during a televised speech commemorating Nigeria’s Independence Day, Twitter had reached out to the Nigerian government to try to resolve the ban. He said a presidential committee had “engaged” with Twitter to address key... Continue reading…

Hisense Hisense’s U6G QLED TV in the 55-inch size is discounted at Amazon and Best Buy today. Normally $649.99, you can pick it up from either Best Buy or Amazon for just $520. Its quantum dot LED-backlit display should offer better contrast and color accuracy than the many low-end models available around the $400-$500 price range. It has Google Assistant built in, too, along with support for a bevy of streaming apps, including YouTube, Disney Plus, HBO Max, and more. It has four HDMI ports and a native refresh rate of 60Hz.It might be of importance to you that Hisense includes this model in its “100 Day No Regrets Guarantee.” You can try out the TV for 100 days, and if you don’t like it, Hisense will refund you after you send it back. Both... Continue reading…

If you’re a reputable Chinese gadget manufacturer with millions of dollars at stake because Amazon banned your ass for inflating user reviews... do you roll over? File a lawsuit? Or change a single letter in your name and try to sneak back onto Amazon anyhow?It sure seems like Sunvalley, parent company of the popular RavPower, Vava and TaoTronics brands, chose door number three.We recently spotted all three banned brands back on the Amazon storefront under the flimsiest of disguises: Vava had changed its name to “Vav,” TaoTronics became “Taotronic,” and RavPower was simply “Rav.” We took screenshots for posterity: They’re not the only ones, either. Banned brand Choetech didn’t even need... Continue reading…

An artistic rendering of The Verge’s 10-year party at Spring Studios in NYC. Join us in New York City for live performances, amazing artists and creators, and much more Continue reading…

If you play video games on the PC then there’s a good chance at some point in your life you’ve purchased something from Humble Bundle: a digital storefront that regularly announces time-limited, pay-what-you-want game bundles, each of which sets aside a slice of the proceeds for charity. This week, the company announced that it’s now raised more than $200 million for good causes around the world — so: well done, gamers.The Humble Bundle concept first appeared in 2010, pioneered by indie game studio Wolfire Games, but was soon spun off into its own entity, with a dedicated store and publishing subsidiary, Humble Games. Now the company offers bundles for books, comics, and software, as well as a monthly subscription service, Humble... Continue reading…

Neopets was a hugely popular virtual pet adoption site launched in 1999. Virtual pet franchise Neopets is getting into NFTs — a seemingly inevitable move for a site with a long and varied history that has spawned a dizzying array of merchandise and offshoots, from magazines and cards to mobile games and a (promised) animated series.You may not be familiar with Neopets, but it was a staple for many who grew up online in the early to mid-2000s. The basic concept is that users adopt virtual pets, and then spend hours farming games and events to attain items and customize their little darlings. It sounds simple, but the site was hugely popular in its day (thanks in no small part to a thriving and addictive internal economy), boasting more than 30 million active users around 2005.Neopets had more than 30... Continue reading…

“Google” is the most searched term on Bing “by far,” according to a lawyer working for Google’s parent company, Alphabet. According to Bloomberg, Google made the argument while trying to get its $5 billion antitrust fine from the EU overturned, using the statistic as evidence that people use Google by choice, not force.The fine Google faces is from the European Commission, which says that Google has abused its position as the maker of Android. The regulator says that Google will have to stop forcing handset makers to pre-install Chrome and Google search if they want to have Android. Google’s argument? That most people would just use its search engine anyway.According to statistics compiled by SEO company Ahrefs, “google” is indeed the... Continue reading…

Photo Illustration by Rafael Henrique/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images Following a public standoff earlier this week, YouTube TV and NBCUniversal have agreed to a “short” extension over the streaming service carrying several of the broadcaster’s channels. That means that at least for now, YouTube TV will continue to carry more than a dozen major NBCUniversal-owned channels, including NBC regional sports networks. But it also means YouTube TV’s monthly subscription cost won’t be getting $10 cheaper.Had talks broken down, NBCUniversal programming would have been removed from YouTube TV at midnight ET. “NBCUniversal and YouTube TV have agreed to a short extension while parties continue talks,” an NBCUniversal spokesperson tells Protocol and Vulture. “NBCUniversal will not go dark on YouTube TV at midnight... Continue reading…

Photo By Stephen McCarthy/Sportsfile via Getty Images Electronic Arts is promoting chief studios officer Laura Miele to chief operating officer, the company announced Thursday. The change is a big promotion for Miele, who already had significant leadership at the company overseeing 25 different studios. The new role will give Miele greater oversight over the company and arguably makes her the most powerful woman in gaming, an industry where there are few female executives, fewer in the C-suite, and where those C-suite execs are often in charge of HR or finance rather than the company’s products.Ubisoft did make Virginie Hass its chief studios operating officer last August, following scandals over a toxic culture including sexual harassment and misconduct that went as high as the C-suite... Continue reading…

iPhone assembler Foxconn is buying an automotive factory from struggling EV startup Lordstown Motors for around $230 million, the companies announced late Thursday. Foxconn says it has agreed to build Lordstown Motors’ electric pickup truck at the plant, which is where General Motors used to make the Chevrolet Cruze, and that the startup will remain a tenant there. Lordstown Motors will also “agree to provide Foxconn with certain rights with respect to future vehicle programs.”The deal gives the Taiwanese conglomerate its first automotive factory, and a significant new presence in the United States — one that the company will use as it tries to establish itself as a global electric vehicle automaker. Foxconn previously announced a... Continue reading…