The Verge

Photo by SAMEER AL-DOUMY/AFP via Getty Images Even as more and more people in the United States start to have access to their medical records online, most are still far more likely to use their computers to log in to patient portals than a smartphone app, according to a new report from the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology.Almost 40 percent of US adults said that they accessed their health records through a patient portal in 2020, according to the report, which analyzed data from the Health Information National Trends Survey (HINTS) run by the National Cancer Institute. That’s up from 25 percent in 2014.The survey only collected data from January through April 2020. That captures the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic when doctors started to... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Tesla is making owners who opt in to the controversial beta version of its “Full Self-Driving” software sign non-disclosure agreements and is also discouraging them from sharing video clips that show the driver assistance system making mistakes.According to a copy of the NDA obtained by Vice, Tesla tells those who sign the document that “there are a lot of people that want Tesla to fail; Don’t let them mischaracterize your feedback and media posts.” The company also says owners in the beta should “share on social media responsibly and selectively” and “consider sharing fewer videos, and only the ones that you think are interesting or worthy of being shared.”Vice’s report comes as Tesla is now working on expanding access to the “Full... Continue reading…

Mobius Digital / Annapurna Interactive Entering a state of desperation is essentially a requirement to solve many of Outer Wilds’ puzzles. The game’s new $15 expansion, Echoes of the Eye, features one such puzzle that had me feeling like I’d exhausted every option. I had the right tool in hand, I was in the right room. I had followed the vague tips in the slide reels I had seen so far, left behind by an intelligent species. So I did what I usually do when I lose hope in the game: reset the loop. Maybe I needed to start again with a fresh perspective.Then I woke up in a different world.I hadn’t solved the puzzle completely, but I inadvertently progressed through the story by taking a chance on a hunch. Taking chances is core to progressing in Outer Wilds, and it’s also the... Continue reading…

Amazon’s Astro home robot | Photo by Dan Seifert / The Verge Amazon’s long-awaited home robot is here Continue reading…

The Ring Pro 2 video doorbell (pictured) and the Ring Video Doorbell (2020) will now be able to tell you when a package is on your doorstep. | Photo by Dan Seifert / The Verge Ring is bringing package alerts to its Ring video doorbells, and it’s about time, too. This is a much-requested feature that’s already found on most of its competitors’ camera doorbell offerings. When the main selling point for a product is that it will deter porch pirates, it’s kind of important to be able to keep a virtual eye on those packages.The pings that will tell you when a package is on your porch will start rolling out to the Ring Pro 2 and Ring Video Doorbell (2020) in the US and internationally today and should arrive on other buzzers next year. But this still doesn’t address a big issue with most of Ring’s doorbells; the cameras’ wide viewing angles often don’t pick up the spot where the package is left. Only the Pro 2 has... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Amazon announced a fleet of new products at its hardware event, including the Astro home robot, several Ring home security products, and other products like a bigger Echo Show 15 and the Amazon Glow for kids. Unlike previous years, the list of products that you’ll soon be able to preorder is rather short, leaving the most interesting products available on an invite-only basis. Still, we’re going to point you to where you can find out more about getting one of them for yourself. Here are all of the biggest announcements from Amazon’s show, if you want to catch up. Image: Amazon How to buy Amazon’s Smart ThermostatOne of Amazon’s most affordable devices announced today is its Smart Thermostat, which costs $59.99. It... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Microsoft is starting to test its Xbox Cloud Gaming (xCloud) integration with Xbox consoles today. Some Xbox Insiders in the Alpha Skip-Ahead and Alpha rings will be able to access the xCloud integration today, a feature that lets you click play on an Xbox Game Pass game and stream it immediately.This new xCloud integration will allow Xbox owners to try games before they fully download them and potentially demo or try before you buy in the future. More than 100 Xbox Game Pass titles will be available as part of this initial xCloud integration, and Xbox players can even jump into multiplayer games as soon as friends send an invite. Image: Microsoft xCloud integration in the Xbox dashboard. I... Continue reading…

Astro features cameras, sensors, and motors to assist as it rolls around your home. | Photo by Dan Seifert / The Verge Amazon announced a home robot called Astro during its fall hardware event today, September 28th, which is designed to serve as a helpful mobile assistant that can navigate around the main floor of your home. Amazon promises Astro will be able to patrol your home while you’re away, carry small objects from room to room (as long as a human places the object in its storage compartment), follow a person around with its periscope camera while on a video call, play music, and play games with children, as well as carry out a bevy of other small tasks. It’s essentially an Echo Show 10 on wheels, complete with Alexa support, mixed with some of the expectations of a robot vacuum sans vacuuming — room assignment, navigation, and self-charging via a... Continue reading…

The Ring Always Home Cam retails for $249.99 and is set to launch later this year. | Image: Amazon First announced last year, Amazon will begin selling its Ring Always Home Cam starting today, September 28th, alongside the new Ring Alarm Pro, Blink Video Doorbell, and several other products. There are just two caveats: access to the Ring Always Home Cam is invite-only at the moment, and it won’t ship until later this year.The new Ring Always Home Cam is an autonomous, indoor security camera that essentially amounts to a flying drone strapped with a Ring camera on the bottom. With it, you can keep an eye on what’s going inside of your home even while you’re away. That’s because the device streams 1080p video to your smartphone via the Ring app, allowing you to check for intruders or make sure you didn’t leave the stovetop on at a... Continue reading…

Blink Video Doorbell | Image: Amazon Amazon has released a few new products from Blink since acquiring the Kickstarter smart home security darling in 2017, and today, during its fall event, it added three new items to the lineup that are made to mind your various entry points.Blink announced a doorbell ahead of CES in 2018, but that one doesn’t appear to have hit the market, so this is the first-generation Blink Video Doorbell. It will be available for $49.99 and claims it’s ready for use in any home thanks to a design suited for wired or wire-free installation. 1080p HD video, night vision, motion detection, two-way audio feeds, and integration with Alexa are all a part of the product.The doorbell runs on two AA lithium batteries, and Blink says that with a wired... Continue reading…

Image: Amazon Amazon has announced a new fitness band and a plethora of health services to go along with it. The new $79.99 Halo View includes a color AMOLED display (similar to Fitbit’s Charge 5) and a year of Amazon’s Halo membership, which is required to access the tracker’s more advanced analytics. Amazon’s also launching a Halo Fitness service, which provides workout videos similar to Apple Fitness Plus, and Halo Nutrition, which helps you meal plan.Amazon is pitching the Halo View as a follow-up to its previous Halo Band fitness tracker, which didn’t include a screen. While the Halo View can gather a ton of biometric data, including heart rate, blood oxygen level, and skin temperature, it won’t be gathering your voice data like the previous... Continue reading…

A promotional image of Amazon’s Astro robot. | Image: Amazon Amazon just wrapped its fall devices event, and it was chock-full of news, including new Echo devices, new Ring products and services, and even a home assistant robot named Astro. It was a lot.We’ve recapped the biggest news of the show right here, including links to many of the Verge articles going into more detail about what Amazon announced. Photo by Dan Seifert / The Verge Amazon’s Astro home robot. Amazon’s Astro is the company’s new home robotAmazon revealed a home assistant robot, called Astro, which can help with home security monitoring, act as a mobile device, and more. It has a 10-inch touchscreen that can show a “face,” and it scoots around your house on wheels. You can request an invite to buy... Continue reading…

Ambient computing is here; now what? Continue reading…

The AZ2 brings facial recognition to the new Echo Show The announcement of Amazon’s new wall-mounted Echo Show 15 also revealed its new CPU that comes with some interesting (or potentially scary) applications. The AZ2 chip builds on the machine learning interface that premiered with the AZ1, which allowed Amazon devices to better recognize your voice, but has extended this capability to facial recognition as well. This comes with Amazon’s new focus on what it calls “Ambient Intelligence.”Let's explain what the AZ2 does on paper before we dive into the implications of this hardware. The AZ2 is capable of 22 times the amount of operations per second compared to the AZ1, which means it can simultaneously process speech and facial recognition locally. The information the AZ2 learns about your... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Amazon is announcing a new subscription service called Alexa Together today during its invite-only fall hardware event. The company’s new $19.99 per month service offers the same features as the free Alexa Care Hub and will eventually replace it as Amazon’s tool for caring for family members remotely in 2022.Like Care Hub, Alexa Together can notify you when a family member uses their Alexa device, offer a feed of interactions they had with the assistant throughout the day, and function as a quick way to get a hold of each other in the case of an emergency. Alexa Together adds new emergency features like hands-free access to an “urgent response emergency helpline” and compatibility with fall detection devices from ATS and Vayyar.A... Continue reading…

The new Microsoft Store in Windows 11 will also support third-party app stores. | Image: Microsoft Microsoft is opening up its own app store in Windows even further today, inviting third-party app stores to integrate into the Microsoft Store. It’s a significant change that will see both Amazon and Epic Games Store discoverable in the Microsoft Store in the coming months.“Just like any other app, third-party storefront apps will have a product detail page — which can be found via search or by browsing — so that users can easily find and install it with the same confidence as any other app in the Microsoft Store on Windows,” explains Giorgio Sardo, general manager of the Microsoft Store. “Today, we are sharing that Amazon and Epic Games will bring their storefront apps to the Microsoft Store over the next few months, and we look... Continue reading…

A group of Texas law enforcement officials are suing Tesla after a Model X with Autopilot engaged crashed into five police officers. The suit was first reported by KPRC 2 in Houston.It is the latest legal headache for the automaker as it seeks to roll out its controversial driver assistance software to more customers. And it comes as Tesla is facing renewed scrutiny over several crashes that have taken place involving Autopilot and emergency vehicles.The crash took place February 27, 2021, in Splendora, a small town in Montgomery County in the eastern part of the state. According to the lawsuit, the Model X SUV crashed into several police officers while they were engaged in a traffic stop on the Eastex Freeway in Texas. “All were... Continue reading…

We already know that the upcoming Pokémon Legends: Arceus makes some big changes when it comes to combat and capturing monsters. But the latest trailer for the roleplaying game shows some of the other things you’ll be doing. That includes familiar elements like riding pokémon, customizing your trainer with clothes and hairstyles, and what looks like a fairly robust photo mode. The trailer also ends with a look at a brand-new monster called Kleavor. Additionally, the developers revealed that players will get a device called an Arc Phone, which will likely serve as a pokédex of sorts. It also looks suspiciously like the titular new Arceus pokémon being introduced in the game. Arceus isn’t launching until... Continue reading…

Illustration by William Joel I hope my headline is an overstatement, purely for job purposes, but in this week’s Vergecast artificial intelligence episode, we explore the world of large language models and how they might be used to produce AI-generated text in the future. Maybe it’ll give writers ideas for the next major franchise series, or write full blog posts, or, at the very least, fill up websites with copy that’s too arduous for humans to do.Among the people we speak to is Nick Walton, the cofounder and CEO of Latitude, which makes the game AI Dungeon, which creates a plot in the game around what you put into it. (That’s how Walton ended up in a band of traveling goblins — you’ll just have to listen to understand how that makes sense!) We also chat with... Continue reading…

Woven Planet Holdings, a subsidiary of Toyota, acquired Renovo Motors, a startup that makes operating systems for autonomous vehicles. It’s the latest acquisition that aims to accelerate Toyota’s mission to develop autonomous vehicles with connected software. The terms of the deal were not disclosed.Toyota established Woven Planet in January 2021 to invest in and develop mobility with artificial intelligence. Since then, the company has been on a shopping spree, acquiring Carmera, a firm that provides real-time, high-definition maps and data for driverless vehicles, and Lyft’s Level 5 autonomous vehicle division.Renovo converted a DeLorean with an electric powertrain and then did autonomous donuts with itRenovo, which is based in... Continue reading…

Photo by Mitchell Clark / The Verge Car of the wild Continue reading…

LG If you’re in the market for a new TV set, you’re in luck. The 65-inch version of LG’s C1 OLED is selling at an all-time low of $1,797 at Amazon and BuyDig, where you can also snag a $50 Visa gift card with your purchase. The same deal is available at Costco through October 10th, only your purchase comes with a three-year warranty through Allstate and a $100 streaming credit toward Google Play, Paramount Plus, Showtime, or Sling TV. Best Buy is selling this model for $1,799.The lauded TV, released earlier this year, offers a slew of features gamers especially will enjoy, including support for Nvidia G-Sync and AMD FreeSync technologies, which help the TV resist screen tearing. It also boasts a 120Hz refresh rate, low input lag, HDMI 2.1,... Continue reading…

Image: Ikea Today, Sonos and Ikea officially announced the second-generation Symfonisk table lamp speaker. The Verge previously reported that the product was in the pipeline, and its design, which is now more customizable and comes in different styles, leaked earlier this month. The new Symfonisk lamp will be available in Ikea’s US stores, US website, and “select markets in Europe” starting October 12th. It’ll expand to all of Ikea’s markets in 2022.Ikea is changing up how it’s selling the new model; this time around, the lamp base (available in black or white) is sold separately from two different styles of lampshades. You can get an opaque glass shade that’s somewhat reminiscent of the original lamp speaker — though this one is open-ended on top... Continue reading…

Photo Illustration by Grayson Blackmon / The Verge Covering the blood testing startup in print and audio Continue reading…

The middle child of the iOS lineup Continue reading…

Images: BrightDrop BrightDrop, which is General Motors’ new dedicated electric delivery van spinoff, has revealed its second vehicle: a smaller van with many of the same capabilities of the larger versino announced in January. The new mid-size electric van comes as BrightDrop is announcing that it has already built the first production versions of the larger van, and expects to have them on the road this year.The larger van, dubbed the EV600, has 600 cubic feet of cargo space, can travel up to 250 miles on a full battery, and has a gross vehicle weight of less than 10,000 pounds. The new van has a little more than 400 cubic feet of cargo space, and is so named “EV410.” The smaller van will also share the same standard safety features (like front and rear... Continue reading…

Image: Clubhouse Hello, hello. Welcome to week two of Hot Pod under The Verge, although I should probably count this as the first official Tuesday Hot Pod, given that last week was all mission statement and little fun. Today, I go deeper into a story I published this morning about Clubhouse’s sponsorship woes and look over some quick news. Let’s get going.EXCLUSIVE: Where are the sponsors? Inside Clubhouse’s creator programThis morning, I published a story about Clubhouse’s Creator First program, an initiative where Clubhouse offered creators a stipend to make 12 episodes of a live audio program. As part of the deal, the platform advertised that it would match these creators with sponsors so they could turn their idea into a “profitable creative... Continue reading…

Illustration by Tarik Mask Hosts looked to Clubhouse for sponsors — it rarely delivered Continue reading…

Dolby Vision is now available on Microsoft’s latest Xbox consoles. | Image: Microsoft Microsoft is bringing Dolby Vision gaming support to its Xbox Series X / S consoles today. The feature has been in testing since May and will be available in more than 100 HDR games. While Xbox has supported the HDR10 standard for years, Dolby Vision gaming is appearing first on Xbox consoles and offers support for dynamic metadata. Microsoft says this should result in “brighter highlights, sharper contrast, and more vibrant colors.”“There are more than 100 next-gen HDR titles optimized for Series X / S that will feature Dolby Vision today, and in the future you’ll see more games like Halo Infinite taking full advantage of Dolby Vision,” explains Katie Slattery, an Xbox program manager at Microsoft.Microsoft has also been working with... Continue reading…

1Password will let you create unique email address for each service. | Image: 1Password 1Password is launching a new feature to let users create unique email aliases for logins, much like Apple’s iCloud Plus Hide My Email function. 1Password is partnering with Fastmail to bring its masked email feature to the password manager, giving all users the option of hiding their email addresses from apps and services.“Your email address is your online identity,” explains Bron Gondwana, CEO of Fastmail. “If your credentials are compromised in a data breach, having a randomly generated email address adds a second line of defense because it can’t be associated with your primary email address, and therefore, your identity.” Image: 1Password 1Password will let you sign up to services with a unique email and... Continue reading…

The Void attendees wearing the the company’s headsets and VR backpacks. | Image: VERONIQUE DUPONT/AFP via Getty Images VR arcade company The Void, which offered large-scale virtual reality experiences before financial difficulties forced it to transfer its IP to a creditor late last year, is planning to make a comeback. Protocol reports that the company’s assets have been acquired by a new company called Hyper Reality Partners, headed by a former investor.The Void emerged as one of the more exciting VR arcade startups in recent years. With Disney as one of its highest-profile investors, the company offered large-scale multiplayer VR experiences, with some based on Hollywood franchises like Star Wars, Wreck-It Ralph and Avengers. Attendees would strap on a modified VR headset and a backpack containing a computer to power it, and then walk around an... Continue reading…

Photo illustration by William Joel | Photo by Andrew Caballero-Reynolds / AFP via Getty Images The company’s least-bad option might also do a lot of good Continue reading…

Popular image-sharing site Imgur has been acquired by MediaLab, a Santa Monica-based firm that describes itself as a “holding company of consumer internet brands.” The company owns a number of B-list tech and internet services, including messaging apps Kik and Whisper, lyrics annotator Genius, and viral video aggregator WorldStarHipHop.Imgur, which currently claims some 300 million users, says the move will help the company “keep the main Imgur team focused on what we do best: creating the best place for community-powered entertainment online.” In a blog post, the company said “Imgur’s journey is far from over” and that MediaLab is committing to “investing more resources in engineering and community.”MediaLab has bought a number of... Continue reading…

A redesigned lock screen could make better use of horizontal space. | Image: XDA Developers Big foldable-focused improvements are on the way for Android, if leaked code analyzed by XDA Developers is to be believed. Previous reports have suggested that this year’s Android 12 is going to be followed by a minor revision, which is expected to be called Android 12.1 based on previous naming conventions.XDA’s analysis suggests this update may deliver a host of improvements for how the operating system handles large foldable-sized screens, including offering a better split-screen UI, a lockscreen that makes better use of horizontal space, and a new taskbar that makes it easier to use multiple apps at once. They’re helpful additions that should reduce the need for manufacturers like Samsung to build their own foldable-focused UI... Continue reading…

The function row has dedicated emoji, voice dictation and mic mute keys. | Image: Logitech Logitech’s MX Keys Mini is a compact, platform-agnostic wireless keyboard that lacks the numpad found on the standard MX Keys. It costs the same amount at $99.99 despite its smaller size, yet there might be enough additions to make this one the preferable option (you know, if spending $100 on a keyboard is feasible).Logitech added a dedicated emoji key to the top row of Mini’s function keys that lets you add some personality to your messages, in addition to a voice dictation key and a mic mute key that mutes on a system level, not per application. Joining them on the function row are media and volume keys, along with an option to adjust the brightness of the keyboard backlighting.The MX Keys Mini charges via USB-C and can flip between... Continue reading…

AMD CEO Lisa Su at Code Conference 2021. | Photo: Asa Mathat Can’t get a new graphics card for your PC? You might be tempted to blame bots, scalpers or cryptocurrency miners for that — but AMD CEO Lisa Su is downplaying the impact of crypto at the 2021 Code Conference today. When asked about how big a deal crypto is for the chipmaker, she told the audience that it’s a rather small part of AMD’s business, called it “a pretty volatile space,” and suggested that it shouldn’t be a focus for AMD going forward either.That’s not a particularly surprising stance for several reasons. First, what upside there was for GPU makers like AMD and Nvidia has drastically shrunk — GPU prices have slowly been dropping amidst China’s cryptocurrency crackdown, which only got stronger this past week as China’s central... Continue reading…

Ford and South Korean battery manufacturer SK Innovation will spend a combined $11.4 billion to build several new factories in the Tennessee and Kentucky focused on the development and production of electric vehicles and the batteries that power them.The new facilities represent the first new plants built by Ford, completely from scratch, in over 50 years. The Tennessee plant will be a “mega campus” that houses a vehicle-production facility for Ford’s F-series pickup trucks and a battery assembly division, while the twin factories in Kentucky will manufacture lithium-ion batteries.“This is show, not tell time”The facilities won’t come online until 2025, but Ford CEO Jim Farley says the investment signals the seriousness with which... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge The US Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) and Activision Blizzard have settled a lawsuit over the games company’s allegedly pervasive sexual harassment and discrimination. The news follows an EEOC suit filed Monday in California court that was based on a three-year investigation including cooperation from the games publisher. As part of the settlement, Activision Blizzard will create an $18 million fund to compensate employees who claim damages.The Wall Street Journal reported last week that Activision Blizzard was in settlement talks with the EEOC, and the company said in a statement that it was “actively engaged in continued discussions with the EEOC.” In its complaint, the EEOC says it notified the company of its findings... Continue reading…

Asa Mathat During this year’s Code conference, Netflix co-CEO and chief content officer Ted Sarandos shared a significant haul of data about some of the streaming giant’s top titles — a rare move for a company that traditionally holds numbers close to the chest.In one slide, shared while Sarandos was speaking on the Code stage with Kara Swisher, Netflix shared numbers about how many accounts viewed its top 10 films and series based on the number of accounts that watched at least two minutes of the title during the first 28 days it was on Netflix.The first season of Bridgerton led its top series list with 82 million accounts having viewed the title, followed by part one of Lupin and The Witcher, with 76 million accounts having watched each. E... Continue reading…

Apparently the glowing orb is not an NFT. | Image: Epic On Monday, Tim Sweeney tweeted that Epic isn’t touching NFTs, in a public response to what was presumably an NFT pitch. He cites the space’s problem with scams as the reason for his hesitancy, which sparked some discussion in the comments (as strong statements about crypto tend to do). Sweeney has since clarified his views on NFTs a little, saying that, to him, owning an NFT is about as valuable as liking an image on Twitter and calling into question whether NFT ownership is actually non-fungible.While Sweeney’s publicly made his position clear, it’s not likely to stop him from getting a wave of NFT pitches, which you can see for yourself by searching “@TimSweeneyEpic nft” on Twitter. It’s understandable why people try, though — F... Continue reading…

The Fitbit Charge 5. | Photo by Jay Peters / The Verge Fitbit’s newest fitness tracker, the Fitbit Charge 5, is now available for purchase. The $179.95 tracker offers a number of improvements over the Charge 4, including a slimmer design and a bright color screen. But in my review, I had some frustrations with the software and the lack of any sort of physical button. And you should know that two of the new tracker’s headline features, an ECG app and the ability to give a new Daily Readiness Score, aren’t available just yet. Those are arriving in the coming months, Fitbit says.Fitbit is also announcing new features coming to some of its devices for people who subscribe to its Fitbit Premium service, which costs $9.99 per month. Snore and noise detection is now available for all Fitbit Sense... Continue reading…

Image: Google Google is killing its older Android TV remote. The move follows the company’s launch of its long-awaited Google TV remote app last week.The company confirmed to The Verge that the Android TV remote app will take a bow after the Google TV remote app — which can be used for other Android TV OS devices as well — is widely available. Android Police earlier reported the remote news.“We’re making the experience of using your phone as a virtual remote control faster to access and easier to use by upgrading the UI and integrating the feature directly into the Android mobile OS as well as the Google TV app,” a spokesperson said. “After the new remote feature is widely available, the Android TV remote app will no longer be supported and... Continue reading…

The LG C1 OLED TV supports HDMI 2.1 and 120Hz Variable Refresh Rate for use with modern consoles. | Image: LG LG’s various OLED offerings include some of the most well-received models across the industry. The C1 OLED is one of these universally praised panels, and it comes in a variety of sizes to fit people’s preferences and home theater setups. Now, some C1 models have received their biggest discounts yet, which may please those with a penchant for large TVs. Amazon, for instance, currently has the 65-inch C1 for $1,797 and the 77-inch model for $2,997, which factor out to be $703 and $500 off, respectively. For roughly the same price, you can also get either TV with a $100 streaming credit at Costco or a $50 Visa gift card at BuyDig.These are the lowest prices to date on each of these large displays, both of which feature 120Hz refresh rates... Continue reading…

In 1994, J. Michael Straczynski (Sense8, Changeling) brought the world a science fiction show like nothing we’d ever seen. Babylon 5 told a single five-year story, filled with foreshadowing, deep political intrigue, and characters who grew and evolved, at a time when most TV shows still reset the agenda after every single episode. He wrote the vast majority of the award-winning show himself, and it appears he may be about to do it again — Warner Bros. Television is now in development on a “ground-up reboot” of Babylon 5 with Straczynski as writer and showrunner, designed to air on the CW.Here’s the full description Warner Bros. provided to The Verge:

Blizzard Entertainment The Shanghai Dragons’ very first Overwatch match was an 0-4 shellacking delivered by the Los Angeles Gladiators in 2018. The team would go on to lose the next 41 straight games — encompassing the entire first season of the league and the first two games of the second season — earning them the dubious honor of having the longest losing streak in esports history. The Shanghai Dragons’ very last Overwatch match of 2021 — and the last professional Overwatch match ahead of the sequel’s launch next year — was a 4-0 beatdown they themselves visited upon the Atlanta Reign to win the 2021 Grand Finals.It is a long-time fan in-joke to call the Overwatch League “scripted.” Like a TV show, teams are given story arcs, villains and heroes are cast,... Continue reading…

Photo by Justin Sullivan/Getty Images LoveFrom, the design firm headed by Jony Ive and Marc Newson, has entered into a creative partnership with Ferrari and Ferrari’s holding company Exor to design presumably automotive-related projects and explore “the business of luxury” (via Bloomberg). LoveFrom’s output has remained somewhat unknown since Ive left Apple to start the design firm in 2019, and Ferrari marks just the second high-profile partnership for the company following a separate deal with Airbnb last year.Details on what LoveFrom is actually doing for the luxury carmaker or Exor are slim. “The first expression of this new partnership will bring together Ferrari’s legendary performance and excellence with LoveFrom’s unrivalled experience and creativity that has defined... Continue reading…

Some of Google’s new illustrations | Image: Google Google has created new images designed to be used for your Google profile picture, the company announced Monday. The new images, called Google Illustrations, look quite nice, and they could also be useful for people who want to associate an image with their account but don’t want to use a photo of themselves.Google looks to have a wide variety of options, some of which you can see in the image at the top of this post. And you can see more in the below GIF, which shows different categories of images such as animals, technology, and space. The new library of illustrations indicates that Google is taking a different approach from avatars like Snap’s Bitmoji or Microsoft’s Xbox avatars, which can let you make stylized... Continue reading…

Almost a quarter of healthcare organizations that were hit with a ransomware attack in the last two years said they had increases in patient death rates in the aftermath, according to a new report sponsored by cybersecurity company Censinet. The finding adds to a growing pile of data showing that cyberattacks aren’t just causing financial or logistical problems — they could be major health risks, as well.“There’s enough impact from ransomware on patient care that it’s undeniable” says Ed Gaudet, CEO and founder at Censinet. “We should not be afraid to look at this data, and to keep pushing on this question.”The analysis, conducted by a research institute called the Ponemon Institute, collected survey responses from nearly 600... Continue reading…

Cancillería del Ecuador / Flickr The Trump administration’s CIA actively developed plans to kidnap or assassinate Wikileaks founder Julian Assange during his seclusion in London’s Ecuadorian embassy, according to a detailed new report from Yahoo News. Scenarios included abducting Assange from the embassy, intercepting a Russian effort to extract him, or an outright assassination attempt. While none of the operations were ever approved, they paint an alarming portrait of intelligence agencies’ ongoing obsession with Wikileaks and its controversial founder.As sources, Yahoo cites conversations with more than 30 former US officials. Among those, eight provided details on plans to kidnap Assange.The report mostly details operations developed during the Trump... Continue reading…