The Verge

Photo: For Colored Nerds hosts Eric Eddings and Brittany Luse | SiriusXM/Stitcher The co-hosts of The Nod are back, and this time, they’ve separated from Gimlet Media and Spotify and are instead taking their work to SiriusXM’s Stitcher. Brittany Luse and Eric Eddings tell The Verge today that they’re relaunching their Black culture show For Colored Nerds this fall, which they created, hosted, and produced prior to working at Gimlet. The podcast will be available widely and isn’t exclusive to one platform.Stitcher will produce the show along with them, and SXM Media will exclusively sell ads for it. The co-hosts last published a For Colored Nerds episode in 2017, but the same feed will be revived for the comeback.Notably, Eddings and Luse retain total control over their show — they own the audio masters, the feed,... Continue reading…

Premium Lite offers ad-free viewing at a lower price. | Screenshot: YouTube Google is piloting a more affordable premium subscription tier for YouTube that offers ad-free viewing without YouTube Premium’s other features like offline downloads or background playback. The new “Premium Lite” plan was spotted by a user on ResetEra, and YouTube subsequently confirmed the test offering in a statement given to The Verge. Premium Lite is currently being tested in Belgium, Denmark, Finland, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway, and Sweden.“In Nordics and Benelux (except for Iceland), we’re testing a new offering to give users even more choice: Premium Lite costs €6.99/month (or local equivalent per month) and it includes ad-free videos on YouTube,” a YouTube spokesperson said in a statement. In comparison, YouTube’s... Continue reading…

The door that may lead to Super Nintendo World’s Donkey Kong-themed area. | Photo by Sam Byford / The Verge Super Nintendo World, the Super Mario-themed area of Universal Studios Japan in Osaka, finally opened back in March after multiple delays, and Nintendo may already be working on expanding the park. As noted by VGC, social media posts from recent visitors to USJ have shown cranes, scaffolding, and a jungle-themed backdrop around Super Nintendo World, suggesting work is underway on the rumored Donkey Kong area.Neither Nintendo nor Universal have ever announced the Donkey Kong plans, but they’ve been rumored for many years. Leaked early concept imagery for Super Nintendo World included plans for a separate Donkey Kong-themed zone, including a mine cart-style roller coaster. Upon opening, Super Nintendo World was solely Mario-themed, but... Continue reading…

Illustration by William Joel / The Verge If you still have a device running Android 2.3.7 (the final version of Gingerbread) or older, Google won’t let you sign in to your Google account on that device starting September 27th, according to a support document (via Liliputing).“As part of our ongoing efforts to keep our users safe, Google will no longer allow sign-in on Android devices that run Android 2.3.7 or lower starting September 27, 2021,” the company says. “If you sign into your device after September 27, you may get username or password errors when you try to use Google products and services like Gmail, YouTube, and Maps.”Android 2.3.7 was released nearly 10 years agoTo give you an idea of just how old a device will be affected by this change, Android 2.3.7 was... Continue reading…

Somebody using a Square product on their phone. | Image: Square Square plans to acquire Australian company Afterpay, which offers a “buy now, pay later” service that lets you pay for purchases in installments interest-free, for $29 billion in stock, the two companies announced Sunday. It’s the latest big move for Square, which has also announced a Bitcoin business unit and that it bought a majority stake in the Tidal streaming service this year.“Buy now, pay later” services like those offered by Afterpay, Affirm, and Klarna have become increasingly prevalent across the web. And Square may not be the only payments giant jumping into the ring, as Apple is reportedly working on a similar service of its own that’s internally called “Apple Pay Later.”The transaction is expected to close in the first... Continue reading…

Photos of the rumored Samsung Galaxy Watch 4 Classic. | Image: 91mobiles We’re a little over a week away from Samsung’s next Unpacked event, but new photos from 91mobiles may have revealed our first in-person look at two things we could see at the show: the rumored Galaxy Watch 4 Classic and the new smartwatch OS from Samsung and Google.The two photos from 91moblies show off black and silver watches with rounded bezels, matching a design seen in leaked renders from Android Headlines and detailed GIFs posted by noted leaker Evan Blass in July. Perhaps more significantly, the photos show the new smartwatch OS (currently referred to as Wear) on actual devices for the first time. But disappointingly, there isn’t much to see — just an initial setup screen and a screen asking the user to set the time.Google and... Continue reading…

Image: Epic Games Last week, Epic Games teased that a “record-breaking superstar” would be performing in Fortnite’s upcoming Rift Tour concert series, and now we know that the mystery performer is none other than Ariana Grande.The five-show concert series kicks off August 6th at 6PM ET, and shows will run through August 8th. (You can find the full schedule here.) Epic recommends being ready in-game 60 minutes before any of the performances so that you can jump into the Rift Tour playlist when it goes live 30 minutes ahead of showtime. Fortnite events have filled up in the past — I personally missed Fortnite’s “The Device” event in-game because I signed on too late — so I’d recommend showing up early to the Rift Tour shows just in case.

Dwayne Johnson and Emily Blunt in Disney’s Jungle Cruise. | Image: Disney Disney’s Jungle Cruise debuted in theaters and as a Disney Plus Premier Access title this weekend, and early revenue totals from the entertainment giant show that streaming accounted for a third of the film’s revenues, according to The Hollywood Reporter. Sunday’s Jungle Cruise numbers mark the second time Disney has released figures for a movie offered as part of the Premier Access program, which lets Disney Plus subscribers pay $30 to stream certain films the same day they hit theaters.Jungle Cruise’s $30 million is half of the $60 million Black Widow earned on Disney Plus over the same period following its early July debut, but Jungle Cruise’s Disney Plus revenue represented a bigger slice of the total revenue pie than streaming did... Continue reading…

Illustration by Ari Liloan for The Verge To combat online polarization, Polemix aims to make young people ‘listen to the outside’ Continue reading…

Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge Earlier this week during Apple’s earnings call, CEO Tim Cook said that the iPad had experienced its most successful June quarter in nearly a decade. And now IDC is out with its latest worldwide shipment figures that underline Apple’s commanding lead over the tablet competition. After refreshing the iPad Air in 2020 and launching an upgraded iPad Pro earlier this year, Apple is next expected to update the iPad Mini.IDC estimates that Apple shipped 12.9 million iPads in the second quarter. Its nearest competition is Samsung, which hit 8 million shipments. Samsung’s Galaxy Tab S7 tablets offer fantastic hardware and punchy OLED screens, but they remain hamstrung by Android’s less-than-stellar selection of tablet apps. Lenovo, which... Continue reading…

Image: Google Google has recently been selling a combo-package of the Stadia Controller and 2020 Chromecast as a limited-time promotion. But as spotted by 9to5Google, the company has now made the pair a permanent bundle that it’s calling the “play and watch” package.For $99.99, you get both the controller and streaming dongle. That’s a savings of $19 compared to buying both products separately. Google is also promoting the Chromecast ethernet adapter as a recommended accessory; if you want the absolute best Stadia experience, it’s probably a smart buy — and it’s a mere $9.99 ($10 off) when purchased alongside the bundle.In an effort to clear out inventory of the old, puck-shaped Chromecast Ultra, Google is discounting its Stadia Premiere Edition... Continue reading…

Photo by Bernd Muller/Redferns The official video for Rick Astley’s 1987 hit “Never Gonna Give You Up” has surpassed 1 billion plays on YouTube. The song became a lasting part of internet culture thanks to the Rickroll meme and reached the impressive milestone a couple days ago. Astley took to the video’s comments to share his gratitude, saying “amazing, crazy, wonderful!” In a video posted to Instagram, he added “the world is a wonderful and beautiful place, and I am very lucky.”With some songs having crossed as many as 7 billion views in recent years, the 1 billion club isn’t quite as prestigious as it once was. But the achievement goes to show the staying power of the Rickroll prank. The video hit daily views of 2.3 million on April Fools Day, according to B... Continue reading…

Nanoleaf’s canvas light panels are easy to set up and can display more than 16 million colors. | Image: Nanoleaf If you like your lighting to be on the adventurous side, rest assured that Nanoleaf’s canvas light panels aren’t made to be subtle. The touch-sensitive squares are flashy and versatile, with the ability to display more than 16 million colors and a modular design that lets you place them in a variety of patterns. The bright LED panels also work with all the major smart home platforms, and can cycle through a number of preset colors or respond to sound when in “Rhythm Mode,” a feature that’s just as suited for the ambient noise outside your bedroom as your favorite record. Right now, Costco members can purchase Nanoleaf’s Canvas Light Panel smarter pack with nine panels and everything needed to get started for $150, one of the better... Continue reading…

Image: Telegram Telegram has announced the latest new features and improvements making their way to the popular messaging app. Video is the focus this time around. After launching group video calls last month, those sessions are now able to tally up to 1,000 viewers. The maximum number of people able to participate and broadcast to the video call remains at 30, but you can have quite the audience now for “anything from online lectures to live rap battles,” according to the company.Video messages will also now come through at a higher resolution, and you can tap them for a larger view of the clip. When recording your own video messages, Telegram says that audio from your device will now keep playing as you do so, “so you can now sing along to your... Continue reading…

Illustration by Ari Liloan for The Verge Digital fan clubs are turning into single-purpose social networks Continue reading…

If you’re invested in the story of Master Chief, Cortana, and the fate of the Halo universe, you might want to keep your head down and start muting some keywords on social media until Halo Infinite arrives later this year — because vast spoilers for the game’s entire story are now floating around on the internet.Note: we’ll be keeping this post spoiler-free, though.Halo Infinite creative director Joseph Staten confirmed on Twitter that Microsoft accidentally leaked “a small number of Halo Infinite campaign files” when it launched the game’s first multiplayer beta yesterday on July 29th, saying they “can ruin the campaign experience for everyone.”

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge More disturbing allegations of Activision Blizzard’s reported culture of sexual harassment and gender-based discrimination have been reported in recent days, following a huge lawsuit filed against the company by California’s Department of Fair Employment and Housing (DFEH) last week.Details in these stories may be challenging to read, so we are prefacing them with a content warning for descriptions of sexual harassment.On Thursday, The New York Times posted a story of extremely distressing accounts of Activision Blizzard’s culture. Here is one from Shay Stein, a former customer service employee:

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Twitter is holding a competition in hopes that hackers and researchers will be able to identify biases in its image cropping algorithm — and it’s going to be handing out cash prizes to winning teams (via Engadget). Twitter is hoping that giving teams access to its code and image cropping model will let them find ways that the algorithm could be harmful (such as it cropping in a way that stereotypes or erases the image’s subject).Those competing will have to submit a description of their findings, and a dataset that can be run through the algorithm to demonstrate the issue. Twitter will then assign points based on what kind of harms are found, how much it could potentially affect people, and more.The winning team will be awarded... Continue reading…

Decentralized social network Mastodon now has an official iPhone app. The nonprofit behind Mastodon launched the app on iOS today, supplementing an existing web version and several third-party apps for iOS, Android, and other platforms. The app is free and offers a similar feature set to Mastodon’s core service, although it doesn’t include Mastodon’s broad local and federated timelines.Mastodon describes the app as particularly geared toward getting new users on board the nontraditional social platform. As we’ve outlined before, Mastodon looks similar to Twitter but is built around independently run communities (and the ActivityPub protocol) rather than a single central network. You can create your account on a community of your choice... Continue reading…

A rendering of what the “Victorian Big Battery” will look like when completed. | Image: Neoen A Tesla Megapack caught fire today during initial testing of a highly anticipated new utility-scale battery in Victoria, Australia. Luckily, there were no injuries or disruptions to the local electricity supply, CNBC reports. The blaze posed no risk of spreading to the nearby community, according to Bloomberg, but it did trigger a toxic smoke warning for residents who were told to stay indoors, the Sydney Morning Herald reported. The cause of the fire is still unclear.

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 on The Vergecast, Nilay and Dieter bring back Verge managing editor Alex Cranz and Verge news editor Chaim Gartenberg to chat about the headlines.It’s earnings week once again. Unsurprisingly, all of the big tech companies made a lot of money this past quarter. Our podcast crew dives into the numbers behind the profits of Google, Microsoft, Samsung, Amazon, and Apple and what it means for each business’s future goals.The show also dedicates some time to discuss Intel’s business. Chaim leads the discussion after writing a... Continue reading…

Smoke rises over the mountains in Lytton, as firefighters battle the fires in British Columbia, July 6, 2021. | Photo by Mert Alper Dervis/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images The devastating heatwave that struck the Northwest US and southwest Canada in June was “the most extreme summer heatwave” ever recorded in North America, according to a new analysis from nonprofit research group Berkeley Earth. That’s based on the magnitude of the heatwave, or how much warmer it was than normal. Record temperatures in the region reached roughly 20 degrees Celsius (or 36 °F) hotter than average in June.Canada recorded its hottest temperature ever on June 29th when the village of Lytton in British Columbia reached an astonishing 49.6 degrees Celsius (121 degrees Fahrenheit). Typical temperatures there in June are closer to 20 to 30 degrees Celsius (68 to 86 degrees Fahrenheit).The consequences of that heat are... Continue reading…

The ridiculous sounds of social sites Continue reading…

Photo By: Will Heath/NBC/NBCU Photo Bank via Getty Images Elon Musk has had a busy Friday on Twitter. After flatly denying that he has ever spoken to Apple CEO Tim Cook in response to a wild story alleging he demanded to take over as the company’s CEO as part of an acquisition offer, Musk has now tweeted his support of Epic Games’ fight against Apple over App Store policies.“Apple app store fees are a de facto global tax on the Internet,” he said. “Epic is right.”

Tesla CEO Elon Musk reportedly demanded to become Apple’s CEO in a 2016 phone call with current Apple CEO Tim Cook, according to an upcoming book about Tesla. The story, shared by the Los Angeles Times, comes from Power Play: Tesla, Elon Musk, and the Bet of the Century by The Wall Street Journal reporter Tim Higgins.As the book tells it, Cook suggested to Musk that Apple acquire Tesla, and Musk said he wanted to be CEO. Cook reportedly agreed, but Musk clarified that he wanted to be the CEO of Apple. “According to a former aide who heard (Musk’s) retelling of the exchange,” Cook said “Fuck you” before hanging up the phone.But Musk and Apple have both suggested that the conversation couldn’t have happened because Musk and Cook have... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge The sweeping federal antitrust case against Google has given rise to a significant fight over data held by Microsoft, and the company is now facing a subpoena for millions of documents that could shed light on its attempts to compete with Google’s search engine. Having initially cooperated with prosecutors in building an antitrust case against Google, Microsoft could be obligated to produce millions more documents at the request of Google’s defense team.At a status hearing on Friday morning, Judge Amit Mehta heard arguments from both Google and Microsoft on the issue, but ultimately found more information was required before the court could give guidance as to how much internal data Microsoft would be required to produce.“No third... Continue reading…

Photo by Mark Wilson/Getty Images The Government Accountability Office squashed Blue Origin’s protest over NASA’s decision to pick a single lunar lander contractor, the agency said Friday, also denying a similar protest from Dynetics. The GAO’s decision keeps Blue Origin’s rival, Elon Musk’s SpaceX, the sole winner of NASA’s lucrative Moon lander program and hands a loss to Jeff Bezos, whose space company waged a months-long fight to win the same funding.In formal protests filed in April, Bezos’ Blue Origin and defense contractor Dynetics accused NASA of running afoul of contracting law when the agency shelved their proposals and gave Musk’s SpaceX a lone $2.9 billion contract to build the country’s first human lunar lander in decades and land a crew on the Moon by... Continue reading…

Photo: Marvel Studios How the team at Digital Domain destroyed a world Continue reading…

Normally $50 a pop, BuyDig is offering a trio of Google Nest Minis for nearly 60 percent off. | Photo by Chris Welch / The Verge Like Amazon’s Echo Dot, the Google Nest Mini is a miniature take on the larger smart speakers that came before it. The compact device doesn’t boast the same sound quality as the Nest Audio, but it's impressive for its size, especially when mounted to a wall or placed in a smaller room. What’s more, it packs backlit volume buttons and many of the same features that have come to define the category, including the ability to answer voice queries, control your smart home, and play music, adding to its overall versatility.If you’re already tapped into the Google ecosystem or are looking for an inexpensive way to strew audio throughout your home, BuyDig is currently offering a three-pack of Google Nest Minis on eBay for $64, significantly... Continue reading…

Photo by Sean O’Kane / The Verge Tesla agreed to pay $1.5 million to settle a lawsuit alleging the company used a software update to reduce the maximum battery voltage for some of its Model S sedans, Reuters reports.The software update, which was released in 2019, resulted in slower charging speed and diminished range for around 1,743 vehicles, the plaintiffs alleged. As a result of the settlement, Tesla agreed to pay $625 to each of the affected vehicle owners.Tesla agreed to pay $625 to each of the affected vehicle owners“This amount is many times the prorated value of the temporarily reduced maximum voltage, and thus represents an excellent and efficient result for the Settlement Class,” the court document reads. “In return, the Settlement Class will release... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Lawmakers cling to flawed evidence while restricting care for trans youth Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge If you’re a TikTok creator, then you know how quickly those minutes of video can fly by. One of the ways you can move storytelling along is by using transitions between clips.While TikTok offers a handful of templates that resemble slideshow presentation transitions, these don’t seem to be very popular. Instead, many users opt for manual transitions that use video editing and recording tricks to make their video flow from one clip to the next. Some of these transitions are relatively simple and only require a couple of steps, while others need a little bit of planning.All the transitions serve a purpose, though, and that is to move the video along and keep pace with either the music or what the person is saying. Transitions can also... Continue reading…

Roscosmos Russia’s space agency blamed a “short-term software failure” for yesterday’s engine mishap with its new science module. The module’s thrusters unexpectedly fired hours after docking, shifting the International Space Station off its normal position. The software glitch caused the Nauka module to think it was supposed to back away from the station.The space station, a football field-sized research laboratory floating 270 miles up in low-Earth orbit, was shoved 45 degrees off track once Nauka’s thrusters started firing. NASA said it lost control of the station’s positioning minutes later, but it was eventually repositioned back to normal after thrusters from another Russian module counteracted Nauka’s errant firings.“Due to a short-term... Continue reading…

Fireside The Mark Cuban-funded and co-founded audio app Fireside has yet to publicly launch, but already it’s asking the limited creators on its platform for money. In an email sent to users late last night and viewed by The Verge, co-founder and CEO Falon Fatemi says she and the team are accepting investments through the month of August from anyone who’s interested.“If you believe in our vision, this is your chance to be part of it,” she writes. “Put your money where your mouth is :) (We did.)”The email says more details are to come and doesn’t disclose the deal terms, how the investments will work, what the app’s valuation is, or how much the team is hoping to raise. But the email does also make a couple other announcements about the future... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Now that Amazon’s Q2 earnings are in, it has submitted a 10-Q filing with the SEC that includes additional details like this eye-popping note about a fine imposed by Luxembourg’s National Commission for Data Protection (CNPD) (via Bloomberg).

Illustration by Ari Liloan for The Verge ‘We are delivery boys who want to raise our voices’ Continue reading…

If it’s approved, the bipartisan infrastructure deal announced this week will make it easier for Americans to buy and own an electric car. But it won’t help meet President Joe Biden’s ambitious goal to cut carbon emissions in half by 2030.Experts in urban policy and electrification told The Verge that the money authorized for a nationwide network of EV chargers would have a measurable impact on Americans’ car-buying choices. The $1 trillion deal ($550 billion of which is new spending) includes $7.5 billion to fund Biden’s plan to build half a million EV chargers across the country, which will help mend the mostly fractured, occasionally broken system we currently have. A more dependable charging network will likely help juice EV sales... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge This week, the dam broke. With COVID-19 surging around the United States and vaccination rates stagnating, federal agencies and state governments started announcing vaccine mandates for their workers. The Department of Veterans Affairs was the first federal agency to introduce a mandate, and Thursday, President Joe Biden announced that all federal employees would have to be vaccinated or face testing and other protocols. New York City and Los Angeles will also require city workers to get vaccinated.Private companies are doing the same. Google said Wednesday that employees would have to be vaccinated to come to the office, and Facebook and Lyft followed with their own announcements hours later. Some New York City restaurants are... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Apple is a notoriously secretive company, and a cease and desist letter recently acquired by Motherboard sheds new light on exactly why, arguing that leaks harm accessory makers, consumers, and Apple itself.The C&D order reportedly sent to a Chinese citizen by Apple’s lawyers in China, says that leaks about Apple’s iPhone dimensions could mislead case manufacturers, who might make accessories that are incompatible with the final product. As Apple puts it, “third-party accessory manufacturers may develop and sell mobile phone cases and other accessories that are not actually compatible with the unreleased products.” Motherboard notes that the market for Apple accessories is estimated to be worth almost $20 billion worldwide.“The secret... Continue reading…

Photo credit should read JULIO CESAR AGUILAR/AFP via Getty Images The Beatles seminal Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band is set to receive another Dolby Atmos mix, after producer Giles Martin, son of the album’s original producer George Martin, admitted that the current version “doesn’t sound quite right.” The current mix, produced by the younger Martin in 2017, was made with Dolby Atmos theaters in mind, rather than personal listening via services like Apple Music. “I’m gonna replace it,” the said the two time Grammy winner to Rolling Stone. “It’s good. But it’s not right.”The current Atmos mix of the album was created to coincide with its 50th anniversary in 2017. At the time, it was designed to be played in Dolby Atmos cinemas at a series of live listening events. But now that it is available... Continue reading…

An AMD Radeon RX 6600 XT GPU from Asus | Image: AMD AMD has a new entry-level RX 6000-series GPU: the $379 RX 6600 XT, which is still based on the same RDNA 2 architecture as its beefier cousins, but it offers a more wallet-friendly price point. The new card promises the “ultimate 1080p gaming experience,” for customers who don’t necessarily need a next-gen 4K gaming setup.At a suggested retail price of $379 (AMD isn’t selling its own version of the card), the RX 6600 XT slots at an even cheaper price point than the $479 RX 6700 XT that the company released earlier this year, which targeted 1440p gaming.The RX 6600 XT features 32 compute units, 8GB of GDDR6 RAM, a 2359 MHz base clock, 2589 MHz boosted clock, and draws 160W of power. For comparison, the top-of-the-line RX 6900 XT 80... Continue reading…

Photo Illustration by Igor Golovniov/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images Following a prolonged standoff between Dish Network and AT&T over licensing terms to carry HBO channels, Dish has reached an agreement with WarnerMedia to offer HBO, HBO Max, and Cinemax.Dish TV customers nationwide will be able to access both the HBO and Cinemax networks today, though they’ll need to subscribe to HBO Max to get linear HBO. To promote the deal, Dish will run a free 10-day preview of the premium networks for existing customers right around the time the Olympics Games will be wrapping up, from August 6 to August 15. Customers don’t have to do anything to take advantage of the preview; the networks will appear automatically.Users interested in subscribing to HBO Max can score a discounted subscription to the service’s... Continue reading…

Verizon’s hotspot plans offer mobile data that can be shared with other devices in your luxury camper van, er, house. | Image: Verizon Verizon has introduced new mobile hotspot plans, with four options to choose from starting at 15GB for $20 per month up to 150GB for $80 per month. They offer standalone and unlimited plan add-on mobile hotspot data that’s ready to be taken on the road. Maybe in a Class B Winnebago Solis with a pop-up sleeping compartment, as featured on Wheel of Fortune, south through the redwoods and along the coast and then on through the painted deserts of the Southwest. What? I said that out loud? I mean, hypothetically.Anyway, the most basic plan, Essential, offers low-band Nationwide 5G and 4G LTE connectivity. The three more expensive plans — creatively named Plus, Pro, and Premium — include Ultra Wideband 5G, which encompasses the very fast,... Continue reading…

A screenshot from Destiny 2. | Image: Bungie Destiny 2 developer Bungie revealed a whole lot of information about the game’s upcoming crossplay support in a blog post on Thursday afternoon. Let’s get this out of the way first: Bungie still doesn’t have an exact date for when you’ll be able to play with your friends on other platforms, but the studio promises the feature will launch “early” in Season 15, which is expected to kick off on August 24th.Season 15 will also bring an important change to ensure you have a persistent identity across platforms for crossplay: a new Bungie Name system. Your Bungie Name will be generated based on the name associated with the platform you play Season 15 on first, and will look something like PlayerName#1234. You can get a better idea of how it... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Snapchat experienced a massive issue Thursday evening, with more than 125,000 users reporting problems on Downdetector. I tried logging into the app on my iPhone 12 Mini, and the app just crashed every time I tried to open it. Two other Verge staffers weren’t able to open the app, either.Snap acknowledged the problem in a tweet at 6:51PM ET. “We’re aware of an issue preventing some Snapchatters from logging in,” the company said from Snapchat’s support account. “Hang tight, we are looking into it and working on a fix!” Snap reported the issue solved five hours later. Snapchat support advises users to manually update the app in the App Store if issues continue.The outage followed a nasty bug from June where a version of the iOS... Continue reading…

Photo: Turn 10 Studios Forza Motorsport 7 will no longer be available to purchase from the Microsoft Store or play on Xbox Game Pass after September 15th, 2021, as it’s reaching “end of life” status. The game won’t be completely going away — if you own it you’ll still be able to download and play it, and the multiplayer will still be accessible, but anyone without the game won’t be able to buy the digital version. According to the Forza Twitter account, this is happening because the game’s licenses to use real-world cars and tracks are starting to expire.If you’re a long-time Forza fan, you may have seen this happen before. Games in the series have historically been delisted around four years after their release. Horizon 3 was delisted in September 2020 after... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Robinhood started trading at $38, dropped about 10 percent, recovered, but still closed down 8 percent at $34.90 on its first day of trading. It’s the worst first day among 51 firms that raised as much as Robinhood or more, according to Bloomberg. It’s also bad news for Robinhood’s experiment at offering retail investors a chunk of the IPO.Robinhood’s shares priced at the bottom of the targeted price range of $38 to $42 a share, perhaps because of concerns about volatility or perhaps because Robinhood wanted to ensure a pop for its retail investors. And though Robinhood had said it would allocate up to 35 percent of its shares to retail, only 20 percent actually went to retail, which “indicated less interest than expected,” according to... Continue reading…

Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge The first major system update for Sony’s PlayStation 5 is arriving in beta form today, finally letting you expand the console’s 667GB of usable storage by adding your own PCIe Gen 4 SSD as well as testing new UI options and expanding 3D Audio support. But the full changelog also includes a few features that Sony didn’t highlight to press — including a way to easily update your DualSense controller if you press the wrong button!You see, the PS5 currently has a very silly flaw: the only time you can update your controller is when you boot the console. And if you say no or accidentally press the O button instead of X, you can’t trigger that update until 24 hours have passed (or you tweak your PS5’s internal clock to cheat it).But in Beta... Continue reading…

Image: Marvel Scarlett Johansson is suing Disney over the simultaneous streaming release of Black Widow, which debuted the same day in theaters and on Disney Plus through its Premier Access service.The suit was filed Thursday in Los Angeles Superior Court and alleges that Johansson’s contract with Marvel Entertainment, which is owned by Disney, ensured a “wide theatrical release” of the film. The suit says it’s “well understood” that the agreement meant an exclusive release that would not include streaming. Johansson’s salary was in part based on the box office performance of the film, the suit says, meaning the streaming offer could meaningfully cut into her paycheck.“Disney knew that the cannibalization of [box office receipts] by Disney+ would... Continue reading…

The Motorola Edge 20 Pro, Edge 20, and Edge 20 Lite all support 5G and come with a 6.7-inch OLED. | Image: Motorola Motorola is keeping its return to flagship devices running for the second year in a row with today’s global announcement of the Edge 20 Pro, Edge 20, and Edge 20 Lite. The top-end 20 Pro includes a periscope-style telephoto lens for the first time in a Motorola device and includes a Snapdragon 870 processor.All three devices support sub-6GHz 5G, offer 108-megapixel rear-facing cameras, and include 6.7-inch OLED screens with fast refresh rates. They’re due to arrive in August in Europe, Latin America, and Asia. While Motorola doesn’t offer specifics, it says that it plans to bring a 5G Edge device to North America this fall. Image: Motorola The Edge 20 Pro comes in a handsome indigo vegan leather option. P... Continue reading…