The Verge

Riot is bringing a new League of Legends experience to Netflix Games.Riot Forge, a publishing subsidiary of Riot Games dedicated to smaller, self-contained games within the League of Legends universe in collaboration with Bit.Trip developer Choice Provisions, announced its latest game: Hextech Mayhem: A League of Legends Story.Hextech Mayhem is a rhythm game in which you bounce League of Legends characters Ziggs and Heimerdinger to the beat of the music, unleashing city-busting bombs along the way. In addition to being available on Switch and PC on November 16th, the game will also be available at a later date to Netflix subscribers.Netflix recently announced it’s integrating games into its mobile app. While the initial offering of... Continue reading…

Illustration by Michelle Rohn The model talks about her new book, copyright law, online harassment, and OnlyFans Continue reading…

Photo by Jeff Fusco/Getty Images for Comcast This morning many Comcast Xfinity subscribers woke up without their usual services. Reports indicate the system was down, or at least unsteady, in areas stretching from Chicago to Philadelphia, New Jersey, and South Carolina. Looking at DownDetector, issues had been reported earlier in the Bay Area, but it’s unclear if those are connected to the problems people saw this morning.Comcast has released a statement regarding the outage. According to a spokesperson, “Earlier, some customers experienced intermittent service disruptions as a result of a network issue. We have addressed the issue and service is now restoring for impacted customers, as we continue to investigate the root cause. We apologize to those who were affected.” It appears... Continue reading…

Image: Netflix If you’re still reeling from the end of Squid Game season one, get ready to board the emotional rollercoaster once again because season two is coming.

The Surface Laptop SE is designed for schools. | Image: Microsoft Microsoft is going head to head with Chromebooks with a new $249 Surface Laptop SE, its most affordable Surface yet. While the software giant has attempted to compete with the popularity of Chrome OS in US schools for years, the Surface Laptop SE is the company’s first true Chromebook competitor.Surface Laptop SE will be sold exclusively to schools and students, starting at $249. It’s part of a much broader effort with Windows 11 SE, a new student edition designed to compete with Chrome OS that will ship on a range of low-cost laptops in the coming months. You can read all about Windows 11 SE right here. Image: Microsoft The Surface Laptop SE is all plastic. Surface Laptop SE is every bit the low-cost Windows... Continue reading…

Lego has announced its latest supersized Star Wars set: an $800, 6,785-piece replica of the iconic AT-AT tank, most famously seen assaulting the Rebel base on Hoth in The Empire Strikes Back.Unsurprisingly, the new set is part of the Lego Ultimate Collector Series lineup, which has offered ultra-accurate (and ultra-pricey) recreations of classic Star Wars ships and characters for years, like the recently released Republic Gunship or the adorable R2-D2.And while Lego has released plenty of AT-AT sets before, none of them are anything close to as cool as the new one, which stands 24.5 inches high and measures 27 inches long, with posable legs and removable sides to show off the interiors. The troop carrier is also fit to... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Netflix is finally mixing games into its gargantuan library of content. It’s a huge power play and a markedly different approach from rival services that are primarily focused on snapping up IP. It’s a new way for Netflix to keep subscribers hooked on its service — and gaming could just be its winning play for continued streaming dominance.Netflix has been experimenting with gaming for a hot minute, but the global rollout of games within the Netflix app itself, announced last week, marks a significant shift in the streamer’s strategy for getting those games to its users. (Games began rolling out to Android devices last week, but the company says that an iOS launch is “on the way.”) Netflix’s games will now be accessible to users much... Continue reading…

Windows 11 SE is a new edition of Windows for students. | Image: Microsoft Microsoft has created a new edition of Windows 11 designed for students and schools. Windows 11 SE will ship exclusively on low-cost laptops that are built for K-8 classrooms, and it marks another attempt by Microsoft to take on Google’s range of Chromebooks and their popularity in US schools.Microsoft has struggled to understand why schools and students have flocked to Chromebooks. The company tried an S Mode previously that essentially locked Windows 10 down to apps from the Microsoft Store. The restriction was more of an irritation for end users and schools, as there weren’t enough apps available in the Microsoft Store for it to make sense. Image: Microsoft Windows 11 SE comes with all the key Microsoft 365... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge All signs point to Sony’s PlayStation store opening the floodgates for yet another PS5 restock today at 2PM ET / 11AM PT. Before you get too excited, however, keep in mind that the chances for just anyone to waltz in and get one at that time are low. That’s because this one is apparently being hosted for people who received invites to purchase a console.Sony opened up registration for a PS5 invite in mid-October and promised that it would host November restocking events for those lucky enough to have been extended an invite. So for today’s restock, it’s likely that those who registered in October are now having their chance to get a console. If you recall registering a while ago, you should check your inbox now.Thankfully, all hope... Continue reading…

Illustration by Kristen Radtke / The Verge If you’re a longtime listener of The Vergecast, then you know that USB-C comes up a lot. Anytime our colleague Chaim Gartenberg joins the show, there is going to be a brief aside about the complications of USB-C and the many varieties of USB-C cables.The reason USB-C can be complicated is that we have one plug that does multiple things — from low power to ridiculously high 240-watt power. From basic data to super high-speed data. Thunderbolt. Display monitors. Audio. The dream of a single cable and plug is great, but it’s also confusing.For today’s Vergecast, we wanted to take a step back and focus an entire episode on what USB-C is, where it’s at today, and what’s in store for its future. How do we know what cable to buy? Why is... Continue reading…

Decent hardware saddled with old and tired software Continue reading…

Photo by Axelle/Bauer-Griffin/FilmMagic Apple CEO Tim Cook has confirmed that he has invested his personal money in cryptocurrency during a discussion today at the New York Times’ Dealbook conference. “I think it’s reasonable to own it as part of a diversified portfolio,” the CEO said during a conversation with Andrew Ross Sorkin. “I’m not giving anyone investment advice, by the way,” he quickly followed up, without specifying which specific cryptocurrencies he has invested in.“I’ve been interested in it for a while. I’ve been researching it and so forth ... I think it’s interesting,” the CEO continued.Although Cook confirmed his own investment in cryptocurrency, he was a lot more guarded about Apple’s plans as a company. He ruled out investing the company’s cash balance in... Continue reading…

Photo by Wyze Wyze, the brand that’s known for its budget-friendly line of smart home products, has just introduced a new affordable security device to its ecosystem: the Wyze Floodlight Cam. Photo by Wyze The wired Wyze Floodlight Cam sits at a price of $84.99 (plus $14.99 for shipping), which is quite a bit lower when compared to other floodlight cams in the same range. Ring’s Floodlight Cam Wired Plus, for example, sells for $179.99. On the higher end of the scale, the Arlo Pro 3 Floodlight Camera costs $249.99, and the same goes for the feature-filled Ring Floodlight Cam Pro.In terms of specs, it actually surpasses its direct competitor — the Ring Floodlight Cam Wired Plus — and it’s also almost $100 less. The Wyze... Continue reading…

Photo by Dan Seifert / The Verge Google’s second-gen Nest Hub already comes with the ability to help you track your sleep pattern, thanks to its Soli-powered Sleep Sensing feature, but now Google is rolling out an update that should help you get a more detailed look at the quality of your slumber. According an announcement post on the company’s Keyword blog, the Nest Hub will now display a Sleep Staging chart that shows your various stages of sleep, including how long you were awake or experiencing REM, light, or deep sleep. Photo: Google Google is also adding an update to the Nest Hub’s sound detection. Instead of capturing all the sounds in your room while you sleep, it should only track the coughs and snores it detects from your calibrated... Continue reading…

Photo Illustration by Grayson Blackmon / The Verge Better, faster, smaller chargers Continue reading…

After two months, the Elizabeth Holmes trial has settled into some particular rhythms. Reporters and curious onlookers line up in the early hours of the morning for access to the trial, clutching coffees from the Starbucks down the street. Holmes shows up in colorful masks, often holding hands with her mother. And Judge Edward Davila lectures everyone sitting in the public section of the courtroom about typing too loudly.I was in the courtroom last month for one such admonition. Apparently, jurors had been complaining that the typing noises from people taking notes about the trial — which isn’t recorded and doesn’t have a call-in line — were distracting them from paying attention to the testimony. Davila keeps threatening to kick... Continue reading…

Image: Qualcomm While a lot of talk about the metaverse has focused on virtual reality experiences that use a VR headset to put people in digital environments, other approaches use augmented reality (AR) or mixed reality (XR) to blend digital and physical elements. Today at the Augmented World Expo, Qualcomm is revealing its Snapdragon Spaces XR Developer Platform, a kit that will help devs expand existing apps and create new ones to take advantage of AR devices you wear on your head.Today’s announcement doesn’t include mention of new hardware, however, Qualcomm is lining up some important partners for the mixed reality future that it’s been planning for the last decade. They include Niantic and its recently revealed Lightship platform for “real-world... Continue reading…

For the aesthetic Continue reading…

Illustration by Richard Parry Great gifts don’t always require you to splurge Continue reading…

Typewriter-style keycaps plus five emoji-focused keys. | Image: Logitech Logitech has a trio of colorful new peripherals coming to the US this month: a $99.99 Pop Keys keyboard, a $39.99 Pop Mouse, and a $19.99 Desk Mat. In contrast with Logitech’s usual sensibly styled and office-appropriate peripherals, these Studio Series devices are bright and cutesy. They’re each available in three color-coordinate schemes: yellow and black; pink; and purple and yellow options.If you’ve been eyeing the kinds of colorful, typewriter-styled keyboards that have flooded TikTok in recent months but want a model from a well-known household name, then the Pop Keys could be worth a look. You can read my full impressions of the keyboard in my review or read on for a summary along with my initial impressions of the mouse.Both... Continue reading…

Expect to see plenty of great deals on 4K TVs as we get ever closer to Black Friday at the end of the month. But one of those must-see deals is happening today at Best Buy. The latest version of Hisense’s 55-inch U7G Series TV normally costs $850, but the retailer is selling it for $650 while also throwing in three months free of Apple TV Plus. The TV comes equipped with a 120Hz panel with support for Dolby Vision, HDR 10, and HDR10 Plus. Google Assistant is available right out of the box, as are major streaming apps, including YouTube, Disney Plus, HBO Max, and more.For the money, it seems tough to find a TV that’s better equipped to provide fast refresh rates for PS5 and Xbox Series X games than the U7G.Note this model also is... Continue reading…

You.com Google Search organizes the way billions of people think about facts and data, and for years, it’s been organized around a principle dubbed “one true answer”: the idea that most people are looking for something best answered by a succinct factual snippet. But that’s not the only way people might navigate the web, and today, a company called You.com is trying something different: a search engine built around sorting and comparing results.You.com, founded by two former Salesforce employees, is opening today in public beta and announcing a $20 million funding round led by Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff. The service abandons the linear list of links you’ll find in most general-purpose search engines, opting for a grid of answers organized by... Continue reading…

Peloton is moving into strength training with its latest product, the Peloton Guide, a TV-connected camera that can display workouts and track your movements in real time to help make sure you’re doing things properly.Peloton Guide is also the company’s cheapest product yet, set to cost $495 at launch in “early 2022” for a bundle that includes the Guide camera, the company’s newly updated Peloton Heart Rate Band, and a remote. You’ll have to provide other workout equipment like weights or resistance bands on your own, though.Additionally, Guide owners will need a $12.99 per month membership (the same price that Peloton charges for its app-only subscription) to use the service, although if you already own a Tread or Bike and pay for... Continue reading…

Photo by Michele Doying / The Verge Hey hey, Tuesday’s back again. Today’s a relatively tame one, but Aria has a fun piece on the website that we’ll tease below, along with a whole debacle around attributing podcast plays to Facebook. We’re talking user agents, yes, and then we’re getting into the wild world of podcast prefixes. It’s gonna get wonky up in here; let’s get to it.Music meets podcasting(First up: Aria has a programming announcement — I’ll let her take it away.)Morning, y’all! Aria here. I wrote a story for all of you about a funny feature popping up in podcasts: full musical tracks with lyrics and vocals.Maybe you’re thinking, “Well, that sounds messy. Songs with words? Within a format that’s already… mostly words?” That’s an appropriate reaction. At... Continue reading…

Photo by Jay Peters / The Verge Fitbit released its Charge 5 fitness tracker with a brand new design and a color screen in September, but it launched without two key software features: an electrocardiogram (ECG) app and Fitbit’s new Daily Readiness Score, which recommends how hard you should work out. More than a month after the Charge 5’s release, those features are now rolling out.The ECG app takes a reading of your heart’s rhythm to assess for atrial fibrillation. To take the reading, open the app, put your fingers on the stainless steel panels on each side of the Charge 5, and wait for 30 seconds. Image: Fitbit Each side of the Charge 5 has a stainless steel panel where you place your fingers during an ECG test. ECG apps are showing up... Continue reading…

Image: Motional Motional, the autonomous vehicle company that is a $4 billion joint venture between Hyundai and Aptiv, announced the city in which it would launch its fully driverless robotaxi service in 2023, and surprise, surprise, it’s Las Vegas.Motional first began testing its autonomous vehicles in Las Vegas through a joint partnership with Lyft nearly four years ago. The testing began as a weeklong pilot between Aptiv and Lyft during the annual Consumer Electronics Show in 2018 and has since gone on to complete over 100,000 passenger trips.Motional as a joint venture was first announced in March 2020, when Hyundai said it would spend $1.6 billion to catch up to its rivals in the autonomous vehicle space. Aptiv, a technology company formerly... Continue reading…

The Nokia X100 is a T-Mobile and Metro by T-Mobile exclusive budge 5G phone. | HMD Global Starting November 19th, 2021, T-Mobile and Metro by T-Mobile will be adding another budget 5G phone to the lineup — the $252 Nokia X100 that is exclusive to T-Mobile.This addition is coming just as the holiday shopping season is ready for kickoff, and T-Mobile’s sales of other budget 5G phones from REVVL and certain OnePlus models have been limited by handset shortages, according to Wave7 Research’s September 2021 Smartphone Report.Nokia is doing its part to jump-start sales by packing the X100 with lots of surprising features, despite its small sub-$300 price tag. While it shares similar looks and the same Qualcomm Snapdragon 480 5G processor as the $300 Nokia G50, that’s where their similarities end.Unlike the G50, the X100 is... Continue reading…

Image: Mozilla Mozilla is bringing Firefox to Microsoft’s Windows store today. Firefox is one of the first third-party alternatives available in the Microsoft Store, and it’s using its own Gecko browser engine instead of Chromium alternatives like Opera or the many other alternatives that leverage Microsoft’s Edge webview.Microsoft’s new open store policies have finally made it possible for third-party browsers like Firefox to appear in the Microsoft Store. While we haven’t seen Chrome appear yet, Opera was quick to ensure its own browser is also listed in the store. Firefox is available in both the Windows 10 and Windows 11 app stores. “Previously, if you were on Windows and wanted to use Firefox, you had to download it from the... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge It ain’t over ‘til the podcaster sings Continue reading…

Google Maps’ dark mode on iOS. | Image: Google In August, Google announced its iOS Maps app would soon be getting a dark mode. But although the feature fully launched at the beginning of September, it arrived quietly enough that several Verge staffers hadn’t even noticed its appearance until we started receiving in-app notices. If you’ve also been in the dark, rather than the dark mode (sorry), here’s how to enable the feature.From the main Google Maps interface on iOS, tap your profile picture in the top right of the screen. Pick “Settings” from the menu, then select “Dark Mode” from the Using Maps section. Here you have three options: On, Off, and “Same as device setting” (which automatically turns dark mode on or off depending on what you have enabled at the OS level).If... Continue reading…

Image: Yelp Yelp is joining almost every other site on the internet by giving you a feed to scroll through until you can’t scroll no more. Yelp says this feature will be showing up on its users’ homepages in almost 150 US metro areas starting today, and that the feed will feature “visual content from local restaurants,” including photos from other Yelpers, posts from restaurant owners, and some popular dishes being served in your area.Yelp says in its press release that a few things could happen when you tap on one of the posts in the feed. If the post is a picture of a popular dish (which are meals that pop up a lot in the restaurant’s reviews), you’ll see more photos of it, along with some reviews so you can tell if it’s really as good as it... Continue reading…

Kids Clips uses a landscape interface to show content. | Source: Netflix This week, Netflix’s iOS app is starting a test of a new feed for kids that’s designed to show short clips taken from its library of children’s content, Bloomberg News reports. The “Kids Clips” feature uses a similar interface to TikTok or Instagram Reels in an attempt to surface child-friendly content. But while competing services are primarily formatted for viewing in portrait, Kids Clips’ videos are designed to be viewed in landscape.Kids Clips joins a similar feature Netflix launched to promote its comedy content earlier this year called “Fast Laughs.” Both features have a similar aim: to promote Netflix’s content using short clips similar to what users are already watching on social media. A screenshot of the Kids Clips interface... Continue reading…

Niantic Today let’s talk about a concept that we can all agree is well defined and no one is yet sick of talking about: the metaverse.OK, maybe you are a little tired of hearing about it. For a company often accused of being unable to do anything but copy, Facebook-now-Meta’s announcement this summer that it would pivot to the metaverse has already inspired a remarkable number of clones. As David Pierce notes at Protocol today, the tech world has recently announced “a fashion metaverse, an industrial metaverse, an entertainment metaverse, a gaming metaverse, [and] a shark metaverse.” (He forgot Match Group’s forthcoming dating metaverse, though in fairness I’m trying to forget it too.)But as oppressive as this wave of announcements can feel,... Continue reading…

Nvidia has announced a new platform for creating virtual agents named Omniverse Avatar. The platform combines a number of discrete technologies — including speech recognition, synthetic speech, facial tracking, and 3D avatar animation — which Nvidia says can be used to power a range of virtual agents.In a presentation at the company’s annual GTC conference, Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang showed off a few demos using Omniverse Avatar tech. In one, a cute animated character in a digital kiosk talks a couple through the menu at a fast food restaurant, answering questions like which items are vegetarian. The character uses facial-tracking technology to maintain eye-contact with the customers and respond to their facial expressions. “This will be... Continue reading…

A nighttime view of the Crew Dragon capsule just before splashdown | Image: NASA A crew of four astronauts successfully returned to Earth this evening, splashing down in the Gulf of Mexico off the coast of Pensacola inside a SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule. Their arrival back on the planet brings an end to a more than six-month-long stay aboard the International Space Station, and it paves the way for another crew of four to launch to the ISS in the coming week.The crew includes two NASA astronauts, Shane Kimbrough and Megan McArthur, Japanese astronaut Akihiko Hoshide from the Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency, and French astronaut Thomas Pesquet from the European Space Agency. The group launched to the space station on April 23rd atop a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket, part of a mission called Crew-2.Their flight marks the... Continue reading…

Image: Valve We knew from the beginning that Valve’s upcoming $400 Steam Deck handheld wouldn’t play every Steam game perfectly out of the box. It runs Windows games on Linux using the Proton compatibility layer, and some of the biggest games on Steam use anti-cheat software that, historically, hasn’t worked with Proton. But on Friday, Valve revealed that this should no longer be a problem for BattlEye, one of the biggest anti-cheat vendors out there.“BattlEye on Proton integration has reached a point where all a developer needs to do is reach out BattlEye to enable it for their title. No additional work is required by the developer besides that communication,” writes Valve, adding that Mount & Blade II Bannerlord and Ark: Survival Evolved are... Continue reading…

Image: Google Google has announced an exciting new feature for its Arts and Culture app: the ability to search through thousands of paintings to find a look-alike for your pet. The company says its “Pet Portraits” feature will let you take a picture of a dog, cat, fish, bird, reptile, horse, or rabbit, and have a machine learning algorithm find pieces of art that feature a similar-looking animal. The process only takes a few seconds, and as a bonus you’ll be able to tap on the pieces of artwork to learn more about them. You can even save a video slideshow of your results.I tried out Pet Portraits on my cat, Aslan, and the results were mixed — while the app was able to generate a beautiful (okay, mostly tan) color palette based on his fur, most of the... Continue reading…

Image: The Verge AMC boss Adam Aron said today that the theater chain is exploring how it can accept Shiba Inu in addition to other cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin and Dogecoin. In addition, AMC is evidently exploring its own cryptocurrency, which would truly cement the company as king of the memestocks.That AMC appears to be flirting with the idea of accepting (another) meme currency in exchange for actual goods and services isn’t entirely surprising. AMC was effectively rescued midway through the pandemic by meme stock Reddit traders, and Aron has been leaning heavily into the company’s relationship with these shareholders ever since. Hearing about AMC’s crypto ambitions has not only come to be expected during the company’s meetings with shareholders,... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge The Justice Department has announced the arrest and indictment of an alleged member of the REvil hacking group, linked to ransomware attacks on IT firm Kaseya, an Apple supplier, and more. According to the department, Ukrainian national Yaroslav Vasinskyi is facing extradition to the US after Polish authorities detained him in October and after the US indicted him for cybercrimes in August, as revealed by a now-unsealed court document. The arrest, along with the government seizing assets it says are linked to REvil’s operations, is another step in the fight against ransomware, which has been a growing issue for US-based companies.The DOJ also says it has seized $6.1 million in assets from the FTX crypto trading exchange, allegedly... Continue reading…

Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge Hackers may have just made some big strides towards possibly jailbreaking the PlayStation 5 over the weekend, with the hacking group Fail0verflow claiming to have managed to obtain PS5 root keys allowing them to decrypt the console’s firmware.Additionally, Andy Nguyen (a security engineer at Google who’s better known under his handle, theflow0) managed to access the PS5’s debug settings menu on a retail PS5 over the weekend, too. Both exploits were spotted by Wololo.net.

Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge If you want to buy anything on Amazon.com, you’ll generally need a credit or debit card — but in 2022, the online retailer will begin accepting Venmo as well. Venmo parent company PayPal announced the news (via GeekWire) during its Q3 earnings call on Monday.We’re pretty sure that’s the first third-party payments platform Amazon has embraced in recent memory. You can’t use PayPal itself to buy things on Amazon! (Here’s a list of the payment methods Amazon does accept as of today). You might cite Amazon’s recent buy-now, pay-later partnership with Affirm, but that still requires credit. Venmo, by comparison, acts more like a bank account for some mobile users, complete with a (sometimes expensive) check-cashing feature.Details on the... Continue reading…

Photo by PATRICK T. FALLON/AFP via Getty Images Space tourism venture Virgin Galactic says that 100 people purchased more expensive tickets to fly on the company’s suborbital spaceplane after it reopened ticket sales this August. That means that the company has roughly 700 ticket holders now for quick tourist trips to space, about 300 less than the 1,000 tickets Virgin Galactic is hoping to sell ahead of starting commercial flights of its vehicles. The company announced the news during its third-quarter earnings release out on Monday.Though Virgin Galactic still has more tickets it aims to sell, the company says the additional sales from this quarter were better than expected. “We’re selling tickets ahead of the pace we planned,” Michael Colglazier, Virgin Galactic’s CEO, said during... Continue reading…

Robinhood says more than 7 million customers affected by ‘data security incident’ | Illustrations by Alex Castro / The Verge Trading platform Robinhood said Monday that personal information for more than 7 million customers was accessed during a data breach on November 3rd. The company said in a news release that it does not appear that Social Security numbers, bank account numbers, or debit card numbers were exposed, and no customers have had “financial loss” due to the incident.An unauthorized third party “socially engineered a customer support employee by phone,” Robinhood said, and was able to access its customer support systems. The attacker was able to get a list of email addresses for approximately 5 million people and full names for a separate group of 2 million people. For a smaller group of about 310 people, additional personal information,... Continue reading…

Final Fantasy XIV: Endwalker has been delayed for two weeks, arriving December 7th instead of November 23rd. In a blog post, game director Naoki Yoshida says the delay was to ensure adequate quality assurance testing in the final days of development.Yoshida says the decision to delay the game arose from a desire to ensure Endwalker’s story was something that befit 11 years of Final Fantasy XIV’s epic storytelling.“We remained firmly resolved to adjust down to the smallest nuances and ensure our writing covers even the finest points of the vast and intricate story that has spanned these past 11 years since the original FFXIV to ensure that everyone can fully enjoy their adventure in Endwalker,” Yoshida writes. However, the time it took... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Alphabet, Google’s parent company, briefly hit a market cap of $2 trillion. The tech behemoth’s market cap is currently at a comfortable $1.98 trillion, but crept over the $2 trillion mark midday Monday, later closing out at $2,987.03 per share. Alphabet’s market cap has just about doubled from $1 trillion since January 2020.In the third quarter of 2021, Alphabet had a record quarter, earning a hefty $65.1 billion. The company reported that its revenue soared by 41 percent, while its profits jumped by almost 69 percent. Google Search saw a slight increase in profit, climbing to $37.9 billion from $35.8 billion in the previous quarter. YouTube, another Alphabet company, earned $7.2 billion in the most recent quarter.Throughout the... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Apple will continue to accept App Store app submissions through the holidays, marking a shift from the company’s approach in the past. Typically, Apple doesn’t let developers make submissions through the App Store Connect portal for a few days around Christmas, meaning that they would have to rush to release apps or updates ahead of when many people receive new Apple devices or gift cards as holiday presents. With this change, it seems as if the App Store will hum along largely like you’re used to this holiday season.However, Apple is already suggesting that developers try to stay ahead of things during one of the busiest times of the year. “Due to anticipated high volume, plan to send time-sensitive submissions early,” Apple said in a s... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge On Friday, Congress passed the $1.2 trillion infrastructure package, sending the legislation to President Joe Biden for his signature. But while the measure makes historic investments in roads and bridges, it also maintains a controversial new cryptocurrency tax reporting requirement that the Treasury Department could apply to miners.Biden’s Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act requires brokers to report trader information on transactions of more than $10,000 to the IRS. The provision was added to the Senate version of the bill in late July after the Joint Committee on Taxation estimated that it would offset $28 billion of infrastructure costs over the next decade.The Joint Committee on Taxation estimated that it would offset $28... Continue reading…

Jeff Bezos, founder of Amazon.com Inc., speaks during the Action on Forests and Land Use session at the COP26 climate talks in Glasgow, U.K., on Tuesday, Nov. 2, 2021. | Robert Perry/EPA/Bloomberg via Getty Images Jeff Bezos’ $2 billion plan, announced last week, to plant trees and restore landscapes across Africa and the US has already raised red flags for some conservation experts and activists. Last year, after he pledged $10 billion to fight climate change, activists in the US called him out for not doing enough to cut down Amazon’s pollution or work with local communities while crafting his environmental plans. This time, he’s facing similar criticisms on a global scale.The Bezos Earth Fund announced its latest round of funding on November 1 during a high-profile United Nations climate summit taking place in Glasgow. There aren’t many details out yet, but the fund says it will funnel $1 billion towards planting trees and “revitalizing”... Continue reading…

Peloton has announced that it’s finally added a pause button for its on-demand classes for its Bike and Bike Plus devices, allowing users to temporarily pause workouts in the middle of a class and then resume them.It’s a feature that bewilderingly hasn’t been available until today — and, technically, still isn’t even available on all of Peloton’s products, as the pause button is only rolling out to its cycling bikes for now. The Tread treadmill is set to get a similar update sometime “in the future” — but for now, you’ll have to do your runs all at once.While it’s easy to joke at Peloton’s expense for the outsized deal the company is making over adding so small a feature, it is worth noting that adding a pause button to Peloton... Continue reading…

Image: Rivian Rivian says it will start taking orders for its electric delivery vans in 2022 and will deliver them to fleet customers in “early 2023,” calling into question the status of Amazon’s exclusive rights to the vehicle.The buzzy EV startup — which is slated to go public this week at a valuation of $50 billion or higher — quietly announced the details about its fleet sales plans in a new section of its website that went live Friday afternoon. It also said it will sell fleet versions of its R1T electric pickup truck and R1S electric SUV, meaning it will compete with Ford’s commercial version of the F-150 Lightning, as well as a fleet management platform called FleetOS and a charging infrastructure solution.Electric vans, plus fleet versions... Continue reading…