The Verge

Image: WinFuture Rumors have swirled around DJI’s unreleased Mavic 3 drone, but it’s now thoroughly leaked ahead of its expected November launch, with images, spec sheets, and more. The leaks come to us from TechnikNews, WinFuture, and DroneXL’s Jasper Ellens. They show what the drone looks like from almost every angle and detail the three different Mavic 3 bundles that will be available (as well as the differences between them).Previous rumors indicated the Mavic 3 will have better battery life than its predecessor and USB-C charging, plus two cameras (one “main” wide-angle shooter with a Four Thirds sensor and one with a telephoto lens). Today's leaks suggest the drone will ship in both DJI’s standard “fly more” bundle and a new “Cine” bundle. As with... Continue reading…

Photo by Samuel Corum/Getty Images Snap, TikTok, and YouTube set out with one important goal for Tuesday’s Senate hearing on child safety: to convince lawmakers that they are nothing like Facebook. While lawmakers were encouraged by the companies’ transparency, their humble approach hasn’t dissuaded lawmakers from pursuing new legislation.While YouTube’s parent company Google has testified before, it was the first time representatives from Snap and TikTok testified before Congress, and they came prepared to differentiate themselves from the social media giant at the center of yet another series of scandals. It was Facebook whistleblower Frances Haugen’s leaks that led senators to pursue these hearings. The Facebook Papers loomed over the event, reinforcing Snap and... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Microsoft posted the first quarter of its 2022 financial results today, reporting revenue of $45.3 billion and a net income of $20.5 billion (GAAP). Revenue is up 22 percent, and net income has increased by 48 percent. Microsoft has seen strong revenue performance in its cloud, server, and Office businesses this quarter.Microsoft might have just launched Windows 11 earlier this month, but in the months ahead of this new version of Windows, PC sales have started to decline in the US due to supply issues.That doesn’t seem to have impacted Microsoft’s Windows revenues, though. Windows OEM revenue has increased by 10 percent this quarter, despite what Microsoft calls “continued PC demand impacted by supply chain constraints.” ... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Google has done it again — raking in more money than ever before for the second quarter in a row as the COVID-19 pandemic continues on. Alphabet’s Q3 2021 earnings show an all-time record revenue of $65.1 billion and record profits for the fifth quarter in a row at $18.9 billion.As we mentioned last quarter, the growth we’re seeing in 2021 is unusually large: a huge leap over 2020.

Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales Apple hit Intel hard with its first M1 chips, offering a rare step-change improvement in performance with its 2020 MacBook Air and 13-inch MacBook Pro. Less than a year later, it’s already starting to compete with the best GPUs from AMD and Nvidia as well. The new MacBook Pros with M1 Pro and M1 Max offer a first glimpse at how well Apple’s M1 chips can scale to provide raw performance that rivals the discrete graphics cards we typically find inside Windows-powered laptops.Nvidia has been trying to woo many of Apple’s professional and creative customers with its Studio laptops, but Apple has not only managed to fix the mistakes it made with its MacBook port selection and keyboard, but it’s also scaled up its M1 chips to meet the... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge The pandemic canceled BlizzCon 2021, and it appears that a planned online event next year from Blizzard will also be a scratch. An uncredited blog post says, “We’ve decided to take a step back and pause on planning the previously announced BlizzConline event scheduled for early next year.”It didn’t specifically cite a reason, but after revelations surfaced about a company culture rife with sexual harassment and discrimination, the last several months have seen an employee walkout, the departure of president J. Allan Brack, and several competing investigations.Most recently, Blizzard renamed the cowboy hero in Overwatch to Cole Cassidy. The employee the character got his name from was one of several high-profile departures following... Continue reading…

Image: Samsung Samsung has announced that it’s jumping into the cloud gaming arena with an offering for its Tizen smart TV platform. The news came during its Samsung Developer Conference keynote, and the company didn’t provide any more details about what games would be available, what other platforms it would be available on, if any, or when it will launch. Cloud gaming is an area that many of its big tech competitors are getting into, but it’s also an area Samsung has dabbled in before.In the early 2010s, Samsung worked with a game streaming company called Gaikai to bring an early version of cloud gaming to its high-end TVs. The pitch was basically the same as it is these days — Samsung Cloud Gaming would let you play games with only a TV, internet... Continue reading…

Dune is officially getting a sequel, with Warner Bros. and Legendary announcing that Dune: Part Two will continue the story (and, presumably, adapt the rest of the original novel) that began in the recently released film.The sequel is set to hit theaters in October 2023, Deadline reports, with director Denis Villeneuve returning for Part Two. Core cast members like Timothée Chalamet, Zendaya, Rebecca Ferguson, Josh Brolin, Stellan Skarsgård, Dave Bautista, and Javier Bardem will presumably return to reprise their roles as well, although there’s no official word on casting yet.It was all but guaranteed that Dune would be getting a sequel: the film literally starts with a “Dune: Part One” title card and very obviously tees up a second... Continue reading…

Photo by Artur Widak/NurPhoto via Getty Images Fully vaccinated international travelers will now be allowed to travel to the United States with proof of vaccination, the CDC announced on Monday. The order will go into effect on November 8th and applies to non-US citizens who are not immigrants, with an exemption for children under 18.The order will require fully vaccinated travelers with FDA-approved and World Health Organization emergency use listed vaccines to have a negative test taken three days before their travel date. Travelers who are not fully vaccinated, including US citizens and permanent residents, will now require a test within one day of their US travel date. This rule exempts children under two and accommodates people who have a documented recovery from COVID-19 in... Continue reading…

The infamous iPod Sock is getting a successor of sorts from accessory company Native Union, in the form of the “AirPods Beanies” — a cozy knit case where you can put your AirPods’ existing case for an added layer of protection.For those of you who are a bit lost right now, a quick piece of history. Of all the products that Apple has made over the years, the iPod Sock definitely is one of them: a set of six colorful, two-tone knit sleeves that were designed to fit Apple’s various iPods for both style and protection. A bizarre piece of Apple’s history on par with the recent $20 screen cleaning cloth, the iPod Socks sold for the rather expensive (for socks) price of $29 for a pack of six. Image: Apple The original... Continue reading…

Photo by Smith Collection/Gado/Getty Images A US Senate committee says manufacturer Seagate likely violated government sanctions by shipping hard drives to Chinese manufacturer Huawei.The Republican minority staff of the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation released a report alleging Seagate ignored August 2020 restrictions on shipping semiconductor components to Huawei — a category the report alleges “likely includes hard disk drives.” The report orders Seagate to stop shipments to Huawei and urges the US Commerce Department to “prioritize” enforcement of the sanctions, which the Trump administration implemented after claiming Huawei posed a national security threat.Seagate said in 2020 that the sanctions shouldn’t disrupt its shipmentsHuawei has used... Continue reading…

Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge General Motors will start making Chevy Bolts again on November 1st, after shutting down production in late August following a global recall of the electric vehicle due to battery fire risk. The production restart at the company’s Orion assembly plant in Michigan will last for at least two weeks, as Reuters reports, though GM isn’t saying what will happen after that.The production restart will come just a few weeks after GM announced that battery supplier LG agreed to foot the $2 billion bill for the recall. And it comes at a time when global supply chain shortages have most of the auto industry dealing with way more customer demand than it can handle — which has also been driving more people than usual to buy EVs.GM recalled all... Continue reading…

Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales It is morning. The birds are chirping, a coffee percolator is bubbling, keyboards are clacking, and an Apple startup chime is ringing. The Verge’s Dieter Bohn, Nilay Patel, and Monica Chin are also walking into the recording studio to chat about the new iteration of Apple’s MacBook Pros.And that is what you can listen to today. On Tuesdays for the remainder of the year, The Verge’s flagship podcast The Vergecast will be featuring additional new episodes, with each focused on a specific topic usually discussed on our regular Friday shows.On a typical Vergecast, you may hear a bit about the behind-the-scenes activity that goes along with reviewing something like the iPhone or a VR headset. Today’s show dedicates a morning to pulling... Continue reading…

The Microsoft Modern Webcam features HDR and a modest design that looks subtle atop a monitor. | Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge We may still be living day to day with supply constraints, chip shortages, and shipping delays, but we’re thankfully past the time of scalped prices for webcams as folks quickly shifted to working from home and Zoom-everything. Now there are even some great deals on a pair of webcams ripped right from our guide to the best webcams: the Microsoft Modern Webcam and the Logitech C920S Pro HD Webcam.Microsoft’s Modern Webcam is seeing the bigger discount, with a $28 discount direct from the Microsoft Store knocking the price to just $42, down from its usual $70. This is the lowest price around for this small webcam, which features a built-in privacy shade that easily slides over the lens. The Modern Webcam is perfect for any Windows 10 or... Continue reading…

Photo By Tom Williams/CQ Roll Call President Joe Biden named acting Federal Communications Commissioner Chair Jessica Rosenworcel to officially head the agency on Tuesday, propping her up as the administration’s leader to tackle broadband expansion and net neutrality. Biden also nominated progressive advocate Gigi Sohn as the third Democrat for the bench.The decision comes late into Biden’s term, beating out both former presidents Jimmy Carter and Richard Nixon who nominated their FCC chairs well into September of their first years. If confirmed by the Senate before December, the FCC’s 2-2 deadlock would end and provide Democrats with a majority to push forward Biden’s telecom agenda. But it’s unclear if senators plan to move on Rosenworcel and Sohn’s confirmations... Continue reading…

Getty Images/iStockphoto Qualcomm is announcing a pile of new Snapdragon chips today across its mid- and entry-level product lineups: the Snapdragon 778 Plus, 695, 680, and 480 Plus, offering more options to device manufacturers when it comes to picking the best processor for a phone — and, in theory, more choice for customers when they’re looking to buy one.The most notable new chip is the Snapdragon 695, which replaces the Snapdragon 690 in Qualcomm’s lineup. Unlike the old model, the Snapdragon 695 will support both mmWave and sub-6GHz versions of 5G, which should help improve data speeds even on cheaper phones (which have thus far tended to skip out on offering mmWave support). There’s also a considerable boost in performance: Qualcomm promises a... Continue reading…

Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge Microsoft is about to compete even more directly with Chromebooks. The software giant is reportedly preparing to launch a new low-cost Surface Laptop aimed at education markets, specifically K-12, alongside a new edition of Windows 11 named Windows 11 SE.Windows Central reports that the upcoming Surface Laptop could also be named Surface Laptop SE and will likely include an 11.6-inch (1366 x 768) display, with Intel’s N4120 Celeron processor and up to 8GB of RAM. This budget laptop is designed for K-12 students and to be as low cost as possible, with a single USB-A and USB-C port.While Microsoft has used the SE moniker for Windows versions before (hello Windows 98 SE), Windows 11 SE won’t be a second edition of Windows 11. Instead,... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge YouTube is making it harder for kids’ videos that it deems “low quality” to qualify for monetization (via Engadget). The platform outlined its updated policies in a post on the YouTube Blog, noting that channels with “made for kids” content will need to abide by a stricter set of guidelines if they want to stay in the YouTube Partnership Program (YPP).Its policies are meant to discourage kids’ content creators from pushing out videos that it describes as “heavily commercial or promotional” or if it encourages “negative behavior or attitudes.” If a channel violates these guidelines, YouTube may suspend them from YPP. Meanwhile, any individual videos that break the rules will lose advertisers.“If a channel is found to have a strong focus... Continue reading…

You will punch your way to a much higher heart rate. | Supernatural Supernatural, the Beat Saber-like VR app for the Oculus Quest and Quest 2 that gets you to work up a sweat by beating targets with virtual bats, has added another way to wreck a target: your fists. Boxing is the latest workout introduced on Supernatural and like the original bat-oriented “Flow” workout, it works up a sweat while being fun.Supernatural Flow is sort of like Beat Saber crossed with high-intensity interval training (HIIT). Each workout can last from seven minutes to an hour, and there’s an enthusiastic coach shouting encouragements in your ear and guiding you through the session as you dance, lunge, squat, and murder targets with your VR bats.The problem with Supernatural, at least for me, is that you can plateau. The... Continue reading…

Photo by Andrew Hawkins / The Verge General Motors will work with its network of dealers to help spur the installation of 40,000 electric vehicle chargers in the US, the company announced today. It will also begin selling its own “Ultium” branded Level 2 chargers for home or business uses.GM said that it hopes the new project will spur the creation of EV charging stations in urban and rural underserved areas. The automaker will give each of its dealers “up to 10 Ultium Level 2 destination charging stations” to install throughout their communities, but the automaker does not plan on paying for all 40,000 chargers. Rather, it will work with its dealers and community leaders to find the appropriate financing.Unlike Tesla or Volkswagen, GM does not own its own EV charging... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Hello, hello, and welcome back to the workweek. I hope everyone had a lovely weekend, and shout out to those of you who attended On The Verge. It was so nice to see people IRL and actually meet face to face. I hope we can do it again soon! Anyway, today’s a busy one with a couple scoops and analyses. Off we go.SCOOP: Amazon is building a top-secret live audio appEarlier today, I published a story about Amazon’s work on a live audio app, codenamed Project Mic. The app takes bits from Anchor and bits from Clubhouse — users can host DJ sets, like they would a radio show, and intersperse songs with talk. The idea is to reinvent radio. (I feel like I should have put a trigger warning on that sentence for some of you — sorry!)The other... Continue reading…

Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge The iPhone 13 Pro and Pro Max have great cameras, some of the best you can buy in a phone. They’ve also got an exclusive new feature Apple never offered before: a macro mode that lets you take extreme close-ups — just two centimeters away! — of intricate things you can barely see with the naked eye. Your pet’s incredibly fine fur, the veins of leaves, and the sub-pixels in your computer monitor’s screen are all now within reach.But Apple doesn’t give you a macro mode button per se — it’s automatic. When you bring the phone within 10 cm of an object, it automatically switches to the ultrawide lens, which some users found jarring enough that Apple now lets you turn off auto-macro-switching in iOS 15.1.But if you do that, and then... Continue reading…

Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge The iPhone 13 Pro and Pro Max have great cameras, some of the best you can buy in a phone. They’ve also got an exclusive new feature Apple never offered before: a macro mode that lets you take extreme close-ups — just two centimeters away! — of intricate things you can barely see with the naked eye. Your pet’s incredibly fine fur, the veins of leaves, and the sub-pixels in your computer monitor’s screen are all now within reach.But Apple doesn’t give you a macro mode button per se — it’s automatic. When you bring the phone within 10 cm of an object, it automatically switches to the ultrawide lens, which some users found jarring enough that Apple now lets you turn off auto-macro-switching in iOS 15.1.But if you do that, and then... Continue reading…

Creative Cloud Canvas is Adobe’s answer to services like Miro. | Image: Adobe Adobe is trying to make Creative Cloud’s website into more of a hub for collaborating across teams. So today, it’s announcing a few new tools headed to the platform: basic web-based versions of Photoshop and Illustrator, a new feature called Canvas that lets you make mood boards, and a feature called Spaces that lets teams arrange and synchronize assets for projects.Canvas is similar to a bunch of tools that designers already use — there’s Miro, PureRef, you could even do something like this in Figma if you wanted to — but it comes with the perk of being integrated with Adobe’s ecosystem. You can pull Cloud documents onto a canvas, and they’ll link back to the original file, letting you open them up to make changes. I... Continue reading…

The most popular Kindle gets its biggest update in nearly a decade Continue reading…

The Honor 50. | Image: Honor The Honor 50 is releasing globally with prices starting at €529, the former Huawei sub-brand announced today. The smartphone was originally announced for the Chinese market in June, but today sees the company confirm its global pricing and its early November release date. For €529 (about $615), you get 6GB of RAM and 128GB of storage, and there’s also a €599 (about $695) model with 8GB of RAM and 256GB of storage. Honor says the phone will be available in over 40 countries, but there are no immediate plans to release the phone in the US.The big news with the Honor 50 is that it’s the company’s first device to ship with Google’s apps and services since splitting from former parent company Huawei. Google pulled Huawei’s Android license... Continue reading…

Oura Oura’s Generation 3 smart ring will have a whole new slate of features, including period prediction, blood oxygen monitoring, and real-time heart rate tracking. The new ring will jump from three to seven temperature sensors and add a pulse oxygen sensor, Oura CEO Harpreet Rai told The Verge.A new, green LED light will monitor heart rate throughout the day. Starting at the end of 2021, users will also be able to record their heart rate during exercise and see information about heart rate recovery after a workout is done.The upgrades underscore the company’s focus on health, Rai says, particularly the period prediction feature. The new ring will use shifts in temperature and user feedback to predict when a user might get their period... Continue reading…

‘Prepare as NFT’ coming to Photoshop Continue reading…

The beta of Photoshop on the web. | Image: Adobe Adobe is bringing Photoshop and Illustrator to the web, letting you make changes to documents hosted in the cloud without having to download them and open up the app.It’s a fascinating step forward for these two programs, but it’s also a very small one for now: these are not fully featured versions of Photoshop and Illustrator — or anywhere close to it. You can navigate layers, leave annotations and comments, and make basic edits using tools like the eraser, spot healing brush, and selection lasso. But you’ll still have to open the app for any substantial changes.“We’re not bringing all the features on day one, but we really want to unlock all those basic edits that are just best done now in the browser with whoever you’re working... Continue reading…

An Atlas V launching at night. Project Kuiper has bought nine launches of Atlas V rockets to send its satellites into orbit. | Image: United Launch Alliance Amazon’s ambitious satellite venture, called Kuiper, is teaming up with Verizon to further expand 4G/LTE and 5G coverage to remote areas of the globe. Through the new partnership, Kuiper’s future satellites could provide connectivity to future Verizon cell towers that don’t require as much costly infrastructure to build.Kuiper is Amazon’s $10 billion initiative to launch a constellation of 3,236 satellites in low Earth orbit to provide broadband internet coverage to the Earth below. With satellites flying at altitudes between 366 miles and 391 miles high (or 590 kilometers and 630 kilometers up), the plan is to provide connectivity to remote and rural areas, where it is difficult to provide internet coverage through traditional fiber.... Continue reading…

Image: Palm Ventures Group, Inc After launching the Palm Phone in 2019, the reincarnated “Palm” is back again with its next new product. But it’s not another smartphone. Instead, the startup that now owns the Palm brand is jumping on the trend of true wireless earbuds. The Palm Buds Pro — yes, yet another “Pro” gadget — are available to preorder starting today for $99, though they’ll eventually rise to an MSRP of $129. For that price, you’ll be getting a set of earbuds with noise cancellation, bass-heavy 10-millimeter drivers, and IPX4 water and sweat resistance.Palm says the earbuds fit into its “lightweight product philosophy” that began with the tiny, TCL-manufactured Palm Phone, which is no longer available. As for who’s making the Palm Buds Pro, Palm Ventures... Continue reading…

Microsoft is bringing back Twitch streaming integration directly into the Xbox dashboard. Twitch first appeared directly integrated into the Xbox One dashboard in 2014, using the original Snap interface to allow players to stream directly to the service. Now it’s coming back into the Xbox Guide interface, with similar integration and webcam support.Alpha and Skip-Ahead alpha Xbox testers can access the new integration right now, and it’s simple to use. You can adjust game volume or microphone volume, include party audio from friends, and see a list of viewers and how long you’ve been streaming with an overlay on top of your games.The Twitch integration also includes the ability to switch resolution and bitrates from 360p at 500kbps up... Continue reading…

Photo by Joe Raedle/Getty Images Rental car company Hertz has ordered 100,000 Teslas as part of an ambitious plan to electrify its fleet. A first tranche of Tesla’s Model 3 sedans will be available to rent from Hertz in major US and European markets from early November, said the company in a press statement. The announcement comes just months after Hertz escaped bankruptcy.After the purchase was announced, Tesla’s stock price reached as high as $998.74 early in the day, increasing its market cap to over $1 trillion before the price dropped again. However, by the time the market closed for the day, its price had risen again, finishing at $1,024.86 per share for a market cap of $1.01 trillion. As CNBC notes, that put it in the rare company of other trillion-dollar market... Continue reading…

Photo illustration by William Joel | Photo by Andrew Caballero-Reynolds / AFP via Getty Images Facebook probably wishes it had a delete button for its timeline now that it’s threatening an upcoming TV show with a lawsuit for potentially tarnishing the brand’s reputation.Doomsday Machine is the upcoming television adaption of An Ugly Truth, a book that exposes Facebook’s missteps on issues like misinformation, hate speech, user security. The drama will star Claire Foy as Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg and will tackle the chaos surrounding misinformation during the 2016 election, as well as more recent controversies like the XCheck program, which let celebrities and other high-profile figures bypass content moderation.As the series begins to come together, Facebook is threatening producers Anonymous Content with a lawsuit — and it’s... Continue reading…

Smart alarm clocks like this Echo Dot with Clock have lots of great features, but are missing one key feature. When you buy a product labeled “smart,” it should be better than the “dumb” version, especially considering it costs twice as much (at least). But that’s not the case with smart alarm clocks, which are very dumb in one specific way.Smart alarm clocks are bedside buzzers with smart features, letting you set an alarm with just your voice, waking you up with your favorite Spotify playlist, possibly tracking your sleep, and definitely controlling your smart home. Most have touch screens, some have radar, very few have cameras (thankfully), and others can use lighting to wake you up more naturally than a jarring buzzer. But what none of them have is a backup battery, something that’s been standard on the dumb versions for decades.If your... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg says he’s redirected teams within his company to “make serving young adults their north star.” The comment, made on a call with investors this afternoon, speaks to Facebooks’ concerns about declining usage among teens and young adults.“So much of our services have gotten dialed to be the best for the most people who use them, rather than specifically for young adults,” Zuckerberg said.TikTok is “one of the most effective competitors we’ve ever faced”He suggested the change will be more than just lip service. Facebook usage among older users will grow slower than it otherwise would have because of the changes, Zuckerberg said. Even with those tradeoffs, he said, “I think it’s the right approach.”Zuckerberg... Continue reading…

An email sent to Jeff Bezos from an Amazon warehouse worker began an internal investigation that found that the e-commerce giant falls behind when it comes to supporting its 1.3 million employees, according to The New York Times.From unjustified terminations to losing benefits with no warning, the employees inside the warehouse and the ones administering the leaves found themselves on the brink of burnout and sacrificing their lives to make up for countless HR issues related to paid and unpaid leave. Employees struggled to reach case managers, and doctor’s notes seem to simply disappear as paychecks were docked.To add to the dysfunction, Amazon’s team didn’t have any policies to accommodate local laws like one in its home state. An... Continue reading…

Anker is introducing MagGo, its lineup of six MagSafe-compatible products for iPhones. | Anker Bored by the few Apple-certified MagSafe accessories like the MagSafe Battery Pack, MagSafe wallet (2021), or the MagSafe Duo Charger, and feel stifled by its small ecosystem? If you want to expand your MagSafe-compatible collection, you’ll need to look to third-party accessory makers like Anker for some fresh ideas.Anker, known for its affordable charging products like portable batteries and universal plugs, is introducing its own suite of MagSafe-compatible gadgets called MagGo that go beyond just wirelessly charging your iPhone 12 or 13. Its opening lineup has six new gadgets that take advantage of the convenience and security of attaching to the phone by magnets — these products are ideal for when you’re on the move and at home.B... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Facebook plans to spend at least $10 billion this year on Facebook Reality Labs, its metaverse division tasked with creating AR and VR hardware, software, and content.“We are committed to bringing this long-term vision to life and we expect to increase our investments for the next several years,” the company wrote in its third-quarter earnings release this afternoon. Facebook sees AR and VR as being core to “the next generation of online social experiences.”A sign that Reality Labs should be judged separately from Facebook’s core appsThe division, which already makes the Oculus Quest headset and Portal lineup of calling devices, is clearly being positioned as the next big thing inside of Facebook. For one, CEO Mark Zuckerberg has been... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge According to TechCrunch, Best Buy, Home Depot, and Lowes will no longer be selling security cameras from Lorex and Ezviz after the outlet reported on the brands’ parent companies’ involvement in supplying the Chinese government with surveillance tech.According to the US government, both Dahua (Lorex’s owner) and Hikvision (Ezviz’s owner) stand implicated in human rights violations and abuses in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region. They have reportedly helped supply surveillance equipment for monitoring ethnic minorities. One of the largest oppressed groups is the Uyghurs, a largely Muslim ethnic group the Chinese government is accused of putting in detention or reeducation camps, using as forced labor, and more.The home security... Continue reading…

Photo: FaZe Clan/Twitter Faze Clan is on track to become a publicly traded company. The competitive esports group is merging with B. Riley Principal 150 Merger Corp. in a deal that values the combined companies at $1 billion (via Markets Insider). As a part of the deal, Faze Clan estimates it can get up to $291 million to help fund its growth, according to a post on Faze Clan’s website.

The National Transportation Safety Board is not happy with Tesla’s failure to respond to its safety recommendations made four years ago concerning the company’s controversial driver assist feature, Autopilot.In 2017, NTSB recommended that Tesla and five other automakers install driver monitoring systems in their vehicles to ensure that drivers stay vigilant even when active safety systems are engaged. The board also implored automakers to limit the use of driver assist features on highways. The recommendations were made in response to an investigation into a crash in which a Tesla owner was killed when his car slammed into a truck that was crossing a highway.The five other automakers officially responded to the recommendations within... Continue reading…

T-Mobile has delayed its plans to shut down Sprint’s CDMA network | Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge T-Mobile said it will delay its planned shutdown of Sprint’s 3G network by three months to ensure its “partners” have time to help customers with the transition. It had originally planned to phase out the network in January; that date has now been pushed to March 31st, 2022.“Recently it’s become increasingly clear that some of those partners haven’t followed through on their responsibility to help their customers through this shift,” the company said in a statement. “So, we’re stepping up on their behalf.”T-Mobile’s statement doesn’t mention it by name, but likely is referring to Dish Network. The two sides have tangled over T-Mobile’s announcement it was shutting down Sprint’s legacy network, because of the impact it would have on... Continue reading…

Here’s the Samsung Galaxy Book. | Image: Samsung Samsung has announced three new additions to its Galaxy Book line: the Galaxy Book, the Galaxy Book Odyssey, and the Galaxy Book Pro 360 5G. While none of the models have features that will knock your socks off, they seem like a natural progression of Samsung’s recent efforts to bring the Galaxy Book line out of the enthusiast space and into the mainstream.The most accessible offering looks to be the regular 15.6-inch Galaxy Book. This is the only one of the three that’s available now; the other two products hit shelves November 11th. I’m currently seeing a $749.99 model at Best Buy that includes a Core i5-1165G7, 8GB of memory, and 256GB of storage, as well as a Core i7-1165G7 / 16GB / 512GB configuration for $999.99. Those seem like... Continue reading…

Apple’s new M1-equipped iMac. | Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge The latest version of macOS, Monterey, is now available to download according to Apple. The software has been available in public beta for several months, but today’s release means Apple thinks the software is ready for everyday use.As is tradition, Apple announced its latest version of macOS at WWDC in June. New features include the ability to set Macs as an AirPlay target to play content from iPhones and iPads, as well as Shortcuts, Apple’s iOS automation software. There have also been improvements made to FaceTime, as well as a new Quick Note feature. For a full rundown of what’s on the way, check out our preview from July, as well as Apple’s own feature list.Apple’s drag-and-drop demo from WWDC 2021.Unfortunately, some of... Continue reading…

Oculus.com Facebook has been teasing work on a pro version of its Oculus Quest headset for quite some time, and now a series of what appear to be setup videos for the unreleased product have leaked from its own servers.The videos were first spotted on Reddit over the weekend and downloaded from Oculus.com by The Verge and embedded below. They show an unreleased, dark-colored headset being used to customize virtual avatars with what looks like full body tracking, new controllers with a charging dock, and more footage of the Horizon Workrooms app for work collaboration in VR.Executives from Facebook have teased the possibility of a pro version of the Oculus Quest for a while, and on October 28th, the company is hosting its annual Connect... Continue reading…

Photo by Chaim Gartenberg / The Verge Apple is releasing iOS 15.1 and iPadOS 15.1 today, and the big new feature is SharePlay’s return. SharePlay is a feature that was originally supposed to ship in iOS 15; it lets people call friends or family and watch movies, TV, or listen to music together. SharePlay syncs content so everyone can watch it at the same time.iOS 15.1 also includes some improvements to the camera options for iPhone 13 Pro models. A new Auto Macro toggle for the ‌iPhone 13 Pro‌ is available, allowing you to switch off the automatic macro mode if you find it annoying. ProRes video capture is also available in iOS 15.1, so you can capture even better quality video on an iPhone 13 Pro at 30fps / 1080p on 128GB models or 4K on 256GB models and above.Apple is... Continue reading…

Photo by Panic It’s hard to believe that the prototype for the original iPod is something that you can’t even fit into your pocket. Panic, a software development group for macOS and iOS, dredged up the prototype for the original iPod — something that Apple probably never wanted to see again — in honor of the iPod’s 20th anniversary (via 9to5Mac). Photo by Panic As funny as it would be if Apple was actually trying to make the iPod look like a failed attempt at a pocket-sized DVD player, that’s (sadly) not the case. A tweet from Tony Fadell, the inventor of the iPod, confirms that the prototype was designed to prevent the real iPod design from getting leaked ahead of its launch.