The Verge

The button is simple, almost plain. A flat black circle, simple dye-sublimated letters, and a small LED pinprick to let you know that it’s on. “EXTRA BASS,” it declares in tall, bold capitals. For indeed, the EXTRA BASS button only does one blindingly obvious thing: it adds extra bass.The speaker in question here is a Sony XB90 Extra Bass High Power Audio System. It is a product without pretension, without guile or duplicity. It has Extra Bass in the name, and the eponymous button is a microcosm of the device, a thing that encapsulates the form and function in a neat, tidy shorthand. This is not a speaker for listening to soft sonatas of Mozart or enjoying the sonic subtleties of a rare acoustic studio recording. It is a... Continue reading…

The Verge is celebrating its 10th birthday on November 1st, so we thought this would be the perfect occasion to relaunch our online merch store! Check out the store here. We partnered with DFTBA on some new products we’re really excited about — including a special edition Verge 10-year design by artist Richard Parry — as well as some classic favorites.This is just the start for Verge merch, and we’re excited to work on even more all-new designs in the future. If there’s anything you think we should make, let us know in the comments.Now, what are you waiting for? There’s an EMAILS shirt with your name on it. (Well, not literally. But let us know if embroidery is something you’re interested in.)

The new Claude in GTA III remastered. Rockstar Games finally showed off a trailer for the remastered Grand Theft Auto trilogy, including GTA III, Vice City, and San Andreas, showcasing many graphical and quality-of-life improvements made to each game.The Grand Theft Auto: The Trilogy — The Definitive Edition collection will launch digitally on November 11th for $59.99 (£54.99). You’ll be able to play them on the Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4 and 5, Xbox One, the newer Series X/S consoles, and PC via the Rockstar Games Launcher. It’ll get a physical release on December 7th, followed by versions for iOS and Android in the first half of 2022. Rockstar Games launched a site where you can look through more details.Xbox Game Pass subscribers will get instant access to Grand... Continue reading…

Intel’s Core i9-12900K hasn’t even been officially announced yet. | Image: Seby9123 Intel hasn’t even officially announced its new Core i9-12900K processor, but it’s already been sold by a retailer. The unreleased CPU is expected to be the flagship for Intel’s new line of Alder Lake processors, offering a chance to reclaim the performance crown from AMD.A Reddit poster, spotted by Techspot, managed to purchase two Core i9-12900K processors in retail packaging from an unnamed retailer for $610 per CPU. A similar mix-up happened earlier this year, when retailers started selling Intel’s Rocket Lake CPUs nearly a month before their launch.This unreleased CPU is useless without a new motherboardThe Reddit poster has published a number of photos of the unreleased Core i9-12900K processor in its retail packaging, which... Continue reading…

Image: Elgato EpocCam, the app from streaming brand Elgato that lets you repurpose your iPhone as a webcam for your PC or Mac, has been updated with native support for Snap Lenses augmented reality filters, Elgato’s parent company Corsair has announced. The functionality comes thanks to a partnership with Snap, who already offers similar filters natively in the Snapchat app, as well as with its Snap Camera software. Now the functionality is included natively in the EpocCam app.There are a total of 15 Snap Lenses for EpocCam, which include virtual backgrounds, virtual masks, and customizable filters. “Become your digital avatar, colorize your hair, interact with animated characters, and much more,” promises Elgato’s website, which also notes that the... Continue reading…

Image: Krafton PUBG: New State, the upcoming free-to-play mobile game, will release on iOS and Android on November 11th, its publisher Krafton announced today. The game is set in the year 2051, and will offer a futuristic take on the multiplayer-focused PUBG formula with new features like weapon customization and in-game drones. New State will be available in over 200 countries and 17 languages at launch.New State is a significant launch for the PUBG series, which popularized the battle royale genre after the launch of its first title in 2017. Although New State isn’t its first mobile entry, following the launch of PUBG Mobile in 2018, it’s the first to have been made by the game’s original developer, PUBG Studios. Development of the original PUBG... Continue reading…

Apple wants you to think of its new M1 Max MacBook Pro as a beast of a machine — it actually calls it a “beast” in the ad — but the upcoming macOS Monterey, which ships alongside the new Macs, will unleash its full potential. MacRumors contributor Steve Moser discovered a new “High Power Mode” in the operating system’s recent beta release that can “optimize performance to better support resource intensive tasks,” and apparently, spin up the fan to compensate for that. Apple confirmed to MacRumors that the mode is legit.

Apple Watch Series 7 teardown | Image: iFixit In our review of the Apple Watch Series 7, Dieter Bohn called it the best smartwatch while noting the new model’s changes as “smaller iterations” year-over-year than we previously expected. Even those small improvements required some reengineering. To appreciate those efforts, the folks from iFixit teamed up with former Apple engineers to investigate the new parts and get some insight into how the changes came to be.Ex-Apple product designer Tobias is now with Instrumental. He points out in a video that by looking at the back of the display, we can see that for the Series 7, Apple removed a ribbon cable, combining touch and display signals into one cable instead of two. That helped shrink the device’s bezels, but Tobias says in a video... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Twitter first launched Spaces in November 2020 as an attempt to eclipse Clubhouse’s success with its own version of audio-centric chatrooms — but the ability to actually host a Space was limited to Twitter users with 600 followers or more. Now, almost one year later, Twitter is finally giving all of its users the ability to host a Space, which is a privilege that arguably should’ve been granted long ago.Twitter is a bit behind on its own schedule, considering it promised that everyone would be able to start up a Space back in April. The Spaces team sent out a tweet to announce the change, noting that users on both Android and iOS will now be able to host Spaces. It also offers a GIF that briefly refreshes users on how to host a Space,... Continue reading…

Apple VideoPad 2 | Photo: Bonhams The long-lost Apple VideoPad 2 prototype is going up for auction in November as part of a History of Science and Technology auction by Bonhams, an international auction house, in Los Angeles. The VideoPad will be auctioned alongside other Apple prototypes and Steve Jobs memorabilia and is estimated to sell between $8,000 and $12,000.Developed between 1993 and 1995 with VideoPad 1 and 3 (the only two examples shown to the public), this only surviving PDA prototype was Apple’s next attempt after the Newton Message Pad. Unlike the Newton Message Pad, the fold-up screen apparently included a built-in camera for video conferencing.Despite being designed to be ahead of its time, it was canceled along with Newton OS after Jobs’ return to... Continue reading…

Microsoft is releasing a new Windows 11 update today that fixes some of the AMD CPU performance issues. AMD and Microsoft found two issues with Windows 11 on Ryzen processors at launch, with one causing L3 cache latency to triple and slowing performance by up to 15 percent in certain games. Microsoft is now fixing this particular issue with Windows 11 Build 22000.282, available to all Windows 11 users today as an optional update in Windows Update.While the last Windows 11 update made these issues worse, today’s patch should fix them for good on the L3 cache latency side. The second outstanding issue affects AMD’s preferred core technology, which shifts threads over to the fastest core on a processor. AMD says this second bug could... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge The ongoing global chip shortage is going to be a problem for a lot longer, according to Intel CEO Pat Gelsinger, who reiterated today ahead of the company’s Q3 earnings that he expects the shortage to extend until at least 2023.“We’re in the worst of it now; every quarter next year, we’ll get incrementally better, but they’re not going to have supply-demand balance until 2023,” Gelsinger told CNBC in an interview.Intel rival AMD seemed to have more optimistic expectations, with AMD CEO Dr. Lisa Su commenting at the 2021 Code Conference that while supply would be “likely tight” for the near future, “it’ll get better in 2022” as production capacity continues to ramp. “It gets better next year, not immediately, but it’ll gradually get... Continue reading…

Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge While Instagram and Facebook face increased scrutiny on how they manage their teenage audience, Snap is taking steps to ensure a safer experience for its youngest users by working on a set of family safety tools.In an interview this week on WSJ Tech Live (via TechCrunch), CEO Evan Spiegel spoke of his vision for allowing parents to hold their teens’ hands while the kids are navigating Snapchat. “One of the goals with the product is to open up a dialogue between parents and their children about their experiences on the app,” said Spiegel, hoping to align with parents in a time where similar platforms are negatively affecting young teens. During this interview, Spiegel also mentioned that there is an in-house parental control system in... Continue reading…

Stardew Valley creator Eric Barone — better known as ConcernedApe — has announced his second game: ConcernedApe’s Haunted Chocolatier, which looks to expand on the Stardew Valley formula with a more fantastical setting and “magical haunted ghost chocolate.”“In this game, you will play as a chocolatier living in a haunted castle. In order to thrive in your new role, you will have to gather rare ingredients, make delicious chocolates, and sell them in a chocolate shop,” the game’s website explains.The new title looks similar to Stardew Valley in many respects, with Barone’s meticulous pixel art and animations (at least at this stage of development) appearing virtually identical to his previous title. Barone isn’t saying whether the new... Continue reading…

Photo by Christophe Gateau/picture alliance via Getty Images Elon Musk may seem inseparable from Tesla, but on Wednesday night, the company offered the first real taste of what it might look like without its billionaire CEO.Tesla held a regularly scheduled conference call to discuss its quarterly financial results, but — as he’d previously teased — Musk did not attend. His absence took what’s normally a venue for his rants and ramblings, dismissals of Wall Street, and attacks on the press and turned it into a coherent (if scripted) presentation of the company’s recent progress.There were fewer sideshows and a more measured tone, though the executives who spoke in Musk’s place still made some contradictions. If Musk were to leave his post atop the company, it’s likely that Tesla would look and... Continue reading…

Months after we predicted that Stadia would soon become a white-label cloud-gaming service, AT&T appears to be taking Google up on the idea. AT&T is offering a free browser-based version of Batman: Arkham Knight exclusively for wireless customers that makes use of Stadia’s technology.AT&T confirmed that its new game streaming experience runs on Google Stadia’s tech (via 9to5Google). Google announced the shutdown of its internal Stadia game studio in February. While Stadia is still available and supported by Google, the studio shutdown means Google is relying on third parties to provide all the games, and it opens up the potential for Google’s partners to use the tech. AT&T is apparently the first of those partners — it... Continue reading…

Microsoft’s October update for the Xbox Series X includes the long-awaited jump to a native 4K resolution dashboard. Previously, the system software upscaled 1080p to 4K, by which enthusiasts, including several people who work for The Verge, were not totally satisfied.The improved picture quality extends across the home dashboard on the Series X (but not the Series S), as well as the My Games & Apps screen, the Xbox Guide, and “many other experiences.” Microsoft says that game art and button prompts will have “increased sharpness and improved text readability.” Microsoft provided an image for comparison, shown below, and the difference is clear.Now, you can endlessly stare at the TV in true 4K wondering what to play or watch while... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Snap has some things to be happy about this quarter. It crossed $1 billion in revenue for the first time, added 13 million daily users, and doubled submissions to Spotlight, its relatively new TikTok rival. But it has also ran into a serious and ballooning problem: Apple’s ad tracking changes, which have already led to millions in lost ad dollars.The company missed its revenue target by $3 million in the third quarter, largely because of Apple’s changes, Snap announced this afternoon. That’s not a huge miss on its own, but Snap expects the impact to continue next quarter and says its revenue growth will slow meaningfully as a result.“A more significant impact on our business than we had expected”“We grappled with industry changes to... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge HBO Max is still growing — but the service appears to have felt the impact of its exit from Amazon Prime Channels earlier this quarter.HBO Max and HBO subscriptions collectively grew to 69.4 million internationally from 67.5 million the previous quarter, the company reported during its second-quarter earnings presentation. But its combined subscriptions to both services dropped in the US from 47 million last quarter to 45.2 million this quarter — a difference of 1.8 million subscribers.So while its total subscription numbers were up 1.9 million subscribers for the quarter (and up 12.5 million, year over year) — meaning they’re still ballooning — the combined services still saw a loss in US subscriptions. AT&T said in its earnings... Continue reading…

Matt Dougherty/KHOU The driver and passenger seats were both occupied in a Tesla Model S that crashed into a tree outside of Houston on April 17th, killing both occupants, according to the National Transportation Safety Board.The crash made news when local investigators on the scene initially reported that neither body recovered from the Telsa was behind the wheel. Mark Herman, a constable from Harris County Precinct 4, told KHOU that one of the men killed was in the front passenger seat of the car, while the other was in the back seat.“They are 100 percent certain that no one was in the driver seat driving that vehicle at the time of impact. They are positive,” Herman told KHOU.Federal investigators quickly swooped in to determine the accuracy of the... Continue reading…

Image: Amanda Matlovich / Netflix Netflix’s show about teens fighting demons with magical keys is back, but Locke and Key’s second season makes some big changes. The pace is faster, the tone is darker, and with that, it loses some of the magic that made the show so interesting in the first place.Things don’t start out so dark, though. At the outset of Locke and Key’s second season, things are going well for the Locke family. After dealing with the death of their father and surviving a fight with a demon in season 1, they’re able to spend the summer relaxing with friends and their keys. It’s one of the rare times in the series we see magic used for having fun; Kinsey (Emilia Jones) is relaxing inside her own head (literally), and younger brother Bodie (Jackson Robert... Continue reading…

Mythic Quest has been renewed for a third and fourth season on Apple TV Plus, Apple announced today, marking the biggest commitment yet to one of its streaming originals.The show stars Rob McElhenney (who co-created the series) as Ian Grimm, the ambitious and self-centered creative director of a popular fictional video game, along with Charlotte Nicdao as Poppy Li, the lead engineer and co-creative director who works — and often fights — with Grimm over the direction of the titular Mythic Quest game. The show’s ensemble cast also features Murray Abraham, Danny Pudi, Imani Hakim, Ashly Burch, Jessie Ennis, and David Hornsby as members of the game’s development, creative, and testing teams.

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge A team of Dutch forensic researchers have decrypted Tesla’s data storage system, providing access to a trove of information that could be useful in crash investigations. (The news was first reported by Reuters.)It’s no secret that Tesla records information about its customers’ driving behavior, both to improve its advanced driver assistance system, Autopilot, and also in the event of a crash, to provide to investigators.But researchers at the Netherlands Forensic Institute (NFI) discovered that Tesla’s vehicles store far more detailed data than previously known, including speed, accelerator pedal position, steering wheel angle, and brake usage. Some of this data can be stored for up to a year, the institute said.speed, accelerator... Continue reading…

The Zephyr is apparently light enough to accompany you on a jog, assuming you want some extra attention. | Razer Razer’s Zephyr face mask is available to the public after several months of tweaking features and beta testing with Razer super fans. You can purchase it starting tonight at 11PM ET / 8PM PT from Razer.com in two configurations. The most basic kit for $99.99 includes the mask, a carrying tote, a USB-C charging cable, anti-fog spray, and three sets of replaceable N95 filters that will cover you for nine days of use. If you want more filters included with your purchase, a $149.99 version includes everything mentioned above, plus 33 sets of filters for 99 days of filtered use. You can purchase filters by themselves in sets of 10 for $29.99, which will get you 30 days of use.The Zephyr is a completely different kind of product for Razer and... Continue reading…

Razer’s new PC components. | Image: Razer Razer is expanding into PC components today with the launch of all-in-one (AIO) liquid coolers, case fans, and even platinum-rated power supplies. As you’d expect, all three include RGB lighting, a signature of Razer hardware. There’s even a PWM fan controller that will control up to eight fans and integrates into Razer’s Synapse software.The Razer Hanbo is the company’s all-in-one cooler with an addressable RGB pump cap. Razer has partnered with Asetek to create this AIO cooler, and it says the Hanbo is designed for maximum thermal performance and silent operation. The pump orientates 360 degrees, so you can place it in any case configuration. Image: Razer Razer’s Hanbo AIO comes in 240mm and 360mm radiator... Continue reading…

The middle-of-the-road Kraken 3 HyperSense is shown here. It costs $129.99 and plugs into devices via its USB-A plug. | Razer Razer has announced the Kraken V3 lineup, which has a refreshed design and new features. At the top of the offering is Razer’s wireless Kraken V3 Pro, which costs $199.99 and has built-in haptics. If wireless isn’t important to you, the Kraken V3 HyperSense for $129.99 has the same haptics feature, but with a few other tweaks. The $99.99 wired Kraken V3 doesn’t feature haptics, but it’s otherwise the same as the Kraken V3 HyperSense.Compared to the previous generation, the V3 looks less bulky and garish. Many of Razer’s headsets have skewed toward looking more like over-ear headphones, and this one’s no exception. Some of its features are borrowed from other Razer headsets. Each Kraken V3 headset has Razer’s 50mm TriForce drivers that... Continue reading…

The Pokémon Company released a new teaser trailer for Pokémon Legends: Arceus, and it’s causing a bit of concern. The 2-minute video features found footage of an unknown professor’s trek through a snowy wilderness as he attempts to document pokémon using a strange device he’s found.The professor — who will probably become the fandom’s newest zaddy because he sounds really cute — can’t contain his excitement as he stumbles on a sneeze of snorunts. But because of this man’s gleeful disregard for his own safety approaching dangerous (but oh so cute) animals in their natural habitats, it’s easy to see what happens next. The professor makes his way deep into a forest where he spots what he thinks is a zorua and zoroark. Suddenly, he’s struck... Continue reading…

Amazon workers may get a chance to vote to form a union | Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Workers at Amazon’s warehouses in Staten Island, New York are preparing to file for a union election with the National Labor Relations Board on October 25th, after getting signatures on union authorization cards from more than 2,000 workers.The Amazon Labor Union (ALU) is an independent group of employees that has been trying to organize workers at four Amazon warehouses in Staten Island. It’s led by former Amazon worker Christian Smalls, who was fired in March after he helped organize a walkout at the company’s JFK8 warehouse to protest unsafe working conditions during the pandemic. Amazon has said Smalls was fired for violating safety regulations.“This is truly a remarkable historical moment for all Amazon workers all over the... Continue reading…

Photo by Shealah Craighead / The White House In his latest attempt to return to the social media spotlight, Donald Trump is now turning to a current darling of the startup world: the special purpose acquisition company, or SPAC.Trump announced Wednesday night that he has a new company called Trump Media & Technology Group (TMTG) and that he would be merging this new company with a SPAC called Digital World Acquisition Company (DWAC). If completed, the deal would turn Trump’s new media company into one that’s publicly traded on the Nasdaq. And it would give TMTG enough money to get a new Twitter clone off the ground called “Truth.”The surprise deal is already turning DWAC into a meme stock, and it raises a fair number of questions.Wait, what’s a SPAC?Briefly, SPACs are shell... Continue reading…

Google’s Nest Hub 2nd Gen has a Thread radio built-in that will be updated in 2022 to enable Matter support. | Photo by Dan Seifert / The Verge Google gave a glimpse into how the new smart home standard Matter might actually work in our smart homes today, and it’s looking pretty exciting. At its Google Smart Home Developer Summit, the company announced new tools to help developers build devices that work with both Google Home, the new connectivity standard Matter, and across any other Matter-complaint ecosystems. This means that, yes — one day, very soon — the (new) Nest Thermostat could work in the Apple Home app without the need for Home Assistant or other workarounds. And if those two can work together, well, anyone can.Due to arrive next year, Matter is an open smart home application protocol that promises to make smart home devices talk to each other no matter who made... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Google put out a report detailing a phishing campaign directed at YouTubers, which involved around 15,000 fake accounts and over a million messages to targets. The phishing attempts were carried out by multiple hackers, and the company says it’s recovered around 4,000 accounts since late 2019. The attackers weren’t just trying to get the creators to put their password into a fake website, though — they were trying to infect their computer with malware that would steal their login cookies, which is a much more intensive attack than sending a link and waiting for someone to get sloppy with their passwords.YouTube doesn’t publicly say who was recruiting the hackers, only that they were using Russian-language forums to advertise. The... Continue reading…

Among Us is arriving on Xbox and PlayStation on December 14th. The popular social deduction game will also launch on Xbox Game Pass on the same day and be available on Xbox One, Xbox Series S / X, PS4, and PS5 consoles. The announcement comes months after Sony confirmed Among Us was coming to its PlayStation consoles this year.Just like on other platforms, Among Us will support crossplay and online multiplayer across mobile, PC, and now consoles. The only difference between the two console versions is PlayStation players will get access to exclusive Ratchet & Clank-themed cosmetics. There’s a skin and hat to make your character look like Ratchet, and a pet that looks like Clank.Among Us was a huge hit during the early stages of the... Continue reading…

CFBP Director Rohit Chopra The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has issued a series of information-gathering orders on the business practices of major digital payments systems. Orders were issued to Amazon, Apple, Facebook, Google, PayPal, and Square, the bureau said in an announcement on Thursday morning. Chinese pay systems operated by WeChat and AliPay will also be studied but are not subject to any CFBP orders.Issued as part of the CFPB’s investigative authority, the orders are not an indication of specific wrongdoing, but they suggest the CFBP will be taking a more active role in regulating tech companies’ consumer products in the future. In particular, they are meant to root out any data collection or anti-competitive conduct that may have not yet come... Continue reading…

Image: Google Google’s Work Profile tool for Android, which lets you hide your work apps and data with the flip of a switch and keeps your personal phone use safe from your company, will be coming to more users next year. According to a blog post from the company, currently, the feature is limited to phones that your organization manages, but Google says it’ll start to become available to people using Google Workspace in 2022. After that, it’ll branch out with the ultimate goal of letting anyone using Android for work flip a switch to make their business apps disappear.The ability to turn off work, especially when many of us are working remotely, is sorely needed. My colleague Monica Chin recently wrote a great argument for why you should have a... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge As regulatory pressure on the Play Store for Android increases, Google is once again making changes to its business structure. It has announced that more categories of apps will be eligible to pay significantly less than the usual 30 percent fee. The company is announcing that all subscription-based apps will now pay a fee of 15 percent. It’s also says that “ebooks and on-demand music streaming services” will be “eligible” for a fee “as low as 10%.”Google’s stated reason for the cheaper prices on ebooks and music streaming apps is that “content costs account for the majority of sales” and that the rates “recognize industry economics of media content verticals.” It’s unstated but also surely true that regulatory pressure and public... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge In an effort to strengthen its Communities, Twitter has acquired Sphere, a group chat app founded in 2016 that aims to make conversations more interactive and organized. Terms of the deal were not disclosed, but Sphere’s website describes the app as a place that “transforms groups into vibrant communities.”Sphere was co-founded in 2016 by Nick D’Aloisio, a British computer programmer turned serial entrepreneur. Initially, it was an app for real-time questions and answers but later evolved into a hub for group chats (via CNBC). During Sphere’s standalone existence, it aimed to bring organization to group conversations on mobile. As shown on Sphere’s website, some of its features included self-clearing feeds, auto-archiving, and call-outs... Continue reading…

SpaceX stacking its Starship spacecraft on top of a Super Heavy booster at the company’s launch site in Boca Chica, Texas. | Image: SpaceX This week, a vibrant mixture of supporters and critics voiced their opinions about SpaceX’s launch operations in Boca Chica, Texas during virtual town halls — input that will be considered as the government decides the company’s future in the state. More than one hundred people took the time to give their thoughts during the meetings on Monday and Wednesday, with opinions ranging from effusive praise of the company to concerns over SpaceX’s impact on the region’s communities and environment.The lengthy town halls were hosted by the Federal Aviation Administration, which is currently evaluating whether to give SpaceX a license to launch the company’s massive new Starship rocket out of Boca Chica. SpaceX has been building and testing... Continue reading…

Razer products offer a lot for those that love RGB accent lighting, with software to sync it all together. | Image: Razer Best Buy’s deal of the day for today features a range of Razer products worth considering for any of your gaming or streaming needs, and Amazon is matching or beating some of these prices. If retailers are competing, you’re probably winning.There are multiple options of keyboards and mice, as well as the top-range webcam from Razer and its compact microphone. For your mechanical keyboard fix, you can go big or small. If you prefer compact, you can pick between black or white versions of Razer’s Huntsman Mini 60-percent boards with clicky optical switches for just $95 at Best Buy or $94 at Amazon. A small-format keyboard might be intimidating at first, with its omission of a number pad and F-keys, but it allows you to keep your hands... Continue reading…

Dieter Bohn / The Verge Apple is tightening its COVID-19 policies, requiring that unvaccinated employees (or employees who refuse to disclose their vaccination status) get daily COVID-19 tests to enter its offices, although the company still has yet to require workers to get vaccinated. Vaccinated employees will also have to do regular tests, but only once a week, Bloomberg reports.Retail workers at Apple Stores will also have to regularly test, although at a lower rate than other Apple employees: unvaccinated store workers will have to take tests twice per week, with vaccinated workers getting tested once a week.Google, Microsoft, and Facebook all require in-person employees to be vaccinatedAccording to Bloomberg, Apple has asked its employees to submit... Continue reading…

NASA’s first electric plane is getting ready for takeoff.For the last five years, a small team of NASA engineers has been working to convert an Italian Tecnam P2006T aircraft so that it runs only on battery power. The X-57 Maxwell, named after 19th-century Scottish physicist James Clerk Maxwell, recently began high-voltage functional ground testing at the Armstrong Flight Research Center in Edwards, Calif., and is set to take its inaugural flight in the spring of 2022.That flight, when it happens, will signal a crucial milestone for NASA, which has been tasked by President Joe Biden to focus more of its resources on lessening the impact of climate change.NASA Administrator Bill Nelson toured Armstrong last week, where he got an... Continue reading…

Huawei’s Nova 9. | Image: Huawei Huawei’s Nova 9 is getting a global launch just under a month after the phone was announced for the Chinese market, the company said today. Huawei characterizes the Nova 9 as a “flagship smartphone for the younger generation,” compared to its Mate series (high-tech and premium) and P-series (photography) lineups. Pre-orders open today with pricing starting at €499, and Huawei says the phone will be on sale from November 2nd.The company also gave an update on the global release status of the P50, the flagship phone Huawei announced for the domestic Chinese market in July. The company says the P50 will release outside of China in 2022, which will come roughly two years after the release of its predecessor, the P40.Thanks to Huawei’s o... Continue reading…

Photo by Michele Doying / The Verge The Facebook Oversight Board says it will review Facebook’s “cross-check” program for high-profile users and criticized it for not disclosing enough information about the program.In a new transparency report, the Oversight Board — a semi-independent body that reviews Facebook’s moderation process — publicly accepted a Facebook request to review cross-check (sometimes called “XCheck”) and recommend changes. Facebook will also share documents related to reporting from The Wall Street Journal, which described cross-check as a system that “shields millions of VIP users from the company’s normal enforcement process.” The board previously raised concerns about cross-check following the Journal’s report.“In the board’s view, the team within... Continue reading…

Photo by Chris Welch / The Verge Tensions between Roku and Google spilled over to customers in a new blog posted by the streaming service on Thursday. After months of failed negotiations for Roku to maintain the YouTube app, the company is accusing Google of anti-competitive demands.Responding to the deadlocked negotiations, Google said that it would end all distribution of YouTube on new Roku devices after December 9th.In its Thursday blog post, Roku accused Google of making anti-competitive demands in carriage agreements, like requiring Roku to implement a dedicated YouTube search results row in the Roku interface. Roku also alleged that Google overrides music voice search and blocks relevant searches outside of YouTube’s own results while users are in the YouTube... Continue reading…

New 2TB and 512GB storage expansion cards for Xbox Series X / S. | Image: Microsoft Microsoft is announcing new storage expansion card options for the Xbox Series X / S today. Made by Seagate, there will now be a smaller 512GB card priced at $139.99 and a larger 2TB card priced at $399.99. These expandable storage cards slot into the rear of both the Xbox Series X / S to match the internal SSD speed and provide extra storage for games.The first storage expansion card launched alongside the next-gen Xbox consoles, priced at $219.99 for 1TB of space. That pricing meant the $299 Xbox Series S jumped to nearly $520 if you wanted to add more storage and bring it up to 1.5TB overall. Now there are a variety of options for Xbox Series S owners who want to expand beyond the 512GB of space the console offers. P... Continue reading…

After over a decade of development (and seven directors), it seems that Sony’s Uncharted movie is finally, really, truly going to actually come out — and it has the trailer to prove it.Starring Tom Holland as an incongruously young version of fortune hunter / adventurer / general human punching bag Nathan Drake, Uncharted is set long before the popular video game series, winding the clock back before Drake was a seasoned Indiana Jones knockoff to the start of his career.It is kind of hard to shake how young Holland looks here compared to his more grizzled video game counterpart, along with what appears to be an identical American accent to his Spider-Man voice in the Marvel films. But Sony will have plenty of time to convince fans to... Continue reading…

Image: Microsoft Microsoft has selected AMD as its exclusive PC partner for Halo Infinite. While this means plenty of marketing opportunities, it’s also fostered a closer engineering partnership with AMD that Microsoft says will improve frame rates in the campaign mode and eventually bring ray tracing to the game.“We’re looking forward to working closely with AMD to bring raytracing to Halo Infinite,” says Noah Benesch, a product marketing manager at Xbox. “Raytracing is one our top development priorities post-launch and look forward to sharing more soon.”It’s not clear if this rules out Microsoft using Nvidia’s DLSS (Deep Learning Super Sampling) technology, but Microsoft does note that AMD is “exceptionally open to us bringing new rendering features... Continue reading…

TCL, the company best known for its affordable Roku-equipped 4K TVs, has a new budget-oriented $399.99 5G tablet — the Tab Pro 5G. The device is available to order via Verizon’s online “Buy More, Save More” promo, which takes $100 off if purchased with a qualifying Android device on a Verizon plan.Similar to its newer TVs that now offer Google TV in the US, TCL’s Tab Pro 5G continues the company’s trend with a standard set of Google apps... alongside the expected mass of Verizon bloatware. Image: TCL The tablet is meant to be held in widescreen. Tablets with 5G have not entered this price point yet. Verizon also sells the $669.99 Samsung Galaxy Tab S7 FE 5G and the $649 iPad Mini with 5G. However, if you want... Continue reading…

Microsoft’s second attempt at a folding phone rights a lot of the original’s wrongs, but doesn’t fix everything Continue reading…

Facebook Messenger is adding “group effects” that allow everyone on a video call to participate in the same augmented reality experience at the same time. The effects are available now across Messenger video calls as well as Messenger Rooms, the service’s Zoom-like videoconferencing feature, and are coming soon to Instagram, the company says.There are over 70 group effects available at launch, including a game where players compete to build a virtual burger, and another where a virtual orange cat photobombs the call. It’s a shift from the service’s existing augmented reality features, which tend to only apply to one participant at a time. Facebook says developers will be able to build more group effects using its Spark AR API from the... Continue reading…