The Verge

Photo by Dan Seifert / The Verge Yesterday, Amazon announced its “home robot” — a wheeled device named Astro that has a display, an array of sensors, and a camera that periscopes out the top of its body like a mast. In advertisements for Astro, Amazon presents the device as an engineering breakthrough and the realization of a long-held sci-fi dream: to build a robot that can help around the house.This is rubbish, of course. What Astro is — for better or worse — is a camera on wheels.Astro definitely can’t get a beer for youThe physical limitations of Astro are obvious. It has no arms or manipulators; no way to interact with the world other than bumping into objects at shin height. It can’t navigate steps, and, according to employees who worked on the robot and spoke... Continue reading…

A masterclass in going back to what works Continue reading…

Jeep revealed the 2022 Grand Cherokee 4xe, the first plug-in hybrid version of the automaker’s best-selling SUV. It is the second Jeep vehicle to get an electrified version, following the hybrid 2021 Wrangler 4xe released last year. Jeep also announced an off-roading version of the Grand Cherokee, the Trailhawk, which also comes with a hybrid motor.Tellingly, Jeep is not announcing a pure electric version of the Grand Cherokee, nor selling any battery-electric vehicles. The automaker recently announced that it would release “zero-emission” versions of all of its vehicles by 2025, along with plug-hybrid variants. The Grand Cherokee 4xe (“four by E” in Jeep parlance) is estimated to get 25 miles of all-electric range and... Continue reading…

Photo by Cameron Faulkner / The Verge Despite not being the newest model, the 2020 Razer Blade 15 Advanced still offers plenty of power, which makes its current, $600 discount at Best Buy something to consider. Although we saw an even deeper discount on the 15-inch laptop earlier this month that brought it down to $1,600, today’s $1,800 price remains a solid deal for a laptop that has an RTX 2070 Super graphics chip and a fast 300Hz refresh rate display. It even comes packaged with a free month of Xbox Game Pass Ultimate, allowing you to give your new hardware several benchmark tests.There are plenty of options when it comes to gaming laptops, but it's tough to beat the Razer Blade 15 Advanced in terms of performance and portability. Read our 2020 Razer Blade 15 Advanced... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Lawmakers are preparing to hold the first in a series of data privacy hearings on Wednesday in a fresh effort to bolster consumer data protections on platforms like Facebook, Twitter, and Google.On Wednesday, the Senate Commerce Committee plans to discuss the creation of a new privacy bureau at the FTC and “the need for a comprehensive federal privacy law.” It’s an uncomfortable dodge since Congress has thus far been unable to pass any such privacy law. But with states enacting their own privacy framework, there’s more pressure than ever for some part of the federal government to take action.As legislative efforts have stalled, the FTC could be the Biden administration’s best bet at regulating the tech industry’s grasp over consumer... Continue reading…

Valve’s first VR headset, the Index. | Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge Valve could have a second VR headset in development with a standalone design similar to what’s currently offered by Facebook’s lineup of Oculus Quest headsets. Evidence for the new headset was brought to light by YouTuber Brad Lynch. He found multiple references in Valve’s SteamVR code to a device codenamed “Deckard” which he then cross-referenced against the company’s recent patent applications.Ars Technica subsequently confirmed with its own sources that much of Lynch’s findings are accurate, and that Valve does have a second headset prototype in development. In contrast with the company’s first VR headset, the Valve Index, released in 2019, the new headset has a built in processor that could allow it to work without being tethered... Continue reading…

Amazon laid out its plans to make ambient computing an even bigger part of its customers’ lives at its hardware and services event on Tuesday. But while that vision includes surveillance drones and being followed around your home by a rolling Alexa-on-wheels called Astro, it was missing products for the other place people spend a lot of their time — their cars.That left an automotive-sized hole in Amazon’s presentation, and there are some good reasons to find it odd. Rumors in the lead-up to Amazon’s event pointed to the launch of a second generation Echo Auto, alongside several other predictions that ended up being true, like the wall-mounted Echo Show 15. Leaks of the Ring Car Cam in June also seemed to suggest that the Amazon-owned... Continue reading…

The new Withings ScanWatch Horizon showing SpO2 oxygen saturation. | Image: Withings The ScanWatch Horizon is Withings’ latest hybrid smartwatch to combine a digital display with a traditional mechanical format. You buy a Withings because you hate the look of typical health-focused wearables and abhor the bombardment of notifications that plague other smartwatches.Withings says it took design inspiration for the 43mm ScanWatch Horizon from “luxury dive watches” like the Submariner or Seamaster — influences that can be seen in the reflection-free sapphire-glass casing with titanium finish, a stainless-steel rotating bezel, and luminescent watch hands and indicators for visibility in low light. Its water resistance is only rated at 10 ATM, however, making it ill-suited for deep dives. But it should be fine for swimming,... Continue reading…

Vjeran Pavic / The Verge Apple has reportedly fixed the issue that broke the “unlock with Apple Watch” feature on iPhone 13 models. The feature, which lets Apple Watch users unlock their iPhones without a password when wearing a mask, now works again as of the second iOS 15.1 beta, as reported by 9to5Mac.Apple noted on its support page a few days ago that it was working on this problem. I’ve run into the issue myself on my personal iPhone 13 Pro and can confirm that it’s been pretty annoying after having gotten used to the feature since it was introduced earlier this year. Newer iPhones don’t have fingerprint readers, so the only way to unlock them when your mask interferes with Face ID is by using a password.There’s no word on when iOS 15.1 will be released... Continue reading…

When you see a flight of stairs. | Photo by Dan Seifert / The Verge Some of the people building Amazon’s Astro home robot are not impressed with it, according to a report by Vice. One person who worked on the robot, which was announced today, reportedly called it a “disaster that’s not ready for release,” while another said it was “terrible,” and the idea that it’d be a useful accessibility device (part of Amazon’s pitch is that Astro can help with elder care) was “absurdist nonsense.” The sources also mentioned that the bot doesn’t handle stairs well, with one even saying that it would “throw itself down” them “if presented the opportunity.”To make matters worse, Vice also reports that the robot is fragile and that several devices had broken. That’s not great news for a $1,000 (or $1,449) robot that... Continue reading…

Jane Tyska/Digital First Media/The Mercury News via Getty Images A Steve Jobs biography makes an appearance in court — but it doesn’t explain Theranos’ problems Continue reading…

You can soon set your Nest doorbell to cackle at your visitors. | Photo by Dan Seifert / The Verge Google Nest is bringing back seasonal ringtones for its video doorbells, which now include the Nest Doorbell (wired) — previously known as Nest Hello — and the new Nest Doorbell (battery). First up are Halloween-inspired tones, which will stick around through October, then the winter holiday-themed options arrive.For the past three years Nest has offered them, the ringtones have disappeared following the holidays, leaving you with the standard ding dong. But this year, the new Nest Doorbell will also get six “evergreen” ringtones that are usable year-round. They will arrive with the Halloween options, but Google tells me they aren’t coming to the older Nest Doorbell (wired).The spooky-themed ringtones should arrive on October 1st and... Continue reading…

Astro did not put that beer there! | Image: Amazon Amazon introduced a new robot today with the face of an Echo Show, the sensor-laden body of Panera Bread delivery bot, and a pair of cupholders for a trunk. The instant it was announced, people clamored for a reason for its existence beyond “mobile camera with a cute face” and “potentially invasive surveillance drone.” Most seemed to settle on “beer fetcher.”But friend, a pair of cupholders does not a robowaiter make.While the $1,000 Astro could very well have a wide variety of capabilities beyond home surveillance, it’s not gonna be fetching you anything. For one, it reportedly sucks. “Astro is terrible and will almost certainly throw itself down a flight of stairs if presented the opportunity,” a source who claimed to work on the... Continue reading…

Tesla and SpaceX boss Elon Musk criticized President Joe Biden as “not the friendliest administration” after the White House snubbed his company last month. Musk’s comments came during a Code Conference interview and followed a tweet in which the Tesla CEO mocked Biden using similar insults as former President Donald Trump.The Biden administration invited auto executives to the White House last month to discuss the shared goal of increasing the production of electric vehicles. Top officials from Ford, General Motors, and Stellantis were invited. But Tesla, which is the largest EV maker in the world, was not.“Controlled by the unions”One potential reason that Tesla wasn’t invited is that its factory workforce is not unionized, while... Continue reading…

Asa Mathat Tesla has been making participants in the “Full Self-Driving” beta test sign non-disclosure agreements, but CEO Elon Musk said Tuesday “we probably don’t need” them.The reason? “There’s a lot of videos” being shared of the beta software in action, Musk said on Tuesday during the 2021 Code Conference. “People don’t seem to listen to me” and are “just ignoring it anyway.”“I don’t know why there’s an NDA,” he said.Tesla has had a small group of owners testing out the beta version of its “Full Self-Driving” software — which, despite the name, does not make the company’s cars fully autonomous — on public roads for about a year now. But this week, Vice reported that the company makes participants in the program sign NDAs. These agreements... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Facebook’s interest in understanding and eventually acquiring younger users extends well beyond Messenger Kids or the currently paused plans for a child-friendly Instagram. A new report in The Wall Street Journal’s series on Facebook’s internal research shows the company’s focus on kids goes much deeper, including studying children younger than four years old in the hopes of better designing future products.The company’s child research is primarily motivated by the success of apps like TikTok and Snapchat in attracting younger users. “With the ubiquity of tablets and phones, kids are getting on the internet as young as six years old. We can’t ignore this and we have a responsibility to figure it out,” a confidential Facebook document... Continue reading…

Elon Musk isn’t happy that fellow mega-billionaire Jeff Bezos keeps suing to stop SpaceX’s projects, and he shared a message for the Amazon founder during the 2021 Code Conference on Tuesday: “you cannot sue your way to the Moon, no matter how good your lawyers are.”Musk was responding to a question from journalist Kara Swisher about how Bezos’ space company, Blue Origin, recently sued to block a contract NASA gave SpaceX to develop a lunar lander. Amazon has also protested SpaceX’s Starlink internet satellites with the Federal Communications Commission.Swisher asked Musk Tuesday if he has spoken to Bezos about the legal fights. “Not verbally, just... subtweets,” Musk said. (In August, Musk tweeted: “Turns out Besos [sic] retired in... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Update September 28th, 6:52PM ET: Sony has sold out of the PS5 and PS5 Digital Edition for the day. We’ll make sure to let you know when the next opportunity comes up.Nearly a year after making its debut, the PlayStation 5 remains notoriously difficult to get your hands on. Sony has been one of the most reliable retailers when it comes to console restocks, however, and the company often opens its online queue for customers who don’t mind waiting for a chance to secure Sony’s next-gen console.If you want to have another go at it, Sony has reopened the queue for ordering the disc-based PS5 and the PS5 Digital Edition via its direct store. You don’t have to refresh the landing page once you’ve arrived — just wait it out — but we do... Continue reading…

Oxenfree. Netflix is continuing its push into video games with the acquisition of Night School Studio, the team best-known for 2016’s Oxenfree and 2019’s Afterparty. (Oxenfree, it should be noted, had strong Stranger Things vibes — and Night School also previously worked on a canceled Stranger Things title.)“Night School wants to stretch our narrative and design aspirations across distinctive, original games with heart,” Night School’s Sean Krankel said in a statement. “Netflix gives film, TV, and now game makers an unprecedented canvas to create and deliver excellent entertainment to millions of people. Our explorations in narrative gameplay and Netflix’s track record of supporting diverse storytellers was such a natural pairing. It felt like... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Thus Sprach Technoking Continue reading…

Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge Apple tells Ars Technica that it thinks the “jelly scroll” effect some users have noticed on the new iPad Mini is normal LCD behavior that the company won’t have to fix. The effect, also known as skewing, can make it seem like one half of the display is slightly behind the other while you're scrolling, and it’s most apparent while using the iPad Mini in portrait mode. Verge executive editor Dieter Bohn noted the issue in a tweet and in his review of the device published this morning. Despite our requests before and after publishing the review, the company did not respond or comment.Ars explains that the issue happens because the iPad starts drawing the lines on one side of the screen, and it takes time to go from one side to the other.... Continue reading…

Mohamed Hamaki will be featured in Fortnite. | Image: Epic Games Epic Games has announced the next set of musical performances coming to Fortnite, called the Soundwave Series. The new series will feature artists from around the world, and players will be able to experience music from each artist in an interactive experience in-game.Epic is well known for bringing musical performances to Fortnite, including spectacular shows for huge artists like Travis Scott and Ariana Grande and concerts hosted on the non-violent party royale island. But Epic is increasingly working with its community to create signature experiences for the game in Fortnite’s Creative mode, such as with this summer’s Easy Life virtual concert and the Balenciaga-themed “Strange Times” hub. The first show in the Soundwave Series,... Continue reading…

Shedworks Zoom through sandy dunes vibing to the sounds of Japanese Breakfast Continue reading…

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Ambient computing is here; now what? Continue reading…

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The middle child of the iOS lineup Continue reading…

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