The Verge

Photo by Avery White for The Verge Once again, Google is hitting the reset button, combining with Samsung’s Tizen wearable operating system for a new wearable OS, tentatively called “Wear.”The company is throwing in the towel on Wear OS. It’s trying yet again, this time with Samsung’s Tizen OS helping to fill in the gaps that Google, for whatever reason, can’t. It’s theoretically good news for Android owners interested in a decent smartwatch — but one that’s damning of Google’s lackluster efforts in the smartwatch space to date.In the years since Google first introduced Wear OS (neé Android Wear), there’s never been a truly good Android-powered smartwatch. Samsung’s Tizen-powered watches have been the best option for years, but they’re ultimately Samsung watches. They... Continue reading…

This machine plays marbles. | Image: Wintergatan Swedish band Wintergatan may be widely known for its Marble Machine music video (which featured a machine dropping marbles to play drums, a bass, and other instruments), but today I learned that they’re building a bigger, better version, and documenting the entire process on YouTube. It’s called the Marble Machine X, and it’s driven by a motor instead of a hand crank, is being built by an entire team of people, and, hopefully will be able to go on tour and be played on stage when it’s finished.Wintergartan also produced a build log of the first machine, but this new project is way grander in scope, offering a deeper look at the creative process that leads to... well, building a massive musical instrument that uses marbles. The band put... Continue reading…

VSS Unity in space over New Mexico on May 22nd. | Virgin Galactic Richard Branson’s Virgin Galactic completed its first successful space flight in more than two years on Saturday, with its crewed VSS Unity spacecraft carried to an altitude of more than 44,000 feet before gliding safely back to Earth. It marked the first spaceflight from New Mexico, making it the third US state to launch humans into space. The Zia sun symbol of New Mexico’s state flag was displayed on the outside of the ship.Virgin’s VMS Eve carrier aircraft took off from Spaceport America in New Mexico at about 10:35AM ET with Unity aboard. About 10 minutes before its release, Unity switched to its own battery power, and conducted flight control and electrical checks. Once released by Eve, Unity’s pilots C.J. Sturckow and Dave Mackay... Continue reading…

Flying off into the sunset | Aerion Aerion Supersonic, which had plans to build silent business jets that would travel twice as fast as most commercial airplanes, is shutting down operations. First reported by Florida Today, Aerion, which had backing from Boeing, said it was unable to raise the money to build its AS2 supersonic jet.“The AS2 supersonic business jet program meets all market, technical, regulatory and sustainability requirements and the market for a new supersonic segment of general aviation has been validated with $11.2 billion in sales backlog for the AS2,” the company said in an statement emailed to The Verge on Saturday.“However, in the current financial environment, it has proven hugely challenging to close on the scheduled and necessary large new... Continue reading…

Getty Images Chinese autonomous vehicle startup Pony.ai has received a permit from California’s Department of Motor Vehicles to test its driverless cars without human safety drivers behind the wheel on specified streets in three cities.Pony has been authorized to test autonomous vehicles with safety drivers in California since 2017, but the new permit will let it test six autonomous vehicles without safety drivers on specific streets in Fremont, Alameda County; Milpitas, Santa Clara County; and Irvine, Orange County. According to the DMV, the vehicles are designed to be driven on roads with speed limits of 45 miles per hour or less, in clear weather and light precipitation. The first testing will be in Fremont and Milpitas on weekdays between 10AM... Continue reading…

Photo by James Bareham / The Verge In a new support document on its website, Apple dives a little deeper into the details around the upcoming launch of lossless audio on Apple Music.Apple now says that both the HomePod and HomePod Mini will support lossless audio after a future software update. That’ll be good news to people who’ve invested in one or a pair of Apple’s smart speakers. Two HomePods grouped in stereo playing a lossless source? Yeah, that’s going to sound wonderful. Apple isn’t yet giving any timetable for when this software update will be released, however.The document also clarifies that the Apple TV 4K will only support standard lossless audio when the ALAC files become available in June. Apple has said that in most cases, the “Hi-Res Lossless” tier... Continue reading…

The Epic v. Apple trial was bookended by Tims. Epic Games called its CEO Tim Sweeney as the first witness nearly three weeks ago. Yesterday, Apple called Tim Cook as the last to take the stand, before both sides make their final case to a judge on Monday. Cook was supposed to bring home Apple’s defense of its ecosystem. He did it by laying out Apple’s most high-minded principles — but also its hard financial calculations.Epic v. Apple covers two separate issues: whether the market for in-app purchases within the App Store is unfairly monopolistic, and whether iOS itself is a monopoly that should be opened up to third-party stores and side-loaded apps. Cook addressed both with an appeal to user safety and privacy. “Privacy from our point... Continue reading…

Riot Games The 2021 League of Legends World Championship will be held in Shenzhen, China, Riot Games announced late Friday. The Worlds Final will be at the Universiade Sports Centre, a 60,000 capacity stadium that’s home to the Shenzhen FC football (soccer) club, on November 6th.“We’re extremely excited to push the boundaries of entertainment and sport this year with Worlds 2021 and define the next 10 years of LoL Esports,” John Needham, Global Head of Esports for Riot Games said in a statement. “Shenzhen is China’s most competitive and innovative city with thousands of high-tech startups and entrepreneurial pursuits, so we felt that it was the perfect landscape to host our Finals.”

Comics have never been bigger: with Marvel TV shows, DC movies, and indie adaptations growing by the day, comic books have never been more prominent in pop culture. This biweekly Verge column recommends comic series new and old, whether you’re a longtime fan or a newcomer.Haunted house stories are usually pretty dreary. It helps with the horror: a bleak old house covered in shadows so that you can’t see what’s around the corner. But Home Sick Pilots goes in a different direction. It’s still dark and spooky, but it’s also incredibly vibrant — thanks in large part to its punk rock edge.What is it? Home Sick Pilots is an ongoing series from Image Comics — the run is currently five issues deep — about a girl named Amida, her band, and a... Continue reading…

The Tile Mate features excellent Bluetooth range and, unlike AirTags, Android compatibility. | Image: Tile At The Verge, we strive to bring you the best deals we can find — after all, not everyone has the time to comb through endless product listings and retailer pages. The past week has seen some good buys, including deals on the iPhone 11 Pro and the best noise-canceling headphones you can buy, but many of the week’s top deals will continue through the weekend. Right now, for instance, you can save $24 on the second-gen Apple Pencil and score Tile’s latest Bluetooth tracker at its lowest price in months. It’s the weekend, y’all. Have at it.The Android-friendly Tile Mate is now $5 off across the boardLately, it feels Apple’s AirTags have stolen all the thunder when it comes to Bluetooth trackers. And while they might be a better fit for... Continue reading…

A woman at a vaccination site in Florida. The site in Immokalee, FL was set up to reach seasonal farmworkers, and other people who might not have as much access to traditional vaccination efforts. | Photo by Joe Raedle/Getty Images In the US, COVID-19 vaccines are free, but it turns out that money is still a big barrier to vaccination.See, even though the vaccines don’t cost a thing, it still takes time to go and get a shot and potentially recover from any side effects. For working adults, that may mean taking time off work — and that isn’t something that everyone can afford to do.Black and Hispanic people are particularly concerned about the tradeoff between missing work and getting the vaccine, according to new results from research published by the Kaiser Family Foundation this week. People in both demographics are more likely than their white counterparts to work lower-paying jobs, which may not offer as much paid leave for things like illness.Those... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Starting next week, streaming platform Twitch will add more than 350 new community tags to its platform related to gender, sexual orientation, race, nationality, ability, and mental health, the company said in a new blog post. The list of tags will include transgender, Black, disabled, veteran, and Vtuber, Twitch said, and it will remove the “ally “ references from its LGBTQIA tag, in favor of a new standalone ally tag.The platform thanked its trans community for pushing for a transgender tag, and admitted “the simple truth is we should have done this sooner.” Twitch reportedly had resisted adding a transgender tag over concerns about targeted harassment.“When we launched tags in 2018, we did so to boost discovery, to help creators... Continue reading…

An image taken by the navigation camera of China’s Zhurong rover on the surface of Mars when it landed on May 15th. | Photo by CNS/CNSA/AFP via Getty Images China became the second country to successfully deploy a vehicle on Mars on Saturday, and the first to do so on its inaugural visit to the Red Planet. Reuters reported that the solar-powered Zhurong rover drove down the ramp of its landing capsule on to the surface of Mars at about 10:40 AM Beijing time.Zhurong first landed on Mars earlier this month and started its journey on Mars’ surface on Utopia Planitia, a smooth plain where NASA’s Viking 2 lander touched down in 1976. That’s more than 1,200 miles from the Jezero Crater where the US rover Perseverance touched down in February. A third rover, NASA’s Curiosity, which landed on Mars in 2012, was spotted by NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter climbing up Mars’ Mont Mercou last month, S... Continue reading…

Photo by Becca Farsace / The Verge It’s safe to say that no company in existence today that has more than a couple of employees can exist without a knowledgeable IT support person or team. When you’re trying to run a website, create a solid technological structure, and keep things running even at the most stressful of times, a strong IT support team can make sure that things don’t go completely haywire at the worst time — or, if it does, that somebody is there to fix it.The Verge is certainly no different, and so we asked one of the members of Vox Media’s IT team — Eric Arredondo, IT administrator — to tell us a bit about himself and his job.What do you do for Vox Media?I am an IT administrator for our IT service desk team. I help manage and support the internal... Continue reading…

Photo by Chris Welch / The Verge We have poked a considerable amount of fun at the Apple TV’s Siri Remote over the years, and we’re pleased to say it’s finally fixed — except for the headsmacking decision not to stick the company’s AirTag UWB locator technology into one of the few gadgets absolutely, positively guaranteed to get lost in your couch cushions someday. Why?Today, Apple VP Tim Twerdahl answered that burning question in perhaps the most unsatisfactory way imaginable: simply, that the new TV remote’s thick enough you shouldn’t need to worry about that much anymore.Here’s the whole exchange between Twerdahl and MobileSyrup’s Patrick O’Rourke:

Image: Kotaku Kotaku has revealed an Easter egg that’s been hidden on the original Xbox for almost twenty years, after a developer who worked on the console sent in a tip. The Easter egg, which has apparently remained secret until now, can show you the Xbox Dashboard Team’s names after you follow a byzantine set of steps (as is par for the course when it comes to some video game secrets).Kotaku was able to find someone with a working Xbox who could actually carry out those steps, which you can see in the publication’s video below. If you’ve got one of the consoles, you can try it out for yourself by ripping a CD as a soundtrack and calling it “Timmyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy!” (using 26 “y”s to reach the maximum amount of characters allowed). After... Continue reading…

Tim Cook is seen through a window of the federal courthouse in San Francisco | Photo by Philip Pacheco/Getty Images Apple called CEO Tim Cook to conclude three weeks of testimony in Epic v. Apple — and with the end of the trial approaching, Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers engaged Cook in a surprisingly tense exchange over Apple’s business model.Rogers noted that most of Apple’s App Store revenue comes from games, and she asked Cook why developers can’t use other payment methods to sell in-app purchases, or at least tell users they can make those transactions elsewhere. “If they wanted to go and get a cheaper Battle Pass or V-Bucks, and they don’t know they’ve got that option, what is the problem with Apple giving them that option?” she asked.“If we allowed people to link out like that, we would in essence give up our total return on our [intellectual... Continue reading…

Illustration by William Joel / The Verge A quarter of the deep links in The New York Times’ articles are now rotten, leading to completely inaccessible pages, according to a team of researchers from Harvard Law School, who worked with the Times’ digital team. They found that this problem affected over half of the articles containing links in the NYT’s catalog going back to 1996, illustrating the problem of link rot and how difficult it is for context to survive on the web.The study looked at over 550,000 articles, which contained over 2.2 million links to external websites. It found that 72 percent of those links were “deep,” or pointing to a specific page rather than a general website. Predictably, it found that, as time went on, links were more likely to be dead: 6 percent... Continue reading…

A screenshot of Twitch’s new hot tubs category. Twitch is launching a dedicated category for hot tub streams after claiming that it has received pushback from advertisers and viewers about how the trend has taken over the platform. The new “Pools, Hot Tubs, and Beaches” category is meant to let creators stream what they want, while also giving Twitch advertisers a more convenient way to prevent ads from running on streams that they don’t approve of.Earlier this week, Twitch pulled advertising from some hot tub streamers without warning. In a statement sent to The Verge today, the company said that was a mistake. “We did not alert impacted creators at the time, and we should have–our creators rely on us,” a spokesperson said. Twitch said the ads were suspended at advertisers’ request... Continue reading…

Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge Editor’s note: According to a Facebook company spokesperson, the issue described below with the iOS carousel feature is attributable to a bug: “We’re aware that some people are having trouble accessing the ‘Select Multiple’ photos feature in Instagram due to a bug in the latest iOS update and are working on a solution.”Whenever we use an app continuously, any change to the UI of that app can cause stress — and during these stressful times, who needs more? For example, in a recent update, Instagram tweaked the way it asks its users to create carousels (groups of up to 10 photos or videos that rotate through a single post), and this is apparently causing a bit of confusion.This new method was pointed out in the Instagram account Digital... Continue reading…

This morning, The Verge published a story about how Citizen — an app that appears to encourage vigilante justice — encouraged its users to hunt down the wrong person and presumably bring them to justice, in the mistaken assumption that person had started the 1,158-acre Palisades wildfire in Los Angeles last week. The company offered a $30,000 bounty.Now, we’re learning the same company is apparently planning to offer its own private security forces to users, according to a new report from Motherboard.In fact, one Citizen-branded patrol car has already been spotted in the wild:

Photo: HBO / WarnerMedia There’s a quality that some long-running chat podcasts have that can feel like a brick wall for new listeners. Existing relationships, in-jokes, and context that friends and co-hosts have are additional barriers to feeling like you’re a part of the conversation. The casual hangout and chat format is tantalizing for its naturalism, but it also comes with parasocial relationships as baggage. Which makes HBO’s new late-night project, Pause with Sam Jay, so intriguing. It has hangout podcasts in its DNA, but it’s also out to reinvent a decades-old late-night format.Pause is co-created by Sam Jay, stand-up comedian and Saturday Night Live writer, and Prentice Penny, showrunner and executive producer of Insecure. It feels fresh for some... Continue reading…

Image: Penn Executive Chairs It started with a tweet from Roadshow editor-in-chief Tim Stevens. A picture of a chair that seemed to effortlessly skim the line between office chair, La-Z-Boy recliner, and Victorian throne. An utter affront to design, taste, and style.This chair:

Pregnancy apps could use some new features. | Photo by Philip Cheung for The Washington Post via Getty Images A great scholar once noted that “there’s an app for that.” Pregnancy is no exception. I use my phone to manage just about everything else in my life, so when I found out I was pregnant, it was a natural next step to go looking for an app to hold my hand through the experience. I’ve been using a couple of popular apps interchangeably — Ovia and What to Expect — and generally, they’re pretty good. But I have notes.So without further ado, here’s a list of demands from me, a pregnant lady with no app development experience, to the pregnancy app creators of the world. It’s the impractical pregnancy tracking app of my dreams. And believe it or not, you can use these ideas for free in your next update. You’re welcome.

Elizabeth Kari at the AAP(I Belong) exhibition at the Museum of Chinese in America in New York City. | Photo by Cindy Trinh A video of her mom’s assault went viral — now she wants to tell a different story about anti-Asian hate Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge India’s government has criticized Twitter for applying its “manipulated media” label to some Indian politicians’ tweets about COVID-19 efforts, and TechCrunch and Indian news media outlets reported Friday. The government has asked Twitter to remove the tags out of “fairness and equity,” saying the application of the labels affects the platform’s image as “neutral and unbiased.”The government sent the notice to Twitter two days after it applied the “manipulated media” label to a tweet by Sambit Patra, of India’s ruling BJP party. Patra said in the tweet, which appears to have been deleted (it’s not clear whether Twitter removed it or if Patra deleted it himself), that opposition party Congress had used a “toolkit” in attempts to subvert... Continue reading…

Photo by PATRICK T. FALLON/AFP via Getty Images For months during the union drive, Amazon warehouse workers in Bessemer, Alabama, felt like they were being watched. There were cameras around BHM1, the 855,000-square-foot warehouse where workers sorted, scanned, and packed boxes. A uniformed police officer patrolled the parking lot all hours of the day and night. Managers came up to peoples’ workstations to ask how they felt about the organizing campaign. So when Amazon had a new USPS mailbox installed — ostensibly to increase voter turnout — many felt they couldn’t trust it.“Amazon said only the post office had access to it, but that’s not how it felt,” said Serena Wallace, an employee BHM1 who testified on behalf of the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union (RWDSU). “I... Continue reading…

Photo by James Bareham / The Verge Apple might have discontinued the original, full-size HomePod smart speaker, but the company is continuing to add new functionality to it. The latest one relies on you also buying the new, second-generation Apple TV 4K, however. If you own both products, there’s now built-in support for HDMI ARC and eARC, which lets the HomePod play audio from other devices plugged into your TV — not just an Apple TV streaming box. Gaming consoles should work; same goes for Blu-ray players or even another streaming gadget.The feature can be enabled in the “video and audio” area of the Apple TV settings menu. There you’ll see a field labeled “Audio Return Channel (beta),” where you can tell the Apple TV to route all television audio through HomePod... Continue reading…

Image: Fisker Inc. EV startup Fisker Inc. says it will make the first all-electric popemobile, using a modified version of its forthcoming Ocean SUV. Automotive designer Henrik Fisker and Geeta Gupta-Fisker (his wife and Fisker Inc. co-founder) presented Pope Francis with images of the proposed design during a meeting at the Vatican on Thursday.Those images show a white Ocean SUV with a glass cupola on top that would let the pope greet the public. The company says it will deliver the vehicle sometime next year. (The regular version of the Ocean SUV is supposed to launch near the end of 2022.)Traditionally, the official popemobiles are made by Mercedes-Benz and have to be properly armored and outfitted with bulletproof glass. It’s not clear exactly how... Continue reading…

Photo by Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Times via Getty Image ‘We make this sort of heinous crime impossible to escape from’ Continue reading…

Twitter will launch its Ticketed Spaces in the next couple weeks. | Image: Twitter Twitter’s getting ready for the launch of its Ticketed Spaces feature, and today, it’s previewing what users can expect when they go to host their first one. US users will be able to apply to host paid live audio rooms starting in the next couple weeks. Anyone who wants to charge has to have 1,000 followers, have hosted three spaces in the past 30 days, and be at least 18 years old.The company is partnering with Stripe to handle payments, and it says users will receive 80 percent of revenue after Apple and Google’s in-app purchase fees are taken. So if you sell a $10 ticket, Apple would presumably take a 30 percent cut, leaving you and Twitter to split the remaining $7. Eighty percent would go to you, and 20 percent would go to Twitter.... Continue reading…

The fitness watch that lives up to its name Continue reading…

Photo by Eduardo MunozAlvarez/VIEWpress Tensions between Google and its AI brain trust DeepMind have always been fascinating. To put the relationship in crude terms: DeepMind, founded in 2010, is home to some the best AI researchers in the world who output a steady stream of insightful academic papers and Nature front covers. Google, meanwhile, bought DeepMind in 2014 and bankrolls its large losses, and it really, really wants to squeeze some money out of all those juicy brains.That’s why a recent story on the two companies from The Wall Street Journal is so interesting. In it, Parmy Olson reports that Google has ended yearslong negotiations between the two firms, ultimately rejecting a plea from DeepMind for more independence.One idea reportedly suggested was for DeepMind... Continue reading…

Illustration: Alex Castro / The Verge Jack Edwards doesn’t want to be praised for doing what he considers the bare minimum: making his videos accessible to his deaf and hard of hearing viewers.Edwards began making book and lifestyle videos on YouTube five years ago, but he only started captioning all of his videos in January. “It was one of my goals this year to invest more time into making my channel more accessible for viewers,” he says. “I always think about the quote, ‘It’s a privilege to learn, rather than to experience,’ and that’s true for so many accessibility issues. I don’t rely on subtitles to enjoy YouTube content, so it’s easy to forget that others do.”Captions are up 30 percent year to yearMore creators like Edwards have been writing captions for their... Continue reading…

Spotify Spotify is adding the ability to download playlists, albums, and podcasts on Apple Watch to play offline, the company announced Friday. Users will be able to stream audio in 96kbps, add and delete Spotify content on their phones, and sync with the Watch.“Being able to download music and podcasts complements the existing feature of being able to stream your favorites from the watch, and now you don’t even have to take your phone with you,” the company said in its news release.Your browser does not support HTML5 video.Spotify added the ability to stream music using an Apple Watch in November; until that point, the Apple Watch only worked as a remote for Spotify music playing on an iPhone or other Spotify Connect-compatible device.... Continue reading…

If you’ve got an Apple TV, it’s a must-have upgrade Continue reading…

The Normandy in No Man’s Sky. No Man’s Sky players who are fans of the beloved sci-fi series Mass Effect will soon be in for a treat: Mass Effect’s legendary SSV Normandy SR-1 starship will be appearing in No Man’s Sky.The Normandy’s arrival is the culmination of an alternate reality game that’s taken place inside No Man’s Sky over the past few days. If you want to add the Normandy to your frigate fleet (a group of ships you dispatch on missions), you have until May 31st to participate in the expedition (an event where players share an adventure on the same planet) that lets you acquire it. Image: Hello Games Another screenshot of the Normandy in No Man’s Sky. The crossover arrives just a week after the release of Mass Effect Legendary... Continue reading…

Snap’s fourth-generation Spectacles. | Photo: Snap Snap has agreed to acquire WaveOptics, the supplier of the augmented reality displays that power its new Spectacles glasses, for more than $500 million, The Verge has learned. The deal is Snap’s largest ever, underscoring the company’s long-term bet that AR eyewear will eventually go mainstream.WaveOptics primarily makes waveguides, a display technology that allows for the overlaying of virtual objects onto the real world through a transparent surface like glass, and accompanying light projectors. Snap is using WaveOptics displays in the new Spectacles announced this week, which it isn’t selling widely but is giving to a small number of AR effect creators.Based in the UK and founded in 2014, WaveOptics raised a total of $65 million in... Continue reading…

Microsoft is outlining its vision for the future of meetings today. After a year that’s seen more people dialing into the office remotely, the company is once again banging the drum for hybrid work: a model that combines remote access with in-person work.While the company has been teasing new concepts for Microsoft Teams in recent months, it’s now starting to bring to life an updated interface for the communications software that will help blend remote colleagues into physical meeting rooms.A new video details Microsoft’s plans, which include larger screens that help facilitate face-to-face meetings with life-sized remote colleagues. Microsoft imagines meeting rooms where cameras are placed at eye level to improve eye contact, and... Continue reading…

Photo by Chris Welch / The Verge The colorful, 2021 iMac might become the desktop of choice for most people, however, when it comes to flexibility, few products rival the 2020 Mac Mini. It’s fast and functional, and right now, you can pick up the base configuration at Costco (membership required) or Amazon for $600, its lowest price yet. The discounted, 8GB model is built upon Apple’s eight-core M1 chip and includes 256GB of storage and Wi-Fi 6. It’s also remarkably quiet, though, it lacks a wide selection of ports and doesn’t support external GPUs, a notable downgrade from previous Mac models. Still, the drawbacks don’t render the M1 iMac any less of a deal.Netflix remains the undisputed king of streaming with more than 208 million subscribers, but it’s one of many... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Wired has published an in-depth feature on the 2011 hack of security company RSA, in which hackers stole the so-called “crown jewels of cybersecurity,” the secret keys forming a “crucial ingredient” of its SecurID two-factor authentication devices. It would go on to “redefine the cybersecurity landscape” with huge implications for not just RSA, but also the organizations that relied on its devices for their own security.Wired’s Andy Greenberg describes the moment RSA analyst Todd Leetham discovered that hackers had accessed one of RSA’s most important pieces of data:

Make any wall switch Hue-smart Continue reading…

Microsoft is finally adding a dark mode to its Office app for Android. While the Office app has been available on iOS and Android for more than a year, only the iOS version has included built-in dark mode support until now.“It’s been a highly requested feature by many of our customers,” admits Sourab Nagpal, a product manager at Microsoft. “Many people prefer using Dark Mode as they find it provides a more comfortable visual experience for reading and working on mobile devices.”The latest Office app for Android will now automatically enable dark mode if you’ve set that as a system preference on your Android device. Dark mode can also be toggled from the home tab in the Office app. Microsoft says it’s rolling out dark mode for Office on... Continue reading…

Tinder’s profile vaccination badges. | Image: Tinder A group of the USA’s biggest dating apps are encouraging users to get vaccinated, just in case the health benefits weren’t reason enough. New features will range from badges for users to show their vaccination status, free premium features for vaccinated users, and links to vaccination resources like the Vaccines.gov website. The apps taking part in the scheme include Match Group’s Tinder, Hinge, Match, OKCupid, BLK, Chispa, and Plenty of Fish services, as well as Bumble and Badoo.The aim is to encourage users to get vaccinated, with the implied promise of more matches and hence more dates. The announcement cites research from OKCupid suggesting that people who either are, or plan to be, vaccinated get 14 percent more matches. Some apps... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Amazon is shutting down its standalone Prime Now delivery app, with its speedy two-hour delivery options moving exclusively into the company’s main app and website, the company announced today. Prime Now services have already moved into the main app in India, Japan, and Singapore, while in other countries Amazon is already directing Prime Now users into its main app and website via a pop-up, CNBC notes. The standalone Prime Now app and website will be retired by the end of the year.Originally launched in 2014, Prime Now was designed to offer deliveries of essential items within hours rather than days for Prime members. The service was initially available in just a small number of cities, but has since expanded to over 5,000 locations... Continue reading…

Yesterday OnLeaks released CAD renders of what is supposedly Google’s next flagship phone, the Pixel 6 Pro, and now the noted leaker has followed up with details and images of the smaller model, posted at 91Mobiles. The so-called Pixel 6 looks like it’ll adopt the same distinctive design as the Pro, with one colorway featuring orange and white sections broken up by a glossy black bar that houses the camera bump.You’ll find one fewer camera in that bump, according to the leak — it’s said to be a dual-camera setup, presumably a regular wide and an ultrawide. The 6 Pro, on the other hand, appears to include a periscope telephoto lens. Both phones are depicted with a single centrally aligned hole-punch selfie camera.A 6.4-inch display... Continue reading…

Kensington’s StudioDock, the high-end $399.99 desktop hub for the iPad Pro that was released earlier this year, isn’t compatible with the new 12.9-inch model hitting stores today. A representative for Kensington confirmed the news to The Verge, saying it’s because the new iPad Pro is 0.5mm thicker than the 2018 and 2020 models.The StudioDock uses a rotatable magnetic mounting plate to secure the iPad when it’s plugged in over USB-C, expanding its connectivity with extra USB-A, ethernet, and HDMI ports. Although the only difference between the StudioDock versions for the 12.9-inch and 11-inch iPad Pro is the size of that mounting plate, Kensington says it won’t be user-replaceable. Instead, the company plans to release an entirely new... Continue reading…

Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart brings alternate realities to the beloved PlayStation franchise on June 11th, and along with leveraging the PlayStation 5’s SSD, Insomniac Games announced new accessibility features on Thursday that build on the studio’s recent work and address the limited options presented in the earlier PS4 Ratchet & Clank.As an action platformer, Ratchet & Clank often requires multiple types of movement: You’ll shoot through waves of oncoming enemies while running around a level, and quickly shift to jumping across floating platforms, and using various gadgets to fly, swing, and now reality-warp through stages. Rift Apart seems to keep those core mechanics but adds even more potentially sensory-overloading visuals, from... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge CNA Financial, one of the largest US insurance companies, paid $40 million to free itself from a ransomware attack that occurred in March, according to a report from Bloomberg. The hackers reportedly demanded $60 million when negotiations started about a week after some of CNA’s systems were encrypted, and the insurance company paid the lower sum a week later.If the $40 million figure is accurate, CNA’s payout would rank as one of the highest ransomware payouts that we know about, though that’s not for lack of trying by hackers: both Apple and Acer had data that was compromised in separate $50 million ransomware demands earlier this year. It also seems like the hackers are looking for bigger payouts: just this week we saw reports that C... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Slack has added a small but very welcome new feature: when you’re setting a status, you can check a box in that same menu to pause notifications for as long as that status is up.I discovered the checkbox on Thursday while preparing for an interview. When I do interviews or calls, I like to set a status to tell my colleagues what I’m up to and then turn off Slack notifications so I’m not distracted by pings or mentions. Previously, though, pausing notifications required clicking into a second menu — and I’d sometimes forget to turn them off. This new checkbox has the benefit of saving me a bit of time and helping me remember to pause notifications when I need to.Slack tells The Verge that this feature is rolling out now, so you might... Continue reading…