The Verge

Firefly’s Reaver engine being test-fired. | Image: Firefly Aerospace A roughly $30 million handshake between two rivals is the latest display of consolidation in the small launch industry Continue reading…

Image: PayPal PayPal is updating its mobile app with a new visual design, support for a high-yield savings account, and a way to find coupons in-app. In the past, the company prioritized sending and receiving money and cryptocurrencies, but its new app is trying to be a little bit of everything to everyone, and it’s available today.The immediately noticeable change is a visual one. The old payment-focused PayPal app put sending and receiving money at the forefront, with your account balance the first thing you see when you open the app. The PayPal app’s new “homepage” is a dashboard of sorts with quick access to your balance, the amount of crypto you own, and your frequent contacts. It sorts other options under dedicated tabs and hubs.Direct... Continue reading…

This is the HP Spectre x360 16. | HP HP makes some of the most gorgeous laptops you can buy, and its Spectre line is the most beautiful of them all. But the new Spectre x360 16, a 16-inch 2-in-1 touchscreen laptop, will flip that dynamic around. Not only is this laptop beautiful — this laptop wants to make you beautiful.That’s the idea, at least. The Spectre x360 16, starting at $1,639, is the first 16-inch laptop to include an “integrated, intelligent” 5MP webcam, HP claims. But that’s not all. It also comes with a program called — and I love this name — HP GlamCam. It’s not entirely clear what GlamCam will do, but HP claims that one of its main features, Beauty Mode, will “touch up skin, teeth, and eyes” during video calls. The goal, HP says, is to “keep your focus on... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Slack is launching its new clips feature today, allowing coworkers to record video messages that exist in Slack channels. Clips supports audio from a microphone, alongside video and screen recordings. They’re designed to help teams communicate across various time zones, and cut down on the amount of meetings that are now taking place in a hybrid work era.In addition to clips, Slack is also expanding Slack Connect to allow paid organization to partner with companies on free plans. It’s also announcing GovSlack that will run in a government-certified cloud environment when it launches in 2022.Clips can be shared in channels or through DMs on Slack, and they even include live captions and a transcript that’s searchable in the Slack... Continue reading…

The ultrawide all-in-one with its magnetically attached webcam. | Image: HP HP’s new Envy 34-inch All-In-One Desktop PC is a self-contained Windows 11 machine that’s available with comparable specs to a standalone gaming PC. It has a large 34-inch ultrawide IPS display (5120 x 2160), which can be powered by Nvidia’s RTX 3080 GPU and Intel’s 11th Gen Core i9 processor.Externally, the all-in-one is also equipped with a number of neat quality-of-life features. It’s got a magnetically-attached 16-megapixel webcam which can be reoriented to sit on any of the monitor’s four sides, and a 15W Qi wireless charger built into the stand to charge your phone or other compatible accessories. Image: HP The PC’s stand has a Qi wireless charger built in. Image: HP The webcam... Continue reading…

The Surface Pro design has remained mostly the same since 2014. | Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge Microsoft is planning to launch its latest Surface Pro 8 tablet tomorrow. Sources familiar with Microsoft’s plans tell The Verge that the new Surface Pro 8 will ship with the biggest hardware design and specification changes since the Surface Pro 3 launch more than seven years ago. The Surface Pro 8 looks like the Surface Pro redesign I’ve long waited for.Microsoft is planning to bring most of the sleek design elements of the Surface Pro X to the Surface Pro 8. The tablet itself will be more rounded at the edges, and a new Surface keyboard will house a new slim Surface Pen inside just like the Pro X does. While the display bezels at the top and bottom of the Surface Pro 8 won’t be fully eliminated, they will be a lot smaller and nearly... Continue reading…

Snap To mark the International Week of the Deaf, Snapchat has created custom stickers and three AR Lenses to encourage users to fingerspell, the company said Tuesday.The new features were designed by incorporating feedback and guidance from deaf and hard-of-hearing employees at the company, and using AI and computer vision technology developed by Hungarian startup SignAll, which focuses on technology for deaf people. SignAll has developed technology that can be used to track hand movements to translate sign language into spoken language. The company launched fingerspelling mobile app Ace ASL for iOS in April, and for Android earlier this month.The new Snap features were also driven internally by Snap Lab software engineer Jennica Pounds,... Continue reading…

Comcast appears to be planning to offer TVs running its own software across at least two territories, according to recent reports from Protocol and The Financial Times.In the US, the TVs will reportedly be branded as XClass TVs. Originally manufactured by Hisense, the 43 and 50-inch sets will run Comcast’s X1 operating system, which is already found on its set-top boxes and Xfinity Flex streaming box. An Xfinity landing site confirms the “XClass TV” branding, while an FAQ spotted by Protocol says they’ll aggregate “your favorite apps, live channels, and On Demand movies and shows together in one place.”“Apps, live channels, and On Demand movies and shows together in one place”Meanwhile in the UK, Comcast subsidiary Sky is reportedly... Continue reading…

Image: Netflix Netflix is launching a new free Android mobile plan in Kenya that will allow users to watch a limited selection of its catalog, including full seasons of select shows.Netflix announced that beginning this week, the new ad-free Netflix mobile plan for Android gives users the option to sign up without having to enter any payment information (though they’ll need to verify that they’re 18 or older and will still need to submit an email address to create a login).Netflix hopes users will upgrade to a paid subscriptionA Netflix spokesperson confirmed to The Verge that it’s the first time the streamer has offered a free tier. Roughly a quarter of its library will be included in the free plan, and users on this tier will be able to watch... Continue reading…

Snoop Dogg, the famous rapper, tweeted on Monday that he’s the one behind a Twitter account that discusses NFTs. Yes, this really is a thing that’s happened. While Snoop Dogg has released NFTs before, that’s not really anything new for celebrities — running a Twitter account that constantly tweets about crypto, and owning around a hundred of the crypto tokens, however, would be another level. Is this reveal real? A prank? It’s unclear, but it sure is interesting.@CozomoMedici (seemingly named after a prominent Renaissance-era Italian banker) is a Twitter account that’s amassed quite a few followers in the month or two it’s been active and talking about crypto. Part of what’s made the account splashy is that it’s seemingly spent... Continue reading…

Photo by Chaim Gartenberg / The Verge Apple’s iOS 15 and iPadOS 15 are finally here, but not all of the features announced at WWDC have made it alongside them. We looked through Apple’s product pages for each OS to find the features that have yet to show up on iPhones and iPads, such as SharePlay, improved AirPod Find My support, Universal Control, and more. Except for Universal Control, which isn’t for iPhones (yet), every feature listed is missing from both platforms.Perhaps the most prominent missing feature is SharePlay, which lets users watch videos or listen to music with friends on a FaceTime call. Apple warned us (and developers) about the delay after removing SharePlay from beta tests, but it’s still a bit awkward given how significant the feature looked at first.... Continue reading…

Image: Blizzard The list of government agencies investigating Activision Blizzard has grown to now include the SEC. The Wall Street Journal reported that the Securities and Exchange Commission has subpoenaed the video game publishing giant, including CEO Bobby Kotick, for records pertaining to employment, separation agreements, and communications between senior executives. The Wall Street Journal report says that the SEC is investigating whether Activision Blizzard disclosed information about harassment and discrimination claims to investors in a timely fashion.Two months ago, the California Department of Fair Employment and Housing sued Activision Blizzard for facilitating a culture of abuse, harassment, and discrimination. The suit alleges that... Continue reading…

Image: OpenSea OpenSea, one of the most popular NFT marketplaces, has launched its first app for iOS and Android. The app allows OpenSea users to view the platform’s collection of digital items, but notably doesn’t allow for any kind of money to change hands, digital or otherwise (via TechCrunch).The OpenSea app basically works as a kind of gallery. You can browse artwork, share listings you find, and lovingly ogle and manage your own NFTs. The app shares a lot of the same blue and white stylings of the OpenSea site, just missing the button that says “Buy Now.”There are a couple possible reasons why actual NFT purchases are missing. At the most obvious, highest level, OpenSea probably doesn’t want to share a 30 percent cut of NFT transactions with... Continue reading…

A variety of new hardware updates are expected from Microsoft. | Image: Microsoft The event kicks off at 11AM ET / 8AM PT on September 22nd Continue reading…

Image: Apple TV Plus Tom Hanks is set to return to Apple TV Plus in Finch, a soon-to-debut feature film about a robotics engineer surviving a new post-apocalyptic world with his four-legged companion Goodyear (and a robot).The heart of Finch’s storyline centers on Hanks’ determination to find a caretaker for Goodyear after his death. The science-fiction drama takes place after a solar flare that devastated life on earth. Finch, the engineer, has been surviving a post-apocalyptic wasteland for a decade in an underground bunker, where he lives with his dog Goodyear — a very good boy and Finch’s only companion after the catastrophic event.In this underground workspace, Finch develops a robot, Jeff, with whom they’ll embark on a treacherous journey to beat a... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Senate Democrats are calling on the Federal Trade Commission to write new rules to protect consumer data privacy in a new letter to the agency authored on Monday.The letter, led by Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) and signed by eight other Democratic senators, was sent to FTC Chair Lina Khan Monday, calling on the agency to “begin a rulemaking process” on privacy. Specifically, the senators are requesting that the FTC pen new rules addressing privacy, civil rights, and the collection of consumer data.“Consumer privacy has become a consumer crisis”“Consumer privacy has become a consumer crisis,” the lawmakers wrote. “Tech companies have routinely broken their promises to consumers and neglected their legal obligations, only to receive... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Crypto exchange Coinbase has discontinued its plans to launch a Lend feature designed to let customers earn interest on certain coins as reported by Bloomberg. The company announced the change by updating a blog post from late June, saying that it would also be discontinuing the waitlist that it had set up for the feature.The cancellation comes after Coinbase received legal warnings about the feature from the Securities and Exchange Commission. Earlier this month, Coinbase said that it would be delaying the now-canceled feature “until at least October.”Coinbase promised that the Lend feature would offer users a 4 percent APY return if they let the company make loans to “verified borrowers” with it. The company planned to the... Continue reading…

Image: Chevy General Motors said Monday that it will start swapping new batteries into Chevy Bolt EVs in October in response to at least a dozen fires that triggered a massive recall. GM did not say when it will restart production of brand new versions of the electric car.The news comes as LG is once again making batteries for the Bolt after stopping in August. GM says it worked closely with the South Korean conglomerate to make sure the new cells are free of defects that have led to at lest a dozen fires in the automaker’s electric vehicle and a massive recall.Owners of older Bolts (model years 2017 to 2019) will have all the modules in their battery packs swapped for new ones. Owners of newer models may only get individual modules changed out,... Continue reading…

Photo by Dan Seifert / The Verge Amazon has officially announced the date for its big fall hardware event: it’ll take place on Tuesday, September 28th at 12PM ET / 9AM PT. As always, Amazon isn’t giving any details on what to expect — the invite sent to The Verge only says that they’ll be “news about our latest Amazon devices, features, and services.”In previous years, though, Amazon has announced new Echo speakers, updates to Alexa’s software, new Eero routers, updated Ring cameras, and more. Amazon also tends to announce its more unique and experimental products at its fall event: previous years have send the announcement of the Echo Loop ring, the Echo Frames glasses, and the Ring drone (which has yet to make a re-appearance since its initial debut last year.) We... Continue reading…

This laptop is flying business class. Continue reading…

Image: Apple The iPhone 13 isn’t even here yet, but speculation about Apple’s future phones never slows down. While some rumors about Apple’s event last week didn’t pan out, certain leaks were right on, including analyst Ming-Chi Kuo’s information about a smaller notch and high refresh rate screens.Now Kuo reports (via 9to5Mac and MacRumors) that plans for next year’s iPhones point to high-end Pro and Pro Max models that ditch the notch entirely in favor of hole-punch front cameras, with 48MP wide cameras on the back. However, Kuo expects that in-screen fingerprint scanning for Touch ID is off until 2023, despite his earlier reporting that it could happen as soon as this year.A possible foldable iPhone is even further off, slipping from its p... Continue reading…

Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge The Justice Department has charged over a dozen people with running a scam on ride hailing and delivery apps. Prosecutors say the alleged scam ring created fake accounts using stolen personal information, then sold those accounts to otherwise unqualified drivers — while also collecting referral bonuses and building software to trick the apps.The indictment was revealed on Friday and adds to wire fraud claims first revealed in May. It accuses 14 people — all Brazilian nationals and most living in Massachusetts — with identity theft against five unnamed companies. (Prosecutors filed the wire fraud charges against 19 people in total, and 16 have been arrested.) The wire fraud charges carry a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison, while... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Federal agencies like the Pentagon and Commerce Departments can’t decide whether to place Huawei’s former smartphone company, Honor, on the US’s export blacklist, according to a Washington Post report on Sunday.According to The Post, top officials at the Commerce, State, and Energy departments, along with the Pentagon, met last week to decide whether to place the smartphone manufacturer on the US’s entity list. Pentagon and Energy staffers supported placing the company on the list while Commerce and State Department officials opposed the idea. If blacklisted, Honor would be unable to receive US tech exports without a license.Huawei launched Honor in China in 2013 to compete against other popular smartphone companies like Xiaomi. Nearly... Continue reading…

DoorDash is expanding its alcohol deliveries | Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Food delivery platform DoorDash said Monday it’s expanding its alcohol delivery service to 20 new states and the District of Columbia, Canada, and Australia, which it says will reach 100 million adults worldwide.“Customers in select markets, where legally permissible, can toggle to the Alcohol tab of the DoorDash app to browse and safely order from a wide selection of drinks from restaurants, grocery stores, local retailers, and convenience stores,” the company said in a press release. DoorDash cited a 2020 study from the National Restaurant Association that found 56 percent of customers over 21 would order alcoholic beverages if offered as part of food delivery from a restaurant.The feature is only available to customers 21 and older... Continue reading…

Photo by Chris Welch / The Verge If you’ve been waiting on a deal for the latest Apple TV, which has a faster processor and includes the new Siri remote, you can save $30 on it by buying refurbished through Apple itself via Slickdeals. The 32GB model costs $149 (was $179) and the 64GB model is $169 (was $199), but supplies are likely limited. While buying refurbished usually comes with a few words of caution, Apple’s refurbished program ensures that products are in brand-new condition, with a full one-year manufacturer warranty. It even supports AppleCare, so you can extend the warranty if you’d like. Read our review.Another great deal comes from Woot, where you can find the best price yet for Samsung’s Galaxy Buds Pro wireless earbuds. These debuted earlier this... Continue reading…

Image: Roku Roku today announced the Streaming Stick 4K, the company’s latest streaming device. Priced at $49.99, the new product replaces the popular Streaming Stick Plus, which has long been a go-to recommendation as one of the best streamers for under $100.The new hardware improves on the old with features like Dolby Vision HDR and speedier performance. It now boots up 30 percent quicker and has a long-range Wi-Fi receiver that delivers speeds that are up to twice as fast. Roku says the device can intelligently optimize bandwidth and streaming performance based on your network conditions. Like its predecessor, the Streaming Stick 4K supports Apple’s AirPlay 2 and HomeKit and can also be tied into Amazon Alexa or Google Assistant smart homes. ... Continue reading…

Buying a TV can be a big decision, but Hisense’s latest promotion wants to help; starting today the company is offering what it calls its “100 Day Guarantee,” which will let you buy a Hisense TV, try it out for 100 days in the comfort of your own living room, and then, if you don’t like it, you can send it back for a full refund.A number of Hisense’s latest models are included in the offer, including the U6G, U7G, and U8G. But more surprisingly, even the 75-inch, U800GR 8K (which costs $2,699.99) and the company’s high-end 100-inch and 120-inch L9G laser TV projection setups (which cost $5,500 and $6,000, respectively) are eligible — meaning that if you’re willing to lay out the cost, you can test drive the fanciest TVs that Hisense... Continue reading…

Roku’s live TV app displayed on the home screen in Roku OS 10.5. | Roku Roku is making finding stuff to watch more of a breeze by expanding voice command support and making it easier to watch free live TV.With the Roku OS 10.5 update, Roku users will be able to access the live TV guide — which now boasts more than 200 channels to stream for free — faster by pinning it to their home screens alongside their other apps and channels. After updating, users just need to search for “Live TV on The Roku Channel” and will be able to install it as they would any other app or streaming service.Additionally, for those who navigate the Roku experience using voice commands, Roku says its voice command support extends to “nearly any channel” in search. That includes Spotify and Netflix as well, two previously notable... Continue reading…

Photo by Sam Byford / The Verge Nvidia is releasing a new display driver today that adds DLSS (Deep Learning Super Sampling) support to 28 games, and is now certified for both Windows 10 and Windows 11. The 28 additional DLSS games brings the total of games to more than 100, an important milestone for Nvidia’s AI-based temporal upscaling. DLSS upscale games from a lower resolution to provide smoother frame rates without a noticeable compromise in image quality.Most of the new DLSS additions come courtesy of the Unreal Engine 4 DLSS plugin that’s making it easier for developers to integrate DLSS into their games. Alan Wake Remastered will ship with DLSS support next month, and Nvidia is promising an up to 2X performance boost at 4K. Every GeForce RTX GPU can get over... Continue reading…

Image: Apple “You get free iPhone upgrades for life!”“You get a $500 gift card for switching carriers!”I can almost hear Oprah shouting the many competing offers from all the carriers — AT&T, T-Mobile, and Verizon — as soon as the Apple “California Streaming” event was over. They’re all offering huge incentives to entice you to trade-in an old device, switch carriers, then sign up for a top-shelf cellular plan. If you’re in the market for a new carrier and iPhone right now, you can probably land yourself a “free” iPhone 13 (or only pay a nominal fee for the flagship iPhone 13 Pro Max), even if you’re preordering before the phones hit stores.Many of these offers seem too good to be true and are a bit surprising to see on new iPhones that h... Continue reading…

2021’s OnePlus 9. | Photo by Becca Farsace / The Verge OnePlus CEO Pete Lau has confirmed that the company doesn’t plan to release its traditional T-series device in the second half of this year. He also announced that next year’s OnePlus flagship phone would run on a newly unified operating system, following the company’s integration with fellow BBK Electronics subsidiary Oppo. OnePlus announced it would be merging the codebases of its Android-based OxygenOS operating system with Oppo’s ColorOS in July.This means we’re unlikely to see a OnePlus 9T following up this year’s OnePlus 9. Despite the similar names, the company’s T-series phones have offered significant upgrades over its flagships from earlier in the year. For example, the 8T had around double the charging speeds of the 8, while... Continue reading…

Amazon’s last Kindle Paperwhite, released in 2018. | Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge A new generation of Kindle devices appears to have leaked via a since-removed comparison chart on Amazon Canada, GoodEReader reports. Two new devices are shown in the chart, a CA$149.99 (around $117) Kindle Paperwhite, and a CA$209.99 (around $164) Kindle Paperwhite Signature Edition. Both feature a larger 6.8-inch E ink display compared to the current 6-inch Paperwhite, but only the more expensive model has the new wireless charging, alongside more storage and lights that adjust based on the brightness of the environment.The basic Kindle Paperwhite appears to include 8GB of storage, while the Signature Edition has 32GB, the same as the two storage options available for the current Paperwhite. The 300ppi resolution is also unchanged.... Continue reading…

The original Surface Duo. | Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge Microsoft is expected to announce its new Surface Duo 2 handset at a special Surface hardware event on Wednesday September 22nd. While rumors have so far pointed towards a triple-camera system, the device appears to have passed through FCC certification with 5G, NFC, and wireless charging support.Windows Central reports that the dual-screen Android device has been spotted in FCC documents published last week. The documents mention “Wireless Power Transfer,” but it’s not entirely clear whether the Qi standard will be supported for wireless charging here. Windows Central speculates that the Surface Duo 2 may include support for inductive charging for the Surface Pen instead.The FCC documents also confirm 5G and NFC support, both of which... Continue reading…

Samsung’s recent foldable, the Z Flip 3, is more hamburger than hotdog. | Photo by Dan Seifert / The Verge Google appears to be internally testing a second foldable Pixel smartphone, according to 9to5Google’s sources. The device is said to be under development with the codename “Jumbojack,” that’s referenced in a future version of Android 12 which 9to5Google identifies as “Android 12.1.” This is the latest foldable codename we’ve heard about at Google, following reports of another device called “Passport.”Not much is known about what form Jumbojack could take, but 9to5Google has a couple of key details. It seems to have two screens, with one that deactivates when the device is folded. That suggests we’re looking at a similar design to Samsung’s foldables, which combine a small external screen with a larger internal folding display. There’s... Continue reading…

Ikea’s Sjömärke fits under a table to make it a charger. | GIF: Ikea Ikea got in relatively early on selling furniture embedded with wireless charging coils, but what if you don’t have one of its powered-up desks or shelving units? If you want seamless Wireless Qi charging without redecorating, then next month, there will be a solution. Meet the Sjömärke, a $39.99 wireless charging pad made to work with furniture you already own.This device isn’t like most Qi charging pads, where you’d put your phone or earbuds directly on the mat. Instead, the seven-inch by three-inch aluminum and plastic charger works through plastic or wood, so you can use its double-sided tape (or screws, not included) to put it on the underside of a table or shelf. Image: Ikea Image: Ikea ... Continue reading…

Kendall Roy, smiling because he is happy Succession is returning soon (probably) | HBO OK so the latest Ted Lasso spends almost the entire episode on Coach Beard in its most unusual, dream-like episode ever. I didn’t hate it (and I know it’s one of the two episodes added to the mix after Apple said it wanted 12 episodes instead of the 10 the writers had already sketched out. The Christmas episode was the other), but I wish we had actually gotten to know Beard a little better. “I listen more than I talk” seems like a line that could be his mantra.The Morning Show is back and honestly the first episode seemed rushed to get certain characters to do specific things we as the audience know they must do in order to have a show at all. I’ll stick with it for a bit, remembering that this was a show that took a little while to... Continue reading…

The 73rd Emmy Awards will be held on September 19th. | Getty Images The 73rd annual Primetime Emmy Awards ceremony is tonight at 8PM ET (5PM PT), and streaming platforms like Apple TV Plus, Netflix and HBO Max are poised to win big. Cedric the Entertainer will host the show, which will be broadcast live from outside the Microsoft Theater in Los Angeles, to accommodate social distancing, which also means the audience will be limited to nominees and their guests.Where DO I WATCH THE EMMYS?This year, CBS will broadcast the Emmys, so you can watch on your local CBS affiliate. The show will also stream live on CBS’ Paramount Plus streaming app. You can sign up for a free trial of Paramount Plus to check it out if you’re not already a subscriber.HOW DO I WATCH THE EMMYS ONLINEThere are plenty of options... Continue reading…

NTSB chair says Tesla should address safety issues before expanding its so-called “full self-driving” mode. | Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Jennifer Homendy, chair of the National Transportation Safety Board, told the Wall Street Journal that Tesla should address “basic safety issues” before the carmaker expands its so-called “full self-driving” (FSD) mode.Tesla CEO Elon Musk said earlier this month that the company was aiming for a wider release of FSD by the end of September, making a “public beta button” available to more Tesla customers. As the WSJ reports, an upgrade to the software— which was designed primarily for driving on highways— is expected, in order to make the vehicles ready for driving on city streets.Homendy had harsh words for Tesla’s use of the term “full self-driving,” which she called “misleading and irresponsible,” adding that Tesla “has clearly... Continue reading…

Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge General Motors plans to launch 30 new electric vehicles around the world by 2025, and aspires to sell only zero-emissions vehicles by 2035. But over the last few years, the United States’ biggest automaker has once again squandered the advantages it held in the still-burgeoning field of electric vehicles through bad politics, bad investments, and now most notably, a massive recall of the Bolt — currently its only all-electric vehicle — thanks to around a dozen reported fires.On Thursday, GM announced that it is extending the Bolt’s production shutdown until mid-October, as it apparently hasn’t been able to get supplier LG to produce replacement batteries that are up to snuff. It will need a lot of them, too, as GM has recalled all... Continue reading…

A leaked image of the Surface Pro 8. | Image: Shadow_Leak (Twitter) Microsoft is preparing to launch a new Surface Pro 8 model next week, and a leak appears to have revealed exactly what to expect. Twitter account Shadow_Leak has published a photo of the Surface Pro 8 from what appears to be a retail listing. The account claims the Surface Pro 8 will ship with a new 13-inch 120Hz display with narrow bezels and two Thunderbolt ports.The Verge reported last week that the Surface Pro 8 would ship without USB-A ports, in favor of USB-C and Thunderbolt. We also reported that Microsoft has been testing 120Hz displays for the Surface Pro lineup. The leaked image and specs line up with what we’ve heard from sources familiar with Microsoft’s plans.

TikTok is branded under the name Douyin in China | Getty Images The Chinese version of the popular short video app TikTok, known as Douyin, will limit users in China who are under 14 years old to 40 minutes a day, parent company ByteDance said in a blog post Saturday.The app’s youth mode keeps it in line with the Chinese government’s new restrictions on access to video games for younger children. Teens under 14 will be able to access Douyin between 6AM and 10PM, but won’t be able to use the app outside of that window, the company said. The rules will apply to “real-name authenticated users” under 14, and the company encouraged parents to help their children complete the real-name authentication process, or activate youth mode when prompted by the app.The Chinese government has been focused on... Continue reading…

Inspiration4 SpaceX’s Crew Dragon capsule carrying four private citizens plunged through Earth’s atmosphere Saturday night and splashed down off the east coast of Florida, closing out the company’s first all-civilian mission in space. The Inspiration4 crew — the mission’s billionaire funder Jared Isaacman, geoscientist Sian Proctor, physician assistant Haley Arceneaux, and data engineer Chris Sembroski — became the first crew to hang out in Earth orbit without any professionally trained astronauts.“it was a heck of a ride”The crew’s splashdown zone in the Atlantic Ocean was roughly 30 miles east of NASA’s Kennedy Space Center, where they launched to space atop SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket on Wednesday. Beginning at about 7:02PM ET, Crew Dragon deployed... Continue reading…

Photo by Nilay Patel / The Verge SpaceX CEO Elon Musk tweeted Friday that the company’s Starlink satellite internet network would come out of its open beta phase next month. That’s two months later than the August date Musk gave at Mobile World Congress, when he also said he expected the service to have “possibly over 500,000 users within 12 months.”The Starlink system calls for a constellation of nearly 12,000 satellites in low-Earth orbits that will beam continuous broadband internet service. A terminal costs $499 and there’s a $99 monthly fee for service. It opened its public beta test in October 2020, and Musk said in August that SpaceX had shipped 100,000 Starlink terminals, which includes a satellite dish and a Wi-Fi router, to users in 14 countries. As the beta... Continue reading…

Nearly a year after announcing plans to spin out its own electric bike company called Serial 1, Harley-Davidson said it will sell a “limited” number of the gorgeous, vintage-inspired models that it originally said was just a “styling exercise.”The S1 Mosh/Tribute is an homage to “Serial Number One,” the nickname for Harley-Davidson’s oldest known motorcycle built in 1903. The bike’s design, with its white tires, leather saddle and handgrips, and sleek black frame with gold lettering, harken back to that first prototype.But under the glossy black paint and honey-colored leather accents, the bike is identical to Serial 1’s entry-level Mosh/Cty model. The S1 Mosh/Tribute (props to Harley for keeping all the vowels this time ) has many of... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Facebook’s vice president of global affairs criticized a series of stories by the Wall Street Journal that reported the social network is aware of numerous problems across its platforms that cause harm to users, but does little to fix them.In a post on Facebook’s blog, Nick Clegg wrote that while it was “absolutely legitimate for us to be held to account for how we deal with” some of the issues outlined in the Journal reporting, the stories “contained deliberate mischaracterizations of what we are trying to do, and conferred egregiously false motives to Facebook’s leadership and employees.”This week, the Journal published a sweeping series of deeply reported stories on Facebook, based on its review of internal documents, concluding... Continue reading…

Inventor and entrepreneur Sir Clive Sinclair has died at age 81. | Photo by Evening Standard/Hulton Archive/Getty Images Clive Sinclair, who invented the Sinclair ZX Spectrum, an early personal computer, died of cancer Thursday at age 81, his family confirmed. Sinclair was an inventor with an impressive list of electronic products to his name, some, like his pocket calculator, were quite successful, while others, like his Sinclair C5 “electric trike” vehicle, were decidedly not.Born in England in 1940, Sinclair had a knack for creating gadgets. The Sinclair Executive “slimline” pocket calculator, released in 1972, sold well (likely in large part due to its low price ), and at one point was displayed at the Museum of Modern Art.Sinclair’s ZX personal computers were priced lower than the then-popular Commodore 64, and well-liked by consumers in the UK.... Continue reading…

Castlevania: Grimoire of Souls isn’t just the long-awaited return of the vampire-whipping series. It also marks the return of some big names, including character designer Ayami Kojima and composer Michiru Yamane, who left Konami in 2008. Yamane previously worked on seminal Castlevania games like Symphony of the Night and Dawn of Sorrow, and after going freelance she teamed up with longtime Castlevania director Koji Igarashi on Bloodstained. Her credits also include Skullgirls, a few Suikoden games, and Monster Boy and the Cursed Kingdom, though she calls her work on Castlevania her “masterpiece.”Ahead of the launch of Grimoire of Souls, which is out now on Apple Arcade, I had the chance to ask Yamane a few questions over email about her... Continue reading…

Steam Next Fest is coming October 1st | Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Valve announced Friday that its latest Steam Next Fest is coming the first week of October, giving access to playable demos of hundreds of upcoming PC games.A video teaser showed glimpses of a few games to expect to see in demo, including Airhead from Octato Games, Unexplored 2: The Wayfarer’s Legacy from Ludomotion, ANNO:Mutationem from Thinking Stars, Mahokenshi from Game Source Studio, Starship Troopers— Terran Command from The Artistocrats, Life of Delta from Airo Games, and more. And IGN reported that The Last Campfire, from Hello Games, the creators of No Man’s Sky, will also have a playable demo available as part of Next Fest.Gamers can “explore the latest from veteran devs and first-timers alike,” according to the promotional... Continue reading…

Yep, if my employer gave me a ThinkPad X1 Carbon, I’d want to use it all the time too. Don’t do it! | Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge It’s a decision that may seem like a no-brainer. You’ve got a new job, and they’ve just given you a brand-new ThinkPad. Perfect, you think to yourself. It’s about time I got rid of that 10-year-old MacBook Air.I’ve been there. Surveys have shown that over half of workers use work-issued devices for personal tasks — whether sending personal messages, shopping online, accessing social media, or reading the news. The prospect of using your work laptop as your only laptop — not just for work, but also for Netflixing, group chat messaging, reading fanfiction, paying bills, and emailing recipes to your mom — is understandably tempting, especially for folks who work from home. Keeping work tasks and personal tasks in one place may feel like... Continue reading…