The Verge

Image: Roku Roku’s first feature-length film is Zoey’s Extraordinary Christmas, a TV movie based off the NBC show Zoey’s Extraordinary Playlist, the company has announced. The film will be available free on the ad-supported Roku Channel in the US this holiday season, as well as in Canada and the UK. The film will be directed by Richard Shepard (who directed the show’s original pilot), and written and executive produced by the show’s creator Austin Winsberg.Zoey’s Extraordinary Christmas marks the latest step in Roku’s foray into original content, which kicked off with its acquisition of defunct streaming service Quibi’s library earlier this year. Since then it’s launched its own Roku Recommends show, and has ordered additional seasons of ex-Quibi... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Moderators say smaller groups are helping them block trolls and build community Continue reading…

BMW’s two concept e-bikes envision geofencing to limit speeds inside cities. | Image: BMW BMW recently showed off not one, but two e-bike concepts. The announcements are sprinkled with tons of gee-whiz claims that are easy to make when something only lives on paper, not roads. But one idea stood out to me as a real solution: the use of geofencing to limit fast e-bike speeds inside congested cities. Especially since BMW already has a working geofencing solution deployed around Europe.In Europe at least, fast e-bikes known as speed-pedelecs (or Class 3 e-bikes in the US) are capable of going 45km/h (28mph), just like BMW’s new concept bikes, the BMW i Vision AMBY and BMW Motorrad Vision AMBY.BMW sees the i Vision as a pedal-assisted e-bike fitted with a massive 2,000Wh battery that’s “fast charging,” naturally, for a range... Continue reading…

Blocks? Chains? How does this whole thing work? Continue reading…

Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge Microsoft is starting to test the ability for TV remotes to navigate around the Xbox dashboard. A new version of the Xbox dashboard for Xbox Series S / X consoles is being tested with selected Xbox Insiders, and it enables new HDMI-CEC features that let ordinary TV remote controls navigate around the Xbox dashboard and control streaming apps like Netflix.While the Xbox Series S / X consoles have had some HDMI-CEC features to control TV volume or turn on TVs when an Xbox boots up, these new additions mean you won’t have to reach for an Xbox controller if you just want to watch content from Netflix, Twitch, YouTube, or many other streaming apps.

Facebook and Ray-Ban are set to announce their smart glasses collaboration later today, September 9th, and right on cue Evan “Evleaks” Blass has posted a ton of alleged photos of the product lineup. The glasses are called Ray-Ban Stories, and other than the box it doesn’t look like Facebook branding appears anywhere on the product.Evleaks’ images include three distinct frame styles — Wayfarer, Round, and Meteor — and they all look pretty close to the classic Ray-Ban designs. The difference, of course, is the presence of two cameras by the hinges on either side. There’s also a button along the top of the right temple, which could potentially be used to operate the cameras. Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg previously said of... Continue reading…

The dog poop avoiding feature is only available on the new Roomba j7+. | Image: iRobot Using a robot vacuum has always been a bit hazardous for pet owners. Leaving a robovac to do its thing in your absence can be a problem if your less-than-perfectly-trained dog or cat also does its thing while you’re out. A quick Google of “Roomba dog poop” gives you some idea of what the outcome can be, as unheeding robots with spinning brushes barrel into the mess and proceed to spread it liberally around the house.But now, Roomba-maker iRobot say it’s fixed this scatological problem. The company’s latest robovac, the Roomba j7+, uses built-in machine vision and AI to identify and avoid pet messes of all sorts. “It’s a big deal for us,” iRobot founder and CEO Colin Angle tells The Verge. “We’ve been working on it for a long time and... Continue reading…

Today, Google released the final Android 12 beta before the OS properly launches, and with it a few of the visual changes and features we saw back when Android 12 was announced. Some of the notable inclusions in Beta 5 are the lovely geometric clock widgets, a redesigned calculator, and a new lock screen shortcut.The clock app has also gotten some tweaks, according to 9to5Google, with an updated design, new animations, and (of course) colors that are responsive to your phone’s theme.9to5Google also reports that Beta 5 brings the promised Material You overhaul for the calculator app as well, complete with pastel colors and more playful buttons. Here’s new vs. old: Image: Google The new design of Calculator 8.0... Continue reading…

Elizabeth Holmes, outside the courtroom | David Odisho / Getty Who is Elizabeth Holmes, really? Continue reading…

The Nerf Hyper Rush-40. Are these new blasters really the future of Nerf? Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Google reached a settlement with a fired employee who the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) claims was let go from the company for his workplace activism, Bloomberg reports. The employee, Laurence Berland, was fired in 2019 allegedly for violating Google’s data security policies. He had been a vocal critic of Google’s work with the US Customs and Border Protection and was terminated amid internal organizing.The settlement was approved in July by the NLRB, though the terms haven’t been revealed, according to Bloomberg. Google hasn’t replied to a request for comment from The Verge.The NLRB has accused Google of violating labor law in firing Berland and four other workers in 2019 over organizing activities and is still battling Google... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Robinhood is rolling out a new feature that lets you automatically invest in cryptocurrencies on a daily, weekly, or monthly schedule. The investment app says this service will let you automatically invest in things like Bitcoin, Ethereum, Dogecoin, and other supported cryptocurrencies without a commission fee.Before we go any further, though, I should warn you that nothing in this article is qualified or expert financial advice. It’s probably wise to talk with an expert who can help you come up with an investment strategy that’s right for you.Robinhood’s approach here is automatic investing, not trading. It won’t sell the crypto for you when an algorithm decides it’d make financial sense to do so. Instead, it’s just steadily building... Continue reading…

Photo by Vivien Killilea/Getty Images for Netflix Netflix is doubling down on TikTok star Addison Rae with a new multi-picture film deal that could see the social media celebrity bringing even more eyes to the streaming service, As part of the deal, Netflix will develop projects specifically for Rae to star in and executive produce (via Variety).The motivation seems to be the early success of He’s All That, the gender-swapped remake of She’s All That, which was first announced in September 2020. The company projects the film will be watched by more than 55 million households in the first month of release and says it reached #1 on the company’s chart “in 78 countries, including Brazil, France, and Saudi Arabia.” Critical reception to He’s All That has been mixed, from surprisingly... Continue reading…

Irfan Khan / Los Angeles Times via Getty Images The Los Angeles Police Department asked officers to gather social media information as a standard part of their interviews with civilians, whether or not the people were implicated in a crime. The practice, revealed in public records obtained by the Brennan Center for Justice, is part of a larger LAPD social media monitoring strategy — one that’s similar to other US police department policies but may go beyond them.As the Brennan Center notes, a 2015 memo from LAPD Police Chief Charlie Beck told the department that “similar to a nickname or an alias, a person’s online persona or identity used for social media and communication can be highly beneficial to investigations and possibly even future outreach programs.” Beck said that officers... Continue reading…

Jeff Bezos speaks during a news conference at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C., U.S., on Thursday, Sept. 19, 2019. | Andrew Harrer/Bloomberg via Getty Images Jeff Bezos’ $10 billion Earth Fund just doled out millions more in funding to groups fighting off climate change. This time, a lot of the cash is going to groups that advocate for communities of color and low-income neighborhoods, which often face the first and worst effects of climate change and fossil fuel pollution.The fund announced a total of $203.7 million in new grants today. Of that, more than $53 million will go toward communications on climate change and efforts to cut emissions from businesses. Another $20 million will go to groups focused on climate justice — a movement to stop climate change from taking a disproportionate toll on already marginalized communities.A movement to stop climate change from taking a... Continue reading…

The James Webb Space Telescope, humanity’s next big space-bound eye on the cosmos, has a new launch date of December 18th, NASA announced on Wednesday. It’s the latest among dozens of other delays for a telescope that was originally planned to go to space as early as 2007.The $8.8 billion observatory, named after NASA’s second administrator, is a tennis court-sized successor to NASA’s famed Hubble telescope. Its 18 hexagonal gold-plated mirrors will allow the spacecraft to view distant planets and the far reaches of the universe with a level of detail that far surpasses Hubble’s capabilities.Astronomers have been looking forward to the telescope’s launch for years, but its development has been set back by years of delays, development... Continue reading…

Fitness company Whoop has a new tracker that squishes five LEDs, four photodiodes, a pulse oximeter, skin temperature sensor, and more into a package that is 33 percent smaller than its predecessor — all while still offering five days of battery life. But a particular change to the tracker’s battery chemistry is one of the biggest reasons Whoop was able to do all this in the first place.The change was pioneered by a Silicon Valley company called Sila Nanotechnologies, which was co-founded in 2011 by Gene Berdichevsky, one of Tesla’s earliest employees. And it’s one that, if it scales up, could help break some of the biggest limitations currently facing lithium-ion technology.On paper, it’s a simple change: the battery’s anode is now... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase seems to have some issues with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) over a planned feature that lets people lend cryptocurrency through its platform. In a Medium post on Tuesday, Coinbase’s chief legal officer wrote that the regulatory agency threatened to sue the company if it launched the feature. Coinbase’s CEO posted a Twitter thread on Tuesday evening saying that the SEC wasn’t clear about what it wanted.According to Coinbase’s CEO, Brian Armstrong, the company told the SEC about its new Lend feature as a courtesy but didn’t anticipate pushback, based on his impression that similar features exist on other platforms. However, according to Armstrong, the SEC informed the company that the lend... Continue reading…

Kevin Paffrath wants to be the candidate for the /r/wallstreetbets voter Continue reading…

Image: Appcessori Corporation As cool as videoconferencing hardware can look, it’s often exorbitantly expensive — the $2,000 Series One Desk 27 for Google Meet being a perfect example. Luckily, alongside that expensive Meet machine, Google also announced its “Designed for Google Meet” program and a more affordable first entry, the Rayz Rally Pro. It’s a $200 Nest Mini-like phone speaker that doubles as a microphone for Google Meet calls.The Rayz Rally Pro comes in a gray-tone fabric-covered body that looks a bit like Google’s smart speakers but with a phone dock carveout. The speaker dock comes in two varieties: a Lightning connector iPhone model and a Google Pixel version that should work with any USB-C phone. Both versions can work as a Bluetooth speaker,... Continue reading…

Existing Xbox One controllers. | Photo by Tom Warren / The Verge Microsoft is starting to test a new firmware update for existing Xbox One, Xbox Elite 2, and Xbox Adaptive Controllers today that will bring some important improvements to existing hardware. The biggest addition is the ability to quickly switch between paired devices on an Xbox controller, and Microsoft is also adding Dynamic Latency Input (DLI) to improve input latency on older controllers.This new firmware update includes Bluetooth Low Energy support for compatible controllers. Most of Microsoft’s existing Xbox One controllers include Bluetooth support for use on smartphones or PCs, but the controllers connect to Xbox consoles through the Xbox Wireless protocol. This new firmware will now make it easier to switch between the two,... Continue reading…

Twitter Twitter is launching Communities, its rival to Facebook Groups and Reddit, for tweeting with others who share specific interests.Starting Wednesday, Twitter users can be invited to an initial batch of Communities that include #AstroTwitter, #DogTwitter, #SkincareTwitter, and #SoleFood (a group for sneaker enthusiasts). Once people join a Community, they can tweet directly to other members rather than to just their followers. Only members of a Community can like or reply to tweets sent by other members.Similar to how groups on Facebook and Reddit’s subreddits work, each Twitter Community will have its own moderators who are able to set rules and invite or remove people. Twitter invited a handful of users to create the first Communities... Continue reading…

Photo by Allison Johnson / The Verge Google is releasing what it says is the fifth and final version of the Android 12 beta, adding that the official release of the full Android 12 operating system is “just a few weeks away.” The new beta release will also be the first one that Pixel 5A owners will be able to install.People who are already running the beta aren’t likely to notice much of a difference, as its focus is on getting developers ready for the impending official Android 12 release, rather than adding new features. But, for those who’ve gotten their hands on Google’s latest phone, there’s now the opportunity to see what that release will be like before it happens — and without a ton of risk, since the beta has entered its “platform stability” phase.The Pixel 5A l... Continue reading…

A screenshot from The Playroom. | Image: Firesprite Sony announced that it will acquire UK-based studio Firesprite, the developers of The Playroom and The Playroom VR. It’s unclear what Firesprite might be working on in its new first-party capacity, but executives are already hyping what’s to come. “Firesprite’s ability to weave best-in-class gameplay with new technology is exceptional and I think fans will be excited about their creative vision for the future,” Hermen Hulst, the head of PlayStation Studios, said in a press release.Firespite was founded by staffers from Sony Interactive Entertainment’s Liverpool studio, so there are already strong connections between the two companies. While Firesprite’s experience with The Playroom VR could suggest that the company is working on a game... Continue reading…

A game that balances horror, heartbreak, and mystery Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Apple, like many tech companies, has an intimidating employment agreement that it makes employees sign to protect its trade secrets. Though the agreement is in place to prevent workers from sharing internal details of Apple’s products and processes, it is unclear whether they can speak out about working conditions, according to a group of activists and Apple shareholders.Now, that group is pushing the company to add language that makes clearer exception for cases of workplace harassment and discrimination. Apple has refused. Last week, they filed a shareholder resolution to pressure Apple to make the change.“We approached Apple in good faith and encouraged them to take a leadership role here,” says Ifeoma Ozoma, who’s helping to lead... Continue reading…

The Basilisk V3 features more RGB LEDs than the previous iteration. | Razer Razer’s new Basilisk V3 wired gaming mouse has arrived with more features than its predecessor, as well as a slightly lower price. It’s out now at Razer’s online store, Amazon, and Best Buy from $69.99, a $10 price drop from generation to generation.Its scroll wheel houses the biggest improvements, borrowing a trick from Logitech’s G502 Lightspeed and G502 Hero. A button positioned next to the Basilisk V3’s wheel can toggle between a staggered scroll mode that offers tactile feedback and a free-spinning mode that lets you sail down the page freely. There’s also an optional feature within Razer’s Synapse software that automatically switches between the two modes depending on the inertia of your scroll, engaging the free-spinning mode... Continue reading…

It’s not quite as terrifying as the moon falling, but Netflix’s upcoming Don’t Look Up deals with another space-related disaster: a comet that’s on a collision course with the Earth. The twist here is that, after two low-level astronomers (played by Leonardo DiCaprio and Jennifer Lawrence) discover the problem, no one seems to believe them. That includes a president played by Meryl Streep, with Jonah Hill as her annoying son (and chief of staff).The first trailer looks like a lot of fun, and the cast is similarly impressive; outside of main stars there are also appearances from the likes of Ron Perlman, Timothée Chalamet, Ariana Grande, Kid Cudi, Cate Blanchett, and Tyler Perry. Don’t Look Up was directed and written by Adam McKay,... Continue reading…

Amazon’s in-house game engine, Lumberyard, can’t normally be used for life-critical or safety-critical circumstances, as stated in the terms of service agreement for Amazon Web Services. Things like medical equipment, automated transportation systems, autonomous vehicles, crewed spacecraft, or military use in connection with live combat are all off-limits.Almost all software and hardware come with extensive mandatory agreements that you need to comply with to use them, so these rules are understandable and probably for the best. At the same time, you should also know that some of those rules will go totally out the window in the event of a zombie apocalypse, should it (hopefully not) ever happen.

Batman x FaZe Clan | DC Comics Ahead of DC’s FanDome event next month, the comics company celebrates Batman Day with a slew of superhero-themed items for fans. That includes a new ten-episode scripted podcast on HBO Max, an augmented reality app, and, of course, a limited-edition comic featuring some of the stars of FaZe Clan.While we didn’t actually see that last one coming, it is a real thing that will be available in comic form on September 24th. According to DC Comics, you can expect to see FaZe Banks, FaZe Apex, FaZe Temperrr, FaZeRain, FaZe Adapt, FaZe Rug, and FaZe Blaze as heroes, all followed by a slew of crossover merch dropping throughout Batman Month.Fulfilling co-owner Lee Trink’s statement on The Vergecast that he believes “gaming is going to drive... Continue reading…

Lenovo’s Chromebook Duet is a capable 2-in-1 that comes with kickstand and keyboard | Photo by Monica Chin / The Verge Labor Day is in the rearview and the kids are back in school, but that doesn’t mean you can’t still save some nice coin on a versatile Chromebook offering a great value for tackling homework or everyday tasks. The Lenovo Chromebook Duet, one of our top picks across all Chromebooks — not just budget options — is currently $50 off at Best Buy. The 2-in-1 normally punches above its weight class at full price, but with this added discount it may just be one of the best contenders around for light tasks while on the go or general needs at home as a secondary device.A new model with a bigger OLED panel is coming soon, but it will be clocking in at a much higher price point of $430 and up. For now, the Duet’s 10.1-inch display with 1920 x... Continue reading…

Photo Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Holmes was where the girlboss met Silicon Valley founder worship Continue reading…

Image: Amazon Amazon is bringing its cashierless “Just Walk Out” technology to two new Whole Foods locations next year, the company has announced. One of the stores will be in Washington, DC, while the second will be in Sherman Oaks, California. When they’re open, customers will have the option of paying at a traditional self-checkout or customer service booth, or having the new technology automatically bill them when they leave the store.The move marks Amazon’s latest step towards scaling its cashierless technology, which works by using a series of cameras and sensors to automatically detect what people pick up off shelves, into a variety of larger stores. Just Walk Out originally debuted in small Amazon Go convenience stores, before the company... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Media companies in Australia can be held responsible for defamatory comments left on their social media pages by members of the public, the country’s High Court has ruled.The decision is part of a long-running defamation case that could have huge consequences for Australia’s media industry, forcing news sites to strictly moderate or remove comments on stories shared on Facebook, Twitter, and elsewhere. Writing in The Conversation, David Rolph, a professor of law at the University of Sydney, said the ruling “may mean anyone who runs a social media page can theoretically be sued over disparaging comments posted by readers or random group members — even if you aren’t aware of the comment.”“anyone who runs a social media page can... Continue reading…

Toyota’s electric BZ4X SUV concept. | Image: Toyota Toyota will invest around $13.6 billion in battery tech over the next decade, including a $9 billion investment in production, as it attempts to electrify its vehicle lineup, The Wall Street Journal reports. It reportedly plans to have 10 battery production lines by 2025, eventually increasing to around 70 across an unannounced number of factories around the world. Eventually, it could produce as much as 200GWh of batteries, the company’s chief technology officer, Masahiko Maeda, announced in a press briefing.Toyota’s commitments mirror similar investments planned by others across the auto industry. Volkwagen plans to produce around 240GWh of batteries in Europe alone by 2030, the WSJ notes, while Ford has said it plans to produce... Continue reading…

Photo by Sam Byford / The Verge Microsoft is acquiring Clipchamp, a browser-based video editing tool, and is hinting that it will be a great fit for Windows. Founded in 2013, Clipchamp lets people create and edit videos in a browser and utilize the full power of a GPU to render the final result. Clipchamp is used by companies like Google, Dell, and Deloitte.Microsoft is now looking to integrate Clipchamp into its Microsoft 365 offerings, and perhaps even Windows itself. “As a web app that uses the full power of your PC, Clipchamp is a natural fit to extend the cloud-powered productivity experiences in Microsoft 365 for individuals, families, schools, and businesses,” explains Chris Pratley, corporate vice president of Microsoft’s Office media group.Microsoft says... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge HBO Max will launch in Europe next month on October 26th, the streaming service announced today. Sweden, Denmark, Norway, Finland, Spain, and Andorra are the first six countries it’ll be available in, before it expands to the following 14 territories next year: Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Hungary, Moldova, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Serbia, Slovakia, and Slovenia.The list of territories corresponds to the regions currently covered by HBO Europe, which operates a handful of different streaming services on the continent including HBO España, HBO Nordic, and HBO Go. The company has previously said it plans to transition its European HBO-branded services to HBO Max over the course... Continue reading…

Here’s the Chromebook Duet 5 in “storm grey.” | Image: Lenovo Over a year after it was unveiled, Lenovo’s category-defining Chromebook Duet is getting a sequel. The Chromebook Duet 5 (branded as the IdeaPad Duet 5 Chromebook outside of North America) is a head-to-toe reimagining of the detachable budget-oriented Duet, with a higher price, a new processor, and — most interestingly — a 13.3-inch OLED screen.Lenovo says the Duet 5 is likely the first of multiple additions to the Duet line, in an ambitious effort to bring the detachable form factor to multiple price points. The company will continue selling the 10.1-inch Duet (for the time being).A 2-in-1 Chrome OS tablet with a detachable keyboardThe new OLED display covers 100 percent of the DCI-P3 color gamut, Lenovo says, and will emit “70... Continue reading…

Typing away on the IdeaPad Slim 7 Carbon. | Image: Lenovo Joining an army of OLED laptops that have launched this month is Lenovo’s new IdeaPad Slim 7 Carbon (branded as the Yoga Slim 7 Carbon outside of North America). Lenovo claims it’s the lightest 14-inch OLED laptop on the market at 2.37 pounds. (I’m guessing the company is right. The closest competitor I can think of is Asus’ ZenBook 14X OLED, which is 3.09 pounds. It’s also lighter than both the ZenBook 13 OLED and the Dell XPS 13 OLED.)One thing to note is that the OLED panel (from Samsung Display) comes with QHD+ resolution, rather than the 4K resolution that you often see on OLED laptops. This means you won’t get as many pixels as you would on a 4K OLED machine (like the ZenBook 14X), but you may also see better battery life. QHD+ is... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Twitter has begun testing the first of its proposed suite of new privacy tools: the ability to remove a follower without blocking them. The remove follower feature is currently being tested on the web and seems to canonize the “soft block” concept as an official Twitter tool.According to the tweet announcing the test, you can remove followers from the follower list on your profile page. You just click the three-dot menu next to a follower’s name, click “Remove follower,” and your tweets will no longer automatically show up in their timeline. Image: Twitter The remove follower option. This is different than blocking someone, which keeps them from viewing your tweets and direct messaging you (and keeps you from... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Hulu’s streaming plans cost $1 more starting on October 8th, with its ad-supported tier going up to $6.99 each month and its ad-free tier going up to $12.99 monthly. According to Variety, the price of Hulu’s live TV service, which also includes access to its streaming content, isn’t increasing. Disney, the majority owner of Hulu, has increased the prices of its other streaming services over the past year, making its bundle that includes all of them look more and more attractive.The price of the Disney bundle, which includes Hulu, Disney Plus, and ESPN Plus, doesn’t appear to be going up along with Hulu’s prices — however, it already went up by a dollar earlier this year when Disney Plus got a $1 per month price hike. It currently costs... Continue reading…

Image: Twitter Twitter has announced that it’s testing edge-to-edge media in tweets on iOS, creating a more full-screen, almost Instagram-like experience for the photos and videos in your timeline.In an email to The Verge, Twitter writes that it’s testing the change because it wants to better support conversations that are both visual and text-based. You can get a sense of what that looks like in a video posted to Twitter’s support account:

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Ford has hired away Apple’s car chief, Doug Field, to become its chief advanced technology and embedded systems officer. “Field will lead Ford’s efforts to develop the next-gen Blue Oval Intelligence tech stack to deliver smart, connected vehicles and services that improve over time through constant updates,” according to Ford’s press release. He’ll report to Ford’s president and CEO, Jim Farley.Field was a VP of special projects at Apple, where he was the de facto head of the company’s confused efforts to make an autonomous electric car — known as Project Titan. He had a previous stint at Apple where he was once the VP of Mac hardware engineering, but he left the company in 2013 to become Tesla’s chief vehicle engineer, where he helped... Continue reading…

Bendable glass was supposed to unlock a future straight out of science fiction: phones that fold. But the actual glass we got wound up relying on factory-installed plastic screen protectors to avoid shattering when you fold it. Now, LG wants to cut out the middleman by improving the plastic instead: the company just announced its “Real Folding Window,” a cover material it claims will be as hard as glass but without the whole cracking issue.More PET, less glassWhat’s the secret? Well, LG doesn’t quite say in its press release, only that it’s a “new material” that it uses to coat both sides of a sheet of plastic film — PET film, to be precise. (PET is probably best known as the plastic in your soda bottle.) The idea is that if you apply... Continue reading…

UN Climate Change Conference or COP26 President Alok Sharma during a meeting with India Minister of Environment, Forest and Climate Change Bhupender Yadav in New Delhi on August 18th, 2021. | Photo by Prakash Singh / AFP via Getty Images Environmental activists, including Greenpeace and the Climate Action Network, around the world are calling on the United Nations to further delay a pivotal climate conference scheduled for this fall. The uneven rollout of COVID-19 vaccines around the world could prevent many delegates and advocates from attending, they say, especially representatives of countries hardest hit by both COVID-19 and the climate crisis.The UK is preparing to host the climate talks in Glasgow in November, a year after they were supposed to take place. But the virus that delayed the talks in the first place is still killing thousands of people across the world daily, many of whom are living in countries where it’s hard to get a vaccine.“Not only unfair but... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Today, Bitcoin is becoming an official currency in El Salvador, and the markets and crypto exchanges seem to be struggling. On Tuesday morning, the price of Bitcoin plunged from around $50,000 down to under $43,000 according to Coinbase — it seems that the country’s official Bitcoin app also hasn’t been able to keep up.CNBC reports that El Salvador’s official crypto app, Chivo, was unavailable for new users to install on Tuesday morning. The country’s president, Nayib Bukele, has since announced that the app would be reopening for signups, though he did call the new uptime a “test.”Major exchanges like Coinbase and Kraken have also reported having issues with payments or transactions not going through or being delayed. Not everyone is... Continue reading…