The Verge

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Netflix is taking its next step into gaming by allowing subscribers in Poland on Android to play two Stranger Things games inside the Netflix app, the company announced Thursday.“Starting today, members in Poland can try Netflix mobile gaming on Android with two games — Stranger Things 1984 and Stranger Things 3 — all as part of their membership,” a Netflix spokesperson said in a statement. “It’s still very, very early days and we will be working hard to deliver the best possible experience in the months ahead with our no ads, no in-app purchases approach to gaming.”You can see how it works in a tweet from Netflix’s Polish team. Available games will show up in your home feed. If you tap on a game’s icon, you can learn more about the... Continue reading…

Video still by Weston Reel for The Verge The next generation of a feature called Scan can identify similar clothes, dog breeds, plants, cars, and more Continue reading…

Arkane’s next game is part immersive sim, part captivating mystery Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge TSMC is the biggest chipmaker in the world and the company responsible for the processors used by Apple, AMD, Nvidia, Qualcomm, and even some Intel products. And its products are about to get a lot more expensive: the company plans to raise prices of its advanced chips by around 10 percent and less advanced products by about 20 percent, according to a new report from The Wall Street Journal.Semiconductor supply has become an increasingly important factor for major tech and automotive companies, as chips continue to be hard to come by. There are a lot of factors that go into the prices of phones, laptops, and game consoles beyond the actual bill of materials, so a 10 to 20 percent increase in processor and SOC costs may not necessarily... Continue reading…

Photo by Monica Chin / The Verge If you’re looking for a Chromebook that rises above many other models in terms of build quality, features, and performance, you should check out Best Buy’s deal on the Acer Chromebook Spin 713. It normally costs $629 to get the model that has a respectable Intel Core i5-10210U processor, 8GB of RAM, and a 128GB SSD, but it’s $200 off that price today. It’s yours for $429. At this price, the Spin 713 is kind of in a league of its own, with a convenient 2-in-1 design, a 2K resolution display with the ideal 3:2 aspect ratio, and long-lasting battery life. Read our review.Acer recently launched a 2021 version of the Spin 713 and it features an improved 11th Gen Intel processor and Thunderbolt 4 support, but my colleague Monica Chin found... Continue reading…

Illustration by Claudia Chinyere Akole It’s a lucrative opportunity many don’t want to take Continue reading…

It’s normal food, blitzed into a pulp, and compressed into 50 gram squares. | Image: SquarEat Slap bang in the middle of a Venn diagram with two circles labelled “sincere tech startups” and “dystopian satires that are a little on the nose” you will find SquarEat: a company that you would swear is a joke if you weren’t already familiar with how the simulation we’re all living in likes to collide fact and fiction.SquarEat was apparently born of a simple idea: what if you could eat squares? But boy oh boy does it deliver on that premise.SquarEat says it’s “created a new concept of food” (squares)The company claims to have “created a new concept of food” (squares) which it makes by blitzing ingredients and compressing them into “ready-to-eat” 50 gram packages (squares). You can buy your squares in packs of four or six and have... Continue reading…

Illustration by Claudia Chinyere Akole Generative profile picture NFTs are all the rage, but creators say it’s not just about the money Continue reading…

Capitalism is all about fairly distributing wealth based on hard work and personal merit, which is why Jeff Bezos earns in 20 seconds what the median US worker makes in a year. He’s just that much better than you!Thankfully, Jeff’s also a super sweet guy who’s totally grounded and knows how to use his wealth to help people. For example, he spent billions taking a tourist trip into space on a dick-shaped rocket which I personally found to be very chill. Sure, some people say the trip was a huge vanity project; a colossal pissing-contest between egotistical, morally blind billionaires whose pocket change could save countless human lives with just as much intrinsic value as their own, but to that I say: stop being such a bummer, dude!! ... Continue reading…

Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge It was just last February that Microsoft Surface chief Panos Panay was promoted to lead the company’s entire Windows software and device teams, and now he’s moving up in the world again — he’s becoming an Executive Vice President who’ll be part of the Senior Leadership Team that advises Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella himself, reports Bloomberg.We’ve interviewed him quite a few times over the years, and not just because he’s one of the company’s faces — as Microsoft’s Chief Product Officer, he’s had a direct hand in creating and introducing many of Microsoft’s Surface devices including the recent Surface Duo. Also, yes, he’s the one who’s perpetually pumped.From a corporate standpoint, this means Windows will have a seat at the senior... Continue reading…

James Bareham / The Verge Niantic announced Wednesday that it’s going back on at least one of its controversial gameplay changes to Pokémon Go. The company is permanently increasing the distance you can be from the real-world locations of Pokéstops and Gyms and still interact with them. The new base limit is 80 meters (262 feet), the distance Niantic introduced at the start of the pandemic.At the start of August, Niantic reverted the in-game interaction distance back to 40 meters (131 feet) in the US and New Zealand, much to the disappointment of fans who had appreciated the added accessibility benefits and COVID-19 safety the change offered. Now Niantic is promising to keep the increased distance permanently, along with other changes it’s announcing on... Continue reading…

Google’s Wear OS app for YouTube Music. | Image: Google Google has finally released a Wear OS app for YouTube Music, which could seem like welcome news for people who have been waiting for a way to play their music off Google’s streaming service after the company shut down Google Play Music on Wear OS in August 2020. But the new app comes with a few caveats.The biggest catch is that the new app only works on one of Samsung’s two new watches powered by Wear OS 3, according to Google. Those watches won’t be available until August 27th, so even if you want to try the new app right now, you won’t be able to unless you have a Galaxy Watch 4 or a Galaxy Watch 4 Classic.Even if you have a compatible watch, it sounds like the app has some frustrating limitationsIf you are lucky enough to have one... Continue reading…

Image: Microsoft Microsoft’s Halo-themed Xbox Series X — one of the many announcements to come out of Gamescom Opening Night Live — is set to arrive on November 15th, nearly a month before the confirmed launch of Halo Infinite on December 8th. Preorders for the $549.99, limited-edition bundle went live at the Microsoft Store and Target on Wednesday, with initial preorder stock selling out in a matter of minutes. Thankfully, if you weren’t able to snag the Infinite-ready console earlier, Walmart is giving you another chance Wednesday, August 25th, at 8:30PM ET / 5:30PM PT, according to a Walmart spokesperson who confirmed the details with CNET.Like with all next-gen console restocks, we suggest signing in to Walmart and updating your address and payment... Continue reading…

Image: Facebook A manual uploaded to the FCC gives us a look at Facebook’s experimental Project Aria AR glasses, which apparently go by the codename Gemini (via Protocol). Facebook announced Project Aria in September 2020, with a message big on vision and light on details — though it was clear that the device exists to help Facebook in its quest (no pun intended) to create a computer that sees and understands the world. Seeing the actual headset’s manual gives us a bit of an idea about how it does that.In some ways, the Gemini headset is like a real pair of glasses, though in other ways it’s very much not: it can be fitted with corrective lenses if need be, but you can’t fold the arms down or use it in a VR headset. And, of course, it’s loaded with... Continue reading…

Photo by Drew Angerer/Getty Images Tech companies like Apple, Google, and Microsoft promised to help bolster US cybersecurity after a meeting with President Joe Biden at the White House on Wednesday. The pledges vary by company but range from spending billions on cyber infrastructure to offering supply-chain aid and education.Wednesday’s high-profile meeting with tech CEOs comes on the heels of major cyberattacks against US government agencies and energy infrastructure like the Colonial Pipeline.“The federal government can’t meet this challenge alone”“The reality is, most of our critical infrastructure is owned and operated by the private sector, and the federal government can’t meet this challenge alone,” Biden said at Wednesday’s meeting.Apple announced that it... Continue reading…

Image: Instagram Instagram plans to more prominently feature photos and videos in search results in the future, Instagram head Adam Mosseri announced on Wednesday. The change could show the grid of photos and videos a keyword search can pull up alongside results for accounts and hashtags, not dissimilar to how TikTok displays results.The search tweak is part of “a series of improvements designed for inspiration and discovery,” according to Mosseri. The company has used keyword search as a way to offer visual results — certain terms can pull up pages of suggested images — but Instagram’s new plan will give those more prominence. Mosseri writes that searching with a term like “space” will pull up suggested photo and video results along with traditional... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Facebook is considering creating a commission that would weigh in on global election-related issues on the platform, according to The New York Times. Facebook has talked to academics and policy experts about the commission, which The New York Times reports is expected to be announced this fall ahead of the 2022 US midterm elections.Like how the independent Oversight Board helps review content moderation appeals, it sounds as if Facebook could ask the election commission to handle some decisions about election content. That could reduce the perception that Facebook’s decisions about content are politically biased, which has been a common criticism lobbed toward the company from conservatives. However, it’s unclear if this election... Continue reading…

Photo by James Bareham / The Verge If you’ve had an Android phone for any length of time, it’s easy to get used to living with, well, chaos. If you’re anything like me, you’re constantly adding new apps, deciding they’re okay but not great, adding another, and so on. Then, a few months later, as you’re scrolling through your app drawer, you’re surprised to see several apps that you forgot about and perhaps don’t even remember what they’re used for.In a very short time, it can become a mess. And if you’re really an app enthusiast, it can start taking up more space than you can spare.There are essentially two steps to making sense of all of those Android apps: find a way to organize them (and there are a variety of ways, depending on what you’re comfortable with) and... Continue reading…

Photography by Monica Chin / The Verge Starting September 18th, Microsoft will end support for the Office and Outlook Android apps on Chrome OS and start pushing Chromebook users to its web apps instead, according to a statement it gave About Chromebooks. As recently as July 31st, Microsoft’s support documents recommended installing the Android versions of Office, Outlook, OneNote, and OneDrive, but now those documents say that the apps are unsupported for Chrome OS users.As About Chromebooks’ Kevin Tofel points out, though, the move to web apps makes the offline situation for Office users more complicated. While certain Office web apps, like Outlook, have a dedicated offline mode, Tofel reports not being able to open existing documents using Microsoft’s progressive web app... Continue reading…

Amazon Games’ New World. | Image: Amazon Amazon’s upcoming PC MMO, New World, is getting an open beta ahead of its September 28th release date, Amazon Games announced at Gamescom’s Opening Night Live on Wednesday. The open beta will take place from September 9th to September 12th.The public beta will give players a chance to try out the game before its official launch just a few weeks later on September 28th, even if it’s only for a few days. In addition to the open beta, Amazon Games also revealed a new trailer for the upcoming MMO showing off more of the supernatural world of New World.New World’s open beta follows a well-received closed beta and should give more people a chance to try out the game before it officially launches. The game, like others from Amazon Games, has... Continue reading…

Horizon Forbidden West, the sequel to Horizon Zero Dawn, has officially been delayed until February 18th, 2022, according to a PlayStation blog post and Guerrilla Games. The game was expected to release near the end of 2021, but it was clear that timeframe was more of a target than a fixed date — the game’s page on PlayStation.com had its release date listed as “to be confirmed,” and PlayStation Studio head Hermen Hulst said during an interview that the developers thought they were “on track” for a holiday 2021 release but couldn’t be sure. He also said that part of the uncertainty was due to developers’ access to motion-capture equipment and actors during the pandemic.Sony’s PlayStation Studios, which Forbidden West’s developer... Continue reading…

Microsoft’s first custom Halo-branded Xbox Series X console will arrive on November 15th. The $549.99 console includes dark metallic paneling, gold accents, and a star pattern to match the Halo universe. It even powers on and off with custom Halo-themed sounds, and Microsoft has changed the top fan section of the Xbox Series X from a green color to blue.The console bundle will also include a custom Halo-branded controller that matches the console, and Microsoft says this will be a very limited edition that will be available for preorder from Microsoft’s site today. Microsoft’s Halo-themed Xbox Series X console. This is the first custom Xbox Series X console, but Microsoft has previously launched many custom Xbox... Continue reading…

Morgana can’t catch a break | Sega In an effort to build up excitement for Super Monkey Ball Banana Mania that’s releasing on October 5th, 2021, Sega has been plucking characters from its roster of games, past and present. Not only will Yakuza’s Kazuma Kiryu serve as an unlockable character, Morgana from Persona 5 will appear as post-launch content on November 2nd, except it’ll cost $4.99.Morgana plays a pivotal role in Persona 5, serving as the gutsy feline sidekick to the protagonist and your rag-tag team of Phantom Thieves. In Super Monkey Ball Banana Mania, Morgana will collect chests instead of bananas. Sadly, there’s no mention of Persona-themed stages or music mentioned in the press release.Sega is really wringing out its IP to include characters that’ll appeal... Continue reading…

Marvel’s Midnight Suns is a newly revealed tactical RPG from Firaxis Games that was just announced at Gamescom’s opening night event.The game is said to take place in the “darker side of the Marvel Universe,” and it will have players take on the role of a new hero, The Hunter (which Firaxis created with Marvel). In Midnight Suns, you’ll team up with classic heroes like Iron Man, Wolverine, Ghost Rider, Blade, Captain America, and Captain Marvel as part of the Midnight Suns superhero team to battle a supernatural foe: Lilith. There’s not much information on the actual gameplay yet — although, given Firaxis’ work on the rebooted XCOM series and the fact that Midnight Suns will be a tactical RPG, it seems like players... Continue reading…

A screenshot from Saints Row. | Image: Volition As teased by Geoff Keighley last week, Saints Row is the next video game series to get a reboot. Developer Volition has announced that the newest title, which is just called Saints Row, is scheduled to be released on PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X / S, and PC on February 25th, 2022.Saints Row titles are renowned for their over-the-top open-world gameplay that feels more inspired by cartoons than Grand Theft Auto. Originally a rip-off of GTA, the franchise quickly grew into a consistently funny spoof of franchises, including — oddly enough — Mass Effect and Michael Bay’s Armageddon. This reboot looks to eject some of the more indulgent references but maintain the core gameplay that prioritized fun over silly things like “reality.”... Continue reading…

A year of chaotic movie releases made the future of theaters look uncertain. But as cinemas reopen, hybrid releases that studios so warmly embraced amid COVID-19 are now having to answer in earnest to theater owners and talent attached to high-stakes films.During this week’s CinemaCon, the National Association of Theatre Owners’ annual convention, prominent figures from the film and exhibition industry rebuked the simultaneous release models and insisted that theaters and exclusive windows will survive after being pummeled during the pandemic. Speaking during this week’s event in Las Vegas, NATO boss John Fithian said that exclusive theatrical release windows “remain vital to the survival and success of the theatrical experience,”... Continue reading…

Image: Emma Hardy, Airbnb Airbnb and Airbnb.org announced on Tuesday that they will temporarily house 20,000 Afghan refugees for free. The effort, an evolution of the home renting platform’s “Frontline stays” program for housing first responders, is in response to the refugee crisis caused by the US military’s withdrawal from Afghanistan and the Taliban’s takeover of the country.“It has become abundantly clear that the displacement and resettlement of Afghan refugees here in the United States and elsewhere is a significant humanitarian crisis – and in the face of this need, our community is ready to once again step up,” the company wrote in its announcement. This is of course dependent on Airbnb’s existing hosts agreeing to help out. In a tweet thread announcing... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge A new report from the Government Accountability Office (GAO) found that 19 of the 24 US government agencies surveyed are using facial recognition in some way, illustrating how commonplace the controversial technology has become within the federal government. The list of agencies includes agencies like the Department of Defense and Department of Homeland Security (DHS) that maintain in-house systems, alongside smaller agencies that use the system to control access to high-security locations.“As the use of FRT continues to expand,” the report explains, “members of Congress, academics, and advocacy organizations have highlighted the importance of developing a comprehensive understanding of how it is used by federal agencies.”A previous... Continue reading…

Kanye West revealed a new music gadget called the Donda Stem Player that will let you “customize any song,” according to the device’s website. It’s available for preorder now for $200 with a vague “summer” release date, though the website says it will ship “with Donda,” West’s upcoming album.Let’s get some of the gadget-y stuff out of the way first. The device, which West’s Yeezy Tech brand developed with electronics company Kano, looks like a little tan puck, and it’s apparently made of a “soft silicone blended skin.” It’s equipped with a headphone jack and Bluetooth support (and can do simultaneous Bluetooth and audio jack playback), a USB-C port, volume buttons, speakers, a haptic engine, and 8GB of storage. The four light bars are... Continue reading…

Wind turbines in front of a coal-fired power plant on the outskirts of the new city area of Yumen, Gansu province, China, on Wednesday, March 31, 2021. | Wind turbines in front of a coal-fired power plant on the outskirts of the new city area of Yumen, Gansu province, China, on Wednesday, March 31, 2021. As people ventured out from their pandemic cocoons this year, they gobbled up more electricity than they did before COVID-19 shut the world down. But there still isn’t enough clean energy to meet rising demand, so coal is making a comeback. Global electricity demand climbed 5 percent above pre-pandemic levels in the first six months of 2021, according to an analysis published today by London think tank Ember. Electricity grids turned to more coal to meet that demand, and power sector carbon pollution rose 5 percent compared to the first half of 2019.“We are building back badly”“Catapulting emissions in 2021 should send alarm bells across the world. We are not building back better, we are building back badly,” Dave Jones, global program... Continue reading…

Illustration by James Bareham / The Verge Controversial new cryptocurrency tax requirements are likely to become law through the bipartisan infrastructure bill. The cryptocurrency community rallied to fix the language, but the House voted to proceed with the bill as is on Tuesday, moving forward without any new amendments or opportunities to change it.On Tuesday, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) and a group of moderate Democrats reached a deal to approve a $3.5 trillion budget resolution, schedule floor action on the bipartisan infrastructure deal by September 27th, and advance voting rights legislation. The agreement comes after a group of moderate Democrats pledged to vote down the multitrillion-dollar social safety net package if it was approved before the bipartisan... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Update August 25th, 1:06PM ET: Walmart appears to have sold out of the Xbox Series X and both iterations of the PS5 for the day. We’ll make sure to let you know when the next opportunity comes up.Walmart is offering gamers a chance to get a PS5 and Xbox Series X today, Wednesday, August 25th, at 12PM ET / 9AM PT. That’s when the first wave of consoles will be made available, but the retailer has been known to release a few consecutive waves every ten minutes (12:10PM, 12:20PM, etc.) As always, try to sign in before things get started and enter your address and payment info to make the checkout process as speedy as possible. You may have better luck getting a console if you load up the site, and simultaneously have the page open within... Continue reading…

Netflix is hosting its own online fan event for the first time on September 25h. The event is called “Tudum” (as in the onomatopoeia of Netflix’s iconic logo sound), and promises an “exciting day full of exclusives and first looks,” for some of its most popular series and movies.The three-hour event (which starts at 12PM ET) will include “breaking news and ... first looks, new trailers and exclusive clips during interactive panels and conversations with the creators and stars from Netflix,” and feature over 70 shows and movies on Netflix, including Stranger Things, Bridgerton, The Witcher, Cowboy Bebop, Red Notice, The Old Guard, and The Umbrella Academy.Additionally, Netflix will be hosting three pre-show events before the main... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge My friend (and occasional writer for The Verge) JR Raphael has a newsletter in which he recently wrote about cleaning up your Google Contacts list by deleting old and no-longer-wanted entries.What a good idea, I thought. But.Unfortunately, I am something of a hoarder when it comes to contacts. After years as a tech journalist, I have who-knows-how-many business contact listings, many of which are completely out of date. But although it’s likely that a lot of these people have moved to different companies and different email addresses, I feel I should keep the entries — what if I come across them at some point and want to check where I knew them from? Or what if they still work there even though it’s been several years and I want to... Continue reading…

Photo by Tom Warren / The Verge Nvidia’s RTX 30-series graphics cards are next to impossible to find in stock, but Best Buy is offering PC gamers an opportunity to buy one on Thursday, August 26th. Select store locations will have stock, and if you find your local store on this page by using the drop-down options, it’ll be among the locations getting some GPUs for Thursday’s restock.You can’t just show up at any time of the day and pick one up. In order to be eligible to buy one, you’ll need to arrive at your store before 7:30AM local time and queue up. That’s the time when Best Buy employees will give one ticket to each person in line until there are no more tickets. If you get a ticket, Best Buy says it guarantees that you can purchase one graphics card, so be... Continue reading…

The latest version of August’s lock is smaller and more discreet. | Photo: August August’s latest Wi-Fi Smart Lock is on a special discount today through Wellbots. This small, discreet smart lock is on sale in both black and gray colorways for $199, and you can use promo code VERGE20 to take an additional $20 off the sale price while supplies last. This brings the Alexa-enabled August lock down to a new historic low price of $179, which is an exceptional deal for an app-connected smart lock that can be easily retrofitted to your existing deadbolt without the need for a locksmith. Read our review.Continuing our run of great smart home deals, the Eufy Wi-Fi Video Doorbell 2K is at its all-time low price at Amazon. This wired doorbell is great if you’re looking to step into the smart home waters without diving too... Continue reading…

Wing, the drone delivery company operated by Google-parent Alphabet, is about to rack up 100,000 deliveries. The company says it will pass the threshold in the next few days, a significant milestone for a technology that has nevertheless yet to prove its utility at scale.Drone deliveries began to catch the public imagination in the early 2010s as consumer quadcopters fell in price and AI control systems became more reliable. Then, in 2013, Amazon made wild promises about making drones a standard part of its delivery empire. But so far the technology has mainly found success at a much smaller scale: delivering high-value but physically small items like vaccines and blood in remote locations.Wing’s success, though, hints that one future... Continue reading…

Gamescom is usually the biggest in-person video games conference, but it’s happening virtually for the second year straight due to the pandemic. That may be disappointing to people who wanted to go to Cologne, Germany, but the online presentation makes it a lot easier for viewers at home to see all of the highlights. Geoff Keighley’s two-hour-long Opening Night Live event is focused on doing just that, providing new Gamescom game announcements, trailers, and guest appearances.As for what you can expect, Keighley promises a walkthrough of a full level from Call of Duty: Vanguard’s campaign playing on the latest consoles; some big news about Splitgate, the portal-based competitive FPS title that’s been popular lately; an update on Lego... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge | Photo by Vivian Zink/NBCUniversal via Getty Images A Verge investigation shows how going exclusive stunted Rogan’s power Continue reading…

Otter.ai is available on iOS, Android, and via the web. | Image: Otter.ai Otter.ai is one of our favorite transcription tools thanks to the accuracy of its machine learning-generated notes. If you’re a paying user, you can also use its Otter Assistant feature to plug into your calendar and automatically join and transcribe meetings even if you’re not there. Previously, Otter Assistant only worked with Zoom meetings, but today the company is expanding it to integrate with Microsoft Teams, Google Meet, and Cisco Webex meetings.It’s a handy feature, depending on the platform (or platforms) on which you tend to have meetings. Zoom already offers third-party transcription features, for example, while Teams has its own built-in free transcription tool. If you’re already using one of these services, then the... Continue reading…

Fitbit’s new Charge 5 in gold. | Image: Fitbit It costs $179.95 and will be out this fall Continue reading…

“Project Windless” concept art. | Image: Krafton Krafton’s ‘Project Windless’ is still in its earliest stages Continue reading…

Illustration by Claudia Chinyere Akole Viral fame, IRL customers Continue reading…

Image: Alex Castro / The Verge In an abrupt tweet, video and image sharing site OnlyFans announced a reversal of the shocker announcement that it would ban sexually explicit content. According to the company, “We have secured assurances necessary to support our diverse creator community and have suspended the planned October 1 policy change. OnlyFans stands for inclusion and we will continue to provide a home for all creators.”This comes just one day after its CEO said, in an interview with the Financial Times, that the reason for the ban was actually issues with its banking partners, not Mastercard as some had assumed.Now OnlyFans creators, many of whom had already begun deleting content that violated the policy or started shifting their subscriber base to new... Continue reading…

Illustration by Claudia Chinyere Akole But the risk of trading means anyone can lose money trying Continue reading…