The Verge

Photo by TOLGA AKMEN/AFP via Getty Images For the past 20 years UK Post Office employees have been dealing with a piece of software called Horizon, which had a fatal flaw: bugs that made it look like employees stole tens of thousands of British pounds. This led to some local postmasters being convicted of crimes, even being sent to prison, because the Post Office doggedly insisted the software could be trusted. After fighting for decades, 39 people are finally having their convictions overturned, after what is reportedly the largest miscarriage of justice that the UK has ever seen.The impact on these employees has been vast: according to the BBC, some have lost marriages or time with their children. Talking to the BBC, Janet Skinner said that she was taken away from her two... Continue reading…

Oculus is turning on its Air Link PC streaming feature for the Quest 2 virtual reality headset. Air Link is part of the Oculus v28 software update, which recently started rolling out to Oculus headset owners. Facebook Reality Labs head Andrew Bosworth says you can find the feature if you’re running v28 on your PC and Quest 2 headset; if you haven’t gotten access to the update yet, “it’s coming very soon.”Air Link lets Quest 2 owners with a strong Wi-Fi connection play PC VR games wirelessly on their headsets. Air Link was initially disabled on v28. But as Upload points out, Quest 2 owners had found a way to unofficially turn it on, and Oculus had warned that the experience was “not representative” of the final result. Bosworth says... Continue reading…

Image: Adidas Adidas has designed a pair of Stan Smith sneakers that could be perfect for the Star Wars fan in your life who also pulls double-duty as a hypebeast. The Yoda version of the Stan Smith, Forever sneakers features a design inspired by the famous green alien, with quotes and illustrations. Adidas says the shoes will go on sale right after Star Wars Day, on May 5th, for $120.The Stan Smith, Forever line is named after American tennis player Stan Smith, with “Forever” standing for the shoe’s environmentally friendly bent due to its use of “Primegreen” fabric. Adidas claims Primegreen is made from 50 percent recycled materials. The Yoda version is also green in another way, of course. The back heels of the shoes have Yoda’s face embossed in... Continue reading…

Image: Marvel Studios A fourth Captain America movie is on the way, set to be co-written by Malcolm Spellman, the creator, showrunner, and head writer of The Falcon and the Winter Soldier (which just aired its season finale on Disney Plus on Friday). Dalan Musson, a staff writer on the series, will also co-write the upcoming film, according to reports from The Hollywood Reporter and Deadline.Spoilers for the season finale of The Falcon and the Winter Soldier aheadDetails on the upcoming film, including a director, cast, and a release date, have yet to be officially announced by Disney. But both reports note that the upcoming film will likely follow up on the finale of the Disney Plus series, which saw Anthony Mackie’s Sam Wilson take up the shield and... Continue reading…

How much would someone pay for the digital rights to an autographed copy of a selfie — featuring talk show host Ellen DeGeneres and a crude stick-figure drawing of a cat?We’ll soon find out — because Ellen is about to drop her very own NFTs next week, as first reported by Variety, quite possibly making her the most mainstream celeb to cash in on the craze yet. The “Woman With Stick Cat” selfie will be one of them, as will her video monologue itself (in 4K resolution). The auction will start 9am PT on Monday, April 26th at Bitski.com/ellen.Never fear, feline lovers: you’ll be able to get a high-res digital copy of “Woman With Stick Cat” in the auction as well, either by bidding on one of the 10 “rare” copies, an unlimited number of... Continue reading…

Photo By Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images The United States should resume use of the Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccine for all adults, an independent advisory committee to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said today. There is a small risk of a rare type of blood clot in women under 50, and health officials should warn patients of that risk, the committee stressed during its deliberations.Federal officials at the CDC and Food and Drug Administration (FDA) could lift the pause on the shot based on that recommendation soon — within hours or days. The FDA will likely add a warning label to the vaccine about the blood clots.Federal officials at the CDC and Food and Drug Administration (FDA) could lift the pause on the shot based on that recommendation soonU... Continue reading…

Gov. Gavin Newsom tours the Chevron oil field west of Bakersfield where a spill of more than 900,000 gallons of oil and brine water oil has flowed into a dry creek bed July 24, 2019 near McKittrick, California. | Photo by Irfan Khan/Los Angeles Times via Getty Images California Governor Gavin Newsom today set an aspirational 2045 deadline to stop all oil extraction in the state. He also said that he plans to ban hydraulic fracturing, or “fracking” for oil by 2024.“As we move to swiftly decarbonize our transportation sector and create a healthier future for our children, I’ve made it clear I don’t see a role for fracking in that future and, similarly, believe that California needs to move beyond oil,” he said in a statement.

Check out that cash button. | Image: Jane Manchun Wong on Twitter Twitter has said it’s exploring features like tipping to give people a way to pay other Twitter users, and now we have further evidence that a tip feature may be on the way. App researcher Jane Manchun Wong shared images on Thursday and Friday showing that Twitter could offer a tipping button right on user profiles.Here’s one iteration of what it could look like — check out the little blue cash button under the “@wongmjane” watermark in the left image. Clicking or tapping that button apparently shows options to let you tip via Bandcamp, Cash App (made by Square, which counts Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey as its CEO, too), Patreon, PayPal, and Venmo.

Just a glimpse of what’s on a shelf at Super Potato in Akihabara, Tokyo. Visiting Super Potato in Akihabara is usually a key reason why many die-hard gamers want to venture to Japan. The flagship Super Potato store (of the eight total in Japan, according to its Twitter) is nondescript, yet its shelves are covered wall-to-wall in rare yet reasonably priced games and consoles. It’s a magical place that’s a store-meets-museum. It’s fun enough to just look around, but if you’re a collector, there aren’t many places left where you can walk in and pick up a Virtual Boy headset or find a cache of Sega Dreamcast games that never released outside of Japan.My point is that you absolutely should go at some point if you can. But thankfully, going there in person isn’t the only way you can peep the store’s vast... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge The YouTube mobile app for iOS and Android now has new video settings that might make it a bit easier to save on data while watching video on the go (via MacRumors). Along with specific resolutions in the video player, you can now toggle between three separate modes that either favor video quality, data use, or whatever works best for your current internet connection.You might already be familiar with “auto” mode as the default setting for most videos, which automatically adjusts video resolution depending on your current internet speed to give the best experience. YouTube’s new additions are the “higher picture quality” mode, which uses more data when not on Wi-Fi and defaults to 720p, and a “data saver” mode that maxes out at 480p. ... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge It’s a situation none of us want to deal with but most of us will have to deal with sooner or later. You buy a product online, and it arrives damaged. Or the wrong color. Or it simply doesn’t work. Or the description doesn’t match the product. Or it simply never shows up at all.What do you do?If you bought the product through PayPal, you do have options — but you’re going to have to be patient. There is a variety of steps to work through to get your payment back. First, a bit of explanation — and a warning.PayPal offers what it calls its Purchase Protection Program to anyone who purchases something through its service, so if there is a problem, you have a way to get your money back. The basic steps are laid down in PayPal’s Help page... Continue reading…

The iMac’s big chin. | Image: Apple Apple’s product design is usually very good, setting industry standards for how many of the gadgets and computers we use every day look and feel. But the company’s many hits make the less obvious design decisions stand out that much more.Thanks to the huge amount of new stuff Apple introduced at its “Spring Loaded” event on Tuesday, we have a lot of new Apple designs to scrutinize. While the company generally did pretty well with this round of updates, there are still a few things that made us raise our eyebrows.The iMac still has a big chin Image: Apple The new iMac and its large chin. I think Apple’s new iMacs look really good — except for that darn chin, which, once again, proudly protrudes from the bottom... Continue reading…

As Uber founder Travis Kalanick prepared to leave Uber’s board of directors in 2019, he was already hyping his next venture: a startup called CloudKitchens that rents out space to restaurants for delivery-only services. He predicted at the time that the startup would be “bigger than Uber.” The Wall Street Journal reported last October that CloudKitchens had purchased more than 40 properties in some two dozen cities, for more than $130 million.But a new report from Insider suggests that many of the tactics that became infamous at Uber — the always be hustlin’ mentality and aggressive internal culture — are in place at CloudKitchens.

A screenshot from Quiplash. | Image: Jackbox Games Quiplash, the hilarious sentence-completion party game from Jackbox Games, is available for free on Steam this weekend. The deal runs until April 26th at 1PM ET.Quiplash is, without question, my extended family’s favorite game for group gatherings. (Technically, we play Quiplash 2, included in Jackbox Party Pack 3, but they’re extremely similar games.) The premise is simple. At the beginning of a round, players will be given prompts to fill in an answer privately on their smartphones or browser. Then, everyone will get to vote on which response was the best by seeing them pitted head-to-head on the main screen (whether that’s a TV, a Zoom call, a Twitch stream, etc.). More votes equal more points, and the person with the most points at... Continue reading…

Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge Apple’s new 12.9-inch iPad Pro has a big catch: it turns out that the new 2021 model is incompatible with the old Magic Keyboard folio case for the 2018 and 2020 models.The news, first reported by French site iGeneration and confirmed via sources familiar with the matter to The Verge, means that if you’re looking to upgrade from a 2018 or 2020 12.9-inch iPad Pro to the refreshed model (with its Mini LED display, faster M1 processor, and upgraded camera), you’ll also have to shell out an extra $349 for a new Magic Keyboard case, even if you already bought the prior version.Bad news for 2020 iPad Pro ownersThe 2021 12.9-inch iPad Pro is slightly thicker than the 2020 version: the new model measures in at 6.4mm thick, or 0.5mm thicker... Continue reading…

He walks, he waves, he probably falls over in a strong breeze. | GIF: Disney via TechCrunch Disney’s R&D labs, commonly known as its Imagineering team, does some extremely impressive — and expressive — things with robots. It’s made mechanical stunt doubles, lifelike alien Na’vi, and, uh, this skinless weirdo. But the company’s latest creation looks like it quite literally walked out of a Disney movie. It’s a bipedal Groot that can amble about tether-free. As Disney’s Pinocchio would put it: he’s got no strings to hold him down.TechCrunch’s Matthew Panzarino has the low-down on this robotic milestone for Disney. It’s part of the company’s long-term efforts to develop autonomous robot actors for its parks, says Panzarino, under the codename of “Project Kiwi.” The company’s engineers spent years creating their own free-standing... Continue reading…

Illustration by Grayson Blackmon / The Verge The Apple TV remote is gone and a new remote — with the exact same name, considerably more buttons, and a two-tone color scheme straight out of 2010 — has replaced it. The majority of people have rejoiced this move, but I am here to mourn a remote that had no business being as captivating for my thumb as it was.Technically called the Siri Remote, the super-slim minimalist remote launched in 2015 alongside the fourth-gen Apple TV (now known as the Apple TV HD). It was the third remote designed by Apple to control your TV and the first one to include a touchpad or microphones. The Siri Remote was named for the big Siri button below the touchpad and was meant to make the digital assistant a more natural part of the way you interacted with... Continue reading…

Oculus is beginning to roll out redesigned avatars that are more expressive and customizable than those that launched in 2016. They’ll appear starting today in just a few games for the Quest VR platform, including Epic Roller Coasters, PokerStarsVR, and Topgolf with Pro Putt. Soon, they’ll appear in Synth Riders, and later in the year, a new game called ForeVR Bowling will feature them.The avatars launching today, starting with those few select games, seem far more fleshed out. They’ll have legs in the editor, for one (though they won’t yet appear on your avatar in VR). The new avatar editor apparently allows for a quintillion possible combinations of hair, eyes, body type, facial hair, piercings, clothing, and other features. There’s... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Amazon is testing a new feature for sellers that will let them contact customers directly by email to notify them of things like new product announcements or sales. It’s a major change from Amazon’s current policy, which is to limit the amount of interaction between customers and companies that sell on Amazon, outside of resolving things like returns or order issues.As CNBC reports, the new “Manage Your Customer Engagement” tool won’t let companies just spam previous customers with promotional emails. They’ll only be able to contact Amazon users who have specifically chosen to follow a particular company.Crucially, Amazon isn’t giving sellers blank-check access to customers’ personal contact information. Rather, Amazon will tell... Continue reading…

Amazon fulfilment center in Sosnowiec, Poland, in May 2019. | Photo by Beata Zawrzel / NurPhoto via Getty Images A group of shareholders has asked Amazon to disclose how much of its plastic packaging winds up in the environment. The retail giant’s plastic pollution could damage the company’s reputation or lead to financial penalties from regulatory action or clean-up costs, according to the shareholder proposal. So they’d like to see a report published by December that shows how much plastic waste the retail giant is responsible for and what it’s doing to reduce plastic packaging.Amazon has stayed pretty tight-lipped about its plastic problem. It was accused of generating 465 million pounds of plastic packaging waste in 2019 by the nonprofit organization Oceana. More than 22 million pounds of that trash wound up in freshwater and marine... Continue reading…

Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge You may have heard of the new Apple products announced at the company’s “Spring Loaded” event this week — including the redesigned colorful iMac, the location-tracking AirTags, and the boosted specs on the next iPad Pro. But there was another big event focused on Apple this week: on Capitol Hill.This week on The Verge’s flagship podcast, The Vergecast, co-hosts Nilay Patel and Dieter Bohn discuss Apple’s Tuesday hardware event with Verge news editor Chaim Gartenberg as well as Wednesday’s congressional hearing dedicated to antitrust in the App Store with Verge politics reporter Makena Kelly.The show bridges the gap between Apple announcing a Tile competitor and Tile speaking in front of Congress the following day.Listen here or in... Continue reading…

Photo by Chuck Zlotnick / Marvel Studios The season finale of The Falcon and the Winter Soldier has arrived, bringing an end to the latest Marvel saga and settling the legacy of Steve Rogers and his emblematic shield. But the show doesn’t just answer the question of “Who is the next Captain America?” It charts a path forward for the next generation of Marvel heroes — and it uses a solution borrowed right from the comics.Spoilers for The Falcon and the Winter Soldier below. Photo: Marvel Studios As basically everyone expected, the finale of The Falcon and the Winter Soldier sees Sam Wilson step fully into the role as the new Captain America — complete with a ripped-from-the-comics outfit and a new title card at the end of the series for “Captain America... Continue reading…

Job Simulator, HTC Vive Last week, Humble launched its Spring Into VR Bundle, which includes a pack of games for use with a virtual reality headset. Originally set to end on April 21st, the company has decided to extend the deal until April 28th, giving you more time to take advantage of it.You can pay as little as $1 to receive one game or pay at least $15 to unlock all eight games available in the pack — once you’ve paid, you’ll get keys that you redeem on Steam. The bundle contains the following games, all of which are compatible with wired headsets that support Steam VR:

Photo by Vlad Savov / The Verge Honda said it will stop selling gas-powered vehicles by 2040. The automaker expects 40 percent of its sales globally to be comprised of battery-electric and fuel-cell vehicles by 2030, followed by 80 percent in 2035, and 100 percent of sales by 2040.Honda is the latest car company to commit to an all-electric future, with General Motors, Ford, Volkswagen, Volvo, and others making similar promises in recent months. Honda also said it would “strive to realize carbon neutrality for all products and corporate activities” by 2050.“I believe it is the responsibility of an automaker to achieve our carbon-free goal on a ‘tank-to-wheel’ basis”The announcement came from Honda’s new CEO, Toshihiro Mibe, who took the helm in April. Speaking at a... Continue reading…

Nier: Replicant is a shape-shifter. It makes you think it’s a simple action roleplaying game set in a bleak fantasy universe, but steadily reveals itself to be a lot more. It’s a game that shifts wildly in both tone and play style. It’s weird and heartbreaking, frustrating and playful, often all at the same time. This release is also a second chance for a game that failed to reach a big audience when it first launched in 2010, now updated for modern tastes. It still requires a little patience — but it’s worth putting up with some clunky gameplay to find all that Replicant has to offer.If the Nier name sounds familiar, it’s probably because of Nier: Automata, a 2017 action-RPG from director Yoko Taro and studio PlatinumGames that became... Continue reading…

Apple’s new AirTag tracking devices | Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge Apple’s new Tile-like AirTags, long-rumored and finally announced at this week’s Spring Loaded event, are now available for preorder on Apple’s website. The small circular trackers work with Apple’s “Find My” app on iOS and have a built-in speaker, accelerometer, Bluetooth LE, and a replaceable battery. They cost $29 for one set or $99 for a four-pack.Apple says the AirTags’ battery should be good for a year. They should start delivering between May 3rd and May 5th.The existence of AirTags first became known nearly two years ago, in copies of the iOS 13 beta. Apple accidentally confirmed the AirTags name in a support video last year that has since been deleted.Also revealed at Spring Loaded was the new purple iPhone 12. It’s... Continue reading…

The Evercade VS can stow two of the company’s proprietary cartridges at once. | Image: Evercade The Evercade handheld that released in 2020 can connect to your TV through its Mini HDMI port, but its 4.3-inch screen proves it was designed more for retro gaming on the go. Now, there’s a version of the Evercade just for your TV. It’s called the Evercade VS, and it can output retro games at 1080p, delivering “top-of-the-line emulation,” with support for up to four wired USB controllers for multiplayer in games. It’ll cost $99.99 when it launches on November 3rd, 2021, and preorders start on May 28th, 2021.Crucially, the Evercade VS will be able to play games from the same kind of proprietary cartridges used by the handheld, and this home console can store two at a time under the NES-style flap that opens at its top. Each cartridge... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Spotify is reportedly planning to debut its in-app podcast subscription offering next week. The Wall Street Journal reports today that the company will not take a cut from podcasters who choose to sell in-app subscriptions and also will allow them to set their own pricing. Listeners on its iOS app will be routed through a website to purchase the subscriptions, thereby allowing Spotify (and podcasters) to skirt around Apple’s fees.The news comes right after Apple Podcasts debuted its own in-app subscriptions. The company will allow podcasters to sell access to ad-free, bonus, or early-access content at whatever price they choose to set. Unlike this reported Spotify plan, however, Apple requires podcasters to pay $19.99 per year to even... Continue reading…

A long look at the workspace of one of The Verge’s leading tech enthusiasts. Visit the office of a Verge gearhead Continue reading…

Microsoft is releasing a preview version of Office 2021 for Mac and Office LTSC this week. While Office LTSC (Long-Term Servicing Channel) is designed for commercial customers, both versions are perpetual versions of Office that don’t rely on subscriptions or the cloud. Microsoft announced its plans for Office 2021 back in February, and a Windows version — which won’t be available in preview — will also be released later this year.Office 2021 for Mac will support both Apple Silicon and Intel-based Macs, and require at least 4GB of RAM and 10GB of storage space. It’s designed to be a static release of Office, but during the preview there will be monthly updates that could include new features. Once Office 2021 for Mac is final and... Continue reading…

The confirmation emails were sent out in error. | Screenshot by Tom Warren / The Verge Twitter has apologized for accidentally sending out emails asking users to “confirm your Twitter account.” The company says the messages were sent out by mistake. “If you received one of these emails, you don’t need to confirm your account and you can disregard the message,” the company said.The Verge’s own Tom Warren was a recipient of one of the emails, which looks like the one Twitter sends out to validate an email address during its sign-up process. Users who weren’t expecting to receive the emails quickly assumed they were being sent out by someone trying to imitate Twitter as part of a phishing scam, BleepingComputer reports.

A federal judge has rejected a motion by Apple to dismiss a putative class action lawsuit over the company’s use of the labels “buy” and “rent” when selling digital content. As first covered by The Hollywood Reporter, the suit can now continue, though could yet be settled before ever reaching trial.The lead plaintiff in the case, David Andino, argues that Apple is misleading consumers when it tells them it can “buy” digital versions of albums, TV shows, and films from its stores. Why? Because the iPhone-maker retains the power to terminate customers’ access to this content whenever it likes. This can happen, for example, when the company loses distribution rights to content that users haven’t secured by downloading to their device.“... Continue reading…

The K3 is remarkably thin, but at the cost of versatility Continue reading…

Photo by Joe Raedle/Getty Images SpaceX launched its third crew of astronauts to the International Space Station early Friday morning, reusing a Crew Dragon space capsule to fly humans for the first time. The mission, dubbed Crew-2, is the latest flight under NASA’s Commercial Crew Program, and will add four more astronauts to the orbital space station.A used Falcon 9 rocket, last flown for SpaceX’s Crew-1 mission last year, lifted off at 5:49AM ET from Cape Canaveral, Florida carrying Endeavor, the same Crew Dragon capsule that first launched SpaceX’s debut astronaut mission nearly one year ago. For this flight, the Endeavor capsule carried four astronauts from three different countries — SpaceX’s most diverse NASA-managed crew yet.“Off the Earth, for the Earth,... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge The latest version of Chrome on Android has started rolling out a new price tracking feature to alert you about price drops. SmartDroid reports receiving the new feature in Chrome version 90, though it doesn’t seem to be live for everyone. Once activated, Chrome monitors your open tabs for any price drops, and sends you a notification if any happen.It could be a useful bit of functionality for the Android app, which isn’t compatible with price tracking extensions like Keepa that are available for Chrome’s desktop client. But the requirement that you keep a tab open in order to track its prices seems clunky. Hopefully Google finds a sleeker solution before the feature gets a widespread rollout. Screenshot: 9to5Google... Continue reading…

(NASA/Joel Kowsky) SpaceX is slated to launch its third crew to the International Space Station early Friday morning, ferrying two astronauts from NASA, one from the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, and the first European Space Agency astronaut to fly a private US spacecraft to orbit. The four-person crew will launch atop SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket at 5:49AM ET on Friday.The mission, dubbed Crew-2, marks the second operational mission under the Commercial Crew Program, NASA’s public-private initiative to revive its human spaceflight capabilities after a 10-year dependence on Russian rockets. It will mark the first time NASA astronauts fly a reused crew capsule — Crew-2’s ride first flew in May 2020 as SpaceX’s first astronaut mission, carrying Bob... Continue reading…

Image: Apple Apple’s new Siri Remote doesn’t come equipped with an accelerometer or gyroscope, which means it won’t work as a motion controller in certain Apple TV games. The omission was initially spotted by Digital Trends, and can be seen on the remotes’ product pages. The old Siri Remote lists an “Accelerometer” and “Three-axis gyro” in the tech specs, but they’re missing from the new listing (we’ve linked to a Google Cache because as of this writing Apple’s store is down ahead of AirTags pre-orders going live).The change means that the new Siri Remote won’t work with certain Apple TV games that rely on motion controls. According to code in tvOS 14.5 seen by MacRumors, trying to play an incompatible game will lead to the following error message:... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Apple announced on Wednesday that it’s once again extending the deadline for requiring in-app purchases for iOS apps that sell access to online classes and group events until December 31st, 2021, effectively meaning it won’t impose its 30 percent cut on businesses providing those services until next year. Apple extended the deadline initially to June 30th, 2021, but now developers have another six months.Apple cites the ongoing pandemic as its main justification for the change, but we have to wonder if it might also have something to do with the Congressional antitrust hearings that have zeroed in on whether Apple and Google’s app stores are monopolies. Helping out small businesses by not taking its traditional 30 percent cut is an... Continue reading…

Photo: Warner Bros. Pictures. For a series about people getting their spines ripped out, Mortal Kombat has a surprising amount of story. Over three decades the fighting franchise has amassed a large mythos, filled with histories, lore, and motivations for its many combatants, which are mostly used to answer the question of why somebody is having their spine and / or arms removed. You wouldn’t really know that from watching the new movie, though. The film features plenty of callouts to the games — gruesome fatalities, goofy one-liners, and lots of familiar faces — but it never stops long enough to tell you why you should care about anything. It’s also not particularly fun, despite all of the aforementioned ripped-off arms.Mortal Kombat largely follows the same basic... Continue reading…

After launching a little over a year ago, Call of Duty: Warzone is one of the most popular free-to-play titles right now, with 100 million people playing the battle royale shooter. Following a nuclear missile that destroyed the game’s map, the in-game city of Verdansk is back with a new map set in the year 1984, as seen in the announcement trailer above. This mirrors a similar move made by its competitor Fortnite, which destroyed its original map and replaced it with a new one in 2019.Despite the shape and layout remaining the same as its predecessor, players will notice changes to most locations along with a 1980s vibe that fits the game’s new time period. Verdansk ’84, the name of the new map, has some alterations to make it a new... Continue reading…

After launching a little over a year ago, Call of Duty: Warzone is one of the most popular free-to-play titles right now, with 100 million people playing the battle royale shooter. Following a nuclear missile that destroyed the game’s map, the in-game city of Verdansk is back with a new map set in the year 1984, as seen in the announcement trailer above. This mirrors a similar move made by its competitor Fortnite, which destroyed its original map and replaced it with a new one in 2019.Despite the shape and layout remaining the same as its predecessor, players will notice changes to most locations along with a 1980s vibe that fits the game’s new time period. Verdansk ’84, the name of the new map, has some alterations to make it a new... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Facebook wants to inspire, apparently. The company announced changes to its News Feed today that are supposed to fill feeds with things users like, rather than the content that annoys them. At the end of March, Facebook began introducing filters to allow users to customize their feed, and now, the company is hoping to learn more about what users like and dislike, with what seems like a special focus on moving away from political content and toward “inspirational posts.”The company has been under intense scrutiny for helping fan the flames of political division in the US and even playing an outsized role in elections. Facebook’s influence on both issues has largely stemmed from the misinformation that’s been spread on the platform. It’s... Continue reading…

Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge Congressional Democrats have introduced a bill that would make it easier for the Consumer Product Safety Commission to warn people about unsafe products, by repealing part of a 49-year-old law that limits what information the agency can release publicly.The Sunshine in Product Safety Act (PDF) comes after reports that exercise machine company Peloton “obstructed CPSC’s investigation” into its Peloton Tread Plus treadmill, according to the members of Congress. The Tread Plus has been involved in some 39 accidents where children were injured, including one death.The CPSC “was unable to alert the public of the reported incidents related to children, pets, and objects getting pulled under the treadmill until a month later,” according to... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge The University of Minnesota has been banned from contributing to the Linux kernel by one of its maintainers after researchers from the school apparently knowingly submitted code with security flaws.Earlier this year, two researchers from the university released a paper detailing how they had submitted known security vulnerabilities to the Linux kernel in order to show how potentially malicious code could get through the approval process. Now, after another student from the university submitted code that reportedly does nothing, kernel maintainer and Linux Foundation fellow Greg Kroah-Hartman has released a statement calling for all kernel maintainers to reject any code submissions from anyone using a umn.edu email address.In addition... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Snap has finally reaped the benefits of building a fully functional Android app. The company announced in its earnings report today that its user base mostly uses Android instead of iOS. That overall user base continues to grow, too. During the first quarter of 2021, Snapchat reached 280 million daily active users, an increase of 22 percent year over year.CEO Evan Spiegel called the moment Android users overtook iOS users a “critical milestone that reflects the long-term value of the investment we made to rebuild our Android application,” in his prepared remarks today. As a reminder, Snapchat originally launched only on iOS and released its first Android app in 2012. The team later spent over a year rebuilding the app to bring it up to... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Twitch users will be able to make threaded replies in Twitch chat starting today, the popular streaming platform announced. Threaded replies could make it a lot easier to have side conversations within Twitch chats, which are sometimes chaotic waterfalls of text with no easy way to tell who might be talking to another. Twitch is calling the new feature Chat Replies.To start a threaded reply, just hover over a message, click the arrow that will appear, and then type your message.

Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge Robot cars are back in the spotlight on Capitol Hill after previous efforts failed to pass comprehensive legislation allowing more autonomous vehicles on the road.US Sens. Gary Peters (D-MI) and John Thune (R-SD) plan to introduce an amendment to a funding bill that would grant federal regulators the power to exempt tens of thousands of vehicles from requirements to have traditional controls for human drivers, according to Reuters.The power to exempt 15,000 vehicles per manufacturerThe amendment would give the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) the power to exempt 15,000 vehicles per manufacturer from certain safety standards, with that number increasing to 80,000 in three years. The effect would be to grant... Continue reading…

Garmin Garmin has upgraded its premium Venu smartwatch for 2021 (via DC Rainmaker and Ars Technica). It now comes in two sizes instead of a single 43mm-sized model. The 45mm Venu 2 houses a 1.3-inch 416 x 416 OLED screen. For smaller wrists (or those who just prefer a less wrist-dominating device), the 40mm Venu 2S has a 1.1-inch 360 x 360 OLED screen. Both watches have an optional always-on mode, and they are available now for $399.99, which is the same price as the original Venu.It doubles the battery life in some cases versus the originalOther than the differences in case sizes, there isn’t much else distinguishing the Venu 2 lineup visually from the predecessor. They’re slick-looking touchscreen wearables with Gorilla Glass 3-covered... Continue reading…

Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge The Federal Communications Commission has decided to look into letting people text the upcoming shortened National Suicide Prevention Lifeline number in a bid to increase accessibility and use of the service by those who need it most (via Politico reporter John Hendel). Last May, the FCC approved the creation of a new short code, 988, that will act as an easier-to-remember phone number for the lifeline.Please note that calling 988 will not connect you to the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline until July 16th, 2022.It’s worth noting that today’s approval is just a first step and doesn’t mean that people will, for sure, be able to text the 988 number when it goes live in July 2022. However, it does mean that the FCC will be looking... Continue reading…

Daily Steals is giving Verge readers a special discount on Apple’s Smart Keyboard Folio Case for the 11-inch iPad Pro. Normally $179, you can buy this case for only $70 when you enter code VERGEAPLE at checkout. This price includes the accessory in new condition and a one-year warranty with Apple.This device is compatible with the 11-inch iPad Pro models, which were released in 2018 and 2020. According to Apple, it will also work with the iPad Air released in 2020 and the 2021 model refresh that’s set to launch in the second half of May.Woot is offering a deal on TCL’s Alto 8 Plus soundbar, which is down to $70 — $130 off its usual retail price. It includes a built-in subwoofer, which allows for rich and deep bass, and has an Amazon... Continue reading…