The Verge

Image: Nestflix, Lynn Fisher It’s been notoriously difficult to watch lost classics like Vincent Chase’s Aquaman or The Rural Juror — in part because they’re not real — but thanks to the launch of Nestflix, that’s all changing. Those movies are from Entourage and 30 Rock, respectively, created as gags or plotlines, but Nestflix, “the platform for your favorite nested films and shows,” will let you browse them anyway.The basic premise behind designer Lynn Fisher’s Netflix alternative is “what if every fake show or movie featured in a real show or movie lived on a single platform?” The result is something that looks a lot like that red-and-black-colored streaming service you might be familiar with, populated with fake TV show and movie listings for projects that... Continue reading…

Photo by Chris Welch / The Verge Like in previous years, Samsung used its latest Galaxy Unpacked event to announce a slew of new devices, including the Galaxy Z Fold 3 and Galaxy Z Flip 3. The two smartphones are already available for preorder starting at $1,799.99 and $999.99, respectively, and will launch alongside the Galaxy Buds 2 and a handful of other devices on Friday, August 27th.How to preorder the Galaxy Z Fold 3The Galaxy Z Fold 3 is Samsung’s latest foldable, yet it seems to take a cue directly from the Note, adopting S Pen support as well as an optional flip case designed to hold the stylus when not in use. The forthcoming device appears to be more rugged, too, with IPX8 water resistance, tougher aluminum in the hinge, and a protective film that is... Continue reading…

Photo by Chris Welch / The Verge It’s been easy to dismiss folding phones as the stuff of science fiction, even after they became a reality two years ago. They were too expensive, too large, too compromised to make sense for most. Some flips instantly flopped. But in 2021, a folding phone appears to have just killed off Samsung’s long-running Galaxy Note — and I’m starting to wonder if they’ll destroy the flagship Galaxy S as well.That’s because last month, Samsung promised to make foldables mainstream. And at $999, with fewer compromises than ever, Samsung’s new Z Flip 3 sounds dangerously close to a complete replacement for Samsung’s $999 Galaxy S21 Plus. For the same price, they’ve both got 6.7-inch 120Hz AMOLED screens, the latest Snapdragon 888 processors, the... Continue reading…

The US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) is looking into a recent partnership between Uber and grocery delivery service Gopuff, according to a new report from The Information. Gopuff agreed to list its collection of grocery and liquor store items on Uber Eats in May, expanding Uber’s delivery abilities to an even greater degree as it competes with other companies like DoorDash and Instacart.The FTC is concerned that the deal “could hamper competition in online sale and delivery of alcohol and convenience-store items,” according to The Information. Gopuff’s been growing on its own recently, acquiring the BevMo liquor store chain to use as stores and delivery centers, almost like Amazon warehouses for alcohol. The FTC is reportedly also... Continue reading…

Photo by Silver Screen Collection/Getty Images The Criterion Collection has announced plans to release a six-film slate of classics on 4K Blu-rays for the first time, including a rerelease of Orson Welles’ American epic Citizen Kane.Besides the perennial film buff favorite, Criterion is also releasing the following films as part of its initial collection of ultra high-definition Blu-rays:

Twitter has changed the way the platform looks, including changing the font to its Chirp font. | Image: Twitter Twitter is rolling out its Chirp font to the Twitter app and feed, meaning that your daily scrolling might look a little different than you’re used to.Twitter’s main account posted about the change Wednesday. I’m personally seeing the new font on the web and on the iOS app, but one colleague isn’t seeing it anywhere, so it may not have rolled out to everyone yet.

Test Wireless Emergency Alert message | Image: FEMA At approximately 2:20PM ET, FEMA conducted a test of both the Emergency Alert System (EAS) and the Wireless Emergency Alerts (WEA) covering radio, TV broadcasts, and mobile devices in the US, but you might not see it on your phone. That’s because this time around, unlike the Presidential Alert test in 2018, it only reached phones with a setting to receive test messages and by default, most phones are set to opt-out.According to this document (PDF) from the FCC, on Android phones, there should be a Wireless Emergency Alerts section in your settings menu with an option for “State/Local Test alerts” that you can turn on or off. The process described for iOS is more complicated, but Apple’s support page explains how you can opt-in:

A few weeks after 1Password started rolling out the Windows version of the redesigned 1Password 8, the company is now showing off the Mac version of the update, which is also available today to try in early access.Like the Windows version, 1Password 8 on the Mac features an overhauled design, which aims to make it clearer when items are being shared, who they’re shared with, and better labeling of groups in the sidebar. There’s also a new search bar, which shows suggestions as you search (similar to Apple’s Spotlight or Alfred), and an updated version of Watchtower, which shows a comprehensive overview of your overall password security.Lastly, the new app overhauls the editing window, which the company says includes a... Continue reading…

There’s a new bill introduced in the Senate Wednesday targeting the power dominant tech firms like Apple and Google have over the app store market.The bipartisan “Open App Markets Act,” introduced by Sens. Richard Blumenthal (D-CT), Marsha Blackburn (R-TN), and Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) would ban app stores from forcing developers to use the store’s payment systems. It would also bar companies from punishing developers that offer lower prices on a separate app store or through their own payment systems, along the lines of Apple’s public dispute with Epic Games. Notably, the bill would also make it unlawful for companies like Apple to use non-public data from their stores to build competing products against companies using their service.“... Continue reading…

Image: Nuro Nuro is building two new facilities in Nevada for its autonomous delivery robots. The first is an end-of-line manufacturing facility, where it hopes to soon begin cranking out its large toaster-shaped vehicles at scale. And the second is a closed-course test track, where it will validate its bots before sending them out in to the wild. The company says it will spend $40 million to construct the facilities, both of which will be located in southern Nevada.Nuro, which was founded by ex-Google engineers in 2018, has been testing its driverless grocery delivery service in Arizona and Texas for months now, and hopes to begin ramping up a more official commercial service in several states next year. The company was recently approved to begin... Continue reading…

Photo by Becca Farsace / The Verge As expected, Samsung took the wraps off the Galaxy Watch 4 and the aptly titled Galaxy Watch 4 Classic during its Galaxy Unpacked event this morning, confirming recent leaks and introducing the first two devices built on Google and Samsung’s co-developed smartwatch platform, Wear OS 3. Both watches also sport Samsung’s new Exynos W920 processor, 1.5GB of RAM, 16GB of storage, and come with a host of health-related features thanks to the inclusion of Samsung’s 3-in-1 BioActive sensor.Although neither model is set to arrive until August 27th, both are available for preorder starting today at varying price points.How to preorder the Galaxy Watch 4The Galaxy Watch 4 is essentially the next iteration of the Galaxy Watch Active 2. The... Continue reading…

Illustration by Grayson Blackmon / The Verge Google released the first public beta for Android 12 during its I/O event in the spring, and now Beta 4 is rolling out to compatible devices. Instead of a few previously unseen features like earlier beta releases, this version moves things into the “platform stability” section of the timeline. Android 12 beta release schedule For users trying to dive into the next version of Android as soon as possible, this means things are stabilizing as development proceeds toward a release candidate. The people this release is really important for are Android developers, who can test their apps for compatibility now that the APIs, features, and layout have been locked down. With Google introducing the biggest system redesign in... Continue reading…

Google Pay on Wear OS. | Image: Google Today’s smartwatch news has been dominated by Samsung’s new Wear OS 3-powered wearables, but Google wants you to know it hasn’t forgotten about smartwatches running Wear OS 2. Updates to Google Pay, Messages, and other third-party apps will be coming to current devices in addition to Wear OS 3, giving existing owners something to look forward to as they roll out over the coming weeks.For starters, Google Pay’s support for contactless payments from smartwatches is expanding to 16 new countries: Belgium, Brazil, Chile, Croatia, Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, Hong Kong, Ireland, New Zealand, Norway, Slovakia, Sweden, Taiwan, Ukraine, and United Arab Emirates. It’s previously been possible to use Google Pay from smartphones in these... Continue reading…

Image: Enhance Games The greatest Tetris game of the last decade is finally coming to the Switch. As a part of today’s Indie World Showcase, Nintendo announced that Tetris Effect: Connected will arrive on the Switch October 8th.Coming off its timed exclusivity period with Xbox and Xbox Game Pass, Tetris Effect: Connected is the multiplayer expansion of 2018’s Tetris Effect. Designed by Tetsuya Mizuguchi, the creator behind the trippy musical shooter Rez, Tetris Effect combined speedy block stacking with slick and impossibly pretty visuals and sounds. In Tetris Effect, classic Tetris gameplay remained unchanged. Players still dropped various shaped blocks into brain-pleasing configurations, clearing rows as stacks of blocks slowly piled up. But Tetris Effect... Continue reading…

Instagram Instagram has been in the news this summer after Black soccer stars in England were bombarded with racist messages following their team’s Euro 2020 final loss. Today, the company’s trying to prevent some of that behavior from happening again with the introduction and expansion of three safety features.Among them is something called “limits.” Turning this on prevents anyone who doesn’t follow you, or who recently followed you, from commenting or sending a DM. The feature is available to everyone globally today, and Instagram points out that it’ll likely be most useful to businesses and creators who expect a flurry of responses. Of course, turning comments or DMs off entirely would also work, but Instagram says this is a solution for... Continue reading…

The National Institutes of Health is giving a booster dose to 200 kidney transplant patients who did not have an immune response to the COVID-19 vaccine in a new trial that launched yesterday.Many transplant patients, who have to take immunosuppressant drugs to keep their bodies from rejecting a new organ, don’t produce enough antibodies — or don’t produce antibodies at all — after getting the COVID-19 vaccine. The study will check to see if a third shot of an mRNA vaccine, given on top of the normal two-shot regimen, will generate antibodies closer to the levels seen in healthy people.There are some indications that a third dose might help some people. In France, health officials started recommending in April that immunosuppressed... Continue reading…

Boyfriend Dungeon. Nintendo’s most recent Indie World Showcase was full of lots of cool games, as per usual. But the best part is that many of them are out today.That includes Axiom Verge 2 (a sequel to a Metroid-like adventure from 2015), Boyfriend Dungeon (a hack-and-slash game where you can romance your weapons), Necrobarista: Final Pour (the director’s cut of a visual novel about coffee and death), Islanders (a procedurally generated strategy game where players build island communities), Slime Rancher (where players run an alien ranch), Curious Expedition 2 (described as “a turn-based narrative roguelike set in a reimagined version of the late 19th century”), and Garden Story (a Zelda-like action-adventure game where you play as an adorable grape).O... Continue reading…

Image: Evan Blass / Twitter (tweet now deleted) Here’s everything Samsung might unpack (and unfold) on August 11th Continue reading…

Google search now has an interactive periodic table you can check out to learn a lot more about the elements. You can find it by searching for “periodic table” and clicking the “explore elements” button on the right side of the page or by navigating to it directly right here.I wasn’t the best chemistry student growing up, but I’ve had a lot of fun clicking on different elements and learning about things like an element’s atomic mass, melting point, and seeing a 3D model of each element, which I find particularly cool. Each element that I’ve clicked on also includes a short fact — like that thallium was used as the murder agent in an Agatha Christie novel, apparently The periodic table is being announced alongside a few... Continue reading…

Photo by Chris Welch / The Verge It’s official: Samsung’s Galaxy Buds Plus are now considered last-gen. During today’s Galaxy Unpacked event, the company announced their long-rumored successor, the Galaxy Buds 2, a new set of true wireless earbuds that look to refine Samsung’s recent formula instead of reinvent it.In terms of design, they’re not drastically different from the Galaxy Buds Plus. Each earbud is lighter and features a more rounded exterior. The Galaxy Buds 2 will also be available in four distinct colors (dark gray, green, purple, and white), and each earbud features a three-point microphone, active noise cancellation, and three sizes of silicone ear tips. Like Google’s Pixel Buds A-series, they also come paired with a wireless charging case, one that... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Apple has settled its copyright lawsuit against Corellium, a company that sells virtual iPhone environments for security testing. Apple and Corellium agreed to a last-minute settlement yesterday, just days before a trial scheduled for August 16th. The terms of the settlement are confidential, but Corellium confirmed to The Washington Post that it would continue to offer virtual iOS systems.Apple sued Corellium in 2019, claiming the company infringed on its iOS copyrights, and expanded the case with more allegations in 2020. A judge dismissed the copyright infringement claims later that year, saying Corellium’s product had a strong fair use case. But the judge let Apple move forward with claims that Corellium violated the Digital... Continue reading…

Image: Samsung Samsung has finished up its Galaxy Unpacked event, where it announced the next generation of its foldables (it called them the new mainstream of smartphones), wearables, and earbuds. Here are the biggest pieces of news from the event. Image: Samsung Samsung is proud of its improved durability. The Galaxy Z Fold 3 has dual 120Hz displays and a stylusSamsung’s flagship foldable has some new tricks up its sleeve, including support for the S Pen, IPX8 water resistance, and an under-display selfie camera for the main screen. It is powered by a Snapdragon 888 processor, and its cover screen (the screen on the front of the device) now runs at an adaptive 120Hz.The Z Fold 3 is also getting an experimental setting... Continue reading…

The hinge and sweeper brushes on a Galaxy Z Fold 3. | Image: Samsung Are the Galaxy Z Fold 3 and Z Flip 3 strong enough for everybody? Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro Facebook’s massive business was built on its ability to track users across the internet. But now, thanks to looming regulation and other moves to restrict such data collection, that is changing. Hundreds of engineers are rebuilding how Facebook’s ads work to place more value on user privacy, according to Graham Mudd, a top ad executive at the company.The moves by Facebook, which are still in their infancy, illustrate how the ad-supported internet economy is in the process of being fundamentally reshaped. Along with Google, Facebook is examining several privacy-enhancing techniques to deliver personalized ads without knowing anything about the specific individuals who view them. That’s an about-face from how ad targeting has worked... Continue reading…

When the entry-level earbuds are this good, why go Pro? Continue reading…

The transfer process. | Image: WhatsApp WhatsApp is adding the ability to bring your chat history with you when you switch from iOS to Android — including all voice notes, photos, and conversations. The long-rumored feature was announced during Samsung’s launch event today and will initially cover transfers from iOS to the company’s new Z Fold 3 and Z Flip 3 and other Samsung phones “in the coming weeks.” Eventually, the feature will cover all transfers between iOS and Android phones, though it’s unclear when it’ll be available for all devices.The new feature should help address one of WhatsApp’s most frustrating elements, which is that it’s never been officially possible to transfer your chat history between mobile operating systems. If you choose to use WhatsApp’s cloud... Continue reading…

Image: OnePlus Samsung’s August Unpacked event took place today with foldables and wearables tossed about, but it appears that OnePlus has a thirst for attention that simply can’t wait.The company tweeted out this brief video clip with some kind of two-screened mobile device, although it was unclear exactly what we should expect.

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge It’s estimated that over $600 million worth of cryptocurrency has been stolen as the result of a hack on a protocol called the Poly Network. And now, whoever stole it seems to be in the process of returning it, according to CNBC and Chainalysis. According to Bloomberg, it’s quite possibly one of the largest hacks in the decentralized finance, or DeFi, space.The Poly Network is a protocol that lets people transfer cryptocurrencies between blockchains. And because of that role as a bridge, the stolen assets come in the form of hundreds of different types of tokens — from Ethereum to Binance’s BNB to Dogecoin.The Poly Network cites the massive amount of money stolen in a message to the hacker, which it posted on Twitter. The message... Continue reading…

Start11 includes an old style of the Windows Start menu. | Image: Stardock Stardock is back again with another app to skin the appearance of the Windows Start menu. This time, it’s for Windows 11, which hasn’t even been fully released yet. Start11 is available as a beta, and it brings back the classic appearance of the Windows Start menu inside Windows 11.“This first beta is designed to regain some of the lost functionality in the current Windows 11 Start menu,” says Brad Wardell, Stardock CEO. “We have a lot of exciting new features planned to make the Start menu not just more accessible but also more useful to companies and power users.” Image: Stardock Start11’s Windows 7-style Start menu. Image: Stardock Start11’s modern Start menu with classic features.... Continue reading…

The flagship foldable now has a 120Hz cover screen Continue reading…

The Galaxy Watch 4 Classic, featuring a chunky rotating bezel. | Photo by Becca Farsace / The Verge Samsung and Google’s smartwatch collaboration is here Continue reading…

What a difference a usable secondary screen can make Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge The Facebook Oversight Board has ordered Facebook to restore a post from a user in Myanmar criticizing the country’s new regime and its ties with China. The post was initially taken down for violating policies on racial hate speech against Chinese people, but the Oversight Board found the offending phrase was more appropriately viewed as political criticism of the Chinese government.Issued on Wednesday morning, the decision turned on how Facebook moderators translated a specific Burmese word, rendered in the post as “$တရုတ်.” Facebook had translated the word as “fucking Chinese” and classified it as Tier 2 hate speech under the platform’s community standard. The user appealed the decision, describing the post as advice to elected... Continue reading…

Samsunng Samsung is holding its Galaxy Unpacked event today at 10AM ET / 7AM PT, where it’s expected to show off its next generation of folding phones. The foldable nature of the devices set to be announced today is strongly hinted at by the event’s teaser image, and we’ve seen plenty of leaks backing up the idea that Samsung will be announcing the Galaxy Z Fold and Z Flip 3.We’ve also seen leaks of the rumored Galaxy Watch 4, which could make an appearance at today’s event, featuring the new Samsung / Google smartwatch OS.When does Samsung’s Unpacked event start?The live stream is set to start at 10AM ET / 7AM PT today, August 11th (which is 11PM in Korea).Where can I watch the Unpacked Event?You can see things unfold at the top of this... Continue reading…

Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge Apple’s second-gen AirPods are more of a refinement than a revolution, but if you’ve been waiting for the price to come down before jumping on the AirPods bandwagon, now might be the best time to do so. Although they’re often discounted to just shy of $160, Apple’s iconic earbuds and their wireless charging case are now available at Amazon for $130, the steepest price cut we’ve seen on the in-ears to date.The latest AirPods lack the noise cancellation and flexible design found on the AirPods Pro, however, they still manage to deliver satisfying sound quality and dependable battery life. Plus, they’re incredibly easy to use with both Apple and Android devices, even if you do lose the double-tap gestures and a bit of convenience with the... Continue reading…

Courtesy of Marvel Studios Marvel’s What If...? is the first of its kind in a lot of ways for the MCU. It’s the first animated project in the interconnected web of movies and TV shows that Marvel Studios has been building out for the last decade.Instead of focusing on a particular character or storyline, What If...? is an anthology series that explores different alternative universes and realities that spin off from Marvel’s established films and shows so far. And it works — after years of lore-heavy movies and shows, the animated show is a refreshing and fun break of bite-sized superhero shenanigans.Light spoilers for What If...?, Loki, and the MCU follow Courtesy of Marvel Studios That flexibility was one of the most exciting things... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Twitter is now complying with the Indian government’s new internet rules, a lawyer representing the federal government has told a court in Delhi, Bloomberg reports. The social media company has now appointed a permanent employee to serve as both chief compliance officer and grievance officer, as well as a nodal officer — three roles required under the new legislation announced in February. Twitter said it appointed the executives earlier this month.Although rivals Google and Facebook have reportedly been in compliance since May, Twitter has found itself in a tense standoff with the Indian government over the legislation. In June, the government warned Twitter of “unintended consequences” if it failed to obey the new rules, and the... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge NortonLifeLock and Avast are merging in a deal worth more than $8 billion. The deal will see NortonLifelock acquire all of Avast’s shares, and create a much larger cyber security firm. “With this combination, we can strengthen our cyber safety platform and make it available to more than 500 million users,” says Vincent Pilette, NortonLifeLock CEO. “We will also have the ability to further accelerate innovation to transform cyber safety.”The combination should lead to antivirus products that include the benefits of Avast’s focus on privacy and NortonLifeLock’s experience in identity, all at a time when cyber security is critical for both consumers and businesses.Ransomware is on the rise, with new high profile cases occurring on what... Continue reading…

Commodore’s Amiga 500, a home computer that became a popular game system, is receiving a remake. The A500 Mini is being developed by Retro Games Ltd, which previously released a mini version of the Commodore 64.The Amiga 500 was the most successful model in the Amiga family of PCs, which started to appear in the mid-’80s and drew a devoted following as gaming systems, particularly in Europe. While the A500 Mini is clearly based on the Amiga 500, Retro Games Ltd says it’ll also emulate the more powerful AGA graphics hardware from the Amiga 1200. The list of games confirmed so far includes:

Photo by SAUL LOEB/AFP via Getty Images After spending years battling over the Defense Department’s $10 billion JEDI cloud services contract, Microsoft and Amazon are fighting over another government deal. Now it’s the National Security Agency offering a contract that could pay up to $10 billion as it shifts away from on-premises servers to a commercial provider. However, as Washington Technology reported first, this time around, Amazon Web Services won the $10 billion contest, and it’s Microsoft’s turn to file a protest with the Government Accountability Office.Washington Technology reports that Microsoft’s claim is the NSA didn’t conduct a proper evaluation while considering a provider for its new project, code-named WildandStormy. In a statement to NextGov, an NSA... Continue reading…

The company is exploring adding fiber as a complement to its fixed wireless home internet offering. | Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge T-Mobile has quietly started selling fiber-based home internet, as tipped to T-Mo Report and confirmed by the company to The Verge. T-Mobile says it’s testing fiber optic internet in certain residential buildings in Manhattan as a complement to its fixed wireless offering, which it made available to the public in April. The company isn’t deploying an entirely new fiber network for the pilot; it’s running on a local provider’s fiber lines.Details on the dedicated T-Mobile Fiber site are thin, but it claims the service offers 940Mbps upload and download speeds. A Wi-Fi 6 router is included, along with chat and e-mail customer support for fiber customers. A T-Mobile rep had no other details to share with us, just that the program is a... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Cryptocurrency exchange BitMEX has agreed to pay a $100 million civil penalty as part of a settlement with the US Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) and the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN), the company announced Tuesday. The fine addresses charges that the derivatives exchange allowed illegal trades and violated anti-money laundering laws.BitMEX didn't address the less savory uses of its platform for years, as FinCEN says the company “willfully failed to comply with its obligations under the BSA (Bank Secrecy Act).” According to the organization:

Photo by Sean O’Kane / The Verge Ford’s F-150 was hit by the global semiconductor shortage, and now its flagship Mustang Mach-E electric vehicle is seeing a serious delay too — by a minimum of six weeks for prospective owners who were scheduled to get their vehicle between July 5th and October 1st. That’s according to emails Ford sent to buyers today (via Electrek).It’s not the first delay for the Mustang Mach-E, either, after Ford held back some 4,500 cars in March for unspecified quality checks, and Ford’s handling this delay in much the same way, giving owners an additional 250kWh of free charging at stations in the company’s FordPass Charging Network. That’s on top of the 250kWh they were already going to receive for purchasing the vehicle. Since the Mach-E has a... Continue reading…

I wish the token had never come to me. I wish none of this had happened. | Image: JRR Token I hate to be the one to tell you this, but there’s a cryptocurrency themed after The Lord of the Rings. It’s dubbed the JRR Token, and its creators have called it “The One Token That Rules Them All.” Upon learning about it, my snap judgment was that it’ll be like The Hobbit’s trilogy of films (pointless and doomed to fail), but that may be unfair. Let’s take a look at the video its creators made to explain what makes it special:Okay, wait. Before we even go into the crypto stuff, I’m wondering what the legal situation is with this video — the video includes images of rolling green countryside overlaid by very Lord of the Rings-esque text, while what sounds like a piano rendition of Howard Shore’s The Shire plays. Even if those don’t... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Apple stakes its reputation on privacy. The company has promoted encrypted messaging across its ecosystem, encouraged limits on how mobile apps can gather data, and fought law enforcement agencies looking for user records. For the past week, though, Apple has been fighting accusations that its upcoming iOS and iPadOS release will weaken user privacy.The debate stems from an announcement Apple made on Thursday. In theory, the idea is pretty simple: Apple wants to fight child sexual abuse, and it’s taking more steps to find and stop it. But critics say Apple’s strategy could weaken users’ control over their own phones, leaving them reliant on Apple’s promise that it won’t abuse its power. And Apple’s response has highlighted just how... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Facebook Dating, the company’s dating service, doesn’t appear to be as popular as other dating apps, but the company is introducing some new features to make it more useful for virtual dating, which has boomed during the pandemic.One of the biggest new features is audio dates, which will let you start an audio conversation with somebody you match with. When you try to start a call with someone, the other person will receive an invitation. If they accept, you both can have a chat.Facebook is also allowing you to set up to two additional places in Facebook Dating where you want to look for matches. The feature, which Facebook calls Match Anywhere, should make it easier to match up with people who may be temporarily working or living in... Continue reading…

AMC and Warner Bros. have struck a deal to have the studio’s movies stay exclusive to theaters for 45 days, instead of being immediately available digitally (via The Hollywood Reporter). The news was announced by AMC CEO Adam Aron during an earnings call, and it means that Warner Bros. won't be making its 2022 movies, which include The Batman and Sesame Street, available at home (or on HBO Max) until just over six weeks after they’re released in theaters.Warner Bros. already had a similar deal in place with Regal Cinemas’ owners, but today’s news truly seems to herald the end of the streaming experiment the studio was trying out in 2021. While HBO Max may not be getting movies the same day as theaters anymore, things aren’t exactly... Continue reading…

Knuckles the Echidna is set to make his live-action debut in Sonic the Hedgehog 2 next year — and now we know who’ll be voicing him: none other than Idris Elba (Cats and also other movies, apparently). Elba appears to have not yet been completely scared away from showing up in hybrid live-action / animated films with sometimes-questionable CGI.According to a leaked synopsis for the film, Sonic the Hedgehog 2 will actually see Elba’s animated echidna team up with Jim Carrey’s Dr. Robotnik “in search for an emerald that has the power to both build and destroy civilizations.”

Blizzard is giving players a couple of chances to try out Diablo II: Resurrected, a remastered version of one of the studio’s most popular titles, ahead of the game’s release on September 23rd. The upcoming betas arrive during a tumultuous time for Blizzard, which is under intense scrutiny following a lawsuit alleging parent company Activision Blizzard has a culture of “constant sexual harassment.”According to Blizzard, people who have preordered the game (or the Diablo Prime Evil Collection, which also comes with Diablo III) can check out the early access beta from August 13th at 1PM ET to August 17th at 1PM ET. Everyone else will be able to play the open beta a week later, from August 20th at 1PM ET to August 23rd at 1PM ET.The betas... Continue reading…