The Verge

PAX West will now require attendees to prove they’ve been vaccinated for COVID-19 or received a negative test result before they’re allowed to enter the convention, organizers Penny Arcade and ReedPop announced on Monday.ReedPop set PAX West 2021’s September 3rd start date in 2020, and at the time, it wasn’t planning on requiring attendees to be vaccinated or prove they were COVID-19-free. The initial health and safety guidelines for the event instead focused on the face coverings, social distancing, and the cleaning protocols PAX West would feature when attendees congregated in Seattle. You don’t have to scroll very far through PAX’s Twitter replies to see how fans and potential attendees have responded to the convention’s gung-ho... Continue reading…

Photo Illustration by Pavlo Gonchar/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images Activison Blizzard employees are staging a walkout on Wednesday, July 28th in response to the company’s handling of sexual harassment allegations brought by the state of California. Employees will meet outside Blizzard’s main campus in Irvine at 10AM PST. “We believe that our values as employees are not being accurately reflected in the words and actions of our leadership,” the organizers said in a statement.The news comes after California sued the renowned gaming studio and its publisher, saying women were subjected to constant sexual harassment and discrimination at work. One female employee allegedly died by suicide after having nude photos of her passed around the office. Following the suit, numerous employees took to Twitter to... Continue reading…

Image: Disney The adventure flick based on a ride has lofty and often entertaining aspirations Continue reading…

Google TV for Android shown on a mobile device. | Image: Google The Android app for Google TV is getting new discovery features and support for a handful of entertainment, news, and live TV apps not previously available, including YouTube TV and FuboTV.Google TV’s Android app will borrow some of the discovery tools from Google TV on the Chromecast, including more rows of personalized recommendations as well as the “watched” tool already available on the TV experience. To help improve recommendations, users can now head to the details page of a title and select “watched” if they’ve already seen a series or movie that the platform recommends to them.Additionally, the Android app will now display Rotten Tomatoes scores on show and movie posters, another useful feature carried over from the Chromecast... Continue reading…

Facebook is pausing worldwide sales of the Oculus Quest 2 while it upgrades the headset’s storage and supplements its foam facial covers with a new silicone design. Starting August 24th, all Quest 2 virtual reality headsets will come with a minimum of 128GB of storage instead of 64GB. They’ll ship with a silicone interface between your face and the headset on top of the old foam design. And all current Quest 2 owners can request a free silicone mask online to cover their foam one, thanks to a recall after some users reported skin irritation.Facebook Reality Labs head Andrew Bosworth announced the news in a blog post today. “As more people got into VR with Quest 2, we started receiving reports that a very small percentage of Quest 2... Continue reading…

Sony There’s a new trailer for Ghostbusters: Afterlife that gives away more of the setting and plot than anything we’ve seen to date — and boy, does it look good.After a year of really weird Americana trailers more reminiscent of Man of Steel than Ghostbusters, it's nice to see what this movie will actually be about. While early trailers were full of epic music and wide vistas and whispers, this trailer actually has some ghosts! And Annie Potts! And the voice of Dan Aykroyd! This is the first trailer that actually makes the movie feel like a sequel rather than a weird and mopey kid-focused reboot.Crucially, besides the welcome cameos from the original Janine Melnitz and Ray Stantz, there are a lot of actual ghosts in this trailer for a... Continue reading…

Microsoft Flight Simulator is getting its biggest update ever on PC today, thanks to a new patch that delivers significant performance improvements. The game has been notoriously demanding since its launch last year, but the team behind the simulator has been focusing heavily on improving its CPU and memory usage. PC players can now go ahead and download the latest update, and it should improve frame rates across a variety of hardware.I’ve been testing the update for the past couple of weeks on my own PC, equipped with an Intel Core i9-11900K and Nvidia GeForce RTX 3080 Ti, and the improvements are staggering even on top hardware. I use Microsoft Flight Simulator for benchmarks during our GPU reviews, and in the same section flying... Continue reading…

Imagine Linguini from Ratatouille stuck in endless Zoom meetings. | Image: The Verge Want to make your next quarterly Zoom check-up a little more interesting? Feel like aggravating your colleagues at the virtual all-hands? If so, why not turn yourself into a freakish living cartoon, courtesy of Snapchat’s desktop app?We’ve written about the Snap Camera app before, as it’s fun, free, and easy to use. But Snap seems to have updated it recently with the cartoon filter from its mobile app, which is worth a look in its own right. The filter turns you into a generic DreamWorks / Pixar creation, and is surprisingly fluid. Its ability to capture your full range of expressions is a little limited (it can’t quite do a proper DreamWorks Face, for example) but access through the desktop app means you can now use the filter on your... Continue reading…

Master & Dynamic has announced the latest addition to its distinctive lineup of true wireless earbuds. The new MW08 Sport noise-canceling earbuds are available today for $349, a $50 price increase over the standard MW08 buds released earlier this year. The extra money gets you three main benefits: wireless charging, a redesigned case with a Kevlar finish, and the addition of foam ear tips in the box. They come in black, white, blue, or green.Despite “sport” being tacked on to their name, these earbuds still closely resemble the MW08 in design — though Master & Dynamic says it’s using sapphire glass this time instead of the ceramic from the regular MW08s. If you’ve ever wanted earbuds that are essentially scratch-proof, here you go. The... Continue reading…

A chat with localization director Janet Hsu Continue reading…

When Amazon started cracking down on mobile electronics companies with shady reviewer programs, Aukey and Mpow were the first to get whacked — and yet Aukey is still selling at least three sets of wireless earbuds at the giant online retailer, The Verge has found.Two weeks ago, I pointed out to Amazon PR that both Aukey and Mpow had seemingly found a way around their bans. Mpow had an “xMpow MFly” set of wireless Bluetooth headphones, and Aukey was selling several different sets under its “Key Series” sub-brand.I’ve been watching their product pages ever since, and today I noticed that the xMpow MFly has disappeared. But Key Series is alive and well with three products. Aukey appears to be paying Amazon extra to promote them in... Continue reading…

When Valve and IGN revealed last Thursday that the new Steam Deck handheld will target 30Hz gameplay, not everyone was impressed with that low bar — but Valve’s Pierre-Loup Griffais has taken to Twitter to clarify his original comment, and reveal a new feature of the portable console.First, he says 30 fps is more of a minimum bar than anything else: @Plagman2 (Twitter) “The ‘30 FPS target’ refers to the floor of what we consider playable in our performance testing; games we’ve tested and shown have consistently met and exceeded that bar so far,” he writes.In other words, when Griffais said in that IGN video interview that “We haven’t really found something that we could throw at this device that it couldn’t... Continue reading…

Zendaya and Timothee Chalamet in Dune | Legendary Happy Saturday! Posting the trailers roundup a day early this weekend since I’ll be on vacation starting Sunday (and shout out to the reader who said he preferred when we did the roundup on Saturdays, you got your wish at least for this weekend).The internet (or at least the little corner I inhabit) seemed divided into camps this week: people who really like the Apple TV Plus show Ted Lasso and people who... don’t. It’s OK to not like things! I had a longer rant prepared about how the effort to look cool online seems so exhausting but really, who cares, Ted Lasso has returned for season two and it’s still a lovely, warm-hearted show about a bunch of very likeable weirdos.We ended up with a very sci-fi themed roundup this week which... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge “What’s your favorite planet?” is a real question that Robinhood execs really picked to answer during the Q&A section of its retail investor roadshow.“Definitely Pluto,” says long-haired CEO Vlad Tenev. He is having a good time. He goes on to explain that there will be a great view of Venus tonight after sunset.The first meme IPOMany of the questions the management picked have been lackluster; asked if Robinhood will add a customer support line, Tenev cheerily explains there already is one. Another question is wasted on whether the stock will pay dividends — anyone who read the prospectus knows the answer is no.I am watching this roadshow — my first, and the first, I suspect, of many who are watching — because Robinhood plans to sell... Continue reading…

GM is suing Ford over the BlueCruise name for its hands-free driving system | Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge General Motors has filed a lawsuit to try to prevent Ford from using the name “BlueCruise” for the hands-free driving feature it announced earlier this year. First reported by the Detroit Free Press, GM claims the name is too close Super Cruise, the name of is own hands-free driving technology introduced in 2017, and to its autonomous vehicle subsidiary Cruise. GM is suing Ford for trademark infringement and unspecified damages.In the lawsuit filed Friday, GM said in that the companies had been involved in “protracted discussions” over the name but were unable to resolve the matter. “Ford knew exactly what it was doing,” GM alleges in its complaint, adding that if Ford “wanted to adopt a new, unique brand, it easily could have done so... Continue reading…

Amazon may be testing the cryptocurrency waters | Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Amazon is hiring a digital currency and blockchain product lead for its payments team, according to a new job listing. First reported by Insider, the ecommerce giant is looking for an “experienced product leader to develop Amazon’s Digital Currency and Blockchain strategy and product roadmap.” The listing, which Amazon has confirmed is legitimate, continues:

A viable option for streamers and gamers on the go Continue reading…

A bill that would offer Americans a refundable tax credit on the purchase of a new electric bicycle was just introduced in the Senate by Ed Markey (D-MA) and Brian Schatz (D-HI). The bill is called the Electric Bicycle Incentive Kickstart for the Environment, or E-BIKE Act for short, and it’s the companion bill to one introduced in the House of Representatives earlier this year.E-bikes are more expensive than normal bikes, typically costing anywhere from $1,000 to $8,000 for some of the more high-end models. But they also have the potential to replace car trips for a lot of people, with a recent study finding that if 15 percent of car trips were made by e-bike, carbon emissions would drop by 12 percent.“the electrification of... Continue reading…

A new lawsuit alleges widespread sexual harassment at Activision Blizzard | Photo Illustration by Pavlo Gonchar/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images The president of Blizzard Entertainment sent an email to staff calling allegations of sexual harassment at the company “extremely troubling.” First reported by Jason Schreier at Bloomberg, J. Allen Brack wrote that “the fight for equality is incredibly important to me,” and that he has spent his career fighting against “bro culture.”The California Department of Fair Employment and Housing (DFEH) filed suit against Blizzard and owner Activision Blizzard on Tuesday, alleging a culture of “constant sexual harassment” existed at the company. The complaint describes a “frat boy culture” that included male employees drinking and sexually harassing female employees without repercussions. Brack is named in the complaint as being one of the... Continue reading…

A screenshot from Super Mario 64. | Image: Nintendo Earlier this month, a sealed copy of Super Mario 64 sold for $1,560,000 at auction, a staggering price that nearly doubled a record set just two days before by a similarly pristine copy of The Legend of Zelda. The auctions could mark just the beginning of even more eye-poppingly large video game sales. It seems very likely that Mario’s first 3D adventure won’t be the last game to command a million-dollar sum.“I think we’ll see more million dollar games, probably sooner rather than later,” Chris Kohler, editorial director at Digital Eclipse, a developer that works on rereleases of classic video games, tells The Verge.Collecting and selling stuff has become a popular trendCollecting and selling stuff — both physical and virtual — for... Continue reading…

Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge The best deal available today is on the 40mm Apple Watch Series 6 with Wi-Fi and GPS connectivity. Usually $399, it’s just $279 at Best Buy through Saturday, July 24th. Amazon is honoring this deal, too, even going a bit lower with a $265 price (though, act fast as Amazon’s stock tends to sell out faster than Best Buy’s). The thing is, this price cut is limited to the Product Red colorway that has a red aluminum case and a red sport band. This is great news for people who can’t get enough of the color red in their lives, but it’s probably not most people’s first choice in terms of how they’d like their Apple Watch to look. It’s hard to argue with the price, though. We’ve seen it sell for $20 less than this, but not since late in April. R... Continue reading…

Image: Nintendo The Nintendo Switch was, like most consoles during the pandemic, once in short supply. Thankfully, retailers like Best Buy, Amazon, and Walmart now routinely stock the Nintendo Switch and Switch Lite in multiple color configurations and models, giving those who struck out ample opportunity to purchase Nintendo’s versatile console.We’re keeping an eye across the web to find where you can buy a Nintendo Switch, the Nintendo Switch Lite (the portable-only version of the console), and the forthcoming Nintendo Switch OLED model, as well as any bundles that seem like good deals.Keep in mind that stock — new, preowned, or otherwise — may still occasionally sell out as a result of the pandemic. However, we’ll do our best to keep this article... Continue reading…

Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge Facebook announced a new API that will let developers incorporate video from the Quest 2’s sensors into their games and applications, creating a mixed reality experience. With the Passthrough API, developers will not only be able to mix the black-and-white images from the headset’s sensors into their experiences, but they’ll also be able to customize how it ends up looking to the player, apply effects, and even have the real world show up on specific surfaces.Facebook’s announcement includes examples of how the API could improve productivity software by allowing integration of real-life keyboards and desks, and how games could include your real-life furniture for enemies to hide behind. It’s also easy to imagine other fun experiences... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Throughout the past week, we’ve seen story after story about a company called NSO Group, and a piece of spyware called Pegasus. Some of the stories have been shocking, with allegations that fully updated smartphones can be hacked with a single text message, and reports that two women close to murdered journalist Jamal Khashoggi were among those targeted by a government agency using the spy tool.A coalition of news outlets, including The Washington Post, Le Monde, and The Guardian is behind the reporting, and they’re calling it the Pegasus Project. The project was led by Forbidden Stories, an organization of journalists that works on stories after the original reporters have been silenced in some way. Amnesty International ran detailed... Continue reading…

Image: NASA NASA’s Europa Clipper will start its journey to Jupiter’s icy moon aboard a Falcon Heavy rocket built by SpaceX. NASA will pay SpaceX $178 million to launch the vehicle in October 2024.The Europa Clipper got the green light from NASA in 2015. It will fly by the moon 45 times, providing researchers with a tantalizing look at the icy world, believed to have an ocean lurking under its icy crust. The Clipper is equipped with instruments that will help scientists figure out if the moon could support life.For years, the Clipper was legally obligated to launch on NASA’s long-delayed Space Launch System (SLS). But with the SLS perpetually delayed and over budget, NASA has urged Congress to consider allowing the Europa Clipper to fly... Continue reading…

Electric vehicle startup Rivian has raised another massive round of funding, this time to the tune of $2.5 billion, bringing its total raised to date over the $10 billion mark. The funding round comes as Rivian recently confirmed it’s looking for a location to build a second factory — one that will also produce batteries for its vehicles — in the United States. The company is currently aiming to roll its first electric pickup trucks off the line at its existing factory in Illinois this September.The new round was led by Amazon’s Climate Pledge Fund, Ford, D1 Capital Partners, and funds advised by T. Rowe Price, each of which are already investors in Rivian. Amazon and Ford each own more than 10 percent of the buzzy EV startup, and are... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge The United Steelworkers Union (USW) said Friday it has reached a tentative contract deal with a sub-contractor for Google Pittsburgh. The announcement comes almost two years after employees of engineering and IT contractor HCL Technologies voted to unionize, saying that even though they worked alongside Google employees, they didn’t receive the same benefits.Amanda Parks, a member of the USW bargaining committee who works at HCL, said in a statement that the proposed three-year contract includes “meaningful wage increases” and addresses pay parity concerns. It includes language that offers job security and additional time off, according to the statement. “We work hard, and we deserve what all workers deserve, an agreement that reflects... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge After deciding to release its full slate of 2021 Warner Bros. films on HBO Max under a hybrid streaming and theatrical model, it appears WarnerMedia is prepared to continue using its Warner Bros. assets to lure subscribers to the service in 2022.During AT&T’s second-quarter earnings call this week, the company’s executives were asked about how the pandemic release model would shape a more permanent release strategy going forward, particularly as it relates to theaters. Citing the theatrical success of Godzilla vs. Kong to the tune of $463 million in revenue, WarnerMedia chief Jason Kilar responded that while “the motion picture format absolutely matters,” the company also feels “very good about the response that consumers have given it... Continue reading…

Apple may be removing iDOS 2, a popular (or, at the very least, popular for a DOS emulator designed to run decades-old software and games) emulation app that allows users to run DOS games and software on Apple’s iPhone and iPad devices.According to the developer, Chaoji Li, Apple issued the notice of the pending takedown after a recently submitted update for a bug fix. While iDOS 2 has been available since 2014 on the App Store, it seems that with the most recent update, the company has changed its mind.Per the letter that Li received:

Some important details have emerged about Valve’s Steam Deck handheld console-meets-PC — particularly about its target performance level and whether you can actually install your own NVMe SSD to upgrade storage.In a video interview from IGN, Valve stated that the Steam Deck’s 800p display, capable of up to a 60Hz refresh rate, will be targeting 30Hz for gameplay. In other words, the Nintendo Switch comparisons might go a little deeper than the surface, as many games on that platform run well below 60 frames per second. Though, given that most PC games offer a trove of graphical settings to fine-tune, the Steam Deck should be able to achieve smoother gameplay at the cost of graphical quality if you’re willing to knock down a few... Continue reading…

It doesn’t appear that Verizon’s Smart Assistant can do a whole lot. | Image: Amazon We got our first look at Verizon’s Smart Display last month thanks to an FCC filing. Yesterday, Amazon confirmed the device’s existence as part of its Alexa Live presentation. It’s being introduced as part of the Alexa Custom Assistant program that allows third-party device manufacturers to add custom assistants built on top of Alexa technology to their products, and we regret to inform you that it looks just as useless as we first suspected.Here’s what it offers: standard smart display stuff, like an eight-inch screen, 4GB of RAM, 16GB of storage, Bluetooth, Wi-Fi connectivity, and of course, Alexa. It also comes with LTE, a spec included in the FCC filing and confirmed to CNET following the announcement. But the purpose of 4G appears... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Facebook content moderators in Europe and the US are calling on the company to put an end to overly restrictive nondisclosure agreements that discourage people from speaking out about working conditions. In a letter addressed to Mark Zuckerberg, Sheryl Sandberg, and the CEOs of Covalen and Accenture, moderators say these NDAs aren’t limited to user data and help perpetuate a culture of “excessive secrecy.”“Despite the company’s best efforts to keep us quiet, we write to demand the company’s culture of fear and excessive secrecy ends today,” the moderators write. “No NDA can lawfully prevent us from speaking out about our working conditions.”The news comes amid escalating tension between the company and its contract content moderators... Continue reading…

Laura Miele. | Photo By Stephen McCarthy/Sportsfile via Getty Images Today, Electronic Arts announced a handful of new projects, including a remake of Dead Space and a story-driven racer complete with Hollywood talent. It’s part of what feels like a busy period for the publisher; last year, EA says it launched 13 new games and more than 400 updates for existing titles. That productivity is especially notable given that, like most companies around the world, EA’s studios were forced to work remotely due to the pandemic. Laura Miele, EA’s chief studios officer, says the publisher is still learning how to best make games remotely. And while it’s not clear what the future of EA’s studios will look like, there will be change moving forward. “I don’t think we will ever go back to how we were before the... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge As coronavirus cases rise in unvaccinated populations, Democratic senators are introducing a new bill Thursday that would strip away Facebook and other social media platforms’ Section 230 liability shield if they amplify harmful public health misinformation.The Health Misinformation Act, introduced by Sens. Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) and Ben Ray Luján (D-NM) Thursday, would create a carveout in Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act opening social media platforms like Facebook up to lawsuits for hosting some dangerous health misinformation. The bill directs the Health and Human Services secretary to issue guidelines on what should be classified as “health misinformation.”The carveout would only apply in situations where online... Continue reading…

One of survivor horror’s most iconic games is getting a next-gen facelift. At its EA Play Live event, Electronic Arts revealed that a remake of the original Dead Space is in development and will be launching on the PC, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X. The publisher says the game is “rebuilt from the ground up” with EA’s Frostbite engine, and studio Motive — best-known for the space shooter Star Wars: Squadrons — will be handling development. There’s currently no release date.This will mark the first entry in the franchise since Dead Space 3 in 2013. The franchise was originally created and developed by Visceral Games, which was shuttered in 2017 while working on a single-player Star Wars game that was eventually canceled. However, the... Continue reading…

Critically acclaimed and Oscar-winning director Jordan Peele’s next “terror” is officially called Nope, according to a poster the director shared on Thursday. The details of the project remain (delightfully) shrouded in mystery, and you’ll still have a bit longer to wait before you can see it yourself — Nope is scheduled to be released in theaters on July 22nd, 2022.There’s not a ton to go off of in the poster Peele tweeted, but it does feature an ominous dark cloud with what looks like a kite string trailing out the back of it. Peele’s tease of his last film Us was equally evocative and obtuse, so while there’s probably meaning to be gleaned from a mysterious cloud rolling over a mountain town, it’s also just nice to let the mystery be.... Continue reading…

Photo by Andrew Hawkins / The Verge Lucid Motors is on the precipice of completing a merger that will give the Saudi-owned electric vehicle startup $4.5 billion in fresh capital. But the deal is being held up, in part, by spam filters.The California-based startup is merging with a special purpose acquisition company, or SPAC, called Churchill Capital IV that is already listed on the New York Stock Exchange. For the merger to go through, Churchill shareholders have to approve a number of proposals that outline the terms. That vote was supposed to close today, but Churchill extended the deadline to Friday because not enough shareholders have approved a key proposal.There are a few possible reasons why. The first is the spam filter issue. To participate in that vote,... Continue reading…

Photo by Matthias Balk/picture alliance via Getty Images Many websites — including banking pages, brokerages, and gaming services — were affected for just over an hour Thursday, as part of a major internet outage. During the outage, consumers were unable to access services like Ally Bank, Fidelity, Sony’s PlayStation Network, Airbnb, and more. Several airline sites were also affected: Delta, British Airways, and Southwest’s sites were either down, or had important functionality like flight check-ins broken.Many sites appear to be functional again after Akamai, a content delivery network that hosts much of the internet, started rolling out a fix to its service. “We are continuing to monitor the situation and can confirm this was not a result of a cyber attack on the Akamai platform” says... Continue reading…

Google is updating its “about this result” feature for search results with an interesting new addition: context about how and why the company’s algorithm landed on the specific results for the links that it surfaces when you search for things.The company added the “about this result” information box earlier this year as a way to help users properly vet sources that they weren’t familiar with using data sourced from Wikipedia. The menu — accessed by clicking the triple dots at the corner of a search result— pops up and tries to provide additional background information about a website.The update that’s rolling out today, though, doesn’t add more context about websites that might appear in search results, but rather helps shine a light... Continue reading…

Where available, users can report on how busy a transit option is. | Image: Google Google is expanding the number of cities where Maps offers information about public transport crowding. The number of cities covered is increasing from around 200 today, to “over 10,000 transit agencies in 100 countries,” the company says. As well as crowdedness, Google says Maps is also being updated to offer more information about past travel.Google Maps’ crowdedness information originally launched pre-pandemic in 2019, but over the past year social distancing has made it more important than ever. Crowdedness information is generated from a mixture of historical location data, as well as self-reporting from Maps users on individual trains. Google says it anonymizes the location history data used. Image: Google G... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge To sell regulators on their $26 billion mega merger, T-Mobile and Sprint executives told anyone who’d listen that the deal would provide near-miraculous benefits. But economists warned that US telecom merger promises are historically meaningless, and the reduction in overall competitors would — sooner or later — result in higher prices and job cuts.Instead of heeding their warnings and blocking the deal, US antitrust enforcers concocted an elaborate workaround: they would erect Dish Network as the nation’s new fourth major wireless carrier. Under the plan Dish received some T-Mobile spectrum, the Boost Mobile prepaid brand, and the assurance that T-Mobile would help Dish run a Mobile Virtual Network Operator (MVNO) while it got its own... Continue reading…

The third-generation AirPods will reportedly have a shorter stem than current models (above). | Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge Apple will start production on updated AirPods next month, with plans to launch the third-generation earbuds later this year, according to a report from Nikkei. It’s the latest rumor regarding Apple’s product schedule, which will reportedly include an all-5G iPhone line-up in 2022, including a revamped iPhone SE sporting the as-yet-unannounced A15 processor.A refresh of Apple’s entry-level AirPods have been rumored for a while now, with previous generations launched in 2016 and 2019. Back in May, Bloomberg reported that the earbuds will have a design similar to the AirPods Pro, with “a new case and shorter stems poking out of the bottom of each one.” If Nikkei is right about production starting next month, we can expect to see the... Continue reading…

Big Picture, the mode that converts Steam’s user interface into a more console-like design better suited to TVs and controllers than monitors and mice, may not be long for this world. According to austinp_valve, a Valve employee posting on the Steam community forums, the plan is for the new UI from the just-announced Steam Deck handheld PC to replace Big Picture mode on the desktop version of Steam as well.Valve announced Big Picture mode in 2011 and released it the following year. The mode formed the basis of the UI for SteamOS, the version of Linux that shipped on console-style devices that were part of Valve’s ill-fated Steam Machine project. With the Steam Deck running an all-new version of the operating system called SteamOS 3.0,... Continue reading…

Image: Miles Three years ago, a startup called Miles launched a free app with the goal of becoming a sort of rewards program for all travel — with an emphasis on clean transportation. Cover enough ground by bike, bus, subway, or even on foot, and you’d be rewarded with “miles” (aka points) that could be exchanged for perks at Starbucks or discounts to services like Audi Silvercar.I was curious, so I used Miles for a little over a year. I lived in New York City at the time and did a lot of daily walking and subway-riding, with occasional biking and bus travel. I was in a great spot to rack up miles without having to change my habits, so I shook the icky feeling of letting another app know my location to see if that occasional free coffee would be... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Location data from a cell phone, obtained and sold by data brokers, has lead to the alleged outing and resignation of a priest working for the US Conference of Catholic Bishops, according to a report from The Washington Post. The traffic data, which was linked to the priest and appeared to show when and where he was using the LGBTQ dating app Grindr, was obtained by a publication and shared with the Conference, where the priest worked as the general secretary.This incident is another example of how invasive the collection and sale of location and other personal data by brokers can be. While the data sold by these companies is ostensibly anonymized, it’s been shown that individuals can be picked out and tracked. The data broker industry... Continue reading…

Samsung has officially announced when it will hold its next Unpacked product event: August 11th at 10AM ET / 7AM PT. It is widely expected to announce the next version of the Galaxy Z Fold 3 and Galaxy Z Flip 3 — both of which have already leaked quite a bit. Samsung’s not being shy about those expectations, as a quick look at its invite reveals the outline for both of those devices.Samsung is also expected to announce new Galaxy watches, which would be the first to use the new combined Wear platform that was announced at Google I/O earlier this year.Samsung is holding the event virtually again on its website, and it promises to post more details on the livestream here. It’s also keeping up another Samsung trend: letting customers... Continue reading…

Photo by Monica Chin / The Verge A bad update to Chrome OS, version 91.0.4472.165, has left some users unable to log in to their accounts, or reportedly with boot-looping computers (via Android Central). If you’ve found yourself locked out of your Chromebook, help is on the way: Google posted on its system status page that it’s working on a fix, which it expects to release on Wednesday. It’s also pulled the update, which should prevent more users from experiencing the issue.According to Google, the only options to immediately regain access to your Chrome OS device (if it unfortunately downloaded and installed the update) will lead to the local data on the device being wiped. If you can wait until the new fix the issue is released, though, your device should... Continue reading…

Jeff Bezos, his brother Mark and Oliver Daemen walk off New Shepard’s landing pad as Wally Funk, 82-year-old aviation icon and the mission’s fourth passenger, remains in awe at the size of New Shepard, the suborbital rocket they all launched to space on. | Joey Roulette/The Verge A record-setting flight Continue reading…