The Verge

Photo: Intel From consoles to cars, it seems like everyone is having a hard time getting enough chips Continue reading…

Photo by Peter Kneffel/picture alliance via Getty Images Microsoft has updated its events website to reveal the dates of Microsoft Build 2021. Per the new listing, the annual conference will take place from May 25th–27th this year. It will also be held virtually, along with many of Microsoft’s 2021 events.A Microsoft spokesperson confirmed the dates to The Verge. “Please stay tuned for more information to come,” the spokesperson said.“Microsoft Build is where developers, architects, start-ups, and students learn, connect, and code together, sharing knowledge and expanding their skillset, while exploring new ways of innovating for tomorrow,” the website reads.

The global chip shortage has been a growing concern in the tech industry (and it has even grabbed the interest of the US president) as it starts to affect the production of more and more products, from cars to graphics cards to game consoles. For a great explanation of all the factors that have led to the shortage, you should read Bloomberg’s breakdown. It digs into factors like pandemic-fueled demand and the small number of companies actually able to produce the chips that now power so much of our digital lives.One of the most interesting features of the article is an interactive graphic that shows the customers and industries that make use of Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC), which gives a great idea of the scale and... Continue reading…

Boost Mobile, owned by Dish Network, serves 9 million customers — more than half of which rely on the older CDMA network. | Photo by Chris Welch / The Verge Dish Network issued a new letter to the Federal Communications Commission this week, as reported by Axios, highlighting the urgent situation it faces if T-Mobile moves ahead with its planned January 2022 CDMA network shutdown. “We believe that T-Mobile’s actions raise significant competition and public interest concerns,” the letter states. It would be a blow to Dish’s business, but most importantly, millions of Boost Mobile customers would feel the impact as a result.Boost Mobile, a former Sprint MVNO sold to Dish as part of T-Mobile’s acquisition, serves 9 million customers. According to the letter, more than half of them rely on CDMA service. Its prepaid service is an accessible alternative to contract plans for low-income customers;... Continue reading…

Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge Google is killing off its dedicated Google Wifi app for managing its routers, rolling that functionality over to the Google Home app as the company continues to “help our customers control and manage all their connected products in one place and enable routines across them.”The switchover to the Google Home app will come in two phases: first, Google will disable most of the functionality of the Google Wifi app on May 25th. Starting then, users will only be able to view the current status of their networks — but any changes, including adding new routers or access points — will have to be done in the Google Home app.Starting on May 25th, users will have to use the Home app to make any changes to a Google Wifi setupThen, sometime in... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Tesla delivered nearly 185,000 cars in the first quarter of 2021, more than it produced over the three-month period, according to numbers the company shared on Friday. Tesla has been ramping up production capacity and just nearly missed CEO Elon Musk’s goal of delivering 500,000 cars in 2020.Of the cars Tesla delivered in Q1 2021, nearly 183,000 were Model 3 and Model Y vehicles, more than the 180,000 of those models produced in Q1. On top of the Model 3 and Model Y deliveries, the company also sold an additional 2,020 Model S cars that had been produced in previous quarters.Tesla could beat last year’s 500,000-car goalTesla announced redesigns for the Model S and Model X in January 2021, which added new powertrains, higher range... Continue reading…

Photo by Theo Wargo/Getty Images for The Recording Academy Bruno Mars is the latest celebrity to jump into the virtual world of Fortnite. Today, developer Epic Games announced that the battle royale game would be getting a new Mars emote — essentially an in-game dance — set to the singer’s song “Leave the Door Open.” Players will be able to buy it starting at 8PM ET tonight.Fortnite is steadily becoming a place filled with real-world stars, whether it’s streamers like Tyler “Ninja” Blevins or the upcoming appearance of Brazilian soccer star Neymar. Music, in particular, has been a big focal point for the game. Marshmello and Travis Scott both held massive in-game concerts with millions of virtual attendees, BTS debuted a music video, and Epic even created its own soundstage to host shows from... Continue reading…

Photo by Dan Seifert / The Verge Easter is on Sunday, and if you celebrate the holiday but won’t be able to visit your family this year, a Zoom call is a great substitute to ensure you can still connect with your loved ones. A few devices support Zoom, including Amazon’s Echo Show 8, which is on sale for $75 at Amazon, Best Buy, and Target. Normally, this device costs $130.Amazon is also discounting its Fire HD 8 tablets, knocking $30 off the usual retail prices. You can buy the Fire HD 8 tablet for only $60, or you can get the Fire HD 8 Plus for $80. Unlike the previous Fire HD 8 models, the latest tablets have a USB-C port for faster charging, and the HD 8 Plus supports wireless charging, too.B&H Photo has discounted the Galaxy S21 line with up to $200 in... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Non-fungible tokens (NFTs) are big business now, at least for the moment. Everything from one of Creepy Chan’s first Myspace posts to a New York Times article has been put up for sale. (The Times piece went for the Ether equivalent of $560,000.) But they weren’t always a speculative, suspiciously scammy garden. In fact, according to Glitch CEO Anil Dash in a new piece in The Atlantic, the whole thing started as a project kludged together for a hackathon that brought artists and technologists together.It all started in May 2014, Dash writes, when he was paired up with the digital artist Kevin McCoy. “This was around the peak of Tumblr culture, when a raucous, wildly inspiring community of millions of artists and fans was sharing images... Continue reading…

Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge Waymo CEO John Krafcik has announced that he’ll be stepping down from his role as CEO. Tekedra Mawakana, Waymo’s chief operating officer, and Dmitri Dolgov, the company’s chief technology officer, will work jointly as co-CEOs going forward.Krafcik didn’t provide a detailed explanation for his departure or what he’s planning on doing next. “After five and a half exhilarating years leading this team, I’ve decided to depart from my CEO role with Waymo and kick-off new adventures. To start, I’m looking forward to a refresh period, reconnecting with old friends and family, and discovering new parts of the world,” he commented in a blog post announcing the move. In a statement to employees obtained by CNBC, Mawakana and Dolgov... Continue reading…

Travelers wearing protective masks walk past a sign pointing towards a Covid-19 testing location in Terminal 5 at John F. Kennedy International Airport (JFK) in New York, U.S., on Friday, March 26, 2021. | Bloomberg / Contributor via Getty Images People who are fully vaccinated “can travel safely within the United States,” the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said in new guidance issued today. Until now, the agency advised people to “delay” both domestic and international travel even if they had been vaccinated.The CDC’s new recommendations also allow fully vaccinated travelers to avoid self-quarantine after traveling domestically. They can also skip COVID-19 tests before and after a trip, unless their destination requires it.If traveling internationally, fully vaccinated people will still need to be tested for COVID-19 before returning to the US and upon arrival. But they won’t be required to self-quarantine. “International travel poses additional risks and even... Continue reading…

Image: Heritage Auctions A sealed copy of the NES classic Super Mario Bros. sold for an incredible $660,000 at Heritage Auctions on Friday, more than quadrupling the previous record for the most expensive game ever.This isn’t the first time Super Mario Bros. has held the record: a mint copy of the US version of the game sold for $114,000 in July 2020 (which broke the record of $100,150 set by another copy of Super Mario Bros. in February 2019). In November, however, a different title set a new record: a sealed copy of Super Mario Bros. 3 sold for $156,000, making it the most expensive video game ever sold until today.Here is what makes the version of Super Mario Bros. that sold today so special, according to Heritage Auctions:

Disney Plus is getting a big influx of classic Star Wars shows and movies in the newly added “Star Wars Vintage Collection,” which brings retro Star Wars content to streaming.The most notable addition is the animated short The Story of the Faithful Wookiee — which famously saw the introduction of fan-favorite character Boba Fett as part of the infamous Star Wars Holiday Special, which aired in 1978 and was never released again. The short had previously seen the light of day as an Easter egg on the 2011 Blu-ray box set of the first six Star Wars movies, but the Disney Plus debut marks the broadest release of The Story of the Faithful Wookiee to date. It’s also the first time any piece of The Star Wars Holiday Special has... Continue reading…

If you missed your chance to win the actual Xbox Series X refrigerator born from memes making fun of the console’s fridge-like look, I have some good news for you: there may be another way to get your hands on a Series X-shaped cooling appliance in the future.Last night, to help Xbox defeat Skittles in the final round of Twitter’s inaugural #BestOfTweets Brand Bracket (yes, you read that right), Xbox marketing boss Aaron Greenberg promised that if Xbox won, Microsoft would make actual Xbox Series X mini fridges. That promise seems to have been enough to give Xbox the edge because Xbox indeed defeated Skittles on Friday morning with 50.5 percent of the vote.It seems like Microsoft is going to make good on its promise, as Greenberg said... Continue reading…

Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge Samsung is dropping the price of its ultra-premium Galaxy Z Fold 2 5G by $200, bringing the foldable smartphone down to $1,799.99 compared to its initial $1,999.99 launch MRSP. Even after the price cut, the Z Fold 2 5G will still cost you more than flagships from pretty much all of Samsung’s competitors, but it’s perhaps the best folding phone yet — and it certainly offers functionality that traditional handsets can’t match.The new lower price is available for the unlocked model as well as carrier versions of the Z Fold 2 5G from Verizon and AT&T. Remember that Samsung is also now giving buyers of the Galaxy Z Fold 2 and Z Flip 5G an extended 100-day return policy. That’s a show of confidence in this wave of foldables after the... Continue reading…

Microsoft is delaying the full reopening of its offices — the company’s “Stage 6” phase of its hybrid workplace plan — until September 7th at the earliest. This marks a delay from its originally planned July window.“Based on our continued consultation with health and data experts, we’ve shifted our earliest date for the full opening of our U.S. worksites to September 7, 2021. We continue to review the situation on a local basis in each region/country/state where we work and will adjust dates by country as needed,” a Microsoft spokesperson confirmed to The Verge. Image: Microsoft Microsoft’s hybrid workplace dial. Microsoft executive vice president Kurt DelBene explained the decision to delay the full... Continue reading…

Every Friday, The Verge publishes our flagship podcast, The Vergecast, where co-hosts Nilay Patel and Dieter Bohn discuss the week in tech news with the reporters and editors covering the biggest stories.This week, Nilay and Dieter talk with Verge deputy editor Dan Seifert about this week’s rumors about the next big Apple product announcements after invites were sent out for the company’s annual WWDC event, which will again be virtual-only. After more AR headset leaks, the crew also discusses whether Apple has the bandwidth to support all of its product categories, especially with the Apple TV left alone for some time.Later in the show, senior reporter Ashley Carman joins to discuss her coverage of social audio platform Clubhouse.... Continue reading…

Image: Summer Game Fest Summer Game Fest, which debuted last year as a digital “celebration” of video games with news, events, and playable content, is returning this year, kicking off in June. We don’t know much about what to expect just yet, but “the roster of participating publishers and developers, along with an event schedule outline, will be revealed in the coming weeks,” according to a press release.One thing is already on the agenda, though. There will be a Day of the Devs: Summer Game Fest Edition, which will “digitally spotlight a select group of upcoming indie and AAA video games.” Day of the Devs will be curated by Geoff Keighley and the Day of the Devs team, comprised of Double Fine Productions and iam8bit.The COVID-19 pandemic remains a threat... Continue reading…

We already knew MLB The Show 21 would be the first entry in the Sony-published series to arrive on Xbox consoles. And today, Microsoft revealed the next entry in the long-running baseball franchise will also be available on Xbox Game Pass for consoles when the game releases on April 20th.According to the blog post, the Xbox One and Xbox Series X / S versions will be playable on Microsoft’s video game subscription service. The game will also be available on Android devices via xCloud, which is available at no additional cost if you are subscribed to the pricier Xbox Game Pass Ultimate tier.MLB The Show 21 is a huge win for Xbox owners. In the past, the series has been exclusive to PlayStation platforms, while competitors released for... Continue reading…

Photo by Kara Verlaney / The Verge You may come across the occasional writer who will claim (wrongly) that they don’t need an editor, but you will seldom, if ever, meet a writer or editor who will say they don’t need a copy editor.The role of a copy editor is often misunderstood or underestimated by those not in the business. Kara Verlaney, senior copy editor for The Verge, when asked to explain the role of a copy editor, put it this way: “Copy editing is about maintaining consistency and accuracy, which is what gives sites like The Verge the authority to tell our audience about a subject. Beyond checking for grammatical errors and extolling the Oxford comma, copy editors also monitor things like sensitivity and tone, style, source diversity, and clarity. The Verge’s... Continue reading…

Photo by Chaim Gartenberg / The Verge Nomad’s well-designed Base Station Pro is a Qi wireless charger that can charge up to three devices simultaneously — perfect if you have a phone, watch, and earbuds. If its $200 price tag has been a stumbling block, Nomad is offering a 50 percent discount on the charger until Sunday, April 4th, at 2:59AM ET (Saturday at 11:59PM PT if you’re on the West Coast). To get this price, enter the code VOX at checkout. If you have an Apple Watch, you can also add the Apple Watch attachment for $5.My colleague Chaim Gartenberg reviewed the Base Station Pro when it released in August 2020. What makes this different from most other Qi wireless charging pads are its Aira FreePower coils, which allow for a better connection to your device’s own... Continue reading…

Illustration by Grayson Blackmon / The Verge Clubhouse had an incredible year in one most of us would rather forget. The live audio app launched during a pandemic; gained more than 10 million downloads for an invite-only, iOS-only app; and succeeded to the point that most every social platform wants to copy it. Congrats to Clubhouse.The company now faces its biggest challenges yet, however. For one, the pandemic is waning, and people might be more interested in real-life socializing instead of conversations facilitated through their phone. Anyone advertising their backyard as the next great Clubhouse competitor has a point. But for the people who do end up wanting to talk to each other online, they’ll soon have a lot more places to do so. In case you haven’t kept up: Twitter, F... Continue reading…

The Pro 2 gives you more features for less money Continue reading…

Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge If you have been keeping up with PS5 news, you will know that it is nearly impossible to find this console right now because of the short supply and mostly online-only sales. If you don’t mind buying a bundle, which includes additional items alongside the PS5, GameStop has restocked several PS5 bundles right now.There are two bundles we found that may be worth a buy if you are interested in what each package contains.The PS5 Digital Edition bundle — which includes the console, plus one-year subscriptions for PS Plus and PS Now, an extra DualSense controller, and a $20 GameStop gift card — is selling for $600, or about $200 more than the console alone goes for. Purchasing all of these items individually would tally up to the same... Continue reading…

Finnish developer Supercell is best known for its mobile games Clash of Clans and Clash Royale, and today, it announced plans to expand that fantasy universe in a big way. Supercell revealed that three new Clash titles are in development. “On top of offering a new Clash experience to current players, we want to broaden Clash to new audiences who haven’t experienced Clash before,” the developer wrote in a blog post.The games include: Clash Quest, a turn-based tactical adventure game; Clash Mini, a virtual board game where you build teams of adorable miniatures; and Clash Heroes, a co-op action roleplaying game. Supercell also notes that they’re all fairly early in development and will likely change in some ways as things progress.In... Continue reading…

Photo by Michael Kovac/Getty Images for WeWork The problem of making a documentary about a showman is that it’s hard not to be ensnared by him. WeWork: Or the Making and Breaking of a $47 Billion Unicorn is so focused on WeWork’s turbulent co-founder, Adam Neumann, that it ultimately loses the plot.WeWork, you may recall, was the subject of a tremendous scandal around the disclosures in the S-1 document required for its IPO. (The company is now attempting to go public using a SPAC, which means someone other than the SEC is doing the due diligence.) WeWork, premiering April 2nd on Hulu, is director Jed Rothstein’s abbreviated retelling of the events around the troubled company — but a lot of the weird details that made the WeWork story so riveting are lost.Neumann lifts a leg, lets... Continue reading…

Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge Apple’s gaming subscription service just got a massive influx of new titles. The headliner is Fantasian — the latest release from the creator of Final Fantasy — which is joined by other titles like new versions of NBA 2K and The Oregon Trail, and World of Demons from PlatinumGames. As part of the update, the service is getting two new categories of games: Apple calls them “Timeless Classics” and “App Store Greats.”For the greats, Apple is adding a number of high-profile mobile hits to the service, including Threes, Monument Valley, Mini Metro, and a remaster of Cut the Rope. Timeless classics, meanwhile, refers to iconic games like backgammon, solitaire, and Zach Gage’s recent takes on chess and sudoku. While most Arcade games are... Continue reading…

Photo by Becca Farsace / The Verge OnePlus’ new line of smartphones — the OnePlus 9 and 9 Pro — are now available for purchase at several retailers. A successor to the OnePlus 8 and 8 Pro, the 9 and 9 Pro start at $729.If you want to hear our thoughts before you buy, check out our review video for the OnePlus 9 and 9 Pro above. Additionally, you can check out our written reviews linked below.WHERE TO BUY THE ONEPLUS 9

Fantasian, a new role-playing game from Final Fantasy creator Hironobu Sakaguchi, is available now for Apple Arcade. The game is playable on iOS, Mac, and Apple TV.Fantasian is the latest from Sakaguchi’s studio Mistwalker, which he founded in 2004; the developer has since released games such as The Last Story and Blue Dragon. Although Fantasian uses traditional RPG elements like turn-based battles, it’s been designed with handcrafted physical models — more than 150 dioramas in all.Fantasian features touch controls but, according to Sakaguchi, is intended to deliver a console-like experience on mobile devices. The game follows an amnesiac hero searching for a way to regain his lost memories. In a previous interview with The Verge,... Continue reading…

Photo: Warner Bros. Ava DuVernay’s New Gods and James Wan’s The Trench are no longer being developed at Warner Bros., according to The Hollywood Reporter, Deadline, and Variety. The two films, set to explore two of the more unusual parts of the DC Extended Universe (DCEU), seemed like they could have been interesting diversions from the tone and style established in films like Justice League and Batman v Superman. But in the turbulent world of DC film adaptations, nothing is certain.James Wan made a pivot to superhero movies with Aquaman in 2018, bringing an action-packed, slightly more goofy energy to a cinematic universe that was sorely needing something fun. As a spin-off, The Trench was Wan returning to the horror roots he established with Saw and The... Continue reading…

Netflix just released the first good look at Yasuke, its upcoming anime based on the true story of a Black samurai who lived in Japan during the 16th century. Despite the real-life source material, the show takes a few liberties with the story, as you can see in the fantastical first trailer.Here’s the basic synopsis from Netflix:

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Over the past several months, Twitter has been working hard to bring its Clubhouse-like audio chat rooms feature, Spaces, to users on iOS and, as of last month, Android. A logical next place for Spaces to show up would be on the web, and unsurprisingly, Twitter is working on the feature for browsers, the company confirmed to The Verge.We decided to ask Twitter about Spaces on desktop after seeing this tweet from app researcher Jane Manchun Wong, which shows what Spaces preview cards could look like when viewed on the web.

Alleged leaked renders of the upcoming Xperia 1 III. | Image: OnLeaks Sony has, in a very low-key way, just announced that its upcoming Xperia event will be on April 14th (via Droid Life). The news comes from the Xperia YouTube channel’s banner, where it lays out that there will be a new product announcement happening at 4:30PM Japan Standard Time — that’s 3:30AM EST, or 12:30AM PT (if you feel like burning the midnight oil to watch live).The banner gives no real hints as to what will be announced, but there have been a few rumors floating around — one about a new flagship, the Xperia 1 III, and one about the return of the Xperia Compact, which could end up being an Android answer to the iPhone Mini. Image: Sony It’s worth noting that there are other rumors that mention new versions... Continue reading…

Photo by Vlad Savov / The Verge When Apple introduced its controversial MacBook Pro redesign in 2016, the company probably didn’t know it was setting itself up to get sued — but not only is a class-action lawsuit now underway for their infamous butterfly keyboards, it’s looking likely there’ll be a second one for their notoriously fragile display cables, too. Judge Edward Davila has decided to let the “flexgate” lawsuit go forward, ruling that Apple should have known that they would fail and yet kept selling them anyhow.“The court finds that the allegations of pre-release testing in combination with the allegations of substantial customer complaints are sufficient to show that Apple had exclusive knowledge of the alleged defect,” the judge wrote (via Law360 and 9... Continue reading…

Photo by Joe Raedle/Getty Images Former President Donald Trump’s ban on guest worker visas has expired, allowing foreign workers to reapply for entry into the United States. The news is a win for tech companies including Apple, Twitter, and Google, each of which vocally opposed the policy.Former President Donald Trump said the ban was a response to rising unemployment in the United States, due to the coronavirus pandemic. On the campaign trail, Joe Biden pushed back on this claim, calling it an attempt to distract from the Trump Administration’s failure on the virus.The ban focused on H-1B visas, but impacted a broader range of workers, NPR reports. Executives at big corporations and students participating in work-study programs were also caught up in the fray.W... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Atari, the corporate entity / brand of Theseus, has just made around $110,000 by selling —you guessed it — NFTs (shout out to Ars Technica for doing the math). The tokens in question are 3D models of the Atari 2600 game cartridge for Centipede — 10 of them black, 100 of them red.The NFTs are being sold as part of the Atari Capsule Collection — which is basically a bunch of Centipede and Pong-themed NFTs being sold by the company that now owns the Atari brand. The company and its intellectual property have been bought and sold so many times it’s almost hard to keep track, but the current incarnation of it is mainly known for trying to build hotels and struggling to make a game console. This NFT, labeled as version 1 of... Continue reading…

It sounds like something out of a children’s movie — after French police arrested three Polish thieves who attempted to steal toys in June 2020, specifically Lego sets. Now authorities are trying to address a growing trend of Lego robberies by warning business owners and parents, The Guardian reports.According to a report in Le Parisien, the thieves were part of a gang that would stay in hotels near Paris, drive around in an Audi, and “raid” toy stores for valuable Lego sets to resell in Poland. The thieves were caught robbing a PicWicToys toy store, after being spotted in 2019 and 2020 at two separate European toy stores, La Grande Récré and Maxi Toys. French police are reportedly “building a case” against the gang in response, The... Continue reading…

Photo by Chaim Gartenberg / The Verge Samsung announced its Galaxy SmartTag line of item trackers in January, and at the time, it said the premium SmartTag Plus, which has ultra-wideband (UWB) technology that enables more precise tracking of an item in relationship to you than Bluetooth does, would be releasing later this year. Now, though, there are some clues that the SmartTag Plus could be coming out soon, possibly as early as April 12th.Perhaps the most telling hint pointing to the SmartTag Plus’ imminent arrival is that retailer B&H Photo already has the black model of the device available for preorder, with an “expected availability” of April 12th. Here’s a link to the B&H listing if you want to try to preorder a SmartTag Plus for yourself. But since Samsung hasn’t... Continue reading…

Art: Duotrope Duolingo, the popular language learning app, offers a wide variety of languages in its list of courses. While it’s known for teaching well-known tongues such as French, Spanish, and Chinese, it has also added courses in languages that are less widely used, such as Irish, Scottish Gaelic, Hawaiian — and now, as of April 6th, its 40th language: Yiddish.While Yiddish in the US is known more for some of the words that have entered the popular lexicon (“He’s such a schmuck!”), it is actually a full-scale language. An amalgamation of High German, Hebrew, and Aramaic, with a smattering of Slavic languages (and more recently, English), before World War II, it was widely spoken by Jewish communities living throughout Central and Eastern Europe.... Continue reading…

Photo by STR / AFP via Getty Images Myanmar’s acting military leadership has shut down broadband internet service indefinitely in response to ongoing protests, according to a report from The Washington Post on Thursday. The move comes two months after a military junta staged a coup to depose the country’s democratically elected leader, Aung San Suu Kyi.The shutdown applies to wireless broadband service, while a separate order banning mobile internet at night remains in effect, Reuters reports. The orders were given to state telecoms, though no official reason has been given.

Photo by Chris Delmas / AFP via Getty Images Alan and Alex Stokes, twin brothers who rose to fame on YouTube filming prank videos, pleaded guilty to misdemeanor false imprisonment and reporting false emergencies in connection with a pair of now-removed videos they filmed in the fall of 2019 in which they pretended to have just robbed a bank. The 23-year-old brothers were charged in August of last year.They faced a maximum of five years in prison if convicted on all counts, leading to the guilty plea in exchange for reduced sentences, according to a press release put out dated March 31st by the office of the district attorney of Orange County, California.“The guilty pleas were in exchange for a judge reducing the felony false imprisonment charge to a misdemeanor. Prosecutors... Continue reading…

Image: Innersloth Among Us’ huge Airship map finally arrived on Wednesday, offering new tasks for crewmates, new ways to get around, and new ways to plot against your friends as the imposter. I tried out the new level for an hour or so last night, and players who might have grown bored of the well-worn pathways of Among Us’ other levels will have a lot to play with on the airship.The airship is Among Us’ biggest map yet, but to my surprise, I actually didn’t feel all that overwhelmed in my first matches. Developer InnerSloth did a great job making the different rooms visually distinct. The circular records room has four large bookshelves, for example, while the kitchen has a charming tile pattern and a pot simmering on a stove. The airship also adds a... Continue reading…

Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales The Supreme Court has unanimously decided that Facebook text message alerts don’t violate laws against unwanted auto-dialed calls. The court ruled that a lower court defined illegal “robocalls” too broadly and that the term should only apply to systems that generate lists of numbers and call them indiscriminately, not a system that simply stores numbers and automatically calls them.The lawsuit involves text messages that notify Facebook users of an attempted login. Its plaintiff, Noah Duguid, sued after receiving unwanted, erroneous notifications despite not having a Facebook account. Duguid argued that Facebook was violating the 1991 Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA). An appeals court agreed, but the Supreme Court interpreted... Continue reading…

Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge Samsung wants you to know its new phone, the Galaxy S21 Ultra 5G, is good at capturing photos. Maybe you could outwardly tell from its five image sensors, including four on the back, that the company takes mobile photography seriously. But if not, you now have an entire Hulu series to watch in which the S21 Ultra 5G is the main character.The company announced today it’s created a branded Hulu show called Exposure where up-and-coming photographers compete in challenges to be crowned “America’s best mobile photographer.” The show will debut on April 26th, and it entirely centers on the S21 Ultra 5G; it’s the only device contestants will use to capture their images. This is Samsung’s best attempt at showing off its phone in less of a... Continue reading…

Signs warning of health risks are posted outside the gates of an abandoned uranium mine in the Red Water Pond Road community of the Navajo Nation on January 13th, 2020. | Photo: The Washington Post / Contributor via Getty Images But it will take more than the $16 billion Biden offered Continue reading…

Image: MSI MSI, a company best known for bold and flashy gaming laptops, has announced two additions to its new Summit Series business line. The Summit E13 Flip Evo and Summit E16 Flip are convertible notebooks powered by Intel’s Tiger Lake processors.The big news is that the new Flips come with 16:10 displays. MSI says the new aspect ratio will provide 10 percent more visible screen space than a similarly sized 16:9 screen. That’s a good sign for business users — it means less scrolling and more room to multitask. Both models are also compatible with MSI’s proprietary MPP 2.0 stylus (the MSI pen), which the company says has 4,096 pressure levels.Like the rest of the Summit Series, the two models include a number of features designed for remote... Continue reading…

And so is the government program that killed it Continue reading…

Image: Casio Casio has announced the first Wear OS smartwatch in its long-running G-Shock lineup: the GSW-H1000. The watch will retail for $699 in the US or £599 in the UK, and it will be available in red, blue, or black. With shock resistance and water resistance up to a depth of 200 meters, Casio says the GSW-H1000 is a fitness-focused wearable designed for everything from surfing to snowboarding.The watchmaker has been releasing devices using Google’s smartwatch OS since 2016, when it released the Android Wear-powered Casio Smart Outdoor Watch. But this is the first time Google’s software has appeared on a G-Shock watch. The G-Shock lineup dates back to the 1980s, and the watches have a reputation for being some of the hardest-wearing around. ... Continue reading…

Image: MSCHF Internet collective MSCHF says it’s not infringing on Nike’s trademark with a pair of exclusive, blood-infused “Satan Shoes,” setting the stage for a bigger legal battle.After filing a lawsuit earlier this week, Nike sought a temporary restraining order to bar MSCHF from fulfilling any orders of its Satan Shoes — a $1,018 Nike sneaker embellished with a pentagram and allegedly injected with ink and a single drop of blood. But in a response filed yesterday, MSCHF says all but one pair of the shoes, a 666 pair collaboration with rapper Lil Nas X, have already shipped.“Contrary to Nike’s speculation in its papers, all but one pair of the shoes already have been sold and shipped. MSCHF has no intention of issuing additional Satan Shoes,”... Continue reading…

Illustration by James Bareham / The Verge Today is April 1st, one of the worst days on the internet every year. For the rest of the day, the internet will be filled with an unending parade of dumb PR stunts, fake products, lie-filled press releases, and just plain unfunny jokes that have been filtered through layers and layers of corporate branding teams as to be unrecognizable as humor by normal humans.Last year, the holiday fell at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic; faced with the unspeakable human tragedy that was unfolding on a daily basis, most companies elected to opt out of the holiday. Some, like Google, have wisely chosen to once again pull their April Fools’ gags in light of the current state of the world.And yet, April 1st has rolled around once again, and... Continue reading…