The Verge

Images: Lexus Lexus’ next generation looks a lot like what we have now Continue reading…

Image: PayPal We already knew that PayPal was planning to support cryptocurrencies as a form of payment. And now, the online payment app announced US customers can do just that with its “Checkout with Crypto” feature, rolling out today.After rolling out the ability for US users to directly buy and sell cryptocurrency directly from their accounts last November, PayPal’s new “Checkout with Crypto” allows users to instantly convert their Bitcoin, Ethereum, Litecoin, or Bitcoin Cash to US dollars (with no additional transaction fees) that PayPal then uses to complete the transaction. If a merchant doesn’t take US dollars, PayPal also converts those dollars into local currency at standard conversion rates set by PayPal. PayPal will... Continue reading…

Google is announcing a bunch of new features planned for Google Maps, including a new tool to help with indoor navigation and suggestions for eco-friendly driving routes. The features announced today aren’t rolling out all at once, though; many aren’t available just yet, and it’s unclear when some will be available in some parts of the world.One of the biggest announcements is that Google is bringing its Live View augmented reality directions to airports, transit stations, and malls. Live View directions let you hold your phone up, point your camera at the world around you, and see arrows and icons pointing you where you need to go, and previously, they only worked outdoors.Disappointingly, though, these indoor AR directions aren’t... Continue reading…

Photo by Andrew Hawkins / The Verge Autonomous shuttle startup Optimus Ride and power sports vehicle manufacturer Polaris are teaming up to co-develop a new lineup of vehicles that will be low-speed, electric, and self-driving.These low-speed vehicles (LSV) will be equipped with Optimus Ride’s full stack of sensors and software to enable “fully autonomous” driving without a safety driver behind the wheel — though the vehicles will also be monitored remotely by a team of engineers who can offer suggestions to the vehicle when things go wrong.The vehicles, which can seat six, will be deployed as a last-mile transportation service in residential communities, corporate and academic campuses, and other “localized environments,” as both a fixed-route shuttle and a more... Continue reading…

The prototype Leica camera. | Image: Leitz Photographica Auction A rare prototype of a Leica camera crafted by former Apple luminary Jony Ive and famed designer Marc Newson is being sold at auction in June. The device, which is described as being in “B+” condition, has a starting price of €100.000 (around $118,000), and the Leitz Photographica Auction house estimates that it’ll sell for between €200.000 and €250.000 (around $235,000 to $295,000).The prototype was produced during the development of the one-off Leica M for (RED) camera, which was sold at a charity auction in 2013 for $1.8 million. While the final product’s design shared a lot of similarities with Apple’s “cheesegrater” Mac Pro, this prototype appears to have a smooth reflective finish that looks like an absolute fingerprint magnet. ... Continue reading…

The Tab A7 Lite. | Image: Evan Blass / Voice Images of Samsung’s unannounced Tab A7 Lite tablet have leaked, courtesy of Evan Blass on Voice. The images show a decidedly budget-looking device, with a single rear camera and no flash. Internally the tablet is said to be running a modest MediaTek Helio P22T processor paired with 3GB of RAM and a 5,100 mAh battery.The Tab A7 Lite is one of two “Lite” tablets Samsung is expected to launch in June, if a February leak from WalkingCat is to be believed. The other is the Galaxy Tab S7 Lite, which features a bigger 12.4-inch display compared to 8.7-inches on the A7 Lite, according to WalkingCat. GalaxyClub.nl previously reported the S7 Lite may be available with 5G or Wi-Fi-only connectivity, and that it could be powered by a Snapdragon... Continue reading…

Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge When you typically think of luxury car features, do you envision rich leather seating and extravagant trim? Advanced cruise control and intelligent self-parking? Whatever you’re imagining, I’m betting “dim my headlights so I don’t blind other people” isn’t it.But not only has BMW used its “High Beam Assistant” as an upsell for well over a decade, it’s also charging drivers extra to unlock the safety feature that’s already built into their cars — by buying it as an over-the-air software update.Apparently, this has been going on for nearly two years, but Car Magazine editor Jake Groves brought it to my attention for the first time this week in this viral tweet:

Photo by Gokturk-1 Observation Satellite/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images The massive cargo ship Ever Given has been stuck for nearly a week in the Suez Canal, captivating the internet and frustrating the teams responsible for dislodging it and the governments hardest hit by the shutdown of the maritime trade route.The ship (and its trademark “Evergreen” lettering painted on the side) has become so iconic, in fact, that it’s become a destination within Microsoft Flight Simulator, at least for one virtual pilot who appears to have created a mod that places the grounded vessel within the virtual Earth of the game, via GeekWire.Twitter user Mat Velloso shared a video from TikTok, originally captured and uploaded by user “donut_enforcement,” showing off the the flyby of the cargo ship to a convincing-sounding... Continue reading…

Netflix I had to take a break from streaming Hannibal because I’m about halfway through season 3 and I don’t want it to end (also it’s just too intense for a binge watch, let’s be real). But I just watched the first episode of The Irregulars — loosely based on the Baker Street Irregulars from the Sherlock Holmes books— and so far it’s really good, especially if you are like me and appreciate seeing an established story retold from the point of view of another character (or in this case characters).A good batch of trailers this week, with that James Gunn movie everyone’s talking about and a Netflix flick about a group of astronauts headed to Mars who — surprise!— have an extra person aboard their ship.

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge For the last seven weeks, workers at an Amazon warehouse in Bessemer, Alabama, have been voting by mail on whether to unionize. Their ballots are due on Monday, March 29th, and counting will begin the next day. If the union wins, the warehouse employees would become the first members of Amazon’s US workforce to unionize, a momentous event at a company that has long aggressively resisted labor organizing, and one that could be a first step toward improving conditions at the country’s second-largest employer. Here is what’s happened so far and what might happen next.Who’s voting?The vote is taking place at an Amazon warehouse called BHM1 in Bessemer, Alabama, outside Birmingham. It opened recently, beginning operations last March, but... Continue reading…

Ludwig on stream during his weeks-long subathon. | Image: Ludwig On Friday, the Twitch streamer Ludwig slept in. He got up around 11AM PT and lay in bed, chatting with the more than 30,000 viewers of his stream. He’s spent a lot of time in that spot lately — in fact, he’s broadcast dozens of hours of himself curled up in a bright red race car bed since his stream first started.As of this morning, Sunday, March 28th, Ludwig’s stream has now been live for nearly two weeks straight. His stream started around 2PM PT on Sunday, March 14th, according to The New York Times. The plan was to stream 20 seconds for every new subscription purchased to his channel (subscriptions are $5 per month).It’s a bit like a telethon — he won’t stop so long as the money kept coming in. “We’re making this like a goddamn... Continue reading…

One of the things that makes Animal Crossing so special is it’s soothing. There aren’t a lot of other games like it; it’s laid-back and comforting in a way that most games aren’t. Sometimes it can feel less like a game and more like a relaxing space to hang out in. But now that New Horizons has been out for more than a year, you may be looking for something just a little different. Cozy Grove might be just the thing: it has much of what makes Animal Crossing so great but in a tighter package. Also, there are lots of ghosts.Much like New Horizons, Cozy Grove drops you on a seemingly uninhabited island with the goal of turning it into a bustling town. The difference is that in Cozy Grove, the island used to be inhabited. And it still kind... Continue reading…

A business laptop with an extreme screen Continue reading…

Comic-Con won’t be hosting its regular in-person annual gathering this summer, as the organization behind the cosplay and fan gathering cancel the event for the second year in a row due to the COVID-19 pandemic. But there is now an in-person event on the books for the fall to compliment the limited online versions the organization is hosting in the coming months.Comic-Con International, the non-profit in charge of running the event and its companion conventions, announced on Saturday that it plans to hold a three-day, in-person event in November. It will take place in San Diego, where Comic-Con typically holds its biggest annual summer event at the city’s convention center. Yet it’s not known right now what the size or scope of the... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge A lawsuit that claims one of Amazon’s fulfillment centers in California failed to provide required meal breaks for employees has moved to federal court, as attorneys seek class-action status. First filed in San Francisco County Superior Court in February, the case was removed to US District Court California, Northern District on Friday.Lovenia Scott, a former employee of the Vacaville, California warehouse, alleges that the company didn’t schedule the required 30-minute meal breaks for workers. When they did get their meal breaks, workers were expected to monitor their walkie-talkies in case of any problems on the floor, which sometimes cut into their break time, the suit claims.The matter of paying workers for time they spend waiting... Continue reading…

Stellantis Jeep will install EV charging stations at off-road trailheads across the US as part of a partnership with Electrify America, the company announced. Chargers on the Jeep 4xe Charging Network will either be solar powered or connected to a power grid.The first of the stations will open this spring in Moab, Utah; the Rubicon Trail in Pollock Pines, California; and Big Bear, California. The chargers will have Level 2 (240 volt) charging, which Jeep notes will fully recharge the 17-kWh battery pack in its Wrangler 4xe in about two hours and provide 49 MPGe and 21 miles of electric range. The chargers will be available free to Jeep 4xe owners via a mobile app, and will be compatible with its future EVs.Over the next year, additional... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Hulu’s Android TV apps can finally stream in 1080p on new Nvidia Shield TV set-top-boxes and Sony Bravia TVs, as spotted by users on Reddit, and written up by Gizmodo, Android Central, and 9to5Google.Users first noticed the change in the “App & Device Info” page in the Hulu app. After updating, the app lists the new max video resolution as “1920 x 1080”. It’s sort of a sneaky way to make the change. Looking at the update description on the Play Store, there’s no mention of it, so it’s possible something changed on Hulu’s server side as well. Image: 9to5Google Hulu’s App & Device Info screen that shows the new max resolution. Gizmodo says it was able to confirm that at least the Nvidia Shield from 2019 and... Continue reading…

Photo by Scott Olson/Getty Images It’s never been possible to know for sure how many people in the United States are sick with COVID-19 at a particular time. Instead, we combine all of the metrics — the percentage of tests run that come back positive, the number of new cases reported each day, people coming to the emergency room sick with COVID-19 symptoms — to get an estimate. It’s like the story of the blind men and the elephant: experts can feel out the different pieces of information to get a sense of what an outbreak looks like, even when they can’t see it directly.We’ve seen the same elephant emerge over and over again over the past year. First, the percentage of tests that come back positive increases. After a slight lag, hospitalizations start to rise, and then... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Netflix announced at Tokyo’s AnimeJapan 2021 Expo Saturday that it will launch 40 new anime titles in 2021, Bloomberg reported, following the success of its Blood of Zeus series last year.The new series to be released this year include an adaptation of the Japanese manga Record of Ragnarok, set to premiere in June; Yasuke, about an African samurai in feudal-era Japan which will premiere April 29th; and Resident Evil: Infinite Darkness, based on the video game franchise. Netflix previously announced its anime series The Way of the Househusband, also based on a Japanese manga series, will debut April 8th. Variety notes that the number of anime titles coming to Netflix this year is nearly double the number of anime series and movies it... Continue reading…

Photo by Carolina Cabral/Getty Images Facebook froze the page of Venezuelan president Nicolas Maduro for violating its policy against spreading COVID-19 misinformation, the company confirmed Saturday. As first reported by Reuters, Maduro had promoted a “miracle” remedy that he claimed would cure the coronavirus, but those claims have not been supported by the medical community.Facebook also removed a video where Maduro touted Carvativir, a homeopathic remedy extracted from thyme. Maduro has praised the solution in the past as “miracle drops” and a “medical breakthrough.” Doctors in Venezuela have called Maduro’s claims that Carvatavir can treat the coronavirus “dangerous.”This is not the first time Maduro has made false claims about coronavirus treatments on his social... Continue reading…

Image: Vizio Would you believe that it’s Friday already? That means it’s time for this week’s roundup of tech deals that are better than the rest. We comb through hundreds of deals from a variety of retailers each week, picking only the best sales to tell you about. By the time Friday comes around, some of them have usually expired, but we’ve included the good ones that are still happening below.Enjoy the weather this weekend if it’s starting to get nice outside where you live.Save $10 on Super Mario 3D All-Stars before it’s discontinued on March 31stFor reasons only Nintendo can explain, Super Mario 3D All-Stars will no longer be produced after March 31st. Even the digital version of the game will be delisted on the eShop. So if you want the... Continue reading…

Bose’s sporty shades offer good sound, a steady fit, and total awareness Continue reading…

Me, after the ice caps melt. | Image: Gorrilaz Virtual band Gorillaz’s debut album is turning 20 years old today (a fact I’m going to try to immediately forget), and in celebration the group will be carrying out the usual anniversary celebrations: re-releasing albums, selling new merch and, according to NME, selling NFTs.This news has Broken me.At this point, it’s pretty clear that NFTs are a thorny environmental issue — while it can be hard to calculate exactly how bad they are in terms of carbon emissions, the picture is not looking good. In general, upon seeing the torrent of NFT news, it’s been easy to needle people about participating in a marketplace that is doing actual damage to the world: “Okay, Brand, hope this marketing stunt was worth setting the Earth on fire?” Turns... Continue reading…

Photo by Rich Polk/Getty Images for IMDb George R.R. Martin, the author of the A Song of Ice and Fire book series that was turned into HBO’s smash hit Game of Thrones, has signed a huge new deal with HBO to make content for the network and HBO Max, according to The Hollywood Reporter. It’s a five-year deal worth “mid-eight figures,” sources told THR.Although Game of Thrones ended in 2019, HBO owner WarnerMedia has already announced a prequel series, House of the Dragon, based on Martin’s 2019 book Fire and Blood. And there are five projects in development based on the Game of Thrones universe, THR reports. Martin is also developing series for HBO based on the novels Who Fears Death and Roadmarks.My worst fear, though, is that this huge new deal keeps Martin from working on... Continue reading…

Photo by Sean Hollister / The Verge GameStop has sold PC gaming hardware for a while now, including entire gaming laptops, monitors, headphones, mice and speakers, but in the post-stonks era it apparently wants a piece of Best Buy and Newegg’s desktop components business as well. Most prominently, the company has started selling Nvidia RTX 3000 series graphics cards — where by “selling,” I mean engaging in the same sort of barely-there, blink-and-they’re-gone listings as every other purveyor of GPUs.As PC Gamer reports, GameStop made its entire weekly circular ad revolve around PC gaming this week, including several GPUs, motherboards, a power supply, and a case: GameStop’s weekly circular for March 21st-27th. Back in reality, though, GameStop sold... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Amazon received Food and Drug Administration authorization for a COVID-19 test made by its subsidiary STS Lab Holdco, and it plans to use it for its onsite coronavirus testing programs.The test is done using a nasal self swab that can be done either under the supervision of a health care provider or as part of an at-home kit where a patient takes their own sample and mails it to a centralized lab.“Amazon plans to use the Amazon Real-Time RT-PCR Test for Detecting SARS-CoV-2 (Amazon Test) as part of the company’s overall Coronavirus Disease 2019 (“COVID-19”) preparedness and response program,” the FDA’s authorization reads.The authorization also describes Amazon’s employee-screening program. Some Amazon employees will be... Continue reading…

The OnePlus 9 gives up a few of the 9 Pro’s features but costs $240 less Continue reading…

Photo by Becca Farsace / The Verge The OnePlus 9 and 9 Pro are now certified for use on Verizon’s network, which means Verizon customers will be able to use the phones with the carrier’s 5G network; without certification, the phones would be limited to LTE. The news was announced today by a Verizon representative, but the timeline is a little unclear. OnePlus had said it was working with Verizon, but there were no promises that it would be done by the phone’s launch.The 5G story has been a bit confusing for the OnePlus 9 series phones from the start. Only the Pro model has the ultra-fast mmWave, and at announcement, the phones were only listed as 5G-compatible on T-Mobile’s network. Even with today’s news, that still leaves AT&T customers who buy a OnePlus 9 paying for... Continue reading…

Photo by Noam Galai/Getty Images Facebook is planning to start its return to in-person work in May, after over a year of working remotely due to the COVID-19 pandemic, according to Bloomberg. Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced remote work plans near the start of the pandemic that promised around half of his employees could work remotely in the next five to 10 years, but until then, in-person work, at least in a limited capacity, is in the company’s immediate future.Facebook is reopening its offices in the Bay Area — including its Menlo Park headquarters — but limiting capacity at 10 percent to start. The company expects its largest offices to not reach 50 percent capacity until September, Bloomberg writes. In addition to limiting how many people are working in... Continue reading…

Image: Innersloth Among Us’ next big update will add a poop hat to the game. Technically, it’s a “chocolate ice cream” hat.But come on, just look at this picture.

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Amazon is intensifying its bizarre online public relations strategy of picking increasingly petty fights with sitting US Congress members, with the company’s Amazon News account on Friday shifting targets from Rep. Mark Pocan (D-WI) and Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) to Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA).“You make the tax laws @SenWarren; we just follow them. If you don’t like the laws you’ve created, by all means, change them. Here are the facts: Amazon has paid billions of dollars in corporate taxes over the past few years alone,” the account tweeted Thursday in response to a critique from Warren that Amazon exploits “loopholes and tax havens to pay close to nothing in taxes.” There’s a growing mountain of evidence pointing out how Amazon pays... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Select titles on HBO Max now have audio descriptions, which are separate audio tracks that describe what’s visually happening on-screen. The option is currently available on the website and mobile apps but not on TV apps.Audio descriptions are useful for people who are blind or visually impaired, as they provide context that isn’t obvious from only hearing dialogue and music. So far, the described shows and movies include Euphoria, His Dark Materials, Generation, Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, Dunkirk, and more. Image: WarnerMedia HBO Max’s audio description category. There’s now a category in HBO Max that lists all of the currently described shows and movies in one place, though it doesn’t yet show up... Continue reading…

Image: Square Enix Balan Wonderworld, a new game from two of the original creators of Sonic the Hedgehog, is out today. But before you jump into the game, make sure you’ve installed its day one patch. It fixes sequences in a “potential flashing bug” that could present a seizure risk. On Thursday, a video of the game’s final boss fight was uploaded to YouTube, and in it, there are occasional moments where the entire screen is taken over by rapid white flashes without warning.“We have received reports of a photo-sensitive epilepsy risk from a potential flashing bug if playing the game un-patched,” the Balan Wonderworld account said on Twitter. “The Day 1 Patch prevents this issue as well as enhances the overall play experience.”

Volkswagen clarified some new details about the release of the ID Buzz, the electric microbus that we first saw in concept form way back in 2017.In an interview with Car and Driver, VW’s head of commercial vehicles, Carsten Intra, confirmed previous reports that the ID Buzz’s release in the US was delayed from 2022 to 2023. In addition, only the passenger version of the ID Buzz was getting a US-release, while Europe would be seeing both a commercial and passenger version of the van.The commercial version will be VW’s first autonomous vehicleThe entry-level version of the ID Buzz will likely have rear-wheel drive and 200 horsepower, while a more powerful trim level would get all-wheel drive and around 300 horsepower, Car and Driver... Continue reading…

Photo by John Lamparski/Getty Images Dominion Voting Systems has become the second voting tech company to sue Fox News for airing conspiracy theories about its products. The company sued Fox News for defamation in Delaware state court today, saying the network “endorsed, repeated, and broadcast a series of verifiably false yet devastating lies” claiming Dominion manipulated votes and rigged the election against former President Donald Trump. It’s requesting $1.6 billion in damages alongside expenses for security and combating a “disinformation campaign.”Dominion’s suit follows a February complaint against Fox from competing company Smartmatic. Both companies allege that, in the months following the 2020 presidential election, several Fox News hosts pushed a false narrative... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Putting off iOS updates for a week or two is generally fine, but it’s probably a good idea to download the latest one, iOS 14.4.2, as soon as you can. It fixes a security flaw that Apple says may have been exploited out in the wild (via MacRumors). The update also applies to iPadOS, so take a couple of minutes out of your day to go to Settings > General > Software Update.According to Apple’s update notes, the security flaw allowed for universal cross-site scripting. In other words, a malicious website or script could gain access to information from other webpages you have open, which isn’t great, especially since Apple says that some sites may be doing this.As I said back in January when Apple released a similar update, this doesn’t... Continue reading…

A view from the International Space Station of an aurora blanketing the northern night sky. | Image: NASA Rival satellite internet companies OneWeb and SpaceX are vying to snag lucrative deals to provide broadband internet to Earth’s northernmost latitudes. OneWeb’s launch of 36 satellites this week inched it closer to its goal of beaming internet into the region by year’s end. SpaceX’s Starlink, which is already providing internet to thousands of consumers through a beta program, is eyeing the same area.Billions of dollars in government funds are on the line for companies that can connect the region. The Arctic is a nearly broadband desert for the US military, and the UK is willing to spend big to connect rural areas to the internet.SpaceX is reportedly eying a chunk of the UK’s new $6.9 billion Project Gigabit program, which aims to... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge The Volkswagen Group has wrapped a multiyear internal investigation into Dieselgate, and it says it will try to pry compensation from former CEO Martin Winterkorn and former Audi CEO Rupert Stadler to make up for some of the massive financial damages that resulted from the emissions cheating scandal.The law firm Volkswagen hired to perform the investigation covered more than 65 petabytes of data, including some 480 million documents. About 1.6 million of those files were “identified as relevant, screened and reviewed,” the German automaker says. The law firm also performed 1,550 interviews and reviewed files from prosecutorial and judicial proceedings around the world that came as a result of the company’s actions. The internal probe... Continue reading…

As a ‘90s kid, I used to dream of winning the Nickelodeon Super Toy Run — five minutes to fill a Toys R Us shopping cart with anything I liked. I had my route all planned out: stacks of video games, a few choice Lego sets, and then a fill-up at the Nerf aisle.The world is very different right now, of course, but Nerf may have just announced a modern, grown-up version of the dream: it’s hiring a chief TikTok officer to dream up the company’s marketing for three months, giving one lucky influencer $30,000 and “a massive amount of Nerf products” in exchange for helping Hasbro figure out how to entice Gen Z.Oh yeah, this is definitely a marketing stunt. But it’s also a real job on the company’s real career site, and you’ll have to... Continue reading…

Photo by Hector Retamal / AFP via Getty Images Locations for H&M clothing stores in China were not showing up on Apple Maps searches in China on Friday, The Wall Street Journal reported, amid growing anger among Chinese consumers at the company’s decision to stop sourcing from the Xinjiang region. The company has more than 400 stores in China, but all H&M locations are now missing from maps, ride-hailing, and e-commerce applications, the Journal found. Apple relies on Chinese mapping company AutoNavi for its Apple Maps in China.It was the latest of several Western brands, which also includes Nike and Adidas, that are facing calls for boycotts in China. The US announced last year it would stop imports of cotton and other goods from Xinjiang, over allegations the Chinese government... Continue reading…

Image: Warner Bros. Warner Bros. has released the first trailer for The Suicide Squad, the sequel to 2016’s Suicide Squad (no The). Unlike the extremely grimdark Zack Snyder’s Justice League (and the potentially even more grimdark black-and-white version of the film, Zack Snyder’s Justice League: Justice is Gray), The Suicide Squad looks to be filled with color and humor, at least based on this first trailer.Here’s the trailer, which you may have to watch on YouTube because it is age-restricted.I’m getting some serious Guardians of the Galaxy vibes from The Suicide Squad’s trailer — which makes sense, given that both movies are directed by James Gunn. I love the first Guardians movie, so I’m hoping Gunn brings some of the humor and heart from that film... Continue reading…

The DualSense controller comes with every PS5 console. | Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge Best Buy has another round of restocks for Sony’s next-generation console, the PS5. You can buy both the PS5, which includes a disc drive right now, while supplies last.Due to the high demand for these gadgets, Best Buy is curbing the demand by releasing small waves of stock every few minutes. If you don’t see it in stock immediately, it’s smart to check back every few minutes to see if more show up.Once your new console is secured, you might want to start looking into which games you want to add to your collection. The PS5 is home to some of the most popular titles right now, such as Watch Dogs Legion or Spider-Man: Miles Morales. The console also has some highly anticipated titles arriving for the system in the next few months, such... Continue reading…

Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge Update March 26th, 2021 12:26PM ET: Walmart still has both Xbox Series X and Series S available via an Xbox All Access Plan. If you are interested in paying for the console in full, Best Buy currently has stock for both Series X and Series S available now.Microsoft’s next-gen gaming consoles, the Xbox Series X and Series S, came out in November, but buying one even now has been challenging due to the pandemic. If you have a hard time keeping up with restocks on where to buy either console, don’t worry. We are here to help you keep tabs and better your chances of securing either next-gen Xbox console.Keep in mind that due to the high demand of this console, supply will not last long, with inventory selling out typically less than an... Continue reading…

Microsoft’s Xbox Series X console | Photo by Tom Warren / The Verge If you are looking to buy Microsoft’s most powerful console to date, the Xbox Series X, you can try your luck again right now at Best Buy. The retailer also has the more affordable, all-digital Series S available for $299.99.Due to the high demand, we expect the supply to run out very quickly, so don’t hesitate if you’re hoping to score one.Once you’ve secured your next-gen Xbox, you might want to buy some additional items, such as games to play on your new console. I strongly recommend picking up a subscription to Xbox Game Pass Ultimate, which includes a wide array of first- and third-party titles, including a slew of Bethesda games following Microsoft’s acquisition of ZeniMax.Of course, if you plan to share this console with a... Continue reading…

Well, that didn’t take long. Zack Snyder’s Justice League: Justice is Gray, the black and white version of the film that hews closer to the director’s ideal vision for his superhero epic, is out today on HBO Max. Justice is Gray’s release was first teased last week.Outside of the notable lack of color, the film still streams in its now familiar 4:3 aspect ratio, which if anything, I’ve fully come around to since the initial hullabaloo around the “integrity-preserving” choice. Your mileage with the new black and white color scheme, on the other hand, may vary. The dramatic death that opens the film plays a lot stranger when Batman and Wonder Woman seem like they’re watching from some kind of grayscale blur, rather than the original... Continue reading…

Halo Infinite developer 343 Industries smashed a piano into pieces to record sound effects, the studio revealed in a new blog detailing many aspects of the game’s audio production. I really recommend watching the video of the piano-smashing at the top of this post. It’s quite satisfying.But 343’s audio team didn’t just use the piano as a target for various blunt instruments. Before they smashed it, they placed a subwoofer on the piano to use it as a resonator. And after they had destroyed it, they put dry ice on numerous pieces of the piano’s remains, “which yielded a large offering of singing, bellowing, screeching and everything in between,” the developers said. Some of the resulting sounds are spine-chilling. (Interestingly, the... Continue reading…

Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge In many places, you can call up a neighbor or local pizza parlor just by dialing seven numbers, as long as you have the same area code — but that ability will soon be going away, in order to make the National Suicide Prevention and Mental Health Crisis Lifeline easier to reach. If you live in one of the areas where the change is taking place, you’ll soon have to dial 10 numbers whether you’re making a local call or not.Each cellular carrier has a support page explaining the change (we’ll link to all of them below, and a list of the area codes will be included at the end of the post), but the basic gist is that, starting October 24, 2021, anyone trying to call a local number using only seven digits will be met with a recording telling... Continue reading…

Image: Samsung In Oranmore, a small town in County Galway, Ireland, you can now get a taste of a possible, instantly-gratifying drone delivery future. In a newly announced partnership with Irish drone delivery company Manna, Samsung is promising delivery of its smaller electronics like phones and smart watches “within three minutes” when ordered by someone in Oranmore from Samsung’s Irish online store.Manna uses “custom-developed aerospace drones” to complete deliveries, according to Samsung’s announcement. The drones’ ability to travel at speeds over 60 kilometers per hour (around 37 miles per hour) seems to be what guarantees those aggressive delivery times, though only operating within a two-kilometer radius from their dispatch center probably... Continue reading…

In the middle of Congress’ first hearing of the year with the chief executives of Facebook, Google, and Twitter on Thursday, Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey tweeted out a poll. It was just a question mark with two answers: yes and no.It was an obvious troll directed at the lawmakers questioning Dorsey, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, and Google CEO Sundar Pichai over the roles their platforms have played in spreading misinformation and inciting a violent insurrection at the US Capitol earlier this year. With limited time for questioning, the members would interrupt the CEOs’ responses, asking for “yes” or “no” answers or nothing at all.But while the hearing was focused on finding solutions for some of the most serious free speech conflicts in... Continue reading…

Tesla must tell CEO Elon Musk to delete an anti-union tweet from 2018, the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) decided Thursday. The order came as part of Tesla’s appeal of a 2019 ruling by an administrative judge in a years-long legal battle between the company and the United Auto Workers union.Below is Musk’s tweet in question, which is included as a screen instead of a Twitter embed in case the tweet is deleted. This is the direct link to the tweet, which was in response to this tweet, if you want to see the conversation in context on Twitter. Tesla will also have to post a notice at its factories nationwide addressing the “unlawful tweet.” This is actually a change from the decision from the 2019 ruling, where Musk... Continue reading…