The Verge

The Department of Justice has opened an investigation into troubled electric vehicle startup Lordstown Motors, which is backed by General Motors and went public late last year but has yet to get its pickup — the Endurance — into production, according to The Wall Street Journal. It’s the second official probe into the startup, as the Securities and Exchange Commission opened an investigation earlier this year into Lordstown Motors executives’ misleading claims about how many preorders it had logged for the Endurance.The new investigation, which is being run by the US Attorney’s office in the Southern District of New York, comes just weeks after Lordstown Motors’ CEO and founder was pushed out following a law firm’s probe into those... Continue reading…

Photo by Justin Sullivan/Getty Images The US Federal Trade Commission has sued chip maker Broadcom for allegedly abusing a monopoly on semiconductor components. A newly issued complaint accuses Broadcom of threatening to charge higher prices, refuse technical support, or cut off chip sales if its customers bought other products from competing companies.Starting in 2016, Broadcom allegedly struck “exclusive or near-exclusive” deals with at least 10 companies manufacturing video set-top boxes and broadband devices like modems. It allegedly required these “strategic” partners to use a variety of Broadcom components even if they weren’t the best or cheapest option for a given device. Nonexclusive “tactical” partners were charged higher prices for slower product delivery and... Continue reading…

Photo by Becca Farsace / The Verge Following last month’s announcement that OnePlus was integrating with Oppo, effectively becoming a sub-brand of the phone manufacturer, the company announced on Friday that it’s also merging OxygenOS with Oppo’s ColorOS operating system (via 9to5Google).Both companies’ software will remain separate and continue to serve their individual regions (OxygenOS for OnePlus phones globally, ColorOS on OnePlus and Oppo devices in China) but share a common codebase, which OnePlus says should standardize its software experience and streamline the development process for future OxygenOS updates.OnePlus says the change will also allow the company to guarantee better Android update support going forward, something Samsung has also tried to improve... Continue reading…

Image: CD Projekt Red The Witcher: Monster Slayer, an upcoming Pokémon Go-like augmented reality game for mobile devices set in The Witcher universe, will be released on July 21st, CD Projekt Red announced on Friday. It will be available for free on both platforms.In Monster Slayer, you’ll explore the world around you and fight menacing virtual monsters in AR. You’ll also go on “story-driven quests that propel you through epic adventures inspired by the Witcher series, taking you deep into the heart of what it means to be an elite monster slayer,” according to the game’s website. The game was first announced in August 2020.If you’re on Android, you can pre-register for the game on Google Play right now. If you do, you’ll be able to play the game as soon... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge An internal survey designed by Apple employees shows respondents want the option to work from home and fear their colleagues may have to leave if the company forces people back to the office.In the survey, which was sent out in early June, nearly 90 percent of respondents said they “strongly agree” with the statement “location-flexible working options are a very important issue to me.” A total of 1,749 people answered the question. Employees defined “location-flexible” as the option to work from home indefinitely.The news comes on the heels of Tim Cook’s announcement that Apple will be rolling out a new hybrid work model that will require employees to return to the office three days a week starting in early September. While the move... Continue reading…

Photo by Sean O’Kane / The Verge Porsche is recalling its first EV, the Taycan, to fix an issue where some cars suddenly lose power while in motion. The automaker has already sold around 43,000 Taycans globally to date, though it claims (without further clarification) that only a small number are affected. Owners will have to bring their electric Porsches to a dealer for the software fix, which the company says will take between 60 and 90 minutes. The fix is being applied to new Taycans coming off the production line.The same issue is also affecting the new Audi E-Tron GT, as it is built on the Taycan’s electric powertrain. That recall involves far fewer vehicles, though, as Audi only just started shipping the electric sports car.At least a dozen Taycan owners have... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Google’s latest diversity report shows that despite some gains in the number of Black employees, the company is lagging in its goal to double the number of Black workers by 2025. And the search giant is having particular difficulty retaining women of color, the report released Thursday (pdf) shows.Google uses a scale it calls an attrition index, with the number 100 used as a benchmark. The attrition figure for Black women on that index rose from 110 in 2020 to 146 in 2021, the report shows. Among Native American women the attrition index was up to 148 in 2021, compared to 123 in 2020. The 2021 attrition figures also were higher for Asian men and women and for Latinx men, the report showed.“We recognize the platform that we have and... Continue reading…

League of Legends developer Riot is making something new — and very chill. The company just released an album called Sessions: Vi, which is packed with 37 lo-fi tracks from producers like Chromonicci, Junior State, Laxcity, and Tennyson. The idea, the company says, is to offer “stream-safe” music that creators on platforms like YouTube and Twitch can use, without having to worry about copyright strikes. The album is available to stream now on Spotify, Apple Music, and YouTube.In typical Riot fashion, there’s also a narrative album. The title is in reference to League character Vi, a criminal with high-tech gauntlets, and Riot’s head of music Toa Dunn says the album is meant to reflect a day in her life. The tracks are divided into... Continue reading…

Photo by James Bareham / The Verge Tesla delivered 201,250 vehicles in the second quarter of 2021, a record for the company but still falling slightly short of Wall Street expectations. Elon Musk’s company also produced 206,421 vehicles during the same period.Of all the cars that Tesla produced during the quarter, the vast majority — 204,081 — were Model 3 and Model Y vehicles. On top of that, Tesla also produced 2,340 Model S and Model X vehicles — though the company did not break out how many Model S sedans were the high-end Plaid variant that just started reaching customers.the company did not break out how many Model S Plaid sedans were deliveredEarlier last month, Tesla held a delivery event for the redesigned Model S, featuring a new powertrain, more... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge By locating the battery in the floor of the vehicle, auto companies are making it difficult to convert EVs for wheelchair users Continue reading…

Right now, Dell’s G15 Ryzen Edition is perhaps the most affordable gaming laptop that has a powerful Ryzen 7 5800H processor and an Nvidia RTX 3060 graphics chip inside (via Slickdeals). Those two components alone make today’s price of $1,078 an amazing deal (originally $1,459). Additionally, this laptop features a 15.6-inch 1080p screen with a 165Hz refresh rate, 16GB of DDR4 RAM, and a 512GB NVMe SSD (both the RAM and storage are user-upgradeable). I can’t hide that I’m pretty excited about this deal, partially because I don’t know how much longer it will last.If you’re interested in buying a gaming laptop that doesn’t cost too much but want one that has a respectable graphics card, consider this one. Its RTX 3060 supports up to 115W... Continue reading…

Photo by: Jose More/VWPics/Universal Images Group via Getty Images Right now, anyone rolling up their sleeve for a COVID-19 vaccine in the United States is supposed to get a long information sheet. The document informs them that, even though the vaccine can prevent COVID-19, it’s technically not yet approved in the country.Instead, people are getting the shot under an emergency use authorization (EUA) — a designation that let the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) sign off on the lifesaving immunizations without going through the long, onerous licensing process. The shots still went through a rigorous safety review, and there’s ample evidence that they’re highly effective.But for some people, the “emergency” tag and the fact that the shots are still unapproved is a reason to avoid getting vaccinated.... Continue reading…

Photo: Netflix Something special happens when you marathon horror movies. On their own, slasher flicks like Friday the 13th or Halloween can seem like nothing more than bloody fun. But when you watch a bunch in a row, the connections and mythologies become much more apparent; Jason Voorhees shifts from a murderous demon into something more sympathetic. Some of them even feature “previously on” segments to make these links more obvious.These movies may not have been created with binge-watching in mind, but in many ways they benefit from it, which is part of what makes the Fear Street trilogy on Netflix so interesting: it was designed to be binged. All three entries, starting with part one on July 2nd, will be released over the course of three weeks.... Continue reading…

Photo by David McNew/Getty Images General Motors has struck a deal with a mining company to source lithium, a key ingredient in electric-car batteries, from geothermal deposits in the US. The automaker is making a “multi-million dollar” investment in Australia’s Controlled Thermal Resources (CTR) to bolster the mining firm’s efforts to extract lithium from California’s Salton Sea Geothermal Field.It’s a risky bet by GM, given that there is no full-scale lithium production in the US from geothermal wells. Most of the world’s lithium comes from two places: lithium brine deposits in South America’s “lithium triangle” of Argentina, Chile, and Bolivia; and hard-rock deposits in Australia. But its a sign that GM is trying to think holistically about the challenge of becoming... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Microsoft is warning Windows users about an unpatched critical flaw in the Windows Print Spooler service. The vulnerability, dubbed PrintNightmare, was uncovered earlier this week after security researchers accidentally published a proof-of-concept (PoC) exploit. While Microsoft hasn’t rated the vulnerability, it allows attackers to remotely execute code with system-level privileges, which is as critical and problematic as you can get in Windows.Researchers at Sangfor published the PoC, in what appears to have been a mistake, or a miscommunication between the researchers and Microsoft. The test code was quickly deleted, but not before it had already been forked on GitHub.Sangfor researchers had been planning to detail multiple 0-day... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge A bipartisan group of lawmakers have asked that the FTC continue its antitrust lawsuit against Facebook after setbacks in court. Senators Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) and Mike Lee (R-UT), together with House representatives David Cicilline (D-RI) and Ken Buck (R-CO), signed a letter addressed to FTC Chair Lina Khan detailing why the regulatory action is needed.“It is essential that the Commission take action to deter anticompetitive conduct by digital monopolists by ensuring that they are held liable for antitrust violations to the full extent of the law,” the lawmakers wrote.“It is essential that the Commission take action”This letter comes just four days after Judge James E. Boasberg dismissed the federal government’s key antitrust... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Facebook is testing prompts that will link users to anti-extremism support and resources if the company believes the user knows someone who could be on the path to extremism, or if the user has been exposed to extremist content themselves, according to a report by CNN Business.In a statement to The Verge, a Facebook spokesperson said that the test is part of the company’s “larger work to assess ways to provide resources and support to people on Facebook who may have engaged with or were exposed to extremist content, or may know someone who is at risk.”Facebook says that it’ll continue to remove extremist content that violates its rules, though the company has had issues tracking down and removing similar content, even from groups that i... Continue reading…

Nike The Olympics are back on this summer in Japan — despite local opposition — and athletes will of course find themselves outfitted in the lightest, slickest gear to assist in record-breaking performances. Ahead of the games, Nike has unveiled some of the apparel the US team will wear (including “Rawdacious” themed track spikes with carbon fiber plates), but you may want to keep an eye on outfits reserved for medal winners.Nike is highlighting sustainability themes with pants and jackets that are made from 100 percent recycled material, and while the accompanying footwear is made partially from recycled materials, that’s not the only thing special about it. This year’s medal stand features Nike’s FlyEase tech, which is made for easy entry... Continue reading…

Humble Bundle has announced that it’s going to change how payment sliders will work in its storefront by removing the ability to donate all of what you spend to charity and setting an average minimum cut for Humble Bundle itself between 15 to 30 percent (via Kotaku). The change goes into effect in “mid-July.”When you buy a bundle of games, ebooks, or software on Humble Bundle, you’re traditionally given the option to choose how much of your money goes to Humble Bundle, the creator of what you’re buying, and a charity via a slider for each. Those sliders are sticking around, but now they’ll have a bit less range.The company justified the change in a blog post announcing its plans:

Photo by JOHANNES EISELE/AFP via Getty Images Space tourism firm Virgin Galactic will fly its founder Richard Branson on its next test flight slated for July 11th, the company confirmed Thursday. Branson’s new flight date will come before rival Jeff Bezos is expected to fly in his own space tourism rocket on July 20th, setting the stage for a largely symbolic showdown between two billionaires racing to validate their space tourism rockets.Branson, 70, wasn’t set to fly on Virgin Galactic’s VSS Unity spaceplane for another two tests — until Thursday, when the company announced he’d fly on July 11th “testing the private astronaut experience” alongside four mission specialists and two pilots. “I’ve always been a dreamer,” Branson tweeted after the announcement. “My mum taught me to... Continue reading…

Apple is reportedly working on a program called “Retail Flex,” which will give its store employees the chance to work from home some weeks, according to Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman. According to the report, the employees would be remotely handling things like tech support and online sales part of the time, and working at the store as usual at other times.Having employees who traditionally work in a store transitioning to a remote role, even if it’s only a partial change, is a big shift, likely brought on by the pandemic. It doesn’t seem like Apple is just jumping into it. The company is reportedly starting a pilot program that will last at least six months, with participating employees being paid the same salary, plus some extra for... Continue reading…

Photo by Chris Welch / The Verge The next big software update for Apple TV will arrive with tvOS 15. While it won’t become widely available until later this year, users who are part of Apple’s public beta program can now take it for a spin ahead of time. It’s possible and even likely that Apple will continue tinkering with tvOS 15 features ahead of its official launch, but particularly for those looking to test-drive Apple’s forthcoming SharePlay feature, the public beta has officially landed.The goodies arriving in tvOS 15 that Apple has disclosed so far are small — you’re not going to notice a massive redesign of the tvOS interface, for example — but they’re not insignificant, either.Though, a warning: once you install tvOS 15 on a newer Apple TV 4K box, there’s no... Continue reading…

Image: Amazon Amazon is bringing the conclusion to the Rebuild of Evangelion film series — adaptations of the beloved anime Neon Genesis Evangelion created by Hideaki Anno — to Prime Video on August 13th. Evangelion: 3.0 + 1.01 Thrice Upon a Time came out in Japan in March but will be making its global premiere on Prime Video in over 240 countries and territories, Amazon says.Alongside the final fourth film, Amazon will also stream the other films in the series, Evangelion: 1.11 You Are (Not) Alone, Evangelion: 2.22 You Can (Not) Advance, and Evangelion: 3.33 You Can (Not) Redo. The company hasn’t said when those films will be available on its service, but hopefully in time to catch up for Thrice Upon a Time’s August release. You can watch a trailer... Continue reading…

A mockup of what the new trusted friends feature could look like. | Image: Twitter Twitter has shared three early design concepts for new features it’s considering for its service. “Trusted Friends” would let users limit the audience for select tweets to a smaller circle of close friends, while “Facets” could let you categorize your tweets when you send them. Finally, the service is also considering letting users list certain phrases that they’d rather not see in their replies. These ideas are in their early stages, Twitter says, and none are currently in active development.Many Twitter users already have multiple accounts to separate their work and personal lives, often with one of them being private to prevent sharing personal news too publicly. But features like Trusted Friends and Facets could allow for the same... Continue reading…

The hottest album of 2021 is about to drop. The soundtrack of the hit ‘90s sitcom Seinfeld will be released on Friday, July 2nd (via Variety) on “all digital platforms,” though specific platforms weren’t stated. I expect to hear the bouncy slap bass-driven theme song that never fails to make me laugh blaring out of cars, apartments, and cafes this Fourth of July weekend. Believe it or not, there will be 33 tracks on the album, and it’s apparently the first time that this music will be made available in an official fashion.The composer, Jonathan Wolff, told Variety that the soundtrack contains some music that was created for the show but never actually appeared in it. Three jazz songs were made for scenes where Elaine (played by Julia... Continue reading…

Photo by Sergei Fadeichev\TASS via Getty Images A new Russian law will require large social media companies to open offices in Russia if they don’t want to face advertising bans or other penalties, according to a report by Reuters. The law was reportedly signed by President Vladimir Putin on Thursday and will apply to foreign companies that are “carrying out activities on the internet in Russia.” According to a Russian official, the law affects companies that have over 500,000 Russian visitors a day.The Russian government has been looking to rein in Big Tech’s influence in the country. In 2019, it introduced a law that required device makers to pre-install Russian-made apps on smartphones, TVs, and computers (with Apple being allowed to instead show the apps to users during the setup... Continue reading…

Image: USPS EV startup Workhorse has accused the United States Postal Service of bias in choosing defense contractor Oshkosh to build the next-generation mail truck, and claims the agency committed “countless errors” during the selection process. Workhorse also alleges that the new mail truck that Oshkosh and the USPS debuted in February is entirely different from the one the defense contractor tested during the yearslong competition, and that it doesn’t have a working prototype, something the startup says is blatant evidence of unfair treatment.These new allegations are at the heart of the complaint that Workhorse filed in the US Court of Federal Claims on June 16th, which was unsealed this week. (The court had allowed time for Workhorse, the... Continue reading…

If you downloaded and installed the macOS Monterey public beta, there’s a chance that you may want to return to Big Sur, which is currently the stable macOS version. There are a couple of different ways to restore your Mac’s original software; which one you should follow depends on how you installed the beta.The path to restoring is easiest if you made a Time Machine backup before updating the operating system, or if you installed the beta on a separate partition via Disk Utility. If you installed the beta on your main partition without a backup, you can still restore your system to the older OS, but you’ll need to start fresh.Whichever path you chose, we’ll walk you through how to find your way back to a more reliable OS. Pick the... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge When you can be in the right place at the right time, you can really make some things happen for yourself. Take, for instance, Volodymyr Kvashuk, who moved from Ukraine to the US for a career in computer science and wound up working as an engineer for Microsoft. According to a new must-read feature from Bloomberg, that was exactly the right time to turn a loophole in Microsoft’s payment testing apparatus into a multimillion-dollar Bitcoin scheme — and a sick lake house.Kvashuk’s job was to look for flaws in how Microsoft processed payments by buying things like physical hardware using a company card and a fake login. Microsoft knew enough to not send him a Dell PC every time he ordered one, but Xbox gift cards bought online and sent to... Continue reading…

Illustrations by Alex Castro / The Verge The moment that some of you have been waiting for is here — Robinhood’s S-1 filing to go public has been revealed, laying bare the kind of secrets you only learn when a company is legally obligated to reveal them. Only one day ago, the company agreed to pay a record-breaking $70 million fine “for systemic supervisory failures and significant harm suffered by millions of customers,” and now its paperwork touts a commitment to “maintaining strong relationships with our loyal customer base and earning our customers’ trust when they choose our platform on their financial journeys.”So what does the much-anticipated document include? There’s a note that the United States Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of California has executed a... Continue reading…

The Xperia 1 III puts an emphasis on advanced camera features and high-end display specs. | Image: Sony Sony’s next flagship phone, the Xperia 1 III, will ship on August 19th in the US — for a whopping $1,299.99. It’s available to preorder today, the company announced. The new photography-focused phone is designed as a complement to Sony’s Alpha camera range, and it introduces a variable periscope-style telephoto lens. It’s also equipped with just about everything you’d expect from a flagship Android phone in 2021, including a Snapdragon 888 processor, 5G, and a 6.5-inch display with 120Hz refresh rate.The Xperia 1 II launched at $1,200 — pricey even for a top-of-the-line device — and Sony isn’t backing off by pricing this one at an extra $100. In this case at least, users in the US will be able to utilize its 5G connectivity; last year’s... Continue reading…

Photo by Marco Bello / Anadolu Agency via Getty Images Amazon demands that suppliers let it buy up to 30 percent of their company at a fixed rate often below market valuation, according to a Wall Street Journal report.Amazon has added these kinds of stipulations to contracts with companies that supply it with aircraft, Amazon Fresh groceries, and call center services more than 75 times over the last 10 years, according to the Journal. Its potential equity in other firms is valued at nearly $3 billion, according to Amazon’s latest quarterly financial filings.These kinds of deals are called warrants, and they function similarly to stock options granted to employees of a company. Amazon gets the option to buy its supplier’s stock at a certain price, set before the deal is announced. When... Continue reading…

Need a quick note? There’s an app for that. The public beta of macOS 12 Monterey, Apple’s next big macOS release, is now available for download. The operating system has the same general look and feel as its predecessor, macOS 11 Big Sur, but it brings some new features and a number of tweaks to Apple’s most popular services.Before we get into this, friendly reminder that Monterey is, for now, a beta. It may not be the best idea to install on a primary device, as you might encounter bugs, unfinished features, and incompatibility with third-party apps. If you will be installing the program on your daily driver, make sure you’ve backed up anything you can’t afford to mess with first.For those who take the leap and install the public beta, the component Apple seems most excited... Continue reading…

Chair Khan, appearing at the hearing via Zoom In an open meeting on Thursday, the Federal Trade Commission passed a pair of pivotal measures expanding its power to regulate anti-competitive business practices, setting the stage for a more aggressive enforcement approach from the embattled agency.Announced last week, Thursday’s proceeding is the first open business meeting of the commission in more than 20 years, as commission proceedings have traditionally been closed to the public. Chair Lina Khan plans to hold public meetings on a monthly basis going forward.The meeting paved the way for an aggressive antitrust approach from the agency, with three separate measures expanding the commission’s power to prosecute anti-competitive business practices.“We want to send a signal that... Continue reading…

Image: Apple Apple has launched the public beta for macOS Monterey. This is the next big update coming to Mac computers (the final version is expected later in 2021) and it brings several big changes. In this article, we’re going to walk you through how to get the beta onto your computer, should you want it. Once you install the beta, it will likely receive several updates between now and the final release.(Looking for steps to install the iOS 15 and iPadOS 15 public betas? We’ve got you covered here.)What’s new about macOS Monterey?One of the most impressive demos that Apple showed during WWDC 2021 was the new drag-and-drop feature called Universal Control that’ll let you seamlessly move your cursor and files between an iPad and Mac computer, as... Continue reading…

Image: Sony Sony and Sucker Punch’s hit game Ghost of Tsushima is getting an enhanced director’s cut edition for both the PS4 and PS5 that will include a new island to explore and all of the content that has been released so far for the original game. The upgraded game will be available on August 20th.The new content takes place on the island of Iki, and Sucker Punch says there will be new story content, characters, environments, armor, enemies, and more. “There are even new animals to pet!” Sucker Punch’s Andrew Goldfarb said in a blog post. Image: Sony An image of Iki Island in Ghost of Tsushima’s expansion. Alongside the additional content, Ghost of Tsushima Director’s Cut will also have some PS5-exclusive features,... Continue reading…

Photo by Chesnot/Getty Images At the UN Generation Equality Forum in Paris on Thursday Twitter, TikTok, Google, and Facebook committed to tackling online abuse and improving safety for women on their platforms. The pledge came following consultations with the World Wide Web Foundation (WWWF) over the past year, aimed at examining online gender-based violence and abuse.The WWWF said the consultations showed women want more control over who could reply or comment on their social media posts and more choice around what they see online, where, and when.According to the WWWF, the companies have pledged to “build better ways for women to curate their safety online” by offering more granular settings, such as who can see, share, or comment on posts; more simple and... Continue reading…

Illustration by Maria Chimishkyan Earlier this week, Australian developer Chris Lacy tweeted about a curious experience while logging into a rarely used Google account. When Google texted his two-factor authentication code, the message popped up along with an ad including a link for VPN services. Considering the downsides of phishing or malware distribution attached to a code that’s specifically intended to keep your account secure, this didn’t go over well.While Lacy did not name the carrier who delivered the text, Google Identity and Security senior director Mark Risher clarified that the ad didn’t come from his company.“These are not our ads and we are currently working with the wireless carrier to understand why this happened.”Google’s official statement on the... Continue reading…

Image: Google TV Evidently acknowledging our collective content fatigue, Google TV has announced a new celebrity-curated Watch With Me series that should make finding something to binge a little less painful.Google announced that the Watch With Me series will spotlight series and movies loved by entertainers and artists. In addition to Watch With Me showcasing celebrities’ favorite flicks, the series will feature interviews with those curators about why they hand-selected a specific title to be featured.Celebrities and artists will handpick their favorite titles to help you find something to watchGoogle TV’s algorithm is fairly good at surfacing relevant titles, but the idea is to allow these hosts to guide users specifically through a collection of... Continue reading…

Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge Pinterest said Thursday it is updating its ad policies to “prohibit all ads with weight loss language and imagery.” The company said in a blog post that it developed its new policy with guidance from the National Eating Disorders Association (NEDA), whose research shows there has been a rise in eating disorders and unhealthy eating habits in young people during the pandemic.“Pinterest is the place people come for inspiration to create life they love,” the blog post reads. “It’s where everyone belongs—regardless of body shape or size. We’re empowering Pinners to plan for a summer and beyond without weight loss ads, so they can focus on what matters most.”The company claims it is the “only major platform to prohibit all weight loss... Continue reading…

The Google app on iOS appears to have gotten a new Easter egg: a rather entertaining little pinball app hidden away in the “Tabs” menu. The game appears to have been added a few weeks ago, as spotted by several YouTube videos and a Reddit post in the middle of June.Opening the pinball game is simple: switch over to the Tabs, uh, tab in Google’s iOS app, clear out any open tabs, and then wait for the colorful shapes to start creeping up from the bottom of the screen. Swipe up on those shapes, and you’ll launch a surprisingly full-featured pinball game directly in the app.A surprisingly good pinball gameGameplay actually works like a mix of pinball and Brick Breaker, with each level spawning a variety of colorful shapes that shrink and... Continue reading…

The Apple Watch Series 6, in Product Red color. | Vjeran Pavic / The Verge Apple has now released public betas for iOS 15, iPadOS 15, watchOS 8, tvOS 15, and soon macOS Monterey. We’ve covered how to get the iOS 15 and iPadOS 15 betas here — follow along below if you’re interested in testing out the latest Apple Watch software, too.WatchOS 8 is expected to get a full, stable release this fall. It brings a handful of new features, including more workout types in the Fitness app, a new Mindfulness app, a watchface that works with Portrait Mode photos taken on an iPhone, as well as improved weather and smart home apps, among other things. It’s compatible with the Series 3, Series 4, Series 5, Series 6, and SE Apple Watch models.Before we go through how to install the beta, there are some important things you... Continue reading…

The European Union’s digital COVID-19 certificate officially launched today. The certificate allows people to show proof of COVID-19 vaccination, a recent negative test result, or a past COVID-19 infection.The certificate, which includes a QR code and digital signature, can either be displayed on a digital device or printed out. People who have the certificate should not have to get an additional COVID-19 test or quarantine when traveling in the EU. The certificate only recognizes COVID-19 vaccines authorized in the EU — that includes the AstraZeneca, Pfizer / BioNTech, Moderna, and Johnson & Johnson shots.Some countries in the EU have already been issuing and recognizing the certificate. Germany, for example, said in mid-June that... Continue reading…

Wally Funk in an undated photo provided by Blue Origin Wally Funk, one of the “Mercury 13” pilots who fought to open NASA’s early astronaut program to women, will ride with Jeff Bezos on his space company’s first crewed mission out of Earth’s atmosphere later this month, the billionaire announced on Instagram Thursday.

Unfortunately, the batteries won’t look as cool as this one. | The Battery Issue | Artist: William Joel Batteries don’t usually come cheap, so if you have lots of battery-operated gadgets and remotes, you might want to stock up during Best Buy’s big sale happening today. Many of the store’s alkaline batteries from in-house brand Insignia are over half off their usual price. The most appealing offer is the 33-piece assortment pack for $7 (usually $20) that includes 12 AAA, 12 AA, four C, and four D batteries, with one 9V battery.If you just need more commonly sized batteries, you can get a 36-pack of AA and AAA batteries that includes 24 AA and 12 AAA batteries for $5.95 (usually $16.99). Best Buy has other varieties of batteries on sale today, including AAAA and coin batteries for watches, if you want to take a look yourself. ... Continue reading…

The Ace Attorney series is one of gaming’s great pleasures, mashing up courtroom drama with anime sensibilities into something dramatic, heartwarming, and silly in equal measure. But if you’re a new player, it can be tough to know where to start. There’s the original trilogy starring Phoenix Wright, a handful of spinoffs, and more recent titles that further the story of a hapless defense attorney with a heart of gold. It’s like jumping into a long-running soap opera and having to quickly catch up.But it looks like a solution is almost here: Capcom is set to launch a prequel called The Great Ace Attorney Chronicles that offers the same tone and gameplay without all of the narrative baggage.Chronicles is actually a compilation of two... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge TikToks are about to get longer. The app is now rolling out the ability for everyone to publish videos up to three minutes in length, three times the existing one-minute limit. The extension is meant to give creators more flexibility while filming and limit the need for multi-part posts — though I suspect creators love hooking users that way and will keep breaking up stories.Three-minute videos have been in testing at least since December, and it’s been easy to come across them when scrolling through videos from top TikTok creators, particularly in categories like cooking. Longer videos were limited to select users, though, but they’ll now be rolling out to everyone on TikTok “over the coming weeks.”TikTok didn’t say how longer clips... Continue reading…

Image: Sony The latest patch for Ratchet and Clank: Rift Apart has given the game a small but significant performance boost when playing using its fidelity mode on 120Hz displays. According to the patch notes for version 1.002 of the game, fidelity mode now runs at 40 frames per second when used with 120Hz displays, up from the 30 frames per second previously. That’s over a 30 percent improvement, which should make the game look a lot smoother and feel a lot more responsive to play in this mode.It’s a change that mainly affects just one of the three display modes the PS5 game shipped with, but it’s a fascinating example of the kinds of things that will become possible as 120Hz TVs become the norm. It’s also an interesting workaround for Sony’s... Continue reading…

Microsoft Flight Simulator is a notoriously demanding PC game, but a big patch is arriving later this month that promises significant performance improvements. Asobo, the developer of Microsoft Flight Simulator, has been busy rewriting its engine to perform well on Xbox Series X / S, and the changes will also bring some much-needed improvements to the PC side on July 27th.During a recent Twitch stream, spotted by Twinfinite, Asobo demonstrated just how significant the performance improvements will be on older systems with an Intel Core i7-9700K and an RTX 2060 Super. Microsoft Flight Simulator jumped from around 30fps to nearly a solid 60fps just thanks to the patch. CPU utilization also drops from 100 percent to 75 percent on this... Continue reading…

The Galaxy Watch 4 Classic in black, gray, and white. | Image: Android Headlines Images of Samsung’s Galaxy Watch 4 Classic have leaked online, giving us our first look at what could be the more traditionally-styled entry in Samsung’s upcoming smartwatch lineup. The images, published by Android Headlines, show a smartwatch with a rotating bezel and two buttons on its right-hand side, available in white, gray, and black.The watch will reportedly be available in three sizes in total: 42mm, 44mm, and 46mm, and will run on the smartwatch platform co-developed by Samsung and Google. The watch will also reportedly be available in either stainless steel or aluminum, will be water resistant up to a depth of 50 meters (thanks to a 5ATM rating), and should be rugged thanks to a MIL-STD-810G certification. I... Continue reading…