The Verge

NASA has locked in a location on Mars for the first demo flight of its mini helicopter named Ingenuity, engineers announced on Tuesday. The four-pound rotorcraft is gearing up to attempt the first powered flight on another planet, demonstrating a new capability that could unlock access to hard-to-reach areas of other celestial bodies in the future.Ingenuity arrived on Mars in February, clinging to the belly of the Perseverance rover, surviving a seven-month trek through deep space and an intense seven-minute landing sequence through Mars’ atmosphere. Within a few hours of Perseverance’s landing, engineers started analyzing orbital imagery to find a prime flight zone to drop off Ingenuity for its first flight — “an area where it is safe... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Intel has a new CEO, Pat Gelsinger, and he’s not wasting any time to make some big changes. At the company’s “Engineering the Future” announcement today, Gelsinger announced plans to outsource more of Intel’s chip production to third-party foundries; a $20 billion investment into two new fabs in Arizona; and a new branch of the company called Intel Foundry Services, which will see Intel’s foundries produce chips for other companies.The announcements are part of a new “IDM 2.0” strategy for Intel’s design and manufacturing, which is made up of three parts. First, there’s Intel’s in-house manufacturing, which will continue to serve as a key part of Intel’s design and production of chips. Second, there’s an expanded use of external... Continue reading…

Photo: Getty Images Amazon has named Salesforce executive Adam Selipsky as the replacement for Andy Jassy, the longtime chief of Amazon Web Services (AWS) and the company’s next CEO when founder Jeff Bezos steps down later this year. Selipsky worked at AWS for more than 10 years, raising to the rank of vice president of sales and marketing, before running the startup Tableau, which is now part of Salesforce. Selipsky’s hiring was first reported by CNBC, which published a memo Jassy sent to Amazon employees on Wednesday announcing the news.“Adam brings strong judgment, customer obsession, team building, demand generation, and CEO experience to an already very strong AWS leadership team. And, having been in such a senior role at AWS for 11 years, he knows... Continue reading…

Image: Zoom Zoom has released a new SDK (software development kit) to help developers build Zoom into their software. According to the company, you can now build your own “video-based applications and websites” on top of Zoom’s platform and can more easily incorporate Zoom’s video and audio features directly into your apps.The company envisions developers utilizing Zoom’s chat functions in a number of different settings, from social media and gaming platforms to virtual retail apps.“Using our Video SDK, developers can drive customer engagement and provide new opportunities for revenue without being tied to the Zoom Meetings user interface,” writes Zoom product marketing manager Natalie Mullin in a company blog post.The SDK is part of a broader... Continue reading…

Image: Netflix Netflix has announced that it will be experimenting with the release schedules of two reality TV shows, The Circle and Too Hot to Handle (via The Hollywood Reporter). Instead of releasing all of the episodes at once, it will release them over the course of a month, with each show having a batch of episodes released on Wednesdays, then releasing the finale by itself at the end of the run. This means you won’t be able to binge all of the episodes in a single weekend... and that may be a good thing.These shows aren’t the first time Netflix has broken away from the binge model it popularized, in which all of the episodes of a show are released at once. It has released episodes of cooking competition The Great British Baking Show and music... Continue reading…

Image: Verizon Media Group Yahoo is the legacy Web 1.0 brand that just won’t get dragged and dropped into the trash bin of history, and that’s largely thanks to Verizon’s tireless efforts to keep it going after buying the company a few years ago for nearly $5 billion. This time around, the telecom giant actually wants to expand the Yahoo brand to all of its consumer-facing web properties with a new series of subscription offerings organized around what it’s calling Yahoo Plus, according to a new report from Axios.It’s important to mention right now, before we go any further, that the official Verizon Media Group branding provided for Yahoo Plus stylizes it as “Yahoo!+,” with that deranged cousin of the interrobang slapped onto the end of it. Apparently “Oath,”... Continue reading…

Android phones by OnePlus have a considerable set of fans, and if you count yourself among their number, you will probably want to be in on this year’s launch of the company’s latest line: the OnePlus 9 series.What’s in store? Well, in its videos, OnePlus is touting Fluid Display 2.0, an OLED panel which is supposed to have a really fast refresh rate while still (according to the company) maintaining an impressive battery life. There is the possibility of three models — OnePlus 9, 9 Pro, and 9R — and perhaps a new watch.For more information, the best thing to do is to attend the event. Here’s how: WHEN DOES THE ONEPLUS EVENT START?It starts today, March 23rd, at 10AM ET / 7AM PT / 2PM BST.WHERE CAN I WATCH THE ONEPLUS... Continue reading…

Illustration by William Joel / The Verge Some apps were crashing for Android users, but Google has fixed it. The issue was due to a system component called Android System WebView that lets Android apps display web content. Google now has a fix that requires users to update Android System WebView to version 89.0.4389.105 and Google Chrome to the latest version. Both are available on Google Play.The issues began on Monday afternoon and lasted about seven hours, according to the Google Workspace dashboard for Gmail. The company recommended using the desktop interface until issues were resolved.“We are aware of an issue with WebView causing some apps on Android to crash for some users,” Google said in a statement to The Verge. “We are currently working to fully validate the... Continue reading…

Photo by James Bareham / The Verge The next Nintendo Switch will use a new Nvidia system-on-chip with support for DLSS (Deep Learning Super Sampling), according to a report in Bloomberg. The chip is said to bring improvements to GPU and CPU performance, with DLSS serving as Nintendo’s solution for displaying higher resolution images on 4K TVs.DLSS was introduced with Nvidia’s RTX 20-series GPUs, based on the Turing architecture. It makes use of neural networks to reconstruct game images in real time at a higher quality. Different versions of the technology have variously relied on the GPU’s tensor cores and training the AI on specific games, but the upshot is that you can render a game at a lower traditional resolution and get a much higher output with minimal... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Microsoft is in discussions with Discord to acquire the gaming-focused chat software for more than $10 billion, according to sources talking to Bloomberg. Xbox chief Phil Spencer is said to be talking to Discord about the potential deal.VentureBeat reported earlier today that Discord was exploring a $10 billion-plus sale after multiple potential buyers expressed interest, and that it had signed an exclusive acquisition discussion with one party, suggesting a deal could be close. Bloomberg’s sources say the deal isn’t imminent, however, with one person saying Discord would be more likely to take itself public than seek an acquisition.Bloomberg names Epic Games and Amazon as companies that have also held discussions with Discord in the... Continue reading…

It’s not at all controversial to say that internet service sucks in the United States. As part of its plan to update coverage maps in the US, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), in a break from tradition, is finally asking average Americans to report which internet services are actually available where they live.In the past, the FCC has made these coverage maps with self-reported data from the ISPs themselves, an inherently compromising decision because internet service providers will naturally want to paint the rosiest picture possible. Since the FCC uses these maps as evidence for proposed regulation, it can seriously hinder the FCC’s ability to make sure there’s actual competition in the market and that the internet is... Continue reading…

An early 8K TV set. I just realized: I never came back to thank you for buying that $30,000 8K television. I mean, I’m sure the $1,500 coupon helped? But I feel like I still owe you a bit more.How about this: why not be the first to stream PC games at 8K resolution to the other end of your mansion? When we saw that Steam now supports that feature, we immediately thought of you.Imagine the possibilities: you could sit down on your fully immersive $9,000 toilet with your backup 8K TV — as you do — and instead wasting so many of those glorious pixels on a pillarboxed Snyder Cut, you can use all 33+ million of them to sling some not-terribly-demanding game at 8K resolution from your blinding rainbow death box of an RTX 3090-equipped gaming PC, without even... Continue reading…

Image: Niantic Niantic, developer of the smash hit Pokémon Go, has announced a new partnership with Nintendo. The first new game from the collaboration will be a mobile augmented reality game based on Nintendo’s popular Pikmin franchise, and it will launch later this year.Details are thin right now, but Niantic says that “the app will include gameplay activities to encourage walking and make walking more delightful.” If you want to receive more information about the new game as it’s available, you can sign up here to get updates. The new Pikmin AR game will be the first developed by Niantic’s Tokyo Studio.

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Tinder is partnering with Lyft to offer the ability to gift rides to dates without having to leave the Tinder app. It’s a small convenience if you already have the Lyft app downloaded, but like adding video chat in the app, it’s one less reason to switch your focus away from your match and to another app.There’s no firm release date for the Lyft integration other than it’s “slated to roll out in the coming months” and Tinder has no visuals to share yet for how it will work in the app. Tinder does say that Lyft’s usual safety features like location sharing with family and friends will be available from the Lyft app for gifted rides.Adding Lyft rides could be convenient, but there are some potential scenarios to be concerned about. It’s... Continue reading…

Ingenuity’s debris shield lies beneath Perseverance | NASA/JPL NASA’s Perseverance rover is getting ready to deploy a mini-helicopter named Ingenuity on Mars. The four-pound, four-blade rotorcraft will attempt the first flight of its kind on another planet, and in the process, it will test a new mode of mobility that could transform the way we Earthlings remotely explore other worlds.The craft is currently attached to the belly of Perseverance, which landed at Mars’ Jezero crater in February. One of the first steps toward setting the baby helicopter off on its debut flight came this weekend when Perseverance dropped a protective shell and exposed Ingenuity to the bright Martian sunlight for the first time. “Away goes the debris shield, and here’s our first look at the helicopter,” the rover’s... Continue reading…

Image: LibrePlanet Open-source software advocate Richard Stallman is rejoining the board of the Free Software Foundation. Stallman founded the FSF in 1985 and acted as its president until 2019, when he resigned after making widely criticized statements about convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.Stallman announced the news during a live stream for the FSF project LibrePlanet. “Some of you will be happy at this, and some might be disappointed, but who knows?” he said. “In any case, that’s how it is, and I’m not planning to resign a second time.” He also mentioned that the announcement was meant to be made with a more formal video, but that “it didn’t get finished.”Stallman resigned from the FSF, as well as a position at MIT, after participating in an... Continue reading…

Microsoft is rebranding Xbox Live to Xbox network. Instances of the new branding started appearing in the Xbox dashboard recently for beta testers, with clips being uploaded to “Xbox network” instead of Xbox Live. Microsoft has now confirmed the name change.“’Xbox network’ refers to the underlying Xbox online service, which was updated in the Microsoft Services Agreement,” says a Microsoft spokesperson in a statement to The Verge. “The update from ‘Xbox Live’ to ‘Xbox network’ is intended to distinguish the underlying service from Xbox Live Gold memberships.”Microsoft has used Xbox Live to refer to its underlying Xbox service since its original launch 18 years ago. Larry Hryb, better known as Major Nelson, has been known as “Xbox... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge The National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) found merit to the claim that Amazon threatened and retaliated against workers protesting the company’s handling of the COVID-19 pandemic, according to an NLRB complaint obtained by Motherboard. The case, which centers on a warehouse in Queens, New York, was settled before it went to trial.The NLRB investigation found that warehouse managers may have violated US labor law on four accounts, Motherboard reports. During the pandemic, they allegedly instructed employees not to organize without first notifying them, interrogated workers about the walkout, and threatened to discipline those who spoke to colleagues about the protests.The complaint reportedly said that Amazon illegally interrogated... Continue reading…

Photo: Pim de Groot (@mifune) / Twitter USB-C ports, I am occasionally forced to admit, are somewhat confusing. Different standards, different charging speeds, different data and video capabilities, proprietary labels like Thunderbolt, all on top of identical-looking plugs — it can be a lot.But one thing that USB-C ports had going for them was a solution for one of the biggest annoyances of USB-A — it’s no longer possible to insert a USB cable the “wrong” way, thanks to the symmetrical design of the plugs.Or, at least, it was, until mechanical engineer Pim de Groot came along with a USB-C gadget from hell, which does behave differently depending on which way your USB-C plug is facing. And I hate it so, so much.

Image: Lego In celebration of the 40th anniversary of the first Space Shuttle launch, Lego is releasing a new Space Shuttle Discovery set in collaboration with NASA. Discovery was not the first shuttle to take flight — that would be Columbia, which likely stirs up too many sad feelings for a Lego set — but it was the shuttle that launched the Hubble Space Telescope, which is also included in the set.Available April 1st for $200, the set has 2,354 pieces, including three newly designed pieces for the windscreen and payload bay. It also includes 108 drum lacquered silver pieces, the most of any Lego set yet.At 1:70 scale, the assembled shuttle comes in at around 8.5 inches high, 21 inches long, and 13.5 inches wide. The set comes with two stands... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Samsung is reportedly working on a double-folding phone to add to its lineup, according to Nikkei Asia (via 9to5Google). According to the article, the phone would fold into three segments using two hinges and could be announced “as early as the end of this year.” The phone would be a third option in Samsung’s foldable lineup, joining the Galaxy Z Fold and Z Flip, both of which are also expected to appear in new versions this year.According to the report, the design is still being finalized, but Nikkei’s sources say its screen could have a more standard 16:9 or 18:9 aspect ratio, making it easier for app makers to design for than the 25:9 screen found on the Z Fold.We’ve seen phones with multiple folds before: Xiaomi’s folding phone... Continue reading…

The mute button is right underneath the PlayStation logo, and it does more than just switch off the microphone. | Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge Did you know that you could mute all system audio by simply holding the mute button on the DualSense for about one second? I’ve had a PS5 for months, yet I only now realized this hidden feature exists after watching a YouTube video that the algorithm served me. You’ll know it’s working when the orange mute light strobes softly, then you won’t hear any system sounds.Apparently, this trick works to disable all audio, no matter the audio source, be it your speakers, headphones wired into the controller’s 3.5mm jack, a wireless gaming headset, or one plugged in via one of the console’s USB ports. Even though the DualSense has some limited PC support, this feature is exclusive to PS5, it seems.This video isn’t the exclusive source for this... Continue reading…

Netflix has its next major action franchise: an adaptation of Keanu Reeves’ new BRZRKR comic book series, which the streaming service is turning into both a live-action film (produced and starring Reeves) and a sequel anime series (with Reeves voicing his character), the company announced today.BRZRKR is a new 12-issue series from Boom Studios (the first issue of which was released earlier in March) co-written by Reeves himself (in his comics debut) and Matt Kindt (Folklords, Justice League of America) with art by Ron Garney. Fittingly, Reeves will play the title character in both the upcoming live-action series and the anime, although there’s no release date announced yet.The ultra-violent comic follows an immortal berserker — who... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Twenty years ago, Apple CEO Steve Jobs poached Ron Okamoto away from Adobe to become vice president of developer relations and later help build the App Store. Now, we’re learning he has retired — less than a couple months before Apple’s App Store is set to go on trial.The eagle-eyed Mark Gurman at Bloomberg spotted that not only was Okamoto listed as a potential witness in that trial, but that court documents describe him as the former VP of worldwide developer relations, not the current one. Bloomberg is now reporting that he’s been replaced by Susan Prescott, a product marketing exec who started becoming one of the public faces of the company in 2015.Okamoto’s still set to be deposed in the trial, but perhaps for less than an... Continue reading…

Photo by An Rong Xu for the Washington Post President Joe Biden has announced his intent to nominate Lina Khan, a legal scholar and leading voice in the growing tech antitrust movement, to serve as a commissioner at the Federal Trade Commission.The pick signals that the Biden administration is preparing to take on some of the tech industry’s most powerful and influential companies. In 2017, Khan authored an article for the Yale Law Journal titled “Amazon’s Antitrust Paradox,” which exploded in popularity in progressive economic policy circles. Khan has also served as an aide to the House Judiciary Committee’s subcommittee on antitrust throughout its yearslong investigation into anticompetitive behavior in the tech industry.Khan’s nomination follows the appointment of Tim Wu, a... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro After it spent just over two weeks on the market, Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey has sold his first tweet as an NFT for the weirdly specific figure of $2,915,835.47. The winning bidder was Sina Estavi, who had held the high bid since offering $2.5 million on March 6th. He upped his bid to this number at the last moment (and if anyone can tell us what that figure represents, we’d love to hear your theories).Dorsey put the tweet up for digital auction as an NFT — non-fungible token — a digital good that lives on the Ethereum blockchain, on March 5th. Bids were handled on a platform called Valuables by Cent that lets people make offers on tweets that are “autographed by their original creators.”The bids on Dorsey’s succinct first tweet “just... Continue reading…

Image: Warner Brothers You may have recently experienced Zack Snyder’s original vision for the Justice League in all its slow-motion 4:3 aspect ratio excess, but there’s a missing element to the film that will soon be available on HBO Max: black and white. To hew even closer to Snyder’s ideal version, WarnerMedia is bringing Zack Snyder’s Justice League: Justice is Gray to its streaming service, featuring the same new cut of the film in an even darker and more grim color palette.It was only last week that years of fan organizing culminated in the release of the Snyder Cut, but there’s no online campaign necessary for this next version of the film. Justice is Gray was announced on the official Zack Snyder’s Justice League Twitter account with no announced... Continue reading…

Image: Epic Games Epic Games is reviving its in-game Fortnite concert series with a virtual performance by electronic artist Kaskade over the course of the March 26th weekend. The concert will take place inside Fortnite’s Party Royale game mode, and it will also feature tie-ins with Rocket League’s upcoming season, as the popular competitive car soccer game is developed by Epic-owned studio Psyonix.There’s a lot of, shall we say, corporate synergy going on here. Psyonix has a longstanding partnership with electronic music label Monstercat to bring leading producers of house, bass, and other genres into Rocket League’s in-game soundtrack. And Kaskade just last fall released his Monstercat debut, an EP called Reset.Now, Kaskade will be performing Reset... Continue reading…

Image: Stellantis Jeep has unveiled a new electric vehicle with an X-Men-inspired name: the Wrangler Magneto. However, don’t get your hopes up for this being the electric Jeep Wrangler you might have been wishing for — the Magneto is just a concept car, so you probably won’t be able to buy one any time soon.The car’s design is based on the 2020 Jeep Wrangler Rubicon, but it has an electric motor that offers up to 273 pound-feet of torque and 285 horsepower, and it comes equipped with an 800-volt system spread across four battery packs, according to Jeep. The company didn’t share a range for how far the Magneto can go without needing a charge, though that’s not all too surprising given that this is a concept car.The Magneto also, interestingly, comes... Continue reading…

Image: WarnerMedia I can’t imagine there are many people out there clamoring for the ability to create a custom profile image on their favorite video streaming service, but HBO Max wants you to know that it’s giving customers just that option starting today. Subscribers can now choose from a range of preselected avatars — featuring over 120 characters from HBO Max’s library of content — or upload their own photo. The presets come from shows like Game of Thrones, The Sopranos, Curb Your Enthusiasm, and many others.Uploading a custom photo isn’t something you can do on Netflix, Disney Plus, Hulu, or most of the other video streaming apps. (Netflix used to let you link to a social media account and show an image from there, but this is no longer available.)... Continue reading…

Image: OnePlus The one place for OnePlus Continue reading…

Tile A new partnership between Fitbit and Tile will now let users of Fitbit’s Inspire 2 locate their devices with Tile’s Bluetooth tracking, the companies announced Monday.The free update is available starting Monday. Users will just have to update their device software in the Fitbit app to add Bluetooth tracking, then download and activate the Tile app. Once the Tile app is enabled, Inspire 2 users should be able to locate their misplaced device (it happens to the best of us) via its most recent location, or they can use Tile’s global crowdsourced network to try to find it.Fitbit Inspire 2 users can also sign up for Tile Premium to get smart alerts and other premium content at a price of $2.99 per month or $29.99 per year.It’s the first... Continue reading…

Some new specs aside, this laptop has changed very little since 2018 Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge We ask The Verge staff what they like to work with, play with, and cook with Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge YouTube is always running experiments. One of its latest: testing an automated list of products detected in videos uploaded to the site. As of March 22nd this year, that test is being expanded to “people watching videos in the US,” according to YouTube. (An early version of the feature was tested midway through last year, though that test was very small, reports 9to5Google.)In one of its blogs, a YouTube representative gave a little more detail about how this particular feature will be deployed:

Image: Disney WandaVision was an important moment for Disney. It was the company’s first attempt to expand its Marvel Cinematic Universe to its streaming service, Disney Plus, after over a decade focused on theatrical releases. And a big part of keeping that continuity was the visuals. WandaVision was a relatively strange show, with a storyline that spanned a few decades of sitcom history, and it had the aesthetics to match. But it managed to combine black-and-white Bewitched-style visuals with classic, city-spanning MCU battles in a way that somehow felt natural.According to Tara DeMarco, a visual effects supervisor on the show, the approach to WandaVision’s special effects wasn’t any different because it was destined for living rooms. “The visual... Continue reading…

Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge A judge has certified a class action suit against Apple for its fragile butterfly keyboard design. The suit covers anyone who purchased an Apple MacBook with a butterfly keyboard in seven states: California, New York, Florida, Illinois, New Jersey, Washington, and Michigan. That includes people who bought a MacBook model dating between 2015 and 2017, a MacBook Pro model between 2016 and 2019, or a MacBook Air between 2018 and 2019.Judge Edward Davila certified the case with seven subclasses on March 8th in California, but the order remained sealed until late last week. It raises the stakes for a suit that was first filed in 2018, three years after Apple added the controversial butterfly switches to its laptops.The butterfly keyboard... Continue reading…

Time is auctioning three magazine covers as NFTs. | Image: Time Time is the latest brand to jump on the NFT craze, with auctions for three magazine covers — including its iconic 1966 front page asking, “Is God Dead?” A more recent spin on the cover, “Is Truth Dead?” from 2017, is also up for auction, as is a brand-new “cover” that’s not actually appearing on the magazine: “Is Fiat Dead?” — a phrase that sounds like catnip for the type of crypto enthusiasts likely to bid on these things.The three covers are selling on the NFT auction site SuperRare, with bids running through Wednesday evening. A minimum price of 10 Ether, or close to $18,000 USD, has been set for each cover. The “Fiat” cover is already at double that as of press time.NFTs, or non-fungible tokens, are essentially blockchain-based... Continue reading…

Razer says it will design products to create less climate pollution. | Image: Razer Razer announced today that it plans to become carbon neutral by 2030, meaning it plans to reduce and offset its carbon dioxide emissions.As part of that goal, the company says its global offices will run on renewable energy by 2025. It also says it will design products to create less climate pollution and will slash emissions from its manufacturing processes. Razer is also trying to reduce waste by eliminating single-use plastics from its offices this decade and switching to biodegradable packaging for its products.Razer is the latest tech company to announce new climate goals for the decadeIt’s the latest tech company to announce new climate goals for the decade. Razer competitor Logitech also recently made commitments to cut down... Continue reading…

We already knew that Resident Evil Village will release on a slew of platforms, including the PS5 and Xbox Series X / S. And today, Google announced that the game will also arrive on Stadia. To encourage you to buy this version, Google will throw in a free Stadia Premiere kit to anyone who preorders Resident Evil Village before May 21st. The promotion is available for both the Standard and Deluxe Editions of Resident Evil Village, which cost $60 and $70, respectively.Normally priced at $100, Google’s Stadia Premiere Edition features a white Stadia controller, a Chromecast Ultra, and, for new users, a one-month trial subscription to Stadia’s Pro-tier service. Stadia Pro includes 4K streaming and a growing collection of free games,... Continue reading…

Xiaomi-owned Poco has returned with two new phones that have some notable processor choices at low prices. Both the X3 Pro and the F3 use new Qualcomm chips that are essentially updated and repurposed flagship-class processors from the past couple of years, which make them an interesting price-performance proposition.First up is the Poco X3 Pro (pictured above and below), which is essentially identical to last year’s Poco X3 NFC but with a new processor. That means there’s still a 6.67-inch 120Hz 1080p LCD, a 5,160mAh battery with 33W fast charging, and a quad-camera setup headlined by a 48-megapixel primary sensor.What’s new is the Qualcomm Snapdragon 860 SoC, which hasn’t previously been announced. The processor appears to be a new... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge DoorDash has partnered with two US-based digital health companies, Vault Health and Everlywell, to help distribute at-home COVID-19 test kits across the country, the company announced on Monday. The partnerships will allow DoorDash customers to order the testing kits directly from the company’s app in 12 markets or, conversely, to order the kits from Vault Health’s website in 20 markets with same-day delivery from DoorDash.Both kits contain polymerase chain reaction (PCR) tests, which is a molecular test and considered the most accurate of the testing varieties on the market. Both kits have also received emergency use authorization from the Food and Drug Administration for at-home testing. The Everlywell testing kit ($109) is a... Continue reading…

Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge A well-rated eBay seller is offering the Google Pixel 4 and 4 XL phones at very reasonable prices for a limited time. The Pixel 4 in white with 64GB of storage costs $250, while the larger Pixel 4 XL in black with the same amount of storage costs $280. Each of these phones will arrive factory unlocked and be usable with most carriers that support 4G LTE. They’re in new / open-box condition, which the seller indicates as meaning the phones show no signs of wear.eBay allows up to 60 days to make a return, and the phones are covered with a 90-day warranty. It’s unclear if these models are still covered by Google’s one-year manufacturer warranty.This could be a good deal for you if you have either the Pixel 2 or Pixel 3 and want to extend... Continue reading…

Our desks can tell their own stories — and ours Continue reading…

The HomePod mini, released last year. | Photo by Dan Seifert / The Verge Apple’s HomePod mini smart speaker has an as-yet-undisclosed temperature and humidity sensor in its casing, Bloomberg reports. The sensor’s exact location was confirmed by iFixit, and it appears to be placed away from the speaker’s internal components so it can measure the external temperature. The exact sensor used is a 1.5 x 1.5mm HDC2010 Humidity and Temperature Digital Sensor from Texas Instruments.Although the sensor isn’t currently usable by HomePod mini owners, according to Bloomberg, Apple has internally discussed allowing the sensor to provide information to other smart home devices like thermostats or fans. This could give smart heating equipment more information about how warm a room is or allow the speaker to trigger a... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Microsoft is planning to start reopening its Redmond and Seattle, Washington-based headquarters later this month. The software giant originally started encouraging employees to work from home more than a year ago, just as the coronavirus pandemic began, and the company’s main US offices have remained closed for months as a result. This will start to change on March 29th, with a limited reopening of Microsoft’s headquarters in Redmond and Seattle.“Currently, Microsoft work sites in 21 countries have been able to accommodate additional workers in our facilities – representing around 20% of our global employee population,” says Kurt DelBene, Microsoft’s head of corporate strategy. “On March 29, Microsoft will also start making this shift... Continue reading…

Photo by Etienne Torbey / AFP via Getty Images A fourth COVID-19 vaccine has shown that it can protect people against the worst effects of the disease in a large United States-based trial. Two doses of AstraZeneca’s vaccine were 79 percent effective at preventing people from developing symptomatic COVID-19, according to a press release from the company today. No one in the US trial who received the vaccine was hospitalized for COVID-19, the company said.It’s a good result for a vaccine that’s been dogged by clinical trial issues, poor transparency, and skepticism since last fall. AstraZeneca said the vaccine was up to 90 percent effective in November based on data from the United Kingdom and Brazil, but that number was based on a half-dose of the vaccine given to trial participants... Continue reading…

Here’s the Envy x360 15 (AMD). | Image: HP HP has announced two new budget workstations for content creators: an Envy x360 15 and an Envy 17. The 15-inch convertible, starting at $749.99, is available with both AMD Ryzen 7 and Intel 11th Gen processors. The 17-inch clamshell starts at $999.99 and is Intel only.The Envy x360 comes in either “natural silver” or “nightfall black” and includes a magnetic active pen. Its bezels appear to have shrunk slightly since last year’s model. Models have an 88.7 percent screen-to-body ratio and weigh around four pounds. (Not that last year’s model had terrible bezels, but I’ll never say no to more screen real estate.) You can configure it with a 4K OLED display as well as an Nvidia MX450 graphics chip.The top Intel model will include a Core... Continue reading…

Image: Dispo David Dobrik has parted ways with Dispo, the disposable camera app co-founded by the YouTuber in 2019, after allegations of sexual assault were made against a former member of his Vlog Squad, The Information reports.“David has chosen to step down from the board and leave the company to not distract from the company’s growth,” Dispo said in a statement, “Dispo’s team, product, and most importantly — our community — stand for building a diverse, inclusive, and empowering world.”Dobrik’s decision to leave Dispo follows a report from Insider in which one of the women featured in a 2018 vlog said a former member of Dobrik’s Vlog Squad engaged in sexual activity with her while she was too drunk to consent. She was 20 years old at the time,... Continue reading…

Last Friday, the Fagradalsfjall volcano near Iceland’s capital of Reykjavik began erupting for the first time in 800 years after the island nation was hit by thousands of small earthquakes. Thankfully, the eruption was small and has not put anyone in danger. Instead, it’s gifted the world with some awe-inspiring views of lava flowing from the ground.The sight has been best captured by Icelandic drone pilot Bjorn Steinbekk, who took the straightforward approach of flying right through the eruption. We spotted the footage from Steinbekk (above) via Twitter, and it seems he flew several sorties through the airborne lava — a daring feat that makes us wonder how his drone survived the high temperatures.