The Verge

Photo by JOSEPH PREZIOSO/AFP via Getty Images The messaging that all three authorized vaccines are good options appears to be sinking in around the country. When the first batch of single-dose Johnson & Johnson vaccines arrived in States this week, people were excited to take it.In Connecticut, Hartford HealthCare let people decide which type of vaccine to sign up for, and the Johnson & Johnson shot was more popular than expected. People were also given the choice at a Miami vaccination site. One recipient told CNN that she picked Johnson & Johnson because it’s one dose; she’s afraid of needles and only wanted to do it once. A Minnesota couple told KTTC-TV that they were eager to get a vaccine that was only one dose.That’s a big relief for experts who worried that the shot faced... Continue reading…

Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge Update March 5th, 2021 12:02PM ET: Best Buy has limited stock available for the PS5 and PS5 Digital Edition. You can find more information on the retailer's restock here.Sony’s PlayStation 5 is available now. Due to the pandemic and high demand for the PS5, retailers such as Best Buy and Target will only sell the console online for the foreseeable future. So, if you were planning to camp outside your local Target hoping to buy the console today, there will be no walk-in purchases available this year. But, you can order one online and request an in-store pickup.Until we hear more information from retailers, I strongly advise you to keep a close eye on other popular retailers, including Amazon, Target, GameStop, Newegg, B&H Photo, and... Continue reading…

Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge Update March 5th, 2021 1:00PM ET: Best Buy has sold out of both the PS5 and PS5 Digital Edition models. If you are still looking for an Xbox Series S, it is still available on the retailer’s website.The PlayStation 5 has been out for over three months now. Since then, it has been one of the most difficult gadgets to purchase. If you are looking for another shot to get this console, Best Buy has the PS5 Digital Edition and PS5 models up for purchase.If you are looking for an Xbox Series X / S instead, Best Buy has also restocked Microsoft’s next-gen consoles today.Once you obtain your PS5, there are a few items you’re going to want to pick up for your console. Some of the most popular PS5 exclusives right now include Demon’s Souls... Continue reading…

Photo by Sean O’Kane / The Verge Tesla has launched a new social platform on its website geared at letting owners and fans of the brand “[t]ake actions on behalf of Tesla and the movement for cleaner energy.” The new microsite — called the “Tesla Engagement Platform” — already features information about how Nebraska residents can help support the company’s push to allow direct sales and service in the state, upcoming owner events, and fundraising for disaster relief in Texas following the recent winter storm.“Engage Tesla is a new platform for both Tesla’s public policy team and Tesla Owner’s Clubs,” the first post on the new microsite reads. “Its goal is to create a digital home base for all of our work, and make it easier for Tesla community members to learn what’s... Continue reading…

Presenters can spotlight questions during a live stream. | Image: TikTok TikTok has officially launched a new Q&A feature that’s designed to help creators answer questions from their fans. It’s available on both pre-recorded and live videos, and works by having viewers mark their comment as a question. Creators can then either answer questions via a text comment or video reply.In live videos, presenters can select questions from a dedicated menu, and then choose to highlight them during live responses. In video replies, Q&A comments can be added as stickers, which link back to the video where the question was originally asked. A new section in a creator’s profile aggregates all their Q&As into one place as well as serving as another place for viewers to ask questions.

Getaround, the peer-to-peer car-sharing service, is launching a new program to help support people who want to rent out more than just a couple of cars. The program is called Power Host, and it’s designed to help customers manage small fleets of shared vehicles.Getaround, which operates in 800 cities globally and has over 6 million users, created the program in response to a growing number of its customers seeking to start a small car-sharing business for themselves. After an initial steep drop in bookings after the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, Getaround has since seen its demand bounce back. And now people are looking for ways to use the platform in a more professional capacity.“We just started seeing a significant increase in... Continue reading…

HDMI, VGA, USB-A, and USB-C ports are all included. | Image: Satechi Satechi has released a new USB-C hub for your laptop to add all the ports that it arguably should have included in the first place. Although the port selection on the $99.99 USB-C On-the-Go Multiport Adapter is similar to other hubs, the high spec of each port makes Satechi’s device worthy of attention. As well as laptops, it also works with USB-C tablets like recent iPad Pro models.The hub’s got HDMI, which offers a maximum resolution of 4K and refresh rate of 60Hz, and there’s USB-C PD pass-through charging at up to 100W (though you have to provide your own power brick). The cable for attaching it to your device isn’t fixed like it is on some hubs, and Satechi supplies two USB-C to USB-C cables with the hub. One’s 1-m long, and... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Google says it will speed up how it releases Chrome updates. Starting with Chrome 94 in Q3, 2021, Google will release milestones of its browser every four weeks, instead of every six weeks. This is the first time Google has sped up its Chrome release schedule for more than a decade.“As we have improved our testing and release processes for Chrome, and deployed bi-weekly security updates to improve our patch gap, it became clear that we could shorten our release cycle and deliver new features more quickly,” explains Alex Mineer, a technical program manager at Chrome.IT admins can stick to an eight-week version of ChromeWhile consumers will see a new version of Chrome every month, IT administrators will be able to opt for a new Extended... Continue reading…

Alongside the typical “Your Tweet was sent” dialogue, there’s a new Undo button. | Screenshot: Twitter / Jane Manchun Wong A potential animation for Twitter’s long-rumored “undo send” feature has been discovered by app researcher Jane Manchun Wong, giving us our best look yet at how it might work.The interface shows Twitter’s familiar “Your Tweet was sent” dialog above a new “Undo” button. The undo button doubles as a progress bar, which appears to show you how long you have to undo a tweet before it gets sent. Gmail offers a similar option for emails, where it provides a short window to stop messages from being sent after clicking the “Send” button.

RedMagic, the gaming brand of ZTE subdivision Nubia, has launched a new smartphone in collaboration with Chinese tech and gaming giant Tencent. The RedMagic 6 and 6 Pro are high-end devices available to order now in China, with a global launch coming later this month.The RedMagic 6 has an Qualcomm Snapdragon 888 processor, active fan cooling, and a 6.8-inch 1080p OLED display with a refresh rate of 165Hz, making it the fastest phone screen on the market today. RedMagic is also claiming a single-finger touch sampling rate of up to 500Hz, or up to 360Hz with multitouch. The touch-sensitive capacitive “shoulder triggers” on the side, meanwhile, are sampled at up to 400Hz.The RedMagic 6 Pro is mostly identical, but it comes with up to... Continue reading…

Image: Razer Razer is tonight formally announcing its Anzu “smart” glasses, which follow Bose, Amazon, and other companies by integrating audio speakers directly into the glasses temples. The $199.99 Anzu glasses will be available in both rectangular and round frames, and each will come in two sizes: small and large. You can place an order beginning today.Two sets of lenses come in the retail package: a regular, clear pair that offers 35 percent blocking against blue light, and Razer also throws in sunglass lenses with 99 percent UV protection. Image: Razer But Razer has deviated from competitors with its approach to audio glasses: the company has used a true wireless design that completely splits the left and right speakers.... Continue reading…

Image: Apple Apple’s Find My app might get a new safety feature to help prevent someone from using the kinds of devices tracked in the app to stalk you instead. “Item Safety Alerts”, spotted in the iOS 14.5 beta, will notify you if an unknown device being tracked on Find My is “moving with you” so you can remove it or disable it, 9to5Mac reports.The feature seems designed to counteract a scenario where a Find My-compatible device is hidden in a pocket or bag and then used to track someone’s movements. The Item Safety Alerts setting was found in early versions of iOS 14.3, according to AppleInsider, but was removed until its reappearance in iOS 14.5. The setting is enabled by default in the beta and Apple seems to want it to stay on. If you turn off... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge T-Mobile has been busy hawking its 5G network, recently spending many additional billions to expand it, which makes it kinda awkward that it’s also been caught telling users to turn off 5G to save battery life (via Sascha Segan). Didn’t Verizon just make this same gaff mere days ago? It sure did. But instead of learning from the example, T-Mobile appears to have pulled a hold-my-beer: where Verizon told users to switch to LTE, many of T-Mobile’s support documents tell users to go all the way back to 2G.In case you’re not aware, switching to 2G (which T-Mobile handily tells you how to do) will make your phone next to useless as a data device: the maximum theoretical speed you could get from a 2G connection would be around 1Mbps (though... Continue reading…

Image: Elgato Elgato is one of the most notable brands in the consumer tech market when it comes to products aimed toward content creators and streamers. And today, the Corsair-owned company announced that it is expanding its line of creator-focused products. One of the more creative new options is a Green Screen Mouse Mat, which allows streamers and content creators to blend a flat surface like their desk into their video feed.Some streamers, such as competitive gamers and speedrunners, use a hand cam setups to show off their hand movements while on stream. The mouse pad could be a convenient way to let creators put that space to extra use instead of just showing their desk. Streamers doing unboxing videos could replace the mat with an enhanced... Continue reading…

The GT 5G boasts flagship specs for much, much less. Realme has announced the GT 5G, built with Qualcomm’s top-tier Snapdragon 888 chipset. It comes with plenty of other flagship-esque specs, too, like a 120Hz screen, up to 12GB of RAM, and a 4,500mAh battery with 65W fast charger included. What it doesn’t have is a flagship-like price; it’s on sale in China for 2,799 yuan currently, or about $430.The Snapdragon 888 is currently Qualcomm’s most powerful processor, announced in December of last year. Samsung has included it in its S21-series phones, and it’s expected to appear in many more Android flagships this year. At the moment, though, only a handful of (mostly pricey) devices are available with it, and with a 100 yuan introductory discount, the Realme GT 5G ties the Xiaomi Redmi K40... Continue reading…

Images: Porsche Porsche has finally unveiled the wagon-y sibling of the Taycan EV. Originally teased in concept form in 2018 and due out this summer, the Taycan Cross Turismo is a more utility-minded version of Porsche’s first EV with a hatch rear, more interior space, greater ground clearance, and off-road-oriented options.The new crossover EV starts at $90,900, plus delivery fees. Much like the regular Taycan sedan, there are four different versions with increasing price and performance: the Taycan 4 Cross Turismo, the Taycan 4S Cross Turismo, the Taycan Turbo Cross Turismo, and the Taycan Turbo S Cross Turismo.More space than the sedan, with similar performanceUnlike the regular Taycan, all four versions of the Cross Turismo come fitted with... Continue reading…

No one is keeping up with Trisha Paytas, YouTube’s most frighteningly entertaining star. Continue reading…

Blizzard wasn’t kidding when it told Polygon that the new remastered Diablo II would be faithful to the original. You’ll even be able to pick up where you left off with your 20-year-old savegames, IGN Middle East reports.“Yes! Yes, keep those!” producer Matthew Cederquist told journalists, saying that the team called it “the best feature ever.”As a lapsed player myself, the very idea is giving me chills — dangerous ones, ones that I imagine are akin to what Gollum felt in The Lord of the Rings when he decided to pull The One Ring off his brother’s throttled corpse. I thought I could safely leave this game behind, but no. It seems I may need to track down an old friend soon.

Valve is ending development on Artifact, following over a year’s worth of work on rebooting the troubled virtual trading card game (TCG) based in the Dota 2 universe. It originally launched in 2018, designed by famed Magic: The Gathering creator Richard Garfield. Despite “good initial sales” during a time when Blizzard’s Hearthstone was at peak popularity, Valve says its player count fell off “pretty dramatically.” At launch, our sister site Polygon said the game was “deep, but burdened by its marketplace.”Both versions of the game, Artifact Classic and Artifact Foundry (also known as Artifact 2.0 beta), are now free to play. All cards and packs that were previously available for purchase can now be earned just by playing the game. The... Continue reading…

Amazon’s Fire TV entertainment platform is going to hit the road in Jeep’s 2022 Wagoneer and Grand Wagoneer SUVs, which will be the first to feature built-in Fire TV support.The upcoming Wagoneer and Grand Wagoneer are set to be formally revealed on March 11th, but Jeep’s parent company, Stellantis, has given a preview by announcing the new Amazon integration today.Amazon’s software will be accessible from both the main display and rear seat screens. (Jeep says a privacy filter will prevent the driver from watching Prime Video content while driving, although they’ll be able to watch when the cars are parked.)The 2022 Jeep SUVs are getting AlexaFire TV for Auto is designed to work alongside Uconnect 5, with added support for Amazon’s... Continue reading…

Alternative email provider Hey is expanding its offering with a new blog and email newsletter service, called Hey World, which is being offered as a free addition to all personal Hey subscribers, the company announced today.Using Hey World is incredibly simple: Hey users just need to send an email to world@hey.com. The subject of that email then becomes the post’s headline, while the body text is the blog post itself.Once you’ve sent the first email, Hey will automatically create a blog for you, at “world.hey.com/yourusername,” which collects all of your posts and offers both an RSS feed and an email subscription box for followers to keep up with your latest missives.In a Hey World blog post announcing the feature, Hey co-founder... Continue reading…

Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge iOS 14.5 is in beta right now, and the first beta appeared to have a long-awaited feature: it seemed you would be able to set Spotify and other music services as the default for Siri requests. But Apple has clarified with TechCrunch that the feature doesn’t actually work that way. Instead, selecting a music service for Siri requests is apparently intended to improve Siri’s smarts so that it can better know your audio-listening preferences.In our testing of the first iOS 14.5 beta, when you would ask Siri to play a song, it would show a list of music services to play a song from. After you made your choice, Siri song requests would then play from the service you selected without requiring you to pick again. But you’re not actually... Continue reading…

Photo By Tom Williams/CQ Roll Call Sens. Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) and Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) want the Federal Trade Commission to take steps to protect people who have experienced abuse and stalking from invasive people search sites, potentially including measures to help them remove their addresses from data brokers.“We write to express serious concerns about recent reports that data brokers are publicizing the location and contact information of victims of domestic violence, sexual violence, and stalking,” the senators wrote in the letter, which The Hill reporter Chris Mills Rodrigo posted online. “We have serious concerns that third-party data brokers play a role in revealing [a] protected address and providing access to personal information that can lead to continued... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge YouTube CEO Susan Wojcicki says the site will lift former President Donald Trump’s suspension when the risk of him inciting violence decreases.Trump was temporarily suspended in January after encouraging supporters to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election, just before a violent attack on the US Capitol. Unlike similar suspensions on Twitter and Facebook, however, his YouTube channel suspension was described as temporary. In a new interview with the head of the Atlantic Council think tank, Wojcicki offered a more concrete description of how — although not precisely when — Trump could return.“The channel remains suspended due to the risk of incitement to violence,” Wojcicki said. “Given the warnings by the Capitol Police... Continue reading…

Porsche is the latest automaker to try its hand at making and selling electric bikes, and the result looks very interesting and very expensive. The Volkswagen-owned company announced that it would start selling a pair of full-suspension e-bikes this spring. The bikes were announced alongside the Porsche Taycan Cross Turismo, which was just unveiled today.There are two models of Porsche e-bike, the Sport and the Cross. The Sport is a road bike intended for everyday use, with a full-suspension carbon fiber frame, integrated front and rear lights, Shimano mid-drive motor, and a price tag that would make Jeff Bezos blush. The Sport, which weighs a little less than 48 pounds, will set you back about $10,700, which is just an astonishing... Continue reading…

Behold the Nuggs. | Image: Simulate Every version of the chicken simulation Continue reading…

Evva Karr was frustrated. During talks with creators, they’d begun to notice a theme: the conversation always seemed to turn to funding. Developers wanted to know how HyperDot creator Charles McGregor and Karr, who helped publish it, had shipped the game. Inevitably, the developers would share their own experiences.“While some of those deals were good news, others were just kind of shocking and really unimaginable to me,” Karr says. “There were just a lot of folks who were getting bad deals, not knowing what good deals even look like.”Karr, the founder and CEO of Glitch, wanted “a whole new damn table” — a way for developers to play with new ideas and make games that might be unappealing to traditional publishers. Earlier this year,... Continue reading…

Last week, Billie Eilish: The World’s a Little Blurry debuted on Apple TV Plus. The documentary became the “biggest hit title for young adult audiences that Apple has had so far across its slate of films and TV series,” according to Deadline, drawing a “record-breaking 33 percent new viewers to the service.”Sounds impressive, right? It would if Apple provided any kind of context for declarations like “biggest hit” and “record-breaking” subscriber adds. Instead, we’re left wondering:

Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge Update March 4th, 2021 2:24PM ET: Walmart has stock available for the Xbox Series S. You can find additional information here.The Xbox Series S and Series X consoles are officially out. Due to the pandemic, combined with the high demand for these consoles, retailers like Best Buy and Target are only selling online. That means you won’t be able to walk into a store to pick one up — unless you’ve purchased it already online. Only then will you be able to arrange an in-store pickup.Until we hear updates on stock replenishing from retailers, I recommend keeping it locked to Amazon, Target, the Microsoft Store, GameStop, Newegg, and (if you have memberships) Costco and Sam’s Club. Best Buy encourages shoppers to visit its site to order... Continue reading…

Image: Ryder Ripps Another iconic meme is going up for auction as an NFT: the text and sunglasses used to popularize “deal with it” GIFs. The auction is being held on the NFT platform Foundation, and bidding is currently at around $8,000, with more than five hours remaining at the time this article was published.The meme was listed by Ryder Ripps, the designer / creative director / “art prankster” who recently made headlines for falsely claiming to be behind the dystopian redesign of the CIA’s website. (Ripps told The Verge the claim was a joke and “so obvious if you have your cerebral cortex functioning.”)Ripps does, at least, appear to be closely connected to the “deal with it” meme, even if the decade-old image’s exact provenance is difficult to fully... Continue reading…

T-Mobile’s enterprise home internet will be available later this month. | Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge T-Mobile announced some new services for enterprise customers today, including wireless Home Office Internet. Part of a trio of services T-Mobile is calling WFX, Home Office Internet is designed to complement customers’ standard home internet with a separate cellular-based Wi-Fi network. The goal is to provide a reliable, secure connection for business customers without having to worry about sharing bandwidth with the rest of the household.Home Office Internet is an extension of the LTE-based wireless home broadband consumer service that’s being piloted now, and it works in basically the same way. Users receive a router and can self-install the network. It uses 4G and 5G signals and, like the consumer service, includes a potentially... Continue reading…

Photo by Dan Seifert / The Verge Alphabet has attempted to take on some wild projects over the years, like a crop-sniffing plant buggy and fish-tracking cameras. But now, its X lab is working on a device that could give people superhuman hearing. As Insider first reported, the project, codenamed “Wolverine,” is exploring the future of hearing through sensor-packed hardware. The team, members of which spoke to Insider anonymously, say they’re currently trying to figure out how to isolate people’s voices in a crowded room or make it easier to focus on one person when overlapping conversations are happening around you.They’ve already iterated on the device multiple times, including devices that covered the whole ear and others that protruded from above the ear. These... Continue reading…

Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge Both the Sony PS5 and Microsoft Xbox Series X / S gaming consoles will be back in stock at Walmart later today. A Walmart spokesperson told The Verge that the retailer will have the consoles available for purchase again at 11:30AM PT / 2:30PM ET for the Xbox Series X / S and 12PM PT / 3PM ET for the PS5. As usual, stock will likely not last very long.Walmart plans to have inventory for the PS5, the PS5 Digital Edition, Xbox Series X, and Xbox Series S gaming consoles, with prices ranging from $300 to $500 depending on the model you purchase.If you plan to buy a PS5 console, there are a few additional items you should pick up to get the most out of your new console. I recommend picking up a second DualSense controller, which is... Continue reading…

Image: OpenHaystack Apple has promised to open up its Find My app to third-party accessory makers. But ahead of that, there’s a new tool that will let anybody make their own Bluetooth tracking tag to use with the Find My network so they can track its location. OpenHaystack is a new open-source tool developed by security researchers at the Secure Mobile Networking Lab, who have essentially reverse-engineered the way Apple devices register themselves to the Find My mesh network.It is, in short, a way to create your own DIY AirTags today.OpenHaystack works via a custom Mac app that can be used to track the location of custom tags that you create. As of right now, the tool has direct support to make a tracking tag using the BBC micro:bit mini computer,... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Microsoft is rolling out some new improvements to its Edge browser this month. While the software maker announced vertical tabs nearly a year ago, the feature is finally making its way to all Edge users this month. You’ll be able to stack tabs at the side of the browser instead of the traditional long list of tabs at the top.The vertical tabs feature looks ideal for 16:9 screens, and you can click to switch between tabs or group some together. It arrives just weeks after Microsoft implemented a sleeping tabs feature in Edge that’s designed to automatically release system resources for inactive tabs when you have a large amount of tabs open. This prevents Edge tabs from hogging memory and CPU resources. Image: Microsoft... Continue reading…

Image: Nintendo Super Smash Bros. Ultimate’s newest DLC characters, Pyra and Mythra from Xenoblade Chronicles 2, will be available in the game on Thursday, Nintendo announced. They’re included as part of the second Super Smash Bros. Ultimate Fighters Pass, or you can buy them separately for $5.99.Series director Masahiro Sakurai showed off the new fighters in a video presentation Thursday morning. Pyra’s moves do more damage while Mythra moves faster and jumps higher, and you’ll be able to switch between the two fighters whenever you want during a match.If you get the new fighters, you’ll also be able to play on a new stage from Xenoblade Chronicles 2, the Cloud Sea of Alrest, where you ride on the back of a giant monster traveling through the sky.... Continue reading…

You’re looking at the first images of the next speaker from Sonos. Set to be priced at $169, the new device — it’s called the Sonos Roam — is much smaller than the Sonos Move, which was the company’s first foray into portable speakers. This product has a much closer resemblance to popular, take-anywhere Bluetooth speakers like the UE Boom.According to a source with direct knowledge of the Roam, it measures 6.5 x 2.5 x 2.5 inches and weighs around a pound. It will come with a USB charging cable, and a wireless charging dock will be sold separately for $49. Like many of the company’s other speakers, the Sonos Roam will be available in either black or white. The Verge has reached out to Sonos for comment. The new speaker... Continue reading…

A sign is posted in front of the Brio Superfund site on September 4, 2017 in Friendswood, Texas. Thirteen Superfund sites in Texas flooded following Hurricane Harvey. | Photo by Justin Sullivan/Getty Images Texas’ deep freeze was the latest warning that extreme weather events threaten to derail efforts to clean up the most toxic sites in the US. In a worst-case scenario, a natural disaster can unleash buried toxic substances. But even minimal damage or the mere threat of a storm can stop or slow cleanup efforts.That vulnerability could become a bigger problem as climate change brings about more weather-related disasters. For years, experts have pushed the Environmental Protection Agency to prepare for the onslaught.“We have over two dozen Superfund sites here in our county, and we are one of the most threatened coasts in the world by natural forces,” says Jackie Young-Medcalf, executive director of the Houston-based nonprofit Texas... Continue reading…

The new Eve Weather outdoor weather monitor | Image: Eve Eve Systems, a maker of smart home products that work with Apple’s HomeKit platform, is announcing an expanded range of devices that support the Thread smart protocol. The news consists of updated versions of its existing smart plug, a forthcoming firmware update for the company’s smart sprinkler, and a new outdoor weather station.Thread is a wireless communication standard that was developed from the ground up for smart home purposes and is designed to replace legacy technologies such as Z-Wave and Zigbee. Benefits of Thread include more reliable connections between devices, faster response times, and longer battery life.Though Thread support has existed in a handful of devices for quite some time, Apple’s HomePod mini is the first... Continue reading…

The Amazon Halo and its companion app | Image: Amazon Amazon has announced a new feature for its Halo fitness-tracking gadget: Alexa integration. With this new feature, Halo owners will be able to ask Alexa devices for various health stats, such as their sleep score or activity points obtained during the day. The integration will be off by default and owners will need the latest firmware on their Halo bands and the latest version of the iOS or Android app to enable it. Amazon says the feature rollout is starting today, March 4th, and will be continuing over the next week or so.The Halo band is Amazon’s first fitness-focused product and it’s had a less than stellar reception since it was announced last fall. Aside from the standard fitness things of tracking your movement and sleep... Continue reading…

Who has an entertainment center this big? Wait — no, don’t tell me. | Elgato Elgato, the Corsair-owned company known for its gaming and creator-focused streaming tech, is expanding into smart lighting. It has introduced the Light Strip, a thin strip packed with 108 dimmable LEDs that can be mounted via sticky adhesive, bent, and trimmed to fit wherever you’d like them to go. These can be controlled over Wi-Fi (2.4GHz only) through a free app on macOS, Windows 10, iOS, or Android, or from Elgato’s Stream Deck hardware, which apparently will offer deeper integration. Elgato is charging $59.99 for two meters (about 79 inches) of lights, including the controller the lights plug into and a power adapter. Image: Elgato The Stream Deck isn’t included, for the record. These are similar in... Continue reading…

Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge Square, Inc., the financial services company founded by Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey, is acquiring a majority stake in Tidal, the high-fidelity audio and video streaming service led by Jay-Z. Square is paying $297 million in cash and stock for a “significant majority ownership stake” and says Tidal will operate independently alongside Square’s other ventures.Asking the obvious question in a thread on Twitter, Dorsey said: “Why would a music streaming company and a financial services company join forces?!” His answer: to find “new ways for artists to support their work.” Just as Square gave sellers new tools to make money, Dorsey says the company’s stake in Tidal will help artists find similar support in the new digital ecosystem.

Xiaomi has announced its Redmi Note 10 line, the latest in its phone series that’s titanically popular in India and beyond. As is tradition for the Redmi Note phones, the 10 series brings some high-end features to much lower price points.The Redmi Note 10 Pro is the main attraction here, with several variants including the Note 10S, Note 10, and Note 10 5G adjusting various specs to meet different price points. The Note 10 Pro’s standout feature is its 6.67-inch 1080p OLED display with a 120Hz refresh rate.The Note 10 Pro also has a 108-megapixel primary camera alongside an 8-megapixel ultrawide, a 5-megapixel “telemacro”, and a 2-megapixel depth sensor. On paper, that puts its camera setup in reach of Xiaomi’s new Mi 11 flagship,... Continue reading…

Amazon’s new Alexa app on Xbox. Amazon is launching a new Alexa app for Xbox consoles this week. While you’ve been able to control Alexa from an Xbox for a couple of years now, this dedicated app will provide access to more of the visual parts of Amazon’s digital assistant. That includes being able to see your doorbell camera, reading emails and checking your calendar, and even seeing weather forecasts.It essentially turns your Xbox into more of an Echo Show-like experience for Alexa. All of the usual Xbox controls are still supported with this new app, including the ability to turn on an Xbox console using a compatible Alexa device.Amazon is gradually rolling out this new Alexa app for Xbox in the coming days, and it will be available across all Xbox One and Xbox... Continue reading…

Skydio’s X2 drone, which is aimed at enterprise and military customers. | Image: Skydio More than 20 police agencies around the US own drones from US manufacturer Skydio, according to Forbes, which calculated the figure based on a combination of freedom of information requests and public announcements. The report follows news that Skydio is the first US dronemaker to be valued at over $1 billion following a recent funding round.Working with police departments is thought to be part of Skydio’s attempt to make inroads against dominant player DJI, which is said to command between 70 and 80 percent of the commercial drone market. Skydio started offering its drones to government agencies for free last year, and over 30 public agencies reportedly took them up on the offer. America’s Custom and Border Protection is also testing... Continue reading…

Illustration by William Joel / The Verge Microsoft is starting to modernize some of the basic parts of Windows 10 by improving the system icons that are available in the operating system. A new preview build of Windows 10 is rolling out to testers this week, and it includes system icons that now adhere to Microsoft’s Fluent Design style.The new icons include a more rounded and simplified look, and are available as a new font — Segoe Fluent Icons. Microsoft has also updated its new taskbar widget with the new icons, providing a good look at how basic icon changes can modernize even the smallest parts of Windows. Image: Microsoft Some of the new system icons for Windows 10. It’s a small change to Windows 10 that will appear later this year for most,... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge In the weeks before and after the 2020 US election, Facebook content from far-right sources of news and misinformation received more engagement than other sources elsewhere on the political spectrum, a new study from New York University has revealed.The findings suggest that far-right pages have an advantage energizing followers on the world’s biggest social network. “My takeaway is that, one way or another, far-right misinformation sources are able to engage on Facebook with their audiences much, much more than any other category,” Laura Edelson, a researcher at NYU’s Cybersecurity for Democracy initiative who helped compile the report, told CNN. “That’s probably pretty dangerous on a system that uses engagement to determine what... Continue reading…

Ikea’s Trådfri Shortcut Button and Motion Sensor. | Photo by Thomas Ricker / The Verge Once you figure out the setup, at least Continue reading…

Image: CE Brands A planned Motorola-branded Wear OS smartwatch with Qualcomm’s new Snapdragon Wear 4100 processor may have leaked (via 9to5Google). If the photos are real and not just renders, it could be a sign that the next Moto 360 (or whatever it’s called) could perform significantly better than the last, and may reap some of the efficiency gains brought by the jump from a 28nm process to a 12nm one.The 2019 Moto 360 used a Snapdragon Wear 3100 processor, which was only a minor update to 2016’s 2100. Despite Qualcomm’s claims that the new(ish) 4100 has an 85 percent faster CPU, two-and-a-half times faster GPU, and 25 percent more battery life, it seems like there’s only one watch on the market that actually has the chip.The image that shows the... Continue reading…

Photo by James Bareham / The Verge Nintendo is planning to release an upgraded model of the Switch this year with an OLED screen, according to a new report in Bloomberg. The report says Samsung Display is providing the screen, which will be a 7-inch 720p rigid OLED panel set to go into mass production this June.The current Switch has a 6.2-inch 720p LCD panel, while the Switch Lite’s screen is a 5.5-inch 720p LCD. Many Switch games struggle to hit native resolution in handheld mode, so the lack of an upgrade in resolution isn’t really a surprise. Bloomberg’s report does note, however, that the new Switch model will be capable of 4K graphics when hooked up to a TV, so the decision to stick with 720p in handheld mode could also be about preserving battery life.The report... Continue reading…