The Verge

Image: Motional Add Motional to the very short list of companies that have tested fully autonomous vehicles on public roads. The Hyundai-Aptiv joint venture announced that it has tested its vehicles without safety drivers behind the steering wheel on public streets in Las Vegas.The tests, which took place in February, came less than three months after the company received the green light from the state of Nevada to test its vehicles without a human safety driver. “Multiple driverless vehicles” were tested, conducting maneuvers such as “navigating intersections, unprotected turns, and interactions with other road users, including pedestrians and cyclists,” the company said.Of course, there are some caveats. A Motional employee remained in the... Continue reading…

The Mate X2 has an 8-inch screen that folds inward. | Image: Huawei Huawei has announced the Mate X2, its first all-new foldable device since 2019’s Mate X. The new phone has received a radical redesign compared to the original device, with a large screen that unfolds from the inside of the device rather than around the outside. For using the phone while folded, the Huawei Mate X2 has a second screen on its outside, similar to Samsung’s approach with the Galaxy Fold series. Images of the phone were leaked minutes ahead of its official announcement by Evan Blass on Voice.This being a Huawei device, the Mate X2 will launch without support for Google’s apps or services, which is likely to severely limit its appeal outside of China. According to Huawei’s site, the phone will run on EMUI 11.0 based on... Continue reading…

Photo illustration by Jakub Porzycki/NurPhoto via Getty Images Clubhouse has confirmed one of its users was able to siphon off audio feeds from the invitation-only app and make them accessible from a third-party website, raising security concerns about the fledgling service. A Clubhouse spokesperson told Bloomberg that “multiple rooms” were affected, and that the user behind the breach had been “permanently banned.” It said “safeguards” have been put in place to prevent a repeat, though it reportedly declined to provide specific details.The incident is a reminder for Clubhouse users to be careful about sharing sensitive information in conversations held via the invite-only iOS app. This is especially important for any Chinese citizens or dissidents using the app, or any users concerned about state... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge WhatsApp has detailed what will happen to users who don’t accept its new privacy policy in an FAQ on its website. Starting May 15th, its functionality will become more limited, and users will no longer be able to send or read messages from the app. They’ll still be able to receive calls and notifications, but this will only be possible for a “short time.” Speaking to TechCrunch, the company confirmed this period will last a few weeks.The new privacy policy has been controversial among some users, who worry that it allows WhatsApp to share their private messages with its parent company Facebook. However, messages between individuals on WhatsApp are end-to-end encrypted, so only their recipients can see their contents. What the new... Continue reading…

Image: Hayden Smith / speedbird5280 (Instagram) Airlines in Japan and the US have grounded dozens of Boeing 777 aircraft after the dramatic engine failure that United Airlines flight 328 experienced over Denver this weekend. According to the National Transportation Safety Board’s ongoing investigation, two fan blades on the plane’s number 2 engine had developed fractures.The Federal Aviation Administration issued an emergency airworthiness directive that requires “immediate or stepped-up inspections of Boeing 777 airplanes equipped with certain Pratt & Whitney PW4000 engines.” The administration noted that this was likely to result in aircraft being removed from service.Boeing has also told airlines to stop flying planes equipped with the engine, according to The Wall Street... Continue reading…

You would think the entire world would know how the Zoom world works by now. Lawyers can be cats, congressmen are sometimes inverted, but pants are not actually optional. That didn’t keep the Oakley Union Elementary School District’s board of trustees from badmouthing parents during a public WebEx call — suggesting that parents just “want their babysitters back,” or want to go back to ingesting marijuana (via Gizmodo).

Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge There’s a popular stereotype that Apple’s computers are largely immune to malware. Not only is is that incorrect, it appears that sophisticated hacker(s) might have been toying with the idea of a heist or drop nasty enough they’d have needed to cover their tracks. As Ars Technica reports, security researchers at Malwarebytes and Red Canary discovered a mysterious piece of malware hiding on nearly 30,000 Macs, one designed to deliver an as-yet-unknown payload, and with a self-destruction mechanism that might remove any trace that it ever existed. They’re calling it Silver Sparrow.Red Canary’s own blog post goes into more detail, including how they discovered multiple versions targeting not only Intel, but also newer Macs based on Apple’s... Continue reading…

Samsung has been toying with AR glasses for years, most recently trotting out an extremely basic set of image-projecting goggles on the CES 2020 stage, but I’ve never seen the company suggest it might like to build an actually ambitious augmented reality wearable computing device — until perhaps today.WalkingCat, a fairly reliable source of gadget leaks, has published two new concept videos that show off some of the fun things a pair of “Samsung Glasses Lite” could do, like projecting a giant virtual screen where you can play your games, letting you kick back in your private movie theater, give you a giant virtual computer monitor, fire up an auto-dimming “sunglasses mode,” or act as an instant first-person-view screen for your DJI... Continue reading…

Photo by Avery White / The Verge Pop quiz: which is the better deal, $500 off a Razer Blade laptop, or $150 off an Asus Zephyrus G14? It might hinge on whether you need a webcam, because in practically every other way the Asus is the laptop I’d buy today.That’s not to say there’s anything particularly wrong with the Razer Blade 15 Base at today’s unheard of price of $1,099 at Amazon (regularly $1,599): aside from the paltry 256GB of solid state storage, you’re looking at a speedy 6-core Core i7-10750H processor, GeForce GTX 1660 Ti graphics that should competently tackle yesteryear’s biggest titles, a 144Hz 1080p screen, plus plenty of ports packed into an attractive black CNC aluminum chassis with single-zone RGB lighting. The deal ends midnight PT Sunday. ... Continue reading…

The FAA seems satisfied with its investigations into Elon Musk’s last two SpaceX Starship tests, each of which ended in an explosive crash, and the conclusion of those investigations should clear the way for a new SN10 flight in the very near future. In fact, Musk just tweeted there’s a “good chance of flying this week!”Late last month, we broke the news that SpaceX had violated its launch license with its Starship SN8 launch in December, but an FAA spokesperson now says that matter has already been settled, according to CNN’s Jackie Wattles.As for the SN9, which similarly exploded during a landing attempt on February 2nd, the FAA says it “failed within the bounds of the FAA safety analysis” and “its unsuccessful landing and explosion... Continue reading…

Image: Hayden Smith / speedbird5280 (Instagram) A United Airlines flight experienced a dramatic-looking engine failure just after takeoff from Denver International Airport on Saturday afternoon. UA328, originally headed to Honolulu, quickly circled back to the airport and made a safe landing after the pilots calmly made a “mayday” call to air traffic control. There were no injuries among the 231 passengers and 10 airline staff on board, according to the FAA.Since it’s 2021, the incident was thoroughly captured with both photos and video. Passengers shared video of what looks to be a significant right engine failure, with visible damage, flames, and trailing smoke:

Image: Forest of Illusion Dinosaur Planet is an unreleased Nintendo 64 game by Rare that ultimately evolved into Star Fox Adventures for GameCube. But thanks to the preservationists at Forest of Illusion, it’s now possible to play that unfinished, original title. A build of the game from December 1st, 2000 — well into its development cycle — was retrieved from a disc purchased from a private collector.Screenshots of the game feature Fox McCloud; as noted by Eurogamer, Nintendo’s Shigeru Miyamoto was reportedly influential in pushing the developers to shift the game into a Star Fox title. Digital Foundry’s John Linneman uploaded 20 minutes of gameplay, and here you can also see Fox replacing one of the original game’s intended protagonists, Sabre.

That disclaimer at the bottom would prove relevant. | Image: Blizzard Despite its later-than-usual timing and going completely virtual for the first time, yesterday’s BlizzCon keynote brought with it some big news and exciting trailers. It also featured a musical performance from Metallica. The band isn’t new to BlizzCon, having first appeared at the conference in 2014.Viewers on many platforms (including Blizzard’s own Twitch and YouTube channels) heard a performance of Metallica’s 1984 tune “For Whom The Bell Tolls.” Several Twitch streamers broadcasting BlizzCon muted the feed during Metallica’s appearance to avoid any potential DMCA troubles.But on the Twitch Gaming feed that was also carrying the stream, well, things took an amazing turn. Within seconds of the song beginning, the audio was... Continue reading…

Over at The Markup is an alarming story about a rash of phishing scams that have been targeting gig workers for Postmates. Drivers are receiving phone calls from people claiming to be Postmates employees, who urge the workers to give over their login details — usually under the guise that it’s necessary to keep a driver account in good standing or avoid claims of fraud.Once the scammers obtain that info, they switch the debit card information on the account — Postmates makes weekly deposits of a worker’s earnings, but instant transfers can also be requested — and then drain the balance of everything that’s in there. The Markup has spoken to many Postmates gig workers who’ve been preyed upon with this scam, and others are using Reddit... Continue reading…

Healthcare workers wait for their first dose of the first dose of the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine in Bogata, Colombia. | Photo by Juancho Torres/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images As the pandemic drags on, experts are exploring ways to stretch still-limited vaccine supplies to get as many people protected as possible. One idea that’s resurfaced this week involves allowing more time in between the first and second doses of the two-dose vaccines. This time, though, there’s some additional data that suggests it might work.Here’s the idea: two leading vaccines, made by Pfizer / BioNTech and Moderna require two doses. But their early data showed pretty significant protection after the first dose. That got people thinking — is it worth giving more people partial protection with just one dose? Or should they stick to the schedule and fully vaccinate fewer people?Back in December, some experts encouraged researchers... Continue reading…

Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge This is the first time in recent memory where several deals we’ve written about through the week are still available. It’s always great when readers have an extended window of time to snag a deal. So, below you’ll find a few of our favorite picks from the week, along with one new exclusive deal for Verge readers. I won’t keep you in suspense, it’s on the Pixel 5. We worked with a partner to secure some refurbished units that are in great condition. Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge Snag a refurbished Google Pixel 5 for under $600The lowest price for a like-new refurbished Pixel 5 on Amazon is $610, but you can save more with this reader-exclusive deal from Daily Steals. It’s offering Verge readers a few... Continue reading…

Photo by Daniel Knighton / WireImage The creator of The Oatmeal, Matthew Inman, released a new cat-themed mobile word game called Kitty Letter earlier this week that feels like playing one of his silly comic strips. That feeling was intentional, Inman told me.“My comics have always been rhetorical,” he said. “You don’t interact with the comic, you have no say in it, you’re just experiencing it. So, with [Kitty Letter], I got a chance to introduce some elements where people get to play the comic, and I thought that was a lot of fun.”Kitty Letter has a structure that Inman described as “Scrabble combined with Clash Royale.” Your goal is to beat your opponent by spelling words from a combination of letters at the bottom of your phone’s screen. When you spell a word, you’ll... Continue reading…

Ease your way into the joys of commuting by electric bike Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / Images by Daft Punk, Alex and Martin, and Alterian Inc. As a visual artist who also makes beats in the anonymity of my bedroom, I’ve always wondered how Daft Punk managed to craft not only their music, but their visual presence. A masterpiece unto itself, the Daft Punk helmets transform two anonymous musicians into otherworldly beings. Arbiters of funk and electro. Ambassadors of sound. Gods of the synthesizer. You get it. The helmets allow the musicians to detach themselves from reality and bring the audience into their universe. It leaves the musician in mystery, and until today, the genesis of the helmets was a mystery to me too.In a tweet thread by @daft_wub, you can see the whole process from sketch to final, including electrical schematics and initial sculpts of the helmets. They also... Continue reading…

Blizzcon happened a little later than usual due to the pandemic, but the first virtual version of Blizzard’s games convention still had some interesting news and trailers. The opening keynote covered most of the big franchises, like World of Warcraft and Diablo, along with some more obscure classics.If you missed the event, you can catch up on all of the biggest news right here.Blizzard Arcade CollectionThe first announcement was one of the most unexpected: three of Blizzard’s more obscure games are being bundled into a new package called the Blizzard Arcade Collection. Lost Vikings, Rock & Roll Racing, and Blackthorne have all been ported to modern platforms, including PC, Xbox One, PS4, and the Nintendo Switch. And they include... Continue reading…

Diablo II is getting a big overhaul in a new remaster. After a few leaks, Blizzard officially announced Diablo II Resurrected at its online-only edition of Blizzcon 2021. The new version of the game — which first launched back in 2000 — will launch this year on PC, Switch, PS4, PS5, and Xbox Series X and S, with cross-progression between PC and console. The HD remaster will include both the base game and its expansion, Lord of Destruction.

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Google has fired Margaret Mitchell, co-lead of the ethical AI team, after she used an automated script to look through her emails in order to find evidence of discrimination against her coworker Timnit Gebru. The news was first reported by Axios.Mitchell’s firing comes one day after Google announced a reorganization to its AI teams working on ethics and fairness. Marian Croak, a vice president in the engineering organization, is now leading “a new center of expertise on responsible AI within Google Research,” according to a blog post.“These decisions were made behind our backs”Mitchell joined Google in 2016 as a senior research scientist, according to her LinkedIn. Two years later, she helped start the ethical AI team alongside... Continue reading…

At Blizzcon 2021, Blizzard revealed the latest glimpse at its upcoming RPG Diablo IV. The cinematic trailer introduced a previously-unannounced character class to the game: the rogue. The other already-announced classes are barbarian, sorceress, and druid. The trailer also provided a nice look at the game’s dark atmosphere, getting particularly gruesome towards the end. You might not want to pierce your ears after watching.Before the virtual convention Blizzard made sure to temper expectations by announcing that neither Diablo IV nor Overwatch 2 would be releasing this year. The action role-playing game has been much-anticipated for some time, as it was originally announced way back at the 2019 edition of Blizzcon.Meanwhile, Blizzard... Continue reading…

Photo by Justin Sullivan / Getty Images Anthony Levandowski, a former Google engineer convicted of stealing self-driving car secrets, is closing his artificial intelligence-focused church Way of the Future (WOTF), TechCrunch reports. It’s a somewhat inauspicious end to the church’s goal of pursuing “the realization, acceptance, and worship of a Godhead based on Artificial Intelligence (AI),” in preparation for the Singularity. Now humanity will be left to deal with rampant AI without the religion’s guidance.Levandowski started the process of shuttering WOTF in June 2020, according to documents filed in the state of California found by TechCrunch. WOTF never had regular meetings or a physical church building. The church’s funds, totaling $175,172, have been donated to the... Continue reading…

As part of BlizzCon Online’s opening ceremony, Blizzard Entertainment announced a new video game anthology that includes some of the earlier titles created by the World of Warcraft developer. Blizzard Arcade Collection is a compilation featuring three titles developed by Blizzard around the early and mid-1990s.Blizzard Arcade Collection includes The Lost Vikings, a puzzle platformer that was originally released on SNES in 1993, back when the studio was known as Silicon & Synapse. The game would also see previous ports on other consoles like the Amiga and Game Boy Advance, and was even made available on PC as a free download on Battle.net.The other games available include another platformer called Blackthorne, which was released... Continue reading…

Image: Epic Games Famous video game fighter Chun-Li may not be in the new Mortal Kombat movie, but she and fellow Street Fighter icon Ryu will be playable characters in Fortnite soon. Both Chun-Li and Ryu will be available in Fortnite’s in-game shop on Saturday, February 20th at 7PM ET.Chun-Li and Ryu aren’t the first video game stars to appear in Fortnite this season — fans have also had the chance to pick up skins based on Kratos from God of War and Master Chief from Halo.This entire season of Fortnite has been jam-packed with other crossovers, including Tron, G.I. Joe’s Snake Eyes, two characters from The Walking Dead, soccer kits from real-world teams, and even the Mandalorian and Baby Yoda (who is absolutely adorable in-game). And the game’s last... Continue reading…

Great sound, full of features, but the fit might be a deal-breaker Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Google is changing its policies related to research and diversity after completing an internal investigation into the firing of ethical AI team co-leader Timnit Gebru, according to Axios. The company intends to tie the pay of certain executives to diversity and inclusivity goals. It’s also making changes to how sensitive employee exits are managed.Although Google did not reveal the results of the investigation, the changes seem to be direct responses to how the situation with Gebru went down. After Google demanded that a paper she co-authored be retracted, Gebru told research team management that she would resign from her position and work on a transition plan, unless certain conditions were met. Instead of a transition plan, the... Continue reading…

It’s only been a few days since Netflix announced that it was working on an anime series based on DOTA 2 — DOTA: Dragon’s Blood — but in that time, the streamer has already released a proper teaser trailer that actually shows off the series.And while the original announcement from earlier in the week showed off just a few seconds of footage, the new trailer is just that — a full-fledged teaser for the series that shows off characters like Davion, the Dragon Knight whose quest will be at the heart of the show, and Princess Mirana (DOTA 2 players will likely recognize both of those names as heroes playable in the popular online game.)The release of a new trailer this soon makes a certain amount of sense, though, given how little time... Continue reading…

Photo by Smith Collection / Gado / Getty Images Uber, Lyft, DoorDash, Instacart, and Postmates spent over $200 million campaigning for Proposition 22, the most expensive ballot measure in California history, successfully convincing voters that they couldn’t properly pay and protect their workers if they were forced to classify them as full employees — at least, not without cutting back service or substantially raising the price you’d pay.But now the dust has settled, every single gig economy company that backed Prop 22 has raised those prices anyway. Instacart was the last to join the bait-and-switch today, according to the San Francisco Chronicle’s Carolyn Said, who previously told us in January exactly how much some of these companies are charging Californians to pay for worker... Continue reading…

The first image showing Perseverance being lowered to the Martian surface by its rocket-powered Skycrane. | Photo: NASA/JPL NASA just released a cache of tantalizing photos from its Perseverance rover after landing on Mars Thursday, with one showing the rover getting dropped off by the rocket-powered platform it used to gently descend on the Red Planet’s surface. Scientists are poring through hundreds of images and expect to release more — including videos and audio — in the coming days. Photo: NASA/JPL The first color image taken by Perseverance. The SUV-sized Perseverance rover touched down at Mars’ Jezero crater at 3:55PM ET on Thursday, surviving a seven-month journey from Earth and a blazing hot, seven-minute plunge through the Martian atmosphere. A jetpack called Skycrane gently lowered Perseverance to the ground on a set of... Continue reading…

Image: ABC News The Australian Broadcasting Corporation’s ABC News app shot to the top of Apple’s App Store charts in Australia over the course of the last few days, not long after Facebook banned Australian news sources on its platform. As Financial Times’ Uma Patel suggests in a tweet thread, that’s possibly because ABC capitalized on Facebook’s news ban with an ad sending users to its app.ABC News currently sits at No. 2 in the App Store’s overall app rankings in Australia, according to the analytics firm App Annie, and No. 1 in the news app charts. When Patel noticed the change, the app was also briefly No. 1 overall, ahead of Instagram, Facebook Messenger, and the Facebook app itself.

A power substation is surrounded by snow in Waco, Texas, on February 18th, 2021. A deadly winter weather system that brought record-busting cold to the southern and central United States, knocking out power for millions in oil-rich Texas. | Photo by Matthew Busch / AFP via Getty Images As the lights begin to turn back on after nearly a week of outages across Texas, residents who already struggled to pay their utility bills might find it harder to recover. Costs are piling up that could continue to limit some people’s access to heating and electricity even after blackouts end.“The ‘heat or eat dilemma’ is a really, really significant issue.”“The ‘heat or eat dilemma’ is a really, really significant issue,” says Emily Grubert, an assistant professor of civil and environmental engineering at the Georgia Institute of Technology. “We know that a lot of people are going to basically be choosing between paying for heating or paying for other things that they really need.”Indoor temperatures are likely to have dropped more... Continue reading…

If you live in one of the last states where Comcast hasn’t rolled out its data caps, you’re getting another reprieve: the company has announced that it’s now pushing back the rollout to some time in 2022 (via Ars Technica). The 1.2TB data caps, which incur extra charges if users go over them, were originally slated to roll out in March but were then delayed until July. Comcast hasn’t said specifically when next year the rollout would occur.“We are providing them with more time to become familiar with the new plan.”These caps will be familiar if you don’t live in Comcast’s Northeast region, which consists of Connecticut, Delaware, Massachusetts, Maryland, Maine, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Virginia, Vermont, West... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Apple subpoenaed Valve in November as part of its ongoing litigation with Fortnite developer Epic Games, and it’s demanding that Valve provide extensive sales data for more than 400 games, according to a new filing (via PC Gamer).The move comes amid Apple’s ongoing fight over Epic’s efforts to avoid paying iOS App Store fees. Apple argues that Valve’s data is necessary to calculate the size of the market of Epic’s “available distribution channels,” as Epic could theoretically offer its games through Steam in addition to other digital marketplaces. But the data is also immensely valuable in assessing the marketplace for games and apps — a space in which Apple’s iOS App Store continues to compete with Valve’s Steam marketplace.Valve... Continue reading…

The lock screen and always on display may be getting a redesign in Android 12. | Images: XDA-Developers It’s been a big couple of weeks for Android fans. First came the leaks. Then Google officially made its Android 12 developer preview available, allowing curious folks to dig in and see what the company has actually been working on. The past couple of days have brought many discoveries of tweaks and features that Android 12 will offer, including some hints at what UI changes may be on the way.First up: stacked widgets, similar to iOS. Mishaal Rahman identified the “expanded smart space” feature, which appears to let users scroll between widgets occupying the same space on the home screen. It’s similar to the Smart Stacks feature introduced in iOS 14, which allows you to “stack” widgets of the same size and scroll between them. ... Continue reading…

Image: NASA Yesterday, NASA landed a rover named Perseverance on Mars. I, along with 2 million other people, watched the landing happen live on YouTube. It was beautiful. I mean, here’s this little robot dude that’s traveled millions and millions of miles through the barrenness of space, and now it’s just hanging out on Mars taking pics and scientific samples! (Perseverance joins older sibling Curiosity on the surface of the Red Planet. Hope they have a nice time together!)In any case, Perseverance didn’t traverse the vastness of space alone. Ingenuity, a tiny helicopter, tagged along for the ride. As it’s primarily a technology demonstration, Ingenuity’s destiny is to attempt the first powered flight on any planet other than Earth and to... Continue reading…

Registered Nurse Ebony Thomas (L) administers a Moderna Covid-19 vaccine to Cecilia Onwytalu, 89, at Kedren Community Health Center, in South Central Los Angeles, California on February 16, 2021. | Photo by Apu Gomes/AFP via Getty Images If you know where to look, you can see COVID-19 vaccines starting to save lives in the United States.It’s not in the overall case numbers, though those have been steadily dropping across the United States for weeks. Epidemiologists say there could be a few reasons for that decline: we’re past the holiday seasons surge and people changed their behavior in response to the winter spikes. And by now, many people have antibodies against the virus because of a previous infection. But vaccines probably aren’t a driving factor in that drop — not enough people had been fully vaccinated against COVID-19 when the decline started, and vaccination rates are still relatively low.Some groups of people, though, have high enough rates of vaccination... Continue reading…

Alex Parkin A series of accidentally posted office videos has become an unexpected viral hit on TikTok. The most popular shows a series of municipal employees bidding farewell to their colleague, Connie, against the backdrop of a prairie-hued office space straight out of Parks & Rec.“Congratulations from the Orange County clerk’s office,” says the male deputy clerk, before stepping off to the right.County Clerk Elizabeth Jones steps into the frame: “We wish you the best in your future endeavors.”“We appreciate the good job that you have done for the state of Indiana,” says another, before making room for a fourth. “Goodbye, Connie!”As of press time, more than 40,000 users have liked the video, and it has been viewed more than 300,000 times. The... Continue reading…

Some Disney Plus users trying to watch WandaVision the minute it landed were met with loading issues as outage problems affected the streaming platform.A number of accounts mostly located on the West Coast of the United States were affected by a surge in traffic on the platform that caused an outage of roughly 10 minutes, according to the company. Reports about the length of the outage ranged on Twitter, with some people experiencing problems for closer to 30 minutes, leading to trending topics with names like “NOT DISNEY” and “DISNEY+ DOWN.Other reports from people on the East Coast and in the UK also made rounds. Concerns about issues with the specific episode, like encoding problems, are false, according to the company. A... Continue reading…

Blizzard After canceling BlizzCon 2020 due to the pandemic, Blizzard is back — earlier than usual in the year — for BlizzCon 2021. Blizzard is actually calling it “BlizzConline 2021.” Expect to hear updates on anticipated titles, including Diablo IV, Overwatch 2, World of Warcraft, Hearthstone, and perhaps a sneak peek at the rumored Diablo 2 remaster.Activision, Blizzard’s parent company, announced during a recent earnings call that both Diablo 4 and Overwatch 2 wouldn’t see a 2021 release. And while that’s disappointing, there will likely be some news on games releasing this year. A likely candidate is the Diablo Immortal game for iOS and Android phones, which my colleague Andrew Webster got to experience hands-on.If you want to watch the... Continue reading…

Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge Volkswagen confirmed that its next electric vehicle, the ID 5, will start production in Germany in the second half of 2021. The first pilot series of the ID 5 has already started production, the automaker confirmed in a recent tweet.The ID 5 will be a coupe version of the ID 4 compact SUV, which went on sale in Europe, China, and North America in late 2020. The ID 4 is the first vehicle built on VW’s modular MEB electric architecture to be available in North America. Its predecessor, the hatchback ID 3, is only being sold in Europe.The ID 5 may also fail to reach this side of the Atlantic Ocean. A VW spokesperson said, “There are no plans to bring the car to the US at the moment.”

Photo by James Bareham / The Verge Every Friday, The Verge publishes our flagship podcast The Vergecast, our chat show to discuss this week in tech news featuring our reporters and editors.Here’s what the show covered on this episode:Verge editor-in-chief Nilay Patel talks with Adi Robertson and Casey Newton about Australia’s News Media Bargaining Code, the country’s new regulation for news media on the internet. Casey and Adi explain the deal Google is making with Australia, why Facebook walked away, and what’s at stake for the open web.

Image: Disney Let’s cut to the chase: a couple of really big things happened on WandaVision this week.Most of it is still in line with WandaVision’s current strategy of setting up the Big Reveal, whatever that may be. It could be the heavily teased unnamed character likely to appear in the final two episodes. It could be setting up several films and TV shows within the Marvel Cinematic Universe that fans are eagerly awaiting, like Captain Marvel 2 and Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness. It could be setting up entirely new rosters of superheroes that have yet to grace the MCU.At its core, the seventh episode was also about acceptance. That’s a pretty key idea to several of Wanda’s spanning arcs in the comics, so let’s not just glance over... Continue reading…

Animal Crossing New Horizons Volume 1 Deserted Island Diary | Image: Viz Media Animal Crossing: New Horizons is one of the most popular titles on the Nintendo Switch right now. But if you’re interested in experiencing one of Nintendo’s popular franchises in other media forms, an official manga based on the latest entry is getting an English translation this year.Viz Media announced that the first volume, titled Deserted Island Diary, will release in the West on September 14th. The manga will focus on what the villagers residing on a deserted island are up to. The manga was originally released in Japan in 2020 and currently has two volumes available. Animal Crossing: New Horizons also inspired a separate manga series, with the first chapter debuting in the February 2020 issue of Ciao magazine.This year is... Continue reading…

Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge With the right keyboard accessory, you can transform your iPad into a laptop. Apple’s Magic Keyboard for the 11-inch iPad Pro and fourth-generation iPad Air can add a laptop-like experience to either tablet. It includes a set of backlit keys and a trackpad.At $300, the Magic Keyboard accessory is not cheap, but you can sometimes find it at a much lower price. It is currently going for $199 at Amazon and Walmart.If you’re in the market for a new TV for your home, Best Buy has an incredible deal: you can buy Hisense’s 75-inch 4K LED TV (model H6510G) for only $600, which is $400 off its usual price of $1,000. The model includes Android TV software built in, four HDMI ports, plus a panel that supports Dolby Vision, HDR 10, and HLG.O... Continue reading…

The Oppo Find X3 Neo. | NieuweMobiel.nl Images of the unannounced Oppo Find X3 Neo have leaked again, this time giving us our best look yet at the third phone in Oppo’s upcoming Find X3 phone lineup, NieuweMobiel.nl reports. As tipster Evan Blass has subsequently pointed out, the handset appears to be a rebranded version of Oppo’s Reno5 Pro Plus 5G. The phone is expected to be announced next month alongside the Find X3 Pro and Find X3 Lite.Since the Find X3 Neo is based on an existing phone, we already have a pretty good idea of what its specs might be. These include a Snapdragon 865 processor, 4,500mAh battery with 65W fast charging, and a 6.55-inch 90Hz OLED display. Around back there are four cameras: a 50-megapixel wide-angle camera, a 13-megapixel telephoto, a... Continue reading…

The iPhone 12 was announced alongside a range of MagSafe accessories last year. | Image: Apple Apple is reportedly developing a new iPhone charging accessory in the form of a battery pack that magnetically attaches to the rear of the device using MagSafe, Bloomberg reports. Although some prototypes have a rubber exterior, the battery pack isn’t thought to act as a protective case like previous iPhone battery accessories from Apple. Alongside details of the new battery case, Bloomberg also notes that the iPhone lineup is unlikely to receive support for reverse wireless charging anytime soon.The battery pack accessory is thought to have been in development for at least a year, but it’s reportedly faced development issues relating to the iPhone’s software thinking that the pack is overheating. Bloomberg notes that Apple is cautious... Continue reading…

Photo by Tom Warren / The Verge John Carmack has proposed an auction system for popular gaming products like GPUs, the PS5, and Xbox Series X. Carmack, the co-founder of id software, believes “we really would be better off with a transparent auction system directly from the manufacturers and a more efficient market.”This type of auction system could be used to beat scalpers, who wouldn’t be willing to pay inflated prices on highly prized new products. “There would be much indignation at reported prices out of the gate, but removing intermediaries should net out better for consumers in the end,” says Carmack on Twitter.Due to a global chip shortage and incredible demand, the true price of a PS5 was more than $1,000 in December, and RTX 3080s were selling for $1,227... Continue reading…

Acast Acast, a podcast host and ad network, is looking to improve its tech and broaden its reach. The company announced today that it’s acquiring RadioPublic for an undisclosed amount with the goal of using RadioPublic’s tech to bring more creators to the Acast platform and make inroads in the US market. RadioPublic’s podcast app will remain live, and its team will stay based in the US.Among the tools that RadioPublic created — and that intrigued Acast — is something called Podsite, which helps podcasters set up a complimentary website for their show as well as a feature called Affinity Promotions, which helps podcasters target their most loyal listeners with text-based messages. They can use these messages to promote a newsletter, for... Continue reading…