The Verge

Image: Sonos Sonos will announce its next new product on March 9th, the company confirmed today. The invite for the launch shows a person out in a field — strongly hinting that the device will be portable. My guess is it’s something that would fit in that shoulder bag. A recent Federal Communications Commission filing from Sonos revealed that it’s preparing to release what looks like a smaller battery-powered speaker. Documents show the device to use Bluetooth and have a wireless charging stand much like the existing Sonos Move, which sells for $399.Sonos is also developing a pair of premium noise-canceling headphones, which recently made another appearance at the German Patent and Trademark Office. It looks like the design is almost final, and... Continue reading…

Pike Electric service trucks line up after a snowstorm on February 16th, 2021, in Fort Worth, Texas. Winter storm Uri has brought historic cold weather and power outages to Texas as storms have swept across 26 states with a mix of freezing temperatures and precipitation. | Photo by Ron Jenkins / Getty Images Natural gas wells and pipes ill-equipped for cold weather are a big reason why millions of Texans lost power during frigid temperatures this week. As temperatures dropped to record lows across some parts of the state, liquid inside wells, pipes, and valves froze solid.Ice can block gas flow, clogging pipes. It’s a phenomenon called a “freeze-off” that disrupts gas production across the US every winter. But freeze-offs can have outsized effects in Texas, as we’ve seen this week. The state is a huge natural gas producer — and it doesn’t usually have to deal with such cold weather.Texas relies on natural gas more than any other fuel for its electricity generation“When we think about what’s been going on in the last week and why it’s... Continue reading…

Super73, the Southern California e-bike company popular among YouTubers and film celebrities, announced that it has raised an impressive $20 million from investors, making it the latest company to benefit from growing venture capital interest after a record year of e-bike sales.The funding round is Super73’s first and was led by equity firm Volition Capital, which was an early investor in Chewy before its acquisition by PetSmart for $3.35 billion in 2017. With these new funds, the direct-to-consumer e-bike company plans on growing its 75-person staff, improving its customer service operation, and expanding its product lineup, said Super73 co-founder and CEO LeGrand Crewse.Super73 helped popularize a retro, mini-bike style of e-bike“... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge It seems like the days of free apps are slowly grinding to a halt. Just recently, password manager LastPass announced that it was drastically limiting the usefulness of its free app, and now, Google has sent out emails reaffirming that it is ending its free unlimited photo storage policy:

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Samsung has temporarily halted chip production at its facilities in Austin, TX in response to the region’s power outages brought on by Winter Storm Uri, the Austin American-Statesman reports. “With prior notice, appropriate measures have safely been taken for the facilities and wafers in production,” Samsung said in a statement, “We will resume production as soon as power is restored.” On Tuesday, Austin Energy confirmed it had ordered its biggest customers to shut down, although it’s unknown how long they were without power.The shutdowns were ordered as some 200,000 Austin homes were without power.What’s unclear at the moment is whether production of Apple’s Mac Pro, which is manufactured in Austin, has also been affected. A... Continue reading…

Microsoft’s new Xbox Wireless Headset appeared in the company’s Xbox Series X and S launch commercial all the way back in October. British actor Daniel Kaluuya picked up the headset early on in the ad, but nobody noticed it was an unannounced accessory at the time.Microsoft announced its new Xbox Wireless Headset on Tuesday which features rotating ear cup dials that let you adjust volume and game / audio chat balance. The new headset will be available for $99 on March 16th. Image: Microsoft Microsoft’s new Xbox Wireless Headset. Aaron Greenberg, general manager of Xbox games marketing, confirmed the new Xbox Wireless Headset was part of the launch commercial during a Clubhouse audio call attended by The Verge... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Fortnite developer Epic Games has made a formal antitrust complaint about Apple to the European Commission, the company announced today. Epic alleges that Apple’s “carefully designed anti-competitive restrictions” have “completely eliminated competition in app distribution and payment processes.” It says this leads to consumers playing higher prices, and gives Apple too much control over developers on its platform.The complaint is the latest legal action taken by Epic in its ongoing dispute with Apple. The developer has criticized Apple’s control over software distribution with the App Store, as well as its policies around payments, which often result in Apple taking a 30 percent cut of in-app purchases. Epic CEO Tim Sweeney has called... Continue reading…

SpaceX has reportedly raised $850 million in a round of funding, in transactions that would value shares of the company at $419.99 each. According to CNBC, this would mean the company is worth around $74 billion. It would also mean that the company has money to continue on with its future projects.As one could imagine, some of SpaceX’s projects are deeply unprofitable before they start making money — for instance, earlier this month Elon Musk said that there’s a “deep chasm of negative cash flow” between the company’s satellite-based internet service provider Starlink and profitability. The company’s plan to send enough satellites to create a global, high-speed internet network is expensive, and since the service is still in the beta... Continue reading…

Image: Netflix Netflix is making an anime series based on Valve’s hugely-popular game Dota 2. The 8-episode series, titled Dota: Dragon’s Blood, launches on March 25th, and you can watch the first trailer at the top of this post.“The upcoming fantasy series tells the story of Davion, a renowned Dragon Knight devoted to wiping the scourge from the face of the world,” according to a Netflix press release. “Following encounters with a powerful, ancient eldwurm as well as the noble Princess Mirana on a secret mission of her own, Davion becomes embroiled in events much larger than he could have ever imagined.”

Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge Google made the surprise announcement on February 1st that it would be shuttering its in-house Stadia game development studios. But the news wasn’t just a surprise to Stadia customers; it was a bolt from the blue for the Stadia development team, which, just a week prior, had been told that the studios were making “great progress,” according to a report from Kotaku.“[Stadia Games and Entertainment] has made great progress building a diverse and talented team and establishing a strong lineup of Stadia exclusive games,” said Phil Harrison, a vice president at Google and general manager for Stadia, on January 27th in an email to staff obtained by Kotaku. The email promised more news on the Stadia studios’ strategy and goals for 2021. But... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Microsoft is expanding its accessibility efforts with a new program for evaluating Xbox and PC games. Today, its gaming accessibility team announced that developers can send their games to be evaluated for accessibility and tested by players with disabilities. The program was announced alongside updates to the Xbox Accessibility Guidelines that were released in early 2020.“Developers now have the option to send Microsoft their Xbox or PC title and have it analyzed and validated against the recommendations provided in the XAGs,” says an Xbox blog post published today. The Xbox Accessibility Guidelines include thorough explanations of inclusive design considerations for developers, and they are now updated to include clearer language,... Continue reading…

As part of iOS 14.5, Apple is adding new emoji from the Unicode Consortium’s Emoji 13.1 release, including skin tone options for some popular emoji and several new smiley faces and hearts. The company is also making some changes to other emoji that are already available.The new changes to skin tone and gender presentation are probably the most important to note. Popular emoji like “Couples Kissing” and “Couples with Heart” now have many more skin tone variations for all options. Image: Emojipedia Skin tone variations for the “Couples with Heart” emoji in iOS 14.5. In addition to more skin tones, the bearded emoji has also been adjusted to allow for not just the neutral “Person:Beard” but also “Man:Beard” and... Continue reading…

The monitor in question is on the left-hand side. Taken for the “What’s on your desk?” series | Photo by Cameron Faulkner / The Verge PC gaming is an expensive hobby, so I wouldn’t blame you if you’re trying to save some money here and there. To that end, if you’re looking for a QHD gaming monitor that’s affordable and loaded with features, Acer’s Nitro XV272U might have your name on it. It costs $300 at Amazon right now, which is the cheapest you’ll find it online. This isn’t the first time it has seen this discount, but I always want to tell people about it when it resurfaces.I actually purchased this monitor the last time it was on sale because it met all of my requirements at a fraction of the price I expected to pay. It’s a 27-inch IPS panel in 1440p resolution with a 144Hz refresh rate and Nvidia G-Sync compatibility. I’ve seen a lot of other monitors on the... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge A North Dakota bill that would have drastically altered the way app store operators like Apple and Google manage their digital marketplaces has failed to garner enough votes, failing in the state senate by an 11-36 vote on Tuesday, according to North Dakota House of Representatives member Karla Rose Hanson.The bill, SB 2333, stirred considerable controversy last week when a committee hearing drew the attention of corporate lawyers and lobbyists, experts, and Apple critics arguing both in favor and against the proposed legislation’s potentially far-reaching consequences.The bill would have barred any company in the business of software distribution making over $10 million in annual revenue from imposing rules on developers dictating... Continue reading…

Image: German Patent and Trademark Office Sonos has long been rumored to be developing a premium set of noise-canceling headphones to join the company’s ecosystem of speakers and multiroom audio products. A new design patent filing at the German Patent and Trademark Office seems to provide a glimpse at a farther-along, more refined product than what we saw from the US Patent and Trademark Office in September. These latest filings were registered in December and published in late January.One notable difference is that the Sonos wordmark is visible on this design; it wasn’t present on the previous filing. (That said, it’s in broken lines, which doesn’t count for much in a design patent and signifies that placement could change.) Another evolution is that the rods coming out of... Continue reading…

The Motorola Moto G30 is available now in European markets. | Image: Motorola Motorola has announced two new budget phones coming to European markets: the Moto G30 and the Moto G10, both starting well under €200. The higher-specced G30 includes a fast 90Hz refresh rate screen and a 5,000mAh battery with 15W fast charging, two features not commonly seen at this price.The G30’s 6.5-inch display is unfortunately just 720p. Other specs look healthier, though, like IP52 dust and splash resistance, 6GB of RAM, and 128GB of built-in storage that is expandable via microSD. The phone includes a 64-megapixel main camera that produces 16-megapixel images, plus an 8-megapixel ultrawide, 2-megapixel macro camera, and 2-megapixel depth sensor, with a 13-megapixel selfie camera around front. It’s equipped with a Snapdragon 662... Continue reading…

Image: Nintendo If you are interested in testing out Pokémon Unite, a spinoff that has gameplay similar to League of Legends, you may be in luck. Today, the Pokémon Company announced it’ll host a regional beta test for Pokémon Unite in Canada next month. The beta test will be exclusive to Android users, and registration is available on the Google Play Store.Initially announced at its Pokémon Presents presentation last June, Pokémon Unite is a free-to-play MOBA. The game is being developed by TiMi Studios, a subsidiary of Tencent, best known for creating Call of Duty: Mobile and Honor of Kings.Pokémon is celebrating its 25th anniversary this yearSimilar to other games of the genre, such as League of Legends, Pokémon Unite pits two teams of five... Continue reading…

Image: Microsoft Microsoft is trying a new solution for the persistent “would you like to allow notifications from this website” requests that you see across the internet: crowdsourcing data on which ones people block and which ones they allow. According to a blog post today, Microsoft is calling this feature adaptive notification requests, and the company is rolling it out in Edge 88 after it received positive feedback from testers.For an example of how this works, say there’s a website that commonly asks for notifications, and nobody wants them. They’ll either ignore the request or click the block button to make sure they never see it again. Microsoft then collects that data and will stop showing new users the notification request in the future. ... Continue reading…

Photo by Chris Welch / The Verge Amazon is opening its first manufacturing line in India in a partnership with Foxconn-owned Cloud Network Technology, an India-based subsidiary of the Taiwanese electronics giant, Amazon announced on Tuesday. The partnership is part of an effort to work with the Indian government, which has embarked on a campaign to encourage companies to invest in the Indian economy to avoid roadblocks, like high import taxes to entering and competing in the country’s competitive and fast-growing economy.The Indian government calls its campaign to encourage local investment and growth in India-based enterprises “Aatmanirbhar Bharat,” which translates to “self-reliant India” and has become a cornerstone of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s economic policy... Continue reading…

Photo by Fritzchens Fritz / Flickr While the world continues to wait for a chance to buy the PlayStation 5, we’re continuing to put Sony’s next-gen console under the microscope — literally, when we showed you the 40,000 tiny PlayStation symbols hidden in each gamepad, and now somewhat figuratively with what we believe are the first up-close pictures of the PS5’s actual silicon from photographer Fritzchens Fritz (via VideoCardz).Above, you can see one of Fritz’s gorgeous close-ups of the liquid metal interface Sony uses to keep the PS5’s temperatures in check. Below, find a stunning monochrome portrait of it framed against the motherboard: Photo by Fritzchens Fritz / Flickr Let’s turn it upright, shall we? Here’s a high-res version you might be able... Continue reading…

Roku is looking to create its own original “episodic and feature productions,” according to a recent (and now closed) job listing posted by the company (via Protocol). The job listing mentions Roku’s “expanding slate of original content.”Roku currently doesn’t have any in-house content of its own. It now owns Quibi’s lineup of shows, which it acquired from the defunct streaming company, and it also offers The Roku Channel, an ad-supported service that lets users watch a wide range of TV shows, movies, live news, and more — but we haven’t yet seen any shows that are made by Roku itself. The job listing that mentions “original episodic and feature length productions.” The job listing, however, indicates that Roku is... Continue reading…

Photo by Montinique Monroe/Getty Images A freezing winter storm passed through Texas and parts of the Midwest over the weekend, straining parts of the state’s electricity grid to the point of blackouts. But with many Texans struggling to heat their homes, disaster scammers have reportedly been taking advantage of the disaster to try to steal account info.In a tweet on Tuesday, the Electric Reliability Council of Texas, or ERCOT, warned followers that social media scammers were posing as electricity workers and asking people to text them their private account numbers.“Don’t do it!” the company said in a tweet. “We don’t need any of your info to get your power back on — we are working as fast as we possibly can.”

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Microsoft is updating its Edge browser with a Kids Mode that should make browsing safer and more customizable, in a kid-friendly way. The feature is not widely available, but it’s being rolled out to Edge Insiders in Microsoft’s Canary test channel, with the feature coming to the dev channel soon after.Kids Mode can be enabled by selecting it from the Profile picker in Microsoft Edge, not dissimilar from using a similar Kids profile in a streaming service. Browsing in Kids Mode enables several features. Kids Mode comes with custom browser themes, Bing SafeSearch enabled to keep kids away from “adult” search results, and an allow list that parents can use to set appropriate websites. The allow list comes predefined in Edge, according to... Continue reading…

Amazon’s open-world MMO, New World, has once again been delayed. The developer now expects the game to launch August 31st. “We’ve been hard at work on compelling end-game features we believe are important to include at launch,” an update on the game’s site reads. “These features won’t be ready for the Spring timeframe that we had communicated.”Development at Amazon has been bumpy. New World has already had its share of criticism as well for its depictions of European colonization. The tentpole game, previously intended for a launch in 2020, was pushed from its August date to spring 2021 last July — its second delay. The news came just days after Amazon-owned studio, Relentless, essentially un-launched its free-to-play shooter Crucible... Continue reading…

Photo by Mark Felix / AFP via Getty Images Winter storms paralyzing the United States have left millions without power and sent health officials scrambling to protect freezers full of COVID-19 vaccines, which have to be kept at extremely low temperatures or risk going bad.Rolling blackouts through Texas took out at least one set of freezers full of the Moderna vaccine; 5,000 doses were sent to a university, a jail, and a handful of hospitals before they expired. The Oregon Health Authority is moving vaccines to places with power, although the agency isn’t disclosing which storage sites have their systems down. As part of its storm preparations, Kentucky made sure places holding COVID-19 vaccines had contingency plans.“For each provider they have a generator on site that is... Continue reading…

Inside IBM Research Headquarters IBM plans to get rid of its planet-heating carbon dioxide emissions from its operations by 2030, the company announced today. And unlike some other tech companies that have made splashy environmental commitments lately, IBM’s pledge emphasized the need to prevent emissions rather than developing ways to capture carbon dioxide after it’s released.IBM is pledging to do “all it can across its operations” to stop pollutingThe company committed to reaching net zero greenhouse gas emissions by the end of this decade, pledging to do “all it can across its operations” to stop polluting before it turns to emerging technologies that might be able to capture carbon dioxide after it’s emitted. It plans to rely on renewable energy for 90 percent of... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Facebook addressed false election information with understated warnings like “missing context” rather than more direct flags, research from The Markup suggests — and the company appeared hesitant to label false or misleading statements from now-banned former President Donald Trump.The Markup has released new data from its Citizen Browser, which captures snapshots of what 2,200 volunteers see in their Facebook feeds. Its report covers December and January, two contentious months where then-President Trump falsely claimed victory in the election. Facebook implemented special banners and labeling systems to inform users about election results and fact-check false posts. The Citizen Browser Project offers a window into a seemingly... Continue reading…

Image: Trello Productivity app Trello, a virtual whiteboard-style platform for organizing and managing projects, is announcing a major redesign today in addition to new features for helping businesses manage third-party integrations. The platform is getting a visual overhaul, both to its logo and the illustrations it deploys across its website and apps. It’s also getting multiple new ways to both customize cards and view your workload beyond the core whiteboard column view.“During the pandemic, Trello became many people’s new offices in a remote-first world. The overnight shift to distributed work coupled with the frantic adoption of digital tools led to an exponential increase in digital work artifacts scattered across apps, some of which now... Continue reading…

Microsoft Flight Simulator UK update. | Image: Microsoft Microsoft Flight Simulator is getting a big update today focused on the UK and Ireland. The World Update III, as Microsoft puts it, includes high-resolution 3G imagery for cities like London, Birmingham, Bristol, Cambridge, and Oxford. More than 70 custom landmarks and points of interest have been improved, including famous bridges, palaces, cathedrals, and famous Premier League football (soccer!) stadiums.If you’ve tried to visit some Premier League clubs in Flight Simulator already, you’ve probably noticed they’re usually just a giant generic-looking apartment block. This update aims to improve that experience with detailed views of exactly where the Premier League is played week in week out. Likewise, Buckingham Palace, the Queen’s... Continue reading…

Photo by Cameron Faulkner / The Verge Update February 16th, 11:21AM ET: The bullet list at the bottom now reflects that Asus and Gigabyte have updated all of its product pages with the required information about the RTX 30-series graphics chips its laptops use.Nvidia is now requiring, not just encouraging, companies selling laptops with its new RTX 30-series graphics chips to be more transparent about the kind of power people can expect. Nvidia tells The Verge these companies will have to disclose specific clock speed stats and total graphics power on online product pages — all of which tells people everything they need to know about a laptop’s graphics potential, for better or worse.However, companies won’t have to mention that these chips are Max-Q variants because,... Continue reading…

Image: Sennheiser Sennheiser announced on Tuesday it’s looking for a new partner to buy its consumer audio business, which consists of headphones and soundbars. It’s going to shift its focus entirely to professional audio, including its Neumann microphone division and what Sennheiser calls business communications.In a press release, Sennheiser says it wants to increase visibility in the competitive headphone and soundbar markets, and it thinks its products can be popular amid “strong competitive pressure.” But it needs an investor to make that happen. It also says that talks with potential partners will start soon.“To be best able to exploit the potential in each of these markets, we are concentrating our own resources on the three business areas in... Continue reading…

Today, gaming peripheral brand Corsair is announcing that it has purchased streaming visuals company Visuals by Impulse (VBI), which it’s organizing under its other streaming brand, Elgato. If reading that makes your eyes cross, don’t worry — all it means is that some of the biggest names in streaming technology have come together under Corsair’s roof. Think of the consolidation like a one-stop shop.It’s a smart move on Corsair’s part, too. The company scooped up Elgato — the biggest name in streaming tech — in 2018, and then a year later, it picked up Origin PC, which makes custom prebuilt PCs, and SCUF Gaming, which makes custom professional-grade controllers.This month’s acquisition of VBI means Corsair now has a complete set of... Continue reading…

Image: LastPass LastPass is adding new restrictions to its free subscription tier starting March 16th that’ll only allow users to view and manage passwords on one category of devices: mobile or computer. Mobile users will be limited to iOS and Android phones, iPads, Android tablets, and smartwatches. Computer subscribers will be able to use their passwords from Windows, macOS, and Linux desktops and laptops, the LastPass browser extension, and Windows tablets.Users on LastPass’ free tier will be asked to pick between the two options the first time they log in after March 16th, and the company says they’ll be able to switch between categories up to three times after they’ve picked. Although customers are restricted to a single category of devices on... Continue reading…

2021 is going to be a really big year for electric vehicles. Car-buying experts at Edmunds expect US sales to grow to 2.5 percent from 1.9 percent in 2020. That’s thanks to more options and growing interest from interested consumers.Nearly three dozen EVs from 21 automotive brands are expected to go on sale this year, compared to 17 vehicles from 12 brands in 2020. Notably, this will be the first year that all three major vehicle categories will be represented: there will be 11 electric sedans, 13 SUVs, and six pickup trucks in 2021, whereas only 10 cars and seven SUVs were available last year.We thought we’d zero in on seven different EVs coming out this year and talk about what they tell us about where things are headed in the... Continue reading…

Following in the footsteps of The Mandalorian and Frozen 2, Disney is giving WandaVision a behind-the-scenes documentary that will air on Disney Plus on March 12th.Assembled: The Making of WandaVision is the first in a new series streaming on Disney Plus that will go “behind the scenes of the series and movies of the MCU,” according to the company. A similar documentary is already available to watch on Disney Plus that examines how the Marvel Cinematic Universe came together, providing a more in-depth look at Marvel Entertainment (specifically the comics) in general.For Disney Plus, this is quickly becoming the norm: release a highly anticipated show or movie, and then pair it with an accompanying documentary featurette or series.... Continue reading…

Image: Levi’s The Pokémon franchise is turning 25 this year, and to celebrate, the brand is teaming up for a number of collaborations, from McDonald’s cards to Post Malone concerts. And then there’s Levi’s, which is celebrating the anniversary with a line of Pokémon-branded outfits, led by the standout floral-print Pokémon-themed denim trucker jacket / jeans combo in what might be the finest example of the Canadian tuxedo ever made.The flashy getup is available as separates: a $128 trucker jacket and a pair of $148 jeans, both of which feature a... unique print of various Pokémon characters darting in and out of a floral garden motif. And while Levi’s shows its models rocking half of the set (presumably as an accent piece for a more restrained... Continue reading…

Microsoft is launching a new $99 Xbox Wireless Headset next month. It’s the first wireless Xbox headset since the Xbox 360 days, and it’s designed to connect with Xbox One and Xbox Series X / S consoles, PCs, and mobile devices via Bluetooth.The Xbox Wireless Headset design improves nearly every aspect of the basic Xbox One Stereo and Wired Chat headsets that are currently available. Microsoft has leaned on its work with the Surface Headphones to add similar rotating ear cup dials that let you adjust volume and game / audio chat balance. Image: Microsoft Microsoft’s new Xbox Wireless Headset. This new Xbox Wireless Headset is also designed to match the new Xbox Series X / S design, with a lightweight frame... Continue reading…

Fortnite’s violence-free mode, party royale, will soon be the home of a short film festival. Today, developer Epic announced “Short Nite,” which will feature multiple animated shorts, all broadcast on the virtual island’s big screen. The event will start on February 20th at 2PM ET, and Epic says the entire run will last around 30 minutes, though it will be rebroadcast for 24 hours, ending on February 21st at 2PM ET.Here’s the list of movies you can expect:

Photo by Cameron Faulkner / The Verge If you’re hunting for a capable gaming laptop without spending too much, now’s a good time to check out this deal at Dell’s site. It’s offering the Dell G5 15 for $1,099.99 (originally $1,540 for this configuration). For that price, you’re getting the laptop stocked with a 15.6-inch FHD display that supports up to a 144Hz refresh rate, a six-core Intel Core i7-10750H processor, an Nvidia RTX 2070 Max-Q graphics chip, 16GB of RAM, a 512GB NVMe SSD, and a batch of ports including a Thunderbolt 3 port. It seems like a competent machine.Dell also makes the G5 15 SE, which is pictured above. There aren’t many visual differences, aside from there being a more muted colorway in this discounted model. But inside, the G5 15 SE stocks AMD... Continue reading…

Photo Illustration by Grayson Blackmon / The Verge An interview with Jon Fortt of CNBC Continue reading…

Photo by Becca Farsace / The Verge Samsung’s Galaxy Chromebook 2, previously stated to be coming in “Q1 2021,” finally has a release date. You can preorder it starting today through Samsung and Best Buy, and it’ll start shipping on March 1st. Models start at $549.99.While it’s technically the second device to bear the name “Samsung Galaxy Chromebook,” this laptop is a step down from its $999 predecessor — an ultrathin premium OLED device — when it comes to hardware. It’s a bit thicker and heavier, at 2.71 pounds and 0.55 inches thick. And Samsung has replaced the Galaxy Chromebook’s high-end 4K OLED panel with a more standard QLED screen (which the company says can produce over a billion colors). The Chromebook 2 comes in the same colors as its predecessor (“mercury... Continue reading…

If a gadget has a processor in it, then there’s a decent chance someone’s tried to hack it to run Doom. A Nintendo Game & Watch? Naturally. A MacBook Pro Touch Bar? Sure. Calculators? Why not. Now, thanks to YouTube channel Games Made of Cardboard, we can finally add “cardboard boxes” to that illustrious list.Ok, so technically Bill Thorpe hasn’t done the impossible and successfully got classic first-person shooter Doom II to run on an actual cardboard box. But his 10-minute long video is the next best thing. It recreates many of the game’s best moments using cardboard sets, characters, and weapons. It’s a huge project that the video’s description says took nine months of work to complete.

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Samsung has a pair of new laptops in development — the Galaxy Book Pro and Galaxy Book Pro 360 — which include OLED displays and will be compatible with the company’s S Pen stylus, SamMobile reports. The Galaxy Book Pro 360 is said to also be available with 5G connectivity. The laptops were first revealed in a Bluetooth certification filing that surfaced last month.SamMobile’s report doesn’t go into details about the specs of the OLED displays such as what their resolution or refresh rates might be. However, given the laptops will reportedly be available with 13.3-inch and 15.6-inch screens, it seems unlikely that they’ll use the 14-inch 90Hz OLED displays that Samsung Display said it would be mass manufacturing starting next month.T... Continue reading…

GIF: Hyundai Hyundai is teasing the first interior photos of the Ioniq 5 ahead of its world premiere on February 23rd. It’s Hyundai’s first EV to utilize the Electric-Global Modular Platform (E-GMP) — the same platform that Apple is said to have been interested in for its oft-rumored self-driving car. E-GMP’s flat battery and long wheelbase allows for a more spacious and customizable interior for both passengers and cargo.The big design flourish teased today is a sliding center console inside the Ioniq 5. The so-called “Universal Island” moves out of the way so that the driver or passengers can easily enter and exit either side of the car when parked in a narrow spot, for example. GIF: Hyundai The “Universal Island” slides... Continue reading…

Photo by Thomas Trutschel/Photothek via Getty Images Microsoft has updated its unified Office mobile app to work on Apple’s iPad devices. The new Office app combines Word, Excel, and PowerPoint into a single application, and originally launched for iOS and Android back in 2019. Microsoft has been gradually improving it ever since, but it always ran in a windowed mode instead of a fully optimized iPad app.This new update means Office is now a full iPadOS app, with access to all of the regular tablet variants of Microsoft’s productivity suite. The app also bundles in some useful tools designed primarily for mobile tasks. These include the ability to quickly create PDFs or sign documents, converting images to text and tables, and more quick actions.Microsoft has been simplifying its mobile... Continue reading…

Electric moped rental company Revel is expanding its product lineup to include monthly e-bike subscriptions for residents of New York City. It’s the latest company to try to capitalize on the e-bike boom by shifting to a Netflix or Spotify subscription model for transportation.For $99 a month, interested customers can get a stylish electric bike manufactured by NYC-based e-bike company Wing delivered straight to their door. The price also includes complimentary maintenance, including flat tires fixes, loose chains repairs, or brake upkeep. Service requests can be submitted via Revel’s smartphone app, and Revel says a repair technician will respond within 24 hours. The company will also supply a bike lock and educational material to help... Continue reading…

A screenshot for the new PC version shows the upgraded ray tracing technology. | Image: 4A Games Metro Exodus developer 4A Games has revealed the free upgrades that are coming to its 2019 shooter on PC and next-gen consoles this year. The new version-specific features vary by platform, but include overhauled ray tracing support and support for Nvidia’s DLSS 2.0 technology on PC. Also revealed are improvements coming to the next-gen console version, first announced last year.On PC, the update will be released as Metro Exodus PC Enhanced Edition, and it’ll be free regardless of whether you own the game on Steam, the Epic Games Store, or GoG. Although the game supported ray tracing at launch, the new version significantly upgrades it with support for new features like advanced ray traced reflections. Other upgrades coming to the new... Continue reading…

E-reader company PocketBook has announced and released the InkPad Color, a 7.8-inch device that uses E Ink’s latest color technology. PocketBook tells The Verge that it’s the first device with a new Kaleido panel to be available in the US and Europe.According to the company, the new version of Kaleido has a different color filter pattern that offers better contrast and color saturation than the first Kaleido, which is itself pretty new technology. PocketBook also says that the screen refresh rate has been improved in software.The specs of the new Kaleido panel are otherwise similar to the previous generation, with 300-dpi resolution for monochrome content and 100 dpi when displaying colors. The overall screen resolution has been... Continue reading…

Illustration by William Joel / The Verge We’re eagerly awaiting to hear official news about Android 12, Google’s next major update to its mobile operating system, and we might have gotten an early look at some big UI changes just last week, thanks to XDA Developers. But now, thanks again to XDA Developers, we might know something even more important: Android 12’s dessert name.For years, Android releases were also identified with dessert names, and each year’s dessert started with the next sequential letter in the alphabet. Google deserted the dessert names in favor of numerals with Android 10, but the company reportedly still uses dessert names internally. Android 11’s dessert name was apparently Red Velvet Cake, for example. Android 12’s name? XDA Developers says that it’s... Continue reading…

Roku is testing a new version of its remote control for its set-top boxes, the Roku Voice Remote Pro, which ditches the AAA batteries for a built-in rechargeable battery instead, via Zatz Not Funny.Along with the rechargeable batteries the new model — revealed by Reddit user u/KingTut206 over on the Roku subreddit — offers a few extra features, including a “lost remote finder” option and hands-free voice controls. (So you’ll be able to say something like “Hey Roku, find my remote” and have it pinged.) It also features two customizable buttons, in addition to the four pre-programed ones for streaming services that have partnered with the company. Image: u/KingTut206 / Reddit Unfortunately, the new remote charges via... Continue reading…