The Verge

A screenshot from Onward. | Image: Downpour Interactive Facebook’s Oculus division has snatched up yet another popular virtual reality game developer. On Friday, the company announced it has acquired Downpour Interactive, the studio behind the hit multiplayer military simulator Onward.“We’ve seen great success with Onward on the Oculus platform for several years — first on Rift and more recently on Quest,” Mike Verdu, Facebook’s VP of AR / VR content, said in a blog post. “Becoming part of the Oculus Studios family will give Downpour Interactive the opportunity to cultivate both the Onward community with the full support of Oculus Studios resources, and, in the future, pursue other projects.”Everyone from Downpour will move to OculusEveryone from Downpour Interactive will move over to the... Continue reading…

A digital illustration of SpaceX’s Starship lunar lander sitting on the Moon’s surface, as proposed to NASA under its Artemis program. | Image: SpaceX NASA has suspended work on SpaceX’s new $2.9 billion lunar lander contract while a federal watchdog agency adjudicates two protests over the award, the agency said Friday.Putting the Human Landing System (or HLS) work on hold until the GAO makes a decision on the two protests means SpaceX won’t immediately receive its first chunk of the $2.9 billion award, nor will it commence the initial talks with NASA that would normally take place at the onset of a major contract.Elon Musk’s SpaceX was picked by NASA on April 16th to build the agency’s first human lunar lander since the Apollo program, as the agency opted to rely on just one company for a high-profile contract that many in the space industry expected to go to two companies.As a... Continue reading…

The Biden administration’s version of a COVID-19 vaccine-finding website launched today, along with a Spanish-language version, text messaging tool, and phone hotline.The new website, vaccines.gov, is a new version of VaccineFinder, a site run through a partnership between Boston Children’s Hospital and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. VaccineFinder was originally created during the 2009 swine flu outbreaks and has hosted COVID-19 vaccine information for the past few months.The new version has the same features as the old site. It lets people locate sites offering COVID-19 vaccines nearby, shows which vaccines are on offer at each location, and says if the vaccines are in stock or not. “In stock” does not necessarily... Continue reading…

Image: Apple If you’re hoping to get one of the new 12.9-inch iPad Pros with a Mini LED display, you may be waiting a while — the delivery times for even the base model have slipped to late June or early July (via Bloomberg). Leading up to the device’s announcement, there were rumors that the display tech could be a production bottleneck for Apple, and that appears to be the case — Apple’s site says the 11-inch iPad Pro, announced alongside the 12.9-inch, would be delivered in late May.The Mini LED display that could be to blame for the short supply of iPads is a new tech for Apple, but it promises to bring a ton of improvements compared to normal LED displays. However, they’re trickier to produce — Apple says that the previous iPad Pro’s display... Continue reading…

The Ingenuity helicopter on Mars. | Image: NASA/JPL After acing a set of historic test flights on Mars, NASA’s Ingenuity helicopter will embark on a new, more advanced test mission, engineers said today. Having proved itself capable of flying higher and farther with its fourth flight on Friday, the mini helicopter will get ready to demonstrate how it could help Mars rovers, like Perseverance, scout for new locations and probe areas inaccessible to wheeled robots.Ingenuity, which became the first helicopter to fly on another world earlier this month, was initially set to retire forever when its flight demonstration phase ends next week, after completing five flights. But the team at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory okayed another round of testing because Perseverance’s post-landing health... Continue reading…

After a controversial blog post in which CEO Jason Fried outlined Basecamp’s new philosophy that prohibited, among other things, “societal and political discussions” on internal forums, company co-founder David Heinemeier Hansson said the company would offer generous severance packages to anyone who disagreed with the new stance. On Friday, it appears a large number of Basecamp employees are taking Hansson up on his offer: according to The Verge contributing editor Casey Newton’s sources, roughly a third of the company’s 57 employees accepted buyouts today. As of Friday afternoon, 18 people had tweeted they were planning to leave.Not long after Fried’s Monday blog post went public — and was revised several times amid public backlash... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge On Friday morning, Roku pulled YouTube TV from its channel store. Its removal came after Roku’s distribution agreement for the app expired and negotiations between it and Google fell apart without any new deal in sight.The popular streaming hardware maker warned customers of this outcome earlier in the week, claiming that Google was demanding unrealistic terms to renew YouTube TV’s slot on the platform. Those asks, according to Roku, included access to sensitive customer data and an apparent commitment from Roku to support AV1 decoding in future products. That requires extra hardware that Roku maintains could increase the cost of its devices. Roku also says that Google is trying to have changes made to Roku’s search feature, an... Continue reading…

Image: Instacart Some Instacart shoppers claim that the company has wrongfully terminated their accounts in response to fraudulent activity, locking them out of future earnings until they get reactivated, CNN Business reports.The shoppers CNN Business spoke to were identified as having “linked accounts,” which, in Instacart’s terminology, means an account believed to have indicators of fraud, though not necessarily with compromised data connected to a shopper.The shoppers may be the victims of phishing scamsThe company offers a process for appealing deactivations, but at least one of the shoppers CNN Business spoke to, Rachael Freedman, still hasn’t had her account reactivated because her appeal was denied.Instacart provided the same statement to T... Continue reading…

Photo: Flickr Due to an issue with QuickBooks processing direct deposits, some people had a very unpleasant morning, waking up to see either that their paycheck hadn’t arrived, or that they had a ton of employees asking why they hadn’t been paid. If you’re one of those people, it may not be time to panic just yet — QuickBooks says that the issue has been resolved and that the money should be arriving in accounts by the end of today.QuickBooks claims the missed payments were caused by an issue with a third party. Some users, though, are upset with how Intuit, which owns QuickBooks, handled the situation, claiming that they couldn’t get a hold of the company on their phone or chat lines.

Facebook Every Friday, The Verge publishes our flagship podcast, The Vergecast, where host Nilay Patel discusses the week in tech news with the reporters and editors covering the biggest stories.This week on The Vergecast, Nilay brings in Verge deputy editor Dan Seifert and news editor Chaim Gartenberg to discuss the features added in Apple’s iOS update to 14.5, Apple and other tech companies’ skyrocketing earnings despite the ongoing pandemic, and how the global semiconductor shortage is affecting the tech industry.Later in the show, senior reporter Ashley Carman runs through the recent developments in podcasting platforms. At an event last week, Apple announced a new subscription feature within Apple Podcasts for creators to offer to their... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Hulu’s live TV service is finally getting nine new ViacomCBS channels — Comedy Central, BET, Nickelodeon, Nick Jr., VH1, CMT, MTV, TV Land, and Paramount Network — as part of its regular $64.99 per month cost.If that sounds familiar, it’s because Hulu first announced that these channels would be coming to its service on January 4th, almost four months ago. But despite the long gap, the new channels are finally debuting for subscribers today. Customers who pay for Hulu’s live TV service will also get on-demand access to additional ViacomCBS library titles, including Freaks and Geeks, Moesha, and Sister, Sister, starting today.A long wait, but Hulu customers can finally watch MTVOther ViacomCBS channels — BETher, MTV2, NickToons,... Continue reading…

Photo by Tom Flathers/Manchester City FC via Getty Images English soccer teams and organizations are all shutting down their Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram accounts for the weekend as part of a massive social media blackout to advocate for better policies regarding discrimination and abuse that players and members of clubs receive on those platforms.

Image: Capcom We’re just a week out from the release of Resident Evil Village, and as part of the game’s promotional campaign, Capcom has uploaded an absolute treat to the YouTube channel for Biohazard (which is the name of the Resident Evil series in Japan): an official puppet show starring characters from the game. Yes, everyone’s favorite tall vampire lady, Lady Dimitrescu, is one of the puppets.The three-minute video is simultaneously adorable and terrifying. The show is entirely in Japanese, so I don’t have any idea what the actual story is — I think all of the puppets are meeting up to paint together, using blood as the ink? But it’s worth watching for some seriously silly puppet antics, like puppet-Lady Dimitrescu gleefully gulping down a... Continue reading…

Harebrained Schemes I woke up feeling a little strange this morning, but I didn’t think much of it. It’s just another day living in the pandemic. But after I got some strange looks at the cafe, I started to get a little worried. On my way home, I took a sip of my coffee and somehow pierced through the paper cup with bottom fangs that I didn’t have yesterday. I ran to the bathroom mirror when I got inside, only to discover that I’d turned into an ork. Awesome!As decreed by the Shadowrun lore (via Twitter user @Gen_Ironicus), April 30th, 2021 is the day of Goblinization. The Shadowrun wiki over at Fandom says that, today, 10 percent of the world’s population will be transformed into orks and trolls for no apparent reason. Guess I just got lucky!I thought... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Trade groups representing some of the largest telecom companies, including AT&T and Verizon, are suing New York over a new state law forcing them to provide cheaper broadband plans for low-income families in the state, as first reported by Axios.Earlier this month, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo signed a bill that would require internet service providers to offer a $15 a month broadband internet option for low-income consumers and families in the state. It’s one of the first laws in the country enforcing such a rule. But groups like USTelecom, CTIA, and the New York State Telecommunications Association argue that the state has no authority to set broadband prices and that the law could impair the companies’ abilities to upgrade their... Continue reading…

Deepfakes use AI techniques to generate or manipulate videos and pictures. | Artist: William Joel Last week, numerous news outlets reported that a string of European politicians had been tricked by a sophisticated Russian plot. Parliamentarians from the UK, Latvia, Lithuania, and Estonia had all arranged video calls with a hoaxer claiming to be Leonid Volkov, chief of staff to imprisoned Russian anti-Putin politician Alexei Navalny. As the politicians tell it, they fell victim to a digital fake: a doppelgänger using “deepfake” technology created specially to trick them — the latest example of Russia’s misinformation campaigns in the West.But the Russian men who orchestrated the calls say the “deepfake” claim is itself misinformation. Speaking to The Verge, the hoaxers say their imitation Volkov was created using effects no more... Continue reading…

The University of Minnesota’s path to banishment was long, turbulent, and full of emotion Continue reading…

The latest iPad Pros are powered by the M1 chip. | Apple Following the official reveal last week of the new model refreshes for the iMac and iPad Pros, all of which are powered by Apple’s own silicon — the M1 chip — preorders began for all three products today.As spotted first by 9to5Toys, Expercom is offering an incentive if you pre-purchase any of the three new M1 products, with up to $147 in savings available depending on the configuration you select, making this the first time any of these three brand-new products have seen a discount yet.The base M1 iMac is available for preorder at Expercom for as low as $1,233 ($66 off); this configuration includes 8GB of RAM and 256GB of storage. As noted previously, the configurations vary, but there are price reductions for multiple... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Epic will put Apple’s business under a microscope Continue reading…

Oh hey, it’s all of my PC games available to play on the Quest 2, wire-free, from within a virtual room. This is getting weird. One of the best features of the Oculus Quest and Quest 2 is that they can be manually linked via USB to your gaming PC so you can play more demanding VR games that couldn’t otherwise be run natively on the headsets. That’s great if you want a way to play games like Half-Life: Alyx, but the obvious downside is that you’re now physically tethered to a PC — so much for the wireless freedom that the Quest platform advertises.Since then, the developers at Virtual Desktop — and, more recently, Oculus itself — have both figured out how to stream the visual feed from your PC to your VR headset while quickly syncing all of your movements over Wi-Fi. Either option will give you the best of both worlds: letting you play the games you want without... Continue reading…

Photo by Chris Welch / The Verge Roku has pulled YouTube TV from its channel store. The distribution agreement between Roku and Google for YouTube TV has expired as of today — and the two sides haven’t been able to reach a new deal. However, Roku says it is “taking the extra step to continue to offer existing subscribers access to YouTube TV on the Roku platform unless Google takes actions that require the full removal of the channel.” New subscriptions from the YouTube TV app have also been switched off “until an agreement is reached.”In an email to customers, Roku warned “it is also important that you do not delete the YouTube TV app as it will not be available for download to Roku devices.” The regular YouTube app is unaffected by this situation and remains freely... Continue reading…

Elon Musk says ‘significant mistakes’ were made in how Tesla calculates solar roof costs. Customers are irate Continue reading…

The new iPad Pro | Apple Apple announced a 2021 refresh to its iPad Pro lineup, which now includes the same powerful and efficient M1 processor that’s in its MacBook Air, Pro, and Mac mini computers. Both the new 11-inch and 12.9-inch models will feature the chip, as well as a Thunderbolt port and optional 5G support. The display on the larger tablet has received a particularly big boost, jumping to a Liquid Retina XDR Mini LED screen. My colleague Monica Chin has gone deeper on more of this year’s big improvements.If you have your eye on the new iPad Pro, preorders begin today, April 30th, with shipping beginning the week of May 21st. Preorders are available at several retailers, including Apple’s direct website and Amazon.Where to buy the 11-inch M1 iPad Pro... Continue reading…

Image: Apple Apple’s colorful new M1-powered iMacs, refreshed iPad Pros, and updated Apple TV 4K (with a not-terrible-looking remote) are now all available to preorder today from Apple’s website. The company says that the new products will be delivered starting on May 21st —at least for the first wave of orders, although that timing will certainly slip as stock sells out.Customers interested in buying the new iMac should take note that only some of the color schemes will be available in stores: green, pink, blue, and silver models will be sold in-person at Apple Store locations, but the full seven-color spectrum will only be offered through Apple’s website, at least for now.The new iPad Pro also features Apple’s new M1 processor (the same as the... Continue reading…

Photo by Eduardo MunozAlvarez/VIEWpress Google is redesigning its offices for the post-pandemic world, and The New York Times has a big report full of pictures and videos outlining the company’s plans. But if I had to sum up the tech giant’s approach in two words I would choose “over” and “engineered.” Google has ambitious plans to shake up its offices, but some of them seem needlessly complicated.As the Times notes, the standard for Silicon Valley offices has long been open plan, with designers and developers working by cheek by jowl in the name of “spontaneous collaboration.” (Though this is often a pretext to cut costs by cramming as many workers into pricey real estate as possible.) But, in a cautious COVID-conscious culture neither cramming nor cubicles can cut it:... Continue reading…

An example of the kind of listing that will be prohibited under the new policy. | Image: Google Google has announced new Play Store policies and guidelines designed to make app listings more succinct, accurate, and less of an eyesore. New guidelines affecting the screenshots and videos meant to demonstrate an app’s features and functionality will come into force in the second half of 2021, while specific details about the enforcement of new policies for app titles, icons, and descriptions are coming “later this year.”The new app metadata policies will ban a variety of tricks that app developers use to make their app listings excessively eye-catching. Writing words in all-caps will no longer be allowed unless it’s the name of a brand, and neither will including emoji in app names. App titles will be limited to 30 characters, and... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge The European Commission is issuing antitrust charges against Apple over concerns about the company’s App Store practices. The Commission has found that Apple has broken EU competition rules with its App Store policies, following an initial complaint from Spotify back in 2019. Specifically, the Commission believes Apple has a “dominant position in the market for the distribution of music streaming apps through its App Store.”The EU has focused on two rules that Apple imposes on developers: the mandatory use of Apple’s in-app purchase system (for which Apple charges a 30 percent cut), and a rule forbidding app developers to inform users of other purchasing options outside of apps. The Commission has found that the 30 percent commission... Continue reading…

PayPal is now available as a payment method for US Coinbase users. | Image: Coinbase Coinbase has added the option for users to buy cryptocurrency using their PayPal accounts in the US, the company has announced. It says the feature offers a “familiar and trusted” experience for users buying any of the numerous cryptocurrencies that the exchange currently supports, and using PayPal as an intermediary means you don’t have to give your bank account or debit card information directly to the cryptocurrency exchange. The feature will expand to other countries in the coming months.To use the new option, Coinbase says you can add your PayPal account via the “Add a payment method” option, which links to the PayPal login screen. Purchases made via PayPal are capped at $25,000 a day, or 0.46 Bitcoin as of this writing. Debit... Continue reading…

Apple has added a new App Store search suggestions feature in the US, Canada, Australia, and the UK, that might make it easier to find apps. Now, after typing in a search term, the App Store will attempt to predict what you’re looking for and offer suggested words that, when tapped, will further narrow down your search results and speed up your hunt for specific kinds of apps.Search suggestions actually appeared on some iPhones earlier in April as part of a test, according to MacRumors, but now the feature should be rolling out to all iPhones in the supported regions.

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge All the news about the huge trial Continue reading…

I wish I’d had this to test with Samsung’s Odyssey G9 Continue reading…

The Ratchet and Clank cosmetics in Among Us. | Image: Sony The hit social deduction game Among Us is coming to PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 5 sometime this year, Sony announced during its State of Play presentation on Thursday.Like on other platforms, the game will support crossplay and online multiplayer so that you can play with your friends no matter what platform you’re on. But PlayStation players will be the only ones who can get exclusive Ratchet & Clank-themed cosmetics: a skin and hat to dress up like Ratchet and a pet that is an adorable little Clank.

Stratolaunch Stratolaunch, the aerospace firm founded by the late Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen, flew its behemoth carrier airplane named ‘Roc’ on Thursday for a second time. It was the company’s first flight under new ownership, coming two years after the twin-fuselage craft’s initial flight test.“Today’s flight, at first review, has appeared extremely successful,” Stratolaunch’s chief operating officer Zachary Krevor told reporters in a call on Thursday. “We accomplished all test points as desired, we have not seen anything anomalous, and we are very pleased with the condition of the aircraft upon landing.”Roc’s wheels were up at 10:30AM ET, and the plane reached a peak altitude of 2.6 miles over the Mojave Desert in California, Stratolaunch... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Amazon had a wildly successful 2020, despite the COVID-19 pandemic, and that blazing trail shows no signs of stopping for 2021. The company shared its financial results for Q1 2021, and it brought in $108.5 billion in net sales. That’s a 44 percent increase from the $75.5 billion reported in the first quarter of last year, as the pandemic was beginning to take hold globally.Its profits have exploded year-over-year, as well, increasing to $8.1 billion in the first quarter of this year. At this time in 2020, the figure reported was a meager $2.5 billion. Amazon expects to continue crossing the $100 billion net sales mark next quarter with the figure ultimately landing somewhere between $110.0 billion and $116.0 billion.But as Amazon’s... Continue reading…

Image: Insomniac Games Sony and Insomniac Games debuted 16 minutes of stunning new Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart gameplay footage in a new State of Play presentation on Thursday.For part of the video, protagonist Ratchet traversed through a new town called Nefarious City that was packed with detail — it reminded me of a Ratchet & Clank version of Star Wars’ Coruscant. There was a lot of classic Ratchet & Clank gameplay on display, with 3D platforming and crates to smash for screws, but the developers have also added new moves to give you added mobility. There’s now dashing and wall running, for example, and you can also use the new Rift Tether to hook into portals so you can zip from place to place.

Photo by Chris Welch / The Verge Google is rolling out a new April update for the Chromecast with Google TV that launched last year. It’s a fairly large update for a streaming device — totaling 166MB on my Chromecast — but includes numerous improvements.Once you’ve installed the new software and restarted your Chromecast, you’ll be able to dig a little deeper into video settings than was previously possible. In the new “advanced video controls” area of settings, you’re now given the ability to choose your preferred dynamic range format. Options include Dolby Vision, HDR, or even SDR if you want to keep it there. You can also manually switch to a ton of resolutions at various refresh rates from this menu:

Years ago, my Verge colleagues convinced me that Dexter got so bad, it’d be a waste of my time to see my favorite TV serial killer reach the end of his story — so when I tell you that Dexter’s coming back this fall, picking up right where the show left off, I have absolutely no clue what that actually means.But if you did emotionally invest yourself enough to see the series through, you have my pity, my respect, and a brand-new teaser trailer to watch, above, as proof of life — an assurance that the series’ widely panned ending isn’t actually the end.The new Dexter will be a 10-episode limited series on Showtime this fall, starring Michael C. Hall, set 10 years after the original show, created by the original showrunner and featuring... Continue reading…

SEQUOIA NATIONAL PARK, CALIFORNIA, UNITED STATES - 2018/09/01: Upward view of giant sequoias in Sequoia National Park, California, USA. | Photo by Marji Lang/LightRocket via Getty Images More evidence surfaced this week that shows that forests are struggling to do humans’ dirty work when it comes to climate change. Although companies and countries are increasingly relying on forests to draw down their planet-heating carbon dioxide emissions, the math isn’t adding up to show big benefits.California might have oversold the success of carbon offsets used in its cap-and-trade system, which is often billed as one of the world’s most successful market-based mechanisms to tackle climate change. The system appears to be failing because California is actually overcounting how much carbon dioxide forests keep out of the atmosphere, according to a new study by nonprofit CarbonPlan, that’s still under peer review, and reporting by P... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge The Department of Justice said it has arrested a Russian-Swedish national who allegedly operated a long-running cryptocurrency laundering site. According to a news release from the DOJ, Roman Sterlingov ran Bitcoin Fog, a cryptocurrency tumbler or “mixer”— which hides a cryptocurrency’s source by mixing it with other funds.Bitcoin Fog gained “notoriety as a go-to money laundering service for criminals seeking to hide their illicit proceeds from law enforcement,” according to the DOJ. The department says over the course of 10 years, Bitcoin Fog moved more than 1.2 million bitcoin, valued at the time of the transactions at around $335 million.Bitcoin Fog has received a fair amount of coverage from cryptocurrency blogs and news sites... Continue reading…

Image: Dashlane Dashlane has introduced a new $3.99 per month ($2.99 per month when charged yearly) Essentials plan for its password manager that offers some of the most popular features from its $6.49 per month Premium plan at a more affordable price. But the lower price comes with a catch — you might not be able to access your passwords on as many devices as you’d like.Like Dashlane’s Premium plans, the new Essentials offers unlimited passwords, the ability to generate new passwords on the fly, autofill, and access to Dashlane’s Secure Notes feature for storing private text. You won’t have access to Premium features like dark web monitoring, Dashlane’s VPN, or, crucially, support for more than two devices.That means you’ll have to pick where you... Continue reading…

Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge Apple’s upcoming 2021 refresh of the 12.9-inch iPad Pro — which will feature an M1 processor and a new Mini LED display — will work with the 2020 model of the 12.9-inch Magic Keyboard case after all. But it’s not going to be a perfect fit.According to a newly added note to an Apple support document (spotted by Chris Ball on Twitter) the first-generation Magic Keyboard (model number A1998) will be “functionally compatible” with the updated iPad Pro. But due to the slightly thicker dimensions of the new 12.9-inch model (which is 0.5mm thicker than the 2020 version), Apple warns that “it’s possible that the Magic Keyboard may not precisely fit when closed, especially when screen protectors are applied.” Apple updated the... Continue reading…

Photo: David Roth Another internet meme has sold for big bucks online: Zoë Roth, best known as “Disaster Girl” for the popular image macro taken by her father in 2005 of her smirking at the camera while a house burns down in the background, has sold the original copy of the meme as an NFT for 180 Ether, worth almost $500,000.Roth tells The New York Times that she’ll use the money to pay off her student loans and to donate to charity. And as is the case with many NFT sales, the Roths also retain the copyright to the image and will make 10 percent off any future sales of the NFT.She’s by no means the first meme star to leverage the boom in crytocurrency-based artwork into a small fortune. Chris Torres — the creator of Nyan Cat — sold an NFT of the... Continue reading…

Scammers are hacking into the accounts of Target gig workers and draining their bank accounts, Motherboard reports. Since March 28th, more than 30 employees who work for Shipt, Target’s delivery app, have posted on Facebook about being attacked. The company employs about 300,000 contract shoppers in the United States.In some cases, the scammers are spoofing Shipt’s phone number and pretending to be corporate employees. They say they’ve noticed unusual activity on the worker’s account and ask for the person’s password. Once they get in, they transfer the worker’s earnings to themselves.The scam is made possible in part by an “instant payout” feature Shipt rolled out earlier this year. The feature allows workers to cash out their... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Snap’s diversity report reveals that the company has made slow progress toward overall racial and gender diversity, with 47 percent of its employees being white and 65 percent male. However, there are some areas of significant progress; Snap says it increased the number of women on its board of directors to 50 percent from 37.5 percent.Other improvements were smaller, with a tiny rise in women’s representation across the company (32.9 to 33.1 percent) and a similarly small increase in underrepresented racial groups among leadership (13.1 to 13.6 percent). Meanwhile, Hispanic / Latinx representation decreased from 6.9 to 6.8 percent, and Asian representation in leadership decreased from 16.5 to 14.3 percent.The company is setting new... Continue reading…

Illustration by William Joel / The Verge Microsoft’s next big Windows 10 update for later this year will include some important audio improvements. The OS will finally get support for Advanced Audio Coding (AAC) over Bluetooth, which will give Windows users even more choice for Bluetooth headphones and speakers. Windows Insiders can test the changes right now.Windows has long only supported SBC and AptX over Bluetooth, but AAC support also unlocks the potential for better audio quality for Apple’s range of headphones and through iTunes or Apple Music on Windows. Apple was previously hiring engineers to build the “next generation of media apps for Windows,” and AAC support would be a solid improvement for any potential Apple Music app, or just streaming through the browser.M... Continue reading…

Illustration by William Joel / The Verge Just stop. Stop telling us why your 5G network is the very best and fastest and most reliable. Stop running commercials about how life-changing your 5G network is. Definitely stop telling us why your 5G network is better than the other guy’s 5G network because can you even imagine building a 5G network the way they have? Please stop with all of this, it’s been a very long year and we’re tired.It would be one thing to make all of these fantastical claims like you do if any of them reflected any real person’s experience. They don’t. Your 5G networks are just not that good yet. They’ll get better, and that’s nice! But please stop pretending like the 5G train has pulled into the station and all we have to do is get on board to be whisked... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Today’s Dish Network Q1 earnings call took an unexpected turn into Whoville when chairman Charlie Ergen compared T-Mobile to the Grinch. The comparison came up when discussing the “Uncarrier’s” decision to go ahead with its CDMA shutdown, a move that will potentially see millions of Dish’s Boost Mobile customers losing service at the beginning of next year. Ergen made no secret what he thinks of the move: “They’ve become the Grinch.” He went on to add, “the Uncarrier’s become the uncaring carrier.”Dish Network acquired Boost as a condition of the Sprint / T-Mobile merger with the intention of positioning Dish to take Sprint’s place as the US’s fourth wireless carrier. A year later, the company faces a major setback following T-Mobile’s... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge The United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is investigating Volkswagen’s “Voltswagen” debacle to see how the stunt affected the automaker’s stock price, and whether it broke any securities laws, according to Der Spiegel.The faux rebranding took place on March 29th, when Volkswagen’s American subsidiary “accidentally” published a draft press release about changing its name to Voltswagen in a nod to the larger company’s push into electric vehicles.After some news outlets reported on that apparently errant admission, the company followed up with an official press release on March 30th, which included quotes from Volkswagen of America CEO Scott Keogh claiming the change was really happening.Ultimately, the stunt turned... Continue reading…

Photo by Sean Hollister / The Verge Nvidia is trying again to limit the use of its RTX 3060 graphics cards for mining Ethereum, with a new update once again adding a hash limiter to the GPU, via VideoCardz.com.If that sounds familiar to you, that’s because it’s not the first time that Nvidia has tried to nerf mining performance on the RTX 3060 — the company first rolled out new drivers that were intended to limit the hash rate of Ethereum mining by around 50 percent in February.“We designed GeForce GPUs for gamers, and gamers are clamoring for more,” says Matt Wuebbling, head of global GeForce marketing at Nvidia, in a blog post announcing the change. The company also announced a new product, the Nvidia CMP (Cryptocurrency Mining Processor), a dedicated GPU meant... Continue reading…

A virtual world leads to IRL excursions Continue reading…