The Verge

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Many Verizon customers in Southern California reported difficulties making calls on Tuesday afternoon, and the company confirmed to The Verge at the time that was a “network issue” affecting voice services in parts of the region. That issue was resolved overnight, a spokesperson told The Verge on Wednesday morning.During the outage, if you were having trouble making calls, the spokesperson recommended putting your device in airplane mode or restarting your phone, which they said should fix the issues. And in response to one person on Twitter on Tuesday, Verizon’s support account recommended using Wi-Fi “if possible.”

Image: Google Google Assistant is getting a better way to correct its name pronunciation, as well as improved contextual awareness when it comes to setting and changing timers with your voice. In the blog post announcing the changes, Google says they should be rolling out in the next few days.If Assistant has been pronouncing your name wrong, the new way to try to fix that is pretty simple: you can just say your name out loud, and Google will try to learn the pronunciation. The old way, which is still available for those who wanted it, required you to spell out the way you wanted your name pronounced.If you’re looking to try it for yourself, you can go to the Google Assistant settings, then Basic Info, then Nickname. It is worth noting that you... Continue reading…

If you’re a Windows user and you use multiple monitors, you’ve probably experienced the headache of apps randomly rearranging when you resume from sleep. There have been a variety of ways to work around this over the years, but Microsoft is finally addressing it and fixing it in a future Windows 10 update.“The technical terminology we use to describe this problem is known as Rapid Hot Plug Detect (Rapid HPD),” explains Michelle Xiong, a program manager on the graphics team at Microsoft. “This behavior impacts DisplayPort multi-monitor setups which results in unwanted desktop rearrangements.”This problem is particularly troublesome if you’re using a laptop with a secondary screen or an additional monitor goes into deep sleep and Windows... Continue reading…

Photo by BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI/AFP via Getty Images President Biden will deliver his first joint address to Congress on Wednesday. There will be an unusually small crowd in the House chamber due to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, but the event will be streamed on social media platforms for viewers across the country.Biden’s speech is expected to touch on a series of administration priorities, including the pandemic, immigration, and tax reform.Here’s how to watch the address:HOW DO I WATCH THE ADDRESS?Biden’s address will be broadcast across major networks such as CNN, Fox, NBC, PBS, and C-SPAN. The White House will also be streaming the event on its YouTube channel, Facebook page, and on Twitter from @WhiteHouse and @POTUS.The Twitter stream will be accompanied by live on-screen... Continue reading…

Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge Stadia is an online game streaming service from Google, a company that is practically synonymous with search engines and the general concept of searching things online. Over the past two decades, the idea of “googling something” has become a standard part of language, so dominant has Google’s search engine become in popular culture.On an unrelated note, today — 526 days after its initial launch — Google has finally added a search bar to the Stadia store to better allow customers to search through the 172 games currently available on the service. In addition to the new, revolutionary search bar (which Google says will be reaching all players this week), Stadia is also debuting a new way to sort players’ libraries to... Continue reading…

Google is turning Android phones into an earthquake detection system. | Photo by Becca Farsace / The Verge Google is expanding its Android-based earthquake detection and alert system, filling in gaps in places where there are few seismometers and no early warning systems. Starting today, the program that launched in California last year will also be available in Greece and New Zealand.Filling in gaps in places where there are few seismometersThis also marks a new step for Google; it’s the first time the company will handle everything from detecting the earthquake to warning individuals. Android devices will first sense waves generated by quakes. Google then analyzes data from the phones and sends out an early warning alert to users in the affected area. Users will get the alerts automatically unless they opt out of the service.When Google... Continue reading…

Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge Epic Games is holding back Fortnite from being available on Microsoft’s Xbox Cloud Gaming (xCloud) service, according to a new deposition made public as part of the Epic case against Apple. The Fortnite developer views Microsoft’s xCloud service as competition to its PC offerings, and the company is deliberately not offering Fortnite on xCloud as a result.Joe Kreiner, Epic’s vice president of business development, was questioned over why Fortnite isn’t available on xCloud, and confirmed it was a deliberate choice. “We viewed Microsoft’s efforts with xCloud to be competitive with our PC offerings,” says Kreiner in the deposition. The court document makes it appear like Kreiner may go on to explain why, but the next part of the... Continue reading…

I’m proud of the Milwaukee Bucks for winning their game against the Hornets yesterday, and I’m also really proud of them for setting up a mobile COVID-19 vaccination site for their next home game. On Sunday, any fan in attendance can get their first dose of the Pfizer / BioNTech vaccine through a partnership with the Milwaukee Health Department.Game attendance is capped at 3,266 people, and the arena’s general manager Dennis Williams told The Washington Post that the organization hopes to vaccinate at least a few hundred people. Facility employees will be able to get a shot as well.“It was important to try to capture as many people as possible,” Williams said, “and what better way than a Bucks game that sees 600 to 800 employees on... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Telegram CEO Pavel Durov announced today that the iOS version of Telegram will be updated to support group video calls in May (via Yahoo Finance). The company originally planned to add the video call feature to its messaging service at some point in 2020, but the feature never materialized. Telegram did at least make it into the new year with one video call addition: end-to-end encrypted one-on-one video calls were added in August 2020.Durov’s announcement of the new launch date was shared — naturally — in his personal Telegram channel. He writes that group video calls will have:

The Galaxy Book comes in silver or this sleek blue color | Samsung Samsung announced two entry-level Galaxy Book laptops at its Unpacked event: the Galaxy Book and the Galaxy Book Flex2 Alpha. The former will start at around $800 (according to Samsung, that price is subject to change) and will launch in the second half of 2021, whereas the Flex2 Alpha starts at $849 and is available for preorder now, shipping in mid-May. These round out the fleet of premium models announced today, including the Galaxy Book Pro and Pro 360 with OLED screens that start at $999, and the $1,399 Galaxy Book Odyssey gaming laptop that’s the first to sport Nvidia’s new RTX 3050 Ti graphics card.Starting with the Galaxy Book, it has a 15.6-inch 1080p TFT LCD display, and it supports up to two fast NVMe SSDs. It has two USB-C... Continue reading…

The United Auto Workers union is “laying the groundwork” to organize factory workers that will build electric vehicles for startups like Rivian and Lucid Motors, president Rory Gamble told CNBC.“That’s a given. We are formulating plans to go out to all these start-ups to give these workers a voice,” he said. “In today’s world, you have to think out of the box in how you reach people. We really have to drive home the benefits of belonging to the union.”Gamble declined to say what those plans involve, according to CNBC. The UAW did not respond to a request for comment from The Verge. Representatives for Rivian, Lucid Motors, Faraday Future, and Lordstown Motors did not respond to requests for comment.Factory workers who build cars for... Continue reading…

Photo by ANGELA WEISS/AFP via Getty Images Two shots of a COVID-19 vaccine reduced the risk of hospitalization by 94 percent for people over 65, according to a new report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.That age group is at the highest risk of severe cases of COVID-19 — that’s why it was prioritized for the early waves of vaccination in the United States. Keeping that age group out of the hospital would go a long way to drive down the hospitalization rates from the disease overall.The analysis looked at people hospitalized at 24 hospitals in 14 states during January, February, and March. It included 417 hospitalized patients, 187 of whom tested positive for COVID-19 and 230 who did not. Partial vaccination, defined in this case as having a first dose two... Continue reading…

The SyncUp uses LTE rather than Bluetooth or UWB so it doesn’t need to be within range of your phone (or someone else’s) to be located. | Photo: T-Mobile It seems that 2021 is the year of the tracker, with new options from Samsung, Apple, and now T-Mobile in the form of its SyncUp Tracker. But unlike those other Tile-type tracking devices, SyncUp uses LTE rather than Bluetooth or Ultra Wideband for real-time location information, a la Samsung’s SmartThings tracker. That means it doesn’t rely on being within a certain range of your phone (or other phones) to tell you where it is — but it does come with a $5 per month data charge on your T-Mobile phone plan.The SyncUp offers some nice tracking features: you can make the device ring to help locate it when it’s out of sight, for example, and it offers geofencing to send you an alert when it leaves a predetermined area. It’s also IP67 dust... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge You can now book a vaccine appointment — and a ride to that appointment — in the Uber app.The new feature is part of a host of product news that Uber announced today under the rubric “go anywhere, get anything.” With more people getting vaccinated, the company is banking on a big comeback to help make up for the steep losses it suffered during 2020. And it’s rolling out a series of new features aimed at enticing lockdown-weary customers back to its platform — whether to travel somewhere or to get something delivered.The vaccine appointments are being offered nationwide through the company’s previously announced partnership with Walgreens. Since February, Uber has been offering free rides to Walgreens stores for people who book a... Continue reading…

Samsung’s new Galaxy Book Odyssey. | Image: Samsung Samsung is announcing its new Galaxy Book Odyssey gaming laptop today, complete with Nvidia’s unannounced GeForce RTX 3050 Ti and 3050 graphics cards. The 15.6-inch (1080p) gaming laptop starts at $1,399 and will ship with Intel’s 11th Gen Core H i5 or i7 processors, up to 32GB of RAM, and up to 2TB of SSD storage. The big new addition is a choice between Nvidia’s RTX 3050 or RTX 3050 Ti GPU.Samsung hasn’t provided many details on the RTX 3050 or RTX 3050 Ti, and Nvidia hasn’t even announced the GPU yet, so details are slim. The RTX 3050 Ti name appeared in March on an Asus website that mentioned it would have 4GB of memory. Combined with the numbering scheme and 135-watt charger, this suggests this is more of an entry-level gaming... Continue reading…

Electric moped-sharing startup Revel is adding a new vehicle to its fleet — this time with four wheels instead of two. The Brooklyn-based company is launching its own Uber-esque ride-hailing service in New York City using only electric vehicles from Tesla. And true to its Uber-imitating ways, the company is announcing its intention to launch the service before obtaining its license to legally to operate in the city.It’s an interesting — and potentially risky — move for the three-year-old startup with thousands of shared electric mopeds in cities across the US. As it grows in size, Revel has also gotten more ambitious, launching an e-bike subscription service and unveiling plans to build the largest EV charging station in New York City.... Continue reading…

A burger in New York City. | Photo by Andrew Burton/Getty Images Lately, it seems like forgoing red meat has become an unfortunate proxy for environmental credentials. Epicurious, for example, just announced that it will no longer publish articles or recipes with beef in a decision it calls, “not anti-beef but rather pro-planet.” And then there are headlines like “Why do some green activists eat meat?”Meat-eating, meanwhile, has become a sort of symbol for climate denial. There are Twitter wars swirling around whether Biden’s climate ambitions will infringe on Americans’ right to eat burgers (his actual climate proposals would not).Diet shouldn’t be a political scorecard for how down you are for the planetBut diet shouldn’t be a political scorecard for how down you are for the planet. Shaming... Continue reading…

Photo: Pixar Animation Studios Luca, the next feature film from Pixar, is a coming-of-age story about a pair of unassuming young boys who carry a big secret, as they’re actually sea monsters. Luca and Alberto appear as human on land, where they explore a quaint Italian seaside village. Normally, though, they’re iguana-like sea creatures covered in scales. For the team at Pixar, one of the key questions was figuring out what exactly causes that transformation. And instead of relying on a magical or emotional catalyst, they chose something much more fundamental: water.That was just the start. Sorting out the transformation also meant ensuring both versions of the characters were linked in some way, as well as ensuring that the process had some kind of emotional weight.... Continue reading…

Photo by Becca Farsace / The Verge Samsung has announced two new Galaxy Book devices: the Galaxy Book Pro (a regular clamshell laptop) and the Galaxy Book Pro 360 (a touchscreen convertible). They start at $999.99 and $1,199.99, respectively. You can preorder them both today, and they’ll ship on May 14th.I got to spend some time with both devices ahead of the announcement. While they’re not the most exciting computers in the world, I think they could still be great buys — provided they deliver on the fundamentals.Samsung already sells several Galaxy Books, such as the ultra-light Galaxy Book S and the QLED display-equipped Galaxy Book Flex and Galaxy Book Ion. The Galaxy Book Pro isn’t a direct sequel to any of these older devices — Samsung told me it’s not... Continue reading…

Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge If you’ve been waiting on a good deal for the latest Apple Watch, today might be delivering that for you — if you really wanted the all-red version. The 40mm-sized Apple Watch Series 6 with a red sport band and red aluminum case costs $299 at Amazon, Walmart, and Best Buy, down from its original $399 price. At $299, it’s just a $20 jump from the $279 Apple Watch SE to get a better smartwatch with slightly faster specs. The big differences in the Series 6 include its always-on display, its ability to take blood oxygen readings, and it has the U1 ultra wideband chip.Nintendo is selling its two-pack of NES wireless controllers made for the Switch for $42, down from $60. If you’re a fan of retro games and already subscribe to Nintendo... Continue reading…

Netflix is officially rolling out its new “Play Something” feature today to all its users, adding a button across the streaming service’s UI to automatically suggest new shows and movies that you’ve never watched before.The Play Something button will appear in several places on Netflix’s app, including underneath your profile when you log in, the left-side navigation bar, and in the tenth row of Netflix’s homepage.The company has been testing the feature for months, under a variety of names (including “Shuffle Play”), but today marks its official worldwide debut for all Netflix users. To start, the company is rolling out the Play Something button on TV-based versions of the Netflix app, but it has plans to start testing it on Android... Continue reading…

The Consumer Electronics Show (CES) is officially returning to an in-person format in Las Vegas in 2022, the Consumer Technology Association (CTA) announced today, marking the return of the largest tech conference in the world next year.“We’re thrilled to return to Las Vegas – home to CES for more than 40 years – and look forward to seeing many new and returning faces,” said Gary Shapiro, president and CEO of the CTA, in an announcement.For what it’s worth, the CTA had always intended to return to an in-person CES in 2022. The group had already announced plans to do so in July 2020, when it announced that CES 2021 would be shifting to an all-digital format due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. Other major tech conferences, like IFA... Continue reading…

Virtual worlds have long been a place to escape. That was true before the pandemic, but lockdowns and stay-at-home orders across the world certainly accelerated the phenomenon. I spent an embarrassing amount of time last year gardening in Animal Crossing and going to concerts in Fortnite. They were great distractions, but never really gave that vacation-like escape I was truly searching for — turns out what I needed was a safari full of Squirtles.New Pokémon Snap launches this week as the long-awaited sequel to a fan-favorite Nintendo 64 game from 1999. The premise remains the same: you, a budding wildlife photographer, traverse beautiful landscapes while snapping photos of every critter you can find. At its core the concept is... Continue reading…

Image: Google Google has unveiled new tools to help people planning their first post-vaccination vacations, as COVID-19 restrictions and requirements still vary widely among domestic and international travel destinations.A Google search for flights, hotels, or things to do will now also bring up results for any COVID-19-related travel advisories or restrictions at the searcher’s destination. Google has added additional travel restriction details, including whether quarantine is required or if you have to show proof of immunization or a negative COVID-19 test. Users can choose to receive updates about when restrictions are lifted or added for a given destination. The updates are country-specific and state-specific within the US.Under the “explore” t... Continue reading…

Microsoft has commissioned five new fonts for Office. | Image: Microsoft Microsoft is changing its default Office font next year and wants everyone to help pick the new default. While there are more than 700 font options in Word, Microsoft has commissioned five new custom fonts for Office, in a move away from the Calibri font that has been the default in Microsoft Office for nearly 15 years.The five new sans-serif fonts feature a variety of styles, including traditional, modern, and even one inspired by German road and railway signs. Microsoft is starting to gather feedback on these five new fonts today, and it plans to set one as the new Office default font in 2022. Image: Microsoft Microsoft’s new Office fonts. Tenorite, created by Erin McLaughlin and Wei Huang, is the more... Continue reading…

Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge Google’s Messages app is getting a redesign on Samsung’s Galaxy S21 devices, bringing its appearance into line with Samsung’s other One UI software, XDA Developers reports. Screenshots posted by XDA and users on Reddit show the app’s home screen has been divided into two sections: an upper information area with an unread messages counter and a lower section with links to each conversation.The redesign follows Samsung’s decision to use Google’s messaging app as the default for its S21 lineup in select markets. With the redesign the Messages app now looks like it belongs as a default, with a look that’s similar to other Samsung software like its Notes or Settings apps. However, in the US, Samsung Messages is still the default messaging... Continue reading…

If you’re a Samsung fan — or just curious about what the manufacturer means when it announces that “the most powerful Galaxy is coming” — then you may want to drop in on today’s Galaxy Unpacked event 10AM ET / 7AM PT.There isn’t a lot of info out there about what’s in store. But those who have been following Samsung can made a few educated guesses. These include the possibility of a new line of Galaxy Book laptops — a line that is certainly due for a refresh, since the last models were first announced in 2019. Other rumors include new Galaxy Book Pro laptops with 13.3-inch and 15.6-inch OLED panels, and S-Pen support.Want to be the first to find out for sure? We’ll stream it above, so feel free to stick around, but there are other ways... Continue reading…

Spotify’s subscriber growth. | Image: Spotify Spotify now boasts 158 million premium subscribers and 356 million monthly active users, according to its latest earnings report released today. That’s a 21 percent and 24 percent year-over-year increase, respectively. It’s up from 155 million premium subscribers and 345 million monthly active users last quarter.The streaming service has continued to focus on podcasts both as a way to convert free listeners to premium subscribers, and as a way to generate ad revenue. Spotify said that ad-supported revenue outperformed its forecast thanks in part to its podcasting efforts. In particular, the company said the Joe Rogan Experience, which it now exclusively licenses, “performed above expectations.” Spotify says it’s seen a “strong increase”... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Russia’s antitrust regulator, the Federal Antimonopoly Service (FAS), has fined Apple $12 million over complaints it unfairly cracked down on third-party parental control apps, the regulator has announced. The FAS started its investigation after receiving a complaint from Kaspersky Lab in March 2019, which claimed Apple had forced it to limit the functionality of its Safe Kids app shortly after Apple added the Screen Time feature to iOS 12.The fine comes in the same week that EU regulators are expected to issue charges of their own against Apple. These come in response to a complaint from Spotify in March 2019 about the 30 percent cut Apple takes for in-app purchases, which it said gives Apple’s own services an unfair advantage. As well... Continue reading…

Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge Sony has sold 7.8 million PlayStation 5 consoles as of March 31st, the company says in its latest earnings report. The number of PlayStation Plus subscribers is now 47.6 million, a 14.7 percent increase year on year. The fourth-quarter figures bring the overall PlayStation business to a total operating profit of 342.2 billion yen ($3.14 billion) for the 2020 financial year — a record for Sony.Sony’s last earnings report revealed that the company had shipped 4.5 million PS5 units worldwide through the end of 2020. That means that 3.3 million units were shipped from January to March, giving an idea of Sony’s current manufacturing capacity; it’s still very difficult to actually buy a PS5, with demand far outstripping supply. The... Continue reading…

Basecamp announced it would ban “societal and political discussions” at work. But the hardest conversations at work were about the company itself. Continue reading…

Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge If you were having issues with the PlayStation Network (PSN) this evening or afternoon, you weren’t alone. The service suffered an outage, with multiplayer, store services, and more going down for around an hour. The outage appeared to be global — the official Ask PlayStation Japan Twitter account reported the issue, and we saw many users from Europe also reporting problems.It seems like it’s resolved now, with the PSN status page showing that everything is up and running. I’ve also confirmed that I’ve been able to download a game from the PlayStation Store, and hop into a multiplayer match. The PSN status page at 6:55PM ET. The outage affected all the categories listed on the PSN’s status page — account management,... Continue reading…

Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon Eternal The Movie Part 1 and Part 2. | Image: Netflix The newest movie in the hugely popular Sailor Moon franchise, Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon Eternal The Movie (which was originally released in two parts), is hitting Netflix on June 3. The movie’s arrival on Netflix marks its premiere for the first time outside of Japan, where Part 1 debuted in January.You can watch a teaser trailer for it here:Here’s Netflix’s synopsis of the film:

Microsoft now has 145 million people using its Microsoft Teams communications app. This is another increase of 26 percent since Microsoft revealed Teams usage had jumped during the pandemic to 115 million daily active users in October 2020. Usage of Teams has spiked over the past year, with businesses continuing to flock to services like Teams, Slack, and Zoom.To put the 145 million figure in perspective, at the beginning of the pandemic, Microsoft had around 32 million daily active users of Microsoft Teams. That jumped to 75 million in a matter of weeks, and these numbers have more than doubled since even the early days of the pandemic. It’s an impressive amount of growth, just as Microsoft has been aggressively pushing businesses to... Continue reading…

Photo by Jonathan Kozub/NHLI via Getty Images Live hockey is coming to HBO Max, thanks to a new seven-year deal between the National Hockey League and WarnerMedia’s Turner Sports. The news may come as a bit of a surprise, as, only a few weeks ago, WarnerMedia CEO Jason Kilar said sports would not appear on HBO Max in 2021.Alongside HBO Max stepping into the sports streaming spotlight, Turner Sports also announced that TNT and TBS will air the Stanley Cup three out of the seven years outlined in the deal. (Specifically, WarnerMedia’s channels will air the championship series in 2023, 2025, and 2027, according to the NHL.) The remaining years will be hosted by Disney’s ESPN Plus and ABC, as part of the sports league’s other major streaming deal, now that its contract with NBC is... Continue reading…

Image: Joe Rogan In a recent episode of The Joe Rogan Experience, the world’s most popular podcaster suggests that healthy young people don’t need the COVID-19 vaccine, contrary to the advice of health professionals trying to stem a pandemic that’s killed more than 3 million people.Rogan said he believes “for the most part it’s safe to get vaccinated” and that his parents are vaccinated. But then he adds: “But if you’re like 21 years old, and you say to me, ‘Should I get vaccinated?’ I’ll go no.” The remarks were highlighted by Media Matters, which published a transcript of Rogan’s April 23rd conversation with fellow comedian Dave Smith.A source close to the situation says Spotify reviewed this Rogan episode and left it live because he doesn’t come off... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge The Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs has denied a Department of Homeland Security (DHS) request to expand its collection of social media account information from people entering the country, saying that the DHS hadn’t proved the information collection was practically useful. The DHS was mandated by former President Donald Trump to collect and surveil visa applicants’ social media accounts, but President Biden rescinded the executive order requiring it, a fact that was cited in the rejection.According to the Knight First Amendment Institute at Columbia University, the DHS’s proposal would have required 30 million applicants to include their social media accounts on immigration or foreign travel forms, expanding the measures... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge During the height of the pandemic last year, Google was the rare tech giant that actually saw a revenue decline — the first in the company’s history — but only by 2 percent. To say Google has now recovered would be the understatement of the week: Alphabet’s just-released Q1 2021 earnings show it raking in a stunning amount of cash this spring, nearly as high as the all-time record revenues and profit it set last quarter.Alphabet’s filing (PDF) shows revenues of $55.3 billion, nearly as much as the $56.9 billion it pulled in Q4 2020, alongside $17.9 billion in profit compared to $15.2 billion. That’s also 34 percent more revenue year over year, though that’s admittedly comparing to March 2020 when the effects of some pandemic shutdowns... Continue reading…

Photo by Sam Byford / The Verge Microsoft posted the third quarter of its 2021 financial results today, reporting revenue of $41.7 billion and a net income of $15.5 billion. Revenue is up 19 percent, and net income has increased by 44 percent. Once again, Microsoft has seen strong growth for Surface, Xbox, and cloud-related services.The PC market isn’t slowing down, despite a global chip shortage, and Microsoft is benefiting from this once again. Windows OEM revenue has grown by 10 percent, reflecting the strong consumer PC demand. Windows non-pro OEM revenue also grew 44 percent, and only Windows OEM Pro revenue declined by 2 percent.This is surprising growth for Windows over all, and reflects the pandemic demand we’ve seen for laptops and PCs over the past year.... Continue reading…

Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge Google’s Nest Wifi bundle that includes one router and one Point (Google’s name for an extender) costs $189 at Adorama, which is one of the lowest prices we’ve seen yet for this model. You can get this deal until Saturday, May 1st by adding the offer code EXTRAOFF80 at the checkout screen (located under the payment section). To put that price in context, the router alone usually costs $169 and the additional Point is priced normally at $149. In other words, this is like getting the Point for just $20.Like in most mesh Wi-Fi systems, the Nest Wifi router and extender differ in a few ways, so you’ll want to plan how you arrange them accordingly. The router has two Ethernet ports (one of which will be used by your internet modem), and... Continue reading…

Photo Illustration by Pavlo Gonchar/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images The Federal Communications Commission on Tuesday granted SpaceX approval to operate 2,814 Starlink satellites in lower orbits than originally planned, handing a win to Elon Musk’s satellite internet project. The decision delivered a partial defeat over its competitors, like Amazon and OneWeb, which sought to thwart the tweak over concerns it would create harmful frequency interference and ramp up risks of satellite collisions.The FCC found that allowing lower orbits for Starlink satellites “does not create significant interference problems.” Lowering the orbits, it said, allows SpaceX to make “safety-focused” changes to the constellation, like being able to more quickly discard any dead or broken satellites by steering them toward a... Continue reading…

A promotional image for Pokémon Go Fest 2021. | Image: Niantic The annual Pokémon Go Fest is back again this summer, scheduled for July 17th and 18th. Last year’s event was held online due to the COVID-19 pandemic, instead of taking place in person in select cities around the globe. It sounds like this year’s fest will once again happen virtually; developer Niantic describes the event as a “global event.”Niantic didn’t share many other details, though it did tease that this year’s event could be particularly noteworthy. “2021 marks both the twenty-fifth anniversary of Pokémon and the fifth anniversary of Pokémon Go, so trust us when we say you won’t want to miss Pokémon Go Fest 2021!” Niantic said in a blog post.

Starting with SSDs, but soon RAM sticks will be launched. | Acer / Biwin Acer announced in a blog post that it’s getting into the flash storage and memory business with help from a Chinese manufacturer called Biwin. Acer’s brand will be slapped onto each of these SSDs, but it’ll be another company that’s responsible for building them. Even though you’ll see an Acer logo on this storage, it’s Biwin that’ll handle the warranty for these products.Acer isn’t the only major company utilizing Biwin’s hardware. This storage and memory manufacturer also puts out HP-branded products, including portable SSDs, NVMe SSDs, 2.5-inch SATA SSDs, and RAM.The latest partnership aims to release Acer-branded products first in the US, China, Belgium, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Portugal, Spain, and in the UK. Release dates... Continue reading…

The ZTE Blade 11 Prime features a 6.5-inch display and also supports wired reverse charging. | Photo: ZTE ZTE is offering a feature rarely seen in the budget class of phones: wireless charging. The Blade 11 Prime is on sale now in the US for $192 through Visible and Yahoo Mobile, two MVNOs that use Verizon’s network. It’s an otherwise fairly unremarkable budget device, with a 6.5-inch 720p display shipping with Android 11.In addition to wireless charging, the Blade 11 Prime supports reverse wired charging to provide some power to other devices in a pinch. However, the phone’s 4,000mAh battery is on the smaller side, so the feature is probably best reserved for emergencies. The 11 Prime uses a MediaTek 6762 chipset with 4GB of RAM and offers 64GB of built-in storage. It features 16-megapixel standard and 8-megapixel wide rear-facing cameras,... Continue reading…

Photo by Evelyn Hockstein-Pool / Getty Images One of the scariest concerns about social media is the idea of algorithmic misinformation — that the recommendation systems built into platforms like Facebook and YouTube could be quietly elevating the most harmful and disruptive content on the network. But at a Senate hearing Tuesday titled “Algorithms and Amplification: How Social Media Platforms’ Design Choices Shape our Discourse and Our Minds,’’ lawmakers didn’t appear any closer to finding a solution for the violence platforms like Facebook have internally recognized they cause in the real world.At the top, Sen. Chris Coons (D-DE) said “there’s nothing inherently wrong” with how the testifying companies, Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube, leverage algorithms to keep users engaged on... Continue reading…

Microsoft is launching its Office and OneNote apps on Amazon’s Fire tablets today. Both apps are available in Amazon’s Appstore, with the Office app combining Word, Excel, and PowerPoint into a single tablet app.Microsoft is no stranger to Amazon’s Appstore, having previously published apps like Outlook, Xbox, and Xbox Game Pass for Fire tablets. This is the first time Office has appeared on Amazon’s tablets, though. Microsoft has essentially taken its Android Office app that’s already available on the Google Play Store and modified it to work on Amazon’s Fire OS — a forked version of Android.Both the Office and OneNote apps will be available on Amazon’s Appstore in regions where Fire tablets are currently sold. Microsoft says it has... Continue reading…

Photo by Paul Hennessy/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released new guidelines for people who have been fully vaccinated against COVID-19, outlining the situations where vaccinated people can stop wearing masks.People are considered fully vaccinated two weeks after the second dose of the Pfizer / BioNTech and Moderna vaccines, and two weeks after the Johnson & Johnson shot.The guidelines, announced today by CDC Director Rochelle Walensky, give fully vaccinated people more leeway to return to normal activities — recognizing how effective the vaccines are at preventing disease. But they’re complicated, and they ask people to keep track of different mask guidelines for a wide range of situations.“I am optimistic that people will use this... Continue reading…

Secretlab’s Magnus Metal Desk. | Image: Secretlab Secretlab, which you may know for its gaming chairs, is announcing its first-ever PC desk — the Magnus Metal Desk — and the company has a smart solution to help you manage your cables: you’ll be able to attach magnetic cable-management accessories right onto the desk.The company will offer proprietary accessories like magnetic cable holders to keep your phone’s charging cable from slipping off your desk and a magnetic cable sheath that can be attached to one of the desk’s legs. The desk has a cable tray in the back you can use to store cables as well.The Magnus desk doesn’t just use magnets to help hide cables, though — Secretlab is also making a desk mat that attaches magnetically so it will stay in place while you’re gaming or... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Ford announced the launch of a new battery development center in Michigan, the first step toward taking on some of the burden of building its own battery cells for electric cars in-house.The new “global battery center of excellence” will be called Ford Ion Park and will be based in Southeast Michigan. Ford said the purpose is to conduct research on how to go about making its own electric vehicle batteries. A team of 150 experts will work on ways to build EV batteries that are long lasting, quick to charge, and sustainable for the environment. They will also develop a process for making batteries quickly, cheaply, and at scale.There will be “lab scale and pilot scale” battery assembly at the new centerBut Ford Ion Park, which will... Continue reading…

Photo by Chris Welch / The Verge Recent Bose headphones and earbuds have come with a somewhat frustrating requirement: to use the accompanying Bose Music app, you needed to create an account. So if you wanted to, say, customize the noise cancellation of the Noise Cancelling Headphones 700 or QuietComfort Earbuds, you’d have to make a Bose account just to access those important controls.Now Bose is doing away with the needlessly annoying mandatory account. The update notes for the latest version of Bose Music on iOS say “when you set up your Bose headphones and earbuds, you can skip creating an account and get right to enjoying your product.” That’s the way it ought to be. (Bose previously had this help article up for customers with “privacy concerns regarding data... Continue reading…