The Verge

Image: Facebook Facebook is introducing a handful of new features that will give users greater control over their News Feed, including an easier way to turn off the feed’s algorithmic ranking and display content in the order it was posted instead.The changes build on previous tweaks to News Feed functionality. Last October, Facebook introduced a “Favorites” tool that allows users to select up to thirty friends and pages, prioritizing their content or displaying it in a separate feed. The company also offers users the option to sort their feeds by “most recent,” but buries these options in obscure menus.Facebook is now making these “Favorites” and “Recent” filters much more prominent, putting them right at the top of the News Feed as separate tabs... Continue reading…

Photo Illustration by Grayson Blackmon / The Verge Facebook’s VP of global affairs on the platform’s new changes, with Casey Newton Continue reading…

Photo by Drew Angerer/Getty Images President Biden plans to announce a sweeping infrastructure plan Wednesday that includes $100 billion to connect every American to high-speed broadband internet over the next eight years.Biden is scheduled to unveil his $2 trillion “American Jobs Plan” in Pittsburgh later on Wednesday. The long-awaited infrastructure and jobs package contains funding for broadband expansion, semiconductor manufacturing, and slew of other interests like public transportation and helping consumers purchase electric vehicles. On a call with reporters Tuesday, an administration official said that the package would be paid for by changes to the corporate tax rate.Biden’s $100 billion figure for broadband expansion trumps most other effortsBiden’s $100... Continue reading…

Google Meet. | Image: Google Google will not introduce a 60 minute call limit on free Google Meet users at the end of March, the company announced in a tweet. Instead, it will now be begin on June 30th. Until then, anyone using the service’s free version will be able to host calls up to 24 hours in length, which Google refers to as “unlimited.”This is the second time Google has pushed back the introduction of call limits since opening up the service to free users last April. A 60 minute limit had originally been due to come into effect at the end of September, but that deadline was later pushed back to March when it became clear that many of us wouldn’t be able to celebrate the holidays in person with our loved ones.

Photo by Lorenzo Di Cola/NurPhoto via Getty Images It feels like just about every big tech company is working on a Clubhouse-like social audio feature — Twitter’s Spaces feature is rolling out now, Facebook is reportedly building one, Spotify is making one, Mark Cuban has one, even Slack is getting in the game. But now, the idea of the shared audio space, which started on Clubhouse largely as an exclusive club for tech venture capitalists and elites, has come full circle. Professional social network LinkedIn is working on an audio networking feature of its own, the company confirmed to TechCrunch.“We’re doing some early tests to create a unique audio experience connected to your professional identity,” LinkedIn said in a statement to TechCrunch. “And, we’re looking at how we can bring... Continue reading…

Photo by Walid Berrazeg/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images The ongoing global shortage for electronic components continues, and Foxconn — which handles manufacturing for Apple, among other major tech heavyweights — has announced that it’s starting to see the impact of shortages. According to Young Liu, Foxconn’s CEO, the company won’t be able to fulfill some of its orders due to those shortages, which he expects will last until at least the second quarter of next year, Nikkei reports.“The [supply in the] first two months of this quarter was still ok, as our clients are all very big, but we started to see changes happening this month,” Liu reportedly told investors during the company’s latest earnings call.The impact of the shortages isn’t expected to be large, at least for now: Liu expects... Continue reading…

The first generation Snap Spectacles. Snap, the company behind Snapchat, is planning to continue its push into hardware devices with a new pair of augmented-reality glasses and a drone, according to a report by The Information. The Spectacles will reportedly include displays so the wearer can see the AR effects without having to use their phone — a feature that was notably missing from the all the Spectacles that came before.One of The Information’s sources says that the new Spectacles will be meant for developers and creators, rather than consumers — though you could probably argue that, at $380, the Spectacles 3 are already mostly limited to that market as well. As the article points out, though, the intention is likely to have the developers make lenses and experiences... Continue reading…

Gocycle e-bikes are small but still great for long commutes. | Image: Gocycle Gocycle, the maker of some of the most eye-catching and adaptable electric bikes on the planet, is back with its fourth-generation e-bike. The G4 series brings a new motor, better tires, lighter carbon-fiber components, and more to improve upon what’s already one of our favorite e-bikes. But before you get too excited, know that the G4 range starts at a suggested retail price of $3,999. The G4, G4i, and G4i Plus models are all available for preorder now.For the money, Gocycle makes a very premium e-bike that we’ve found to be equally suited to long commutes and multimodal travel due to its compact quick-fold design with wide high-volume tires. That tradition continues with the G4 models.The new motor is probably my favorite change and... Continue reading…

Image: Steven Crowder’s YouTube channel Two weeks ago, after YouTube revealed its definition of hate speech was so narrow that it couldn’t remove a wildly racist tirade for being wildly racist, we wondered out loud what it would take for YouTube to stop promoting conservative commentator Steven Crowder as an official YouTube Partner and allowing him to profit from those tirades.Today, we have a partial answer: YouTube has officially suspended Steven Crowder’s main channel from the YouTube Partner Program indefinitely, which includes removing his ability to run ads.It’s also banning him from uploading videos for a full week after his latest infraction: a now-removed video that reportedly challenged the legitimacy of the vote in Nevada. YouTube has a policy against false... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge YouTube has announced it’s experimenting with hiding dislikes to discourage “dislike mobs” from deliberately downvoting videos from creators and channels. The experiment is a different implementation than the solutions the company had previously discussed, but it is similar to other attempts platforms like Instagram have taken to nip targeted attacks in the bud.In the current setup, stats for both likes and dislikes are viewable in a creator’s individual YouTube Studio page, but only likes will be displayed publicly on a video. In a support article explaining the test, YouTube says that dislikes can negatively impact a creator’s well-being and “may motivate a targeted campaign of dislikes on a creator’s video.” Basically, the idea is... Continue reading…

Four years after accusing Qualcomm of abusing monopoly power to charge phone makers additional licensing fees for its modems — and seven months after seemingly losing that battle in a federal circuit court — the Federal Trade Commission has decided to throw in the towel. It’s no longer planning to appeal to the Supreme Court, which means the case is done.If that were all, I probably wouldn’t be writing it up for The Verge since things are exactly where we left off in August. But then I saw the FTC’s explanation for why it’s dropping the case, and... well, just read it:

Image: Volkswagen of America Volkswagen of America lied about rebranding to “Voltswagen” in an effort to draw attention to the lone electric vehicle it’s currently selling in the United States, Reuters and The Wall Street Journal have reported. It was a marketing stunt done ahead of April Fools’ Day.This all started when Volkswagen of America “accidentally” published a draft version of a press release announcing the change on Monday, which was first reported by CNBC. The company had declined to comment on the report, and spokesperson Mark Gillies repeatedly declined to say whether the name change was a marketing stunt.The automaker, which pleaded guilty to deceiving regulators about the true pollution levels of hundreds of thousands of diesel vehicles, then... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge YouTube is facing employee calls to remove a rap song that allegedly encourages violence against Asians, according to a report from Bloomberg.Rapper YG’s “Meet the Flockers” is a detailed description of a burglary — a relatively common trope in rap music — but it opens with a specific reference to Chinese communities: “find a Chinese neighborhood, cause they don’t believe in bank accounts.” In light of the recent rise in street violence against Asians, a group of YouTube employees argued that message was straightforwardly dangerous, ultimately asking the Trust & Safety team to remove the video.But YouTube ultimately declined to remove the song, citing the platform’s exception for “educational, documentary, scientific, and artistic” (or... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Apple’s built-in web content filter for iOS and macOS has apparently been blocking any searches containing the word “Asian” for almost a year, and the error is finally getting fixed, according to a new report from Mashable. The issue shows up when you’re using a device that has the “Limit Adult Websites” content restriction turned on. But it’s not just blocking adult websites; it’s blocking almost any searches relating to Asian culture, including “Asian market,” “Asian culture,” and even “stop Asian hate.”The Verge was able to confirm that the above searches were blocked on devices running current versions of Apple’s software (iPadOS 14.4.1 and macOS 11.2.3) with the content restrictions turned on. The searches are blocked on both... Continue reading…

To help make travel during the pandemic a little less stressful, Apple Maps will now display travel guidance information provided by the Airports Council International (ACI) so you know what to expect before you take off or land at your destination.The travel guidances — like mask requirements, health screenings, and quarantine guidelines — will be displayed on an individual airport’s place card in Apple Maps, with links to official airport guidance websites as well. The information should be viewable on iPhones, iPads, and Macs — though, currently, only airports that are participating in the ACI’s Health Measures Portal will feature the new information. Image: MacStories Travel guidances in Apple Maps on iPhone.... Continue reading…

Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge A little-known behavior in Chrome OS could reveal a user’s movements through Wi-Fi logs. Leveraging Chrome OS’s Guest mode feature, the attack would require physical access to the device, but it can be executed without knowing the user’s password or having login access.The bug was flagged to The Verge by the Committee on Liberatory Information Technology, a tech collective that includes several former Googlers.“We are looking into this issue,” said a Google spokesperson. “In the meantime, device owners can turn off guest mode and disable the creation of new users.” Instructions for turning off Guest browsing are available here.“anyone with quick physical access to the device could potentially get in as guest”The bug stems from the... Continue reading…

Illustration by William Joel / The Verge Ingrid Fung hadn’t anticipated that her post on LinkedIn would cause a stir. She’d written about escalating anti-Asian violence, reposting a graphic that said attacks on Asian Americans had risen dramatically in the past year. The message might have drawn racist comments on Twitter or Facebook, but this was the world’s biggest professional social network — one where people had to use their real names and list their employer. What was the worst they would say?“This statistic is crap and from a questionable source,” wrote one user who took issue with the data collected by the nonprofit Stop AAPI Hate. “...I would not be surprised if AAPI isn’t [Chinese Communist Party] backed.” Another user said she was propagating “CCP narratives.”Fung,... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Amazon is reportedly working on custom silicon chips for its hardware network switches, according to The Information. The chips, which could help Amazon improve its internal infrastructure as well as AWS, are said to be the result of Amazon’s $350 million acquisition of Israeli chipmaking firm Annapurna Labs back in 2015.Amazon building the silicon for its switches could help it solve bottlenecks and issues in its own infrastructure, especially if it’s also custom-building the software that runs on them. Amazon already builds its own switches, but it’s reliant on Broadcom for the silicon that powers them. It makes sense for the company to want to completely control those machines, especially given how important its web services... Continue reading…

Verizon stopped activating phones on its 3G network several years ago. | Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge After years of delays, Verizon says it will finally shut down its 3G CDMA network at the end of 2022 — and the company means it this time.Verizon initially targeted 2021 for the shutdown and later revised with a more ambitious goal of 2019. That didn’t happen, and as recently as January 2021, the company said the plan was on hold indefinitely. Now, Verizon has confirmed an official shutdown date of December 31st, 2022, and a statement that “the date will not be extended again” on the company’s news site leaves no room for ambiguity.This move won’t affect anyone who has activated a phone with Verizon in the past few years; the company stopped activating 3G-only phones in 2018. Verizon is also keen to point out that it will be the last... Continue reading…

SAM YEH/AFP via Getty Images Chip designer Arm has announced Armv9, its first new chip architecture in a decade following Armv8 way back in 2011. According to Arm, Armv9 offers three major improvements over the previous architecture: security, better AI performance, and faster performance in general. These benefits should eventually trickle down to devices with processors based on Arm’s designs.It’s an important milestone for the company, whose designs power almost every smartphone sold today, as well as increasing numbers of laptops and even servers. Apple announced its Mac computers’ transition to its own Arm-based processors last year, and its first Apple Silicon Macs released later in the year. Other manufacturers like Microsoft have also released Arm-based... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Google is forging ahead with its third-party cookie replacement technology Continue reading…

Image: CD Projekt Red Polish game studio CD Projekt Red announced a sweeping restructuring plan on Tuesday, just months after the disastrous launch of its much-hyped title Cyberpunk 2077. One of the key goals of the new plan brings “a change in the way [the studio] develops video games,” according to a press release. The changes will allow CD Projekt Red to work on “multiple AAA games and expansions in parallel” starting in 2022.Cyberpunk 2077 launched in December after years of hype; the first teaser trailer for the game was released in January 2013. And following the huge success of CD Projekt Red’s The Witcher 3, expectations were sky-high for the studio’s cyberpunk RPG, especially following the glitzy and action-packed trailers shown in the months... Continue reading…

Frictional Games If you like puzzles and eerie deserts, but not darkness and horrifying ghouls, Swedish studio Frictional has a new version of its game Amnesia: Rebirth for you. A less stressful “Adventure Mode” is being added to Rebirth today via GOG, Steam, and the Epic Store. The game’s PlayStation version will get Adventure Mode in the coming weeks.Amnesia: Rebirth, released last year, is a strong sequel to the notoriously scary Amnesia: The Dark Descent. Adventure Mode removes encounters with Rebirth’s numerous monsters, as well as special effects that damaged its protagonist Tasi’s mental state. It also adds light to the game’s spookier levels, so players won’t have to ration matches or face the darkness. And Frictional says it’s adding bonus... Continue reading…

Fortnite for the Nintendo Switch is getting a patch that will boost performance in portable and docked modes. Epic Games says the game will run with a more consistent frame rate across the board “with fewer hitches,” though it’s still not 60 frames per second. And while the game will still use dynamic resolution to make visual adjustments on the fly to keep things running as smoothly as possible, the target resolutions in handheld and docked modes have gotten upgrades, too, seeing a 38 percent boost.In handheld mode, the game has gone from 1000 x 560 up to 1170 x 660, which is closer to the Switch display’s 720p resolution. In docked mode, it’ll go up to 1560 x 880 instead of topping out at 1390 x 780. That’s a little closer to native... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge One of the most frustrating tasks for many of us these days is finding how and where to get an appointment for a COVID-19 vaccination. It can be a real exercise in exasperation: the websites are often difficult to navigate and prone to frequent crashes; in addition, after finding an open appointment slot and filling out multiple pages of questions, you are often told that the opening has disappeared.In view of all this, we’ve tried to gather as much helpful information as we can about ways to research and snag vaccination appointments for yourself and others. We’ll update this as more information presents itself.Research the vaccination qualifications in your stateTo begin with, it’s a good idea to try to pin down if you or the person... Continue reading…

Photo by Spencer Platt / Getty Images Three months after the United States’ COVID-19 vaccination campaign began, researchers are starting to collect data showing that the vaccines are just as good in the real world as they were in the clinical trials testing them. Recent studies have consistently shown that the vaccines don’t just protect against symptoms — they reduce the risk that someone will get infected with the coronavirus, a signal that they’ll reduce the spread of the virus, not just prevent sickness.The Moderna and Pfizer / BioNTech vaccines were both around 95 percent effective at protecting people against symptomatic COVID-19 in large trials. It was never guaranteed that they’d perform just as well when they were distributed to the general public. Despite the... Continue reading…

Game of Thrones has often been called out for its near-Shakespearean levels of intrigue and theatrical drama. So it’s not exactly a surprise that the next move for the franchise is to the stage: a new Broadway show based on George R.R. Martin’s popular fantasy series is now in the works, according to a new report from The Hollywood Reporter.The goal is to stage the Game of Thrones play starting in 2023, with plans for productions in New York City, London’s West End, and Australia. Dominic Cooke is set to direct, with Simon Painter and Tim Lawson on board as producers.Coming in 2023The play is said to be a prequel set during The Great Tourney at Harrenhal, 16 years before the events of Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire book series (and G... Continue reading…

Nora the polar bear. | Image: Beth Nakamura /The Oregonian In early November 2015, a polar bear cub named Nora was abandoned by her mother at the Columbus Zoo and Aquarium, leaving her fate in the hands of a team of veterinarians and zookeepers. The Loneliest Polar Bear: A True Story of Survival and Peril on the Edge of a Warming World tells the story of the frantic effort to keep Nora alive and well, from the struggles of replicating polar bear milk to an hours-long surgery to fix a broken bone in her leg.But the book, an expansion of author Kale Williams’ 2017 series about Nora for The Oregonian / OregonLive, goes beyond the life of a single bear. It details the political battles over the existence of climate change, debates about the ethics of zoos, and the already disastrous effects of... Continue reading…

Image: Google Google’s Area 120, an internal incubator program for experimental projects, is releasing a new app today called Stack that borrows the technology underlying the search giant’s powerful DocAI enterprise tool for document analysis. The end result is a consumer document scanner app for Android that Google says vastly improves over your average mobile scanner by auto-categorizing documents into the titular stacks and enabling full text search through the contents of the documents and not just the title.“I joined Google a couple of years ago when my education startup, Socratic, was acquired. At Socratic, we used Google’s computer vision and language understanding to make learning easier for high school students. I wondered if we could apply... Continue reading…

League of Legends is one of the most popular games in the world, and it has been for the better part of a decade. But it’s also incredibly intimidating: a 5 vs. 5 competitive experience with all kinds of complex rules and quirks. It’s not a game you pick up and understand right away. That’s part of what makes Wild Rift, a new spinoff for mobile, so surprising. It takes the core of League and packages it in a way that makes it much more approachable for newcomers. This is by far the best way to start playing.First, it’s important to note that Wild Rift isn’t a direct port of League. Instead, it’s a new version designed specifically for mobile (and, at some point in the future, consoles). It still feels like League in a lot of ways, but... Continue reading…

Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge The refurbished Kindle Oasis has sold out at Woot after about an hour of this post being live. Unfortunately, refurbished versions of the current model are a little over twice the cost of the $100 version this post originally highlighted, but it’s an option if you need to buy today. One big perk is that the newer version has a display with an adjustable color temperature that might make reading a little easier on the eyes wherever you are.Another solid deal happening at Woot is on the Beats Solo Pro wireless headphones that have active noise cancellation. We’re including them here today because they’ve dropped another $5 below the best price yet. You can get the light blue color for $145, while the others available are $150. These are... Continue reading…

Image: Adobe Adobe has launched a new bundle for iPad creators. The Design Mobile Bundle is available for $14.99 a month or $149.99 a year, and it includes access to iOS Creative Cloud apps like Photoshop, Illustrator, Fresco, and Spark, as well as services like Adobe Fonts and 100GB of cloud storage. Unlike Adobe’s other bundles, this won’t get you access to its desktop apps. Adobe says the bundle saves you 50 percent compared to paying for each app separately and that “they all work with touch and Apple Pencil.”Adobe’s mobile apps have come on a lot in the last couple of years. Photoshop only arrived on the iPad back in 2019, lacking many of the features of its desktop counterpart. But over time, Adobe has continued to add features, including a... Continue reading…

Photo by Kerem Yucel / AFP via Getty Images On Tuesday, Twitch removed graphic video of Minneapolis resident George Floyd’s death, shown during the trial of his alleged murderer Derek Chauvin — the latest test of how Amazon’s live streaming platform handles newsworthy events.Nonprofit news site Unicorn Riot said its Twitch account was suspended during the trial of former police officer Derek Chauvin, who is accused of murdering Floyd. Trial witnesses were shown footage of Chauvin kneeling on Floyd’s neck for over nine minutes, an act of apparent police brutality that led to months of protests. That footage apparently ran afoul of Twitch’s guidelines.“A few minutes ago our [Twitch] account was suspended for 30 days for rebroadcasting the #DerekChauvinTrial, which showed the video... Continue reading…

Xinhua/Ahmed Gomaa via Getty Images The big boat is no longer stuck. After days of rapt attention from the internet, a non-metaphorical rising tide has indeed lifted all the boats — and particularly, the Evergreen Marine Corporation’s Ever Given cargo ship — reopening the Suez Canal to regular shipping traffic and ensuring that the precious lifeblood of capitalism can continue to flow freely.Naturally, Google is celebrating this simultaneously momentous and absurd moment in human history the only way it knows how: an Easter egg in Google searches for the phrases “Suez Canal” and “Ever Given” that show a tiny parade of cute lil’ emoji boats marching across your screen, just like the (much bigger) boats that can now (less cutely, one presumes) float their way through the... Continue reading…

Photo by Sam Byford / The Verge Nvidia is launching Resizable BAR support today, a feature of PCI Express that can boost frame rates in certain games by up to 10 percent. Resizable BAR works by unlocking access to the full graphics frame buffer, instead of limiting it to 256MB block reads. This can improve frame rates in games, but it will require a compatible CPU, motherboard BIOS update, and even a VBIOS update for all 30-series desktop GPUs.Nvidia has been working with both AMD and Intel to provide chipset support. AMD’s Zen 3 CPUs are supported, alongside Intel’s 10th Gen processors and the company’s new 11th Gen desktop chips that launch today. You can find Nvidia’s full FAQ on motherboard and VBIOS updates right here.Resizable BAR works the same as AMD’s Smart... Continue reading…

Screenshot via Fortnite News. The newest season of Fortnite, dubbed “Primal,” did two main things: it introduced animals to the island and added a prehistoric theme. So it’s only fitting that the latest update includes a dinosaur.Thanks to a recent patch, raptors now roam the battle royale game, joining other predators like wolves and sharks. They appear to spawn at random, however, so there’s no guarantee you’ll encounter one in a match; I played for more than an hour this morning before I spotted one in the wild.In traditional Fortnite fashion, the news had been teased over the last few days; giant eggs scattered across the island began to crack, hinting that something was in the works. It was reminiscent of previous events like the volcano eruption, Kevin the... Continue reading…

Photo by Tom Warren / The Verge Intel delivers a speed boost and PCIe 4.0 Continue reading…

Volvo is partnering with self-driving startup Aurora on a new lineup of fully autonomous semi trucks, the companies announced. The trucks will be deployed in North America on highly frequented hub-to-hub routes.The deal between Volvo Autonomous Solutions and Aurora — which was founded by former executives from Google, Tesla, and Uber — is a “long-term partnership spanning several years,” the companies said.“long-term partnership spanning several years”It’s also the latest partnership between a major OEM (original equipment manufacturer) and an autonomous technology startup, as the industry continues to slowly inch toward a future with more fully driverless passenger vehicles and trucks on the road.Aurora has been testing its... Continue reading…

One of the last visuals from SpaceX’s SN11 before it exploded. | SpaceX Another Starship prototype exploded Tuesday morning during an attempt to nail a tricky landing technique at SpaceX’s test launch facilities in Texas. The landing attempt followed a clean liftoff and a demonstration of the rocket’s autonomous in-flight maneuvers, marking SpaceX’s fourth high-altitude flight since December.The SN11 rocket launched at 9AM ET in foggy weather at SpaceX’s Boca Chica, Texas facilities, soaring roughly 6.2 miles to test the rocket’s three Raptor engines and a number of in-flight maneuvers that steer it back to land. As SN11 neared peak altitude, the engines gradually shut down to begin its free-fall back toward the ground before executing a “landing burn” — when one Raptor reignites to carry the rocket gently... Continue reading…

The Mi Mix Fold pairs a folding screen on the inside with a smaller outer display. | Image: Xiaomi Xiaomi has resurrected its Mi Mix series with the Mi Mix Fold, the company’s first commercial folding phone. Unlike previous outlandish Mix devices and concepts from the company, the Mi Mix Fold is a pretty conventional folding phone that uses a big-screen-on-the-inside/small-screen-on-the-outside design similar to Samsung’s Galaxy Z Fold series and Huawei’s new Mate X2.The inner screen is an 8.01-inch 4:3 OLED panel with 2480x1860 resolution, a standard display brightness of 600 nits (900 peak), and support for Dolby Vision HDR. Xiaomi says the display is able to withstand being folded 200,000 times. The outer screen is 6.52-inches with a 90Hz refresh rate. Xiaomi is making big claims about the Mi Mix Fold’s audio capabilities, with... Continue reading…

Lyft and Motional have selected the Hyundai Ioniq 5 for their forthcoming autonomous ride-hailing service. Motional, which is a joint venture between Aptiv and Hyundai, said the Ioniq 5 was chosen because it represents a “convergence of mobility’s two most transformative technologies — electrification and autonomy.”Motional hasn’t said how many vehicles it would acquire, nor where it will eventually deploy them for its robotaxi service. The company is currently testing its fleet of Chrysler Pacifica minivans in Las Vegas, where it is also running an autonomous ride-hailing service with Lyft.The Ioniq 5 was first unveiled by Hyundai last month, and won’t go on sale until later this year. Also, the vehicle won’t hit public roads as part... Continue reading…

Bang & Olufsen Bang & Olufsen has announced Beoplay Portal, its first wireless gaming headset. The product maintains the company’s signature sophisticated look, and it has more features than your average headset.These were created with the Xbox ecosystem in mind, and with a push of its pairing button, they can connect to the Series X, Series S, Xbox One, or to a PC that has the Xbox Wireless adapter plugged into it. Additionally, they support a concurrent connection via Bluetooth 5.1 for other devices (including other consoles if you supply the Bluetooth adapter). This way, you can take calls without totally detaching from game audio.Similar to the Bose QC35 gaming headset that released last year, the Beoplay Portal look like high-end wireless... Continue reading…

VSS Imagine | Virgin Galactic Richard Branson’s space tourism firm Virgin Galactic is unveiling a new space plane dubbed VSS Imagine on Tuesday, the first SpaceShip III addition to the company’s growing fleet of suborbital vehicles. It’s a shiny, chrome-colored ship designed for quicker reuse than SpaceShipTwo, the current centerpiece of the company’s effort to kickstart its space tourism business in 2022.“Imagine will be the first of our SpaceShip III’s to come join the fleet,” Virgin Galactic CEO Michael Colglazier tells The Verge. “It will be followed up by Inspire, which we’re pivoting our manufacturing now.”Functionally, SpaceShip III is the same as the company’s SpaceShipTwo, dubbed VSS Unity. But SpaceShip III is designed in a “modular fashion” that will... Continue reading…

Images: Lexus Lexus’ next generation looks a lot like what we have now Continue reading…

Image: PayPal We already knew that PayPal was planning to support cryptocurrencies as a form of payment. And now, the online payment app announced US customers can do just that with its “Checkout with Crypto” feature, rolling out today.After rolling out the ability for US users to directly buy and sell cryptocurrency directly from their accounts last November, PayPal’s new “Checkout with Crypto” allows users to instantly convert their Bitcoin, Ethereum, Litecoin, or Bitcoin Cash to US dollars (with no additional transaction fees) that PayPal then uses to complete the transaction. If a merchant doesn’t take US dollars, PayPal also converts those dollars into local currency at standard conversion rates set by PayPal. PayPal will... Continue reading…

Google is announcing a bunch of new features planned for Google Maps, including a new tool to help with indoor navigation and suggestions for eco-friendly driving routes. The features announced today aren’t rolling out all at once, though; many aren’t available just yet, and it’s unclear when some will be available in some parts of the world.One of the biggest announcements is that Google is bringing its Live View augmented reality directions to airports, transit stations, and malls. Live View directions let you hold your phone up, point your camera at the world around you, and see arrows and icons pointing you where you need to go, and previously, they only worked outdoors.Disappointingly, though, these indoor AR directions aren’t... Continue reading…

Photo by Andrew Hawkins / The Verge Autonomous shuttle startup Optimus Ride and power sports vehicle manufacturer Polaris are teaming up to co-develop a new lineup of vehicles that will be low-speed, electric, and self-driving.These low-speed vehicles (LSV) will be equipped with Optimus Ride’s full stack of sensors and software to enable “fully autonomous” driving without a safety driver behind the wheel — though the vehicles will also be monitored remotely by a team of engineers who can offer suggestions to the vehicle when things go wrong.The vehicles, which can seat six, will be deployed as a last-mile transportation service in residential communities, corporate and academic campuses, and other “localized environments,” as both a fixed-route shuttle and a more... Continue reading…

The prototype Leica camera. | Image: Leitz Photographica Auction A rare prototype of a Leica camera crafted by former Apple luminary Jony Ive and famed designer Marc Newson is being sold at auction in June. The device, which is described as being in “B+” condition, has a starting price of €100.000 (around $118,000), and the Leitz Photographica Auction house estimates that it’ll sell for between €200.000 and €250.000 (around $235,000 to $295,000).The prototype was produced during the development of the one-off Leica M for (RED) camera, which was sold at a charity auction in 2013 for $1.8 million. While the final product’s design shared a lot of similarities with Apple’s “cheesegrater” Mac Pro, this prototype appears to have a smooth reflective finish that looks like an absolute fingerprint magnet. ... Continue reading…

The Tab A7 Lite. | Image: Evan Blass / Voice Images of Samsung’s unannounced Tab A7 Lite tablet have leaked, courtesy of Evan Blass on Voice. The images show a decidedly budget-looking device, with a single rear camera and no flash. Internally the tablet is said to be running a modest MediaTek Helio P22T processor paired with 3GB of RAM and a 5,100 mAh battery.The Tab A7 Lite is one of two “Lite” tablets Samsung is expected to launch in June, if a February leak from WalkingCat is to be believed. The other is the Galaxy Tab S7 Lite, which features a bigger 12.4-inch display compared to 8.7-inches on the A7 Lite, according to WalkingCat. GalaxyClub.nl previously reported the S7 Lite may be available with 5G or Wi-Fi-only connectivity, and that it could be powered by a Snapdragon... Continue reading…

Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge When you typically think of luxury car features, do you envision rich leather seating and extravagant trim? Advanced cruise control and intelligent self-parking? Whatever you’re imagining, I’m betting “dim my headlights so I don’t blind other people” isn’t it.But not only has BMW used its “High Beam Assistant” as an upsell for well over a decade, it’s also charging drivers extra to unlock the safety feature that’s already built into their cars — by buying it as an over-the-air software update.Apparently, this has been going on for nearly two years, but Car Magazine editor Jake Groves brought it to my attention for the first time this week in this viral tweet: