The Verge

Image: Apple After many months of rumors, Apple officially announced the AirPods Max, its own over-the-ear, wireless, noise-canceling headphones. This is the first pair of noise-canceling headphones to feature the Apple logo. They cost $549 and are available for preorder now with shipping slated for December 15th.Unlike the AirPods and AirPods Pro, the AirPods Max come in multiple colors (dark gray, silver, blue, green, and pink). They feature high-fidelity audio, adaptive EQ, active noise cancellation, and spatial audio. Apple says the headphones offer a 20-hour battery life with charging done through Apple’s Lightning connector and not through a USB-C cable. (No, a charging brick does not come in the box.)We’ll be reviewing the new wireless... Continue reading…

Photo by Alex Edelman / AFP via Getty Images On Tuesday, the Senate voted to confirm the controversial nomination of Republican Nathan Simington to the Federal Communications Commission, despite pleas from Democrats and advocacy groups to hold off on a vote until next year.By confirming Simington, the Republican-led Senate will be handing the incoming Joe Biden administration a deadlocked FCC. In November, current FCC chairman Ajit Pai announced that he would be stepping down from the agency once Biden is inaugurated, leaving the incoming administration with two Republicans, two Democrats, and no voting majority. If a Republican-led Senate refuses to confirm Biden’s choice for a replacement, it could bring the commission to a standstill.“Nathan Simington is a deeply dangerous... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge “Siri, drive my car...”Apple is shuffling its leadership that oversees its secretive self-driving car project, according to Bloomberg. The team’s engineers will now report to John Giannandrea, the company’s head of artificial intelligence, who also oversees voice-based digital assistant Siri.Giannandrea, Google’s former head of search and artificial intelligence, joined Apple in 2018. His hire was seen as a huge get for Apple, which has struggled for years to make progress in fast-moving and increasingly important AI fields like computer vision and natural language processing. Giannandrea reports directly to CEO Tim Cook as the leader of machine learning and AI strategy.Not much is known about Apple’s so-called Project TitanNot... Continue reading…

Image: CD Projekt Red CD Projekt Red has announced that it’s working on adding a new epilepsy warning to Cyberpunk 2077, in response to a recent article by Game Informer that raised the issue. The studio says that it’s also working on “a more permanent solution” for the game’s epilepsy issues “as soon as possible.”

Tesla CEO Elon Musk has joined one-fifth of Americans who have done a “pandemic move.” After spending most of his life in California, Musk has relocated to Texas.The Tesla CEO let that news slip during an interview for The Wall Street Journal’s annual CEO Council summit. He cited the construction of a new Tesla factory outside Austin, as well as Space X’s planned launch site near the South Texas village of Boca Chica, as a factor in his move. CNBC reported last week that Musk was considering relocating to Texas.He also criticized California’s economic environment as another reason. “If a team is winning for too long, they tend to get complacent,” Musk said. “California has been winning for a long time, and I think they’re taking it... Continue reading…

Image: BlockWorks Minecraft’s blocky aesthetic was massively spruced up with the introduction of ray tracing enabled by Nvidia’s RTX graphics cards earlier this year. And now, that feature is coming out of beta, and path-traced ray tracing is available to all Windows 10 Minecraft players with the GPUs that support it, Nvidia announced in a blog post on Tuesday.If you missed the beta or other examples in 2020, ray tracing allows for realistic, physics-based lighting in games. Minecraft traditionally shirks realism in favor of a pixel art, sandbox fantasy aesthetic, but the pairing works well here. The changes to lighting are most immediately notable in reflections in water, shadows that respond dynamically to light sources, and different intensities of... Continue reading…

Photo by Tom Warren / The Verge AMD has released the newest member of its Radeon RX 6000 series: the Radeon RX 6900 XT. The card is based on the same Navi 21 silicon as the rest of the RX 6000 series so far and is being billed as the fastest Radeon card yet. According to reviews, it’s a step up from previous generations when it comes to performance, but not worth its $1,000 price tag for most consumers.Reviews agree that this card is a racehorse. “This is one blistering-fast GPU,” concludes Brad Chacos of PCWorld, while Hot Hardware’s Marco Chiappetta dubbed it “the most powerful Radeon ever.” In Tom’s Hardware’s testing, the RX 6900 XT averaged 85fps across its 13-game testing suite at 4K resolution and ultra settings and 136.1fps at 1440p. Image:... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Gaming remains one of the most dominant pillars of online entertainment, and nowhere is that more apparent than in YouTube’s 2020 statistics. According to YouTube Gaming head Ryan Wyatt, users of the video-sharing site watched 100 billion hours of gaming content on the platform this past year, double the number of hours watched in 2018. The company also published a blog post on Tuesday with a more in-depth rundown of 2020.Of that 100 billion figure, 10 billion of those hours were of YouTube Gaming live streams, a strong sign the Google-owned site is shaping up to be an even more formidable competitor to Amazon-owned Twitch.

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Huawei worked on a facial recognition system to monitor and track China’s Uighur minority, according to a new report from video surveillance researchers at IPVM.First reported by The Washington Post, the report draws on documents posted publicly to Huawei’s website, obtained via Google search. The facial recognition project appears to have been a demonstration of how Huawei hardware could be used to employ partner algorithms from a Chinese vendor called Megvii.IPVM’s report particularly highlights the “Uighur Alert” feature, which would use facial recognition to identify a subject’s ethnicity and generate an alert if the subject belonged to China’s Uighur minority group.A Muslim minority group from northwestern China, Uighurs are... Continue reading…

Logitech has quietly revealed a new Circle View Wired Doorbell camera today, which is notably the first consumer smart doorbell to support Apple’s recent HomeKit Secure Video standard. The new doorbell is available from both Apple and Logitech’s websites for $199.99.Apple first debuted the HomeKit Secure Video standard in 2019, but it’s taken some time for developers to adopt the system. Logitech’s new Circle View Wired Doorbell is the first doorbell camera to offer it, at least on a consumer level (technically, as 9to5Mac notes, the Robin ProLine camera beat Logitech to the punch, although that product is designed for commercial customers rather than home installations.)As for the camera itself, it’s design to exclusively work with... Continue reading…

Samsung’s next flagship phones the Galaxy S21, S21 Plus, and S21 Ultra are widely expected to arrive this January (alongside some new buds), but we haven’t had a true glimpse at them yet. That may be changing today, as Android Police has just published three brief teaser videos that it says come directly from Samsung, and line up perfectly with the OnLeaks renders we first saw in October. While we can’t glean too much from these videos, they make it crystal clear what to expect from the design of these phones — a sleek, streamlined new camera bump that blends into the sides of the phone, with three cameras on the S21 and S21 Plus and five cameras (including what appears to be a periscope zoom lens, see the... Continue reading…

Welcome to Blade City, a full-service dystopia resort.Blade City is a dangerous, fast-moving world where hackers, hustlers, and streetfighters live in the shadow of the evil corporation Xoxl.As the Hospitality Manager at Xoxl, it’s your job to keep Blade City dirty and antisocial — a hip, gritty vacation from a soul-numbing late capitalist reality.Are you ready?Play Cyberpunkland on the theverge.com Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Today, Facebook Gaming announces a new initiative targeted specifically at Black streamers on the platform: the Black Gaming Creator Program. The company says it plans to invest $5 million a year over the next two years to support the Black gaming creator community.If you’re selected to take part in the program, there are some benefits. You’ll get Facebook Gaming partnership, early product access (along with product feedback sessions), community support — which includes invitations to all digital and in person events — and mentorship. The program also comes with guaranteed monthly pay, which distinguishes it from other creator mentorship programs. Interested creators can apply here.Leo Olebe, the global director of games partnerships... Continue reading…

Image: Bungie Bungie has confirmed Destiny 2 will be getting crossplay support at some point next year. While Bungie didn’t specify which platforms will support the feature, hopefully you’ll be able to dive into Destiny 2 with players across every platform on which the game is available. That includes PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X / S, PC, and Stadia. Earlier this year, it seemed as though a 2021 launch date for crossplay was the goal, but Bungie was more definite about a launch next year in a blog post published on Tuesday.Bungie has slowly been making the game more platform-agnostic. The studio added cross-save support, which lets you bring your save from one platform to another, in 2019. And alongside the next-gen update for the PlayStation 5... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Starting today, YouTube creators can live-stream their videos in high dynamic range (HDR), the company has announced. The platform has supported HDR in prerecorded content since 2016, but now, live content can also benefit from the technology. YouTube claims it’s “the first major platform to support live HDR.” At launch it supports the HDR10 and HLG standards, and YouTube says it hopes to expand this offering in the future.HDR is a technology that lets videos show a wider range of colors and brightness. Blacks can be darker and whites can be brighter, revealing more detail in the shadows and highlights of an image, respectively. The result is that images appear much more punchy and vibrant leading some to argue that the jump from SDR... Continue reading…

Staff administer the Pfizer and BioNTech to people in the UK. | Photo by Victoria Jones / Pool / Getty Images The Pfizer and BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine is safe, effective, and starts working within about two weeks of the first dose, according to documents published by the Food and Drug Administration today.The materials are the first look at the vaccine data from the perspective of the FDA staff, rather than the drug companies. They were released ahead of the agency’s vaccine advisory committee meeting on December 10th. Like data released by Pfizer, the FDA’s briefing document shows that the vaccine is 95 percent effective at protecting against symptomatic COVID-19, and there are no serious safety concerns with the shot. It worked similarly for people in all racial and ethnic groups and of all ages in which it was tested. (There isn’t data... Continue reading…

Pokémon Go is celebrating its fifth anniversary with a virtual event, Niantic announced today. The Pokémon Go Tour, a ticketed one-day event set to take place on February 20th, 2021, will allow players to choose from either a Red or Green Version-themed experience — a throwback to the original Game Boy titles released in Japan.In addition to research, trades, and event-exclusive items, all of the original 150 pokémon will be available as shiny versions. Both versions include pokémon specific to that experience. In order to get all 150, you’ll have to trade with friends who purchased the other event version; Niantic will increase the trade range to 40 km to make it easier on players.Tickets go on sale today for $11.99 and are available... Continue reading…

Pictured here is the Dell G5 15 SE. The G3 that’s discounted today looks very similar, though it has red accents. | Photo by Cameron Faulkner / The Verge Today’s hand-picked batch of best tech deals is mostly centered on laptops and tablets, which I’m always happy to see discounted. Whether you want to get stuff done or just do some gaming on an iPad, a more budget-friendly Android tablet from Samsung, or on a Windows 10 laptop, there are a few solid options to choose from. There are also some excellent price cuts on two Chromebooks below that come recommended by Verge reviewer Monica Chin.Deals on Windows 10 machinesDell’s G3 15.6-inch gaming laptop is $700 (usually $1,000) at Best Buy, and it’s a solid machine for the price. You probably won’t be able to run Cyberpunk 2077 at a smooth frame rate above medium settings, but it should handle less demanding games without much effort.... Continue reading…

Persona 5 Strikers, an action RPG follow-up to Persona 5, will head to the Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, and Steam on February 23rd. The game will be available four days early, on February 19th, for those who preorder the digital deluxe version. Developer Atlus confirmed the news today, just days after its release was leaked via YouTube trailer.Persona 5 launched worldwide in 2017; an enhanced version, Persona 5 Royal, had its wide release earlier this year. Unlike the original game, which features turn-based combat, Persona 5 Strikers is an action-oriented take on the series from Dynasty Warriors developer Omega Force. Strikers takes place after the events of the original story when the Phantom Thieves find their vacation... Continue reading…

Image: WhatsApp WhatsApp is introducing a new shopping carts feature that lets you order multiple items with a single message from businesses on the service. It works in conjunction with the service’s existing catalogs feature. Now, while browsing a business’s wares, you can add multiple items to your shopping cart and send the entire order in a single message, replacing the back-and-forth communication that needed to happen previously. The feature will be available globally starting today.Shopping might not be the first thing that comes to mind when you think of the Facebook-owned messaging service, but it’s become an increasingly popular venue for small businesses around the world to sell their products. Over 175 million people used the service to... Continue reading…

Substack, the hot subscription newsletter startup, is building a reader app to help people manage all of their newsletters in a single place.That’s the word from Substack CEO Chris Best on this week’s episode of Decoder, The Verge’s new tech and business interview podcast. “Something that I really miss is proper reader apps, proper RSS readers. I think the death of Google Reader was a big, sad thing,” Best said.“Something that we think about a lot is readers tell us, ‘Hey, I’m subscribed to six different Substacks now, and I want to read them all, and it sucks that they’re in my email inbox along with all my other stuff,’” Best added.“‘Wouldn’t it be nice if there was one place where I could go and see all of these direct connections... Continue reading…

How the newsletter startup could disrupt the media industry Continue reading…

Look to Speak lets users select and speak phrases via eye movements | Google A new experimental application on Android aims to make communication easier for people with speech and motor impairments, Google announced today. The Look to Speak app lets users choose preselected phrases on their phone screen with their eyes. It’s available to everyone and is compatible with Android 9.0 and above, including Android One.Richard Cave, a highly specialist speech and language therapist at Google, works with people who have speech and motor impairments, especially people who are nonverbal and need assistance communicating. “It’s more than a job for me, it’s a passion,” Cave said in a blog post announcing the app. “Every day, I strive to help people find easier and more accessible ways to express their everyday needs,... Continue reading…

FaZe Clan Today, esports and entertainment organization FaZe Clan announces its new talent development program, FaZe Academy. It places a bunch of potential FaZe recruits into a bootcamp to get a shot at being a full-fledged member of the organization. It’s a long way from how the organization used to recruit in the beginning — which was by Twitter DM, says Darren Yan, VP of Talent at FaZe. The point of the Academy is to create lifelong FaZe members, and its first class will be announced in January.It’s an interesting idea, not least because cultivating successive generations of talent ensures that organizations can stay relevant even after their original members have quit the scene. In that regard, the Academy is something of a legacy builder:... Continue reading…

Adobe is releasing an Arm version of Lightroom for both macOS and Windows today. The latest version of Lightroom is now native for both Apple M1 systems and Qualcomm-powered Windows 10 devices. It’s debuting as a full release, rather than a beta version and Adobe is making it part of the regular Creative Suite installer.While this native Arm version is the new version of Lightroom, if you’re a fan of the classic Lightroom then you’ll need to wait a little longer for Adobe to ship it. “We intend to ship Apple M1 native versions as soon as they are ready, so stay tuned,” says Sharad Mangalick, a program manager on the photography team at Adobe.Adobe has also released a beta version of Photoshop for ArmThis latest update to Lightroom... Continue reading…

Image: Apple Apple Fitness Plus — the company’s new workout program service — is set to launch on December 14th, the company announced today. The subscription service is set to cost $9.99 per month (or $79.99 per year).Apple Fitness Plus was announced earlier this year as Apple’s latest attempt to continue to bolster its subscription offers, and it will feature Peloton-style guided workouts that can be viewed on an iPhone, iPad, or Apple TV, while utilizing an Apple Watch for tracking workout metrics as you go. The service will launch with 10 workout types: High-Intensity Interval Training (HIIT), strength, yoga, dance, core, cycling, treadmill (for both running and walking), rowing, and “mindful cooldown.”According to the company, “many Fitness... Continue reading…

Image: Apple It turns out Apple has one more major hardware announcement before 2020 comes to a close: after many months of rumors, Apple today unveiled its own over-ear, noise-canceling headphones. They’re called the AirPods Max and come with the premium design you’d expect from flagship Apple headphones. They also come with an extremely premium $549 price and are set to go on sale December 15th. Preorders start today.The AirPods Max come in five colors: space gray, silver, sky blue, green, and pink. They feature what Apple calls a “custom acoustic design” with a 40mm driver system “that provides rich, deep bass, accurate mid-ranges, and crisp, clean high-frequency extension so every note can be heard.” Apple has brought over a number of features... Continue reading…

Image: RCA Reddit shared today that its most upvoted post of 2020 was a picture from 1989 posted by Rick Astley, the living meme himself. Reddit’s Year in Review blogs can be a good insight into broader internet culture, and the site’s listing of the most popular topics of conversations certainly included the largest issue of the year: “COVID-19” was mentioned over 50.2 million times. But they also include other forms of virality as well.Rick Astley is known for the single “Never Gonna Give You Up” from 1987, which was already a number one worldwide hit even before the music video for the song was used to create the rickrolling meme. Rickrolls were all the rage during the early 2000s web, and based on the interactions this r/pics post has... Continue reading…

Image: Hinge Hinge’s newest feature takes a cue from The Bachelor. In a new tab called Standouts, daters can preview potential matches’ responses to the dating app’s prompts and give anyone they’re interested in a “rose.” Users only receive one free rose per week, which refreshes on Sundays, so they’ll have to buy more to give them out.One rose costs $3.99, six cost $19.99, and 12 go for $29.99. Tim MacGougan, the company’s chief product officer, says the higher price point is meant to encourage scarcity and deep intention behind receiving a rose. If someone is potentially paying $4 to send a rose, you might weigh their like more heavily when deciding whether to like them back. (Any likes sent with roses are automatically sent to the top of... Continue reading…

A great e-bike, with caveats Continue reading…

Photo by Laurent KOFFEL/Gamma-Rapho via Getty Images Director Christopher Nolan has fiercely criticized Warner Bros.’ surprise decision to release its 2021 lineup of films simultaneously on HBO Max, which he called “the worst streaming service.”“Some of our industry’s biggest filmmakers and most important movie stars went to bed the night before thinking they were working for the greatest movie studio and woke up to find out they were working for the worst streaming service,” the director told The Hollywood Reporter. He added that the studio “had an incredible machine for getting a filmmaker’s work out everywhere” but claims it’s dismantling it in a move which “makes no economic sense.”“There’s such controversy around it, because they didn’t tell anyone”Although Nolan has long been a... Continue reading…

After nearly a decade in operation, QuantumScape, a San Jose-based startup backed by Volkswagen and Bill Gates, is finally breaking its silence. In a virtual “battery day” event for investors, the recently public company announced that its “solid state” batteries for electric vehicles will charge faster, hold more power, and last longer than traditional EV batteries.Solid-state batteries have eluded researchers for decades. Most EV companies use “wet” lithium-ion batteries, which use liquid electrolytes to move energy around. But these batteries can be slow to charge, can freeze up in subzero temperatures, and contain flammable material that can be hazardous in the event of a crash.QuantumScape claims to have developed a... Continue reading…

Photo by Dan Seifert / The Verge Google and Samsung are bringing their smart home platforms together for the first time. Samsung’s SmartThings will support Google Nest devices starting in January 2021, building a bridge between one of the industry’s leading ecosystems for managing smart devices like cameras and thermostats with one of the leading companies developing those products.Prior to this, owners of devices that qualified for the “Works With SmartThings” (WWST) certification had to use separate software to manage any Google Nest products they owned. Following the launch of the integration next month, all Nest products will be controllable from the SmartThings platform and will qualify as WWST devices.Google Nest devices can be managed from the SmartThings app... Continue reading…

If you use Waze and ever needed to take your eyes off the road to control your music alongside your maps, a new update is starting to roll out that should let you spend more time driving and less time fiddling with that touchscreen. MacRumors is reporting that Waze has started rolling out Apple CarPlay Dashboard support, which will allow you to see directions on CarPlay’s home screen, alongside media controls, calendar events, and more. When I heard about it, I ran out to my car and sure enough, Waze’s directions showed up on the home screen. Your Waze directions and music controls, all on one screen. The company started beta testing the feature late last month, but CarPlay Dashboard has been around for Apple Maps... Continue reading…

Image: Google From the very beginning, Google Stadia and YouTube were supposed to work together — thanks to the magic of cloud computing, you’d be able to click a YouTube ad to instantly begin playing a game, YouTubers would be able to invite their viewers to instantly join their game, and — perhaps most importantly — creators would be able to instantly, effortlessly be able to livestream their Stadia games to YouTube just by pressing a button on the controller.None of those things happened at Stadia’s launch last November, but the biggest one is apparently arriving tomorrow: every Stadia user will be able to livestream directly to YouTube starting tomorrow, a representative confirms to The Verge.This afternoon, 9to5Google noticed that the feature... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge A federal judge has granted a preliminary injunction that should keep the US Commerce Department from banning transactions with TikTok.The Trump administration issued an executive order on August 6th that would have blocked transactions between US companies and TikTok and WeChat’s Chinese parent companies, ByteDance and Tencent. Trump declared TikTok and WeChat a “national emergency,” citing privacy and security concerns. That order invoked the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA), a law that allows Trump to ban transactions between the US and foreign entities.“The government likely exceeded IEEPA’s express limitations.”However, in his opinion accompanying today’s decision, US district judge Carl Nichols said that “the... Continue reading…

Photo by GeoRebekah via Wikimedia Commons Eight months ago, Deborah Birx of the White House Coronavirus Task Force praised Florida’s COVID-19 dashboard as an example of “the kind of knowledge and power we need to put into the hands of the American people.” That dashboard was built by Rebekah Jones.But in May, Jones was fired by the Florida Department of Health for reportedly refusing to manipulate that data to justify reopening the state — and now, Florida state police have raided her home and taken the equipment she was using to maintain a new, independent COVID-19 tracker of her own.Jones posted a series of tweets about the incident, including a video of police entering — with guns drawn.

Photo by ROBYN BECK/AFP via Getty Images A text-messaging program to monitor any side effects from the COVID-19 vaccine may be open to manipulation, The Washington Post reports. Experts worry that the newly-developed system focuses more on ease of use than security.The program, called v-safe, is being developed by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to check in with people after they’ve received a COVID-19 vaccine. After getting a shot, they’ll be given a piece of paper with a QR code, which lets them sign up to receive texts. The texts will direct them to online surveys that ask questions about any symptoms someone experienced after receiving the vaccine.Other vaccine safety monitoring systems that have been in place for decades, including the Vaccine... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge After a month of testing on university campuses, California’s governor just announced that the state is launching its COVID contact tracing app to the public this Thursday, December 10th. The app is called CA Notify, and its launch makes California the 18th state (plus Washington, DC) to release a contact tracing app. It’s also the largest to have done so since the technology was announced in April. The first app of its kind was released in Virginia back in August, so it’s been quite a long time coming, especially considering California is home to Apple and Google, the two companies that developed the contact tracing technology the app uses.Apple CEO Tim Cook and Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai have tweeted in support of the app:

Image: Razer Razer’s Blade 15 is one of the best 15-inch gaming laptops. It’s far from a budget purchase, but Razer has released the most affordable model you can buy.As of today, there’s a new Blade 15 Base model up for preorder that is just $1,499. It’ll ship on December 25th. The model includes a Core i7-10750H, 15.6-inch 120Hz screen, GeForce GTX 1660 Ti, 16GB of RAM, and 256GB of SSD storage, plus an open M.2 slot. For ports, you’ll get two USB 3.2 Gen 2, two USB-C 3.2 Gen 1, and an HDMI 2.0.Note: these are almost the exact same specs as the $1,599 Blade 15 Base that you can already buy. The biggest difference is that more expensive model has a 144Hz display. As of this writing, that model is on sale for $1,499 on Razer’s website. That means... Continue reading…

Comcast is extending its COVID-19 support programs through June 30th, 2021, including free access to public Wi-Fi hotspots and discounts on internet service plans. The company says this is the third time it has extended its programs during the pandemic.Comcast’s Internet Essentials plan for low-income households is currently free for the first 60 days for new subscribers. With this extension that offer will be available through June 2021. Additionally, access to free Xfinity WiFi hotspots will be extended as well, regardless if you’re a Xfinity subscriber or not. Comcast’s “Lift Zones” — its name for local community centers wired with Comcast internet — are also continuing as an ongoing project. Lift Zones are meant to reach low-income... Continue reading…

Photo by Paul Hennessy/NurPhoto via Getty Images The Federal Communications Commission announced $9.2 billion in awards to companies providing broadband internet to rural areas across the US, and Elon Musk’s SpaceX was one of the biggest winners. The company will receive $886 million over the next 10 years for its Starlink satellite broadband project, under the Federal Communication Commission’s Rural Digital Opportunity Fund.Starlink is SpaceX’s constellation of satellites that will fly at low altitudes around the Earth, providing internet on the ground below. SpaceX already has launched 900 of the planned 12,000 satellites needed for the Starlink system into low-Earth orbit. Musk has said the company needs 800 satellites in space to provide “significant operational capabilities.” S... Continue reading…

Uber is selling its autonomous vehicle business to Aurora Innovations, a San Francisco-based startup founded by the former head engineer of Google’s self-driving car project, the two companies announced Monday.As part of the deal, Aurora’s self-driving cars will eventually operate on Uber’s ride-hailing platform. Uber will invest $400 million in Aurora and Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi will join the startup’s board of directors.It’s unclear whether the acquisition will result in any layoffs. “Aurora has committed to making offers to the majority of ATG employees,” an Uber spokesperson said. “We are working through the details with Aurora and will notify our teams in the coming weeks.”The deal marks the end of Uber’s ambitious dream of... Continue reading…

An ambulance drives down a road in Brooklyn on December 1st, 2020, in New York City. | Photo by Spencer Platt / Getty Images Pollution from the health care industry is harming the communities it serves, says a study published today in the journal Health Affairs. If you count up how many fewer healthy years people in the US lived as a result of all the pollution the industry pumped out in 2018, it would add up to a collective sum of 388,000 years, the research found. That’s similar to the number of years of life lost due to preventable medical errors.“I’m putting a bandaid on a bullet wound”“I feel like I’m putting a bandaid on a bullet wound,” says Renee Salas, an emergency medicine physician and lead author of another article also published in Health Affairs today that urges health care policymakers to consider the threats posed by climate change.Salas is... Continue reading…

Good sound quality and best-in-class noise cancellation come in an awkwardly big case Continue reading…

Image: Microsoft Microsoft’s marketing tagline for the Xbox Series X and Xbox Series S is “Power Your Dreams,” and the newest Xbox ad, a short film by Thor: Ragnarok director Taika Waititi, takes the tagline to a whole new level.The ad takes place in a “dream incubation lab,” where a woman plays an Xbox Series X before being guided into a dream state. She then explains her dreams, featuring things like a neon-outlined bunny hopping through a forest and a flying whale in space, all of which appear on-screen.That’s pretty standard dream stuff, if you ask me. But eventually, the woman dreams that a giant Master Chief in space DJs using an entire Halo ring. That would be enough to solidify this as a pretty odd commercial, but the woman then reveals that... Continue reading…

Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge Google’s latest Pixel feature drop, where the company brings a slew of new software tricks to its smartphone lineup, is being announced today. Alongside some brand-new functionality like Adaptive Sound, which “improves the sound quality of your phone speaker based on your surroundings,” the December drop is also bringing many of the latest software features from the Pixel 5, 4A 5G, and 4A to older devices; Google says the Pixel 3 and newer will be included.That means features like Hold for Me, where the Google Assistant waits for a real person to hop on the customer support line instead of making you do it, and others like Extreme Battery Saver mode and screen sharing on Duo calls will soon hit older devices.Extreme Battery Saver... Continue reading…

Image: Rockstar Games Grand Theft Auto Online is soon getting its own concert venue with the planned opening of The Music Locker, an underground nightclub that will feature real-world DJs in residence. The announcement on Monday means developer Rockstar Games is taking cues from other savvy multiplayer games like Fortnite and Roblox.Those games and many others in the online social scene have begun transforming their virtual spaces into entertainment destinations that, amid the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, have become vital ways to fill the gap left by the lack of live music and other real-world events.Rockstar is following ‘Fortnite’ and ‘Roblox’ in turning its online virtual world into a live music spaceEpic’s approach with Fortnite has been to book... Continue reading…

CD Projekt Red A Night City too big to get weird Continue reading…

Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge Google Stadia is expanding internationally, adding eight more countries in Europe today. The new markets include Austria, Czechia, Hungary, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, and Switzerland, bringing the total number of countries the cloud gaming service supports from 14 to 22. The service should be available in the newly added locations within the next 24 hours, and Google says you just need a Gmail address to sign up.Stadia just celebrated its anniversary last month with a slew of new announcements, including the addition of its first two free-to-play games (Destiny 2 and Super Bomberman R Online) and its plans to introduce an iOS version of Stadia delivered via mobile Safari in the coming weeks.Google is now gearing up for its... Continue reading…