The Verge

Neopets You know good and well what you did.Back in 2003 or whatever, you took young, innocent Neopets under your wing. A Gelert, a Jetsam, a Scorchio, or whatever the hell the penguin one was called. You promised that under your tutelage, they would thrive. You promised you would feed them.And yet you didn’t feed them, did you? Your Neopoints piled up and you spent them on plushies, faerie quests, paintbrushes, and you watched your pets deteriorate right before your eyes. Their pictures saddened; tears appeared in their eyes. Their hunger status changed over time — “very hungry” to “famished” to “starving” to “dying.” Every time you logged onto that cursed site, even if just to hammer out a few levels of Typing Terror, you were emphatically... Continue reading…

Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge Gaming is an expensive hobby, especially if you recently purchased a new console. If you are looking to buy some new games but don’t want to burn a major hole in your pocket, Best Buy’s current promotion focuses on next-gen games: if you buy two eligible next-gen titles, you get a third title free of charge.This is an ideal way to add three new games to your collection. The games’ pricing varies anywhere between $10 to $100. Many of these games are last-gen titles and include free next-gen upgrades, so they can work with both older consoles and the new ones.Some highlights in this deal include Control: Ultimate Edition, Yakuza: Like a Dragon, and Cyberpunk 2077, the latter being released on December 10th. If you own a Nintendo Switch,... Continue reading…

Photo by Kimberly White / Getty Images for TechCrunch Google employees who worked with Timnit Gebru are coming out publicly to dispute claims against the star AI ethics researcher. On Monday, the team published a letter on the Google Walkout Medium account firmly stating that Gebru was fired and did not resign as Google’s head of artificial intelligence, Jeff Dean, said. They also said the publication review policy that Gebru was supposed to follow was applied “unevenly and discriminatorily.”“Dr. Gebru’s dismissal has been framed as a resignation, but in Dr. Gebru’s own words, she did not resign,” the letter says. It notes that Gebru asked for certain conditions to be met in order for her to stay at Google, including transparency around who wanted her paper retracted. Ultimately, the... Continue reading…

Photo illustration by Nikolas Kokovlis/NurPhoto via Getty Images Airbnb is launching a nonprofit to allow the hosts who rent out their properties on its platform to provide free and discounted stays to refugees, people affected by natural disasters, and frontline workers in the coronavirus pandemic. The new organization, called Airbnb.org, is the evolution of Airbnb’s Open Homes and Frontline stays programs.Open Homes started in 2012, inspired by a host who opened her home to people affected by Hurricane Sandy. The company introduced the Frontline stays program earlier this year, as a way to provide first responders a place to stay — either to be closer to work or to quarantine away from their families while treating COVID-19 patients. The company says more than 100,000 hosts worldwide have provided... Continue reading…

Nest Audio smart speaker | Photo: Dan Seifert / The Verge Google has announced that Apple Music is now available on smart speakers and displays that use the Google Assistant, including Google’s own line of Nest products, such as the new Nest Audio. Owners of Assistant smart speakers or displays will be able to set Apple Music as the default service on the speakers and use their voice to play songs, albums, or playlists from it, much like they can do with Spotify, Pandora, or YouTube Premium.This addition broadens the appeal of Assistant smart speakers and displays to a wider market, and it catches Google’s smart speaker line up to Amazon’s, which has supported Apple Music through Alexa on Echo smart speakers since 2018. As with the other services available on Google smart speakers, you can... Continue reading…

Photo by Dan Seifert / The Verge I expected to see some once-expired Black Friday deals make their return before the holidays, and ta-da, that’s what’s happening today. We’re just seeing a few comeback deals today from Best Buy and Amazon, but they’re some of the best discounts from Black Friday. The shortlist includes Eero’s multi-pack mesh Wi-Fi routers and Apple Watch models varying in price, size, and capabilities. Oh, and a little game called Cyberpunk 2077 releases this Thursday, and there are deals on that.Give your Wi-Fi a boostEero’s mesh Wi-Fi routers are a good gift, either to yourself or someone you know who has a bungled Wi-Fi situation. Both the new Eero 6 routers with Wi-Fi 6 and the last-gen model that’s cheaper are discounted, giving you options... Continue reading…

You’ll be able to see through the screens on the doors. | Image: LG LG has partnered with Swedish manufacturer Assa Abloy Entrance Systems to develop automatic sliding doors with built-in transparent OLED displays, the company announced today. The doors will be aimed at businesses, and LG says they’ll be able to greet customers, communicate with employees, or show ads.LG has been showing off its transparent displays for a little while now, and it unveiled a range of transparent signage early last year. Now, we’re seeing the panels used in the real world. In August, LG announced that its displays were being used in the windows of subway carriages in Beijing and Shenzhen in China, and OLED-Info reports that both Panasonic and Xiaomi’s transparent OLED TVs use LG panels. Image: LG O... Continue reading…

A collection of Ikea catalogs from over the years. | Image: Ikea After a 70-year run, Ikea is discontinuing the publication of its printed catalog.Ikea’s decision comes as catalog readership is in decline and the company becomes increasingly more digital. After initially resisting online shopping, the company was forced to embrace it during the pandemic. Ikea says its online retail sales increased by 45 percent worldwide last year with ikea.com reporting four billion visits. The company has also improved its suite of apps to make discovering and buying products easier, while opening smaller stores located in city centers meant to reach people where they live.More copies printed than either the Bible or the QuranAt its peak in 2016, Ikea says that 200 million catalogs were distributed in 32... Continue reading…

If you have a 12-year-old, you might want to make sure they’re not reading over your shoulder right now — otherwise you’ll be spending some quality time explaining why they’re not getting a $120 toy blaster this holiday season. Oh, who am I kidding: I’m having that chat with myself right now.Yes, that’s the price of this fully functional foam-flinging replica of The Mandalorian’s Amban Phase-pulse blaster, which — if I’m not mistaken — is the longest Nerf blaster ever made. Image: Hasbro Click or save this one to blow it up to full resolution. It’s over four feet (specifically 50.25 inches) long, features a light-up scope and “accurate sounds” (four blaster sounds, four charging sounds) after you install... Continue reading…

Apple’s M1 processor (pictured) is its first processor designed for the Mac. | Image: Apple Apple is working on a new ARM-based processor with as many as 32 high-performance CPU cores that could appear in a Mac in late 2021, according to a new report from Bloomberg. The processor could also appear in a new “half-sized Mac Pro” in 2022. Alongside it, the company is also reportedly developing CPU designs with up to 16 high-performance cores and four power-efficient cores which are destined for new versions of the MacBook Pro and iMac. The new processors could arrive as early as spring 2021. Future Apple Silicon designs could also feature GPUs with up to 128 dedicated cores.News of the upcoming processors comes as Apple has just released its first Macs powered by its own chips. The new MacBook Air, MacBook Pro, and Mac mini each... Continue reading…

The site is located near Braintree, in Essex. | Image: Gridserve The UK’s first all-electric car charging station opened today near Braintree in Essex, marking a milestone in the country’s transition away from fossil fuel-powered vehicles. The station is operated by Gridserve, and is the first of more than 100 locations it plans to build over the next five years.The location consists of 36 electric vehicle chargers, delivering up to 350kW of power. That’s enough to provide 200 miles of range in 20 minutes, according to Gridserve. With an initial cost of £0.24 per kWh of energy, the company estimates an average-sized electric vehicle can be charged from 20 to 80 percent for under £10 (less than $13.25). Gridserve claims these are the “lowest ultra-high power charging rates on the market today.” ... Continue reading…

YouTuber Logan Paul has struck a deal to fight former boxing megastar Floyd Mayweather Jr. in a “special exhibition” match on February 20th. The bout will be streamed as a pay-per-view on Fanmio.Mayweather is an undefeated champion with a 50-0 record, multiple world titles in five weight classes, and an Olympic bronze medal. Paul is best known for his controversial YouTube video where he filmed a dead body in a Japanese forest. He has fought in one sanctioned boxing match: a loss to fellow YouTuber KSI.Needless to say, this is unlikely to be a festival of evenly matched athletic prowess. But Mayweather is not above signing up to farcical contests for the spectacle and the payday. His 50th official win involved him coming out of... Continue reading…

Liam Neeson stars in The Marksman I finished The Undoing and while it was disappointingly messy with a plot that didn’t quite come together, I think we can all agree that 1) Nicole Kidman’s coats were amazing and 2) Hugh Grant should absolutely play more villains. I’m also kind of on a kick of catching up on shows I missed because I didn’t have premium cable, and just started season one of Homeland (I know, I know). Still deciding what I think but as I’m sure has been observed by many others, Carrie is very intense!New trailers this week include Liam Neeson in The Marksman and Ralph Fiennes in The Dig (big “the” theme this week), and I managed to find five non-holiday flicks for you (you’re welcome).The MarksmanAt some point, will Liam Neeson get a break from... Continue reading…

Aptera is taking pre-orders for its new solar electric vehicle | Aptera Aptera, the company that shuttered in 2011 after failing to secure funding for its three-wheeled electric car, is back with a new solar electric vehicle it claims never needs charging, at least, for most drivers. And it predicts its top model, with a battery of 100 kWh, can get up to 1,000 miles of range.The new three-wheeled, two-person (or two adults plus pet, as its specs suggest) vehicle has a solar roof array that can provide up to 45 miles of range per day, so if you have that top model and add the charge from the solar panels while it’s parked, then the 1,000 range seems ... possible. Although, as Car and Driver points out, the vehicle doesn’t run just on solar power while driving. Aptera The interior of... Continue reading…

Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge This past week I’ve been watching eBay, trying to decide if I should sell my PS5. I wouldn’t dream of becoming a scalper, but it’s getting hard to ignore just how much it’s worth. My daughter and I had beaten Astro Bot and Miles Morales, so I thought I’d peek at the resale market. Wow, are they worth a lot!And it’s not just the PlayStation 5 — I found that Xbox Series X and S, Nvidia’s RTX 3090, 3080, 3070, and 3060 Ti graphics cards, and AMD’s rival RX 6800 and 6800 XT GPUs are all commanding incredibly high prices on the resale market. It no longer surprises me how each big ticket holiday gaming gadget sells out nigh-instantly anytime they’re restocked; the incentive for scalpers is just too high. They’re so high even folks like me,... Continue reading…

As drones get smarter and the Federal Aviation Administration issues more waivers for its drone regulations, we’re likely to see more law enforcement agencies using them in their day-to-day, including for 911 calls. The formidable Cade Metz writes for The New York Times about what this looks like in practice, and to be perfectly honest, it’s extremely disconcerting, as Chula Vista, California officers “chase” a “suspect” using a drone:

A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket and Cargo Dragon spacecraft will launch Sunday from Kennedy Space Center | SpaceX Update December 6th, 11:35AM ET: SpaceX successfully launched its latest mission to the International Space Station, using its upgraded Dragon capsule that will dock with the station tomorrow at about 1:30PM ET.Original story: This morning, SpaceX is set to launch its latest batch of cargo and supplies to the International Space Station, but the company is using a slightly different spacecraft for this flight than resupply missions of the past. SpaceX is flying its newly upgraded Dragon capsule to transport the goods to space — the same vehicle that the company has been using to fly astronauts to the station.SpaceX has been resupplying the space station since 2012, and for all of its 20 previous missions, the company has used the... Continue reading…

The ascender of Chang’e-5 spacecraft flies above the surface of the Moon December 3rd. | Xinhua/Jin Liwang via Getty Images China’s Chang’e-5 mission completed a tricky docking maneuver on Saturday, as it prepares to return the soil samples it collected from the Moon’s surface back to Earth.Chang’e 5 launched on November 23rd atop a Long March 5 rocket, with four main spacecraft. The mission entered the lunar orbit on November 28th, and its lander and ascent vehicle landed on the Moon December 1st, while its service module remained in lunar orbit. The lander gathered rocks and soil, and on Saturday, docked in orbit with the service module. Those samples will now be put in a return capsule for the trip home, expected to land in Inner Mongolia later in December.

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Tesla published its first-ever diversity report on Friday, which shows the automaker’s US leadership is 83 percent male, and 59 percent white. The Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Impact report shows that men represent 79 percent of Tesla’s workforce, and women 21 percent.“While women are historically underrepresented in the tech and automotive industries, we recognize we have work to do in this area,” the report states. “Increasing women’s representation at all levels, especially in leadership, is a top priority in 2021.”The company also acknowledges in the report that Black employees are underrepresented— only 10 percent of the workforce and 4 percent of leadership at Tesla are Black or African-American. “We know that our numbers do... Continue reading…

An artistic rendering of Hayabusa2’s sample capsule landing on Earth | Image: JAXA After spending six years in space, a Japanese spacecraft just landed in the desert of southern Australia, bringing a small cache of asteroid rocks to the surface of Earth. It’s only the second time in history that materials from an asteroid have been returned to our planet. Eventually, scientists will open the spacecraft up, uncovering the precious rocks within to learn more about the asteroids that permeate our Solar System.The landing is the culmination of Japan’s Hayabusa2 mission, aimed at bringing samples of an asteroid back to Earth. After launching from Japan in 2014, the Hayabusa2 spacecraft spent four years journeying to an asteroid named Ryugu. The vehicle spent a year and a half hanging around the asteroid, mapping the rock’s... Continue reading…

Photo by Kimberly White / Getty Images for TechCrunch A paper co-authored by former Google AI ethicist Timnit Gebru raised some potentially thorny questions for Google about whether AI language models may be too big, and whether tech companies are doing enough to reduce potential risks, according to MIT Technology Review. The paper also questioned the environmental costs and inherent biases in large language models.Google’s AI team created such a language model— BERT— in 2018, and it was so successful that the company incorporated BERT into its search engine. Search is a highly lucrative segment of Google’s business; in the third quarter of this year alone, it brought in revenue of $26.3 billion. “This year, including this quarter, showed how valuable Google’s founding product — search —... Continue reading…

Photo by Chris Welch / The Verge This weekend, you can enjoy the last of the leftovers — not Thanksgiving leftovers. (There’s still no end in sight for those at my house.) I’m talking about the deals left over from Black Friday and Cyber Monday. It’s a relative drought compared to the number of sales we saw last weekend in the thick of it all, but you can still get some of this year’s best prices on headphones, video games, and smart speakers.Here are this week’s best deals.HeadphonesThe headphones with arguably the most effective noise cancellation tech and best sound quality for the price are the Sony WH-1000XM4. They were down to $278 during Black Friday, but their current $298 price is still a good buy if you missed that.The price of the Samsung Galaxy Buds... Continue reading…

Photo by Britta Pedersen-Pool/Getty Images Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk is planning to move from California to Texas, a move that would potentially save him from a huge personal income tax bill, CNBC reported.Musk announced in July that Tesla was building its next US factory in Austin, where it will produce its Cybertruck, Model Y, Model 3, and Semi vehicles. The company received tens of millions of dollars in local property tax breaks to build the plant on 2,100 acres east of Austin’s airport, over the objections of some local residents. The factory is expected to begin delivering its first vehicles in 2021. Musk’s Boring Company already has operations in Austin, and SpaceX has a facility in Boca Chica, Texas.Earlier this year, Musk tweeted that he was “selling almost all... Continue reading…

Photo by Cesar Fuentes Cervantes / Netflix There haven’t been many musicians like Selena Quintanilla: she was a Tejano superstar who managed to find major label mainstream success as one of the music industry’s first Latin artists to top the charts. Her dazzling career was cut tragically short when she was murdered by a fan in the spring of 1995, just before her 24th birthday. A 1997 film, Selena, which starred Jennifer Lopez in the titular role, solidified her legend — anointing her as a pop culture saint and a bridge between cultures.The real Selena Quintanilla, however, was a complex person with an interior life beyond her star persona and her tragic death. She’s a person whose life is worth diving deeper into, beyond the constraints of a two-hour Hollywood picture. In... Continue reading…

Medical personnel train for vaccine distribution in the UK. | Photo by Steve Parsons - WPA Pool/Getty Images In the US, COVID-19 vaccines are just around the corner, leaving the entire country peering out the window in anticipation of their arrival. Officials and healthcare systems, already taxed by skyrocketing case counts are making sure that everything is prepared when they show up. Here’s a few things still on their vaccine to-do lists:Save the dates: In the next few weeks, committees with the Food and Drug Administration will meet to decide whether or not to authorize vaccine candidates for Pfizer / BioNTech and Moderna. The Pfizer vaccine is up first, with a meeting scheduled for December 10th. Moderna’s meeting will happen a week later, on December 17. The committee will meet to discuss the mountains of data from the clinical trials,... Continue reading…

Samsung’s Galaxy Tab A7 is a good cheap tablet Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge The Trump administration won’t enforce its own deadline for ByteDance to sell or spin out video-sharing platform TikTok’s business in the US, according to Bloomberg.The latest deadline for that move, given by the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS) on November 28th, was today, December 4th. An extension isn’t expected, though the current deadline will “be overlooked while the discussions continue” between the Trump administration and TikTok, Bloomberg reports.CNN tech reporter Brian Fung is corroborating that the US won’t enforce its own deadline, with his sources amusingly suggesting that the lack of a deadline is proof that the US is “highly motivated” to complete talks about the sale.

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Google Fi will stop activating non-VoLTE phones in January, and encourage customers with older phones to upgrade with a $100 credit provided they purchase a new phone from the Fi store and activate it before December 31st, 9to5Google reports.Google’s hand is forced in the matter. Customers subscribe to Fi, but as an MVNO, Fi actually piggybacks on T-Mobile and US Cellular’s networks to provide coverage. Since T-Mobile has already announced its own plans to phase out support for non-VoLTE phones starting in January 2021, Fi has to as well.Requiring VoLTE all but assures 3G’s days are numberedVoLTE stands for “Voice over LTE”, which is the handling of phone calls over LTE data rather than older 3G tech. VoLTE calls are typically... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge It may be time to pour one out for the streaming service trial. CNET reports that HBO Max is no longer offering users a free week of watching its content, following both Disney Plus and Netflix’s examples earlier in the year. This change, probably not coincidentally, comes just weeks before December 25th, when Wonder Woman 1984 is set to launch on the service (as well as in theaters, but you should probably stay home). While it can’t compete with free, the $14.99 you’ll now have to pay to see the movie still compares favorably to the price of a theater ticket (and it’s a month of entertainment as opposed to two-ish hours).It’s not the first streaming service to nix a free trial before a big release: Disney Plus did it just a few weeks b... Continue reading…

Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge If your iPhone 11 isn’t responding to touches, it might be eligible for a free fix from Apple. The company has launched a replacement program for iPhone 11 displays that stop responding to touches “due to an issue with the display module.” Apple says that “a small percentage of iPhone 11 displays” are affected.Devices affected by the issue were manufactured between November 2019 and May 2020, Apple said, meaning not every phone is affected. If you’re seeing the issue on your iPhone 11, you can check to see if your phone is eligible for the program by plugging its serial number into a box on Apple’s website for the replacement program.If your phone is eligible for replacement, you can find one of Apple’s authorized service providers to... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge If you’ve ever wished you could share an in-app purchase with your family, you may be in luck. Today, Apple announced that subscriptions and one-time in-app purchases can now be shared among families. If you buy a consumable item, like coins in a game, you’ll still be the only one who can use them, but if you unlock an ad-free or pro version of an app it could be eligible for the new Family Sharing program.Apple announced this change back in June with Big Sur, but it’s finally letting developers flip the switch to allow subscriptions and purchases to be shared.

Maybe you’re feeling nostalgic for a classic James Bond film following Sean Connery’s death in late October. Or perhaps you’re simply feeling a gap given that the next film, No Time to Die, got pushed back to April 2021 or beyond. Either way, you can now binge a sizable selection of the James Bond collection completely for free (with ads) from YouTube, Peacock (with a free account), and PlutoTV.(Disclosure: Comcast, which owns Peacock parent NBCUniversal, is also an investor in Vox Media, The Verge’s parent company.)Not every provider has every film, and a few aren’t on streaming services at all: you’ll need to rent Skyfall and Spectre if you care to watch those again. It’s also not clear how long these films will be free to stream.B... Continue reading…

Photo by Erin Schaff - Pool/Getty Images President Donald Trump’s effort to overturn California’s ability to set fuel efficiency rules just lost another automaker. According to Reuters, Nissan said it was joining General Motors in abandoning the group of car companies that were previously supporting Trump’s fight with California.On November 23rd, GM announced it would leave the group of automakers that included Nissan, Fiat Chrysler, and several others, that were supporting Trump’s legal efforts to overturn pollution-fighting powers. Under the Clean Air Act, the state has historically been allowed to set its own emissions standards. And as the largest auto market in the US and one of the biggest in the world, California has a lot of influence over the auto industry.C... Continue reading…

WarnerMedia is making a clear bet for 2021: its slate of movies won’t generate the revenue its studio division needs, but it can help boost HBO Max’s long-term success.The company announced yesterday that every one of its 2021 movies will debut on HBO Max in the United States at the same time they play in theaters. They’ll be available for one month, at no extra charge, and available to stream in 4K HDR. It feels like an inevitable shift; COVID-19 cases are surging around the world again, new content on streaming services is drying up, and WarnerMedia needs to figure out a way to keep revenue coming in. Looking at a year where cinemas might not open beyond 25 percent capacity in the United States and where people may not want to sit in... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Chrome OS 87 is rolling out now, and it adds a few nice features to help you while browsing the web and when using Bluetooth accessories (via 9to5Google).One new addition in Chrome OS 87 is tab search. I typically have dozens of tabs open at any given time, so I could see how tab search might be a really handy way to find something I’ve lost in the process. Google is also adding tab search to the desktop version of Chrome, though the company said in mid-November that the feature would be coming first to Chromebooks and to other desktop platforms “soon.” Image: Google Here’s what tab search looks like. Chrome OS 87 can also now show you the battery levels of Bluetooth devices that you have connected to your... Continue reading…

KEREM YUCEL/AFP via Getty Images Amazon’s decision to fire warehouse worker Courtney Bowden violated labor laws, according to charges filed by the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) last month and obtained by BuzzFeed News. Bowden was advocating for better working when the company abruptly let her go.Bowden was one of many workers fighting for paid time off at Amazon warehouses as the coronavirus pandemic intensified. While the company said it was rolling out increased safety measures, workers continued to get sick and executives became increasingly hostile to employee organizing efforts . In March, Bowden was fired over an alleged incident with her supervisor.Bowden’s termination came at a time of unprecedented demand for Amazon services. Throughout the spring,... Continue reading…

A participant in a COVID-19 clinical trial. | Photo by Paul Hennessy/NurPhoto via Getty Images When the COVID-19 vaccine becomes available in the United States, officials’ first challenge is getting the people in the door for their shots. Then, they’ll have a second problem: making sure they come back again to get a second dose of the same vaccine. With two two-dose vaccines headed for authorization, the logistical challenges of a vaccination program are only magnified.“You don’t want to have someone get the first dose of one brand of vaccine, and a second dose of another,” says Ben Moscovitch, project director of health information technology at The Pew Charitable Trusts.Assuming the Food and Drug Administration authorizes the vaccines after they review the data later this month, states will start to receive shipments of the... Continue reading…

Photo illustration by Alex Castro | Photos by Carley Holtsinger, Susan Korn, and Hannah Faith Lord Crocs are cool now, and artists are accessorizing them all over Instagram Continue reading…

Image: Microsoft Microsoft is getting into the holiday spirit a bit early by offering MS Paint and Windows-themed “ugly” sweaters for sale on its online store, with a portion of the proceeds from each sale donated to Girls Who Code. The company made Windows XP and 95 sweaters in the past to give to influencers and super fans, but this marks the first time the company is selling a sweater directly to customers.When the sweaters first went on sale on Tuesday, there were briefly three varieties of Microsoft “soft-wear” available for purchase: the previously mentioned MS Paint sweater and leftover stock of the Windows 95 and XP sweaters. When we first checked the store, those XP and 95 sweaters were already running low on stock, and they quickly sold out... Continue reading…

Photo by Richard Harbaugh / A.M.P.A.S. via Getty Images Sony’s upcoming Metal Gear Solid movie adaptation will star Oscar Isaac as protagonist Solid Snake, according to Deadline. You might be familiar with Isaac as Resistance fighter Poe Dameron in the latest Star Wars film trilogy and his upcoming role as Duke Leto Atreides in Dune, and I think he could be a great fit to play Solid Snake.Apparently Isaac did, too, as he cast himself for the role in this interview:

Image: Penny Arcade ReedPop and Penny Arcade, the organizers of the PAX gaming conventions, announced on Friday that they plan to resume PAX East, West, and Unplugged in 2021. Organizers are planning to hold these events as long as it’s safe to do so.The organizers announced that they have no plans to hold PAX South next year, but the show will return in 2022, while information on PAX Australia will follow “in the coming weeks.” As far as the other PAX conventions go, locations remain unchanged, but the dates for PAX East, typically held in March at the Boston Convention and Exhibition Center, have been pushed back to the summer.

Photo by T.J. Kirkpatrick / Getty Images President-elect Joe Biden’s incoming COVID czar, Jeffrey Zients, is facing new scrutiny over his corporate ties — particularly a two-year stint on Facebook’s board of directors. But the Biden transition team confirmed to The Verge that Zients liquidated his Facebook stock earlier this year and will retain no equity when he officially begins his White House role.Zients joined the Facebook board in May 2018 in the wake of the Cambridge Analytica scandal but declined to seek reelection to the board when his term ended in 2020. Securities and Exchange Commission filings show he was compensated with $100,000 in cash and just over $300,000 in stock awards for his work chairing the board’s Audit & Risk Oversight Committee, which met 13 times... Continue reading…

Photo by Eric Ananmalay/ESPAT Media/Getty Images With the restrictions around travel and in-person events, Epic canceled the 2020 edition of the Fortnite World Cup back in April. Now, the developer says the esports spectacle won’t be taking place in 2021 either. “With so much still unknown about what is practical and safe, we do not plan to hold in-person events in 2021, including a Fortnite World Cup,” the company explained in a blog post. “We will continue to provide online competitions throughout 2021 with the hopes that physical events, in some form, can return at some point in the future.”The first — and so far, only — Fortnite World Cup took place in 2019 at Arthur Ashe Stadium in New York. The three-day spectacle culminated with 16-year-old Kyle “Bugha” Giersdorf winning the... Continue reading…

A Ditto chair is on its way to Japanese retailers. It exists somewhere on the spectrum of big gut Pikachu and a bean bag chair, and, according to PokéJungle, it costs roughly $250. The whole situation is a nice lavender and appears very, very squishy. Just behind your seated body looms Ditto’s eternal smile.As a pokémon, Ditto’s whole schtick is imitating other pokémon. It turns into anything it wants, albeit with the same unnerving, wide-mouthed smile of its blubbery purple form. You’ll notice I did not say true form because I humbly submit that it’s this Ditto chair. While likely not canon, it should be.

Image: Ryan’s World Ryan’s World is expanding to Roblox. The hit YouTube channel is launching its own virtual world inside the popular kids game, which allows players to create their own spaces and activities.Players will be able to drop into a sprawling digital world inspired by the YouTube show and explore a racecourse, a fire station, a beach, and a school, among other locations. There’s also a Rainbow Road-esque path into space and a strange box labeled “MYSTERY PETS.” The game world is supposed to launch on December 5th at 1PM ET.Roblox has been around for more than a decade, but the game’s popularity has soared since the beginning of the pandemic. It now has 31.1 million daily users, up 82 percent year over year, and the company has filed to go... Continue reading…

We’re at the point in 2020 when we’re hearing about everyone’s plans for 2021.Here are a few things we learned this week about the upcoming year:

Photo by Chris Welch / The Verge Sonos ran an all-too-short one-day sale on its Wi-Fi speakers last week for Black Friday. The good news is that they’re discounted once again at Best Buy and Amazon, though the price cuts aren’t as steep. Both the Sonos One SL without microphones and the Sonos One (Gen 2) are $40 off at either retailer. This puts the One SL at $140 and the One (Gen 2) at $160. Neither are best-ever prices, but given that they’re within $10 of their lowest costs, we thought you’d like to know about these deals. If HBO Max caught your attention yesterday with the news that all Warner Bros. films released through 2021 will debut day-and-date on the streaming platform, you understandably might want a subscription for yourself or to gift to... Continue reading…

Every day we scour the internet looking for the best deals and sales on the products that we’ve tested and confirmed. We share those deals with you through our Verge Deals coverage in both daily and weekly roundups. Now you can get those same deals and sales in your inbox every week through our new Verge Deals newsletter.Subscribers will receive a Friday dispatch containing a handful of the best deals from that week. Like our coverage on the site, we aren’t focused on minuscule price drops on random tech products. Each newsletter will contain the best current prices on tech we’ve used and enjoyed, or that we at least feel comfortable recommending. And occasionally, we’ll include deals that are exclusive to readers of The Verge.If you... Continue reading…

Lucasfilm Ltd. It’s often been commented that The Mandalorian is designed a lot like a video game. The Mandalorian himself feels like a player character, running around a galaxy full of people who are always in need of something, doing different side-quests for NPCs in exchange for help or a new piece of gear. (That’s part of what makes him such a great fit in Fortnite.)But in season 2, episode 6, “The Tragedy,” those comparisons are even more pronounced with the reintroduction of Star Wars characters that first appeared as high-level video game enemies.Spoilers for The Mandalorian, season 2 and the 1995 PC game Star War: Dark Forces below.Dark Troopers are back.Originally introduced in Star Wars: Dark Forces, the Dark Troopers were meant to be a... Continue reading…

Wireless Earbuds come in many shapes, sizes, and at many different price points. | Photo by Becca Farsace / The Verge Wireless earbud reviews don’t just happen. Three weeks ago, I got my hands on seven pairs of wireless earbuds to see which is the best option under $100. This might sound like Christmas Day for many, but the sight of such a pile on my desk for me spells ear pain and the inevitable feeling of needing to find new music to love or podcasts to be fascinated by. Don’t get me wrong, I love my job but what no one told me about reviewing tech is it takes time and dedication.When researching what earbuds I wanted to test, I started with reputable companies with established customer service operations. I also sent many Slack messages to my co-worker Chris Welch who also reviews wireless headphones for The Verge. Then, the earbuds started flowing... Continue reading…