The Verge

Microsoft is introducing the ability to integrate popular workplace apps like Asana into meetings on its Teams collaboration platform. Teams meetings were previously limited to chats and channel communications, but now users can integrate 20 new apps into their meetings. For instance, you can discuss and modify a project built in Asana with others directly within a Teams meeting.The new apps for meetings join the more than 700 already available in the Teams App Store, Microsoft said. Image: Microsoft The company is also making its Power Platform — which provides low-code tools to build and deploy apps, chatbots, and workflows — available right within Teams. The Power Apps app for Teams is a maker studio where... Continue reading…

Image: Google Google is adding a new option to let users opt out of having their Gmail, Chat, and Meet data used to offer smart features like Smart Compose and Smart Reply, the company announced today. Although you’ve previously been able to toggle these individual features on and off, the new toggle disables the background data processing that makes them possible. Google says the new option will roll out “in the coming weeks.”According to images posted on Google’s blog, Gmail users will be shown two dialog boxes showing the data processing. The first concerns smart features offered within Gmail, including automatic email filtering / categorizations, Smart Compose, summary cards shown above emails, and extracting event details to create calendar... Continue reading…

This is what the future of the Mac looks like Continue reading…

Great gifts don’t have to be expensive Continue reading…

Photo Illustration by Rafael Henrique/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images Moderna’s COVID-19 vaccine candidate is 94.5 percent effective, according to early data released by the company in a press release. That’s slightly higher than the efficacy reported by Pfizer and BioNTech, which announced a 90 percent efficacy for their vaccine candidate last week. Both companies said they planned to ask the Food and Drug Administration for authorization within a few weeks.The data still hasn’t been published or reviewed by outside experts. These efficacy readings are higher than many experts were expecting, though — the FDA said that they were looking for vaccines that were at least 50 percent effective.“Aspirationally, you would like to see 90, 95 percent, but I wasn’t expecting it. I thought we’d be good, but 94.5... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Last week, a number of Mac users had trouble opening apps — a problem that seemed to be caused by an Apple security protocol responsible for checking that software comes from trusted sources. The slow-down prompted some to criticize Apple for collecting too much information about users’ activities; criticism which the company has now responded to with promises that it will change how these security protocols work in future.Apple announced the changes via its support pages, adding a new “Privacy protections” section to a page entitled “Safely open apps on your Mac” (as spotted by iPhone in Canada). Apple says a service known as Gatekeeper “performs online checks to verify if an app contains known malware and whether the developer’s... Continue reading…

Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge Google has started to push out version 8.1 of its Google Camera app to Pixel phones, meaning owners of older devices will be getting some of the functionality from the new Pixel 5. Version 8.0 of the app was previously only available on the Pixel 5, but 9to5Google reports that 8.1 should work on phones as old as the Pixel 2 and 2 XL. The update was first noticed by Kelvin Peralta on Twitter.The app isn’t a total overhaul, but some of the features have been redesigned or reshuffled. New additions include zoom shortcuts along with the “Audio Zoom” ability to reduce background noise. There’s also the new Cinematic Pan video recording feature from the Pixel 5 that helps with smooth panning shots, although it seems this is only being added... Continue reading…

This is what the $400 Smart Monitor M7 looks like. | Samsung Samsung is no stranger to releasing quirky computer monitors, such as last year’s Space Monitor that articulates like the Microsoft Surface Studio desktop. For late 2020, the company is releasing the Smart Monitor, which it claims is the first monitor to combine over-the-top media services, mobile connectivity, and remote PC capabilities. Samsung is releasing the M5 lineup, consisting of a 27-inch size for $230 and a 32-inch size for $280. A 32-inch 4K monitor called the M7 is also coming that costs $400.It’s not as immediately eye-catching as the aforementioned Space Monitor, but it makes up for it with having more features. Like Samsung’s line of TVs, the Smart Monitor runs Samsung’s Tizen OS software and can connect to your Wi-Fi... Continue reading…

(NASA/Joel Kowsky) SpaceX successfully launched its second crew of astronauts to orbit this evening inside the company’s Crew Dragon spacecraft. The flight, called Crew-1, marks the first operational mission of the Crew Dragon, as SpaceX embarks on a new era of regularly sending people to and from the International Space Station for NASA.The Crew Dragon took off at 7:27PM ET on top of SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket, launching from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Flying inside the capsule are three NASA astronauts — Mike Hopkins, Victor Glover, and Shannon Walker — as well as Soichi Noguchi, from the Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency, or JAXA. Now in orbit, the crew will spend the next more than a day in space before docking with the ISS on Monday at... Continue reading…

The cast of the Fresh Prince of Bel Air reunite for a new HBO Max special | Will Smith TFW you have to work on Sunday but all you want to do is keep bingeing Season 4 of The Crown. I watched the first two episodes and I can’t decide who I love most: Olivia Colman as Queen Elizabeth, Gillian Anderson as Margaret Thatcher, or Emma Corrin as Diana. Also Josh O’Connor’s Prince Charles continues to be a fascinating not-quite-antihero. Can’t wait to dig in for more (literal) palace intrigue.In the meantime, I did warn y’all a couple weeks back that we were sliding into holiday movie szn, and, among this week’s trailers are a holiday rom-com with Kristen Stewart, as well as an update of a classic YA novel, and a Bruce-Willis-kicks-space-alien-ass offering. Plus the cast of the Fresh Prince are back together. Versatility ftw!h... Continue reading…

Photo by Maciej Luczniewski/NurPhoto via Getty Images Samsung’s Galaxy S21 is anticipated to debut in January, and Android Police has a slew of leaked specs for the forthcoming phone. The usual caveats about leaked information apply, but most of it lines up with what you’d expect.Android Police says its leaker confirmed that earlier renders of the S21— which show the same camera bump of the Galaxy S20— are accurate. Steve Hemmerstoffer Render of the supposed Galaxy S21 There are three S21 models expected— a standard, a Plus and an Ultra. According to Android Police, the S21 will have a 6.2-inch display, the Plus will be 6.7 inches and the Ultra will reportedly have a 6.8-inch display. Android Police says the leaked info confirms that the S21 Ultra will support... Continue reading…

(NASA/Joel Kowsky) This evening, the first operational mission of SpaceX’s Crew Dragon spacecraft is set to take flight, carrying a crew of four to the International Space Station. The mission, scheduled for 7:27PM ET, marks the beginning of regular crewed missions to and from the ISS for SpaceX as the company establishes a route to space for NASA’s astronauts — and eventually private customers.On board tonight’s flight are three NASA astronauts — Mike Hopkins, Victor Glover, and Shannon Walker — as well as Soichi Noguchi of the Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency. The crew is slated to stay on board the ISS for six months, before returning to Earth inside the Crew Dragon in the spring.NASA’s live coverage of the flight will begin at 3:15PM ET, jut... Continue reading…

The iPhone 12 mini | Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge Orders for the new iPhone 12 mini have started arriving for customers, and the team at iFixit did a two-part teardown—of both an EU and US model— to figure out how Apple managed to include 5G hardware and the usual iPhone components into such a little device.The first thing you notice looking at the internal images is the smaller battery in the mini, which measures up to similar iPhone models surprisingly well, iFixit finds, with 8.57 Wh.“That’s more juice than the iPhone SE 2020‘s 6.96 Wh, but understandably short of the 10.78 Wh of the standard 12 it’s stacked on top of,” iFixit notes. It’s less than the 10.78 Wh of the iPhone 12 battery, though. iFixit The iPhone 12 mini is on the left, the iPhone 12 on... Continue reading…

Games Done Quick’s (GDQ) all-women speedrunning community, the Frame Fatales, will be hosting the Fleet Fatales event to raise money for charity this week. It kicks off today at 4PM ET on the Games Done Quick Twitch channel.The schedule is live now, and there are some great runs to look forward to. I’m particularly interested the Hades run on Monday, the run for a game called McDonald’s Treasure Land Adventures for the Sega Genesis on Tuesday (no, I had never heard of that game until now, either, but here’s a video of it), the Donkey Kong: Jungle Beat run on Friday (Jungle Beat is the Donkey Kong platformer played with the GameCube’s bongo controller), and the The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time randomizer co-op run on Saturday (I... Continue reading…

Photo by OLIVIER DOULIERY/AFP via Getty Images Social media app Parler receives financial backing from conservative hedge-fund investor Robert Mercer and his daughter Rebekah, The Wall Street Journal reported. The app, founded as an alternative to Twitter and Facebook which bills itself as “viewpoint neutral” saw nearly 1 million new downloads in the days after the US presidential election, rocketing it to the top of the iOS and Google Play app stores.Parler turned into a kind of de facto home for conservatives’ protests against the election— including the persistent “Stop the Steal” campaign— after the race was called for former Vice President Joe Biden. Several high-profile conservative social media personalities encouraged people to abandon Twitter and Facebook because of their... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge An Amazon support member trying to help a subscriber on Twitter was apparently not fully up to speed on world geography when they suggested to the user that Northern Ireland wasn’t part of the United Kingdom.Chris Jones was tweeting to the AmazonHelp account on Saturday, asking why he wasn’t able to view the Autumn Nations Cup, an international rugby tournament being live-streamed on Amazon Prime. After troubleshooting some possible technical issues, the helper believed they had found the problem: The match was only available to Prime Members in the UK.

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Qualcomm has received permission from the US to sell 4G mobile chips to Huawei, an exemption to the Trump administration’s ban on doing business with the Chinese company, Reuters reported. Qualcomm didn’t specify which products it’s allowed to sell to Huawei, but told Reuters they were related to mobile devices.In May 2019, the White House issued an executive order barring US companies from doing business with Chinese companies like Huawei due to national security concerns. In May of this year, the Commerce Department tightened the restrictions to require any overseas semiconductor manufacturers to get a license from the US if they used US equipment or technology to make chips for Huawei. And effective in September, the US began... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Cyberattacks that originated in North Korea and Russia have been targeting companies conducting research for COVID-19 vaccines and treatments, Microsoft said in a new blog post. The company says the attacks were aimed at seven leading pharmaceutical companies and researchers in the US, Canada, France, India, and South Korea.“Among the targets, the majority are vaccine makers that have COVID-19 vaccines in various stages of clinical trials,” according to the blog post by Tom Burt, Microsoft corporate vice president of customer security and trust. Microsoft didn’t name the companies, or provide details about what information may have been stolen or compromised, but said it had notified the organizations and offered help where the attacks... Continue reading…

Uber autonomous vehicle | Uber Uber is in talks to sell its autonomous vehicle unit to startup competitor Aurora Innovation, TechCrunch reported. If it comes to pass, the sale of Uber Advanced Technologies Group (UberATG), would mark the end of a bumpy road for a division of Uber that was valued at $7.25 billion as recently as last July, but which has been plagued with ongoing problems.In March of 2019, Uber avoided criminal charges in the 2018 death of Elaine Herzberg in Tempe, Arizona, the first-ever death involving an autonomous car. Federal investigators found that Uber, the safety driver behind the wheel of the car, and the state of Arizona all shared a portion of the blame for the incident. The accident ended Uber’s test program in Tempe, but the company... Continue reading…

Netflix Netflix’s The Liberator almost didn’t get made. The four-episode miniseries, now streaming, was initially envisioned as an eight-episode drama for the History Channel. The story — both in that version and the one that exists now — was based on the true story of the “Thunderbirds” battalion, a group of US forces that spent 500 straight days in combat in 1943. Unfortunately, the production costs of staging a grand war epic proved prohibitive for the History Channel, which led to its eventual rebirth on Netflix as an animated series quite unlike anything you’ve seen before.The Liberator is disorienting to watch. Its animation — initially a cost-saving measure, created by the animation house Trioscope — combines live-action performances... Continue reading…

A worker administers a COVID-19 test at a drive through testing site in Texas | Photo by Mario Tama/Getty Images This week, COVID-19 headlines were split between cautious optimism and abject despair.On the positive side, Monday morning brought us a scrap of hope — claims from Pfizer and BioNTech that their vaccine candidate was highly effective. Their tests so far showed that it has an efficacy of about 90 percent, though that number could change with time. And before we break out the bubbly, there are still plenty of caveats to the news.Among the downer highlights: the full data hasn’t been released yet, and this happened in a clinical trial where conditions were more controlled than they will be in the real world. It has to be delivered in two doses, weeks apart, and it’s more fragile than frost on a sunny morning — it has to be stored at... Continue reading…

Photo by Dan Seifert / The Verge The Sonos Move smart speaker is $100 off at retailers like Best Buy, B&H Photo and Amazon today only, bringing the cost from $400 to a more reasonable $300. You can save a little more at Wellbots on the speaker if you live outside of NY, as it doesn’t charge sales tax on purchases for all other US states.The Move serves as Sonos’ only speaker that can serve as a Wi-Fi or a Bluetooth speaker, meaning you can use it to bolster your arrangement of speakers for music and movies at home via Wi-Fi, or use it by itself to power the tunes when you’re on the go with Bluetooth. To switch between the modes, just tap a button on the back of the Move. It supports Alexa and Google Assistant voice assistants.My colleague Dan Seifert reviewed this... Continue reading…

Photo by Dominik Bindl/Getty Images Hasan Minhaj, formerly the host of the now-canceled Netflix talk show Patriot Act with Hasan Minhaj, will have a major recurring role in the second season of Apple TV Plus hit The Morning Show, Deadline reports. “He will play Eric, a charismatic, rising star who joins The Morning Show team,” according to Deadline.Minhaj’s role follows Netflix’s August cancellation of his comedy / news talk show, which aired for two years and six seasons, and I highly recommend you read Joshua Rivera’s article about why Patriot Act stood out among a crowded field of late-night news comedy shows. Minhaj’s show wasn’t the first talk show that Netflix has canceled, so I also recommend that you read Julia Alexander’s piece about why the streaming service... Continue reading…

Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge Oculus has rolled out its first big update for the Quest 2 standalone virtual reality headset, fulfilling a few promises it made when the headset launched last month. Headlining the new features is the 90Hz refresh rate mode that now expands to all system-level apps by default — including through Oculus Link, which has officially exited beta.The company says it’s now allowing developers to ship Quest titles with native 90Hz support, as opposed to the Quest 2’s 72Hz base refresh rate that was active by default. Soon, the likes of Superhot, Echo VR, Beat Saber, Vacation Simulator, Job Simulator, Racket: Nx, and Space Pirate Trainer will support the higher refresh rate. Hopefully Tetris Effect and Rez Infinite will soon join that list.I... Continue reading…

Lucasfilm Ltd. What makes a Mandalorian a Mandalorian?It’s a question that’s becoming increasingly important on The Mandalorian (shocking, I know), especially as our titular lead (Din Djarin, aka “Mando”) continues in his quest to find other members of his people. Mandalorians who, as we learned in the most recent episode called “The Heiress,” are very different from his own clan.As the episode reveals, Din’s stoic ways and reverence for his armor (to the point of never revealing his face) are not typical of all Mandalorians. Rather, his tribe is a splinter group that adheres to the ways of the “Children of the Watch,” described as a “cult of religious zealots” that sought to reestablish the Way of the Mandalore (the oft-quoted, “This is the way”... Continue reading…

A 1928 photo shows a sewer outlet pouring untreated sewage into the Mississippi in Minnesota. Nearly a century later, wastewater remains an important public health issue in the US. | Photo by Smith Collection/Gado/Getty Images Doctors couldn’t diagnose the rash spreading across Catherine Flowers’ legs and body. But the activist thought it had to do with the day she wore a dress during a visit to a family whose yard featured “a hole in the ground full of raw sewage.” “I began to wonder if third-world conditions might be bringing third-world diseases to our region,” Flowers writes in her new book, Waste: One Woman’s Fight Against America’s Dirty Secret.She was right. That rash led to research that found that hookworm, a parasite thought to be pretty much dead in the US, was actually alive and well in the rural Alabama county where she grew up. Without working septic systems, residents were getting sick from raw sewage. Flowers has been on a mission to change... Continue reading…

Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge It’s been hard to secure the new consoles Continue reading…

Apple’s newest smart speaker is way more affordable but still chasing Amazon and Google Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge The best streaming services for your buck Continue reading…

HBO Max has arrived. Combining the vast content empire of AT&T’s WarnerMedia — HBO, Warner Bros., New Line Cinema, DC Entertainment, TBS, TNT, CNN, Cartoon Network, The CW, Crunchyroll, and Adult Swim — into a single streaming service already gives HBO Max one of the broadest streaming catalogs around.Additional licensed content, including the works of Studio Ghibli, titles from the Criterion Collection, shows from the BBC, and popular series like Friends and The Big Bang Theory, make it one of the most high-profile streaming services yet. And that’s in addition to original shows and movies that will be exclusive to HBO Max.But HBO Max is also one of the most expensive streaming services around, costing $14.99 per month — vastly more... Continue reading…

Photo: Dan Seifert / The Verge Google is working on integrating its Chromecast streaming devices and Nest Audio speakers, according to a comment from a Google spokesperson in The Wall Street Journal, in a move that would give Google’s smart home and streaming gadgets a feature parity with Amazon and Apple.Being able to combine a streaming platform with a smart phone speaker makes a lot of sense for these companies. After all, customers already have all the hardware in their living room — why not repurpose those speakers to improve the sound of your Netflix movies? Plus, there’s the added bonus of inciting customers to stay within a company’s ecosystem. You’re more likely to buy a HomePod mini if it works with the Apple TV you already have.Just like Amazon and Apple... Continue reading…

Google is ending support for its Expeditions virtual reality app. The app, which offered educational VR tours, will be removed from iOS and Android app stores on June 30th, 2021. “The majority” of its tours will be migrated to Google’s separate Arts & Culture app, letting users view them via web or mobile device.Google published the news in a blog post that was spotted by 9to5Google, and it framed the decision around making Expeditions tours more accessible to students during the coronavirus pandemic. “We’ve heard and recognize that immersive experiences with VR headsets are not always accessible to all learners,” writes Jennifer Holland, Google’s director of education program management. “As Arts & Culture will offer many of the... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Zoom said earlier this week it would lift its standard 40-minute limit on free video chats for Thanksgiving Day to make it easier to spend time with friends and family virtually on the US holiday. Given spikes in COVID-19 cases nationwide and various new and existing restrictions on interstate travel, this year’s Thanksgiving will be an unprecedented affair likely involving a mix of in-person and virtual hangouts using videoconferencing software like Zoom.The 40-minute limit has been one of the key restrictions of Zoom’s Basic plan throughout the pandemic, often forcing groups to restart a chat after the time limit is up and causing a fair amount of friction in keeping a conversation or virtual gathering going. Many of Zoom’s... Continue reading…

Photo by Andrew Liptak / The Verge General Motors issued a recall for 68,667 Chevy Bolts after several battery fires were reported, according to The Detroit News. The vehicles affected by the recall were manufactured between 2017 and 2019. The automaker is working with US auto regulators to identify the causes of the fires, the report states.There have been at least five incidents of fires involving Bolts with fully charged or almost fully charged batteries, the News reports. Three of those fires are under investigation by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, which oversees vehicle defects. GM has found two reports of injuries due to smoke inhalation. The batteries are manufactured by LG Chem at the South Korean company’s facility in Ochang.According to... Continue reading…

Image: YouTube The PlayStation 5 finally launched yesterday, and to accompany the release, rapper Travis Scott made an epic 10-minute video celebrating the new console. The video, “A Travis Scott + Cactus Jack Experience - PS5: Unboxing Reimagined,” doesn’t actually feature an unboxing at all — it’s something more like a short film.Unsurprisingly, there’s a decent amount of gameplay footage, showing off Spider-Man: Miles Morales, Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart, Astro’s Playroom, Horizon Forbidden West, and more. But all of that is in the first few minutes, after which the video goes beyond just being a sizzle reel of games.Scott, for some reason, plays a PS5 on an enormous TV in the middle of a desert. Later, he personally gifts PS5s to two lucky kids... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge The US government has given video sharing platform TikTok another reprieve, but it’s not totally clear how the latest deadline extension will be enforced or what the penalties would be.On Friday, the Trump administration’s Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS) issued a notice giving TikTok a new deadline to either sell or spin off its US business: November 27th (which happens to be the day after Thanksgiving in the US). But it’s not clear what legal authority CFIUS would have to take action once that day arrives, since the council is still bound by an injunction issued by a federal court in Pennsylvania on October 30th.It’s the latest twist in an extremely confusing case that started over the summer. President... Continue reading…

Photo by Sean O’Kane / The Verge Rivian, the electric vehicle startup based in Michigan and California, revealed this week the pricing for its forthcoming R1T pickup truck and R1S SUV. Both vehicles, which were first unveiled in late 2018, are expected to reach customers by summer 2021.Special “launch” editions of both vehicles will come first, starting with $75,000 for the R1T truck and $77,500 for the R1S SUV. Both will come with 300 miles of range. A 400-mile battery pack for the R1T will be available in January 2022, Rivian says.Initially, the company only planned for a 300-mile R1S, but now intends to release details for a longer-range version of the SUV with both five- and seven-passenger seating after it goes into production. Rivian will also announce a... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge A former Amazon employee is suing the company for discriminating against Black and Hispanic warehouse workers in its response to the ongoing pandemic. Christian Smalls worked at an Amazon fulfillment center in Staten Island, and says Amazon failed to provide him and his team with adequate protective equipment in the early months of the coronavirus outbreak.“By failing to provide PPE equipment to its predominantly minority workforce,” the complaint alleges, “[Amazon] subjected a class of African American and Hispanic workers to inferior terms and conditions of employment as it offered predominantly Caucasian employees working in managerial classifications.”Managers “did not demonstrate concern for the group’s health,” the complaint... Continue reading…

Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge We started this week with some reviews of the alternatively-sized iPhone 12s — the mini and the Pro Max. We ended this week with an all-new episode of The Vergecast. All that stuff in between? That’s what our Vergecast crew talked about on the show today.Vergecast co-hosts Nilay Patel and Dieter Bohn start the show discussing their reviews of the new iPhones — Nilay on the Pro Max and Dieter on the mini — and how the really big iPhone and the tiniest iPhone rank in battery life, screen size, and ergonomics.Believe it or not, there was another Apple event on Tuesday. During its “One More Thing” hardware event, we saw Apple debut its own M1 processor chips, which power a new Macbook Air, Macbook Pro, and Mac mini. Deputy editor Dan... Continue reading…

Image: Blackmagic Design DaVinci Resolve is getting updated with support for Arm-powered Macs, and a beta version will be ready for owners on day one. Blackmagic Design released a beta of Resolve version 17.1 today that includes support for Apple’s new M1 chip. That means when the first of these new Macs ship next week, buyers will be able to dive straight into a native version of a key filmmaking tool.Resolve is one of the industry-standard apps for color grading, but it’s become far more than that in recent years. The app also includes a video editor, graphics tools, and an audio editor — plus, the majority of its features are available for free, so it’s an excellent app for creators who are just getting started.As Apple transitions creative-industry users... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Food delivery platform DoorDash filed its widely anticipated IPO with the Securities and Exchange Commission on Friday, and plans to take the company public early next month. The company’s revenue soared in 2020 and it briefly showed a profit, as restaurants closed to in-person dining due to the pandemic, and relied on delivery services.DoorDash had a net loss of $149 million over the nine months that ended September 30th, compared to a net loss of $533 million for the same period in 2019. During the first nine months of 2020, the company reported $1.9 billion in revenue, up from $587 million a year earlier. The company has more than 18 million customers. more than 390,000 merchants, and about 1 million delivery workers, who it refers... Continue reading…

Photo by Vlad Savov / The Verge Honda made the bold claim this week that it will mass-produce autonomous vehicles capable of performing 100 percent of driving tasks under certain conditions, but that drivers would need to stand by to take control when needed.This type of autonomous driving is defined as Level 3 by the Society of Automotive Engineers. It refers to highly automated driving where the driver still needs to be able to take over the vehicle upon request. Level 4 automation means that the car is capable of handling most driving situations itself, whereas Level 5 is largely theoretical and covers complete automation in any condition.In a press release, Honda says it has received approval from Japan’s Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism to... Continue reading…

You’ll get to know Claude if you select the Golden Deer house in Fire Emblem: Three Houses. | Nintendo Now is a good time to get some Nintendo Switch games, whether you have the console or are hoping to get one soon. Best Buy and Amazon have knocked off as much as $25 off some fantastic titles that are easy to recommend, including Fire Emblem: Three Houses (my personal favorite from 2019), Splatoon 2, Mario Tennis Aces, and New Super Mario Bros. U Deluxe. Games that don’t usually see a discount are $20 off, like The Legend of Zelda: Link’s Awakening and Luigi’s Mansion 3.If you’d prefer opting for the digital copies of these games, the prices for them go no lower than $40 today. We’ll put those links below as well. It never hurts to serve up the reminder that, if you do plan to get a few digital downloads, you’ll likely need more space... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Facebook has always made it clear it wants artificial intelligence to handle more moderation duties on its platforms. Today, it announced its latest step toward that goal: putting machine learning in charge of its moderation queue.Here’s how moderation works on Facebook. Posts that are thought to violate the company’s rules (which includes everything from spam to hate speech and content that “glorifies violence”) are flagged, either by users or machine learning filters. Some very clear-cut cases are dealt with automatically (responses could involve removing a post or blocking an account, for example) while the rest go into a queue for review by human moderators.Facebook employs about 15,000 of these moderators around the world, and... Continue reading…

iPhone 12 Pro Max (left) and the iPhone 12 mini (right) | Photo by Chaim Gartenberg / The Verge October saw the iPhone 12 line’s reveal, along with the release of the iPhone 12 and 12 Pro. The other two phones in the lineup, the 12 mini and the 12 Pro Max, which are the smallest and biggest models, respectively, are now available. Apple has also opened up orders for the HomePod mini, which costs $99; we’ve detailed how to order that device in a separate article.If you are looking to upgrade your phone and grab the latest iPhone, it can be overwhelming. If you want to compare each iPhone 12 family, my colleague Chaim Gartenberg wrote an in-depth article detailing key differences between each model.Below, we tell you where you can order the latest iPhone 12 mini and 12 Pro Max and what deals you can get from each retailer. ... Continue reading…

Image: Apple Apple’s big Mac event delivered three new computers — a new MacBook Air, a new entry-level 13-inch MacBook Pro, and a new Mac mini. But really, it delivered one thing that those three computers have in common: the M1 chip. That’s the official name for the Arm-based Apple Silicon the company is going to migrate all of its Mac computers over to.Ahead of the event, I listed out ten things to watch for and though Apple didn’t really go as deep as I would like, it did at least strafe all but two of them. We had wall-to-wall coverage at The Verge, and a good place to start is our article detailing the 5 biggest announcements from Apple’s ‘One More Thing’ hardware event.Here’s my takeaway: Apple is astonishingly confident in this chip, these... Continue reading…

Photo: Nintendo It’s been a busy week for video game hardware. This week saw the debut of two next-generation platforms, with the launch of the PlayStation 5 and Microsoft’s Xbox Series X and Series S devices. Each platform is built around new advances like ray-tracing and quick-loading SSDs. Meanwhile, today, Nintendo is releasing... a clock that plays Super Mario Bros. It might seem like strange timing, but it’s also perfectly in keeping with Nintendo’s history: this is a company that almost always goes its own way.The new Game & Watch: Super Mario Bros. is an exceptionally cute piece of hardware. It’s modeled after the classic Game & Watch handheld — the precursor to the Game Boy — with a color scheme inspired by the original Japanese Famicom... Continue reading…

Purrfect dialogue. | Image: via YouTube/H20Delirious We already knew that Spider-Cat was going to be the true hero of Spider-Man: Miles Morales, but with the PS5 game’s launch yesterday, we’re learning new things about this furry sidekick. Specifically, that he takes a pet, like no problem.Video shared by the excellent and informative Twitter account @CanYouPetTheDog shows Spider-Cat getting a pet in-game, along with a very familiar line of dialogue. (You can also see the line at around 52 minutes in this playthrough video by YouTuber H20Delirious.)

Elon Musk in Berlin on September 3rd, 2020. | Photo by Patrick Pleul/picture alliance via Getty Images Elon Musk took to Twitter Thursday night to say that he has received mixed results after being tested for COVID-19 and is currently experiencing symptoms of a common cold. Musk says he was tested four times using a rapid antigen test: two tests came back positive and two came back negative. He’s also awaiting the results from two PCR tests but the results won’t be known for 24 hours.Antigen tests work by detecting a small protein on the surface of the coronavirus, whereas the more accurate PCR tests look for the virus itself. Antigen tests can be conducted quickly as they don’t require a lab, and are often administered in hotspots like college campuses or elderly care facilities. According to the FDA, “positive results from antigen... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge The November 3rd election was the “most secure in American history” and “there is no evidence that any voting system deleted or lost votes, changed votes, or was in any way compromised,” according to a statement from the Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA). The statement follows numerous claims of supposed election fraud by President Donald Trump and his allies.“While we know there are many unfounded claims and opportunities for misinformation about the process of our elections, we can assure you we have the utmost confidence in the security and integrity of our elections, and you should too,” the statement continues.The statement also follows a report from Reuters that... Continue reading…