The Verge

Image: Warner Bros. Pictures Christopher Nolan’s Tenet, the big-budget time-bending thriller that arrived during the pandemic to lackluster domestic box office numbers, is scheduled for a home release on December 15th, Warner Bros. Pictures announced on Thursday.The film arrived in theaters starting in August after multiple delays and after Warner Bros. decided not to pish the release to next year, as many other studios have done. Tenet so far has grossed $350 million worldwide, but Nolan and Warner Bros. were hoping for a much better showing for a film with a budget exceeding $200 million.Tenet struggled at the box office due to pandemic-induced theater closuresMuch of the poor performance of Tenet is attributed not to its quality — critics generally like it,... Continue reading…

Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge Google on Thursday announced family sharing for its Stadia cloud gaming service, bringing one of the more consumer-friendly features of digital game marketplaces to its platform. Family sharing will allow any group of Stadia users linked through Google’s Play Family Library system to use one digital license for a game purchase across multiple accounts. That way, you only need to buy one copy of a game for a parent and child or two siblings to both play it separately with separate save data. And in a nice move, only one account needs a Pro subscription to be able to claim free games and share them with the group.Google says the feature is rolling out starting today and may take about a week or so to reach all users. Earlier reports from... Continue reading…

Rocket Lab’s Electron rocket. | Image: Rocket Lab On Rocket Lab’s next launch to space, the company plans to go through all of the necessary steps to recover one of its rockets after takeoff — except for the very last step of actually catching the vehicle before it hits the ocean. This dress rehearsal should put Rocket Lab on course to save a rocket after an upcoming flight so that the vehicle can be flown again on a future mission.The move is part of an ongoing quest by Rocket Lab to see if the company can reuse its primary rocket, called the Electron. The company’s end goal is similar to that of SpaceX, which recovers and reuses its rockets after flight. SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rockets target either a landing pad or an autonomous drone ship in the ocean following takeoff.Rocket Lab’s... Continue reading…

Jedi: Fallen Order protagonist Cal Kestis fighting a stormtrooper. | Image: EA EA Play subscribers will get unlimited access to Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order starting on November 10th, meaning it will also be available for Xbox Game Pass Ultimate subscribers that same day. That just so happens to be the day the Xbox Series X and Series S officially launch, meaning people who pick up Microsoft’s next-gen consoles will have one more title to potentially play on day one.This is all possible thanks to Microsoft and EA’s recent announcement that Xbox Game Pass Ultimate subscribers would also get access to EA Play on November 10th. EA Play offers access to more than 60 EA titles, including games from The Sims, FIFA, and Mass Effect games. On its own, EA Play costs $4.99 per month, but it will soon be bundled with the... Continue reading…

Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales Fortnite might come back to iPhones and iPads later this year, but not quite the way you’re used to. The BBC reports that Fortnite will be available to play through Nvidia’s cloud gaming service, GeForce Now. The service hasn’t been announced for iOS yet, but the BBC reports an announcement is expected before the holidays.GeForce Now will supposedly run inside of Safari, the web browser, rather than as a standalone app, because of Apple’s restrictions on game streaming services that make it onerous to support them through the App Store. The service allows you to stream your personal library of games to laptops, mobile phones, and other devices that might not otherwise be able to run them well — or at all. A standard “Founders” plan... Continue reading…

Image: Emojipedia Apple officially released iOS 14.2 and iPadOS 14.2 today, bringing a variety of new features — but the most important might be the dozens of new emoji that are now available to use. They include a ninja, a transgender pride flag, a coin, bubble tea, a dodo, a piñata, a tamale, and more.It also brings the new “pinched finger” emoji (pictured below), which has already been memed to death as the “frustrated Italian hand gesture” emoji. See the list at Emojipedia for the full catalog of new emoji added in the update. Image: Emojipedia The new update also brings other improvements to iOS 14, including eight new wallpapers, a refreshed AirPlay menu, a new Shazam toggle for Control Center, and the usual array of bug... Continue reading…

Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge Sony says its PlayStation 5 can load virtual worlds far faster than ever before, thanks to one of the fastest solid-state drives ever made — but it’s also not a particularly big drive. Sony has confirmed to The Verge that you won’t be able to expand that blazing-fast SSD storage on day one.While the PS5 features a dedicated internal slot that can theoretically fit standard stick-shaped M.2 SSDs and an easy way to access it, the slot will apparently be disabled out of the box. “[T]his is reserved for a future update,” Sony tells The Verge.If you’ve been paying close attention to PS5 news, this won’t be a big surprise. PlayStation hardware architect Mark Cerny spent several minutes talking up the SSD storage expansion feature as part of... Continue reading…

Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge Electronic Arts has confirmed details on how some of its most popular titles will perform on the PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X, and Xbox Series S when the next-generation consoles launch next week. Games including FIFA 21, The Sims 4, and Apex Legends will all get varying degrees of performance boosts when running on the new hardware, either through free upgrades or simple backward compatibility.Star Wars: Squadrons appears to be getting the most comprehensive makeover for the new Xbox consoles. There’ll be a mode that prioritizes visual quality, including better lighting and higher resolutions coming in at dynamic 4K at 60fps on the Series X and dynamic 1440p at 60fps on the Series S. Another performance-focused mode drops the new... Continue reading…

Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge There are a few deals we posted yesterday that are worth repeating again today. Notably, you still have a chance to get Apple AirPods wireless earbuds for $100, which is the lowest price yet. These normally cost around $120. Amazon is one of the retailers offering this deal, and if you’re a Costco member, you can nab the deal online or in-store if you’d rather shop there. It’s worth noting that this AirPods model ships with a wired charging case, not the $160 set that includes a wireless charging case. But given that they’re the same product, charging case aside, this is a great deal to jump on today. Image: Ring Ring’s Floodlight Cam is also available in white. Before I get to more excellent deals from... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro Twitter has taken action against another tweet from President Donald Trump, this time falsely claiming that votes arriving after Election Day are ineligible.“ANY VOTE THAT CAME IN AFTER ELECTION DAY WILL NOT BE COUNTED,” the tweet reads, in apparent reference to the ongoing tallying of mail-in votes in a number of states.Twitter has added a label underneath the tweet that reads simply “some votes may still need to be counted.”“a potentially misleading claim about an election”State election rules commonly allow for ballots to arrive after Election Day, provided they bear an eligible postmark. There is also a significant number of in-person votes still being counted, so simply discarding late-arriving mail ballots would not halt the... Continue reading…

The less expensive Kaira lacks the Bluetooth and RGB backlighting found in the $150 Kaira Pro. | Razer Razer has announced two wireless gaming headsets that are available starting today, and they’re made specifically for the new Xbox Series X, Series S and Xbox One consoles. The $150 Kaira Pro and the $100 Kaira borrow the same drivers from the Blackshark V2 series of headsets, and add some new features to make both models alluring for their respective price points.Starting with what you’ll find on both headsets, Razer finally made the jump to USB-C charging. I also really like that each Kaira model has swiveling ear cups, making them easier to pack away in a bag, or just rest on your chest in between matches. These are also surprisingly comfortable — not quite as much as the barely-there HyperX Cloud II Wireless, but definitely... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge They don’t broadcast where they’re from Continue reading…

Razer, best known for its gaming PCs and accessories, has announced the Razer Book 13, a new laptop for business and productivity. You’ll be able to buy it sometime in November, starting at $1,199.99.From the outside, the Razer Book 13 doesn’t look all too different from the Blade Stealth 13, Razer’s 13-inch gaming laptop. It has the same Razer logo on the lid, the same per-key RGB keyboard, and the same compact, minimalist build.But Razer has made a few tweaks that could make the Razer Book a better choice for school or office work. The one I’m most excited about is the 16:10 screen, which adds a bit of extra vertical space compared to the Blade Stealth (and many other consumer laptops). The most recent Dell XPS 13 has the same... Continue reading…

Unlike AirPods Pro or Bose’s QuietComfort Earbuds, these noise-canceling buds can pair with two devices at once Continue reading…

If you missed out on the original iconic Star Wars Holiday Special, the team at Lego and Disney have you covered with a brand-new Lego Star Wars Holiday Special. The film’s first trailer, seen above, teases all of the different reunions fans can expect.The special takes place after Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker and follows Rey as she prepares for Life Day (the Galaxy’s version of Christmas). Nothing is ever simple for Rey, though: she stumbles upon a Jedi Temple and gets thrown into a cross-timeline adventure that reunites her with Luke Skywalker in what appears to be circa A New Hope. Characters like Darth Vader and a younger, more-alive version of Chancellor Palpatine also make appearances. This leads to a particularly good moment... Continue reading…

AMD’s new Ryzen 5000 line of desktop processors are available now. These are the first chips from the company that include its next-gen Zen 3 architecture.Replacing last year’s Zen 2-based Ryzen 3000 desktop chips the new 5000 series still uses AMD’s 7nm process but offers a 19 percent increase in instructions per cycle. The Ryzen 5000’s flagship chipset includes four different processors: Ryzen 5 5600X, Ryzen 7 5800X, Ryzen 9 5900X, and its flagship the Ryzen 9 5950X.If you are waiting for the new graphics cards AMD recently announced, you’ll have to wait a bit longer before you can order one. The Radeon RX 6800 XT and RX 6800 will go on sale on November 18th for $649 and $579, respectively. While the Radeon RX 6900 XT will go on... Continue reading…

After a hectic preorder season, Sony today announced that there will be no PlayStation 5 consoles available for walk-in purchases at retail stores on the console’s launch date. The company shared the news via a tweet and blog post and is strongly discouraging eager gamers from lining up outside stores. If you do, it’ll be for nothing. “All day-of launch sales will be conducted through the online stores of our retail partners,” Sony’s Sid Shuman wrote in the blog post.“No units will be available in-store for purchase on launch day (November 12th or November 19th, depending on your region) — please don’t plan on camping out or lining up at your local retailer on launch day in hopes of finding a PS5 console for purchase. Be safe, stay... Continue reading…

Photo by Timothy T. Ludwig/Getty Images Social networks have spent this week handling high-profile misinformation. But under the radar — or at least under many tweets from President Donald Trump and former Vice President Joe Biden — some users are baiting earnest election-watchers with a long-running Twitter joke.The copypasta — which has popped up dozens of times under Trump tweets, Biden tweets, and election-related tweets from news outlets — involves apparently devastated Twitter users threatening to leave the country.“That’s it. That seals the deal,” reads a typical example. “I’ve been an American citizen for 54 years and in all my time of being one i’ve never seen an election this bad. I’ve had enough of it, until you fix this country. I’ll be packing my bags to England... Continue reading…

The new Xbox feels like you’re upgrading your PC Continue reading…

Lots of questions remain about this tiny Xbox Continue reading…

Image: Sony Hello again, friends. The Processor newsletter is back after a not-so-brief hiatus caused by the absolutely frenetic pace of hardware reviews this fall and a special run of Vergecast podcast episodes about those reviews. I’m really proud of those podcasts and if you haven’t caught them, I think it’s worth going back to give them a listen.The big consumer tech news this week is Apple’s announcement that it will hold a ‘One More Thing’ event for November 10th. The going assumption — which I share — is that Apple will unveil the promised first Arm-based Apple silicon-powered Mac, mostly likely a laptop. In this very newsletter I’ve opined a few times on why this transition could be tricky and how Microsoft’s rougher ride in a similar... Continue reading…

WhatsApp is introducing a new disappearing messages option this month. The feature will allow WhatsApp users to enable disappearing messages on chat conversations between friends, to automatically delete messages after seven days. Anyone can enable the option in individual chats, and group admins will be able to enable disappearing messages in group chats.“We’re starting with 7 days because we think it offers peace of mind that conversations aren’t permanent, while remaining practical so you don’t forget what you were chatting about,” says a WhatsApp spokesperson. “The shopping list or store address you received a few days ago will be there while you need it, and then disappear after you don’t.”Photos and videos will also be deleted... Continue reading…

Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge Nintendo shipped 6.86 million Switch consoles between July and September, increasing its numbers by more than 40 percent year-on-year and reaching 68.3 million units sold since its launch in 2017. That’s impressive growth for the company, since this quarter last year was a strong one — it saw the launch of the cheaper Switch Lite variant, boosting Nintendo’s shipments by more than 50 percent on 2018.The Switch figure is also an improvement on the previous quarter, when Nintendo shipped 5.68 million systems. Animal Crossing: New Horizons was a major sales driver then with more than 10 million copies moved, and continued to sell well this past quarter with more than three and a half million units. It’s now sold 26.04 million copies... Continue reading…

Amazon’s Fire HD 8 Plus. Amazon is hosting a mini-sale right now on most of its Fire tablets with up to $70 in potential savings available through November 8th. The tablets discounted here are all ad-supported, which means they will display sponsored screensavers on the tablet’s lock screen.The sale includes the Fire HD 8 line, with the base model down to $55 on Amazon, knocking $35 off its normal retail price. If you want the option to have wireless charging and a little more RAM, the Fire HD 8 Plus is also $35 off, marking it down to its lowest price ever of $75.If you are looking for a slightly bigger screen, the Fire HD 10 is $80 right now. Usually, this storage configuration of the Fire HD 10 costs $150, making this a big price cut. We previously saw... Continue reading…

Last year’s DJI Mavic Mini might have been the smallest and lightest full-featured drone on the market, but it was also a little compromised out of the gate. Today, the DJI Mini 2 — don’t call it a Mavic — is addressing some of its limitations.While the new $449 drone might look identical to the original, even weighing the same 249 grams (which means you don’t need to register it with the FAA), it now comes with DJI’s OcuSync 2 wireless connectivity for up to 2.5 times the wireless range and more stable connectivity. The original was unusual among DJI’s drones for relying on relatively shaky Wi-Fi, which was definitely a dealbreaker for me.It uses the same controller as the new Mavic Air 2, though of course you won’t get that drone’s... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge YouTube says a video claiming President Donald Trump won the election does not violate any of its policies and has allowed it to stay on the platform, despite the election not being called by major news outlets for either candidate yet. The decision stands in contrast to Twitter and Facebook’s more aggressive attempts to clamp down on misleading claims and misinformation over election results.The video, titled “Trump Won. MSM hopes you don’t believe your eyes,” was published by pro-Trump network One American News Network (OANN) on Wednesday. YouTube says the video violates its advertising guidelines but not its content policies, so it can stay online but will run without ads, the company confirmed to The Verge. The story was first... Continue reading…

Image: Claudio Postinghel Life is in constant flux, but experiencing change during the extremely uncertain time we’re all going through is especially maddening. Luckily, you can still eke out some semblance of control in your web browser — this new Chrome extension created by designer Claudio Postinghel lets you replace Google’s newly redesigned but confusingly similar icons for the old ones (via Gizmodo).When it was announced in early October, we described Google’s big rebrand of G Suite as a way to set up the search giant’s products to better compete with Microsoft Office. Yet the newly named Google Workspace brought a collection of redesigned, cohesive app icons that — in my opinion, and that of my coworkers — are very difficult to recognize from a distance.... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge President Donald Trump is prematurely declaring victory in a handful of hotly-contested battleground states via tweets Wednesday, challenging Twitter’s rules against making premature election result claims.“We have claimed, for Electoral Vote purposes, the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania (which won’t allow legal observers) the State of Georgia, and the State of North Carolina, each one of which has a Big Trump lead,” Trump tweeted Wednesday.Twitter started applying labels to the offending tweets shortly after they were posted. More than 1 million ballots are still to be counted in Pennsylvania, and election officials are not legally required to finish their count before Friday. Most importantly, the president has no authority to certify... Continue reading…

Amazon, Netflix, and smaller services like Shudder are all in Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Valve is adding a feature to Steam to let developers invite people to test their games right from the Steam client without needing a beta key. The new feature, called Steam Playtest, will let interested testers click a button in a game’s listing on the Steam store to request access and be added to a queue.Here’s what the button looks like, from the Total War: Elysium Steam page. Prodeus and Iron Conflict are also currently running public Playtests, and Valve tells The Verge that all three games are still accepting requests for new testers. Image: Steam The button to request access to a Playtest. Developers will be able to see how many people have access to the test, how many people have expressed interest and... Continue reading…

Photo by Mads Claus Rasmussen/Ritzau Scanpix/AFP/Getty Images Denmark plans to cull up to 17 million mink, the country’s entire population, after reports that the animals could pass a coronavirus mutation to humans. The announcement came from Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen at a press conference, and there are currently no published scientific reports on the mutation or its effects.The virus has been found at over 200 mink farms in Denmark, which produces most of the world’s mink fur. Over a million animals were already culled on Danish farms in October. This summer, about 100,000 mink were culled in Spain after similar outbreaks. Outbreaks on mink farms in Utah killed thousands of animals.Denmark’s announcement comes after 12 people in the country were found to be infected with a type of the... Continue reading…

Photo by John Nacion/SOPA Images/LightRocket/Getty Images GameStop holds an annual conference for its employees, and this year’s event includes a rather unnerving TikTok challenge: make the best dance video, and your store can win the privilege of letting employees work for extra hours during Black Friday.The contest, spotted by TheGamer, has since been pulled from GameStop’s website after the promotion received media attention and press inquiries. GameStop did not respond to The Verge’s requests for comment or clarification.For the contest, GameStop asked employees to upload a video to TikTok showing them dancing to a brief song. The contest is meant for “store leaders,” and the company encourages them to get other employees to help. “Be creative, rope in your team, and have fun with it!”... Continue reading…

Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge Google has weighed in on concerns from new Pixel 5 owners over a visible gap between the display and the body of the phone, with the company confirming in a support thread that the gap is “a normal part of the design of your Pixel 5,” and therefore not something to be concerned about.Additionally, the support thread (spotted by 9to5Google) addresses what many users were most concerned about — whether that gap would compromise the Pixel 5’s water resistance (one of the key differentiators between it and the cheaper Pixel 4a), but Google says that the gap will have “no effect on the water and dust resistance or functionality of your phone.”It’s not clear how widespread the display gap issue is on Pixel 5 devices. As various user... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Democrats are calling on Twitter to suspend President Donald Trump’s Twitter account until the election is decided.“Right now, the President’s Twitter account is posting lies and misinformation at a breathtaking clip,” Rep. David Cicilline (D-RI) tweeted Wednesday. “It is a threat to our democracy and should be suspended until all the votes are counted.”“Suspend his account, @Twitter. This is pure disinformation,” Rep. Gerry Connolly (D-VA) tweeted Wednesday as well. “Valid votes are being counted. This is America, not Russia.”

Image: Activision Activision has detailed the file sizes of its upcoming Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War, releasing across existing consoles and next-gen hardware on November 13th. And in keeping with tradition, the game is massive. Another source of pain is that for buyers of the PlayStation 5 or Xbox Series X/S, the game will take up roughly an additional 40GB of space on your new solid state drive.Here’s the full breakdown of file sizes across platforms:

Contractors install photo voltaic modules in Hamilton Township, New Jersey. | Photo by Robert Nickelsberg/Getty Images Local races can go a long way toward changing how Americans get their electricity. After yesterday’s election, both the city of Columbus, Ohio, and township of East Brunswick, New Jersey, are projected to pass measures that allow their local governments, instead of utilities, to decide where residents’ power comes from.Boosting the growth of cheap renewable energyThese “community choice” programs are boosting the growth of cheap renewable energy and are already prying loose investor-owned utilities’ tight grip on energy markets in places like California. More and more of these programs are popping up in states where they’re allowed, and they’re expected to grow beyond those borders in the future.“We’ve seen a big grassroots push for... Continue reading…

Photo by Brennan King / The Verge Samsung’s Galaxy S20 and S20 Plus are down to the lowest prices yet at Microsoft’s eBay Store. This brings the prices down to $650 and $800, respectively. These prices are for the unlocked versions and are compatible with all of the major networks in the US. Both also come with a full US warranty.The Galaxy S20 is available in three color options; blue, gray, and pink. If you are a Verizon customer looking to buy the S20 as a new 5G phone, this version won’t work. Verizon and Samsung do have a version of the Galaxy S20 that supports mmWave spectrum 5G networks, but it has less RAM and is not included in this sale.The Samsung Galaxy S20 Plus is also available in three colors; black, blue, and gray.Both phones include a 120Hz screen... Continue reading…

Uber and Lyft drivers protest Proposition 22 outside Los Angeles City Hall on October 22, 2020. | Photo by Frederic J. Brown/AFP/Getty Images The victory of Prop 22 in California could set a precedent for how companies use technology to lobby for political outcomes Continue reading…

Photo by Sean O’Kane / The Verge Massachusetts voters approved a measure requiring car manufacturers to let people access vehicle data for repairs. Question 1 amends a landmark 2012 “right to repair” law in the state. After it’s adopted, manufacturers will have until car model year 2022 to install a standard open data platform. The platform will let vehicle owners and independent mechanics access telematics, wirelessly transmitted data that is typically sent directly to a remote server.Right to repair advocates hailed the measure — which passed with 75 percent approval — as a victory. “Tuesday’s victory shows that people overwhelmingly support fair repair,” wrote iFixit’s Kevin Purdy. “And they want people they trust to fix the things they own.” As cars become... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Spotify is rolling out the ability to stream music right from your Apple Watch, the company confirmed to The Verge. Since the app’s launch in 2018, the Apple Watch worked primarily as a remote for Spotify music playing on an iPhone or Spotify Connect-compatible device. But once the new feature is rolled out to you, you’ll be able to stream music from Spotify on your Apple Watch to Bluetooth headphones or speakers when you’re not near your phone.My colleague Ian Carlos Campbell has access to the streaming feature, and he told me how to set it up. First, on the music player screen, tap the devices menu at the bottom-right corner. If you have the streaming feature, you should see your Apple Watch at the top of the list (and for him, that... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge T-Mobile will pay $200 million to end an investigation by the Federal Communications Commission into misuse of funds from its low-income phone and internet subsidy program. The commission says the payment represents the “largest fixed-amount settlement” it’s ever secured to resolve an investigation.The subsidy issues stem from Sprint before the company was acquired by T-Mobile. The commission says that more than 1 million Sprint customers on subsidized plans should have had their service cut off for non-usage. Instead, Sprint continued collecting subsidies for service it wasn’t providing for “an extended period of time.” Service providers are supposed to begin removing customers who stop using subsidized phone and internet plans after... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge California’s already tough privacy law is about to get a lot stronger as voters are expected to approve a ballot initiative expanding much of what the law covers this week. If approved, Proposition 24 would expand California’s privacy law to cover more sensitive data sets and establish a new state agency in charge of enforcing these rules for consumers. The result will be a higher standard for privacy in California and a powerful new state agency to take on tech companies.As of press time, Proposition 24 is leading with 56 percent of the vote, as reported by The Sacramento Bee. Only about 65 percent of the vote has been tallied, but poll watchers expect the measure to clear based on the early returns.“We are at the beginning of a... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge It’s been more than 300 days since Chinese officials first told the World Health Organization that people were sick with an unknown virus in Wuhan. Scientists quickly learned what the virus was (a coronavirus) and what it did (make people sick with a disease called COVID-19), and it spread like wildfire around the globe. Over 1 million people around the world have died, hundreds of thousands get sick every day, and the United States has the distinction of the worst outbreak in the world.When we published our first guide to the coronavirus, researchers still weren’t sure how the virus spread, when people were contagious, or if you could catch it twice. There’s still some lingering uncertainty around some of those questions, but... Continue reading…

Photo by Elaine Cromie/Getty Images Twitter and Facebook have continued to restrict and label posts from President Donald Trump after yesterday’s presidential election, this time addressing a baseless claim that Democratic officials were manipulating vote counts in key states. Twitter flagged the tweet and restricted its reach, saying it was “disputed and might be misleading.” Facebook added a general warning that “final results may be different from the initial vote counts.”Trump triggered a social media crackdown early this morning after accusing Democrats of trying to steal the election. Neither platform has actually removed his claims. Their policies were set before the election. “We placed a warning on this Tweet for making a potentially misleading claim about an... Continue reading…

As President Trump falsely claims victory in the 2020 election, ballots are still being counted across the country — and they will continue to be counted in the days and weeks ahead. (Some deadlines, like for military and absentee voters, have not even passed yet.) We’re headed for record turnout.Despite what the president wants you to think, things are working normally across the country, even despite the extraordinary circumstances brought by the pandemic. States and local governments are running elections like they always do, with teams of carefully observed election officials and volunteers. Widespread voter fraud continues to be an imaginary monster dreamed up by conspiracy theorists. And voting on Election Day seems to have gone... Continue reading…

In April, a group of astronomers spotted a short, powerful blast of radio waves coming from outer space and then successfully found where it was coming from: a powerful object within our own galaxy. It’s the first time scientists have been able to pinpoint these mysterious radio waves coming from inside the Milky Way, making them the closest of their kind that we’ve ever seen.The radio waves — known as fast radio bursts, or FRBs — seem to have sprouted from an incredibly powerful “zombie” star lurking in our galaxy, according to three papers published in the journal Nature. Called a neutron star, the object is a super dense leftover that forms when a massive star, bigger than our own Sun, collapses in on itself. But this neutron star is... Continue reading…

Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge A handful of months ago, we wrote about a deal on the OnePlus 7T that dropped its price from $599 to $499. That price has fallen considerably since, and today’s deal at Woot is evidence of that. You can get one for just $370. This is a new, unlocked model in either the “glacier blue” or “frosted silver” colorway, with 128GB of storage and support for a single SIM card. It has a one-year warranty through OnePlus and includes all original accessories. It’s a great value, considering it has the Snapdragon 855 Plus processor, 8GB of RAM, and a 90Hz refresh rate display that makes everything appear smoother on the screen.One caveat here is that it’s the T-Mobile version of the phone, and it comes pre-loaded with T-Mobile applications. That’s... Continue reading…

A 2020 standout, a 2021 question mark Continue reading…

The excitement of getting a new phone is often tempered by nagging regret. A lot of times, it’s not like there was anything really wrong with the old phone (unless there was — a bulging battery or a shattered screen is always a bad look). If it was a breakup, the conversation with an old phone would start, “You’re terrific. It’s not you. It’s me. I just wanted a newer model.”Ashamed of yourself? Don’t be. There’s no need to stick the old phone into a drawer or use it as a doorstop or furniture shim. There are lots of ways you can put your older phone to work. After all, most older smartphones still have plenty of horsepower. Think of yours as a connected device that just doesn’t happen to have a SIM card anymore. Here are some... Continue reading…