The Verge

While most of us wouldn’t say no to a $6,000 Apple Mac Pro or a $1,100 electric bike, sometimes it’s just as much fun to be gifted a low-cost gadget that is just fun or useful. It may not let you edit your latest video or take you to the store, but it will help your computing be easier, keep your tech clean, cook a healthy meal, or just make you smile.We asked some of the staff at The Verge to tell us about stuff they like that costs less than $50. We’ve divided their responses into two categories: tech gadgets and household items. Take a look.Tech Gadgets8BitDo M30 wireless controller Photo: 8BitDo 8BitDo M30 8BitDo makes a lot of wireless gamepads. There are wireless NES pads, wireless Super Nintendo... Continue reading…

If you’re lucky, you can save on both the LOTR Trilogy and The Hobbit Trilogy on 4K Blu-ray Amazon and Target are hosting “buy two, get one free” promotions on video games, movies, and more. If you’re interested in getting more for your money, especially when it comes to buying games, these are good opportunities to do that. You won’t find all of the latest titles looped in at either store, but games like Cyberpunk 2077, Call of Duty Black Ops: Cold War, and NBA 2K21 for the PS5 and Xbox Series X are among them.If you’re interested in movies, Amazon’s promotion includes some pricey collections that you can save on, like The Hobbit Trilogy and Game of Thrones: The Complete Collection, both on 4K UHD Blu-ray, and more. Here’s a quick link that’ll take you to Target’s discounted movies. Photo by Chris Welch /... Continue reading…

Marvel/Disney Plus We had an inkling that there might be big movie news during the Super Bowl and there was: Marvel released a new trailer for The Falcon and The Winter Soldier, a six-episode series that debuts on Disney Plus March 19th.The show takes place after the events of Avengers: Endgame. Steve Rogers has retired from as Captain America, in an attempt to live a simple life in an alternate reality with his love, Peggy Carter. Sam Wilson (Falcon) has picked up the Captain’s shield.The show had been delayed a few times, and fans have only been able to see a brief, 30-second teaser before now. Filming shut down in March because of the pandemic, Disney said at the time, and was forced to remain shut down until a couple of months ago.The trailer... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Tesla says it has invested $1.5 billion in the bitcoin cryptocurrency. The electric car manufacturer filed its annual 10-K report with the SEC this morning, and revealed the new bitcoin investment. Tesla says it will also “begin accepting bitcoin as a form of payment for our products in the near future.”Tesla customers have been calling on founder and CEO Elon Musk to accept bitcoin for vehicle purchases recently. Musk has been vocal about backing the cryptocurrency on Twitter, even adding #bitcoin to his profile recently. Musk has also been backing Dogecoin on Twitter over the past week, sending its value up just moments after his tweets.

Xiaomi is announcing the international version of its Mi 11 flagship phone today after an earlier release in China. No wild waterfall displays or sci-fi wireless charging here — this device is very much in keeping with the Mi series’ MO of offering high specs at a competitive price.The Mi 11 has a Snapdragon 888 processor, making it the first phone to launch with Qualcomm’s latest high-end chip (though Samsung’s Galaxy S21 series beat it to market outside China). The 888 has 5G connectivity built in, of course, and the phone has 8GB of RAM and 128GB or 256GB of storage.The screen appears to be the same panel — or very similar — to what’s found in the Galaxy S21 Ultra. It’s a slightly curved 6.8-inch 1440p OLED with a refresh rate of... Continue reading…

The test shows the maximum resolution your internet connection can stream. | Image: Ookla SpeedTest’s iOS app can now benchmark your internet’s video streaming quality, Ookla announced today. While the service typically checks general connection metrics like maximum download and upload speeds and latency, the new test is focused specifically on video. It attempts to stream at a variety of resolutions, and then measures load times and buffering.Ookla explains that it added the new test because of how much of our time spent on the internet involves streaming video. While its standard speed tests give a general idea of your overall network bandwidth, Ookla points out that internet service providers often “prioritize video traffic differently than other traffic.” This means the best way to benchmark video streaming performance... Continue reading…

Image: Dave2D Leaked images of the unannounced OnePlus 9 Pro suggest the flagship smartphone will include a Hasselblad-branded camera array. The images shared in a recent Dave Lee YouTube video show four cameras on the rear of the phone. These include wide-angle, ultra-wide, and telephoto lenses, the latter of which appears to offer up to a 3.3x optical zoom.At this point it’s unclear exactly what this Hasselblad branding could mean for the OnePlus 9 Pro’s cameras. The Swedish manufacturer, which is majority owned by Chinese company DJI, is best known for its expensive medium format cameras, and has previously worked with Lenovo on a modular camera accessory for Moto Z devices, as well as Vertu for its Signature Touch smartphone. Hopefully the... Continue reading…

Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge The PC industry response to Apple’s new M1 chips has been rather quiet, until now. Intel is hitting back at Apple’s new M1 MacBooks with some benchmarks of its own, after early reviews showed impressive performance and battery life from Apple’s ARM-based chips.In benchmarks published by Tom’s Hardware, Intel compares its 11th Gen Core i7 processor with the M1 CPU found in the latest MacBook Pro. Intel claims its latest chips beat Apple’s M1 performance by 30 percent in overall Chrome browsing tasks, and every one of its carefully selected Office 365 tasks. Image: Intel Intel’s productivity benchmarks. Intel’s benchmarks also include comparisons between HandBrake transcoding, Adobe Premiere Pro exports, and... Continue reading…

Photo by Maja Hitij/Getty Images Elon Musk is putting up $100 million as part of a new X Prize Foundation competition focused on carbon removal technology. The contest, announced Monday morning, will run for four years and is open to teams around the globe.Fifteen teams will be selected for the competition within 18 months. They will each get $1 million, and 25 separate $200,000 scholarships will be given to student teams who enter. The grand prize winner will be awarded $50 million, second place will receive $20 million, and third place will get $10 million.Winners will have to “demonstrate a solution that can pull carbon dioxide directly from the atmosphere or oceans and lock it away permanently in an environmentally benign way,” according to the X Prize... Continue reading…

You could have been forgiven for missing Reddit’s Super Bowl ad tonight — it was only five seconds long. The ad mostly consisted of a text message that would’ve been pretty difficult to read in the moment, claiming that the company spent its “entire marketing budget on five seconds of airtime.”“One thing we learned from our communities last week is that underdogs can accomplish anything when they come together around a common idea,” Reddit says by way of explanation, in a clear nod to the GameStop stocks saga that was driven by posters on the r/WallStreetBets subreddit. “Who knows, maybe you’ll be the reason finance textbooks have to add a chapter on ‘tendies.’”

Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge After weeks of speculation, Hyundai and subsidiary Kia have again sought to downplay rumors and reporting that they are working with Apple on an autonomous electric car project. The companies say they are no longer in talks, according to Reuters and Bloomberg, though that doesn’t mean the discussions won’t reopen later.Hyundai’s comments as reported by Bloomberg are essentially the same as what the company said last month in a statement that mentioned Apple before being confusingly walked back. The carmaker says it’s been discussing potential autonomous electric car projects with various partners but is yet to reach a decision. Bloomberg reported last week that the talks with Apple had “paused.”Renowned Apple analyst Ming-chi Kuo b... Continue reading…

CBS All Access app appeared to be having problems as users tried to watch Super Bowl LV on Sunday. Users reported seeing an error message that read the app was “experiencing technical difficulties” and that “an error has occurred.”Down Detector showed a spike in complaints for CBS All Access at around 6PM ET Sunday. Numerous users were complaining on Twitter that they could not see the game at all.Todd Spangler of Variety reported shortly after 7PM ET that CBS was telling subscribers the issues were resolved and to restart the app.

Pacific Rim: The Black | Netflix So I watched the latest episode of Servant and can’t decide whether it’s the slow pacing or the suspension of disbelief (how long can Julian and Sean keep up the plot’s central ruse before they do real damage to Dorothy?) keeping it from being genuinely frightening. I won’t spoil the latest episode, but it feels like for all the disconcerting camera angles and Dorothy’s bizarre behavior, this week’s episode didn’t move the needle all that much. I’m hanging in there, but I think the show needs M. Night Shyamalan to ramp up the scary a li’l bit.This week’s trailers include a little sci-fi, some teen empowerment, and the third in the Pacific Rim franchise, this time an anime flick.The Nevers A group of women in Victorian-era London... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Police in Minneapolis got a search warrant that ordered Google to provide account data on people who were near a protest that turned violent two days after the killing of George Floyd last year, TechCrunch reported.The search warrant required Google to provide account data for anyone “within the geographical region” of an AutoZone store on May 27th, 2020, to police, according to TechCrunch. Photos of a protest outside that store two days after Floyd’s death showed a man in a mask smashing the store windows with an umbrella. The Minneapolis Star Tribune reported at the time that police believed the so-called “Umbrella Man” was actually a white supremacist trying to spark violence at the protest.According to TechCrunch, a police... Continue reading…

Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge Every DualSense controller has 40,000 tiny PlayStation symbols Continue reading…

Photo: Motto. How Ninjas in Pyjamas created a new identity Continue reading…

Super Bowl 2021 — the 55th Super Bowl — is happening today.The championship game pits the Kansas City Chiefs, the defending Super Bowl champs, against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Eric Church and Jazmine Sullivan will sing the national anthem, while The Weeknd will perform in the halftime show.If you are planning to watch the football game, you have a few options, and many of them are free. Below, we have listed a few ways you can watch this year’s Super Bowl. Keep in mind that, due to production limits imposed by the pandemic, Super Bowl 2021 will not be streaming in 4K resolution.Where is the Super Bowl being played? Super Bowl 2021 will take place at Raymond James Stadium in Tampa, Florida, the home field of the Buccaneers.What... Continue reading…

Photo by Ben Hasty/MediaNews Group/Reading Eagle via Getty Images Look I know this pandemic has been a long, depressing slog, and even if you’ve masked up, done the social distancing, and have managed to stay virus-free, we’re all good and frazzled at this point. So it’s understandable that now that we have vaccines available, everyone’s impatient to get one.But when you finally get the jab, resist the urge to post a humblebrag on Instagram or any other social media platform, because identity thieves may be watching. And, you don’t want to be the newly-vaccinated person whose selfie provides scammers with a template to make fake vaccination record cards (because if you think isn’t already happening, you would be mistaken).“Some of you are celebrating your second COVID-19 vaccination with the giddy... Continue reading…

Photo Illustration by Rafael Henrique/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images The Consumer Finance Protection Bureau is investigating money transfer app Venmo over the way it handles collections, a new regulatory filing shows. First reported by The Wall Street Journal, the filing shows Venmo owner PayPal received a Civil Investigative Demand from the CFPB on January 21st, “related to Venmo’s unauthorized funds transfers and collections processes, and related matters.”PayPal said in a statement emailed to The Verge that it was working “productively with the CFPB to provide information, as requested, on our practices and processes.” The statement added that Venmo “remains deeply committed to its compliance obligations and the company works closely with regulators around the world.”A Venmo user’s account may be... Continue reading…

A protester makes three-finger salute as another holds up a poster of de-facto leader Aung San Suu Kyi during an anti-coup march February 6th in Yangon, Myanmar | Photo by Getty Images/Getty Images Not long after it blocked Facebook, Myanmar has now ordered mobile networks and internet service providers to block Twitter and Facebook-owned Instagram in the country as well. The southeast Asian country’s military seized power in a coup earlier this week, detaining its civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi along with other government officials.Facebook users had reportedly been using the social media platform to protest the coup, sharing photos of themselves giving the three-finger salute that’s become associated with resistance in the area.“All mobile operators, international gateways and internet service providers in Myanmar received a directive on 5 February 2021 from the Myanmar Ministry of Transport and Communications (MoTC) to,... Continue reading…

Photo Illustration by Pavlo Gonchar/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images A billion years ago last summer, people were getting antsy about vaccines. They wanted things to move faster, maybe skip a few steps in clinical trials to speed things up. This was, at the time, generally considered a bad idea that would result in less accurate data and cause people to lose trust in the vaccines. Now, exactly 1.589 trillion years later, recklessly speeding things up for speed’s sake remains a poor choice, but some people on Twitter like journalist Nate Silver, seem to think we should do it anyways.They take particular issue with the fact that while Johnson and Johnson submitted their data from their giant clinical trial this week, the Food and Drug Administration will take until February 26th to review the data.Three... Continue reading…

Square-Enix Final Fantasy XIV is coming to PlayStation 5, developer Square-Enix announced Friday. An open beta will start April 13th.A teaser trailer shows the game running in 4K resolution, and the company says it will have significantly improved frame rates and faster load times. If you’re registered in the PS4 version of the game, the new optimized version will be playable at no extra cost during the beta.Final Fantasy XIV also will get a new expansion pack called Endwalker:

A screengrab from Destruction All-Stars, a PS5 game you can get for free with a PS Plus subscription | Image: Sony How has the first week of February been for you? Good, I hope. We’re keeping it simple with the weekend deals post by providing a variety of the best discounts we’ve seen this week. Whether you just got a PS5 and want an affordable way to get a PS Plus membership, your home is in desperate need of better Wi-Fi coverage and speed, or you need an affordable Sonos speaker, you might find something you want below.Save big on a PS Plus membershipThis deal has been very popular with readers, and it’s easy to see why. A one-year subscription to PS Plus, Sony’s online service that allows multiplayer and complimentary titles each month, usually costs $60. But digital key seller Eneba is offering it to Verge readers for $28 when they put in... Continue reading…

Image: The Boring Company Elon Musk told Miami’s mayor Friday that The Boring Company could dig a two-mile tunnel under the city for as little as $30 million — a fraction of the $1 billion price tag once quoted by local transit officials. Musk also told the Mayor that The Boring Company could complete the job in six months, versus the original four year estimate.Mayor Francis Suarez shared these details about his “wonderful call” with Musk in a video posted to Twitter. “He’s focused on trying to deliver a project that will have the maximum utility for our residents for the least amount of money,” Suarez said. “The order of magnitude in terms of savings is significant.”

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Reddit’s r/WallStreetBets has grown significantly due to the community’s role in driving up the stock prices of companies like GameStop, AMC, and Nokia, and the whole saga has garnered so much attention that there are currently many movies and a TV show in the works. But that increased attention has also put strain on the r/WallStreetBets community itself, forcing Reddit to step in to help sort things out.The trouble started Wednesday night, according to The New York Times, as some r/WallStreetBets moderators talked with each other about trying to get a movie deal. On Thursday morning, “the WallStreetBets moderators who were considering the film deal began booting out other moderators who had questioned them for secretly trying to... Continue reading…

Photo by Dan Seifert / The Verge Sonos is preparing for the release of a new product that, according to FCC documentation, is likely to be the company’s second portable speaker with a rechargeable battery. The unannounced device, listed at the FCC as model number S27, is shown in testing diagrams to have a wireless charging dock and offer both Bluetooth and Wi-Fi 5 (802.11ac) wireless technology. Image: FCC FCC diagrams reveal a wireless charging dock. The mandatory FCC label reveals that this new product uses less power than existing Sonos speakers like the Sonos Move, lending more credence to a smaller overall size. The circular label design, and the fact that Sonos says the label is visible on the bottom surface of the product hints that... Continue reading…

SAN PEDRO SULA, CORTES, HONDURAS - 2020/11/07: In the aftermath of Hurricane Eta, hundreds of thousands of people have been displaced due to flooding. | Photo by Seth Sidney Berry/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images Joe Biden’s administration is crafting a report that will include proposals for how the US might respond to global migration due to climate change. Biden commissioned the report as part of a broader executive order he signed yesterday aimed at overhauling the US refugee resettlement program, which was gutted under the Trump administration.“I’ve worked on this very intersection of issues for over a decade, and I never thought that this would be a part of any American president’s priorities, especially within the first 30 days of their administration,” says Kayly Ober, climate displacement manager at the humanitarian organization Refugees International. “So I am delighted and surprised.”A game-changer for people who’ve fled their homes... Continue reading…

Image: Otto Climan Most people who have used the Apple TV Siri remote have probably craved something that isn’t so darn frustrating to use — but most of us haven’t modded a Game Boy Color to work as one (via Gizmodo). That’s exactly what Italian YouTuber Otto Climan did, and while his project looks sleek as all get-out, it’s surprising how well it works using the Game Boy’s original hardware. Photo by Otto Climan Wow, that custom case. Photo by Otto Climan That screen is looking nice. First off, we have to talk about the case he used. It was apparently made by a company called Retro Modding, specifically for the project, and it looks incredible with its blend of ‘90s Apple and Nintendo aesthetics.... Continue reading…

Characters from Destruction AllStars. | Image: Sony Sony released the car-smashing game Destruction AllStars exclusively for the PlayStation 5 on Tuesday, but it shipped with one very annoying feature: voice chat in multiplayer matches was turned on by default, meaning you could be subject to the unfiltered comments and background noise from your opponents. And worse, it wasn’t immediately obvious how to turn voice chat off.On Friday, however, developer Lucid Games addressed the issue by releasing a hotfix for the game that disables voice chat in multiplayer lobbies by default (via Kotaku).I jumped into a couple of matches with the hotfix installed to test things out, and I was greeted with glorious silence from my fellow players. However, it seems there’s no option for public voice... Continue reading…

Illustration by Ana Kova Patients of two US hospital chains had their names, birthdays, and colonoscopy results posted on the dark web after a hack, reported NBC News. The tens of thousands of files released were from patients at Leon Medical Centers in Miami and Nocona General Hospital in Texas.The patient records posted in this hack also include letters to insurers. There does not appear to be ransomware locking up the systems at Nocona, and the organization did not open a ransomware demand, an attorney for the organization told NBC News.Cyberattacks on hospitals and health care organizations are increasingly common. These attacks doubled in the second half of 2020 compared to the first half. Two major attacks targeted US health care facilities in the fall.... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge The Department of Justice (DOJ) has closed a nearly two-year investigation into the process Ford uses to evaluate the emissions of its vehicles, the automaker disclosed in a new filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). Ford says it “cooperated fully” with the probe, but no action was taken.Ford originally disclosed the investigation in April 2019, just a few months after it announced its own internal probe into concerns over the process. Those concerns, first raised by Ford employees, had nothing to do with the kind of deceitful “defeat devices” at the center of Volkswagen’s Dieselgate scandal. Rather, the employees believed there were problems with some of the analytical models Ford was using to calculate things like... Continue reading…

You’re being tracked — around the web, sure, but also in real life: the apps on your smartphone are constantly feeding data into the digital advertising market, where it’s bought and sold by hedge funds, financial institutions, and marketers. A new report in The New York Times underscores the horrifying implications of the system, featuring location data mined from the rioters who sacked the US Capitol on January 6th, leaked by an anonymous source in the industry.“This new data included a remarkable piece of information: a unique ID for each user that is tied to a smartphone,” they write. “This made it even easier to find people, since the supposedly anonymous ID could be matched with other databases containing the same ID, allowing us... Continue reading…

Image: Maytree In January, South Korean a cappella group Maytree wowed us with their spot-on vocal interpretations of Windows sound effects, and on Friday, the group released a video of their next impressive showcase: interpretations of sounds from iPhones.The video is a little over a minute long, and I recommend watching the whole thing, which you can do at the top of this post. They cover a lot of ringtones, including the familiar “Opening” ringtone, the classic “Marimba” ringtone, and even the twangy “Strum” ringtone. (I should warn you that they also re-create the blaring “Alarm” ringtone, so be prepared to experience that brief moment of terror.) They even tackle some system noises, including the sounds of text messages being sent and received... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Microsoft has announced that it will suspend all donations for the upcoming 2022 election cycle for any members of Congress, state officials, and organizations that voted to object to the certification of electors in the 2020 election or supported attempting to overturn the election.The company temporarily suspended all political contributions after the January 6th attack on the Capitol, with Microsoft taking the time to decide “whether to suspend further donations to individuals who voted against certification of the Electoral College.” Today’s announcement makes that decision a permanent one for the coming election cycle, but only for politicians who attempted to overturn President Joe Biden’s victory in the 2020 election. (Other... Continue reading…

A fleet of spacecraft from three countries will reach Mars in February. A small fleet of spacecraft from the United Arab Emirates, China, and the United States will reach Mars this month after launching from Earth last year. The march to the Red Planet marks a marathon of firsts: it’s the UAE’s first foray into deep space, China’s first independent attempt to land on Mars, and NASA’s first shot at deploying a Martian helicopter.The rare convoy of Mars-bound spacecraft launched off Earth in a slim, roughly two-month window last summer when Earth and Mars lined up just right in their orbits around the Sun. This planetary alignment only happens once every two years, and three countries took advantage of it in 2020, just as outer space reemerged as a playground for scientific discovery and displays of national... Continue reading…

Apple’s iOS 14.5 beta is out, and with it comes the ability to have your Apple Watch unlock your Face ID-protected phone if you happen to be wearing a mask. If you really want this feature right now, you’ll have to download the latest iOS and watchOS betas — something that does come with at least a little risk, as it’s unfinished software. There are bugs, and features might change between updates. There have been reports in the past of watches being bricked by betas (though I didn’t find any for this release).With all that said, I’ve been using the betas since they came out, and I haven’t noticed anything acting particularly buggy. So if you’re willing to throw caution to the wind to get access to the new Apple Watch unlock feature,... Continue reading…

Illustrations by Alex Castro / The Verge Robinhood has finally lifted all the restrictions on WallStreetBets-fueled stocks like GameStop and AMC, according to a report on Friday from Reuters. The company currently lists no limits on its support document entitled “Changes due to ongoing market volatility,” whereas last week, there were 50-plus companies included on the list.Robinhood’s decision to restrict buying certain stocks caused a firestorm of controversy, leading to harsh condemnations from major public figures and politicians and the app being review-bombed on both Android and iOS. For its part, Robinhood said it wasn’t shutting trades down on a matter of principle or due to any shady deals with hedge funds, but because it simply didn’t have enough cash to meet its... Continue reading…

We already knew a remake for Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time was in the works, and it was supposed to come out next month. But if you are waiting to play this long-awaited remake, you will have to wait a little while longer as the game has been delayed indefinitely, Ubisoft announced on Twitter today.Ubisoft Pune, the India-based studio tasked with remaking one of the most popular entries in the series, said the reason for delaying the game again was to ensure it receives extra development time that will allow the team to “deliver a remake that feels fresh while remaining faithful to the original.”

Image: CD Projekt Red On Tuesday, Cyberpunk 2077 developer CD Projekt Red cautioned against installing mods or custom save files due to a vulnerability that could be used to “execute code on PCs.” The studio has quickly turned around a fix, though, and you should now be able to safely install mods again thanks to the 1.12 hotfix released on Friday morning.

Photo by Erin Schaff for The Verge Senate Democrats unveiled a new bill Friday that could force tech giants like Facebook and Google to be held more accountable for harmful content that leads to real-world violence.The SAFE TECH Act, introduced by Sens. Mark Warner (D-VA), Amy Klobuchar (D-MN), and Mazie Hirono (D-HI), would overhaul Section 230 to the Communications Decency Act, a law that protects large tech platforms from liability over the content posted by their users. The Democrats’ bill would open new pathways for users to sue companies if content posted on their platforms threatens them personally with harassment, discrimination, or other forms of abuse.The bill also prohibits Section 230 from applying to ads or other paid content on platforms, targeting a... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge The National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) has denied a set of motions from Amazon that sought to delay a union election at a company warehouse in Bessemer, Alabama. Employees at the warehouse are set to begin voting on whether to join the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union (RWDSU) on Monday, February 8th.Amazon had filed two motions to delay the proceeding, including an effort to force an in-person vote, in spite of ongoing pandemic risks. Both motions were denied by the NLRB.“Once again Amazon workers have won another fight in their effort to win a union voice,” said the RWDSU in a statement. “Today’s decision proves that it’s long past time that Amazon start respecting its own employees; and allow them to cast their votes... Continue reading…

Photo by Sean O’Kane / The Verge It turned into a car week here on The Vergecast. Transportation reporter Sean O’Kane and video director Becca Farsace joined Vergecast hosts Nilay Patel and Dieter Bohn to talk about the latest news in the transportation section at The Verge: the Mustang Mach-E release, the rumors around Apple’s car endeavors, and what’s next for Tesla’s product line.Both Sean and Becca were able to drive Ford’s new electric Mustang and detail their experiences on the show this week, including the trouble with charging, using the latest version of Ford’s Sync 4 interface, and whether it actually feels like driving a Mustang.You can listen to the full discussion here or in your preferred podcast player.Further reading:

Dril, esteemed shitposter and published author, is developing “the next great Gaming Classic”: a 2D action-adventure called copgame about the “quest of a silent protagonist who stumbles upon the gift of immortality in a dangerous future where Top Influencers and corrupt hollywood guys maintain a cruel grip on society.” He posted the news today on Twitter, along with a link to his Patreon for funding.Although “the corona virus pandemic has Fucked us all,” he writes, being stuck inside without a job gave him the opportunity to work on his game. “The gameplay places a strong emphasis on employing satisfying, responsive aerobatics to traverse a dozen or so worlds and find a shit load of treasures and secrets,” he writes.Dril expects to... Continue reading…

Johnson & Johnson released data from its vaccine clinical trial last week. Johnson & Johnson announced yesterday that it had officially asked the Food and Drug Administration to authorize its COVID-19 vaccine, kicking off a process that will send its one-shot immunization through a gauntlet of analysts and experts.If all goes as expected and the agency agrees that the benefits of the vaccine outweigh the risks, the United States could have a third shot available by the end of February. Experts hope that this vaccine — which only takes one dose and can be stored in the refrigerator — could accelerate the United States’ vaccination campaign.Over the next few weeks, FDA officials will work at breakneck speeds to review the data submitted by Johnson & Johnson. Then, they’ll write up a report and submit it to... Continue reading…

Photo by Alexander Kramer for The Verge Apple’s MacBook Pro with the new M1 processor is one of the best-performing laptops on the market in its price range. If you are interested in picking up the latest Apple laptop for a discount, Amazon, B&H Photo, and Best Buy are selling the base model, which includes 256GB of SSD storage, for $1,199, knocking $100 off its usual retail price of $1,299.This is the lowest price we have seen this configuration going for, beating its previous best-ever price by $20.Elgato’s Cam Link 4K, which launched in 2018, allows you to transform your DSLR or action camera into a 4K webcam. At $130, it does not come cheap, and rarely do we see this product go on sale. But currently, Amazon has the device for $107. If you want to pick one up at Best... Continue reading…

WandaVision’s fourth episode finally brought the sitcom world of Wanda Maximoff and Vision into its broader Marvel context, and this week’s fifth episode (titled, in sitcom fashion, “A Very Special Episode…”) begins to deal with the fallout of Wanda’s influence on the town. It also starts to hint at some answers to the show’s biggest questions.But the answers aren’t always clear, and it’s hard to tell who is controlling who here. And the walls between realities have begun to crack — in more ways than one.[Warning: WandaVision episode 5 spoilers ahead.] The fifth episode of WandaVision makes another jump ahead in sitcom-land to a Facts of Life or Full House-style ‘80s show. Wanda and Vision are enjoying the joys of... Continue reading…

Image: Nintendo Fans are remastering the soundtrack to Super Mario World, creating uncompressed versions of the original tracks that were never possible on the Super Nintendo hardware. The Super Mario World Restored project is ongoing, but you can already listen to nine tracks from the original game over on The Brickster’s YouTube channel.As The Brickster explains on Twitter, this isn’t simply a case of taking the tracks from the original game and cleaning them up. Instead, creators like Moola, michael02022, and unknown are tracking down the original samples used to produce the tracks and rebuilding the songs, without having to compress them to fit into the SNES console’s piddly 64kb of audio RAM.

Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge Laura Sneade Jordan’s Peloton journey sounds like many others’. She and her husband had been thinking about buying the company’s connected bike throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, but they finally decided to buy the $1,895 machine at the end of November in order to have it by Christmas. When they ordered, Peloton said the bike would show up on January 12th — after Christmas, but close enough, they figured. They bought themselves cycling shoes while they waited the seven weeks.But five days before the set delivery date, Peloton emailed the couple a generic message to say they’d have to keep waiting. The bike had been delayed by seven more weeks. The company hasn’t offered them a discount or even a thorough explanation for a delay.“For the... Continue reading…

Photo by Phil Esposito / The Verge Along with news, features, opinions, and tech reviews, video has become an increasingly important part of The Verge’s content. But to make great, involving videos, you’ve got to have staff with the expertise to create that video — along with the tools that allow those staff members to let their imaginations soar.Alix Diaconis is one of the directors who helps make video magic for The Verge. We talked to Alix about what she does and what tools she uses.Alix, what do you do for The Verge?I’m one of the video directors for The Verge. I get to work every day with my three co-workers (but really, friends) to create the videos on The Verge’s YouTube channel. Sometimes deadlines are fast because tech and news are fast, but our team has been... Continue reading…

Screenshot: GoldenEye 007 A remake of the Nintendo 64 classic GoldenEye 007 has leaked online, and it’s playable on PC using an emulator, Video Games Chronicle reports. The game, which was originally destined for the Xbox 360’s Live Arcade service, includes the original single-player campaign, as well as local split-screen multiplayer, but online multiplayer and leaderboards are reportedly missing. The whole package has received a graphical overhaul, but players can switch back to the original graphics with a button-press.The remake was never released, after it was canceled back in 2008 as it neared completion. According to a report from 1Up at the time which has now been corroborated by VGC, the issue came down to the sheer number of rights-holders for the... Continue reading…