The Verge

Image: Looking Glass Factory Looking Glass Factory, a company that designs personal holographic displays, just launched a Kickstarter for its new Looking Glass Portrait, a smaller, more affordable take on its previous light field display. The new Looking Glass can operate as a standalone device, and in a clever move, supports portrait mode photos from smartphones like the iPhone for creating simple holograms.The Looking Glass Portrait displays holographic photos, videos and 3D models in a 58 degree viewing cone, which basically amounts to the experience of a 3D video or hologram, but viewable by multiple people without the need for special glasses. Holographic light field tech isn’t new, particularly in smaller sizes like a cellphone screen. Where Looking Glass... Continue reading…

Amelia Krales A global phishing campaign has been targeting organizations associated with the distribution of COVID-19 vaccines since September 2020, IBM security researchers say.In a blog post, analysts Claire Zaboeva and Melissa Frydrych of IBM X-Force IRIS announced that the phishing campaign spans six regions: Germany, Italy, South Korea, Czech Republic, greater Europe, and Taiwan.The campaign appears to be focused on the “cold chain,” the segment of the vaccine supply chain that keeps doses cold during their storage and transportation. Some vaccines need to stay at extremely low temperatures in order to remain potent. Pfizer, for example, recommends that their COVID-19 vaccine be stored at negative 70 degrees Celsius (colder than winter in... Continue reading…

Wristcam A strap for an Apple Watch equipped with front- and rear-facing cameras is finally launching after nearly four years in development. The Wristcam has an 8-megapixel camera that can shoot 1080p video and take stills in 4K resolution and a 2-megapixel camera for selfies. The company says you’ll also be able to use it as a video walkie-talkie with real-time live-streaming.Those might be serviceable cameras, but they’re not likely to replace your iPhone camera. The company sent over a sample of images shot by the Wristcam, which are pretty decent, if a bit underwhelming in the details. Image: Wristcam A photo taken with the new Wristcam. Image: Wristcam Image: Wristcam W... Continue reading…

Google Podcasts Google Podcasts is finally getting a feature that’s already standard across most listening apps: private RSS feed support. The head of product for Google Podcasts, Zack Reneau-Wedeen, made the announcement on Twitter today and shouted out some networks that are especially reliant on private feeds, including Patreon, Slate, Red Circle, and Supercast.To access the feature, tap over to the activity tab in the bottom right-hand corner and slide over to the Subscriptions tab, then tap the plus symbol. You’ll then be prompted to add by RSS feed. You can see the entire process below.

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge The personal information of more than 243 million Brazilians was potentially accessible for at least six months thanks to weakly encoded credentials kept in the source code of the Brazilian Ministry of Health’s website (via ZDNet). The security issue was first reported by Brazilian publication Estadão.The personal data of anyone who had registered with Sistema Único de Saúde (SUS), Brazil’s national health system, could be viewed. That data included people’s full names, addresses, and telephone numbers, reported Estadão. The database also includes records of living and dead people as the population of Brazil was more than 211 million in 2019, according to The World Bank, which is about 32 million fewer people than the reported number of... Continue reading…

Photo by Sven Hoppe/picture alliance via Getty Images The Justice Department has filed charges against Facebook for allegedly discriminating against US workers in its hiring practices. The complaint, filed on Thursday, alleges that the company maintained a separate job listing process for visa-eligible job postings, both limiting the visibility of the job listing online and insisting that job seekers submit their applications by mail.According to the Justice Department, the result was a systematic effort to discourage US workers from applying for an entire class of jobs at Facebook.“Facebook’s discriminatory recruitment and hiring practice is routine, ongoing, and widespread,” the complaint reads. “It discriminates against U.S. workers because of their immigration or citizenship status,... Continue reading…

Illustration by James Bareham / The Verge Facebook has started weighting anti-Black hate speech on its platform as higher priority than hate speech directed at white people, men, and Americans in an effort to address the disproportionate effects such speech has on minority groups, the company tells The Verge.The result is that Facebook’s automated moderation systems for detecting and taking action against hate speech should now more proactively scan the site for such racist content. Meanwhile, more innocuous forms of hate speech, like those directed at white people or men in general, are deemed lower priority and left alone unless a user reports them. Facebook has internally deemed this approach “WOW,” or “worst of the worst” for the types of behaviors it now wants to focus... Continue reading…

Image: Amazon Please do not put your internet router in a Faraday cage. Please do not put your internet router in a Faraday cage.If you’re reading this, as someone who uses the internet, this may seem obvious. A Faraday cage, after all, blocks electromagnetic radiation and signals from escaping. Putting one around your router would, by very similar physics, prevent those same radio waves that carry your internet from reaching your devices.

Photo by Jaap Arriens/NurPhoto via Getty Images Apple has opened enrollment in its new small business program that will allow eligible app developers to receive 15 percent more from App Store sales, the company announced on Thursday. Apple says “the vast majority of developers on the App Store who sell digital goods and services are eligible” and all developers need to do to qualify is complete the company’s enrollment form available online.Apple announced the new program last month, marking a significant change in how the App Store is structured. Under the new terms of the program, eligible developers making under $1 million per year in App Store sales and in-app purchase revenue are eligible for the reduced commission rate of 15 percent for the following year. Apple typically... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge WarnerMedia is pushing even more aggressively into streaming by releasing every single one of its movies in 2021 simultaneously on HBO Max.There are some limitations to the new business model. The movies will only stream on HBO Max for one month before leaving the platform for a period of time. They will also play in theaters simultaneously, keeping the relationship with movie theater distributors like AMC and Regal. The plan is to run this experiment for one year. For people who don’t have access to HBO Max in their market, it appears that theatrical releases will still be the go-to option.The movies Warner Bros. is planning to release for now include: The Little Things, Judas and the Black Messiah, Tom & Jerry, Godzilla vs. Kong,... Continue reading…

Today, the National Science Foundation (NSF) released shocking footage of the collapse of the Arecibo Observatory in Puerto Rico. The video, captured on December 1st, shows the moment when support cables snapped, causing the massive 900-ton structure suspended above Arecibo to fall onto the observatory’s iconic 1,000-foot-wide dish.“the drone operator was very adept to see what was happening.”The videos of the collapse were captured by a camera located in Arecibo’s Operations Control Center, as well as from a drone located above the platform at the time of collapse. The operator of the drone was able to adjust the drone camera once the platform started to fall and capture the moment of impact. NSF, which oversees Arecibo, had been... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Twitter has been experimenting with threaded replies for some time as a way to potentially make replies easier to read and follow. But the company has decided to end those experiments because of user feedback, it announced on Thursday.“We asked and you let us know this reply layout wasn’t it, as it was harder to read and join conversations,” the company wrote in a tweet published today. “So we’ve turned off this format to work on other ways to improve conversations on Twitter.”

Photo by Kimberly White / Getty Images for TechCrunch Timnit Gebru, one of Google’s top artificial intelligence researchers, says the company abruptly fired her yesterday. The technical co-lead of Google’s Ethical Artificial Intelligence Team claims managers were upset about an email she’d sent to colleagues.The email, which was sent to the Brain Women and Allies listserv, voiced frustration that managers were trying to get Gebru to retract a research paper. The full text was first published in Platformer. “A week before you go out on vacation, you see a meeting pop up at 4:30pm PST on your calendar,” it reads. “Then in that meeting your manager’s manager tells you ‘it has been decided’ that you need to retract this paper by next week... You are not worth having any conversations about... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge In an update to their COVID-19 misinformation policy, Facebook will begin removing false claims about COVID-19 vaccines. The update comes as one COVID-19 vaccine has been authorized in the UK and other authorizations are expected to happen soon in the US and around the world. But some experts say these kinds of policies are coming too late to stop the flow of vaccine misinformation.The policy previously involved removing posts with false information about the virus that could lead to “imminent physical harm.” Facebook is now expanding the policy to include any posts about vaccines that feature claims which have been “debunked by public health experts.” This includes conspiracy theories — like vaccines containing microchips — and false... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge YouTube is trying to combat offensive comments that appear under videos by following in the footsteps of other social media companies and asking people before they post something that may be offensive: “Is this something you really want to share?”The company is launching a new product feature that will warn people when they’re going to post a comment that it “may be offensive to others,” in order to give them “the option to reflect before posting,” according to a new blog post. The tool won’t actually stop people from posting said comment. Prompts won’t appear before every comment, but it will for ones that YouTube’s system deems offensive, which is based on content that’s been repeatedly reported. Once the prompt does appear, people... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / Th Slack’s life as an underdog darling of Silicon Valley ended on November 2nd, 2016. That’s when the upstart communication startup published an open letter to Microsoft in The New York Times, offering the tech giant an insincere “welcome” to the world of workplace chat software. The occasion was Microsoft’s launch of Teams, a Slack clone that would come bundled with the company’s popular Office 365 suite of products.In its letter, Slack warned Microsoft that “Slack is here to stay,” adding, “We’re just getting started.” But the 4 million users it had at the time would increase to just 12 million four years later, while Microsoft — which added Teams to its 365 bundle without increasing the price — took Teams from zero to 115 million users.... Continue reading…

Images: FCC It looks like Bose is planning another set of true wireless earbuds to join its QuietComfort and Sport Earbuds. Today, filings for the “Sport Open Earbuds” have appeared at the Federal Communications Commission — with plenty of photos of the unannounced product contained within.The design makes clear that Bose is going for a fitness-first set of earbuds here, with a completely open, plastic exterior that seems to just rest against your ear. It’s held in place by an ear hook, and there’s a button visible at the bottom of each earbud. A charger for the Sport Open Earbuds is also seen in the filing. The product name is confirmed several times in the documentation and is visible on the labels. Image: FCC The Verge has... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Amazon is testing a new feature for its iOS Alexa app: the ability to type out Alexa commands, instead of having to ask questions or requests by speaking out loud.“Type with Alexa is a Public Preview feature available to iOS Alexa app customers allowing you to interact with Alexa without using voice, meaning everything you can currently say to Alexa can now also be typed using your Alexa mobile app. Type with Alexa is available to iOS customers in the U.S.,” said an Amazon spokesperson. The new feature — first spotted by The Ambient — is available for iOS users in the Alexa app. To access it, simply tap the keyboard icon that now appears on the top left of the main menu of the app. The typed-out commands should work... Continue reading…

Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge Android Auto, the Google-powered software system for cars, is expanding to dozens of new markets around the world, the company announced. In the coming months, Android Auto will be available in 36 additional countries, including much of Eastern Europe, Southeast Asia, and a handful of countries in Africa.Here’s the list of countries that will soon be getting Android Auto:

New features coming for Google Maps, Gboard, Voice Access, Google Play Books, and Nearby Share. | Image: Google Google is rolling out five new Android features in the weeks ahead that enhance Maps navigation, Gboard emoji mashups, Voice Access, Google Play audiobooks, and Nearby Share file sharing. Google is also making Android Auto available in 36 more countries.To start with, Google is giving Maps a new Go tab that lets you quickly navigate to favorite places without entering the address. Pin driving destinations to school or work, for example, and the Go tab will show directions, live traffic and disruptions, and an estimated arrival time. You can also pin your favorite public transport route to see departure and arrival times and any delays right from the tab. Google suggests pinning both driving and public transport options to the same... Continue reading…

Photo by Brennan King / The Verge Samsung is starting to roll out updates to Android 11 and One UI 3.0, its customized interface, to some of its latest phones. The first up are Galaxy S20 series devices in the US, Korea, and most of Europe, which will start receiving updates today. Updates for the Note 20, last year’s Note 10 and S10, and the Z Fold, Z Fold 2, and Z Flip are planned to arrive in the “coming weeks.” Updates for the Galaxy A series will arrive in the first half of 2021.The updates come three months after the launch of Android 11. Samsung has historically been slow to deliver Android updates even to its latest phones. Three months isn’t a huge wait (it maintains the same pace as last year), but a number of other phone manufacturers, including OnePlus,... Continue reading…

Photo by Chris Welch / The Verge Android users who are bored of their usual wallpapers are in luck: an update to Google Photos now allows users to set their wallpaper as a random, rotating cast of saved photos.Version 5.22 of Google Photos automatically includes the update, so if you go to your phone’s wallpaper selector and look at the live wallpapers, you should see the option for one called “Memories.” Once selected, your phone will start pulling photos from the Memories section of Google Photos to cycle between as a background. You’ll then be able to preview what you’ll see as a wallpaper before confirming.The main catch here is that Google defines what counts as a memory based on its machine learning algorithms, so you won’t be able to really decide what shows... Continue reading…

A week of sneakers, panels, and... virtual food trucks Continue reading…

Photo by James Bareham / The Verge Some of the best deals during Black Friday and Cyber Monday have come and gone, but with the holidays just around the corner, there are still a ton of deals readily available at various retailers. If you are looking to gift a Nintendo Switch this holiday season, Walmart has one of the best deals right now, which includes the console, a carrying case, and 12 months of Nintendo Switch Online (individual membership) for $299.It’s a unique deal for a few reasons: the Nintendo Switch alone costs $300, and 12 months of Nintendo’s online service costs $20. Carrying cases vary in price but can cost anywhere between $13 to $33. Nintendo Switch Online is a great service if you plan to purchase games that take advantage of the online feature like A... Continue reading…

Microsoft has had some memorable holiday commercials over the years, but this year’s is the best yet because it features dogs. They aren’t just regular dogs, either. These pups dream of running around in a virtual Minecraft world, playing fetch with grenades for Master Chief in Halo, and even flying high in the Microsoft Flight Simulator skies.“A Dog’s Dream” features two dogs who are bored at home as their owners are distracted playing Halo, busy on Microsoft Teams work calls, or crafting materials in Minecraft. One starts to dream about the possibilities if more dogs were part of video games or conference calls, and the rest is history. Just check out Master Chief’s reaction when one of the dogs fetches a grenade he just threw and... Continue reading…

Photo by Avery White for The Verge Some retailers are still shaking out a few remaining Cyber Monday deals, like the Asus ROG Zephyrus G14 gaming laptop. Though, there are some new ones, too. That busy shopping weekend was undoubtedly the best time to get gifts at the lowest prices, but that’s not to say you’ve completely run out of chances. The deals below prove otherwise, and as we get closer to the holidays, we’ll be surfacing more and more deals on tech products that might be on your wishlist.TechThe 14-inch Asus ROG Zephyrus G14 gaming laptop is a treat if you want a lot of power in a compact machine. Best Buy’s Black Friday deal is back, once again knocking $250 off the high-end configuration with AMD’s capable and efficient Ryzen 9 4900HS processor, Nvidia’s RTX... Continue reading…

Google Maps is getting a new update that lets you create Street View photos using just a phone. Android users with ARCore-compatible devices can now capture imagery and publish it to Google Street View in certain areas. Google is allowing submissions initially in Toronto, New York, Austin, Nigeria, Indonesia, and Costa Rica. More regions will support this feature soon, and Google will use this user-generated content when it doesn’t have its own Street View imagery available.“While our own Street View trekkers and cars have collected more than 170 billion images from 10 million miles around the planet, there are still many unmapped parts of the world,” says Stafford Marquardt, product manager of Google Maps Street View. “Where people... Continue reading…

The FlexPai 2 is a big improvement Continue reading…

Photo by Brennan King / The Verg Verizon revealed this morning that Samsung’s Galaxy S20 lineup will be the first Samsung phones to receive Android 11 and Samsung’s One UI 3.0 in the US, and now the software has already started trickling out to customers, according to Droid Life. One UI 3.0 has been in public beta for the last two months, but this marks the official release of the final software.One UI 3.0 has the messaging, notifications and security features of Android 11, along with some add-ons specific to One UI. Samsung has added easier ways to access widgets, take screenshots, and double-tap the screen to put your phone to sleep, to name a few, but if you want a more exhaustive list of all of the One UI 3.0 changes, you can check out this roundup at Android... Continue reading…

Photo by Dan Seifert / The Verge When Apple released iOS 14.2 last month, it didn’t mention that FaceTime calls would now be in 1080p for older iPhones. As MacMagazine notes, Apple has updated the product comparison pages of the iPhones 8, X, XR, XS, SE, and 11 (including the Max and Pro versions) to show that they now support FaceTime at 1080p over Wi-Fi, as opposed to before when they only supported 720p.Calls made over cellular will still be at the lower resolution, but if you’re FaceTiming over Wi-Fi you may notice increased clarity after the update. That is, unless both callers had the iPhone 12, which has had 1080p FaceTime calls from the start (including over cellular if you’re on 5G).My sister has an iPhone 8 with the update, so I called her up on FaceTime.... Continue reading…

Image: Ecobee Ecobee’s SmartCamera has received a firmware update that may interest Apple users who are feeling a little burnt-out on subscriptions. The camera, which doubled as an Alexa speaker when it launched this April, generally has the standard smart camera features: you can stream video from it to your phone for free, and with a $5-a-month subscription you can have it record video and notify you of any movement (or just human movement, if you prefer). But today’s update adds Apple HomeKit Secure Video support, and it may give you another, cheaper way to record and store that footage.If you’re a little unfamiliar with the service, you’re probably not alone. HomeKit Secure Video was launched at WWDC in June of 2019, but so far only a handful of... Continue reading…

This picture, taken on June 25th, 2019, in Clermont-Ferrand, shows a personal care assistant holding the hand of an elderly person as she visits her house to help her to avoid heatstroke and dehydration during a heatwave. | Photo by Thierry Zoccolan / AFP via Getty Images Dangerously high temperatures put hundreds of thousands of people’s health and livelihoods at risk every year, and a major new report shows how much the threat has already grown in a warming world. Among other alarming statistics, heat-related deaths among older adults grew by nearly 54 percent between 2000 and 2018, the report finds.The sweeping health and climate change report was published today in the prominent medical journal The Lancet. The report was produced by more than 100 experts from academia, the World Health Organization, and other UN agencies. The report offers proof that climate change will not only reshape life in the future, but it is actively endangering lives now. Health care providers already see themselves... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge As part of its $1 billion investment in partnerships with news publishers, Google will start paying for some paywalled content for its News Showcase program. News Showcase, a new addition to Google News that launched in October, displays story panels curated by publishers — but its not available in the US yet.News Showcase will “start offering people access to paywalled content in partnership with select news publishers,” says a Google blog post. Google will pay partners for limited access to paywalled content. To access that content, users will still have to register with the individual publishers.Users in the US shouldn’t get too excited about free articles just yet. Google lists partnerships with publishers in several countries, but... Continue reading…

Photo by Andrew Liptak / The Verge A class action lawsuit was filed against General Motors alleging that the Chevy Bolt’s battery is “prone to burst into flames.” The lawsuit comes on the heels of GM announcing that it was recalling 68,000 Bolts over a malfunctioning battery.The lawsuit, which was filed in Northern District of Illinois, claims that the Bolt’s battery is defective and dangerous. Specifically, when the batteries in the electric vehicle are charged to full, or very close to full, they pose a risk of fire. The lawsuit accuses the company of fraud, negligent practices, and “knowingly introducing defective vehicles into the marketplace and defrauding consumers across the country.” The plaintiffs are seeking monetary damages.“Knowingly introducing defective... Continue reading…

Photo by Dan Seifert / The Verge Amazon is updating Alexa to allow it to automatically switch between more languages. The update comes after a flurry of small Alexa additions over the course of November, increasing functionality and making Alexa more useful.Alexa first gained the ability to automatically respond to requests in English and other languages in 2019. However, you were limited to only two languages at a time. That hasn’t changed, but now users can enable a few more languages in the Alexa app. Alexa can speak German, French, Canadian-French, Japanese, Spanish, US-Spanish, and Hindi — all paired with English. Additionally, users can switch languages without pulling up the app by saying “Alexa, speak Spanish” to set a new primary language or “Alexa, speak... Continue reading…

Image: Zens Zens has a new set of wireless chargers out called the Zens Modular. They are designed to fix the rigidity of most combination wireless chargers by letting users customize their own bespoke charging setup to suit their needs.The Zens Modular system is divided into two halves: main stations and extensions. The main station (as the name implies) is the primary hub for your wireless charging setup and is the only thing that you’ll have to plug into the wall. Zens has three different main station options: the €99,99 / $121.16 Modular Dual Wireless Charger, which is a flat pad that can charge two devices at once at up to 15W each; the €69,99 / $84.81 Modular Stand Wireless Charger, a single charger that offers a stand form factor and can... Continue reading…

CD Projekt Red We are eight days away from the release of Cyberpunk 2077, but with all of the brand tie-ins for the upcoming roleplaying game, you could mistakenly think it was already out. Throughout the year, developer CD Projekt Red has teamed up with multiple companies to create a slew of cyberpunk-themed items from gaming mice to game controllers and, yes, even energy drinks.The target audience: people who love both the color yellow and dystopian motifs so much that they’d be willing to look at them, wear them, and even drink them at all times. The good news for Cyberpunk 2077 fans is there are plenty of ways to show off your fandom, from the official CDPR “samurai” varsity jacket to the profoundly hideous Cyberpunk-themed Secretlab Omega... Continue reading…

Image: Vodafone European mobile carrier Vodafone has partnered with Disney to launch a new wearable for kids called the Neo. Vodafone says the Neo combines its technological capabilities with Disney’s entertainment chops to offer a wearable that gives kids a sense of independence while letting parents stay in contact.The Neo’s most notable feature is its Disney branding. The Yves Béhar-designed watch lets kids choose from a collection of “Sidekicks” that will hang out on the main clock screen, including The Child / Baby Yoda / Grogu from The Mandalorian, Buzz Lightyear from Toy Story, and Minnie Mouse. Vodafone says the Sidekicks will animate throughout the day, and the company plans to add more characters over time at no additional cost. ... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / Th Massachusetts lawmakers this week voted to ban the use of facial recognition by law enforcement and public agencies in a sweeping police reform bill that received significant bipartisan support. If signed into law, Massachusetts would become the first state to fully ban the technology, following bans barring the use of facial recognition in police body cameras and other, more limited city-specific bans on the tech.The bill, S.2963, marks yet another state government tackling the thorny ethical issue of unregulated facial recognition use in the absence of any federal guidance from Congress. It also includes bans on chokeholds and rubber bullets in addition to restrictions on tear gas and other crowd-control weapons, as reported by T... Continue reading…

Fortnite is no stranger to tie-ins — the battle royale’s season 5 battle pass has already kicked off with a picture-perfect Mandalorian and Baby Yoda skin, for example — but its next character appears to be coming not from a popular film or movie franchise, but from a different video game universe: God of War’s Kratos.The image, first posted by noted leaker HYPEX on Twitter, depicted a version of the Ghost of Sparta (in his more recent, bearded form from 2018’s God of War), albeit with a softer animated style look that’s more in line with Fortnite’s art style.

GIF: Hulu Hulu was first among the major streaming services to roll out a way for multiple people to watch its shows and movies together at the same time during the COVID-19 pandemic. Today, that Watch Party feature is expanding to all subscribers — not just those people paying for the ad-free plan.Watch Party is available on Hulu’s website. You’ll see the icon on a title’s details page. From there, you can share a Watch Party link with up to seven other Hulu subscribers so that everyone can watch the same content together from afar. Hulu says that “while watching, group members will be able to react in real-time through the chat function and control their own playback.” If you find yourself having to pause while your friends keep watching,... Continue reading…

For a brief moment last July, it seemed like drone maker DJI was going to dive straight into drone racing with a speedy FPV (first-person-view) drone of its own. In reality, it merely dipped a toe — but a little over a year later, it looks like the company is nearly ready to announce a racing drone after all.You’re now looking at leaked images of what appears to be called the “DJI FPV,” and it certainly doesn’t look like any drone the company’s released before:

Uber’s ambitious and quixotic effort to launch a flying taxi service is coming in for a landing. According to Axios, the ride-hailing company has agreed to sell its Uber Elevate division to secretive startup Joby Aviation.The news comes as Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi attempts to push his company closer to profitability, which includes the sale of the money-losing parts of the business. The company is also said to be exploring the sale of its autonomous vehicle division. A spokesperson for Uber declined to comment.Uber first announced its interest in launching a network of electric flying taxis in a white paper published in 2016. Under Uber’s calculations, a two-hour, 12-minute slog from San Francisco to San Jose would become a breezy... Continue reading…

Image: Evan Blass An image of Samsung’s upcoming Galaxy Buds Pro true wireless earbuds has leaked, thanks to noted leaker Evan Blass.You can see the apparent image of the headphones at the top of this post. They look to have a more rounded shape than the Galaxy Buds and Galaxy Buds Plus. Here’s an image of what the Galaxy Buds Plus look like, for comparison: Blass also posted a render that apparently shows the case for the Galaxy Buds Pro — a render looks similar to a diagram of the case found in recent FCC filings for the Galaxy Buds Pro. Instead of the more oblong shape of the case for the Galaxy Buds and Galaxy Buds Plus, the case for the Galaxy Buds Pro looks to be more of a square with rounded corners, like the one for Samsung’s b... Continue reading…

Studio Supergiant Games has been in the business of making excellent games for the last decade — including Bastion, Transistor, Pyre, and Hades — which each have received something like universal acclaim from critics and fans alike. Part of what makes those games so special is their soundtracks, composed by Darren Korb. And now Korb’s work is getting its own standalone anniversary release in the form of the record The Songs of Supergiant Games: 10th Anniversary Orchestral Collection. You can preorder the (translucent red!) vinyl now for shipping in early 2021, or you can listen to the whole thing on YouTube right now. Supergiant Games The album was recorded at the hallowed Abbey Road Studios in London, and each... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge YouTube is building on its Premieres feature — used for live-streaming pre-recorded videos — by adding support for trailers, redirects from live pre-shows, and customized countdown timers. The company says there’s been an 85 percent growth in the daily use of the feature from over 8 million channels, and these additions might make Premieres useful in more scenarios.Premieres was designed to offer some of the benefits of YouTube live streams like live chat, but with the control of a pre-recorded and edited video. Creators typically use it to watch and respond to their subscribers while new videos debut. But as the pandemic has pushed film festivals and conventions online, Premieres’ use cases have grown. These new changes attempt to... Continue reading…

Photo by Samuel Corum/Anadolu Agency/Getty Images On Wednesday, the Senate Commerce Committee voted to advance the nomination of Nathan Simington, a Republican in favor of greater government oversight of speech on the internet, to the Federal Communications Commission. Simington’s nomination now awaits a floor vote for final approval.President Donald Trump nominated Simington to be the next Republican FCC Commissioner in September. If approved, Simington would fill Republican Commissioner Mike O’Rielly’s seat, leaving the agency at 2-2 deadlock when Chairman Ajit Pai steps down on January 20th. Without a Democratic majority at the FCC, the Biden administration will likely have difficulties rolling through any major policy measures until another nominee is vetted and approved.In... Continue reading…

Discovery, home to HGTV, Food Network, and Discovery Channel’s annual Shark Week, is entering the streaming space with Discovery Plus.Discovery Plus will start at $4.99 with an ad-supported tier, along with a $6.99 ad-free option. CNBC first reported the news. The streaming service will launch on January 4th, 2021. The company aims to bring the service to more than 25 countries around the world over the next year. Each subscriber’s account will allow up to five different profiles, and four concurrent streams. The company’s press release does not note if Discovery Plus will offer content in 4K, but notes it will be available on “major platforms, including connected TVs, web, mobile, and tablets” at launch.As part of the roll out,... Continue reading…

Anyone who buys the battle pass for the new season of Fortnite gets a nice initial bonus: a playable version of none other than the Mandalorian himself. He unlocks right away, and in many ways, he’s in keeping with the game’s recent strategy of focusing on branded tie-ins. Recent characters have included everyone from Wolverine to Travis Scott, Harley Quinn, and Kathleen “Loserfruit” Belsten. But Mando also differs from those others in one key way: he’s just about the perfect character for the battle royale game.At this point, it’s not a new idea to point out that The Mandalorian is often structured like a video game. It’s a story about a bounty hunter going out on a series of fetch quests; every time he asks for help, he’s tasked with... Continue reading…

Like many longtime Fire Emblem fans, I’ve never actually played the first game in the series. 1990’s Fire Emblem: Shadow Dragon and the Blade of Light kicked off what has slowly turned into one of Nintendo’s most important franchises, a series that blends tense tactical battles with character-driven storytelling. It’s not my fault, though: the original game never actually launched outside of Japan.Three decades later, that’s finally changing with the release of Shadow Dragon and the Blade of Light on the Nintendo Switch. It’s a solid, no-frills port that’s only $5.99, making it an enticing option for fans looking for a history lesson. But it also points to Nintendo’s increasingly confusing strategy for its large library of classic... Continue reading…