The Verge

Photo by Michele Doying / The Verge Amazon is launching a new environmental program called Climate Pledge Friendly that will label certain products that meet one of 19 certifications for sustainability. The goal is to help climate-conscious consumers make a better decision about whether to buy one product over another by letting them know when a brand has made an effort to reduce its carbon footprint. Amazon says more than 25,000 products should now display the program’s label.“Climate Pledge Friendly selection includes grocery, household, fashion, beauty, and personal electronics products, as well as items from a range of other categories,” reads Amazon’s press release. “Climate Pledge Friendly products are clearly labeled in shopping results, have additional... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge After rolling out audio tweets for iOS in June, Twitter is now experimenting with the idea of letting people record and send voice messages through direct messages. Alex Ackerman-Greenberg, product manager for direct messages at Twitter, let me know that the company will be testing voice DMs soon. Brazil will be the first country included in that test. He shared the news... through a 20-second voice message. “We know people want more options for how they express themselves in conversations on Twitter — both publicly and privately,” he said.Similar to voice tweets, voice messages have a bare-bones, simple interface: there’s just a play / pause button, and the sender’s avatar pulsates as the message plays. The product team designed an... Continue reading…

Tesla cars are located next to a new Tesla charging station of the latest generation on the Euref Campus Berlin. | Photo by Jens Kalaene/picture alliance via Getty Images Tesla plans for its future electric vehicles to be able to both suck up power and spit it back out into the grid. Tesla didn’t specify when this capability would be available when CEO Elon Musk made the announcement during Tesla’s much-anticipated Battery Day event in Palo Alto, California.“A Powerwall and a car”But instead of hyping up this development, Musk downplayed how useful it would be for the company’s vehicles to be able to connect to the grid. “Vehicle-to-grid sounds good, but I think actually has a much lower utility than people think,” Musk said. He ostensibly wants consumers to continue buying Tesla’s Powerwall batteries for their homes, rather than using its EVs as batteries on wheels. “I think it’s actually going to be... Continue reading…

Rocket League goes free to play today, and Epic will give you $10 to spend in the Epic Games Store if you redeem the free game there. You can nab the deal between now and October 23rd at 11AM ET. The coupon expires on November 1st at 3PM ET.The company has not said why it is doing this promotion, but it’s likely trying to pull PC gamers away from Steam, convincing them to switch to the Epic Games Store instead. Rocket League has now been delisted from Steam, but you can still play your copy there, and that version will still receive “full support for future updates and features,” such as cross-platform play.This is not the first time Epic Games has tried to incentivize people to use its platformOf course, this is not the first time... Continue reading…

Image: Google Just yesterday, WinFuture shared leaked specs for the Pixel 5, which reportedly has a a Snapdragon 765G CPU, a six-inch 2340 x 1080 OLED screen with a 90Hz refresh rate, 8GB of RAM, 128GB of storage, a 4,080mAh battery, and more. Today, WinFuture is back with another set of leaks, this time revealing potential specs for the upcoming Pixel 4A 5G, and there will apparently be a lot of similarities between the two devices.For one thing, the Pixel 4A 5G’s resolution is supposed to be the same as the Pixel 5’s, at 2340 x 1080 pixels, but on a larger 6.2-inch screen (which is also larger than the Pixel 4A’s 5.8-inch screen). And both phones are rumored to have the Snapdragon 765G, a dual-camera system with a 12.2MP main lens and a 16MP... Continue reading…

-The most exciting part of iOS 14 isn’t picture-in-picture video display or the app library — it’s widgets.Instead of once-boring app icons for your calendar or clock that might get placed in a utilities folder, the new wave of widgets let you spice up your homepage with anything from custom notes to astronomy and weather reports. Those options have existed on Android devices for years, but their sudden arrival on the iPhone has created a kind of gold rush, with users combining them into custom layouts that can be tweaked, shared, and even sold.The new options have also turned a small utility called Widgetsmith into a surprise success, garnering more than 2 million downloads since it launched on September 16th, according to CNBC.... Continue reading…

Photo by Ray Chavez/MediaNews Group/The Mercury News via Getty Images California Governor Gavin Newsom signed an ambitious executive order Wednesday that would ban the sale of new combustion-engine vehicles in the state starting in 2035, the Desert Sun reports. The order is part of a package of policy changes aimed at reducing greenhouse gas emissions as California deals with a rash of deadly wildfires.The executive order would not prohibit Californians from owning gas-powered vehicles, nor from selling them on the used car market. It only applies to new vehicle sales in the state, Newsom said.“Cars shouldn’t give our kids asthma,” the governor tweeted. “Make wildfires worse. Melt glaciers. Or raise sea levels.”

Expandable storage on the Xbox Series X. | Photo by Tom Warren / The Verge Microsoft has previously detailed the new Xbox Series X controller and optional 1TB expansion cards, and now we’ve been able to get a closer look at both. After taking a first look at the Xbox Series X earlier this month, The Verge now has a working Xbox Series X unit with a 1TB expansion card and Microsoft’s updated controller. We’ll have a full preview of the Xbox Series X soon, but for now let’s take a closer look at the controller and expandable storage.At first glance, the Xbox Series X controller doesn’t look very different to the one that shipped on the Xbox One, but there are some key differences. The size and shape of the controller has been altered ever so slightly to make it smaller overall. The D-pad has also been... Continue reading…

Image: Sling TV Sling TV is joining the quarantine-era watch party bandwagon with a unique edge over the streaming services that got there first: live TV. The new feature, called Sling Watch Party, makes Sling the first pay-TV provider to add a co-watching feature to its platform, doing so to infuse some much-needed social interaction to the now-solemn act of watching TV alone in your house or apartment during COVID-19.Sling’s take on this is still in beta for now, and it’s only available via a Chrome browser on laptops and desktops. But it supports up to four people and works for live programming, a huge plus for people yearning for the experience of watching sports or an awards show in person their friends or family.The feature is available now... Continue reading…

Google Google Maps will soon include information on COVID-19 spread in states, counties, and some cities. Toggling on the “COVID” layer in the app will show the seven-day average number of confirmed cases in each area per 100,000 people. Areas of the map will be color-coded based on case rate, and a label shows if cases are going up or down. The feature will roll out on Android and iOS this week. Image: Google The layer is designed to help people “make more informed decisions about where to go and what to do,” wrote Sujoy Banerjee, a Google Maps project manager, in a blog post. Public health experts and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recommend that people keep track of the amount of COVID-19 spread in... Continue reading…

In a predictable fashion, Disney is delaying Black Widow to 2021 as the company continues to navigate the current theatrical landscape during the COVID-19 pandemic. This marks the first time since 2009 that a Marvel Cinematic Universe movie hasn’t been released in a calendar year.Black Widow will now open on May 7th, 2021 — more than one year after it was originally scheduled to be released. Like with other Marvel delays, Black Widow’s new date pushes Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings back from its May 7th, 2021 release date to July 9th, 2021. The Eternals, which was supposed to follow Black Widow is moving from February 12th, 2021 to November 5th, 2021. A number of other Disney films, including West Side Story and The King’s... Continue reading…

It’s really great, but the limitations are becoming grating Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge TikTok is putting new restrictions on weight loss ads as the app increasingly comes under criticism for promoting dangerous diets. The new policy bans ads for fasting apps and weight loss supplements. It also puts increased restrictions on other weight loss-related ads, like limiting ads for “weight management products” to users over 18 years old and not allowing those ads to “promote a negative body image or negative relationship with food.”Some of the new restrictions are vague, but they’re broadly designed to limit TikTok users’ — especially teenagers’ — exposure to potentially harmful imagery and language. “These types of ads do not support the positive, inclusive, and safe experience we strive for on TikTok,” Tara Wadhwa, TikTok’s... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge You’ve played Fall Guys, right? The sleeper hit of The Summer That Wasn’t from developer Mediatonic? If you haven’t, well, I suggest you give it a shot, if only because it was the second biggest game this month on Twitch — and the second largest debut there this year. (Valorant’s launch in April was bigger, but Fall Guys did manage to beat out Animal Crossing: New Horizons for the second spot.) It sold 7 million copies on Steam and was the most downloaded game ever on PlayStation Plus. Huge!Among Us has burned up the Twitch charts for last month, too. It’s up a full 650 percent in hours watched from last month, which is good enough to put it at 11th place on the most popular categories on Twitch, just below Minecraft. Expect that number... Continue reading…

Zoom’s latest update will let you pin or spotlight multiple videos during a call. | Image: Zoom via Mashable Zoom has added new accessibility features that should make the videoconference app easier to use for individuals who are deaf, hard of hearing, or who have visual impairments.As reported by Mashable and USA Today, the first change to the app is the ability to pin or spotlight multiple videos at once, instead of just one as is currently allowed. This will let people who require sign language interpretations to pin the interpreter’s video during meetings, keeping it visible at all times even when the call is in speaker mode. Only nine people on each call can pin multiple videos, which may constrain larger meetings.Alternatively, the host can choose to spotlight multiple videos for all users, making up to nine different videos visible at... Continue reading…

Google Google is introducing a new Workday routine that makes Google Assistant audibly remind you of calendar events and, notably, to take moments for self-care throughout the day.Since most of us are still stuck working from home, it can be easy to forget about caring for your physical and mental needs. So in addition to ensuring you make every meeting in that busy calendar, the routine comes configured to remind you to do a few small but important things in between, like getting water and standing up to stretch at different points throughout the day. It’ll also alert you to start wrapping things up with work at the end of the day. You can adjust the content of each alert to your needs, as well as the timing of when they go off.The routine... Continue reading…

It’s time to blow up your iPhone’s home screen Continue reading…

Image: Instagram Instagram Reels is doubling the length of videos in a new update, allowing users to make 30-second videos instead of 15 seconds.Reels’ biggest competitor, TikTok, lets people record videos up to a minute in length. Instagram is also extending the timer from three to 10 seconds, and people will also be able to trim and delete any clip in an attempt to make the editing process smoother.Although Instagram hasn’t said much about how many people are using Reels, it’s an area where the company seems pretty invested. Instagram is going “big with entertainment,” the company’s product director, Robby Stein, told The Verge when Reels launched. Stein added, “It’s our hope that with this format we have a new chapter of entertainment on... Continue reading…

The history of smartphones is riddled with absolutely awful phone names. The Acer Liquid Zest Plus, the HTC ChaCha, the LG G8X ThinQ, the iPhone 11 Pro Max, the Sony Xperia 1 II. And of course, the legendary Samsung Galaxy S II Epic 4G Touch, a breathtaking display of buzzwords, numbers, and letters that somehow form the full name of one of 2011’s better Android phones.But almost nine years to the day, there is a new champion for all-time worst Android phone name: the newly announced Verizon Samsung Galaxy S20 Fan Edition 5G Ultra Wideband (or the S20 FE 5G UW, for short).

An unknown piece of space debris was detected near the International Space Station, NASA said yesterday. The station executed an “avoidance maneuver” on Tuesday night to get out of the way of the debris, boosting its orbit around Earth. “At no time was the crew in any danger,” NASA wrote in a blog post.

Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge Five years after Dieselgate, the automaker brings its first battery-electric vehicle to the US Continue reading…

The Game Awards, an annual award show hosted by Geoff Keighley, is returning December 10th. This year’s festivities are taking a “multi-city approach,” offering streams from studios in Los Angeles, London, and Tokyo, albeit without in-person audiences.The event will also introduce a new award, Innovation in Accessibility, to honor developers “pushing the medium forward by adding features, technology, and content to help games be played and enjoyed by an even wider audience.” More details on the show will be released closer to its air-date, though organizers promise it will again feature news about games available that night, demos, and more. It will be available as a free live stream over 45 platforms.Keighley’s spoken about his... Continue reading…

At Amazon, you can save $15 on the total cost of an Apple Watch Series 6 or Apple Watch SE. It’s not a huge discount, but per a deal post at AppleInsider, Amazon is the only place where you can actually save money on Apple’s latest smartwatches. This price drop for the new watches brings the Series 6 (GPS, 40mm) down to $384.99 and the cheaper SE in the bigger size (GPS, 44mm) down to $299.99.If you want the Series 6 or SE with cellular added to the Watch, you can also save up to $15 on those models. The Series 6 (GPS + Cellular, 40mm) is $485 instead of $500, and the SE (GPS + Cellular, 40mm) is $320 instead of $330. Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge Both of these new Watches make the Apple Watch Series 3, in both... Continue reading…

Illustration by William Joel | Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images To experience the enhanced version of this feature, including playable audio from Facebook Q&As, read it on The Verge Continue reading…

Samsung already makes three different kinds of Galaxy S20 phones: a regular, a Plus, and an Ultra. Now you can add a fourth to that mix, the Galaxy S20 FE — the FE stands for “Fan Edition.” It’s an S20 with some of the more expensive parts removed but keeping some of the key features that matter. It will also come in six different colors. Available October 2nd, it will sell for $699 for the sub-6 variant on T-Mobile, AT&T, and unlocked and $749 for the mmWave version developed for Verizon.The S20 FE has a 6.5-inch display. That slots it right in between the smaller Galaxy S20 and the larger S20 Plus. Like those phones, the FE has a 120Hz refresh rate for smoother animations and graphics, but unlike those phones, its screen is... Continue reading…

FaZe Clan Nick “NickMercs” Kolcheff is renewing his contract with Faze Clan, in a three-year extension. It’s a big deal, not least because Kolcheff is the most subscribed-to person on Twitch — clocking in at an astonishing 56,000 subscribers — and also one of the biggest channels on the entire site. (A note: you have to pay to subscribe to streamers on Twitch, although following and watching is free. A subscription starts at $5.)“They’re never in the way,” Kolcheff says about Faze. For him, the partnership means more on-the-ground resources for his content creation, as well as continued support from the biggest gaming brand in the world.And Kolcheff’s fans — the MFAM — are ecstatic about his deal, too, the streamer says. “I lead, they follow,”... Continue reading…

Spotify Spotify’s newest interactive podcast test brings a popular Instagram feature to the platform: polls. Similarly to Instagram, respondents and hosts can see the poll results in real time, although unlike Instagram, answers are anonymous. You’ll only be able to view the results if you vote.The company’s testing the feature with certain Spotify-exclusive and original shows, including The Rewatchables and Crime Countdown, starting today. About 90 percent of listeners will see the polls on their iOS or Android app at first, but everyone will gain access eventually. It’s unclear if Spotify will open the feature up to podcasts outside its direct control. You can find polls at the bottom of a show’s episode page or on the episode’s Now Playing... Continue reading…

For the past week, I’ve been using a preproduction unit of MSI’s Summit E15, slated for release later this year. It’s part of the Summit series, MSI’s first attempt to break into the premium business laptop space.That’s not the easiest market to conquer. Workers and companies have a number of portable, durable, and highly regarded options to choose from, from Dell Latitudes and Lenovo’s giant heap of ThinkPads to beautiful high-end devices like the MacBook Pro and HP’s Elite Dragonfly.We don’t know exact pricing for the Summit E15 yet, but it’ll be between $1,699 and $1,899. That puts the product somewhere in the middle. It’s more expensive than many popular consumer laptops, but it’s still targeting the lower end of the premium... Continue reading…

Photo by Neville Elder/Corbis via Getty Images Two years after stepping down as CEO at Blizzard, the game company he co-founded in 1991, Mike Morhaime is back with his next venture. It’s called Dreamhaven, and it’s a combination of a publisher and developer, with “a common goal to empower creators, help bring their ideas to life, and create original gaming experiences that foster meaningful connections between players.”As part of the announcement, Dreamhaven also revealed its first two internal studios: Moonshot Games and Secret Door. Moonshot is headed by a trio of Blizzard veterans, including former Hearthstone lead Jason Chayes, StarCraft II director Dustin Browder, and Hearthstone creative director Ben Thompson. “Though it’s very early days, when we think about Moonshot, we... Continue reading…

Illustration by Claudia Chinyere Akole There’s joy at the end of this Rain-Bow Continue reading…

Illustration by Claudia Chinyere Akole Six days a week, Irene Castillo is in charge of bringing the flavors of the Mexican central state of Puebla to Brooklyn’s local hot spot, Jalapeño King. Respecting the culinary traditions of the women in her family, Castillo seasons the salsas, rice dishes, and stews, while her husband Rafael Eustaquio grills the meats for the tacos. Their 30-year-old son, Jonathan, attends the clientele and runs the social media accounts.For two months, however, the family-run business had to close down due to the pandemic. Unlike many other businesses, Jalapeño King reopened in South Slope on May 15, and since then the Eustaquio Castillo family has joined a community-wide effort to tackle COVID-19 — and the systemic social inequities that have put... Continue reading…

There have already been some cool things added to No Man’s Sky in 2020, including a horror-themed update, the addition of mech suits, and cross-platform multiplayer. But today the sci-fi sandbox is getting its biggest expansion of the year with Origins, which aims to double the variety in the game with new features like more plant and animal life, and gigantic mountains and oceans to explore. The update is out today for free across all platforms, and it’s the latest in a growing list of big annual updates for No Man’s Sky.“Previous years we’ve done things like VR or multiplayer or adding story,” says Hello Games’ Sean Murray. “This year we thought it was time to revisit some of the foundations of the game.”According to Murray, the... Continue reading…

It’s been a long road for No Man’s Sky. The game quickly went from heavily hyped to heavily criticized, after launching without many promised features. After several years of updates, however, the sci-fi game is in a good place, and it’s set to change once again with today’s huge Origins expansion, which doubles the amount of variety in the game and adds new features like volcanoes and a greater breadth of plant and animal life.Hello says No Man’s Sky is more popular than ever, but its slow-burn success does raise an interesting question: what’s next for the studio? The team has previously released smaller-scale titles like the arcade game Joe Danger and, more recently, the beautiful adventure The Last Campfire. However, according to... Continue reading…

On the corner of the Roku Touch remote is a strange, unlabeled button marked only with a mysterious glyph of two overlapping diamonds. Press it, and a voice will ring out: “This feature is not yet available.”The button does absolutely nothing, and it’s been that way for nearly two years.Back in 2018, Roku launched its TV Wireless speaker, along with the Roku Touch remote to match. On that remote, there are a plethora of buttons: volume controls, play / pause / skip buttons, a microphone button, and even two programmable presets that can be tied to frequently used commands.The button does absolutely nothingBut Roku also reserved a final button for a future software feature — the odd diamond-marked button seen here. Nearly two years... Continue reading…

Popular video chatting app Houseparty is partnering with Michelle Obama’s nonprofit, When We All Vote, to launch a new in-app game to get out the vote ahead of the November election.Houseparty’s new game, Pick Me!, is a superlative game that needs at least three people to play at a time. The game lets users decide which of their friends is the most likely to become an artist or win the lottery, among other questions, similar to yearbook superlatives. At the end of the game, Houseparty links out to When We All Vote’s website so users can check their registration status.“Our goal and our mission is to increase participation in each election and change the culture rapidly,” Crystal Carson, When We All Vote’s vice president of... Continue reading…

The would-be prototype has the same basic look as the original Xperia Play. | Image: via Idle Fish Cast your mind back, if you can, to the tender world of gadgets circa 2011. Apple had just launched Siri on the iPhone, Google was making its biggest push into social networking with Google Plus, and Sony had decided it was time to release a true gaming smartphone: the much-anticipated “PlayStation Phone,” officially dubbed the Xperia Play.It was not, by any means, a great success. A 2011 Engadget review praised the phone’s sliding mechanism and gamepad but bemoaned its dim screen and lack of playable titles. The device had its fans, though, many of whom were excited in 2012 by whispers of an Xperia Play 2. This promised sequel never emerged, but eight years after the PlayStation Phone 2 was first rumored, images purportedly showing... Continue reading…

Photo by Brennan King / The Verge The first Apple device to feature a Mini-LED display will be a new iPad Pro, Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo has predicted in a new research note seen by MacRumors and AppleInsider. Kuo reports that Mini-LED display components will be mass-produced in the fourth quarter of this year, though it’s unclear when the new iPad Pro could actually release. Last year, Kuo predicted a third-quarter 2020 launch for the new iPad Pro with improved display technology. Apple last updated its iPad Pro lineup back in March.Apple has long been rumored to be developing six devices with the new display technology, which offers similar benefits to OLED — like localized dimming for deeper blacks and higher contrast — without the downside of burn-in. It does this... Continue reading…

Image: Garmin Garmin has announced the $199 Venu Sq and $249 Venu Sq Music Edition, two square-shaped watches with 1.3-inch (240 x 240) color LCD touchscreens protected by Gorilla Glass 3. These wearables offer many of the same features as Garmin’s more expensive Venu smartwatch — for less. Both new models are available now through Garmin.com.The pricier Music Edition watch is different only in that it has built-in storage that, with a paid subscription to Spotify, Amazon Music, or Deezer, can connect to Wi-Fi and let you save up to 500 songs for listening with Bluetooth headphones.I tend to be skeptical of the quality of affordable smartwatches, but I’ve been pleasantly surprised with just about every aspect of the Venu Sq. The case, which Garmin... Continue reading…

The new Amazon Fire TV Stick Lite, most likely. | Image: WinFuture.de Images of what appear to be a new Amazon Fire TV Stick have leaked ahead of the company’s hardware event this Thursday. WinFuture.de, which shared the pictures, says they show the upcoming “Amazon Fire TV Stick Lite” — a likely successor to the discontinued $35 second-generation Fire TV Stick.Visually there are no surprises here, with the design of the device barely changing from earlier models. The main differences are a new Amazon logo on the bottom of the remote, the removal of the power and volume buttons, and a new button with a TV icon. There are no leaked specs so we can only speculate about hardware changes. But it’s possible the new TV button will take viewers to Amazon’s growing selection of live TV broadcasts.As the company... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge For big tech platforms, one of the more urgent questions to arise during the pandemic’s early months was how the forced closure of offices would change their approach to content moderation. Facebook, YouTube, and Twitter all rely on huge numbers of third-party contract workers to police their networks, and traditionally those workers have worked side by side in big offices. When tech companies shuttered their offices, they closed down most of their content moderation facilities as well.Happily, they continued to pay their moderators — even those who could no longer work, because their jobs required them to use secure facilities. But with usage of social networks surging and an election on the horizon, the need for moderation had never... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Bluetooth SIG, the industry group in charge of defining the standard, has released a new audio codec that promises to make wireless headphones more power-efficient while improving sound quality. The Low Complexity Communication Codec, or LC3 for short, can transmit at much lower bitrates without as big a drop in audio quality as you see with Bluetooth’s standard, and much maligned, SBC codec. The development of the new codec was first announced back at CES 2020.Offering listenable audio at lower bitrates means headphones can use less power. That’s particularly important for true wireless earbuds, which have to strike a difficult balance between size, weight, battery life, and audio quality. LC3 allows audio to be transmitted at half the... Continue reading…

Echelon Fitness’ “EX-Prime Smart Connect Bike” or “Prime Bike.” | Image: Echelon Yesterday, exercise company Echelon Fitness announced the “EX-Prime Smart Connect Bike,” or “Prime Bike” — a $500 exercise bike developed “in collaboration with Amazon.” News of the bike’s launch sent the share price of smart bike maker Peloton tumbling, as traders anticipated Amazon’s entry into the growing home exercise market.But on Tuesday evening Amazon denied it had any formal connection to the so-called Prime Bike. The bike’s listing on Amazon’s website was removed and a press release for the product from Echelon Fitness touting its work with Amazon was deleted.“This bike is not an Amazon product or related to Amazon Prime.”“This bike is not an Amazon product or related to Amazon Prime,” an Amazon spokeswoman told Bloomberg.... Continue reading…

Last week, I showed you why Apple’s App Store guidelines will never permit Microsoft’s xCloud or Google’s Stadia cloud gaming services in their current forms.But Microsoft has another form of game streaming that isn’t against Apple’s rules at all, and the company has all but confirmed it’s currently working to bring it to your iPhone.Take a look:

Image: Microsoft If you are planning to design your very own Xbox controller ahead of the Xbox Series X and S launch on November 10th, you might want to act fast. Microsoft is temporarily shutting down its Xbox Design Lab on October 14th.Announced back in 2016, Xbox Design Lab brings a lot of flexibility and personal flair to the Xbox One controller. For $80, you have access to over 40 different color options for the various parts of the controller, adding up to over a million different combinations in total.A couple years ago, I designed one for a close friend and was amazed how much customization I could do; it didn’t feel like I was just creating another color variant, but a truly unique personalized product. My friend loved it, telling me they... Continue reading…

At Tesla’s Battery Day event, CEO Elon Musk made some big announcements: the company’s moves toward eliminating cobalt in its batteries, a new Plaid powertrain for the Model S that could get to speeds of 200 mph, and a new cathode plant to streamline its battery production. And, with the new battery technology, Musk has said Tesla will make a $25,000 car.The socially-distanced outdoor event had Musk and other presenters addressing Tesla shareholders in parked cars, who honked their horns to indicate their approval of the speakers’ remarks— almost like a drive-in movie/shareholders meeting.Here are the main takeaways from Tesla’s 2020 battery day:Tabless battery cells will improve Teslas’ rangeTesla plans to manufacture its own... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Tesla will make electric vehicle batteries with cobalt-free cathodes, it announced during its Battery Day event today. The announcement came as part of the company’s move to make batteries in-house instead of purchasing them. Musk didn’t give a timeline for going to a zero-cobalt battery.Cobalt is the most expensive material used in batteries, so eliminating it from the mix was expected help to electric vehicles become as affordable as those that run on gas. Tesla now says it can make a $25,000 electric vehicle — $10,000 less than its cheapest model — because of the improvements it’s made to its batteries, including axing cobalt.“It’s absolutely critical that we make cars that people can people can actually afford,” Musk said today.... Continue reading…

Photo by Adi Robertson / The Verge SXSW, the annual tech, music, and film meetup held in downtown Austin was canceled earlier this year due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. The festival’s organizers announced today that it will host an online-only version of the weeklong event next year.SXSW Online will take place from March 16th through March 20th, 2021. Throughout the week, organizers say attendees will be able to check out film and music screenings and take part in other activities such as exhibitions and networking opportunities, but they’ll all be online.SXSW isn’t just a conference where you can substitute a digital stageI’m curious to see how it all goes. Unlike other events, SXSW isn’t just a convention. Sure, people go to the keynotes, but SXSW is a festival.... Continue reading…

Photo by Tamara Warren / The Verge As part of its Battery Day presentation, Tesla CEO Elon Musk showed off video of the new “Plaid” version of its Model S sedan, a step up from its “Ludicrous” model. According to the specs on Tesla’s website, the long-awaited Plaid powertrain will have a range between charges of 520 miles, get from zero-to-60 in under two seconds, and a top speed of 200mph. The price is listed on Tesla’s website at $139,990.Musk has been teasing the Plaid for a while, and showed a video last year of a Tesla with the Plaid powertrain, noting it would “cost more than our current offerings.” (The name is apparently a reference from the Mel Brooks movie Spaceballs.) The Plaid Model S debuted last September at the Laguna Seca raceway, where it ran the course... Continue reading…

Photo by James Bareham / The Verge Today, Microsoft launched pre-orders for its upcoming next generation console, the Xbox One X. Sorry, I meant the Xbox Series X. Can you blame me? There’s only one word of difference between the two names, and it’s the one in the middle. There are also three X’s.I might not be the only one who gets them confused, though. (Microsoft itself has, but I digress.) Despite today being pre-order day for the Series X (reminder: the new one), the One X (the old one) had a banner day on Amazon as well, at one point up 747 percent on Amazon’s “Movers & Shakers” sales charts.

Can every day be battery day? Continue reading…