The Verge

Tesla announced that it will dramatically reduce the cost of its battery cells and packs — which means the company’s new goal is a $25,000 electric car. The company’s CEO Elon Musk said its new “tabless” battery cells, as well as by changing the materials inside the cell, will allow Tesla to “halve” the price per kilowatt-hour, which will make electric cars roughly the same price as combustion engine ones.The price per kilowatt-hour (kWh) is the unit of energy most commonly used to measure the capacity of the battery packs in modern electric vehicles. Those prices have been falling dramatically over the last decade, from $1,100/kWh in 2010 to $156/kWh in 2019, a drop of 87 percent.Tesla will “halve” the price per kilowatt-hour, Musk... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Tesla plans to build in a new cathode plant for its batteries in North America, to help reduce supply chain costs and simplify cathode production, CEO Elon Musk said today at the company’s battery event.The current process is not efficient, Musk said, and it’s making improvements to the process that will make cathodes 76 percent cheaper, and produce zero wastewater. The new process will eliminate many of the intermediate steps involved in cathode production, and it plans to diversify the cathodes it uses, because of low nickel supply.Musk didn’t get into specifics of where and when the new plant would be built, but he said at the start of his presentation that he wanted a Gigafactory on every continent. The company said in July it was... Continue reading…

Photo by Tom Warren / The Verge iOS 14 has a lot of iPhones looking pretty different these days — some with classy monochrome color schemes, others with pastel styles ripped right off of Pinterest, and some that look like they’re straight out of Animal Crossing or emulating Windows Mobile.The changes aren’t some new, radical shift by Apple, but rather a viral wave of enthusiastic users taking advantage of widgets and other tweaks to bring an unprecedented level of customization to the usually rigid Apple-enforced design of the OS.It turns out that lots of people have been dying to theme iOS, and as any number of viral videos displaying lavishly designed homescreens show, they’re going to great lengths to do it. It’s proof that Apple should continue to trend down... Continue reading…

Tesla unveiled plans Tuesday to develop a “tabless” battery that could improve an electric car’s range and power. The company will produce its new batteries in-house, which Tesla CEO Elon Musk predicts will help dramatically reduce costs and allow the company to sell electric vehicles for the same price as gasoline-powered ones.The battery is expected to lower Tesla’s cost per kilowatt-hour, the unit of energy most commonly used to measure the capacity of the battery packs in modern electric vehicles. Many experts believe that lowering these costs would allow Tesla to dramatically lower the price of its cars, thereby making them far more accessible. The news of the new battery was announced during the company’s much-hyped “Battery Day”... Continue reading…

Photo: Wyze Gadget maker Wyze, best known for its series of low-cost security cameras, is expanding further beyond its core product line to include new devices in the audio and smart home markets. The company is announcing three new products today: a pair of over-the-ears noise-canceling headphones, a video doorbell, and a smart thermostat. Those join the company’s cameras, fitness band, and smart versions of various household appliances like a lock, lightbulb, and wall plug.Much like how China-based gadget maker Anker used its USB charging line as a springboard into the broader consumer electronics business, Wyze is using its cameras and its extremely low prices as a way to fashion an entire family of branded products that now extend beyond just... Continue reading…

Earlier this year, Manticore Games launched Core, a development tool that aimed to make game creation more accessible. Now, the company is getting an injection of $15 million, thanks to a funding round led by Fortnite creator Epic Games, in order to expand even more.“At Epic we believe the industry is ultimately headed to games becoming more like open platforms where creators can build their own worlds,” Epic president Adam Sussman said in a statement. “Built in Unreal, Core exemplifies this future and goes one step further by providing the environment for anybody to create great multiplayer games, and a metaverse playground where players discover endless entertainment.”Core is a tool its creators liken to a YouTube of game... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Apple’s status page indicates several of the company’s services are experiencing issues, including the App Store, Apple Music, and Apple TV Plus. People are also reporting issues with Apple Music on DownDetector.A few of us here at The Verge aren’t seeing problems with the App Store, despite what Apple’s page is reporting. But if you seeing issues or an outage with Apple’s services, the errors might look something like this:

Image: WinFuture Google has already announced an event for its upcoming Pixel 5 and Pixel 4A 5G smartphones on September 30th, and it has even teased the phones themselves. But a new leak from WinFuture has revealed the best look yet at Google’s new flagship Pixel 5, along with nearly all of its specs.As rumored, the Pixel 5 will reportedly feature a Snapdragon 765G processor, complete with Qualcomm’s integrated X52 modem for 5G support, although WinFuture says that it’ll only support sub-6GHz 5G. That’s surprising, given that Verizon (which has historically sold Google’s flagship smartphones) requires mmWave 5G support for its network, although it’s possible that — similar to other recent Android phones — there are plans for a unique Verizon-exclusive... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Facebook says it could aggressively restrict content if the US presidential election sparks violent unrest, according to the Financial Times. Global affairs head Nick Clegg told FT that Facebook was looking at “some break-glass options available to us if there really is an extremely chaotic and, worse still, violent set of circumstances.”Clegg didn’t discuss what those options were. But he mentioned Facebook’s past use of “pretty exceptional measures to significantly restrict the circulation of content on our platform,” deployed in countries where there is “real civic instability.” An unnamed source said the company had modeled 70 election outcomes and how to respond to them, relying on staff, including “world-class military scenario... Continue reading…

The Nokia 3.4. | Image: HMD / Nokia HMD’s resurrected Nokia has built a brand for itself around budget and midrange phones, and the company’s latest devices continue that trend with the $139 Nokia 2.4 and the $179 Nokia 3.4, which offer improved specs, displays, and cameras for the company’s under-$200 lineup.At $139, the Nokia 2.4 is the cheaper of the two phones, and it shows in the specs: a MediaTek Helio P22 processor, 2GB of RAM, 32GB of internal storage, and a sadly outdated microSD port. It does offer some nice features, though, like a 6.5-inch 20:9 display (albeit limited to 720p) with a teardrop notch, a dual-camera system, and a promise of two days of battery life off a single charge of the 4,500mAh battery. There’s also a rear-mounted fingerprint reader and a... Continue reading…

For the next four Tuesdays, Vergecast co-host Dieter Bohn will host a series of discussions diving deep into tech review season, each focusing on a specific product.For this episode, Dieter and Verge deputy editor Dan Seifert talked with Engadget’s Cherlynn Low to compare notes on their respective reviews of Microsoft’s new foldable device, the Surface Duo.I call it a “foldable device” because we don’t really know what else to call this gadget. It’s sort of a phone and sort of a tablet. (Let’s not get into the “is it a computer” discussion yet.) Dieter starts off the show citing a Vergecast interview from last year with Microsoft’s chief product officer Panos Panay addressing this very question:

Microsoft is expanding its new Together Mode for Microsoft Teams soon, allowing co-workers to pretend they’re holding meetings in coffee shops, break out into smaller meeting rooms, or use custom layouts to overlay presenters directly onto slide decks.Together Mode, created for pandemic-era virtual meetings, has been part of Teams for a few months now, but Microsoft is adding a few more features that better emulate the way many of us used to work. New scenes include a number of auditoriums, conference rooms, and even a coffee shop. This mode is also getting updated with a new feature that uses machine learning to automatically scale and center people in their virtual seats no matter how far they’re sitting from a webcam.The NBA has b... Continue reading…

Image: Google Starting today, Disney Plus’ library of TV shows and movies is available to stream on smart displays like the Nest Hub and the Nest Hub Max, Google has announced. Google says all “Google Assistant-enabled” smart displays will support the feature, which should include similar devices from JBL and Lenovo. Content can be started with a voice command, such as “Hey Google, play The Mandalorian on Disney Plus.”Streaming Disney Plus on Google smart displays was possible in the past using the Chromecast-enabled Disney Plus app on another device to “cast” a TV show or film to the display. Now, it can be done directly from the smart display itself. You can use a voice command to start a piece of content playing, and Google says that the smart... Continue reading…

Your setup will probably never look this cool, in part because Razer’s gear is pretty costly. | Razer Razer has released three new wireless gaming products, each in a different category. There’s the $179.99 BlackShark V2 Pro wireless gaming headset that is, in many ways, just like the BlackShark V2 — sans cable. It’s similarly a very comfortable headset that I’ve found easy to wear for hours on end without feeling fatigued or like my head is in a vice. Razer claims it can last up to 24 hours per charge, and the headset is rechargeable via a Micro USB port. Image: Razer The new BlackShark V2 Pro is just as comfortable as the wired version. The visual differences between this model and the $99.99 wired BlackShark V2 are very minor. The Pro has a black Razer logo on it instead of a green one, and it has a 3.5mm... Continue reading…

New Outlook iOS 14 widget. | Photo by Tom Warren / The Verge Microsoft is announcing a number of new features that are coming to Outlook mobile soon. These include emoji email reactions, voice commands, and the expansion of Cortana support.Apple’s iOS 14 update arrived last week, and Microsoft is adding an Outlook calendar widget that will display upcoming meetings from multiple accounts on the home screen. Similar improvements are also coming to the watchOS 7 complications for Outlook, allowing Apple Watch owners to see the number of unread emails or a calendar complication that lists your free and busy status.Outlook mobile for both iOS and Android is also getting updated with voice commands next month. The voice commands will support email authoring, calling, and scheduling for calendar... Continue reading…

Microsoft has been testing a new Outlook for Mac design over the past year, and it’s now ready to roll out to all users next month. The new design includes Microsoft’s Fluent icons, rounded corners, and changes to make the email app ready for macOS Big Sur.Microsoft’s Ribbon interface has been removed, and everything looks a lot cleaner. It’s a hybrid of Apple’s macOS design and Microsoft’s own Fluent design. Reading and writing emails have been improved with single-line views, a new mail compose UI, and even a feature to ignore emails. Panels are also collapsible so it makes Outlook for Mac a lot more customizable for the main view of emails. Microsoft Dark mode in Outlook for Mac. Microsoft has also... Continue reading…

Microsoft is planning to launch a preview version of its Edge browser for Linux next month. After officially confirming plans for Edge on Linux earlier this year, Linux users will be able to download a preview of the browser in October.The preview will be available from Microsoft’s Edge Insider site or through the native Linux package manager. Microsoft isn’t discussing how many features found on the Windows and macOS versions of Edge will be available on Edge just yet, but it’s likely that the vast majority of features will make their way across.The Linux preview is part of a broader push by Microsoft to entice businesses over to using Edge. Microsoft is also announcing today at Ignite that it’s making it easier for IT admins to... Continue reading…

Microsoft’s 85-inch Surface Hub 2S. | Microsoft Microsoft is starting to take preorders for its 85-inch Surface Hub 2S today. The large screen device, originally unveiled in April 2019, will now go on sale in January 2021, just missing Microsoft’s initial target of releasing the hardware at some point in 2020. Microsoft is pricing the 85-inch model starting at $21,999.99.A $21,999.99 collaboration display might not seem like the type of device that businesses are rushing to buy in 2020 as a pandemic has kept a large number of people working remotely. Microsoft acknowledges that reality and claims the Surface Hub 2S has helped bridge remote teams and central response locations for hospitals, health care providers, and even in education. Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The... Continue reading…

Prezi You may know Prezi as an innovative PowerPoint-esque software that lays information out as an animated map rather than sequential slides. But the company has expanded in the past year, with a new focus on incorporating both live and recorded video into presentations. This month, as many schools attempt to utilize online instruction for the first time, Prezi is rolling out two new tools tailored to distance learning.The first is a “video in video” feature, which will allow presenters to place recorded video on the screen next to them during live (or recorded) streams. The tool could serve as a visual aid for teachers in lieu of physical whiteboards and diagrams. “Let’s say I was a teacher in biology and wanted to talk about how a... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge In a statement to reporters on Monday, Oracle announced that its new TikTok venture will be entirely divested from Bytedance, a significant break from previous reports of the agreed deal between the two companies.“Upon creation of TikTok Global, Oracle/Walmart will make their investment and the TikTok Global shares will be distributed to their owners, Americans will be the majority and ByteDance will have no ownership in TikTok Global,” the company said in a statement to reporters.The statement differs significantly from earlier reports, which showed Oracle and Wal-Mart taking only a 20 percent stake in the new venture and Bytedance maintaining control of the other 80 percent. Bytedance has not publicly relinquished its claim to the... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Google just released the official update to Gmail, allowing it to be set as the default email application for iOS 14 devices.iOS 14 — which was released by Apple last week — added the option for users to set third-party email applications as the default for iPhone and iPad devices running the latest version of Apple’s operating system. But it still fell to developers to actually add support for the feature, which the latest Gmail update does.Once you’ve installed the latest update, simply head to the Settings app on iOS, select the “Gmail” menu, and find the newly added “Default Mail App” menu. Google also says that the Gmail app should prompt users with instructions once they’ve updated.It’s important to note that iOS appears to... Continue reading…

Photo by Tom Warren / The Verge Nvidia has apologized for the RTX 3080 GPU preorder fiasco, which saw the highly desirable graphics card sold out pretty much everywhere. “We were not prepared for this level, nor were our partners,” Nvidia writes in a new FAQ. “We apologize for this.”Nvidia said demand for the GeForce RTX 3080 was so high it caused its website to stop working properly, claiming that it was “inundated with over 10 times the traffic of our previous generation launch,” the RTX 2080 and 2070. When the company attempted to push its official store live at 6AM PT / 9AM ET, the card looked like it was already out of stock, meaning many people who had lined up virtually missed out on ordering one.People who got an email notification were already out of luckB... Continue reading…

Photo by Tom Warren / The Verge Microsoft’s Xbox Series X and Series S consoles will be available for preorder around the world on September 22nd — and depending on where you live, that’s happening very soon. If you’re reading this in New Zealand, you’ll be able to place an order in just under two hours, with the wait being just a bit longer for those in Australia. By the time those on the US East Coast wake up, gamers in the UK and Europe will have already put money down on a new console. Those preorders start at 8AM BST (3AM ET) and 9AM, respectively.Since we originally wrote this post, Microsoft expanded the list to include those details for many other countries as well.In the US, preorders will start at 11AM ET / 8AM PT on September 22nd at Amazon, Target,... Continue reading…

Microsoft Microsoft’s redesigned Xbox store rolls out digitally to all users today, after its successful initial deployment to insiders early last month.As my colleague Chris Welch pointed out in his early review, the new storefront loads dramatically faster than its predecessor. It’s been “optimized for the era of Game Pass,” meaning it’s easier to see the differences between different versions of a game in the store, and there’s a new focus on parental controls.The company has also updated how it feels to navigate the store: it’s now easier than ever to scroll through titles, categories, and pages. The new parental controls also emphasize safety; the company says there are no more anonymous logins, among other improvements.The changes... Continue reading…

Marvel Studios’ first big Disney Plus project, The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, is being moved back to 2021, making a rough year for Marvel fans a little bit rougher.Although Marvel hasn’t made any official comment on the matter, the description for The Falcon and the Winter Soldier on Disney Plus has changed to note it’s coming in 2021. The show, which follows Anthony Mackie and Sebastian Stan’s characters from the Marvel Cinematic Universe films, Sam Wilson (Falcon) and James Buchanan “Bucky” Barnes (Winter Soldier), was supposed to be released in August. A couple of things impacted The Falcon and Winter Soldier’s production, including earthquakes in Puerto Rico that affected a planned two-week shoot in January, and the pandemic.T... Continue reading…

It’s September 21st — the final day of summer, the eve of the equinox, and far more importantly, the day memorialized by the 1978 Earth, Wind & Fire classic, “September.”It’s also the day when the internet impatiently tweets at comedian Demi Adejuyigbe, waiting for him to post his latest celebration of the day and date. Adejuyigbe has been making videos for five years now where he dances along to the most salient part of the song, and they have truly turned the 21st of September into a holiday worth celebrating.His latest is now here, and it is — as always — a remarkable celebration of Sept. 21, 9/21 (21/9, even), the 21st, or whatever you prefer to call it:

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Microsoft’s priciest video game acquisition, a $7.5 billion purchase of Bethesda Softworks parent company ZeniMax Media, shocked the industry on Monday. The deal puts Bethesda, one of the industry’s biggest publishers and owners of some of the most successful gaming series, under the Xbox brand. It also raises a simple but powerful question: how does buying Bethesda fit into Microsoft’s overall Xbox strategy?The immediate and inevitable reaction from consumers focused, naturally, on competition, and whether future Bethesda titles will become Xbox exclusives. It’s a sensible concern — why, after all, would any company in an industry as cutthroat as gaming purchase a major entertainment brand if not to deprive its primary rival the... Continue reading…

Image: Lego You know what’s better than buying a toy version of The Child Baby Yoda? Building a replica of Baby Yoda by purchasing the new set Lego is making.That’s right. Lego is releasing a new 1,073-piece set that allows you to recreate the adorable character from The Mandalorian in all his glory. It stands 7.8 inches tall and is designed for builders ages 10 and up.The set does not just net you a Lego statue of a cute character: you can have some fun with how he poses in your house. When built fully, Baby Yoda has a posable head, plus adjustable ears and mouth.The set includes an info plaque that shares more details on Baby Yoda, such as his height and age, as if the statue were an exhibit you would see at the museum. It also includes a... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Amazon is preparing to launch an ambitious networking and location system later this year under the name Amazon Sidewalk. Sidewalk will link smart home devices and other Amazon products using Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE), connecting beyond the range of a standard Wi-Fi network.Meant to be operated at the scale of a neighborhood, Sidewalk would turn devices like smart floodlights and home assistants into network bridges, passing along security updates and commands from a central Wi-Fi hub. In addition to transmitting software, the signals allow Sidewalk to triangulate a device’s approximate location based on its contacts with other Sidewalk-enabled devices.The system will be built into the Echo, and Tile has also joined the project as the... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Microsoft is revealing today that it now has 15 million Xbox Game Pass subscribers. That’s up 50 percent from the 10 million the company previously disclosed back in April. Xbox Game Pass is a subscription service that offers access to a growing selection of more than 100 Xbox games for $9.99 per month.Microsoft has been pushing Xbox Game Pass heavily in recent months, particularly ahead of its next-gen Xbox console hardware launches in November. Xbox Game Pass has started to feel like Microsoft’s true next-gen approach, gearing the company up for a different Xbox future.Xbox Game Pass has been bolstered recently by the addition of Bungie’s Destiny 2 title, xCloud game streaming, and Microsoft’s ZeniMax Media acquisition, the parent... Continue reading…

Minecraft’s PlayStation VR update is available now to download. Developer Mojang Studios announced the update earlier this month but hadn’t previously said when it would be playable. If you own Minecraft on PlayStation, then the update is completely free.The update does exactly what it says on the tin, making Minecraft playable on Sony’s PlayStation VR platform. It’s not the first time Minecraft has come to virtual reality, but it’s a welcome addition to the roster given the size of PlayStation VR’s install base. Of course, you will need a PlayStation VR headset and a console to play.

Adobe is preparing to add an AI-powered sky replacement tool to Photoshop that makes it easier to swap out the sky in any picture with just a few clicks. The company previewed the tool on YouTube ahead of its Adobe Max conference, scheduled for October 20th–22nd.The tool uses machine learning to automatically identify the foreground and background of a picture, saving people from creating complicated masks to separate the two. You can load in a number of dramatic preset skies, and the algorithms will automatically tweak the warmth and temperature of the foreground to match the new sky. If you add in a warm, golden sunset, for example, it’ll update the coloring of the rest of your picture to match.Photoshop isn’t the first image... Continue reading…

As part of The Pokémon Company and Longchamp Paris’ fashion collaboration, Niantic is adding special in-game items for players to dress up their trainers. A Longchamp backpack will be available beginning on October 2nd, starting at 11AM ET.The backpack is Pikachu-themed, adding the iconic character to the black-and-white Longchamp logo. The event will apply to some pokémon, which will be dressed up in special bow ties and hats. The promotion lasts until October 8th; it’s timed to the beginning of Paris Fashion Week.Pokémon Go continues to be a huge hit four years after its release; 2019 marked its most lucrative year yet. During COVID-19, Niantic has also made it easier for players to catch pokémon inside. In August, the developer... Continue reading…

Following the announcement of Microsoft’s $7.5 billion acquisition of Bethesda Softworks parent company ZeniMax — owner of Doom, Fallout, and more — some of the biggest questions I saw bouncing around the internet were whether future Bethesda games would become Microsoft exclusives and whether previously announced PlayStation 5 exclusives Deathloop and GhostWire: Tokyo would remain so.We now have a little more clarity there: Microsoft will honor the exclusivity commitments for Deathloop and GhostWire: Tokyo, but other games will hit non-Xbox platforms on a “case-by-case basis,” Xbox boss Phil Spencer told Bloomberg.

Bird, the electric scooter startup that helped kick off the shared micromobility boom, is doubling down on personal ownership. Over the weekend, the company unveiled its new, foldable electric scooter, the Bird Air, which can be purchased for $599.It isn’t the most powerful scooter on the market, with a top speed of 16 mph (25 km/h) and a range of 16 miles (25 km). But at $599, the Bird Air is significantly cheaper than the company’s first retail scooter, the Bird One, which retails for $1,299. That puts the Bird Air in the same category as other mid-priced electric scooters like the Razor E Prime III or Segway Ninebot’s Max.The Bird Air is designed in-house by Bird’s team of “aerospace and automotive engineers,” the company says —... Continue reading…

The Microsoft Asia-Pacific Research and Development Group (ARD) is pictured at Zhongguancun on August 16, 2020 in Beijing, China. | Photo by VCG/VCG via Getty Images Microsoft plans to address dwindling water resources in its latest environmental pledge. Microsoft made a new commitment to replenish even more water than it uses for its global operations by 2030, making the company “water positive.”“We’re going to invest as much as we need”For now, the commitment is more of an aspirational vision than it is a concrete plan. Microsoft hasn’t set out exact details for how it will give back more water than it uses up, and it hasn’t said how much it’s going to spend on the endeavor. “We’re going to invest as much as we need to meet that goal,” says Lucas Joppa, Microsoft’s chief environmental officer. “Companies that can do more, should do more.”The pledge builds on Microsoft’s previous... Continue reading…

Cowboy 2 electric bike. | Photo by Thomas Ricker / The Verge Owners of older Cowboy 2 and brand-new Cowboy 3 e-bikes will receive a free software update that adds crash detection by the end of September. It’s an industry-first safety feature, according to the Belgian startup that recently took in €23 million for expansion.Cowboy can detect a fall using the bike’s built-in sensors. The company uses the speed sensor in the wheel, the torque sensor to check if force is being applied to the pedal, and the accelerometer to determine if an accident has occurred. The company says that its algorithm is able to reduce the number of false positives “close to zero.” Emergency braking, dropping your bike on its side, hitting a pothole, or riding over cobblestones won’t trigger a crash response, the company... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge YouTube says it’s bringing back human moderators who were “put offline” during the pandemic after the company’s AI filters failed to match their accuracy.Back in March, YouTube said it would rely more on machine learning systems to flag and remove content that violated its policies on things like hate speech and misinformation. But YouTube told the Financial Times this week that the greater use of AI moderation had led to a significant increase in video removals and incorrect takedowns.Around 11 million videos were removed from YouTube between April and June, says the FT, or about double the usual rate. Around 320,000 of these takedowns were appealed, and half of the appealed videos were reinstated. Again, the FT says that’s roughly... Continue reading…

Microsoft is releasing a new Xbox app for Android today that includes an overhauled design and the ability to remotely play Xbox games streamed directly from your console. The Xbox remote play feature, known previously as Console Streaming, lets you remotely connect to an Xbox One console and play games you’ve already downloaded to it.This is different from Microsoft’s xCloud service, as anyone with an Android phone can now stream all of their games directly from their own Xbox One console. xCloud currently only works with Xbox Game Pass Ultimate titles, and games are streamed from Microsoft’s cloud servers instead. Here’s a brief look at the differences in a hands-on from last year:

‘Million mile’ batteries and ‘Terafactories’ are just some of the things that could be on deck for Elon Musk’s big event Continue reading…

Bethesda Softworks Microsoft has agreed to acquire ZeniMax Media, the parent company of Doom and Fallout studio Bethesda Softworks, for $7.5 billion in cash. The acquisition follows earlier Bethesda games coming to Xbox Game Pass on console and PC, and it gives Microsoft control of upcoming games like the space epic Starfield. Microsoft says future Bethesda games, including Starfield, will launch on Xbox Game Pass the day they come to Xbox or PC.The news arrives just as Microsoft is gearing up to launch two new consoles, the Xbox Series X and the Xbox Series S. The companies haven’t confirmed how this might affect the launch of specific future Bethesda games across different platforms, including the Bethesda-published Arkane game Deathloop, which was... Continue reading…

Photo by Cindy Ord/WireImage One of the biggest bands in the world is coming to one of the biggest games in the world. Today, Epic Games announced that K-pop group BTS will be debuting their next music video on Fortnite’s party royale island. It’ll be a choreography video for the single “Dynamite,” and it will be airing on September 25th at 8PM ET. In addition to the video, two new emotes — which Epic says were “choreographed by BTS” — will go on sale starting September 23rd.BTS is the latest big act to venture into the virtual world of Fortnite, following large-scale musical events from the likes of Marshmello and Travis Scott. Earlier this year, Epic debuted a violence-free space in the game called party royale, which is a completely separate island with areas... Continue reading…

Facebook Facebook is going to let people take more control over the images they own and where they end up. In an update to its rights management platform, the company is starting to work with certain partners today to give them the power to claim ownership over images and then moderate where those images show up across the Facebook platform, including on Instagram. The goal is to eventually open this feature up to everyone, as it already does with music and video rights. The company didn’t give a timeline on when it hopes to open this up more broadly.Facebook didn’t disclose who its partners are, but this could theoretically mean that if a brand like National Geographic uploaded its photos to Facebook’s Rights Manager, it could then monitor... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge After months of negotiations leading to a public showdown last week between NBCUniversal and Roku, NBCUniversal’s streaming service, Peacock, is now on Roku.Peacock, which offers a combination of entertainment, news, and sports, launched nationwide in July. It was available to stream on a number of different set-top boxes and video game consoles, but it was absent from Roku. Neither NBCUniversal nor Roku could come to an agreement over a split in advertising revenue, leading to a standoff between the two companies. Tedd Cittadine, vice president of content acquisition at Roku, called the newfound agreement a “very positive and mutually beneficial partnership” in a statement to The Verge.“We are excited by the opportunities to... Continue reading…

An image that appears to show thee OnePlus 8T previously leaked in a software update. | Image: OxygenUpdater OnePlus will announce its next flagship phone, the OnePlus 8T, on October 14th at an event due to take place at 10AM ET. The company promises that the phone will include “a range of new and improved technologies what will elevate the OnePlus experience to new heights.” You’ll be able to watch the launch over on the OnePlus site.In past years, OnePlus has used its T-series of phones as a half-step between its numbered flagships. They typically feature modest improvements in similarly designed phones. Last year, for example, the OnePlus 7T featured a higher 90Hz refresh rate compared to the OnePlus 7 and added a third camera to the rear of the device.

Image: Jimmy is Promo Samsung’s unannounced Galaxy S20 Fan Edition (FE) has appeared in a pair of new videos. The first is a hands-on video from YouTuber Jimmy Is Promo which shows off the device from every angle and details its key specs. Meanwhile, the second video appears to be a leaked promo video for the 5G version of the device posted to Twitter by @yabhishekhd. Jimmy Is Promo says the phone should retail for between $699 and $750.According to Jimmy is Promo, whose previous videos include a hands-on look at the Note 20 ahead of its official announcement, the Galaxy S20 FE will have a 6.5-inch 120Hz 1080p flat display, making it slightly bigger than the 6.2-inch Galaxy S20 but smaller than the 6.7-inch S20 Plus. It has a plastic back, no headphone jack,... Continue reading…

The Verge presents Making It Work, a special issue about how small businesses have found clever and creative ways to adapt to the current climate, be it the pandemic, sweeping tech platform changes, or literally the climate. Whether it’s selling face masks on Etsy, hosting 10,000-person dance classes through streaming video, or getting a community to take COVID testing seriously with free tacos, these are stories about how the internet has enabled scrappy underdogs and thoughtful problem-solving.Illustrations by Claudia Chinyere Akole Continue reading…

One of Apple’s surprise hardware announcements last week was the relocation of the iPad Air’s fingerprint sensor to a tiny power button on top of the display. It’s a change from the typical Touch ID Home button location at the bottom of the screen, and it allows Apple to place a larger edge-to-edge display on its iPad Air for the first time. It’s also an ideal location for a fingerprint sensor, and I’d love to see it on the iPhone 12.Apple has shifted most of its iPhone line over to Face ID in recent years, offering up a quick way to scan your face and unlock your phone. The only iPhone that doesn’t support Face ID is the iPhone SE, which still needs a large bezel to make room for the Touch ID fingerprint sensor at the bottom of the... Continue reading…

Illustration by Claudia Chinyere Akole How a couple of mom-and-pop shops made millions off masks Continue reading…

Your phone, too, could look like absolute garbage, with custom app icons. | Photo by Tom Warren / The Verge One of the biggest differences between iOS and Android has always been customization. Google’s mobile OS allows more control over how the software looks and feels, while Apple limits these changes in the name of consistency and usability. But with the launch of iOS 14 last week, iPhone and iPad owners are suddenly discovering how to make their phones and tablets look and feel truly different.Search “#ios14” or “#ios14homescreen” on Twitter, for example, and you’ll see hundreds of examples of themed layouts that combine custom app icons, wallpaper, and widgets. (Be careful, though, as a couple of results for those searches are very much NSFW.) All over TikTok and YouTube, too, people are showing off custom home screens and layouts.M... Continue reading…