The Verge

Image: Sony Sony has announced the PlayStation Plus Collection for PS5. Described as “a new PlayStation Plus benefit for PlayStation 5,” it’s a bundle of “generation-defining” PS4 games that you’ll be able to download at launch on the company’s new console. The games consist of first-party classics like Uncharted 4, God of War, The Last of Us: Remastered, Bloodborne, plus third-party titles like Batman Arkham Knight, Fallout 4, Mortal Kombat X, and more.You’ll download and play these games directly — it’s not a streaming service — and Sony said the entire collection will be available when the PS5 launches on November 12th. The PlayStation Plus Collection should make for a decent way of padding out your game library in the launch period of PS5.

God of War is coming to the PlayStation 5 in 2021, Sony teased today, with the company announcing a next-gen sequel that’s due out next year.The sequel to the 2018 PlayStation 4 title will once again be developed by Sony’s Santa Monica studio, and presumably will pick up the journey of Kratos and his son, Atreus, following the events of that game. If the end-credit teaser in the last game is anything to go by, the two will continue to battle against various gods and heroes of the Norse pantheon, including Thor.

Image: Sony Sony’s PlayStation 5 Digital Edition, its next-generation game console without a Blu-ray disc drive, will cost $399.99, the company announced Wednesday as part of its PS5 price reveal live stream event.That’s $100 less than the standard PS5, which Sony announced today would match Microsoft’s Xbox Series X at a price of $499.99. Still, that makes the PS5 Digital Edition $100 more than the less performant Xbox Series S.Both PS5 devices will ship in the US, Japan, and other territories on November 12th, with a worldwide availability on November 19th. Sony announced after the end of today’s event that preorders are starting tomorrow at select retailers, though the company declined to specify which ones.

Image: Sony Sony has announced that the PlayStation 5 will cost $499.99 when it launches on November 12th, alongside the $399.99 Digital Edition. Preorders will begin on September 17th at “select retailers.”The pricing puts Sony squarely up against Microsoft’s next-gen consoles, with the company set to release its entry-level Xbox Series S at $299 and its flagship Xbox Series X for $499 on November 10th.That November 12th release date will apply to the US, Japan, Mexico, Australia, New Zealand, and South Korea, with the rest of the world getting the new console on November 19th. Sony also notes that it has yet to finalize a release date for China, which it’ll announce at a later time.For comparison, the PlayStation 4 cost $399 at launch,... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge A huge drop of next-gen news Continue reading…

Image: Portkey Games Hogwarts Legacy is a new Harry Potter open world game coming to the PlayStation 5 platform, Sony announced on Wednesday during its PS5 price reveal live stream event. The game, developed by Just Cause studio Avalanche, is set in the 1800s at the iconic Hogwarts from the book series, but given its time period it will not involve playing as the series’ titular character. Instead, the trailer gives the impression that players will create their own character and engage in all manner of wizard and witch-related activities.In a press release, Warner Bros. describes the game as an “open-world, single-player, action role-playing video game set in the 1800s wizarding world,” where “players will experience life as a student at Hogwarts School of... Continue reading…

Sony has shown off its first gameplay demo for the upcoming Spider-Man: Miles Morales. The game, set a year after the events of Insomniac’s previous Spider-Man title, will put players into the shoes of Miles Morales as the heroic web-slinger, complete with new abilities and powers.In the footage, Miles faces off against a new villian, the Tinkerer, in footage that seems specifically designed to show off the fancier lighting and particle effects that the PlayStation 5 can offer over the original Spider-Man from the PlayStation 4.The new footage also shows off how Miles’ combat as Spider-Man will differ from Peter Parker in the previous game, with new flashy venom blast-infused abilities and a rechargeable camouflage for stealth (which... Continue reading…

Final Fantasy is heading to the PlayStation 5 with a new entry, Final Fantaxy XVI. The news was announced today during Sony’s console event with a brief teaser.The trailer posted today teases a world in which “The legacy of the crystals has shaped our history for long enough” as part of the upcoming action RPG. Alongside its new fantasy setting, iconic figures from the series, from Chocobos to summons like Shiva, can be seen throughout.Square Enix’s last entry in the series, Final Fantasy XV, launched in 2016 after roughly a decade of development.Ahead of the PlayStation 5 release, Sony held an event today to showcase its upcoming games and more. Final Fantasy XVI is a PS5 console exclusive, but will also come to PC.Developing... Continue reading…

Dieter Bohn / The Verge Apple’s iOS 14, the latest major software update for iPhones, should soon be available to download. Web trackers show it’s already available on Apple’s servers, so we’re just refreshing our phones waiting for it to appear. Some of the key new features in iOS 14 include widgets on the home screen, an “App Library” that organizes all of your apps in one place, a Translate app that works with 11 different languages, and picture-in-picture video (something that was already available for iPad users).Speaking of iPad, iPadOS 14 should also be rolling out shortly. One of its big new features is something Apple calls Scribble, which takes handwriting done in any text box and converts it to text. There’s also a new look for search, and some... Continue reading…

Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge Facebook just announced the Oculus Quest 2, a successor to its Quest virtual reality headset from 2019. At $299 for the base model, the new beefed-up and slimmed-down Quest is $100 cheaper than its predecessor. It’s also shipping within a few weeks: preorders opened today, and it will be available for purchase in 22 countries on October 13th. Facebook will retire its Oculus Rift S next year and the original Quest supply is already sold out in many places, so the Quest 2 will soon be the only option for Oculus headset buyers.The Quest 2 has the same basic features as the Quest. It’s a self-contained VR headset that doesn’t require a gaming PC or any external tracking sensors. It uses four built-in cameras to let people move around in VR,... Continue reading…

Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge Apple has released iOS 14 today, and Microsoft is one of the first to support the new default mail app option in Apple’s latest update. Apple is introducing the ability to switch default apps for both mail and the browser, and Outlook has been updated today to include the support.Browser and mail apps will need to be updated to support the ability to switch defaults on iOS 14, and iPhone and iPad users will need to delve into the main settings interface in the OS to switch defaults. If you want to set Outlook as the default, for example, you’ll need to head into settings, scroll down to Outlook, tap, and then select default mail app.At the time of writing, Google has not yet updated its Gmail app to allow it to be set as default on iOS... Continue reading…

Photo by Paras Griffin/Getty Images for Roadside Attractions Amazon is expanding its Samuel L. Jackson voice skill for its Alexa digital assistant to include tens of thousands more phrases, including much more of the actor’s iconic expletive-filled delivery. The company is also giving Jackson his own dedicated wake phrase: “Hey, Samuel.” The news follows Amazon’s announcement on Monday that it plans to add its next celebrity voice, Bollywood star Amitabh Bachchan, for the Indian market some time next year.The Jackson partnership launched last December, allowing Alexa users to pay $0.99 to access the actor’s voice on Echo and other Alexa-enabled devices. Since then, Amazon says consumers complained that the integration was “overly burdensome,” because you effectively had to ask Alexa to ask for... Continue reading…

The G333 in-ear headphones connected to the Quest 2. | Logited Logitech is launching two new gaming audio products that are built for the just-announced Oculus Quest 2. One of them is called the G333, and they’re Logitech G’s first in-ear headphones pictured above. The other announcement is Logitech’s G Pro wired gaming headset, which is an existing product that will now ship with two 3.5mm cables, one that’s long and another that’s small, suited for when you’re using VR. Logitech says it worked with Oculus to ensure that both will deliver a great experience for virtual reality. Logitech The G333 earbuds house dual dynamic drivers that were made to deliver enough detail in the bass, mids, and highs to “accurately recreate the VR environment.” They will cost $49.99 and ship with... Continue reading…

Photo by Suzanne Kreiter/The Boston Globe via Getty Images Over 20 states aren’t including results from a type of rapid COVID-19 test in their overall case numbers, according to a survey by Kaiser Health News (KHN). The federal government is sending millions of these types of tests all around the country in an effort to keep up with the pandemic. If states don’t release the results from those tests through their public health departments, it creates a blind spot in the overall data.The tests, called antigen tests, work by detecting a small protein on the surface of the coronavirus. They tend work much faster than the tests that look for the virus itself, called PCR tests, although they can be less accurate.According to the KHN survey, 21 states and the District of Columbia don’t report all... Continue reading…

Bill & Ted Face the Music feels a bit like a prank. Franchise filmmaking is king now, and because of this, any revival feels cynical by default. Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure and its sequel, Bill & Ted’s Bogus Journey, are perhaps among the least cynical films ever made: sincere romps through time and the afterlife starring sweet morons who love rock n’ roll. They lack any sort of edge or hint of darkness (even when they go to Hell) and delight in their lack of sophistication. There’s not a lot there, but that’s what makes them charming. This makes the idea of a third film, released over 30 years after the first, feel like a stretch. Yet it might be my favorite movie released this year.I saw Bill & Ted Face the Music at a drive-in... Continue reading…

Ubisoft has announced new Assassin’s Creed and Splinter Cell games built entirely for virtual reality. The games, announced during the Facebook Connect (previously called Oculus Connect) virtual keynote on Wednesday, mark a long-rumored but still potentially exciting addition to VR.We don’t know anything else about the games, except that they’ll be developed by Ubisoft’s Red Storm in collaboration with Ubisoft Reflections, Ubisoft Düsseldorf, and Ubisoft Mumbai. Ubisoft has developed several VR games in the past years, including Eagle Flight, Transference, and the excellent cooperative title Star Trek: Bridge Crew. Ubisoft has also produced an Assassin’s Creed VR escape room.Today’s announcement makes this installment sound a lot... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Today, the Army has found itself in a new pot of hot water after a member of the Army National Guard, Axel “ZexsOG” Torres, shouted out an anti-Semitic username live, as first reported by Motherboard. “Yo, six million wasn’t enough, thank you so much for the follow, I appreciate you,” he said.It was only last month that the US Army esports team returned to streaming on Twitch. They’d taken a monthlong hiatus, prompted by a fairly spectacular meltdown — they were banning people in the chat for asking about war crimes. (Our armed forces are streaming on Twitch because it’s a great place to recruit, in case you were wondering why branches of the military need Twitch channels.)The clip feels unforgiving, even though it is just basic... Continue reading…

Cyan Worlds Myst creator Cyan Worlds is adapting its classic adventure game to virtual reality. Facebook and Cyan announced that Myst will get a VR remake for the Oculus Quest later this year, launching after the release of the upcoming Oculus Quest 2 headset.The VR version of Myst is described as a “reimagining” of the 1993 original, which was created using Apple’s HyperCard software. It includes new art, audio, and interactions, plus a randomized puzzle option for an added challenge. A trailer offers a broad reminder of what Myst is about, but it doesn’t show us what the game will actually look like or how it will play.Cyan has already made a foray into VR. Obduction was a spiritual successor to Myst that optionally supported virtual reality. It... Continue reading…

A virtual conference for virtual reality Continue reading…

Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge Oculus announced the Quest 2, its next standalone VR headset that doesn’t require a PC. My colleague Adi Robertson wrote everything you need to know about the new Quest 2, and she even spent enough time with it to write a full review. The headset is available for preorder starting now at Oculus’ site, and it will be available for purchase starting on October 13th.Oculus says that it’s partnering with Best Buy, GameStop, Target, and Walmart to stock the Quest 2 in US stores, and it’ll be available through Amazon worldwide. It also noted that it’s bringing the Quest 2 to Japanese retail for the first time, at Bic Camera, Yamada Denki, Yodobashi Camera, and Geo stores.How much does the Oculus Quest 2 cost?The Oculus Quest 2 VR headset... Continue reading…

Oculus Facebook’s Oculus Quest 2 virtual reality headset is being released alongside several optional accessories, including two head strap variants, Logitech earbuds and headphones, a “fit pack” for different head sizes, and the Link USB-C cable. As Facebook announced today, the Quest 2’s base model costs $299, but getting the absolute best experience on it will cost quite a bit more.The Quest 2 ships with a cloth strap by default. Oculus, however, is also selling a padded plastic “Elite Strap” that offers more support and a little bit of a counterweight for the headset’s front-heavy bulk. The default Elite Strap costs $49, and a version with a carrying case and battery — which Oculus says doubles the Quest 2’s two to three hour playtime —... Continue reading…

The new default for VR, if you’re okay with Facebook Continue reading…

Facebook Facebook is giving augmented reality effects creators more places to share their work. The company announced, as part of its Facebook Connect event today, that it’ll expand third-party creators’ reach to both Messenger and Portal, meaning effects they create through Spark AR, Facebook’s AR program, can show up in that app and device, too. (AR effects already existed in both Messenger and Portal, but those effects will soon come from creators outside of Facebook’s in-house team.) The team says it’ll have updates about when the third-party effects will roll out early next year.Facebook also combined the news with updated numbers about Spark AR usage. The company now says it counts more than 400,000 Spark AR creators from 190 countries,... Continue reading…

Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge Facebook-owned virtual reality company Oculus is ending sales of the Rift S headset next spring. It’s retiring the PC-based VR device to focus on the standalone Oculus Quest 2, which can also be tethered to a computer through Oculus’ Link feature.Quest 2 product manager Prabhu Parthasarathy calls the Quest 2’s release “the right moment for us to move to a single headset.” Link, which uses a USB-C cable to support PC VR games on the Quest, was launched experimentally for the original Quest in 2019. The feature will emerge from beta later this year, officially making the $299 Quest 2 a dual-purpose headset.The Quest 2 is officially convertibleThe Quest 2 will connect to PCs through the same Oculus app as the Rift. And Parthasarathy... Continue reading…

A second-generation Oculus Quest virtual reality headset, the Quest 2, is shipping next month starting at $299. Facebook opened preorders for the Quest 2 today, and it’s launching the headset on October 13th in 22 countries. The Quest 2 will replace both the original Quest and the PC-tethered Rift S, thanks to the Link feature that lets it play PC VR games.Quest 2 specs and images have circulated widely in the past few months, and today’s announcement confirms most of the leaked details. Primarily, the Quest 2 is a slimmer and lighter version of the Quest. The headset weighs in at 503 grams instead of 571 grams and is slightly shallower than its predecessor. It features a soft cloth head strap instead of a stiff rubber one, and it’s... Continue reading…

A prototype pair of AR glasses Facebook calls Project Aria. The company intends to continue researching AR using Aria in the real world before releasing a consumer device in 2021. | Image: Facebook Facebook says its first pair of consumer augmented reality glasses will be releasing next year, CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced during the opening keynote of its all-virtual Facebook Connect conference.Facebook says the consumer device will be the culmination of work on an experimental research prototype it’s calling Project Aria, which the company will start testing in the real world by Facebook employees and contractors this month. Image: Facebook Image: Facebook The company has talked for years about its plans to build an AR device that resembles a standard pair of glasses, and now the company says it’s working with Ray-Ban maker Luxottica to design the frames, confirming rumors last fall... Continue reading…

Image: Bose Bose’s Quiet Comfort 35 II aren’t its latest set of noise-canceling headphones (those are the $400 Noise Cancelling Headphones 700), but they’re in the news again today because the company has turned them into a wired gaming headset.Simply called the Quiet Comfort 35 II gaming headset, the $329.95 package contains what seems to be the same old QC35 II over-ear headphones, as well as two new accessories: a detachable wired boom microphone that connects to your PC via a 3.5mm port and has Discord certification for voice chat, along with a USB desktop dial that lets you adjust both volume and cycle through four stages of mic monitoring. It’s available for preorder right now.$329.95 is a high price for a gaming headset, but it’s alluring... Continue reading…

Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge Apple angered many in the iPhone and iPad developer community yesterday when it announced that iOS 14 and iPadOS 14 would be available to consumers today. A single day’s notice is a big departure from the company’s usual approach, where developers are given about a week’s notice to put the finishing touches on their apps ahead of the major operating system release.The surprise comes as some iOS developers are already exasperated with the way Apple is exerting control over its App Store. Ben Thompson, Kara Swisher, and John Gruber all reported earlier this year that many are terrified about speaking up about policies they think are unfair.Nevertheless, Apple developers have sure been vocal about the sudden iOS 14 launch.Great news... Continue reading…

Image: Gateway Gateway, the major PC brand of the 1990s with the iconic cow-spotted logo, is back — well, kind of. Acer now owns the company and has decided to start selling Gateway-branded laptops again, exclusively at Walmart.Exclusively at WalmartAs is often the case with Walmart-exclusive laptops, the main attraction is the price. On the most affordable end is the Gateway Ultra Thin series, which starts with a $179 11.6-inch laptop with an AMD A4, and spans up to a $499 15.6-inch model with a Core i5. There’s also a $199 11.6-inch touchscreen 2-in-1 available, powered by an Intel Celeron processor. The names aren’t very interesting, but they do come in a variety of fun colors, including purple, blue, green, and rose gold, as well as black.On... Continue reading…

Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge Microsoft is reportedly planning to refresh its ARM-powered Surface Pro X this fall. Windows Central reports that the Surface Pro X will be updated to include Microsoft’s SQ2 processor, which will likely be based on Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 8cx Gen 2 5G. It’s not clear if this refreshed Surface Pro X will include 5G support, but Qualcomm’s latest chip supports the option for Microsoft to include it.Microsoft is also rumored to be working on a new color variant for this updated Surface Pro X, which would see the device launch in the platinum typically found on the Intel-based Surface Pro line. Microsoft launched the Surface Pro X in black last year, with a black Type Cover. It’s likely we’ll see a variety of Type Cover colors for this new... Continue reading…

Amazon Music Amazon Music now offers podcasts. The company issued an update today that brings more than 70,000 shows to the platform, including some major titles, like Serial and Pod Save America, as well as new exclusive deals like a show with DJ Khaled called The First One, where he’ll interview artists about their breakthrough hits and the stories behind them. Disgraceland, a popular show from iHeartMedia, will also become exclusive to the platform starting in February 2021.Podcasts can be listened to through the updated Amazon Music app, on the web, or on Amazon Echo devices. Echo devices will search Amazon Music by default and will remember where listeners left off, regardless of what platform they use to listen.The Wall Street Journal r... Continue reading…

If you were thinking of adding a new Apple Watch (or any other LTE-ready smartwatch with a dedicated phone number) to your Verizon account, you’ll probably like to hear that the carrier just cut the monthly cost of doing that by half. It’s normally $20 to add a watch if you don’t already have a phone on your account, though it will now costs $10 per month per watch for all standalone plans. Pricing for subscribers who have both a phone and a watch on their accounts is unchanged.This is welcome news considering Apple debuted two new Apple Watch models today: the Apple Watch Series 6 and Apple Watch SE, both of which have an LTE option. The most affordable Series 6 with LTE costs $499 ($399 without LTE), but the real bargain is the Apple... Continue reading…

Apple’s warranty program, AppleCare Plus, just saw a significant expansion in its coverage with an added annual repair for accidental damage. The changes, spotted first yesterday by MacRumors in the wake of Apple’s “Time Flies” hardware reveal, mean AppleCare Plus owners are now covered for two cases of accidental damage coverage every 12 months. That’s a total of four fixes over the standard two years of coverage.The prior window for those two incidents of coverage was 24 months (or 36 months for certain products like Macs). It appears this is the case not just for the iPhone but for all other AppleCare Plus-eligible products, which include AirPods, Apple TV, Apple Watch, Beats headphones, HomePod, iPad, iPod Touch, Mac, and Pro... Continue reading…

When Quibi launched in April, it had two big selling points: high-quality short-form video content designed for phones and Turnstyle, its quintessential technology. Except none of the titles Quibi launched with really took advantage of the Turnstyle technology, which allows for two completely different experiences when transitioning from portrait to landscape. And very few of Quibi’s originals were, well, good.Wireless is the first Quibi original that manages to accomplish both those goals — it’s not only good, it’s made better by Turnstyle. The Steven Soderbergh-produced series follows a college student, Andy (played by Tye Sheridan), after he becomes stranded in the Colorado mountains while trying to get to a New Year’s Eve party.... Continue reading…

Photo by Becca Farsace / The Verge GoPro’s new flagship action camera — the Hero 9 Black — has arrived, bringing with it one of the most significant updates in years to the product lineup. In addition to a new design that features a front-facing color display, the Hero 9 Black improves on nearly every aspect of the device, with better resolution for stills and video, a larger battery, better video stabilization, and more. The downside: those changes also bring a bigger $449.99 price tag, $50 more than 2019’s Hero 8 Black.The new Hero 9 Black improves on nearly every aspect of the deviceGoPro has improved the overall resolution at which the Hero 9 Black can shoot, with up to 20-megapixel stills (up from 12 megapixels) and the option to shoot in 5K video for the first... Continue reading…

Sony is hosting another virtual showcase for its upcoming PlayStation 5 console. It’s airing later today, and we expect to hear the last precious drips of info: a release date and prices for both configurations of the PS5 (the discless version and the model that has the Blu-ray drive). It could have been that Sony planned September 16th as its big news day all along, but it seems to be in response to Microsoft, which basically divulged every last detail about its Xbox Series S / X consoles, including their price, release date, and specs, last week following a leak.Can Sony beat Microsoft’s $299 price point for the Xbox Series S, or match the Xbox Series X at $499? We’re probably going to find out.Additionally, Sony says that the... Continue reading…

If only I was as cool as this camera Continue reading…

The new Apple Watch Series 6 includes a sensor that allows the watch to measure blood oxygen levels. The device is a long-awaited addition to Apple’s suite of health tools, but it tracks oxygen levels at the wrist, which can be less accurate than measurements typically gathered at the fingertip.Most oxygen sensors, including Apple’s, measure the amount of oxygen in your blood using light. These devices are called pulse oximeters, and they typically clip on to your fingertip. A standard version sends both red and infrared light through the finger, where there’s lots of blood close to the surface. A protein in the blood absorbs more infrared light when it has oxygen and more red light when it’s doesn’t. A sensor on the other side of the... Continue reading…

At their core, 3D Super Mario games are all about the same thing: collecting shiny things. It could be stars, or moons, or whatever “shines” are. Sure, there’s lots of jumping and boss battles and navigating tricky puzzle-like spaces. But it’s all in service of gathering up lots of glittery objects, which in turn open up new areas to explore. What makes the series work so well are the creative ways Nintendo plays around with this premise. And that’s on full display in the new collection Super Mario 3D All-Stars on the Nintendo Switch.3D All-Stars is a sort of modern take on the original Super Mario All-Stars, which gathered the NES trilogy of Super Mario games together for the then-new SNES. In this case, the focus — obviously — is on... Continue reading…

4K for less than $1K Continue reading…

Photo by Becca Farsace / The Verge I didn’t think my current socially distant life was fun enough for an Instax camera when I received Fujifilm’s new Instax Square SQ1 a few weeks ago. There were no friends laughing on my couch or tables full of hard seltzer and chips. I was alone, with no Instagram-worthy moments that a Polaroid frame would make cute. Yet, as I began taking photos of my office-apartment-studio-hybrid space, one thing became clear: a simple camera that wraps images in an iconic frame can make even the mundane look Instagram-worthy. The Instax Square SQ1 comes in “terracotta orange,” “glacier blue,” and “chalk white.” The Instax Square SQ1 is a large, plastic, square box that captures and prints images onto Fujifilm’s square film. It... Continue reading…

Photo Illustration by Jaap Arriens/NurPhoto via Getty Images Drones have been a problem for prisons for years now, where they’re often used to smuggle contraband behind bars. But could they also get inmates out of prison by airlifting them over the walls? That’s one worry expressed by federal prison officers in a new report on the topic from the Department of Justice (DOJ).The report is essentially an overview of how federal prisons track and mitigate the threat posed by drones. Much of it is given over to complaints about the bureaucracy involved in reporting drone incidents, and the difficulty in identifying and implementing effective drone countermeasures. The overall finding is that drones are only going to become a greater problem for prisons in future, and that the government isn’t doing... Continue reading…

Oculus The seventh annual Facebook Connect virtual and augmented reality conference, formerly known as Oculus Connect, is being streamed online today. Facebook is expected to announce a new Oculus Quest VR headset, which has been widely leaked over the past few months. But we could also see a slate of new virtual reality games, extra Spark AR features, updates on Facebook’s Horizon virtual world, and hints at the company’s long-term AR headset plans.And like many events during the pandemic, Connect 7 is being held fully online.Facebook Connect event start timeFacebook Connect 7 starts with a keynote at 10AM PT / 1PM ET, then continues with panels and developer sessions. It concludes at 7PM PT/ 10PM ET with an “afterparty” concert from Jaden... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge General Motors revealed new details about its Ultium battery platform for its upcoming lineup of electric vehicles. The automaker said the battery will power “a family of five interchangeable drive units and three motors” collectively known as “Ultium Drive,” which will aid GM in its transition to an “all-electric future.”“GM has built transmissions for many notable automakers,” said Ken Morris, GM vice president, Autonomous and Electric Vehicle Programs, in a statement. “Making motors, transmissions, driveline components and systems are among GM’s best-known competencies, and our manufacturing expertise is proving not only transferable but advantageous as we make the transition to EVs.” GM Ultium Drive The... Continue reading…

Apple Even though Apple didn’t announce new iPhones yesterday, the event was a jam-packed hour. Apple announced four new hardware products, a major new service, and a new bundle. By any objective standard, that’s a big day. As I’ll note below, the most important products might not be the hardware, but Fitness Plus and the ability to make an Apple Watch a kid tracker.Besides those announcements, the main thing that struck me is that Apple seems to be making a subtle but important shift in its product strategy this year. You may have heard of the “Good, Better, Best” pricing strategy — it’s been applied to Apple a bunch. I think what Apple is doing this year is making the “better” option ...better — and also a little more expensive. It’s the... Continue reading…

I. A dilemmaOn Sunday night, after being encouraged to by friends and family, I hit play on a new documentary about our digital lives. Directed by Jeff Orlowski, The Social Dilemma explores the effect of smartphones and social networks on human behavior. Blending talking-head interviews with some well known Silicon Valley apostates and fictional, after-school special-style dramatizations of what happens when Johnny and Janey scroll through feeds all day, the film presents itself as an urgent warning about our modern condition.I’m more than a little sympathetic to these concerns. I started writing this newsletter in 2017 after coming to the belated realization that social networks really did have an outsized impact on modern life, and... Continue reading…

VanMoof co-founder Ties Carlier on an S3 electric bike. | Image: VanMoof Brothers Ties and Taco Carlier have raised $53.5 million in funding since May Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Apple has responded to Epic’s demands that the iPhone-maker restore Fortnite to the App Store in new legal filings, arguing that the company’s injuries are “entirely self-inflicted” and that Fortnite can return to iOS at any time — just as soon as Epic removes the custom in-app payment system that triggered the game’s removal in the first place.“Epic started a fire, and poured gasoline on it, and now asks this Court for emergency assistance in putting it out,” writes Apple in the 37-page opposition brief. “[E]ven though Epic can do so itself in an instant by simply adhering to the contractual terms that have profitably governed its relationship with Apple for years.”“Epic could have avoided any further harm [...] with a simple... Continue reading…

Image: ABC 15 The backup safety driver who was behind the wheel when one of Uber’s self-driving cars struck and killed a pedestrian in 2018 has been charged with negligent homicide, the New York Times reports. Rafaela Vasquez, who investigators say was watching an episode of The Voice at the time of the crash, has pleaded not guilty.The crash, which happened on March 18th, 2018 and resulted in the death of Elaine Herzberg, is believed to be the first fatal collision involving a self-driving car. Investigators have said the car saw Herzberg, but did not automatically stop, and that Vasquez did not brake until it was too late. The case has raised important questions about how to safely test the new technology, and who should be held responsible when... Continue reading…

Nintendo has announced the next round of games to be added to the ever-growing Nintendo Switch Online retro library. The headliner is Donkey Kong Country 2: Diddy’s Kong Quest, the 1995 sequel to the original Donkey Kong Country that was added to Nintendo Switch Online back in July.I will be straight with you and admit that I am not a Donkey Kong Country fan. But I am a Picross fan, so I’m excited for the next addition: Mario’s Super Picross, a 1995 SNES game that has never been released in the US. (It did see release on the Wii and Wii U Virtual Console in PAL regions, though.)If you’re not a Picross player already, Nintendo has posted a tutorial for Mario’s Super Picross here:The other additions this month are Jaleco’s 1993 SNES... Continue reading…