The Verge

This could be our first look at the Xbox Series S, Microsoft’s cut-down next-gen console that carries the codename Lockhart. An image posted by Thurrott allegedly shows the console’s design and reveals a price point of $299. It’s not immediately clear where the image came from, but leaker WalkingCat followed up with a short video showing off the same design in relation to the Series X. Analyst Daniel Ahmad also corroborated the image, though couldn’t confirm the price.If they’re legitimate, the leaks show a white console that looks somewhat similar to the Xbox One S, as the Series X does to the One X. It’s depicted in vertical orientation, though the rotation of the Xbox logo suggests that may not be the primary configuration.W... Continue reading…

Protests and calls for boycotts over Disney’s live-action adaptation of Mulan have sprung up again in wake of the film hitting Disney Plus.Hashtags like #BoycottMulan have trended on Twitter following Mulan’s release on September 4th, but protests are tied to an incident that occurred in summer 2019, Vulture reports. Mulan actress and star Liu Yifei made comments last summer showing her support for police forces in Hong Kong at a time when people in Hong Kong were protesting newly suggested policies that would allow citizens to be extradited to mainland China, the BBC reported.Liu shared a message on Weibo, a popular Chinese social media platform, that read “I support Hong Kong’s police, you can beat me up now,” according to The... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge TikTok is trying to remove graphic videos circulating the app that show a man shooting himself with a gun, and banning accounts from people who are re-uploading the clip.TikTok says the clip was originally streamed on Facebook and has appeared on other apps. As the TikTok community became aware of the clip, many creators started posting videos warning their followers to look out for an image — a man sitting in front of his desk with a grey beard — and swipe away from the video. Other creators spoke about the most disturbing part of the video being hidden inside more innocuous looking TikToks. A TikTok representative confirmed to The Verge that “clips of a suicide” started circulating on Sunday night.“Our systems have been... Continue reading…

Photo by Ethan Miller/Getty Images The Joe Biden campaign is taking over a popular Instagram account from a teen supporter, who built a huge following over their summer break. Formerly a fan account, @VoteJoe account will now serve as the campaign’s primary point of grassroots outreach on Instagram, supplementing Biden’s personal account.The account began as @TeamJoeBiden and launched earlier this year by a 15-year-old supporter from California. The young supporter spent their summer creating content for the account which quickly grew to over 85,000 followers. The campaign contacted the owner of the account earlier this year asking if they could acquire it and switch it over as an official campaign channel. Now, the account’s former owner will be volunteering for the... Continue reading…

Photo by TIMOTHY A. CLARY/AFP via Getty Images Amazon-owned cloud-based comic book platform Comixology appears to be offering a wide selection of Marvel’s Black Panther comics for free this weekend. The unannounced sale was noticed by tweeters and Redditors; many Marvel comics related to the fictional African country Wakanda, where Black Panther is set, are available for free.It’s not clear how long the “sale” will last, however; there doesn’t appear to have been any official announcement.

Google Magenta A new Google Magenta project (created by an intern!) lets you mix lo-fi, hip-hop music tracks to build a custom music room in your browser, with no musical ability required. Magenta is designed to use Google’s machine learning systems for the creation of art and music, and the Lo-Fi Player is a fun example of what it can do.When you open Lo-Fi Player, you’re taken to a pixellated virtual “room” where you click different objects — a clock, a cat, or a piano, for instance— in the room to change the different tracks, like the bass line and the melody. “The view outside the window relates to the background sound in the track, and you can change both the visual and the music by clicking on the window,” Lo-Fi Player creator Vibert Thio wrote... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Facebook has blocked the live stream of a man in France suffering from an incurable ailment who planned to broadcast his death, Agence France-Press reported. Alain Cocq, 57, has a medical condition that causes his arteries to stick together, and stopped all food and drink as of Friday night. He has used his condition to try to bring about changes to France’s right-to-die law, and announced he would live-stream his death on Facebook.“Our hearts go out to Alain Cocq and those who are affected by this sad situation,” Facebook spokesperson Emily Cain wrote in an email to The Verge on Saturday. “While we respect his decision to draw attention to this complex and difficult issue, based on the guidance of experts, we have taken steps to keep... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Nine months into 2020, there’s one question on a lot of people’s minds: “Are we there yet?”We want to get back to watching weird movies in theaters, eating inside restaurants instead of on the sidewalks, and hanging out with our friends, without that pandemic dread setting in.Bad news. We are not there yet. But even in the United States, which still has the highest death toll and case count in the world, there are some signs of progress.In the US, which has relegated contact tracing efforts to the sidelines, and whose testing program is a muddled mess, most of the focus is on finding a vaccine. It’s where a lot of people have pinned their “are we there yet” hopes. “When we have a vaccine” is also when people hope they can put down... Continue reading…

Ring Ring cameras and doorbells will soon be able to connect with Lutron’s smart lighting systems, so you can set lights to turn on automatically when your Ring device detects movement. It’s a useful feature to either welcome home a family member arriving late at night, or scare off a would-be intruder at the door.Lutron Caseta, Caseta Pro, and RA2 Select systems will support the integration with all generations of Ring doorbells and cameras. Once connected, the linked lights will turn on for 15 minutes at 100 percent brightness. According to Lutron’s about page, however, there isn’t currently a way to adjust the settings so the lights turn off earlier or later, or to set them to turn on at a different brightness.You also can apply... Continue reading…

Image: Satechi Welcome to Labor Day weekend. Whether you’re working during the US holiday on Monday, September 7th, or you have off, retailers have cut prices on several tech products. For the discounts that are more limited in duration, I’ve made sure to note when those deals will end. It’s safe to assume that any deal that doesn’t list an end date will continue to be available well after Labor Day has passed.Gadgets / accessories

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Shortly before midnight on the Friday before Labor Day weekend, Epic Games pushed the button on its next legal action against Apple’s ban on the immensely popular Fortnite.There was no question that Epic would file for a preliminary injunction against Apple in an attempt to force the iPhone maker to bring Fortnite back to the App Store — hearings were already scheduled for September 28th. But now, you can read the company’s full argument (here’s a PDF; it’s also embedded below) and decide whether you think Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers is likely to be swayed.You may remember that Judge Rogers was already unwilling to issue a temporary restraining order against Apple to protect Epic’s games, partly because Epic hadn’t proven it had... Continue reading…

I’ve often heard that Shenmue set the standard for a living, breathing open world in video games when it was released on Sega Dreamcast in 1999. It was followed by some of the most highly anticipated video game sequels ever made, and Shenmue III set a record for the most-funded Kickstarter game in 2015.Now, AT&T’s Crunchyroll has announced that Shenmue is getting its own anime series. According to Deadline, it’ll air on Adult Swim’s Toonami in the United States, not just on Crunchyroll itself, and will follow game protagonist Ryo Hazuki in his quest to become a martial artist and avenge his father’s murder.Other than that rough outline, the image above, and the fact that Crunchyroll has ordered 13 episodes, we don’t... Continue reading…

My wife bought a toy game controller for our baby girl. I couldn’t have been prouder. Our six-month old already loved to drum her feet on my DualShock 4 — a born gamer.So I started absentmindedly fiddling with the so-called “Fisher-Price Game & Learn,” impressed by how many sounds they’d managed to cram into one toy.Then, a funny idea struck me. I started pressing the buttons in that infamous sequence — the one that’s become such a must-have easter egg in the gaming community, it’s worth punching into practically any game to see if developers decided to pay respects.Up. Up. Down. Down. Left. Right. Left. Right. B. A.By the time I got halfway through, I’d convinced myself it was folly. The controller’s audio wasn’t keeping up... Continue reading…

Doom is the game that just won’t die, no matter how many times you blast those demons away — and owner Bethesda has seen fit to give the 27-year-old original quite a number of upgrades this year. After adding 60fps support and community-made add-ons in January, the re-released Doom and Doom II are now getting official 16:9 widescreen support as well.According to a Bethesda blog post (via Polygon) the company has actually modified the original Doom renderer to natively provide 16:9 without letterboxing, giving you a wider field of view on the original game instead of big ugly borders or simply stretching out the existing image.The lack of letterbox should be particularly handy for owners of the Nintendo Switch, iPhone and Android... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Last year, T-Mobile announced a plan to provide 10 million low-income households free broadband internet to close what then-CEO John Legere called “the homework gap,” pitching it as one of the reasons that the company should be allowed to merge with Sprint. The company has now revealed that it has allocated $10.7 billion for that “Project 10Million” program over the next decade, with the goal of making it available to K-12 students who participate in the national school lunch program for low-income families.“Even before the pandemic, more than 9 million of America’s 56 million school-age kids did not have access to reliable internet, and could not complete after-school assignments,” the company said in a news release, suggesting that... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Today, the Trump administration released its fifth Space Policy Directive, this one designed to come up with a list of best practices for the space industry on how to protect their spacecraft from cyber threats. The goal is to encourage the government and space industry to create their space vehicles with cybersecurity plans in place, incorporating tools like encryption software and other protections when designing, building, and operating their vehicles.Senior administration officials, speaking on background, claimed that focusing on cybersecurity in space is key right now, as there are growing threats to space hardware from foreign adversaries. “These threats are diverse and complex, and robust public-private cooperation to enhance... Continue reading…

Christopher Nolan’s Tenet is finally hitting theaters in the United States, but not really. The film’s limited release in cities and states where theaters are allowed to operate means that many people — like those living in New York City or Los Angeles — can’t watch the movie. If you’re feeling bummed out about not being able to watch Tenet, may I offer you the excellent, safer alternative of streaming the movie’s score?Composed by Ludwig Göransson — the same artist who scored Black Panther, Creed, Creed II, and received an Emmy nomination for his work on The Mandalorian — Tenet’s score is a certified bop. It’s now available to stream on Spotify and Apple Music. Clocking in at just under an hour and a half, the album is a stunning,... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Some Facebook users have recently noticed that they can now watch their Instagram stories right from within the main social network app. Facebook has long allowed (and encouraged) cross-posting of Instagram stories to Facebook to help build momentum for its own version of the format — but a new test brings Instagram stories right into Facebook for direct viewing.You’ll know whether you’re looking at a Facebook or Instagram story based on what color encircles the profile photo; Facebook stories have blue circles, and Instagram’s have the same pink / orange hues of the app icon. Image: ec_wife (Twitter) Facebook is being very clear that nothing about who can see your stories is changing; only your Instagram... Continue reading…

For the past few weeks, a new influencer has steadily grown in popularity. She has long pink hair, posts about her cat Bao and her clueless dad, has lots of fan art, and frequently retweets pieces of music that she loves. Her Instagram bio reads: “aspiring songwriter, professional feeling catcher.” Oh, and she also isn’t real.Seraphine is a virtual influencer, though as her growing fan base quickly noticed, there’s something different about her. Her posts are filled with League of Legends easter eggs, and she released an acoustic cover of “Pop/Stars,” the 2018 League anthem from the virtual K-pop group K/DA. Now League developer Riot has confirmed that it’s behind the character.In a statement, Riot says:

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Removing Chinese equipment will cost small carriers as much as $1.8 billion, according to a new report from the Federal Communications Commission. The report estimates that as much as $1.6 billion of the cost would be eligible for federal reimbursement — but Congress has yet to appropriate the necessary funds.Significant national security concerns have been raised about the use of Huawei and ZTE equipment in US networks — but many small carriers are still struggling with the cost of replacing it. In one instance, Eastern Oregon Telecom told The Verge that replacing the $500,000 of Huawei equipment was likely to cost as much as $1.5 million — a cost too high for the small carrier to shoulder on its own. Today’s report makes clear that... Continue reading…

Marvel’s Avengers is something of a superhero take on the Destiny formula. It’s a game where you can play as your favorite comic book hero, team up with friends for various missions, and uncover lots and lots of loot. You gain new powers and outfits and just generally keep grinding away. I’ve been playing the game for the past week and have hardly experienced any of that — instead, I’ve been focused entirely on the single-player campaign, which is surprisingly great.The premise is, admittedly, somewhat generic. Five years after a tragedy that infected some of the population of San Francisco with superpowers, so-called inhumans are essentially outlawed, and the Avengers themselves have disbanded, viewed as a danger to society. Tony Stark... Continue reading…

Photo by Alex Wong/Getty Images The Joe Biden campaign is partnering up with the celebrity video platform Cameo in a new fundraising effort ahead of the November election.Cameo is a video-sharing platform where users can pay celebrities and influencers to record personalized messages. According to the Biden campaign, this new partnership with the platform allows participating celebrities to earmark some payments for the campaign. Andy Cohen, Mandy Moore, Tituss Burgess, Dulé Hill, and Melissa Etheridge are lending their support to the campaign on the platform starting this week. Other participating celebrities are expected to be announced soon.“We are grateful for the roster of renowned talent”“This partnership is a prime example of how this year may have upended... Continue reading…

Volkswagen’s ID 4 will make its global debut at the end of September, but before then the German automaker is giving a sneak peek at the new electric SUV’s interior. Unsurprisingly, it has a sparse, minimalist look that appears inspired by Tesla and other electric vehicles on the market.VW didn’t offer any information about the vehicle’s touchscreens or infotainment system. But from the pictures, we can see that the ID 4 will have two screens, a trapezoidal one behind the steering column and a horizontal one in the center stack. The home screen will feature apps for vehicle settings, radio, battery information, navigation, and other functions.The lighting scheme appears to be a big selling pointVW isn’t going “maximal minimalist” as... Continue reading…

A Chinese Long March 2F rocket launching a space station back in 2011. The same vehicle was used to launch a reusable spacecraft on August 4th. | Photo by Lintao Zhang/Getty Images Early this morning, China launched some kind of reusable spacecraft into space — possibly a spaceplane — a mysterious vehicle that is drawing comparisons to the US’s classified X-37B spaceplane currently in orbit around Earth. Similar to the X-37B, China’s spaceplane will remain in orbit “for a period of time” but the country claims that the vehicle is meant to further the “peaceful use of space.”It’s unclear exactly what the spacecraft looks like, as there aren’t any official renders or photos of the vehicle. However, rumors popped up earlier this year that a spaceplane mission might be happening sometime in 2020, according to Andrew Jones, a freelance reporter specializing in China’s space program. He notes that a spaceplane launch... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Something was off about the memorial service for the anonymous anthropology professor who’d died of COVID-19. For one, only four people showed up. The facilitator of the service, BethAnn McLaughlin, co-founder of the support network MeTooSTEM, had recently been accused of harassment herself. When Michael Eisen, a genetics professor at UC Berkeley, tried to search for information about the anthropologist online, he couldn’t find any. Her distinguishing characteristic on Twitter was that she really, really seemed to love McLaughlin.That made sense, in retrospect, because McLaughlin had fabricated her whole cloth. According to a report in The New York Times, since 2016, she’d been posting about sexual harassment in the science community... Continue reading…

We’ve got a gadget-heavy episode of The Vergecast this week, with the announcements of Intel’s new 11th Gen Tiger Lake CPU’s, Nvidia’s Geoforce RTX 3080 and 3090, and a whole bunch of stuff coming out of the virtual version of IFA’s 2020 showcase.Nilay, Dieter, Chaim, and Chris dive deep into all that gadget news that dominated this week, including the products revealed by Nintendo.I’ll leave some links here for you to take a look at while listening to the show, because there is a whole lot discussed in this episode.Stories discussed this week:

Photo by Andrew Hawkins / The Verge “Hey Google, how do you compete with Tesla?” Continue reading…

The Social Dilemma is a clever but simplistic drama-documentary Continue reading…

There are no two ways about it: the pandemic has been good for Peloton. Demand for the company’s high-end exercise equipment and at-home workouts has boomed as COVID-19 has shut gyms and kept customers indoors. Now, in a move likely intended to capitalize on this growth, Bloomberg reports that Peloton is planning to launch a new, cheaper treadmill.Bloomberg says Peloton’s new treadmill will cost less than $3,000 — pricey, but still less expensive than its current $4,295 model, known as the Tread. The cheaper treadmill will be smaller and have a simpler belt to replace the Tread’s current slatted design. Bloomberg says Peloton will continue to sell the current Tread but rebrand it as the Tread+.Peloton will offer cheaper and more... Continue reading…

Photography by Lewie Wilkinson Every so often, I come across a striking design and can’t immediately tell if it’s 3D or practical. Most recently, this was when I caught the work of Lewie Wilkinson, aka Laserlewdude, on Reddit. What I saw were images of bright neon lines, spheres refracting light, and color over a black background. Color and light spilled everywhere. I immediately thought of the words “vapor wave disco” in my head.The images themselves are very similar to 3D-rendered art, including some of our own early wallpapers. But what makes these even more incredible is that they are all done practically, with real lasers and glass. I reached out to Wilkinson over email to learn more about his work and process.This interview has been condensed and edited for... Continue reading…

Image: Marvel Studios In 2011, before the Marvel Cinematic Universe became an unstoppable box office and cultural force, THQ Studio Australia was hard at work on a video game tie-in for an upcoming movie called The Avengers.Not the Destiny-esque Marvel’s Avengers game that’s being released tomorrow — an Avengers game that never saw the light of day.A first-person superhero brawler, instead of the traditional behind-the-character perspective.A game on a deadline so stressful that one developer beat up his filing cabinet with an umbrella, and another decided to repeatedly stab his desk with a giant kitchen knife.

Image: Gigabyte Gigabyte has announced the Aorus 15P, a portable laptop tailored to professional gaming. It’s available now on Gigabyte’s online store, starting at $1,599.99.The company says it worked with esports teams, including G2 Esports, to design the new laptop. It weighs 4.4 pounds (2kg) — which is portable so far as gaming laptops go — and it’s 0.9 inches thick. Gigabyte says the chassis passed “a series of pressure tests” for durability.Gigabyte is promising up to eight hours of battery life, which is certainly an optimistic prediction for a gaming rig (and this one has a per-key RGB keyboard, which might draw some extra power). Image: Gigabyte The Aorus 15P under the Prime95 and Furmark stress tests. Gigabyte says... Continue reading…

We weren’t huge fans of the LG Velvet, the design-first, specs-second flagship smartphone the company released this summer. The sleek phone felt stuttery in our review. But what if I told you the T-Mobile variant comes with a different chip?Today, T-Mobile announced it’s brought an LG Velvet to the United States with a MediaTek Dimensity 1000C processor inside, instead of the mid-range Qualcomm Snapdragon 765 and 765G it usually employs. It’s one of the first times in recent memory we’ve seen a MediaTek chip in a US flagship phone, so it’s a significant milestone for a company that generally plays second-fiddle to Qualcomm, if nothing else.The question is whether T-Mobile is now giving you a faster chip than the existing LG Velvet can... Continue reading…

Image: CBS On September 8th, CBS All Access is holding an all-day streaming event to commemorate the 54th anniversary of the premiere of the original Star Trek television show. I’ll admit I skimmed the email announcement until I found what I was looking for: yes, Patrick Stewart aka Captain Jean-Luc Picard will be part of the Star Trek panel discussions and will even reunite with Jonathan Frakes aka William Riker aka Number One aka Ensign Babyface.You can tell I am a) respectful of Star Trek because I didn’t go with a cheap “boldly go” or “engage!” pun in my lede, and b) I have a somewhat limited scope of interest in the Star Trek universe. But I think that’s OK! Unlike that other space-related franchise, you can fully enjoy one aspect of the Star... Continue reading…

Logitech G has announced a new esports training program for Counter-Strike: Global Offensive called Playmaster, which is designed to help assess your skills and help you practice specific techniques, like tracking players, moving, and (of course) shooting.The company is taking this seriously, too. It’s built custom maps and levels within CS:GO to help both assess players’ current skill levels and for practice. It’s also worked with the Lero Esports Science Research Lab at the University of Limerick to develop the software — as the company proudly boasts in the announcement, Playmaster is “backed by science.”To start, players take a roughly 30-minute skill test that will allow the software to get a baseline reading for where you’re at... Continue reading…

Illustration by Grayson Blackmon / The Verge If you’re curious what kind of data Twitter stores on you — and what those hackers could have stolen during their big bitcoin scam — you can now find out once again. Twitter has reenabled the ability to download archives of “Your Twitter Data,” nearly two months after shutting off the feature as a precaution against further hacking.To access it, go to Settings > Account > Your Twitter data and you should see a screen like the one below, where you’ll need to type in your password to start the transfer. If you’re using a phone app, it may shove you over to the mobile website instead. It also might take a while before the archive is ready: I pressed the button an hour ago, and I’m still waiting for the in-app notification so... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro The Department of Justice is preparing to file antitrust charges against Google’s parent company Alphabet possibly as early as this month, The New York Times reported. Attorney General William Barr is moving forward with the case despite the objections of Justice Department lawyers who say they need more time to prepare their case and worry that pushing to file charges this month could weaken the case, according to the Times.The Justice Department opened its probe into Google last June, reportedly with a focus on its massive search business and other parts of the company. The Justice Department also opened another, broader probe last July to investigate whether big technology firms like Amazon, Facebook, and Google were stifling... Continue reading…

A COVID-19 testing site in Flordia. | Photo by Paul Hennessy/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images When someone gets a COVID-19 test, the result does one thing: tells that person if they have the coronavirus in their body. Some researchers, though, are trying to get tests to do more — and reframing the goal of testing as a result. Instead of simply finding people who are infected with the virus, they’d prefer to focus on finding people who are infectious and at risk of spreading it to other people.The proposal offers one possible way to get the pandemic under control in the US. It would allow for a more targeted approach to isolation and quarantine and help give people a better understanding of when they’re most at risk to others.It would be a big change in how we think about testing. Clinicians have never used tests for... Continue reading…

Nintendo is turning the original Super Mario Bros. into a 35-player battle royale game called Super Mario Bros. 35, available on October 1st exclusively to Nintendo Switch Online subscribers.Super Mario Bros. 35 looks to offer a similar design to Tetris 99, another Switch Online-exclusive battle royale. In the Mario version, all 35 players will play through a Mario level simultaneously until only one player is left standing. Any enemies that you defeat in your version of the level will be sent over to other players for them to deal with. Like Tetris 99, you’ll be able to see the progress of all 34 of your opponents surrounding your display and choose to target specific players based on who has the most coins, the lowest... Continue reading…

Nintendo is bringing Super Mario 3D World to the Switch with an “enhanced” version. The developer announced the news today during a special Mario-themed Nintendo Direct, celebrating the original game’s 35th anniversary.Released on Wii U in 2013, Super Mario 3D World allows you to adventure through platform levels with friends. It also added a catsuit, which turns characters like Mario and Luigi into climbing, scratching felines. The game will arrive on the Switch February 12th, 2021, along with extra content Nintendo calls Bowser’s Fury. It includes both online and couch co-op.Nintendo also announced Super Mario 3D All-Stars, a collection comprised of Super Mario 64, Super Mario Sunshine, and Super Mario Galaxy. 3D All-Stars includes... Continue reading…

During a surprise announcement today, Nintendo revealed the latest Mario Kart — and it’s an unexpected one. Mario Kart Live: Home Circuit is a racing game, but one where players use their Switch to drive remote-controlled cars. The cars, along with a virtual racecourse, then appear on the Switch’s screen. It’s sort of an augmented reality take on the iconic racer, and it was developed in partnership with a new New York-based studio called Velan Studios.Here’s how Nintendo describes it:

Nintendo is going back to the beginning with a modern version of its original Game & Watch handheld that’s been revamped with a full-color LCD. It can play Super Mario Bros. in honor of the franchise’s 35th anniversary. The new handled was announced during a surprise Nintendo Direct showcase. In addition to Super Mario Bros., the handheld can also play Super Mario Bros: The Lost Levels (released in Japan as Super Mario Bros. 2) and an updated version of Game & Watch: Ball that stars Mario (instead of Mr. Game & Watch).The design is based on the original +Control Pad from 1980, and like the original Game & Watch device, it also functions as a digital clock, which includes 35 “little touches” and Easter eggs to celebrate... Continue reading…

Late Wednesday night, European launch provider Arianespace successfully launched its Vega rocket from French Guiana, the vehicle’s first flight in more than a year. The return-to-flight launch was a demonstration mission that sent 53 small satellites into orbit around Earth.Originally scheduled to fly earlier this year, the launch endured multiple delays, including COVID-19 restrictions and terrible weather. Last night, after months of waiting, Vega finally took to the skies and successfully deployed every single satellite it was carrying into orbit.The flight’s main goal was to demonstrate a new, unique launch dispenserThe flight’s main goal was to demonstrate a new, unique launch dispenser designed by the European Space Agency and... Continue reading…

The ideal mix of nostalgia and modern touches Continue reading…

I get asked almost weekly what the best budget camera system is for someone who doesn’t know much about photography, and my answer is almost always the same: what phone do you have? Thanks to smartphones, taking great photos no longer requires learning a camera system, image editing, and the ins and outs of photography.In the latest episode of our YouTube series Full Frame, I put the top two cameras you can buy for under $400 to the test. It’s an all-out camera battle between the $350 Pixel 4A and the $400 iPhone SE in NYC. The iPhone SE and the Pixel 4A both have single read camera systems. The iPhone SE’s 12MP single rear camera is the same single camera found on the iPhone 8, while the Pixel 4A’s 12.2MP single... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge In the aftermath of the Kenosha shooting, an activist group called Change the Terms is calling on Facebook to institute new policies around potentially dangerous content, including a blanket ban on “event pages that encourage people to bring weapons to events.”In a letter to Mark Zuckerberg on Thursday, group called for a broad enhancement of Facebook’s moderation against extremism, including more automated tools for proactive enforcement and better systems for detecting event pages that promote violence. Another recommendation echoes an internal Facebook report (obtained by Buzzfeed News last week) that suggested better monitoring of spikes in user feedback reports.“We cannot stress enough the urgency of our requests,” the letter... Continue reading…

I write about and review cutting edge tech products for a living, yet every time I pick up a new piece of hardware I always think about my toaster. Not because I’m obsessed with bread, but more that my toaster is designed for how humans actually use gadgets. I use my toaster every week, and it’s a constant reminder of how other products are often badly designed.Most toasters are pretty simple, you drop one, maybe two pieces of bread inside the top, pull a lever, and a few minutes later your toast comes flying out as if it just woke up from a dough-induced nightmare. The results can vary widely, from a perfectly golden slice to a visit from the fire department. My toaster is a little different.The designers have clearly thought about... Continue reading…

Image: TCL As part of its IFA 2020 announcements, TCL is today launching a slew of new gadgets including a pair of tablets, new true wireless earbuds, and a smartwatch for seniors.The Android tablets are perhaps the most interesting products of the bunch, as the higher-end model features a 10.36-inch widescreen (2000x1200) display with slim bezels; it even comes with a stylus. The internal specs aren’t going to come anywhere close to something like Samsung’s Galaxy Tab S7, but the company is positioning the TCL 10 Tab Max as an excellent choice for watching videos or conducting video calls thanks to its dual far-field microphones. It’s set to ship in the fourth quarter for €299 (4G model) and €249 (Wi-Fi only). Image: TCL T... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Facebook will stop taking new political advertising in the United States in the seven days leading up to the election, CEO Mark Zuckerberg said today as part of a series of steps the company is taking to protect against election interference.“The US elections are just two months away, and with COVID-19 affecting communities across the country, I’m concerned about the challenges people could face when voting,” Zuckerberg said in a Facebook post announcing the move. “I’m also worried that with our nation so divided and election results potentially taking days or even weeks to be finalized, there could be an increased risk of civil unrest across the country.”Candidates and political action committees will continue to be able to buy ads... Continue reading…

An example screenshot showing what it could look like to redeem one of the new offer codes. | Image: Apple Apple will soon let developers offer discounted or free subscriptions via new offer codes, the company has announced. Developers will be able to distribute these one-time use codes physically or electronically, which Apple says could help them acquire new subscribers, retain existing ones, or “win back” lapsed customers. Apple says the feature is coming “later this year,” and will be available to customers using iOS 14 or iPadOS 14.App developers have previously been able to offer discounted pricing or introductory offers for subscriptions on Apple devices, but the new codes should give developers more granular control.Acquire new subscribers, retain existing ones, or “win back” lapsed customersAccording to a new section added to... Continue reading…