The Verge

Priority chat notifications, stricter privacy controls, and a new power menu Continue reading…

Apple has officially announced its upcoming “Time Flies” event for September 15th, and the company hid a neat augmented reality Easter egg in the event announcement that uses Apple’s ARKit to turn the swirling Apple logo into a floating image of the “9.15” event date. Apple has a long history of creating interesting logos and teasers for its event invitations. The AR element, though, adds an interactive spin on the company’s typical invites, while at the same time leveraging Apple’s augmented reality technology. It’s not clear if Apple will be announcing any specific AR-focused updates at the event or if this is just a fun use of the technology, but we’ll presumably find out next week. Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Uber announced Tuesday that “100 percent” of rides will take place in electric vehicles by 2030 in the US, Canada, and Europe, and by 2040 for the rest of the world. But rather than pay drivers directly to trade their gas-burning vehicles for electric ones, the company will impose an extra fee on trips completed in an electric vehicle to incentivize drivers to make the switch.Starting today, Uber is launching its “Uber Green” surcharge in 15 cities in the US and Canada. For a dollar extra, riders can specifically request a hybrid or electric vehicle. Drivers who use hybrid or electric vehicles to pick up passengers will get an extra 50 cents per ride, while drivers using specifically battery-electric vehicles get another dollar on top... Continue reading…

Apple has announced an event for September 15th at 1PM ET / 10AM PT. Normally, Apple announces new iPhones in September, but this year, there have been rumors of the phones being delayed. Instead, the event’s tagline, “Time Flies,” suggests we’re looking at a new Apple Watch.The event is taking place later than the usual September announcement for Apple’s fall lineup, likely due to delays caused by the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. Apple confirmed that it wouldn’t ship its new phones in September during its most recent earnings call.

Razer Razer’s latest gaming accessory is chewing gum aimed at boosting your focus and reaction time in games. The company teamed up with 5 Gum from Mars Wrigley to make “Respawn by 5 Gum” in three flavors: cool mint, tropical punch, and pomegranate watermelon. The gum is available starting today at $2.99 per 15-stick pack or $27.99 for a 10-pack. It will be available from Razer.com as well as Amazon. Razer previously released a flavored energy drink mix in 2019.Razer says this gum was developed with an “extensive amount of R&D,” part of which came from studying the daily regimens, gaming schedules, and snacking habits of casual and pro gamers. If you were turned off by the high amount of caffeine in the drink mix, you might like that the... Continue reading…

Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge Project Connected Home over IP — the ambitious attempt to bring together Amazon, Apple, Google, and the Zigbee Alliance with a unified, open-source smart home platform — has just posted its latest update on the project. The group has announced (in the first major update since the standard was revealed) that work on the project is still ongoing, and it’s targeting a 2021 release, along with the first clear idea of what devices the standard is aiming to work with.The project is still on track to provide a “draft specification” for the new standard by the end of the year, with a full launch set for 2021, according to the blog post shared by the Zigbee Alliance (a group that includes Ikea, Samsung SmartThings, and Signify / Philips Hue as... Continue reading…

The next Legend of Zelda adventure is coming very soon. Today, Nintendo revealed a new title called Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity, which will launch on the Switch this year.The game, which is being developed by Koei Tecmo, looks to be a successor of sorts to the original Hyrule Warriors from 2014. That game combined the massive battles of Dynasty Warriors with the lore and history of Zelda. The new game is set 100 years before Breath of the Wild, where players can experience the great calamity that influenced the events of BOTW. You can get a brief glimpse of the action in the video above.Age of Calamity will launch on November 20th. As for the long-awaited sequel to Breath of the Wild, Zelda producer Eiji Aonuma says, “You’ll have... Continue reading…

Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge Microsoft is reportedly preparing to launch a smaller Surface Laptop later this year. Windows Central reports that Microsoft is preparing a more lightweight version of the Surface Laptop with a smaller 12.5-inch display. This new model will reportedly include Intel’s 10th Gen Core i5 processor, 4GB of RAM, and 64GB of storage. The smaller Surface Laptop is said to be targeted at students, and it will be running Windows 10 in S Mode.Microsoft is even rumored to be pricing this new Surface Laptop between $500 and $600, making it an affordable option for the Surface line. It appears to be positioned as the Surface Go equivalent to the Surface Pro, as a smaller and more budget-friendly clamshell laptop.As is always the case with Surface... Continue reading…

Frictional Games Early in the coronavirus pandemic, during the ambient dread of New York’s locked-down spring, I realized that I couldn’t put words in a coherent order. I built virtual spaces instead. That’s how I fell in love with the cockroaches from one of my favorite horror games.I’m talking about Amnesia: The Dark Descent, an adventure gaming masterpiece that turns 10 years old today. Frictional Games’ Amnesia is a Lovecraftian tale that puts players at the mercy of enemies they can’t fight in a world full of vivid, eerie grotesquerie. Its protagonist, Daniel, wakes up in a Prussian castle with no memory and a letter, written by himself, demanding he kill the estate’s master Alexander. He ventures deeper and deeper into the castle, pursued by... Continue reading…

Music is about to become a much bigger part of Fortnite. Today, Epic is announcing a new, three-week-long concert series that will take place on the game’s party royale island. It kicks off with a live performance by Dominic Fike on September 12th and will be broadcast from a brand-new Los Angeles studio built specifically for in-game concerts. It’s all part of a bigger plan to turn Fortnite’s virtual stage into an important place for musicians.“This is a tour stop,” explains Nate Nanzer, Fortnite’s head of global partnerships. “If you’re on tour, you want to stop on the Fortnite stage. It’s a unique way to get in front of an audience that maybe you’re not reaching through other means.”“If you’re on tour, you want to stop on the... Continue reading…

The verified calls feature allows businesses like banks to display the reason for their call when they contact you. | Image: Google Google has officially announced a new “Verified Calls” feature for its phone app, which is designed to give more information when a business is calling you. Compatible calls will show a company’s name, branding, a small badge to show that it’s verified, and a reason for its call.The feature is coming to the Google Phone app, which typically comes preloaded on Pixel and Android One phones. However, Google says it will now be available to download on a “limited” set of additional phones running Android Pie and higher, including flagship handsets from Samsung and LG. Compatible phones will be able to grab the app from the Google Play Store and then set it as their default phone calling app.Depending on how businesses use it, the... Continue reading…

AP Photo/Gerald Herbert Detained, dehumanized, deported. Inside the cruel bureaucracy of ICE’s immigrant detention centers. Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Nine rival companies have pledged that any coronavirus vaccine they produce will be developed and tested with “high ethical standards and sound scientific principles.” The statement appears to be an effort by the pharmaceutical industry to quell public concerns that the vaccine approval process may be influenced by politics or other interests instead of safety.The statement, signed by the CEO of each company says: “We believe this pledge will help ensure public confidence in the rigorous scientific and regulatory process by which COVID-19 vaccines are evaluated and may ultimately be approved.”The companies’ plans for the pledge were first reported by The Wall Street Journal on Friday. Among other things, the statement promises that... Continue reading…

As the Alto series grew, so did the team behind it. With Alto’s Adventure, the game was made in collaboration between Toronto studio Snowman and English artist and developer Harry Nesbitt. But as the franchise expanded with new platforms and with a sequel, Nesbitt brought on more help. Eventually, they started working under the moniker “Team Alto.” Now, after a lot of soul searching, Nesbitt is announcing the launch of a brand-new studio called Land & Sea, which will continue to work on the series but also develop new titles.Nesbitt says that the studio is something the group has been thinking about for some time. “After the dust began to settle from launching Alto’s Adventure, I started asking myself what kind of games I’d really like... Continue reading…

General Motors is taking an 11 percent stake in electric truck startup Nikola, the companies announced on Tuesday. As part of the deal, GM will help Nikola engineer and manufacture its battery-electric and hydrogen fuel cell vehicles, including the Badger pickup truck.Nikola, which went public through a “reverse merger” with a special acquisition company earlier this year, will “exchange $2 billion in newly issued common stock for the in-kind services and access to General Motors’ global safety-tested and validated parts and components,” the companies announced. GM will also get to nominate one director to Nikola’s board.GM will supply hydrogen fuel cells to Nikola for its Class 7 and Class 8 semi trucksGM will supply hydrogen fuel... Continue reading…

The new treadmill is smaller than the original and drops the latter’s slatted belt design. | Image: Peloton Peloton has doubled its product lineup, announcing a cheaper treadmill and more expensive exercise bike. The new treadmill, called the Tread, will be available for $2,495 starting in “early 2021,” while the exercise bike, the Bike Plus, will also sell for $2,495 from September 9th in the US, UK, Canada, and Germany. As a result of the launches, the original Peloton Tread has been renamed the Tread Plus ($4,295), while the original Bike keeps its name but has a lower price tag of $1,895.We heard reports last week that this new equipment was coming, and it’s no surprise considering how Peloton’s business has grown during the pandemic. With gyms closed and more people keen to work out from home, the company has seen sales grow 66 percent... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Netflix CEO Reed Hastings says he doesn’t expect his company’s employees to return to the office until the “majority” are vaccinated — a shifting deadline that will probably see staff working from home into 2021 given current time frames for vaccine development.Netflix is one of many Silicon Valley firms currently trying to balance a desire to keep its employees safe while maintaining the sort of in-person interactions that can define a company’s culture. In an interview with The Wall Street Journal, Hastings made it clear he thought working from home was detrimental to his business, and that he’d be pushing for a return to the office as soon as possible. Here’s what he told the WSJ:

Apple’s latest retail store has drawn comparisons to a floating lantern, with a unique design incorporating a glass dome that sits directly on the water of Singapore’s Marina Bay. We first saw a glimpse of the store, the company’s third in Singapore and 512th worldwide, a few weeks ago, and the iPhone-maker has now shared new pictures of the building’s interior, which opens to visitors on Thursday, September 10th.The store is called the Apple Marina Bay Sands, and is located in a luxury district of Singapore full of shops, restaurants, and the Marina Bay Sands hotel and casino. The sphere is constructed from 114 individual pieces of glass held in place by 10 vertical mullions (the architectural term for supporting bars between panes of... Continue reading…

Microsoft’s next-gen Xbox Series S console leaked earlier today, just before the company officially confirmed its $299 pricing. Now a new leak is providing more details on exactly what’s inside the smaller Xbox Series S. Twitter leaker WalkingCat has posted a promotional video for the Series S, confirming that the console is targeting 120fps gaming at up to 1440p resolution and offering 512GB of storage.The Xbox Series S will also include support for ray tracing, variable rate shading, and variable refresh rate. Microsoft is also including support for 4K media streaming, and even 4K upscaling for games. The video also reveals the Xbox Series S is the smallest Xbox ever, and it will be 60 percent smaller than the bigger Xbox Series X.

Hours after Microsoft’s Xbox Series S console widely leaked, the company has gone on the record to confirm its existence. In a tweet, Microsoft describes the Series S as offering “next-gen performance in the smallest Xbox ever” and lists the price as the previously leaked figure of $299. In the UK it’ll cost £249.99.The accompanying image gives a better look at the Series S than the first leaked picture, showing off how thin it is and confirming the lack of a disc drive. As with the leaked imagery, the Series S is pictured standing upright, but the orientation of the Xbox logo suggests it’s expected to be more commonly used in a traditional horizontal configuration.That’s about all for the announcement right now — Microsoft says it... Continue reading…

Xiaomi’s Poco sub-brand has announced its latest phone, the Poco X3 NFC. As you might have guessed from the inclusion of “NFC” in the name of the phone itself, this is not a device targeting a typical flagship audience. But like other recent Poco phones, the X3 NFC looks to be a strong proposition from a price-performance standpoint.This is not a subtle phone, even before you get to the giant glossy “POCO” logo on the plastic back. It’s big and chunky at 9.4mm thick and 215g, with a large camera bump — but that’s just what you get when you make a phone with a massive screen, a huge battery, and a bunch of cameras. The display is a 6.67-inch 1080p panel with a refresh rate of 120Hz. It’s an LCD, which means it’s not quite... Continue reading…

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…