The Verge

Image: Apple The public beta of macOS Big Sur, the next major release of Apple’s Mac operating system, is now available. The new update brings a big visual overhaul to macOS while also adding a number of brand-new enhancements.If you’re thinking about installing the macOS Big Sur public beta, be warned that it’s still, well, a beta. That means you could experience some unexpected bugs, and software you rely on may not work with the new OS just yet. Before you install Big Sur, make sure all of your important documents are backed up somewhere safe, and if at all possible, you should only install this on a secondary Mac.But if you do roll the dice and install the Big Sur beta, you’ll immediately see that it looks much different than previous versions... Continue reading…

Final Fantasy VII Remake has held fairly steady at $60 since it launched in April 2020, but the disc-based version for PS4 is currently down to $40 at Amazon, Best Buy, Walmart, and Target. My colleague Andrew Webster called it a “thrilling, thoughtful take on a classic” in his review. In case you weren’t aware, the FF7R covers the first portion of the game in Midgar. That section isn’t too long in the original title, but Square Enix completely reimagined the world and fleshed it out with more quests, a new battle system, and some slight changes to the story. Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge Google’s Pixel 4A is its latest midrange Android phone, but you can get the Pixel 3A XL released in 2019 for $250 at Woot. It... Continue reading…

After a month-long delay, SpaceX is ready again to launch its latest batch of internet-beaming Starlink satellites. The company’s Falcon 9 rocket is slated to take off from Cape Canaveral, Florida super early Friday morning, launching 57 Starlink spacecraft as well as two hitchhiking Earth observation satellites from operator BlackSky.The flight is the latest in SpaceX’s ongoing quest to flesh out its proposed massive Starlink constellation. The company has permission to launch nearly 12,000 Starlink satellites from the Federal Communications Commission, a swarm of spacecraft that will beam broadband internet coverage to every point on the globe. After this launch, SpaceX will have launched 595 Starlink satellites (though at least one... Continue reading…

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo announces the Clean Network program. | Image: Pablo Martinez Monsivais / Getty Images The US has unveiled a vague but aggressive plan to purge Chinese tech companies from America’s internet, creating what the Trump administration has dubbed the “Clean Network” — the US internet as it currently stands, but minus a lot of Chinese tech.It’s an expansion of the White House’s 5G Clean Path initiative, which was announced earlier this year with the aim of keeping Chinese hardware companies like Huawei and ZTE out of America’s 5G infrastructure. The Clean Network program takes that anti-Chinese impulse and applies it not only to 5G but also telecoms carriers, cloud services, undersea cables, apps, and app stores. It would mean no Chinese apps in US app stores, no US data stored on the Chinese cloud, and no US apps on Chinese... Continue reading…

Image: Samsung Samsung’s first look at the upcoming Galaxy Z Fold 2 during its Unpacked event seemed to spend more time focusing on how the new model fixes the flaws of the original rather than emphasizing whatever will make the foldable flagship great. In putting so much effort into convincing customers that this time it got things right, Samsung revealed just how badly it needs foldable phones to work.At the end of the event, Samsung Electronics global executive SVP Federico Casalegno said that “going forward, 5G and foldables will be the major pillars of Samsung’s future.” For that to happen, they can’t be fragile.In a world where first-generation products are often plagued by issues — be it poor battery on the first LTE phones, oversized video... Continue reading…

The 2020 iMac with a nano texture screen. Plus, some impressions of the nano texture screen option Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge After two years as the hot new app, TikTok is suddenly fighting for its life. The app faces a potential ban in the United States due to concerns around its Chinese ownership; if it isn’t banned, parts of the app may be sold off to Microsoft or another suitor, splintering the network that exists today. If that happens, millions of TikTokkers could suddenly be looking for a new home — and competing apps will have a rare opportunity to break into the big time.With that window of opportunity opening, a new class of apps has elbowed into the spotlight: Byte, Triller, Zynn, Clash, Instagram, and Snapchat are all offering TikTok clones or music features designed to fill the hole TikTok might leave.Some of those apps have racked up eye-popping... Continue reading…

Image: Sony Sony has just announced the long-awaited followup to its popular WH-1000XM3 noise-canceling headphones. The brand new WH-1000XM4 headphones look exactly the same, but feature improved noise cancellation and, finally, the option to simultaneously pair with two devices at once over Bluetooth. They go up for preorder today for $349.99 and will start shipping in mid-August.The 1000XM4s use the same Q1N processor for noise cancellation, but Sony says it has added a new Bluetooth audio system on a chip that analyzes music and surrounding ambient noise 700 times per second. Combined with a tweaked algorithm, this makes the 1000XM4s better at hushing voices and mid-frequency everyday ambient sound.In terms of audio quality, the 1000XM4s... Continue reading…

Sony didn’t change much, but it made the improvements we’ve been waiting for Continue reading…

Amazon is expanding its lineup of Echo Flex accessories with a new Smart Clock attachment, which plugs into the USB port on the bottom of the smart speaker, adding a display to view the current time or how much time is left on a timer.The smart clock attachment costs $14.99 (the same price as the existing motion detector and nightlight accessories), and it features a built-in sensor to automatically adjust the brightness during the day. It’s designed to work seamlessly with the Echo Flex. Simply plug it in, and it’ll automatically display the current time (based on whatever time zone you’re in) and display any timers you set through regular Alexa commands.The main downside is that the Echo Flex only supports a single accessory at... Continue reading…

Turning Star Trek into an animated comedy for adults is, honestly, a genius idea. If you’re not super into the franchise, it’s easy to assume Star Trek is stodgy and self-serious, the sci-fi show for people who like thinking more than fun. Actually watch Star Trek, and you’ll find all sorts of quirky idiosyncrasies and plenty of comedy because Star Trek is really just about meeting people who are different than you, and sometimes that has very funny results. This makes CBS All Access series Star Trek: Lower Decks great idea — but it also, strangely, feels stale because Rick and Morty has already beaten it at its own game.At first glance, the comparison doesn’t seem apt, but that’s only because Lower Decks delights in Trek minutiae. The... Continue reading…

Samsung Galaxy Tab S7 Plus. Yesterday, Samsung announced a boatload of new products, including the latest version of its popular Note smartphone and the next folding phone in its portfolio. Also in the mix was the new Galaxy Tab S7 and S7 Plus, the company’s latest high-end Android tablets designed to go blow-for-blow with the iPad Pro.As expected, the Tab S7 duo stack the spec sheet, at least as far as Android devices go. They have everything from 5G to 120Hz displays to quad-speaker systems. But they also cost a stack, starting at $649.99 for the 11-inch Tab S7 and $849.99 for the 12.4-inch S7 Plus. Adding Samsung’s keyboard folio case to the mix tacks on another $199.99 (11-inch) or $229.99 (12.4-inch) to the tally, meaning you can easily spend over a grand on... Continue reading…

An unconventional design turns out to be a winner Continue reading…

This is the best Chromebook of 2020 so far Continue reading…

Image: The Verge An update to Twitter’s iOS app lets all users limit who can reply to their tweets. Twitter has been experimenting with this feature since May, but now seems to be rolling out it more widely.“In May, we tested a new way to have a chat with exactly who you want, so you can create and consume more meaningful changes,” says the update text on the App Store. “Now, everyone can try this new feature and choose who can reply to their tweets.”To use the feature, users simply tap a box above the keyboard when composing a tweet that says “Everyone can reply.” They can then choose between three options: everyone can reply to their tweet, only people they follow can reply, and only people they mention can reply. Choosing one option doesn’t make... Continue reading…

Based on wallpaper by Michael Gillett (Wallpaper Hub) Why, exactly, is Microsoft — purveyor of office software, cloud services, and high-end laptops — so well positioned to buy viral video app TikTok? We’ve previously looked at how the acquisition fits Microsoft’s future ambitions, but a new report from The Financial Times explains how the US tech giant has been preparing for this sort of deal for decades by nurturing connections with China’s tech elite.As the FT explains, Microsoft has been involved in the Chinese tech world for far longer than many rivals. Its research labs in China have functioned as incubators for local talent from the 1990s onwards, and many top Chinese tech executives (including Zhang Yiming, founder of TikTok’s parent company ByteDance) have worked for the company... Continue reading…

Photo by Becca Farsace / The Verge Samsung’s big Unpacked event went off with just a few hitches. It’s nice to know that even when an event is online some kind of logistical issue can cause AV problems and delay the beginning of a keynote. Makes everything feel a little more normal.I tease — the event itself was actually well executed. Samsung didn’t fake an auditorium but still did its best to make the occasion feel big. Microsoft and Apple went much further at embracing a new online format, but Samsung managed it fairly well. There were definitely cringe moments (Samsung kept showing Bluetooth pairing interfaces?), but overall it was a strong event. Plus, Samsung had a much more diverse and engaging set of presenters than any other tech keynote in recent memory. Bravo,... Continue reading…

Image: U.S. Army Esports / Facebook The US Army’s esports team is unbanning Twitch users it blocked from its streams for asking about American war crimes, and says it will be returning to Twitch soon.In a statement sent to The Verge, a spokesperson for the army said the esports team would be “reinstating access for accounts previously banned for harassing and degrading behavior” and that it was “reviewing and clarifying its policies and procedures for the stream.” The esports outfit, which paused streaming last month after accusations it was violating the first amendment by banning users, said it would “resume streaming on Twitch in the near future, but a specific date has not been set at this time.”Military Twitch streams are government forums and have to respect the... Continue reading…

A now-deleted sentence from a Google France blog post suggests that the Pixel 5 and Pixel 4A 5G will be available to preorder on October 8th. The two phones were announced this week alongside the Pixel 4A (which is available to preorder now) but Google has yet to share official preorder dates for the handsets, only saying they’re “coming this fall.”The inadvertent leak was reported by 9to5Google, after a reader spotted the preorder date for the Pixel 5 and Pixel 4A 5G mentioned in the official Pixel 4A announcement post from Google France. That mention has since been deleted from the post (though can be seen in the cached page), with Google offering 9to5Google no further comment on the issue. Image: 9to5Google T... Continue reading…

Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The Verg A leaked internal Google document suggests that the company has earmarked the fourth quarter of next year for the release of a foldable Google Pixel phone, 9to5Google reports. The device, codenamed “Passport,” is said to be explicitly referred to as being “foldable,” and is included alongside a list of all Pixel devices going back to 2017’s Pixel 2.As well as the foldable Pixel, the document also mentions a “lower end mid year device” called the Pixel 5A with a “Q2 2021” release date, and two other devices codenamed “Raven” and “Oriole” for “Q4 2021.” 9to5Google speculates these could be Pixel 6 models. Finally there’s the Pixel 4A 5G and Pixel 5, which Google pre-announced alongside the Pixel 4A earlier this week. Officially these... Continue reading…

Error displayed when visiting Canon’s USA website. Just one week after Garmin recovered from a ransomware attack, data and systems belonging to Japanese tech firm Canon are reportedly now being held hostage. BleepingComputer reports that 10TB of company data has been stolen as Canon suffers widespread ongoing system outages.More than two dozen Canon-owned domains have been affected by the outage. Canon’s USA website currently says it’s down for maintenance although its global and Japanese websites seems unaffected.An internal email from Canon IT reportedly said that the company is experiencing “wide spread system issues affecting multiple applications, Teams, Email, and other systems may not be available at this time.” BleepingComputer also obtained a partial screenshot of the alleged... Continue reading…

Photo by James Bareham / The Verge Nintendo has posted extraordinarily high earnings for its normally quiet April-June quarter, as Animal Crossing: New Horizons continues to be a sales juggernaut that drives Switch hardware purchases.Operating profit is up 428 percent year-on-year to 145 billion yen ($1.37 billion) off 357 billion yen ($3.39 billion) in revenue, with Switch sales up 166 percent to 5.68 million systems in the quarter. Nintendo has now shipped 61.44 million Switch consoles, just 470,000 shy of the original Famicom/Nintendo Entertainment System.Animal Crossing: New Horizons sold more than 10 million units in the quarter, bringing its total sales up to 22.4 million. Nintendo says that of all the new Switch consoles that were played for the first time this... Continue reading…

Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The Verg Google has discontinued the Pixel 4 and Pixel 4 XL, its flagship phones that were released in October of last year. Both devices are out of stock in Google’s store in the US, though some variants are still available in other regions for the time being.“Google Store has sold through its inventory and completed sales of Pixel 4 [and] 4 XL,” a Google spokesperson confirms to The Verge. “For people who are still interested in buying Pixel 4 [and] 4 XL, the product is available from some partners while supplies last. Just like all Pixel devices, Pixel 4 will continue to get software and security updates for at least three years from when the device first became available on the Google Store in the US.”It’s unusual for Google to discontinue... Continue reading…

Photo by Alex Wong/Getty Images Twitter said it would prevent President Trump’s @TeamTrump campaign account from tweeting until it removed a tweet that violates Twitter’s rules on COVID-19 misinformation, the company confirmed to The Verge Wednesday evening. However, it appears that @TeamTrump has removed the tweet in violation of the rules, as it has tweeted again several times this evening.The tweet in dispute, according to The Washington Post, was a clip of an interview Trump gave to Fox News where he falsely claimed that children are “almost immune” to COVID-19.If you navigate directly to the tweet as of this writing, you’ll see a notice saying that the tweet “is no longer available” because it violated Twitter’s rules. President Trump had also linked to the... Continue reading…

Photo credit should read CHRIS DELMAS/AFP via Getty Images Alan and Alex Stokes, 23-year-old twin brothers known best for posting prank videos to YouTube under their channel Stokes Twins, have each been charged with a felony related to a fake bank robbery, the aftermath of which the brothers recorded and posted to YouTube last October, according to the Orange County district attorney’s office (via The Hollywood Reporter.)As part of the prank, the two brothers falsely presented themselves as criminals to an Uber driver and other random bystanders, who they then implored to give them clothes, rides, and other forms of assistance in a way that South California authorities say broke the law.“These were not pranks. These are crimes that could have resulted in someone getting seriously injured or... Continue reading…

Image: US Department of State The 2020 US presidential election is less than 100 days away, and in an effort to prevent the foreign election interference that played a role in the 2016 election, the US Department of State announced today that it’s offering up to $10 million for any information that can identify someone who’s been meddling in a US election.Specifically, the State Department is offering the reward for “information leading to the identification or location of any person who works with or for a foreign government for the purpose of interfering with U.S. elections through certain illegal cyber activities.”Foreign interference is reportedly already present in this year’s electionAs November draws near, foreign interference is reportedly already... Continue reading…

Photo by Michael Reaves / Getty Images The Federal Bureau of Investigation raided the California home of YouTube star Jake Paul this morning, according to TMZ and CBSLA. Agents removed several objects that looked like firearms from Paul’s home, ABC7 reported. The bureau is investigating “allegations of criminal acts” surrounding an incident at an Arizona mall in May, a spokesperson for the FBI’s Phoenix office told The Verge.A second location, in Las Vegas, Nevada, was also raided today in connection with the investigation. TMZ says the home is owned by Arman Izadi, a friend of Paul who was also connected to the incident at the mall.Police in Scottsdale, Arizona previously called the incident in the mall a “riot.” The FBI appears to have taken over the investigation into... Continue reading…

The 2021 Audi E-Tron, the company’s first all-electric car, will start at nearly $9,000 less than the current version and will get a range bump of 18 miles — bringing its total EPA-estimated range to 222 miles on a full battery pack.The starting MSRP is dropping thanks to a new base version of the E-Tron SUV that will now start at $65,900, which is down $8,900 from the current $74,800 price tag. There are some sacrifices, of course. The company’s “Matrix” LED headlights (which aren’t available in the US to begin with) aren’t included with the base model, and neither is the Bang & Olufsen sound system. Audi will sell more fully-loaded versions of the 2021 E-Tron that start as high as $79,100.The company is introducing a new base trim... Continue reading…

Photo by Drew Angerer/Getty Images Facebook has removed a post posted by President Donald Trump’s account for violations of its misinformation policy, the company confirmed to The Verge. The video posted was of a Trump interview with Fox News’ Fox & Friends program, in which the president claimed children are “almost immune” to COVID-19, which is false. The interview also included Trump saying COVID-19 “is going to go away,” and that his view is that “schools should open” because “this it will go away like things go away.”A recent study conduced by infectious disease experts at Children’s Hospital of Chicago found that children younger than five can carry the virus at levels far higher than adults, although there is still debate over whether children can pass COVID-19 to... Continue reading…

It’s starting to seem like Etsy only sells two kinds of products: masks, and everything else.The product marketplace just released its Q2 earnings report, and the company says it helped sell $346 million worth of masks during the pandemic, accounting for 14 percent of all sales across small sellers on the platform. 4 million people came to Etsy for masks alone, buying nothing else, and 112,000 different sellers made money by selling those masks on the platform. If “masks” were listed as their own product category in Etsy’s financial results, they’d rank third on the entire site: they’re not quite as big as the $740 million worth of home goods or the $362 million worth of jewelry that Etsy helped sell in Q2, but they... Continue reading…

Microsoft has ended its xCloud game streaming test for iOS devices today. The software giant had been testing xCloud on iOS in a very limited way over the past few months, but made it clear the service would only be launching on Android earlier this week. Microsoft had informed xCloud testers that the preview would end on September 11th, but only the Android preview will continue until next month.“Our Project xCloud preview TestFlight period has ended on iOS and we are focused on delivering cloud gaming as part of Xbox Game Pass Ultimate to Android customers beginning September 15,” says a Microsoft spokesperson in a statement to The Verge. “It’s our ambition to scale cloud gaming through Xbox Game Pass available on all devices.”M... Continue reading…

Photo by Mario Tama/Getty Images Uber and Lyft are committing wage theft by misclassifying drivers as independent contractors, California’s labor commissioner alleges in separate lawsuits against the companies. The classification of drivers as freelance workers has deprived them of “a host of legal protections in violation of California labor law,” the lawsuits say.“The Uber and Lyft business model rests on the misclassification of drivers as independent contractors,” said California Labor Commissioner Lilia García-Brower in a statement. “This leaves workers without protections such as paid sick leave and reimbursement of drivers’ expenses, as well as overtime and minimum wages.”The pair of lawsuits are the latest legal challenges against Uber and Lyft in California,... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge A few weeks ago, Intel teased that “something big” is happening on September 2nd. Now, thanks to the event calendar on the company’s own investor relations site (and eagle-eyed Twitter user @SteakisGood for spotting it), we have confirmation that this is when Intel plans to talk more about its 10nm 11th Gen Tiger Lake CPUs, the ones featuring its anticipated Xe graphics.Acer has already promised machines that feature the new processor, so perhaps we’ll hear more about OEM support.Another notable date on the calendar is even sooner. Next week, on August 13th, Intel is hosting an event called “Updates from our Chief Architect, Raja Koduri.” We suspect the company will be providing more details about its first discrete GPU, the DG1, w... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Instagram has disabled its “related hashtags” feature after a bug restricted the feature for select phrases across the platform. Related hashtags did not appear on the tens of thousands of hashtag pages affected by the bug, potentially restricting available information to any user who tapped on one as it appeared in photo or video captions or sought it out via search.The issue came to light after a Tech Transparency Project (TTP) report, further explored by BuzzFeed News, found that the bug affected Trump-related hashtags but not those related to Joe Biden. Because many of the related hashtags were derogatory — including #creepyjoebiden, #joebidenpedophile, and #neverbiden — the disparity raised concerns Instagram might be favoring... Continue reading…

Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge Google Play Music as a service will begin its staggered, region-based shutdown starting next month, but Wear OS users have only a few weeks left to use the smartwatch app before it’s rendered unusable. That latter detail went unmentioned during Google’s announcement that put a December expiration date on the service, and it went unnoticed — until Android Police picked up on a recent post that details its upcoming sunsetting on Google’s Wear OS forums.The most notable thing to take away here is while you can easily migrate your Google Play Music library over to YouTube Music on the mobile app, there isn’t a Wear OS app for YouTube Music to quickly take its place. Google says in the forum post that it plans to bring improvements to... Continue reading…

Microsoft is now allowing Windows 10 users to run Android apps side by side with Windows applications on a PC. It’s part of a new feature in Your Phone available to Windows 10 testers today, and it builds upon the mirroring that Microsoft’s Your Phone app already provides. You can now access a list of Android apps in Microsoft’s Your Phone app and launch these mobile apps accordingly. These will run in a separate window outside of the Your Phone app, mirrored from your phone.This new Android app support also allows Windows 10 users to multitask with other Windows apps with alt+tab support, and you’ll even be able to pin these Android apps to the Windows 10 taskbar or Start menu. The ability to launch apps directly from Your Phone means... Continue reading…

Image: Harry Potter/Warner Brothers The tangled journey of the streaming rights for the Harry Potter films just got even more confusing, as Peacock has announced that it’ll be offering the series starting in October. The Potter films are currently streaming on HBO Max but are set to leave the service on August 25th.When Harry Potter arrives on Peacock, it’ll be available for at least a month, according to Vulture, before heading to NBCUniversal’s linear broadcast and cable TV channels and then returning back to Peacock again in 2021. However, it sounds like that, too, will be a temporary run for only a few months.If you’re confused why NBCUniversal’s streaming service is about to be the home of one of Warner Bros.’s biggest franchises, it’s because in 2016, Warner Bros.... Continue reading…

Samsung announced FDA clearance during today’s event. The Samsung Galaxy Watch 3 includes a heart-monitoring electrocardiogram (EKG or ECG) app, which has been cleared by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA). It’s the second smartwatch in the US with this feature; the Apple Watch received clearance for a similar app in 2018.“I’m excited to announce that we have just received the US FDA clearance for Samsung’s ECG monitoring app,” said Samsung SVP Federico Casalegno in today’s Unpacked event.The clearance means that the watch can be used as a medical device. It’s not the same as full approval, which is a high standard only given to high-risk Class III devices (like pacemakers) that go through extensive testing. Samsung’s app is a lower risk Class II product, an FDA spokesperson... Continue reading…

Illustration by Grayson Blackmon / The Verge Last Friday, a 17-year-old Florida high school graduate, Graham Ivan Clark, was arrested and charged as the “mastermind” behind the massive bitcoin scam that ensnared the accounts of Barack Obama, Joe Biden, Bill Gates, Jeff Bezos, Apple, and more — after he allegedly posed as a member of Twitter’s IT department and used Twitter’s own admin tools to break into those accounts.This morning, I woke up early to hear what he — or his lawyer — had to say about that. It was so easy I didn’t even have to get to a desk. The court had publicly revealed last week it’d hold hearings over Zoom, no password required, so I tuned in with my phone from bed.Apparently, it was too easy. So easy that trolls decided to zoombomb the entire hearing,... Continue reading…

Image: Samsung Samsung has opened its online reservation system for the new Galaxy Z Fold 2 foldable announced earlier today at its Unpacked event. For those unfamiliar with this approach, Samsung now occasionally uses reservations ahead of preorders for devices it expects to be in immediate high demand but for which there is still limited official information — like how much it might cost, for instance.Effectively, you reserve a spot now to preorder later, so that you’re guaranteed the chance to put money down and secure a unit once you know how high the price tag will be. The company opened a similar reservation system for the Galaxy Note 20 last month, before it was also announced today but after everyone had a pretty good idea of what the device... Continue reading…

Becca Farsace / The Verge Samsung is promising to “support three generations of Android updates” for Galaxy phones, but that won’t apply to all the phones it makes. Samsung says it will happen for phones from the Galaxy S10 and newer, but that some of its lower A-series phones may not be up to it. In a statement to The Verge, Samsung clarifies that the guarantee “applies to S, N and Z Series. A Series will support until hardware allows.”The original promise flew by near the end of its Unpacked keynote for the Galaxy Note 20 Ultra (and many other devices). Samsung has made big strides in offering Android updates in recent years, reducing the amount of time Galaxy S owners have needed to wait for OS updates by months. However, because of the way the Android... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Microsoft isn’t planning to rename Xbox Live or discontinue Xbox Live Gold. Rumors of an Xbox Live rename appeared this week, after Microsoft announced changes to its services agreement. The software giant started referring to Xbox Live as the “Xbox online service,” prompting some to assume Xbox Live was going away.“The update to ‘Xbox online service’ in the Microsoft Services Agreement refers to the underlying Xbox service that includes features like cross-saves and friend requests,” says a Microsoft spokesperson in a statement to The Verge. “This language update is intended to distinguish that underlying service, and the paid Xbox Live Gold subscription. There are no changes being made to the experience of the service or Xbox Live... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge DoorDash on Wednesday announced the launch of a chain of virtual convenience stores the company is calling DashMart, which will sell snacks, groceries, and other food-related products from partner restaurants. These stores don’t have brick-and-mortar locations. Instead, they exist solely on the DoorDash app, kind of like a ghost kitchen if it were a CVS or 7-Eleven instead.Right now, the company says DashMart is available in eight cities in the US: Chicago, Illinois; Columbus, Ohio; Cincinnati, Ohio; Dallas, Texas; Minneapolis, Minnesota; the greater Phoenix, Arizona area; Salt Lake City, Utah; and Redwood City, California. But DoorDash is planning to expand that to more locations in the future, starting with a broader rollout in... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Samsung and Microsoft announced at last year’s Galaxy Unpacked that they would be forming a closer partnership to help Android and Windows work better together. At today’s Galaxy Unpacked, the two companies revealed new integrations between their two ecosystems — including a way to run apps from your Galaxy Note 20 on your Windows 10 PC.Here’s a GIF from Microsoft showing a Windows 10 PC running WhatsApp and Instagram side by side from a Galaxy Note 20: You’ll only be able to use one app at a time on your PC at first, but Microsoft says that you’ll be able to run multiple apps, as is shown in the GIF, sometime in November. You’ll also be able to pin apps to your Windows taskbar or Start menu so you can access them more... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge This week, Virginia plans to release a COVID-19 exposure notification app based on the specifications published by Apple and Google in April. The app, called COVIDWISE, is the first fully deployed implementation of Apple and Google’s system in the US and was beta tested by the state department of health.The specification is designed to preserve patient privacy, particularly around their location and whether they have tested positive for COVID-19. “No location data or personal information is ever collected, stored or transmitted to VDH as part of the app,” a health department official told Virginia Public Media, which first reported the news. “You can delete the app or turn off exposure notifications at any time.”If someone tests... Continue reading…

Samsung’s anticipated Unpacked 2020 event is all packed up. The Galaxy Note 20 and Note 20 Ultra are now real things, as are the Galaxy Tab S7 tablet, the Galaxy Watch 3, and the Galaxy Buds Live (FKA “Beans”). Also, it announced the new Galaxy Z Fold 2. In case you missed out on the presentation or just want to see the main highlights of the show without having to watch through the live stream yourself, we’ve distilled them all into bite-size bits below. Becca Farsace / The Verge Samsung launches the Note 20 and Note 20 Ultra, available August 21stSamsung’s Galaxy Note 20 and Note 20 Ultra are loaded with powerful specs, starting at $1,000 for the Note 20 and $1,300 for the Note 20 Ultra. Both models have the... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Google is updating its office software on mobile devices for G Suite users, adding new features to the Docs, Sheets, and Slides apps that should make it easier to get work done from your smartphone. The changes are mostly visual and include a link preview feature and new comment interface. Google is also bundling in the news that Dark Mode is available for Docs, Sheets, and Slides, though it announced that last month.The full changes are as follows:

Google Google has injected a new cinematic slideshow above the top row of apps in the Android TV interface to make it easier to find content you might like. It will contain curated TV show, movie, and app recommendations from Google as well as sponsored content. Google says that “each source will be clearly labeled on the content, giving users transparency,” so that users can differentiate between curated recommendations and paid advertisements, and it will contain only media and entertainment-related content. If you pause on one of the items, it’ll start playing a preview, like how Netflix’s TV app does.Recommending popular, relevant content and apps will probably be useful for most people, but some likely won’t be too thrilled to see giant... Continue reading…

The latest craze on Twitch is Fall Guys: Ultimate Knockout, a game about squeaky little critters who compete in a series of challenges to be the last bean standing. It’s an adorable, madcap little game that feels like a mashup of battle royale and Nickelodeon Guts.Each “show” begins with 60 players who have to beat various challenges to qualify for the next round and keep playing. It only took me a day to sample all of the game’s challenges, but there’s enough variety on day one to keep things interesting, and most of the challenges are pretty light and entertaining. There are a bunch of obstacle courses and mini-games, including memory-matching, football, and an egg-hoarding challenge that’s basically just Hungry Hungry Hippos. The... Continue reading…

Fortnite has finally added cars to the game with its latest update: Joy Ride.The battle royale title has had plenty of vehicles come and go over past updates, including planes, helicopters, boats, golf carts, driftboards, and ATVs, but plain old cars are a new addition. Their introduction was teased back in the trailer for the Chapter 2: Season 3 launch that flooded the map, but are now available with the game’s latest update.So far there seem to be just four types of car available. There’s the middle-of-the-road Islander Prevalent, the sporty Victory Motors Whiplash, the OG Bear pickup, and the Titano Mudflap big rig. They’re easy enough to find around the map, though you will have to keep them topped up with gas (which you can find... Continue reading…