The Verge

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge The New York Times has acquired the audio production company behind the popular podcast series Serial, which is widely credited with helping popularize the modern narrative podcast movement. The company, called Serial Productions, was formed in 2017 by Sarah Koenig, Julie Snyder, and Ira Glass after the success of the podcast’s initial season three years prior, and the team has gone on to produce two follow-up seasons of Serial and a standalone podcast called S-Town. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.As part of the deal, The Times is entering into what’s being described as an “ongoing creative and strategic alliance” with This American Life, the syndicated radio program from which Serial was originally spun off and for which Glass... Continue reading…

Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge Microsoft’s AI-powered “eye contact” feature for the Surface Pro X is finally starting to roll out, months after it was originally announced for the ARM-powered Surface laptop last year.The new feature is rolling out now as part of Windows 10 Insider Preview Build 20175, which means that it likely isn’t too far from a broad release.According to Microsoft, the new feature relies on the “artificial intelligence capabilities of the Microsoft SQ1 processor” to adjust where your eyes are looking in a video call or chat to make sure that you always appear to be making eye contact with the camera — even if the lens is off to the side or you’re looking down at your display. When enabled, the eye contact correction will automatically apply to... Continue reading…

You know that chumbox of weird garbage that appears at the bottom of most news sites, including this one? You know the one! It’s labeled “Promoted stories” or “Around the web.” It’s got headlines like: “1 Weird Trick to Lose Weight,” “You Won’t Believe What [STAR NAME HERE] Looks Like Today!,” and “Throw this vegetable out!” There are two major players in the field — Taboola and Outbrain — and the Justice Department has approved their merger.Why are they called chumboxes? Well, chum is fishbait — you throw decomposing fish guts, blood, and bones into the water to lure other fish. A chumbox is like this but for humans online.You won’t BELIEVE why publishers are using themThese chumboxes exist because they’re more lucrative than other... Continue reading…

Photo by Sean O’Kane / The Verge Tesla will build its next US factory in Austin, Texas, CEO Elon Musk announced today, wrapping up a months-long search for a location to build the upcoming Cybertruck. Construction work is “already underway,” Musk said. “It started this weekend.”Tesla was recently granted tens of millions of dollars in tax breaks from both the county in Texas where the factory will be built and from a local school district. The company was also considering Tulsa, Oklahoma, and Musk said Tesla would “strongly consider” it for future projects.The new factory in Texas will be open to the public, Musk said, and that there will be a boardwalk and hiking and biking trails. “It’s going to basically be an ecological paradise. Birds in the trees, butterflies,... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Tesla turned a profit of $104 million in the second quarter of 2020 despite shutting down its electric vehicle factory in Fremont, California, for roughly seven weeks because of the COVID-19 pandemic. As a result, Tesla has now been profitable for four straight quarters for the first time in company history — an elusive benchmark the company has long sought.But perhaps more importantly, Tesla says it has a “site selected” for its next Gigafactory in the US. During a call with investors, Tesla CEO Elon Musk announced the factory would be located in Austin, Texas. He described it as an “ecological paradise... with birds in the trees, butterflies, fish in the stream.” The factory will also be open to the public, he said.The company is... Continue reading…

Image by Alex Castro / The Verge Microsoft posted fiscal fourth quarter earnings on Wednesday, beating Wall Street expectations on both sales and profit for the past three months amid the economic downturn caused by COVID-19. In fact, it appears many of Microsoft’s various divisions are benefiting from the effects of the pandemic, with the shift to remote work and shelter-in-place orders around the world pushing people toward gaming, video conferencing, and other virtual pastimes.“The last five months have made it clear that tech intensity is the key to business resilience. Organizations that build their own digital capability will recover faster and emerge from this crisis stronger,” Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella said in a statement. He goes on to say Microsoft is in... Continue reading…

Image: Evan Blass (Twitter) Samsung’s August Unpacked event is getting closer, and today, there’s a thorough spec dump for the standard Galaxy Note 20. We’ve already gotten the full rundown for the top-tier Note 20 Ultra, but now we can get a fuller picture for just what differences there are between the two — and the sacrifices Samsung made on the “smaller” phone. WinFuture has published the specs, just as it did for the bigger upcoming Note.The most significant downgrade is definitely the screen. The regular Galaxy Note 20 will have a 6.7-inch, 1080p display that tops out at a very traditional refresh rate of 60Hz. (The Note 20 Ultra is believed to have an enormous 6.9-inch 3200 x 1440 display that runs at 120Hz like the Galaxy S20.) On the plus side, images... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge If AT&T sent you an email telling you to upgrade your phone — or else — would you write it off as a scam? Well, that’s just what the company did this week, as reported by Android Police.Under the big, blue, bold, all-caps heading “UPDATE NEEDED,” the carrier is telling some customers that their devices are “not compatible with the new network” and that they “need to replace it to continue receiving service.”Here’s the email: Image: Android Police Image: Android Police One big problem here: despite what it sounds like, these customers don’t actually need to swap out their phones until early 2022, AT&T confirms to The Verge.As Android Police suggested earlier, what AT&T is actually doing... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Ubisoft has publicly committed to keeping prices for new games released on next-gen consoles this fall at $60, the company said in an earnings call on Wednesday. That diverges from the strategy of fellow video game publisher Take-Two Interactive and its subsidiary 2K Games, which are planning to charge an extra $10 for next-gen PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X versions of the upcoming NBA 2K21.“We plan to come with the same price as the previous generation of consoles” were the company’s words, though in reference only to its fall slate of new releases. While this is Ubisoft’s first time saying aloud it will not raise prices for next-gen games released this holiday season, its Xbox preorder pages for games like Assassin’s Creed Valhalla a... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Ubisoft team leads will now be given bonuses according to “their ability to create a positive and inclusive workplace environment” following widespread harassment allegations. The company announced the changes today during its Q1 sales call as part of a larger initiative to address systemic problems within its studios. “Each time we have been made aware of misconduct, we made tough decisions and we made sure that those decisions had a clear and positive impact,” Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot said during the call. “It has now become clear that some individuals betrayed the trust I put in them. I have never compromised on my core values and ethics, and I never will.”In June, workers across the game industry came forward on Twitter with... Continue reading…

It looks like many of us are going to be pretty much stuck at home for the foreseeable future, and it’s possible that you’ve already binged all of the series that your friends and family have recommended. Don’t despair! If you’re still looking for series to lose yourself in, there are still plenty out there.We went to the staff of The Verge to ask what they recommended for a solid week, month, or (gulp!) year of indoor viewing. Here’s what we came up with.Bunheads Photo by Adam Taylor / ABC Family Is there anything Sutton Foster can’t do? I saw her tear up the Broadway stage in Anything Goes, and she made me tear up at her off-Broadway performance in Sweet Charity. I am currently loving her in the long-running... Continue reading…

The Long March 5 rocket at the Wenchang Space Launch Center that will launch Tianwen-1. | Photo: Xinhua via Getty Images Early on July 23rd, China is slated to launch its most ambitious space mission yet, sending a trio of spacecraft to Mars — including a rover to explore the planet’s surface. If successful, China will become the second nation to land and operate a rover on the Red Planet.The mission is named Tianwen-1 — after the long poem “Tianwen,” which means “Questions to Heaven” — and it entails sending an orbiter, a lander, and a rover to Mars. The three spacecraft will launch on top of one of China’s most powerful rockets, the Long March 5, and then travel through deep space together to the Red Planet. While the orbiter studies Mars from above, the lander and rover will make the daring plunge to the surface. The lander is tasked with touching down... Continue reading…

WalkingCat A picture of a new Oculus Quest virtual reality headset has seemingly leaked online. The image was posted by Twitter user WalkingCat, who has produced credible leaks in the past. It shows a headset very similar to the existing Oculus Quest, but with a black-and-white color scheme, a potentially slimmer design, and a possibly controversial feature tweak.The Quest is Facebook-owned Oculus’ flagship product, and the leaked image seems to show an iterative update rather than a new generation of the headset — similar to the Oculus Rift S that followed the tethered Oculus Rift. Instead of the original 2019 headset’s black-on-black combination of fabric and plastic, it seems to show an all-plastic white body with a black face mask. The straps... Continue reading…

Growing up Latinx, I was raised with a couple of things that, upon going to school and learning how my white friends lived, weren’t as common as I thought. Sometimes it just didn’t come up. I, for example, never talked about the caped, androgynous man who appeared on Spanish-language news and delivered daily horoscopes with great theatricality. That was my normal, and I never really registered how less... dramatic the news was on English-language networks. This caped astrologist of my youth, Walter Mercado, was an icon and a fixture of Latin American life. But I, caught between cultures, had no idea how large he loomed.Mucho Mucho Amor: The Legend of Walter Mercado is a Netflix documentary that explores the life of a Puerto Rican... Continue reading…

Alex Castro / The Verge As I write this, the top channel on Mixer right now is broadcasting a stream of Pokémon Yellow played by whoever’s in chat — á la Twitch Plays Pokémon. It’s titled “YouPlay presents: Mixer Doomsday party. Let’s go one last time! (Day 19/19),” and there are 1,337 people watching. Just about every other stream on the site is titled similarly. It’s mostly reruns of earlier streams exhorting viewers to follow broadcasters to Twitch and streamers who are AFK but broadcasting a game anyway. Even if its pulse hasn’t stopped for good, Mixer is dead, with the site shutting down today per Microsoft’s announcement in June.It wasn’t always this way. Though Mixer trailed just about every other live-streaming site in just about any metric you could... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Amazon is working on a new feature for its Alexa voice assistant that will let the software launch Android and iOS apps using voice commands, a first for Amazon’s assistant and a bold expansion of its strategy to position Alexa as a platform-agnostic alternative to Apple’s Siri and Google Assistant. Called Alexa for Apps, the new feature is launching today in preview form, meaning Amazon is working with select developers on how they’d like to make use of it.For instance, Amazon imagines users on either an iPhone or an Android device asking Alexa to open Twitter and search for a hashtag, and the app would then let the companion Alexa skill do the work of launching the app and inputting the search term. The results would then show up on... Continue reading…

Asus Asus’ new ROG Phone 3 aims to be the pinnacle of smartphones if you’re serious about gaming and having the fastest specs. The device features a 6.59-inch OLED HDR color-calibrated screen that has a fast 144Hz refresh rate with a 1ms response time. It’s powered by the Snapdragon 865 Plus chipset with 5G support, and it can be configured with up to 16GB of LPDDR5 RAM and 512GB of UFS 3.1 ROM storage. Both of those specs push the boundaries of what we’ve seen so far in a phone. Lastly, the ROG Phone 3 features a big 6,000mAh battery, as did last year’s model.The ROG Phone 3 will almost certainly be great at normal phone stuff, like browsing the web, texting, and calls. But where it really stands out, aside from specs, is with its... Continue reading…

Yakuza: Like a Dragon, which came out as Yakuza 7 in Japan early this year, is getting a Western release in November. While every core game in the series since Yakuza 2 had Japanese voice acting and English subtitles for its Western release, Yakuza 7 is getting a full English dub like last year’s spin-off title Judgment. The cast is headed by George Takei, who plays yakuza patriarch Masumi Arakawa.Yakuza: Like a Dragon is a departure for the series in many ways, which perhaps explains why Sega isn’t calling it a numbered entry in the West. (“Like a dragon” is a translation of Ryu ga Gotoku, the series’ Japanese title.) It features a new protagonist, Ichiban Kasuga, after Yakuza 6 marked the end of Kazuma Kiryu’s story, and the setting... Continue reading…

Image: EA / Motive Studios Rookie pilots beware Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge T-Mobile is today announcing the first unified plan it’s offering to all customers of the combined T-Mobile / Sprint mega-carrier. Starting on July 24th, the company will offer four lines of unlimited data for $25 per line (if you enable autopay), totaling $100 each month. 5G access is included as part of the plan, and T-Mobile will also throw in a Samsung Galaxy A71 5G if you pay a few extra dollars per month.But as usual with wireless plans, there are caveats. First, it’s always worth underlining that T-Mobile Essentials limits you to standard definition video quality when on the mobile network. You’ve got to move up to the Magenta Plus plan if you want HD on the go while away from Wi-Fi. T-Mobile says “Verizon’s lowest priced 5G... Continue reading…

Waymo and Fiat Chrysler Automotive are extending their four-year-old partnership to include commercial vans. On Wednesday, the companies announced a plan to jointly develop an autonomous delivery van based on FCA’s Ram ProMaster.Waymo, the self-driving division of Google parent Alphabet, announced back in 2016 that FCA would be its first OEM (original equipment manufacturer) partner. Since then, the two companies have worked together to retrofit a fleet of hundreds of Chrysler Pacifica minivans with Waymo’s self-driving hardware and software. Now, the companies will work together on a new project — an autonomous delivery van — in the service of Waymo’s nascent delivery service, Waymo Via.Moreover, FCA has chosen Waymo as its... Continue reading…

Facebook now lets you add an extra layer of security when opening Messenger on an iPhone or iPad. The app itself can now be locked upon or shortly after closing, requiring you to use an authentication method like Face ID or Touch ID to open it back up. That means you could unlock your phone and let a friend borrow it, and that person still wouldn’t be able to access your Messenger chats.The feature, which Facebook is calling App Lock, is part of a number of small changes coming to Messenger centered on privacy and security. The app is also adding a Privacy section to the app’s settings, giving users a single location to control features like App Lock and what users they’ve blocked. App Lock is supposed to come to Android in “the next... Continue reading…

Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge The Microsoft Surface Laptop 3 is seeing some big discounts today at Best Buy, Amazon, and the Microsoft Store. Prices start at $800 for the base model with 8GB of RAM, a 128GB SSD, and Intel’s quad-core 10th Gen Core i5-1035G7 processor with Iris Plus graphics (usually $1,000). This model is available in platinum with soft Alcantara coating the palm rest at Best Buy, Amazon, and the Microsoft Store.That’s a good deal if you’re looking for the most affordable model. But if you’re a power user who wants more processing power, and double the amount of RAM and storage, you should check out the upgraded model that now costs $1,250 (usually $1,500). In addition to the memory and storage upgrade, its processor gets a bump in speed up to the... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Slack says it has filed an anti-competitive complaint against Microsoft with the European Commission. “The complaint details Microsoft’s illegal and anti-competitive practice of abusing its market dominance to extinguish competition in breach of European Union competition law,” says Slack in a statement. Slack alleges that Microsoft has “illegally tied” its Microsoft Teams product to Office and is “force installing it for millions, blocking its removal, and hiding the true cost to enterprise customers.”“Microsoft is reverting to past behavior,” claims David Schellhase, general counsel at Slack. “They created a weak, copycat product and tied it to their dominant Office product, force installing it and blocking its removal, a carbon copy... Continue reading…

This $1,495 gaming chair is the first collaboration between the companies Continue reading…

Samsung has officially announced the 5G version of its Galaxy Z Flip foldable phone. Called the Galaxy Z Flip 5G (naturally enough), the phone is nearly identical to its 4G predecessor. The major changes include the 5G radios, a slightly upgraded Snapdragon 865 Plus processor, and the price: it’s $1,449.99. That’s a $70 premium over the 4G version, which Samsung says will stick around at the same price.The original Galaxy Z Flip was probably the best folding phone I’ve tested — although its part of a small and fairly disappointing group. Although it doesn’t fold fully flat, the Z Flip is well-designed and has proven itself to be more durable than other folding phones (again, a relative assessment). All that said, it was still too... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Amid hosts of reasonable fears about the coronavirus pandemic, there’s also one far more dubious threat: “COVID parties.” As Wired explains in a good exploration of the topic, COVID parties (or “corona parties”) are events where people supposedly expose themselves to the coronavirus on purpose. Medical professionals and government officials have periodically warned about these parties, but on closer examination, the reports are usually unverified secondhand reports or outright mistakes.Despite numerous false alarms, however, the parties keep cropping up in news stories and social media. Last week, The New York Times and other outlets reported on a “COVID party” supposedly held in Texas. A recent Vox story about herd immunity referenced... Continue reading…

Images: Razor Razor, the company that helped kick off the scooter craze nearly two decades ago, has just unveiled a new lineup of affordable electric scooters for adults. The California-based company is introducing three new models: the EcoSmart SUP, E300 HD, and the C25. Along with the recently released E Prime III, Razor is hoping to expand its footprint in the adult scooter space, while also retaining its title as a trustworthy and recognizable brand in an overly saturated market.Sometimes it seems like there’s an arms race to release the fastest, most rugged, most powerful e-scooter on the planet. Each week, I get pitches on scooters that can hit top speeds of 30, 40, even 50 mph, with jumbo battery packs and dual motors to boot. But there’s a... Continue reading…

Image: Motorola Motorola’s unlocked Edge smartphone is now available for preorder ahead of a July 31st release, the company announced today. Additionally, the company announced that for a “limited time,” it’ll be offering the Edge for $499.99, instead of the originally announced $699.99 price tag.It’s not clear how long Motorola will be offering the $200 discount, although it doesn’t sound like it’s considering a permanent price drop at this point.The Motorola Edge is a slightly watered-down version of the flagship $999 Edge Plus, with a similar 6.7-inch “edge” display design, but with a Snapdragon 765 processor, 6GB of RAM, a 4,500mAh battery, and no wireless charging. (The Edge Plus, on the other hand, has twice the RAM, a larger 5,000mAh battery,... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Twitch has gradually become a key place to watch live sports and content over the past year, and Amazon is now acknowledging its push for sports dominance with the launch of a sports category on Twitch. The standalone sports category will include streams from soccer clubs like Arsenal and Real Madrid, with Juventus and Paris Saint-Germain set to follow. Twitch’s new sports category will also play home to the existing NBA, NHL, RFL, UFC, and NWSL content that’s available on the platform.Twitch is also relaunching its twitchsports channel today to highlight broadcasts and programming. The relaunch includes a showcase today, hosted by Major League Soccer star Jimmy Conrad, that will cover the NBA, UFC, Arsenal, and House of Highlights... Continue reading…

Here, CNN’s logo is shown so you know it’s coming from the news organization. | Image: Google Google will trial a new security feature in Gmail that shows a brand’s logo as an avatar to help you know an email is genuine, the company has announced. The functionality uses the Brand Indicators for Message Identification (BIMI) standard, whose working group Google joined last year, and will be tested with a limited number of senders in the coming weeks.According to Google, authentication with BIMI can make recipients more confident about the source of an email, which scammers try and obscure to get people to click on malicious links and/or give up their personal details in a phishing attack. Google will use BIMI in conjunction with another technology, DMARC, which tries to stop scammers from forging the “from” address of an email... Continue reading…

I mean, look at this. It’s genius. | Image: Lenovo Lenovo has announced its first gaming phone, the Legion Phone Duel, and I’ve got to address its most interesting feature up front: the pop-up selfie camera that’s embedded along the phone’s side, just like the rumors in May suggested. Given that most popular games are played in landscape mode, it’s a logical place for the camera to be since it ensures that your palm won’t obscure the lens if you’re video chatting or live-streaming during a game.The pop-up camera is a 20-megapixel sensor with an f/2.2 aperture and an 81.7-degree field of view. This might not lead to the best selfies or video quality, and it isn’t an ideal location for taking a quick selfie. Lenovo provided enough room in the camera’s enclosure to include a status light... Continue reading…

Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales What news should people see when they come to Facebook?In the old days, your answer might have been “whatever they want to see,” or even “who cares?” But as Facebook’s dominance grew, and it became one of the most important arbiters of attention in the world, the question grew more pressing. If a country where the median voter leans to the political left has a News Feed occupied by links from the far right, that could cause concern. If right-wing and even openly fascist politicians began to take over countries around the world, that kind of disconnect between an electorate and one of their primary news sources might come under even stricter scrutiny.A nice thing about Facebook is that the company makes a tool that lets you see what... Continue reading…

Huawei’s P40 Pro and its 5x periscope camera. | Photo by Sam Byford / The Verge Apple is planning to introduce periscope telephoto cameras into the iPhone lineup in 2022, according to a research note by TF Securities analyst Ming-chi Kuo that was reported on by 9to5Mac, AppleInsider, and MacRumors. Semco, a South Korean company that will reportedly contribute autofocus motors to this year’s new iPhone models, is said to be in line to provide about half of the supply of the periscope optics.Periscope cameras are a way of enabling long focal lengths in devices like smartphones where physical depth is at a premium. They use prisms and mirrors along the length of the device to reflect and focus light onto a sensor, rather than placing the sensor directly behind the lens as with traditional cameras. The technique has... Continue reading…

Image: Samsung Samsung is hosting an “immersive virtual experience” on September 2nd, following its decision not to exhibit at Europe’s major IFA tech show this year. The 45-minute event, which Samsung is calling “Life Unstoppable,” will include new mobile, TV, and home appliance product launches, as well as wearable and audio announcements.Although it’s one of the bigger exhibitors at IFA each year, Samsung tends to save its smaller announcements for the show rather than unveiling any major new smartphones or wearables. Last year, for example, its biggest announcements were its new Exynos 980 processor which featured an integrated 5G modem, its redesigned Galaxy Fold, and the midrange Galaxy A90 5G smartphone. Considering the event will come less... Continue reading…

Image: WinFuture Samsung’s Note 20 Ultra, which is expected to launch on August 5th at the next Samsung Unpacked event, may be highly optimized to stream Xbox games over xCloud, according to a new report from WinFuture.While that might come as a surprise, Samsung and Microsoft have actually gotten pretty cozy over the past year. Last August, at the last Galaxy Note launch event, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella appeared onstage to recognize an increased partnership between the two companies, and the two companies announced that Samsung would preinstall Microsoft’s Your Phone app, Office apps, LinkedIn, and OneDrive on the Galaxy Note 10.Samsung and Microsoft already announced they would be partnering on a game streaming serviceThe two companies also... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Twitter just announced an crackdown on QAnon, the far-right wing conspiracy theory movement, by banning 7,000 accounts and taking several specific actions that could prevent the spread of their propaganda from as many as 150,000 more, reports NBC News. The company confirmed the numbers to The Verge.In addition to flagging QAnon-specific content for bans under its existing rules (see embedded Tweets below), Twitter says it will block QAnon-related links from even being shared on Twitter and no longer recommend QAnon-related accounts. It will also no longer promote the accounts in search or conversations and will cease highlighting them as trending topics.Here’s part of the company’s Twitter thread on the subject:

Image: Roblox Epic Games’ popular free-to-play title Fortnite has shown that people, especially kids, are willing to flock to attractive virtual spaces to hold meetups and parties as ways to socialize during the pandemic. Many of those kids are likely playing Roblox, too. The company just told The Verge that over half of US kids and teens under the age of 16 play the game — and this week, Roblox is adding its own private space for them to host virtual private birthday parties and social gatherings.Unlike Fortnite’s Party Royale mode, which is a small public island full of activities for the entire community to enjoy, including concerts and movie screenings sponsored by Epic Games itself, Roblox’s “Party Place” is a specific venue for players to host... Continue reading…

Illustration by James Bareham / The Verge Facebook is forming new internal teams dedicated to studying its main social network and Instagram for racial bias, in particular for whether its algorithms trained using artificial intelligence adversely affect Black, Hispanic, and other underrepresented groups. The team will be “tasked with ensuring fairness and equitable product development are present in everything we do,” a Facebook spokesperson tells The Verge. “We will continue to work closely with Facebook’s Responsible AI team to ensure we are looking at potential biases across our respective platforms.”The new equity team — as it’s called within Instagram (a similar team is being formed to study Facebook’s main app and website) — marks a departure for the company, which has... Continue reading…

Photo Illustration by Mateusz Slodkowski/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images Snap has launched an investigation into accusations of racism and sexism within the company, anonymous sources have told Business Insider.Per the sources, the independent firm (Seattle-based Williams Kastner) have contacted both current and former staff. The investigation appears to concern stories that ex-employees recounted in a June 9th Mashable article about their experiences working for Snap between 2015 and 2018.Multiple sources told Mashable that they experienced a racist culture during their time at the company, and that leadership disparaged Black representation in media. One employee said they were asked to replace a lead image of Black performers with a “friendlier face.” The same manager told another employee that a story... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge The pandemic hasn’t been too terrible for Snap. The company behind Snapchat announced its second quarter earnings today, detailing how its business has fared during the COVID-19 outbreak around the world. Its user base is up by 9 million people daily over last quarter, and its revenue is up 17 percent year over year, at $454 million. Snap is positioning the growth as a win, especially given that advertiser budgets are shrinking amid a global economic downturn.“The economic environment has become challenging for many of our advertising partners and this has had an impact on the rate of growth in our business,” says Derek Andersen, Snap CFO, in prepared remarks. The pandemic took an obvious hit on the company’s business. Year-over-year... Continue reading…

Photo by Tyler Pina / The Verge More than 70 demos of unreleased Xbox One games are now available to play as part of Microsoft’s Summer Game Fest Demo Event. You’ll be able to check them out until July 27th.You can see the full list of demos available right here. Two games that catch my eye include Destroy All Humans!, a remake of the alien invasion game first released in 2005, and SkateBird, where you play as an adorable skateboarding bird. Image: Glass Bottom Games With the big summer gaming trade shows canceled or shifted to online-only events, Microsoft’s demo event could be a great way to check out some upcoming games from the comfort of your own couch. With more than 70 games to try, you’ll have a lot of potential demos to play between now... Continue reading…

Photo: Morphe Three of TikTok’s biggest stars announced deals outside of TikTok yesterday, giving the creators another way to make money off their immense popularity on the shortform video app.Charli D’Amelio (TikTok’s most followed creator) and Dixie D’Amelio (who rivals Will Smith in TikTok followers) announced a makeup line in partnership with Morphe, and Addison Rae (TikTok’s second most followed creator) announced a Spotify-exclusive podcast that’ll be co-hosted by her mom.YouTubers have taken these exact same steps to make moneyTikTok largely doesn’t offer creators a way to make money from their popularity on the app. Creators can receive tips during live streams, but live-streaming is a very small part of TikTok. The short dance videos that... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge The US Justice Department has charged two alleged Chinese hackers with stealing trade secrets and other valuable data from companies worldwide, including firms working on COVID-19 treatments and vaccines. Prosecutors claim some of the hacks were carried out on behalf of China’s Ministry of State Security, while others were done for personal profit. The pair are currently wanted by the Federal Bureau of Investigation.Li Xiaoyu (who goes by the handle “Oro01xy”) and Dong Jiazhi have allegedly been active since 2009. The Justice Department says it encountered the hackers after they compromised computers at the Department of Energy’s Hanford Site, which is home to a decommissioned nuclear production facility. In addition to this breach,... Continue reading…

Rocket League is changing in a big way. Today, developer Psyonix announced that, later this summer, the multiplayer cars-meets-soccer game will be going free-to-play. Additionally, the game will get cross-platform progression, covering elements like cosmetic items, battle pass progression, and competitive rank.Things are also changing significantly for the PC version of the game. When the free-to-play version of Rocket League launches, it’ll be moving from Steam to the Epic Games Store. (Psyonix was acquired by Fortnite-maker Epic last year.) Here’s how the studio explains:

Dance is a new electric bike subscription service launched by the co-founders of SoundCloud. The invite-only program, which includes delivery, maintenance, and theft protection, launches this month in Berlin. It’s the latest service to try to capitalize on the e-bike boom by shifting toward a Netflix or Spotify model for transportation.Dance was founded by SoundCloud founders Eric Quidenus-Wahlforss and Alexander Ljung, along with the co-founder of web design startup Jimdo, Christian Springub. Their proposition rests on a couple of hard truths about e-bikes: they are expensive, typically costing €1,700 ($2,000) or more, and they are prone to theft. Dance is hoping to address those concerns, while also replicating the success of various... Continue reading…

Following the success of Avatar: The Last Airbender’s return to Netflix earlier this year, Nickelodeon’s spinoff The Legend of Korra is also heading to the streaming service on August 14th in the United States.Developed as a sequel to Avatar: The Last Airbender, The Legend of Korra ran on Nickelodeon between 2012 and 2014. The show followed Korra, a new Avatar and successor to Avatar: The Last Airbender’s Aang, and was praised for its boundary-pushing sociopolitical themes. The Legend of Korra was also praised for its LGBTQ+ themes, especially for a children’s cartoon series that aired on Nickelodeon.The Legend of Korra is a big deal for ViacomCBS, but it could be just as big of a deal for Netflix. When Avatar: The Last Airbender l... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge The week on our Vergecast interview series, cybersecurity journalist Kim Zetter talks with The Verge’s Nilay Patel and Russell Brandom about the state of election security in the United States.The circumstances of a pandemic in an election year has complicated the voting process. In an analysis by NPR, it was found that thousands of mail-in ballots for the 2020 primaries were rejected because of late arrival, even in cases where the voter sent it in on time. In the 2020 Iowa caucus, paper backups of ballets needed to be relied upon after an app that was created to tally the votes started giving error messages.Zetter says if we’re going to use computers and software to count votes in an election, there also needs to be another system... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Ubisoft is again under fire for allegations of sexual harassment, misconduct, and endemic problems of sexism and racism across the company. In a report published today, Bloomberg extensively details inappropriate behavior by top executives and managers, particularly around chief creative officer Serge Hascoët.The games industry is once again experiencing an outpouring of #MeToo stories. Over the past few weeks, Ubisoft in particular has been a hotbed for stories of systemic abuse. Several employees have already come forward publicly on Twitter to discuss harassment they endured at Ubisoft. A previous report from Kotaku pointed to top executives Tommy François and Maxime Béland, among others, as perpetrators of grossly over-the-line... Continue reading…

Image: 1More 1More’s ColorBuds True Wireless Headphones are a new pair of earbuds that focus on design and affordability over top-of-the-line specs. At just $99, they’re half the price of 1More’s recent pair of noise-canceling earbuds, the 1More True Wireless ANC, and they’re also a lot lighter at just 4.1g per earbud compared to 7.9g with the previous model.In terms of performance, 1More doesn’t appear to have sacrificed too much to slim these earbuds down. You still get up to six hours of battery life from the earbuds, plus 16 more from the charging case, and they also support a range of audio codecs over Bluetooth 5, including AptX and AAC. Image: 1More The ColorBuds True Wireless are available in black, gold, pink, and... Continue reading…