The Verge

Image: Firaxis / 2K Games Netflix's newest games are actually a bit old. During its Geeked Week 2024 presentation, the streaming service revealed it's adding Civilization VI and Street Fighter IV: Champion Edition as well as a host of other titles to its ever-increasing and legitimately impressive gaming lineup.For Civ 6, players will have access to all the game's expansion packs that were a part of the Platinum Edition version of the game. Meanwhile, Netflix will host the Champion Edition of Street Fighter IV featuring all 32 fighters released over the game's lifetime. Also, iOS and Android users will be able to compete against each other online exclusively via Netflix. Neither game has a launch date just yet, with Netflix saying both are coming soon.Street... Continue reading...

Netflix The second and final season of Netflix's Arcane finally has a concrete release date, but it looks like the episodes won't all be dropping at once.This evening, during the final night of this year's Geeked Week showcase, Netflix and Riot announced that Arcane's final season will be a three-part event. Act One is set to premiere on November 9th, Act Two debuts on November 16th, and Act Three drops on November 23rd. Along with the the new dates, Netflix also released yet another teaser trailer showcasing how sisters Vi (Hailee Steinfeld) and Jinx (Ella Purnell) will be drawn back into battle with one another as the war for control of Piltover reaches its climax.The team behind Arcane still has plans for more animated projects set in the... Continue reading...

Image: Netflix It's not clear how much of Avatar: The Last Airbender's story Netflix will fit into the next season of its live-action adaptation, but we now know who will be portraying the series' take on Toph.During Netflix's ongoing Geeked Week event, the streamer announced that Miya Cech (Beef, American Girl: Corinne Tan) has been cast as Toph Beifong, the blind earthbending prodigy whose unique skills end up making her a formidable part of Team Avatar.Previously, executive producer Jabbar Raisani teased that, much like in the animated show, Toph's arrival will add new complications to Team Avatar's group dynamics as they continue on their quest to defeat the Fire Nation. Given that Netflix's Avatar is set to end with its third season, Toph... Continue reading...

The Verge's Sean Hollister picking up his new passport at the post office. | Photo by Sean Hollister / The Verge If you read my colleague Sean Hollister's positive experience renewing his US passport online through a beta website from the State Department - without needing to ship his old passport - I have good news for you: that experience is now available for everyone. You can access it right here.Instead of printing a paper application and mailing it with a check, Americans can now renew their passports through a secure process that will save time and effort," Secretary of State Antony Blinken writes in an announcement about the program.Right now, the renewal website is showing a six- to eight-week estimate for processing times, and the State Department notes that mailing times aren't included in that estimate. That all means you may not get... Continue reading...

Californians can now add their driver's licenses or state IDs to their Apple Wallets. | Image: Apple Apple announced that starting today, California residents can add their driver's licenses and state IDs to Apple Wallet on their iPhones and Apple Watches as part of the state's mobile driver's license (mDL) pilot program.As announced last month, up to 1.5 million pilot participants can add the documents to Apple Wallet by scanning their driver's license or state ID card using their iPhone and then providing a scan of their face using a series of facial and head movements" as an added security measure. The scans will need to be verified by the state before the documents are made available in Wallet.However, as it's still only authorized for limited usage, the state DMV advises users to continue carrying their physical IDs, too.S... Continue reading...

The Hipstamatic Party! Disposable Camera app saves event organizers from having to chase down guests to get their photos. | Screenshot: Apple App Store Hipstamatic's new Party! Disposable Camera app is designed to digitally replicate the experience of guests snapping candid photos at a wedding or other event using a disposable film camera. There are no film development fees afterward, but it's only free if your guest list is no larger than five people.At its core, the app is yet another attempt to streamline the process of collecting all the smartphone photos that guests take during a special event. Using a custom QR code generated by a host, guests are directed to download the Party! Disposable Camera app and join the specific event. All the photos taken through the app will be collected into a single private gallery the host and guests can view and comment on.There are similar... Continue reading...

Photo: Getty Images Almost a year since the horrifying crash in which one of its driverless vehicles ran over and dragged a woman 20 feet, Cruise is planning its return to the Bay Area. The company said in a post on X that it is deploying several" manually driven mapping vehicles in Sunnyvale and Mountain View, with the goal of progressing to supervised testing" with five autonomous vehicles later this fall.Resuming testing in the Bay Area is an important step forward as we continue to work closely with California regulators and local stakeholders," the post reads. This will allow our local employees to engage directly with our product as they refine and improve our tech through R&D."

Image: Microsoft Microsoft is launching a Windows app today for macOS, iOS, iPadOS, web browsers, Android devices, and even Windows PCs. The Windows app is essentially a hub for streaming a copy of Windows from a variety of sources, including Windows 365, Azure Virtual Desktop, Remote Desktop, and more.This new unified app has been in testing for nearly a year and includes a customizable homescreen, multi-monitor support, and USB redirection so you can use local devices like webcams, storage devices, and printers as if they were plugged directly in to a cloud PC. Image: Microsoft The Windows app interface. This Windows app is limited to Microsoft work and school accounts, as it's primarily designed for existing users of Remote... Continue reading...

Amazon is using generative AI to create tailored product recommendations based on user's shopping history. | Image: Amazon Amazon has introduced a batch of new generative AI tools that aim to improve the retail experience for both customers and sellers on the platform. One of the more notable features announced at the Amazon Accelerate event on Thursday will use customers' preferences, search, browsing, and purchase history to create personalized product recommendations on Amazon's homepage.Instead of the more like this" feature that suggests similar, specific items, the new recommendations will be offered as larger categories based on a customer's shopping habits - such as those catering to holiday events or sporting activities. The company says it's leveraging a large language model to recommend products with specific features, but it's not clear how... Continue reading...

The United States Environmental Protection Agency building is seen on August 21st in Washington, DC. | Photo by Tierney L. Cross / Getty Images Implementing Project 2025, the conservative manifesto written by ex-Trump officials, could have serious repercussions on public health, former Environmental Protection Agency employees warn.Air quality protections issued over the past four years are supposed to cut down pollution and associated health risks, preventing premature deaths and hospital visits for years to come. A group called the Environmental Protection Network (EPN), created by hundreds of former EPA employees during an exodus of scientists from the agency under the Trump administration, counted up the benefits in a recent report.But that outcome isn't guaranteed. Many of the policies recently enacted under the Biden administration could be in jeopardy if Donald Trump... Continue reading...

Chrome users will need to either unlock their Android screen or use the Password Manager PINfeature to use passkeys on new devices. | Illustration: The Verge Google is improving passkey support in Chrome by making it easier to use the passwordless sign-in credentials across different devices. The search giant is introducing a Google Password Manager PIN that allows users to securely save and synchronize passkeys for use across Windows, macOS, Linux, and Android devices. These updates are available in beta on ChromeOS as well, with iOS support coming soon."Passkeys needed to be saved to Google Password Manager on Android prior to this update and required users to scan a QR code on their Android device to access them on other platforms. The new PIN replaces the need to scan the QR code while ensuring that your saved passkeys remain protected by end-to-end encryption, so not even Google can... Continue reading...

Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024 will officially launch on November 19th, 2024. | Image: Microsoft Preorders are now open for Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024 through the Microsoft Store. The next installment of the franchise will launch on Xbox and PC on November 19th, with updates that include new aircraft like hot air balloons and a more realistic-looking simulated earth. But the most welcome upgrade could be a much smaller installation size.The current version of Microsoft Flight Simulator needs over 130GB of storage, but that's just for the base version of the game. Players can enhance their experience by downloading additional aircraft or installing world updates that bring more details to local scenery and airports, but that can gobble up even more storage. Those playing on the Xbox Series S, which only offers players 364GB of... Continue reading...

Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge A few months ago, I was driving my 2023 Volkswagen ID.4 when, seemingly out of nowhere, my driver-side door made several unusual clicking noises and then popped open.That's not good," I thought, as I quickly shut the door while also attempting to keep my hands on the wheel. And apparently, I wasn't the only one experiencing this problem. Hundreds of other VW owners were also struggling to keep their doors closed while driving.The issue culminated this week with VW halting production of the all-electric ID.4 at its factory in Chattanooga, Tennessee, as it scrambles to find a fix for the faulty electronic door mechanism. According to the recall, water was seeping into the door and shorting out the electronics, causing the circuitry... Continue reading...

Issa Rae. | Photo by Rodin Eckenroth / WireImage We still don't know much about the seventh season of Black Mirror, but at least the show's return will have a stacked cast. Netflix announced a big list of actors who will appear in the next installment of the anthology when it premieres in 2025, and it includes Doctor Who alum Peter Capaldi, Barbie star Issa Rae, Sunny's Rashida Jones, and the always delightful Paul Giamatti.Here's the full list:

Image: Cath Virginia / The Verge, Getty Images Today on Decoder, we're talking about the big Google antitrust trial that's currently taking place in a federal courthouse. No, not the one you're thinking of - it's the second Google antitrust case in just as many months. The company lost a landmark case in August in which a court ruled that it had an illegal monopoly in search.This time around, the Department of Justice is claiming Google has another illegal monopoly in the online advertising market.Unlike the search case, the ads case is both extremely complicated and somewhat harder to see. We all use search all day, and we're surrounded by online ads all day, but while it's easy to talk about search, no one really wants to think about how the ads get there or how much they really... Continue reading...

Image: Disney Disney Plus' new WandaVision spinoff series steers clear of the franchise's multiversal messiness to do its own thing. Continue reading...

Image: Rockstar Games Grand Theft Auto V was one of the top ten most played games on Valve's Steam Deck handheld this past week. It's been in the top twenty for at least two years. But as of today, Valve now lists the game as unsupported" - because developer Rockstar mysteriously broke compatibility with Valve's handheld for its online modes. As you can see in the image above, this is the latest fight around Linux anti-cheat: like the developers of Fortnite and Roblox, Rockstar has decided not to support the Steam Deck with its new anti-cheat software for GTA Online - a game that, by all accounts, badly needed to deal with cheaters. (Outside the Steam Deck, better anti-cheat was probably a good move.)But unlike Fortnite and Roblox, Rockstar is... Continue reading...

Image: The Verge If you're on LinkedIn, then you should know that the social network has, without asking, opted accounts into training generative AI models. 404Media reports that LinkedIn introduced the new privacy setting and opt-out form before rolling out an updated privacy policy saying that data from the platform is being used to train AI models. As TechCrunch notes, it has since updated the policy.

A radio device exploded in the city of Baalbek is seen as wireless communications device explosions continued for a second day across Lebanon. | Photo by Suleiman Amhaz / Anadolu via Getty Images A day after exploding pagers targeting Hezbollah members killed 12 people, including two children, and injured nearly 3,000 people in Lebanon and Syria, the attacks started again. The New York Times reports 14 people have died, along with hundreds injured in the second wave of explosions. Lebanese state media agency NNA reports they resulted from wireless devices like walkie-talkies and fingerprint analysis devices that also damaged cars and motorcycles and started fires, including one at a lithium battery store.At least one of the exploding devices on Wednesday went off in the middle of a funeral procession for several of the people killed in the previous attack, causing additional panic as people ran for safety and were asked to... Continue reading...

It can't be used as a speakerphone, but at $24.99, Soundcore's new Select 4 Go Bluetooth speaker is claimed to have 20 hours of battery and can be paired for stereo sound. | Image: Soundcore Soundcore has launched another ultralight wireless speaker called the Select 4 Go. It's priced at $24.99, making it the most affordable option in Soundcore's current lineup of Bluetooth speakers and much cheaper than similarly sized options such as Ultimate Ears' recently launched $79.99 Miniroll. Image: Soundcore A cutaway illustration of the Select 4 Go revealing a 1.75-inch speaker with a passive radiator next to it. The Select 4 Go pairs a 1.75-inch 5W full-range speaker driver with a passive radiator to help bolster the intensity of lower frequencies. That's only a slightly smaller speaker than you'll find inside the pricier Miniroll, which has a claimed 12 hours of battery life. Soundcore says the Select 4... Continue reading...

Image: PayPal Roughly 25 years after it launched payment processing, PayPal is ushering in a new era for customers" with some generic black text. The company has a new logo, designed by Pentagram, that looks incredibly plain - especially compared to previous iterations of the logo that featured a rakish slant, two shades of blue, and prominent PayPal P's. Image: PayPal The evolution of PayPal's logo. The company justifies the change by saying that the new black standalone wordmark won't be confused with the rest of the payments processing world - especially the blue that has become synonymous with fintech."And yet: Image: PayPal That is a very blue word. Image: PayPal Also... Continue reading...

The Focus Vision looks like it's a bit of a chonker! | Image: HTC HTC has announced the Vive Focus Vision, a new VR headset that builds on the Vive Focus 3 with features like color passthrough and better PC tethering support. The $999 Focus Vision is available for preorder from now until October 17th on HTC's website.The Focus Vision can be used either as a standalone device or tethered to your PC using USB-C. It's essentially a beefed-up version of the Focus 3, which the company released in 2021 - it has the same 2448 x 2448 per-eye resolution and 120-degree field of view and also uses a Snapdragon XR2 chip. But it gains features like dual 16MP cameras with color passthrough, and it can now automatically adjust the lenses to compensate for the distance between your eyes.HTC is going for gamers... Continue reading...

Illustration: Alex Castro / The Verge YouTube creators can now break their videos up into different seasons and episodes to make them easier for viewers to navigate - and binge-watch - on TV. The upcoming feature comes as YouTube has increasingly been pushing into the living room, with YouTuber revenue on TVs up 30 percent year over year, according to the company.Content creators can soon tailor their uploads for viewers in a format that looks very similar to Netflix and other streaming services when viewed on the TV, with full-screen episode descriptions and a hierarchy of seasons and episodes to navigate. GIF: Google YouTube has not described how the new formatting will translate to desktop and mobile UI, but expect to see it in some form on all... Continue reading...