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It’s been nearly two years since we wrote that New York City would finally be upgrading its transit system to take “tap-to-pay” contactless payments, but Apple’s Tim Cook says it’s finally coming true — on the company’s Q2 earnings call today , the CEO told investors that Apple Pay will begin rolling out to New York City’s MTA transit system starting in “early summer” of this year, letting you tap a phone or watch to pay instantly. But it probably won’t just be Apple Pay, because a few quick web searches show that NYC has actually already announced a specific date for a contactless payment system that should support other phone-based wallets (perhaps rival Android Pay?) and even contactless credit cards. It’s called OMNY (you know, like... Continue reading…

Spoiler alert: Spoilers ahead for Game of Thrones season 8, episode 3, “The Long Night.” Perhaps you, like countless other that have sounded off on social media in the past few days, had trouble viewing the most recent episode of Game of Thrones , in which the living faced off against the dead in the dark of night . There was plenty of fire to go around, but for the most part, the episode was a flurry of hard-to-see action taking place in poorly lit environments . Even diehard fans were complaining en masse . Know that the decision to film the episode in such a fashion was a purposeful one, according to cinematographer Fabian Wagner, and that he blames your TV settings or the quality of your screen if you had trouble making out what was... Continue reading…

Eric Schmidt will depart Alphabet’s board this June, after holding a seat for 18 years. His departure comes just over a year after Schmidt stepped down from his role as Alphabet’s executive chairman — it also comes as Google struggles with internal turmoil over its involvement with US military contracts , potential business in China , and reported cover-ups of sexual misconduct . Schmidt has been a key presence at Google during his time with the company. He initially took a board seat in 2001, when he was made CEO of Google — a role he was given essentially to lend business expertise to what company founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin had been building. In 2011, he left the CEO position and become Google’s executive chairman. At the... Continue reading…

Workplace communication platform Slack says it will be deactivating a public channel dedicated to giving away $1,000 per day to anyone that can guess that day’s selected vocabulary word, citing company policies. The game, called The Word of the Day Is , was started by Gabriel Whaley last week as an experiment. It used a Slack bot to monitor entries, which were any one-word messages entered into the public channel. Winners were then sent the money via Venmo. Whaley, the founder and CEO of a New York City-based creative agency called MSCHF Internet Studios, told The Verge at the time that he was “just trying to keep the internet a fun place and an escape.” In quick order, the game gained popularity and write-ups from major news... Continue reading…

The podcast wars are coming. After Luminary’s troubled launch, The Verge ’s Nilay Patel and Ashley Carman sit down with podcast expert Nick Quah of Hot Pod to discuss if Luminary or anyone could be “the Netflix of podcasts” and where the industry is headed. You can listen to the discussion in its entirety on The Vergecast right now. Below is a lightly edited excerpt from the interview. Nilay Patel: I think the podcast war is coming. I think the question of “why isn’t the podcast industry more like TV” is because all of those TV companies have their own distribution. NBC owns antennas in the world, and they control a massive distribution point: cable companies they sell to other cable companies, and that’s a massive distribution point.... Continue reading…

YouTube CEO Susan Wojcicki published a blog post today addressing some of creators’ biggest concerns and frustrations, including copyright claims removing ads from their videos, the site’s trending section not showing some of the most popular uploads, and comments being removed for family vloggers. It’s clear from Wojcicki’s blog that addressing the community’s most consistent complaints was a top priority — and chief among those is copyright claims. Copyright claims on videos, which lead to YouTubers not earning ad revenue, are a constant source of aggravation. Many of the situations that Wojcicki indirectly refers to in the blog post are from top creators, like Jimmy “MrBeast” Donaldson, who has spoken about losing out on ad revenue... Continue reading…

Facebook’s F8 developer conference kicked off today, and the company just finished its opening keynote. Its overwhelming theme, according to CEO Mark Zuckerberg, is that “the future is private.” After a year plagued by controversy over whether Facebook is invading its users’ privacy and encouraging social division, it’s pushing hard on helping people connect with close family and friends. During the keynote, Facebook announced updates to Instagram, Facebook Messenger, and Facebook’s core service. We also got more news about the Oculus Quest and Rift S virtual reality headsets — and about a new dating feature that could spark some very intense interactions between you and your friends. Facebook is being redesigned around groups and events ... Continue reading…

Apple just reported its second quarter financial results , posting quarterly revenue of $58 billion (down 5 percent from the same quarter a year ago) earnings per share of $2.46. The company said its crucially important services division hit an all-time high of $11.5 billion in revenue. iPhone revenue came in at $31.05 billion, still down year over year but enough to make up over 53 percent of Apple’s entire revenue. Mac sales were down, but the iPad, wearables/home/accessories, and services units of Apple’s business all saw gains. “We delivered our strongest iPad growth in six years, and we are as excited as ever about our pipeline of innovative hardware, software and services,” CEO Tim Cook said in the accompanying press release.... Continue reading…

The National Academy of Sciences took a major step today to oust sexual harassers when members at its annual meeting voted to approve a new amendment that would allow the organization to kick out people who badly violate its new code of conduct . This vote isn’t the final verdict, however: the entire membership of the NAS still needs to weigh in — a process that’s expected to be wrapped up by mid-June. The National Academy of Sciences, or NAS, was founded in 1863, and is one of the three academies that make up the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. Together, they conduct massive research analyses and produce reports to help “solve complex problems and inform public policy decisions,” according to their website .... Continue reading…

Spoilers ahead for Game of Thrones, season 8, episode 3, “The Long Night” As Game of Thrones moves into the second half of its final season, we’re in the endgame — not just for the remaining contenders for the Iron Throne, but also for the behind-the-scenes string-pullers with their own grandiose plans for the fate of Westeros. Littlefinger’s cunning, Varys’ spy networks, Tyrion’s battle strategies, and Melisandre’s prophecies and fire magic have all been involved in manipulating and shaping the kingdom’s current chaos. But the show has not been friendly to any of its masterminds. In the season 8 premiere, Varys, Tyrion, and Davos Seaworth watch Jon Snow and Daenerys Targaryen from a distance, musing over their suitability as a marriage... Continue reading…

Google employees say they will hold a sit-in tomorrow to protest alleged retaliation against workers. In a tweet, the organizers of last year’s walkout of Google employees said the sit-in was scheduled for 11AM. From being told to go on sick leave when you're not sick, to having your reports taken away, we're sick of retaliation. Six months ago, we walked out. This time, we're sitting in. 11am tomorrow. #NotOkGoogle #GoogleWalkout pic.twitter.com/GCq0x1O8cZ — Google Walkout For Real Change (@GoogleWalkout) April 30, 2019 “From being told to go on sick leave when you’re not sick, to having your reports taken away, we’re sick of retaliation,” the organizers said in the tweet. “Six months ago, we walked out. This time, we’re sitting... Continue reading…

Facebook announced at its annual F8 developer conference today that its Portal and Portal Plus video calling devices will soon be available in Canada and Europe, starting this fall. The device will also support WhatsApp calls, and all calls will have end-to-end encryption. The $199 Portal and the larger $349 Portal Plus launched last year at a time when consumer trust in Facebook was waning after a string of privacy scandals, and the product had to be delayed for several months in the wake of the Cambridge Analytica data breach. Despite this, Facebook shared onstage today that Portal sales have exceeded expectations, and it’s notable that the company is expanding distribution for the product. Among some of the other features announced... Continue reading…

After announcing plans to reshape Facebook around privacy last month, Mark Zuckerberg used the company’s annual F8 conference to outline more of what that might look like. Zuckerberg opened the conference stating, “The future is private ... So today, we’re going to start talking about what this could look like as a product.” The initiative is still in very early stages, though, and so many of the announcements hint at that direction without actually taking the large steps needed to offer a truly private experience. Continue reading…

Facebook’s plans to pivot into private messaging now have a desktop software component. The company said today that it would bring Messenger, its popular messaging client, to Mac and Windows later this year. Facebook made the announcement at its F8 developer conference in San Jose, California. There are far more mobile phones in the world than desktop computers, and the pace of development for computers has slowed accordingly. But for office workers who spend most of their days using a Mac or PC, messaging is a core function, and a dedicated messaging app could keep them inside Facebook’s ecosystem for hours a day. “People want to seamlessly message from any device, and sometimes they just want a little more space to share and connect... Continue reading…

Facebook Dating still isn’t available in the United States. But in the five countries where it launched already — and the 14 more that are joining the service today — there’s a new way to see which friends might be romantically interested in you. “Secret Crush,” as the feature is called, lets you express interest in up to nine friends. If that friend has opted into Facebook Dating and likes you back, they get a notification saying someone likes them. If they pick you as one of their secret crushes, you both get notified. You won’t be able to add anyone who hasn’t created a Dating profile, the company said. That could entice more reluctant Facebook users to give Dating a shot — who isn’t curious to see whether a friend secretly likes... Continue reading…

Instagram is announcing a couple of new features today that are designed to make the app more appealing to influencers, creators, and online business owners. It’s part of a broader shift within the company to position its photo-sharing app, which is now used by more than 1 billion people every month, as a kind of Facebook replacement. Younger users have for years been leaving the main app for greener, more hip pastures, and Facebook seems to recognize that Instagram is now at a scale and level of cultural ubiquity that it can begin carrying the torch — at least partially. The first new feature, announced today at Facebook’s F8 developer conference, is a redesigned camera with what Instagram is calling Create Mode. The new mode will make... Continue reading…

A lot more convenient, but it’s still first-generation VR Continue reading…

Facebook Messenger’s mobile app for iOS is about to shrink. The company said today that it is working on a new version of Messenger that will be fewer than 30MB (or about 20 percent the size of the current app). The new version of Messenger, which is expected to arrive later this year on iOS, was rewritten from the ground up, the company said. It should launch in two seconds or under, the company said. There are currently no plans to bring it to Android where Messenger Lite has been available since 2015. The move represents Facebook’s latest step to return Messenger to its lightweight roots. After years of expanding into bots, payments, games, and areas, the app had become cluttered and slower to navigate than rivals like iMessage and... Continue reading…

Facebook announced an overhaul of its main mobile app today that puts more emphasis on two of its most critical features: events and groups. The company says it’s placing groups front and center as a cornerstone of how it wants users to think of the main Facebook app, while events is getting a fresh coat of paint as one of the most-used parts of the app that keeps users coming back day in and day out. “There are tens of millions of active groups on Facebook. When people find the right one, it often becomes the most meaningful part of how they use Facebook. And today, more than 400 million people on Facebook belong to a group that they find meaningful,” the company said in a blog post. “With this in mind, we’re rolling out a fresh new... Continue reading…

Instagram announced at its F8 developer conference today that it’ll start testing a new feature later this week that’ll hide users’ public like counts on videos and photos. The test will only be in Canada, and likes will be hidden in the Feed, permalinked pages, and on profiles. Instagram says it wants followers to “focus on the photos and videos you share, not how many likes they get.” Only the person who owns the account will be able to see how many likes their content received. We thought a feature like this might be in the works. Code hunter Jane Wong published screenshots of this test earlier this month, and at the time, Instagram said it hadn’t tested the feature. Now, we can see it was prepping for the test to run after F8. A... Continue reading…

One big upgrade, more small trade-offs Continue reading…

NASA engineers are investigating a power issue on the International Space Station , which is delaying an upcoming flight to the orbiting lab. On Monday, a switch failure caused some of the station’s power channels to go down. The ISS still has power, though, and the problem doesn’t pose any threat to the crew, but NASA needs to replace the switch before spacecraft can visit the ISS again. To generate power, the ISS boasts eight long solar arrays on the outside of the station that convert sunlight into electricity. That electricity is then rerouted throughout the ISS via four switches known as MBSUs. But now, one of those four switches is acting up. As a result, two of the eight power channels that provide electricity to the station aren’t... Continue reading…

Aperture, Apple’s professionally minded photo editing software, will no longer operate on macOS after Mojave, the current version of the Mac operating system. The announcement was quietly made on an Apple support page that was spotted by MacRumors , which gives instructions on how users should import their images into either Adobe Lightroom or Apple Photos. The demise of Apple’s legacy software isn’t exactly unexpected. Apple ceased development of the program back in 2014 , and the following year, it and iPhoto were replaced with the much simpler Apple Photos . Aperture disappeared from the Mac App Store in the same month, but since then, existing owners have been able to continue to use it. That will change in September when macOS 10.14... Continue reading…

If you want to avoid spoilers, stay current, or participate in social media conversations, you have to watch Game of Thrones the moment it airs. If you have cable, you probably don’t think twice about it. But if you’re looking for an alternative method, one site always seems to have people covered: Twitch. On Twitch, streamers are regularly servicing Game of Thrones fans who want to watch the latest episode for free as it airs — and it’s not exactly with HBO’s approval. With just a few seconds of browsing Twitch’s “Just Chatting” category each Sunday night, it’s easy to come across an assortment of streams showing the new episode. There seemed to be more people streaming the premiere a couple of weeks ago than there were streaming the... Continue reading…

Right now, hundreds of space startups are racing to develop newer, smaller rockets, in order to take advantage of the proliferation of smaller satellites within the aerospace industry. Many of these companies want to get to space the old-fashioned way, by making a rocket that takes off vertically from the ground. But one company has eyed another method for getting to space — by launching underneath the wing of a giant airplane. This is the strategy of Virgin Orbit, the sibling company to Richard Branson’s space tourism venture Virgin Galactic. Virgin Orbit has developed a small rocket called LauncherOne that can put satellites the size of washing machines into orbit. And its launchpad resides at 35,000 feet. Virgin Orbit owns a Boeing... Continue reading…

Spring is a time of change and gift giving. Lots of people are graduating from high school or college, and either heading into the workforce by getting a job or continuing their education. So as it is customary to gift these individuals for their graduations, we have pooled The Verge staff’s expertise into a list of great gift ideas. These things have either served the staff well, or are things they wish they had when they graduated and moved into new periods of their lives. And so, compiled below is a list of 47 things from Ikea’s Frakta bags at around $5 to the Apple Macbook Pro at $1,799 that would be a great gift for any graduate at any price point. Credits Editorial lead: Michael Moore Art direction: James Bareham Photography:... Continue reading…

Today, PS2 classic Final Fantasy XII is launching on the Xbox One and Nintendo Switch. It’s the same enhanced remake of the game that hit the PS4 two years ago , which proved that, in many ways, FFXII was an experience ahead of its time. Fourteen years ago, the game represented a strange turn for the ever-changing role-playing series, introducing features like real-time combat and a sprawling open world that felt foreign to many players. Today, FFXII feels downright modern — but it doesn’t just hold up well for players. Alexander O. Smith has worked on translating Japanese games into English since the late 1990s. He says that, despite such a long career, FFXII is one of the few games he’s worked on where he doesn’t feel the desire to go... Continue reading…

Sphero’s founders just wanted to make robots. In 2010, Adam Wilson and Ian Bernstein asked investors for money to build a business around their clever phone-controlled robotic ball. But in some cases, investors wanted to know what more the business could offer: after they sold one robot to a customer, what came next? The answer was one that many hardware companies have turned to: a recurring revenue model that allows them to rely on customers paying every month or year. To find that model, Sphero experimented with turning the robot into a gaming device, but later, it decided to go all in on its developer tools and make the robots into coding toys that would appeal to schools. At that point, the team pivoted to education as a main focus,... Continue reading…

Amazon wants to get inside your car. Last year, the e-commerce giant launched a new service that allowed customers to have packages delivered to the trunks of their vehicles. To start out, only General Motors and Volvo vehicles were eligible. Today, that service has been expanded to include 2017 model year and newer Ford and Lincoln vehicles. There are a few caveats: the service is limited to 50 US cities, and the vehicles must come equipped with a modem that allows them to connect to Ford’s connected car cloud services, FordPass Connect and Lincoln Connect. Only Amazon Prime subscribers are eligible. Packages that weigh over 50 pounds, are larger than 26 x 21 x 16 inches in size, require a signature, are valued over $1,300, or come... Continue reading…

Microsoft’s Xbox Adaptive Controller started out as two hackathon projects at the company after an idea from a veteran with limited mobility. Designed for gamers with disabilities, the controller has two large programmable buttons and 19 jacks that can be connected to various accessories to make Xbox and PC gaming far more accessible for a number of players. Microsoft is now partnering with the US Department of Veteran Affairs to provide 22 rehab centers with Xbox Adaptive Controllers and allow veterans with limited mobility the ability to play games again. These controllers, which starred in the company’s Super Bowl commercial earlier this year , will be used in therapeutic and rehabilitative activities for veterans, and they’re designed... Continue reading…

Facebook’s developer conference has become a strange affair. Each year in April, the social network convenes a gathering dedicated to its sprawling platform in San Jose, California, for the thousands of companies, creators, and programmers that depend on it. The conference typically includes announcements for new features coming to Facebook’s suite of apps, along with updates on its more experimental efforts in virtual and augmented reality and artificial intelligence. In recent years, the conference has been overshadowed by controversies related to data privacy, security, moderation, and other topics revolving around Facebook’s struggle to police its platform and reckon with its global influence. Last year, Facebook reportedly delayed... Continue reading…

Tesla plans to sell its solar panels at a price that’s 38 percent lower than the national average in an attempt to halt the decline of its solar business. The New York Times notes that the head of Tesla’s solar department, Sanjay Shah, wants to sell panels for between $1.75 and $1.99 a watt, compared to the national average of $2.85. Shah highlights two main ways Tesla will achieve these price reductions. The first is by standardizing more of its installations. Customers will now only be able to purchase panels in increments of 4kW or 12 panels. Secondly, they will be asked to perform parts of the home installation process such as photographing electric meters and circuit breaker boxes that would have normally required a visit from... Continue reading…

Most of the giant platforms have an easy pitch for developers. Apple developers make apps for iOS and Mac, then sell them for money. Google developers make Android apps and ChromeOS hardware, then sell them for money. Amazon developers launch businesses on AWS or Amazon’s storefront, and then sell goods and services for money. Today Facebook’s annual F8 developer conference kicks off in San Jose, and it’s worth noting how complicated its pitch to developers has become. There once was a time when it was relatively straightforward — developers like Zynga once printed money selling virtual cows through Facebook’s popular gaming platform. But that part of Facebook has withered to near-nothingness, and in the meantime developers became one of... Continue reading…

Vodafone Italy discovered “hidden backdoors” in Huawei equipment that would have allowed the Chinese company to access users’ home networks as well as Vodafone’s Italian fixed-line network, reports Bloomberg . The vulnerabilities were discovered between 2009 and 2011 in Huawei’s home internet routers, as well as its equipment used in parts of Vodafone’s network infrastructure. There was no evidence of data being compromised. Bloomberg reports that both the router and network vulnerabilities continued to exist beyond 2012, and also existed in the company’s networks in the UK, Germany, Spain, and Portugal. Sources say that Vodafone continued to use the equipment because it was cheaper than the competition and the cost to remove it was... Continue reading…

The Energizer name figured prominently at Mobile World Congress this year, courtesy of a prototype Android smartphone that was about an inch thick, consisting mostly of a giant battery. The 18,000mAh Energizer Power Max P18K Pop was a preview of something Avenir Telecom, the company licensing the battery brand’s name for use on phones, wanted to mass-produce and bring to the market by this summer. After that successful MWC debut, the P18K Pop turned up on Indiegogo with an early-bird price of $549, a promised delivery window of October 2019, and an optimistic goal of $1.2 million in total funding. Today, Avenir’s Indiegogo campaign for the Energizer battery-with-a-phone-in-it concluded with a whimper, having accumulated a scant $15,005... Continue reading…

Samsung Electronics warned investors it was going to make a lot less money this quarter, and sure enough, the company just reported first-quarter earnings that show profits slid 60 percent compared to last year, from 15.64 trillion won (roughly $13.4 billion) to just 6.2 trillion won (about $5.3 billion). But unlike Google earlier today , the company’s not blaming its expensive phones for anything whatsoever — Samsung says the Galaxy S10 lineup actually sold well, with the company shipping 78 million phones overall (as well as 5 million tablets) in the quarter, and that any weakness in phones can be explained by its low and mid-range models cannibalizing sales for last year’s Galaxy models. (A big part of Samsung’s new phone strategy is... Continue reading…

Apple’s had a few public embarrassments in recent years — AirPower , the MacBook’s unreliable butterfly keyboard , and the iPhone slowdown saga come to mind — but it’s been a minute since since the original tech scandal of “Antennagate,” when the iPhone 4 had a tendency to drop calls if you held it in certain ways. Today, The Information is reporting (and AppleInsider is corroborating) that Apple VP of engineering and wireless specialist Rubén Caballero has left the company, which is notable for a couple of reasons. First, The Information reports he was the driving force behind Apple’s in-house 5G modem efforts — because yes, it seems that Apple is trying to design its own 5G modem to compete with Qualcomm. We can’t read too much into his... Continue reading…

Google has a simple, yet subtle, reason for its anticipated push into the midrange smartphone market: there’s too much competition in the high-end one. Next month, on the first day of its I/O developer conference, Google is expected to show off its new, cheaper Pixel 3a and 3a XL . And on an earnings call with reporters today, Ruth Porat, the chief financial officer of Google parent company Alphabet, said that industry-wide pressure on high-end phones led to fewer Pixel sales last quarter compared to this time a year ago. Porat specifically cited “some of the recent pressures in the premium smartphone market.” Maybe making $1000+ phones isn't such a great idea after all? — Janko Roettgers (@jank0) April 29, 2019 While Porat didn’t... Continue reading…

Podcast startup RedCircle is officially launching today with a focus on helping small shows grow. Its first step is releasing a feature that assists podcasters in setting up cross-promotions with other podcasters, agreements in which two shows promote each other. It promises there’s more to come. RedCircle raised $1.5 million in its seed round and offers free hosting, analytics access, distribution help, and other features designed for smaller creators. The company’s cross-promotion feature allows RedCircle to automatically insert promotions into shows once both podcasters have agreed. “The short story [of how we got started] is that there’s not a lot of interesting technology that’s being built for the small podcaster,” Mike Kadin,... Continue reading…

Anki, the San Francisco-based robotics company that specialized in making smartphone-controlled toys, is shutting down this week, reports Recode . The sudden news, delivered to staff today by CEO Boris Sofman, means the company’s staff of nearly 200 people will lose their jobs by Wednesday, with only one week of severance. Anki raised more than $200 million in venture capital funding to date. According to Recode , Anki ran out of money and could no longer “support a hardware and software business” that would enable it to achieve its “long-term product roadmap.” Last August, Anki said it had sold 1.5 million robot units to date , which appears to have included both its toy cars and personal robots. That wasn’t enough to keep the business... Continue reading…

Daimler will end US and Canada sales of its electric, pint-sized Smart Fortwo cars after the 2019 model year, the company confirmed today. “After much careful consideration, Smart will discontinue its battery-electric smart EQ Fortwo model in the U.S. and Canadian markets at the conclusion of MY2019,” Daimler said in a statement to The Verge . “A number of factors, including a declining micro-car market in the US and Canada, combined with high homologation costs for a low volume model are central to this decision.” TechCrunch first reported the decision earlier today. The tiny two-seater cars (which are not even nine feet in length ) were pitched as the perfect urban vehicle for quick, everyday travel between different city neighborhoods.... Continue reading…

Last April, T-Mobile and Sprint announced their plans to merge , yet one year later neither the US Federal Communications Commission nor the Justice Department have approved the deal — and the telecommunications companies just opted to extend the deadline an extra month. On Monday, T-Mobile and Sprint announced a deadline extension for the $26.5 billion merger in a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The two companies will now have until July 29th to convince officials at both the FCC and DOJ to approve the transaction that would combine the third and fourth largest telecommunications companies in the country into one. Makan Delrahim, who heads the antitrust division of the Justice Department, says that he had not decided... Continue reading…

Uber and Lyft have stopped accepting new drivers on their respective platforms in New York City, Politico reports . The move comes after the city passed new rules that are designed to curb the explosive growth of ride-hail companies. On its website, Uber attributes the new policy to “new [Taxi and Limousine Commission] regulations.” (To find Lyft’s notice about not accepting new drivers, I had to go through the process of signing up as a new driver.) This is a reference to legislation passed by the New York City Council in December 2018, which requires ride-hail companies to pay drivers at least $17.22 an hour after expenses. The pay formula uses a so-called “utilization rate,” which accounts for the share of time a driver spends with... Continue reading…

Back in March, we heard that a New Jersey drama club was adapting Alien as a high school production. Now there’s a recording of the production making the rounds that shows the play straight through, including their take on the Space Jockey, the Chestburster, the Xenomorph, and a guy playing Harry Dean Stanton in an accurate Hawaiian T-shirt. Since the video could potentially get taken down for being an unauthorized adaptation of Alien (it already has several music-related copyright claims), it’s better to watch it now while it’s up, so you can see how well the drama club did adapting a film built on an $11 million budget for the high school stage. The students say they raised their own money for the play and made costumes out of... Continue reading…

Spoiler alert: Spoilers ahead for Game of Thrones season 8, episode 3, “The Long Night.” Game of Thrones ’ most recent episode, “The Long Night,” was probably the final showcase of the Night King, the enigmatic progenitor of the White Walkers. But he went out in style, riding his undead dragon into one-on-two aerial combat, raising a whole new Army of the Dead to replace the army he lost, and shrugging off a blast of dragon fire to the face before Arya Stark finally took him down. His ability to control and ride a dragon has been inspiring theories since season 7 . For some, his use of a particular symbol confirmed those theories . The “ignores dragon fire” thing set off further speculation because that combination of abilities seems... Continue reading…

For many viewers tuning into Game of Thrones last night, what was supposed to be one of the show’s most remarkable and momentous scenes ever was marred by, well, darkness. The Battle of Winterfell, playing out in the season 8 episode “The Long Night,” took an arduous 55 nights to shoot, and was the largest-scale battle sequence in Thrones history. It was meant to be a final-season flex of epic proportions. But Miguel Sapochnik’s close-up directing choices and the battle’s nighttime setting were a perfect combination to expose the weaknesses of the streaming world we live in today. Many fans took to Twitter to complain about constant pixelation and an extreme difficulty following what was transpiring on-screen. A dozen variations on “who... Continue reading…

Spoiler alert: This essay includes no specific single plot points from Avengers: Endgame , but does mention some broad plot ideas that could be considered significant spoilers. At three hours long, Avengers: Endgame is a lot of movie, which means it has a lot of room for the things fans love about the Marvel Cinematic Universe — as well as the things some critics find frustrating about it. Sometimes, it’s both thrilling and frustrating at the same time — especially when it’s a movie dealing with time travel. Part of the movie’s long, winding story involves the core Avengers (who survived the apocalyptic population-halving “snap” at the end of Avengers: Infinity War ) circling back to crucial moments in MCU history. Over the course of 22... Continue reading…

There are quite a few deals worth sharing from Best Buy’s latest flash sale, which will end later today. The first-generation Sonos One smart speaker is $149.99 at Best Buy. The newer version of the Sonos One has a faster processor and more memory, which should make it a more future-ready option. However, the sound performance on the original model shouldn’t differ at all, so this is a great deal if you want to save money on a Sonos speaker. The Sony PlayStation 4 Pro console includes the PlayStation Classic mini console with purchase. Sony’s console rarely sees any sort of promotion, and while this isn’t a price cut, it’s a nice extra if you want to check out PlayStation’s 32-bit roots. Apple’s latest 13-inch MacBook Pro is $400 off its... Continue reading…

The Picross series is for anyone who has ever asked themselves, “What if sudoku was slightly more pretentious? And available on my Nintendo Switch?” If you’re looking for an unassuming, mildly addictive distraction for your favorite handheld, Picross S3 might be a good fit, especially if you like Nintendo’s habit of applying a little extra charm and polish. The series is based on a type of Japanese puzzle called nonograms — and then later, in horrifying instances, griddlers. Like its predecessors, Picross S3 features a boatload of puzzles (300) and a few varieties that up the difficulty (adding another 180), none dramatically different than the core experience. But at a price point that’s less than a salad (I assume , having never... Continue reading…

There have been plenty of rumors about what type of connector Apple will equip its new iPhones with now that the iPad Pro and its MacBook line use USB-C. We’re finally starting to get a clearer picture of what that reality might look like come September. According to Japanese blog Mac Otakara , the new iPhone models, of which there are rumored to be three in line with last year’s release, may not contain USB-C ports, as we’ve been hearing . They might, however, ship with a faster 18W USB-C charger and a Lightning to USB-C cable. That would make a lot of sense. Apple may not be ready to ditch Lightning just yet, but it looks like the company could try making iOS users’ lives a little bit easier. It’s always been a mystery why Apple ships... Continue reading…

Burger King is rolling out the Impossible Whopper nationwide, after a successful trial run testing the meatless burger in St. Louis . The chain announced in a statement today that it plans to test in more markets before distributing the burger nationally by the end of this year. The Impossible Whopper is made with startup Impossible Foods’ plant-based patties, which are designed to look and taste like meat. The patties are also designed to “bleed,” just like the real thing, which can be attributed to the use of heme, a soy-based compound found in plants and meat. The burgers have 15 percent less fat and 90 percent less cholesterol than regular Whoppers, and Burger King’s taste test experiments claim that customers and employees can’t... Continue reading…

Walmart is reportedly planning to bring at least six new original programs to its Vudu platform in the next year. A report from Bloomberg claims that the lineup will be comprised of family-friendly content, including a reboot of the 1983 film Mr. Mom that’s set for a June 2019 debut. It’s also reportedly chasing deals for a science fiction show and a procedural crime drama like CSI . Unlike Hulu, Netflix, HBO, and Apple’s upcoming video streaming service, Walmart’s plans don’t involve a subscription. New content will give people a reason to check out Vudu, luring in more users who will hopefully buy or rent some movies in the future. The report doesn’t state whether its new slate of content will be available for free, but it does suggest... Continue reading…