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Image: Samsung / 4KFilme Samsung may have a new, groundbreaking type of television to show off at CES in Las Vegas next week: a completely bezel-less, 8K QLED model. Dubbed by some reports as the Samsung “Zero Bezel” TV and reportedly carrying model numbers of Q900T and Q950T, this TV is believed to have bezels so tiny that the screen edge effectively disappears when viewed from a distance. On Tuesday, German website 4KFilme says it has its hands on a pair of leaked renders showing the screen in all its bezel-less glory. We don’t have very much else to go on, and of course this being an unannounced product, there’s no word yet on pricing, release date, or what size options a set like this would come in. But that said, it does sound perfectly in Samsung’s... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge TikTok released its first transparency report yesterday, showing which countries have submitted requests for content removal as well as access to user data. China is notably absent from the report—the video sharing app, owned by Chinese tech giant ByteDance, claims it did not receive a single takedown request from Communist Party of China in the first half of 2019. The news comes after a difficult year for the social media startup, which faced growing scrutiny over its relationship with China. In September, a report from The Washington Post suggested TikTok was censoring content related to the pro-democracy protests in Hong Kong, likely to appease the Chinese government. TikTok denied the allegations, but it wasn’t enough to stop... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge The era of Google using a pair of controversial loopholes to save billions of dollars in taxes on overseas ad revenue is coming to a close, according to a new report from Reuters . In 2020, the company will no longer take advantage of the so-called “Double Irish” and “Dutch sandwich” loopholes, which allowed it and countless other corporations to shift money from Ireland to the Netherlands and Bermuda, sheltering billions from taxes in the process. The move comes as regulations aimed at changing how companies skirt taxes take effect in both the US and Ireland. Previously, multinational organizations like Google were able to use a network of affiliate organizations located in Ireland, the Netherlands, and Bermuda to collect and hold money... Continue reading…

Image: USPTO Apple has just been granted a patent — concerning virtual positioning of audio — that could eventually lay the groundwork for new, more immersive audio applications. It builds on a previous patent Apple filed last month that enabled users to hear where people are physically located in a room through special headphone tech. Today’s patent does exactly the same thing, but with built-in MacBook speakers. According to 9to5Mac , it’s a virtual acoustic system that works by using crosstalk canceling, which makes users feel like sound is coming from a different place than loudspeakers. (Crosstalk, here, refers to the overlapping sound waves that the ears receive from the left and right channels of a speaker.) The effect, as reported by Patently... Continue reading…

For people who want to check in on their gaming achievements in Steam or stay up to date with the latest sales, this Apple Watch app has you covered. Smoke gives Apple Watch users access to their Steam account, but that doesn’t mean people have the ability to play games from their wrist. The app exists to let you stay up to date on gaming news and to see what friends are playing while you might be away from your PC. There’s an ability to save news articles that come up in the Apple Watch and read them in Smoke’s companion app for iOS, according to 9to5Mac . The full list of features Smoke brings to Apple Watch users includes: View the games you own as well as your achievement statuses and total play time View the store information for... Continue reading…

Photo by Chesnot/Getty Images United States Army soldiers can no longer use TikTok on government-owned phones following a decision to ban the app. The move comes amidst ongoing worries that the video app owned by Beijing-based company ByteDance could compromise national security or be used to influence or surveil Americans. “It is considered a cyber threat,” Army spokeswoman Lt. Col. Robin Ochoa told Military.com , which broke the news on December 30th. The army reportedly used TikTok to recruit members prior to the ban. Both the Navy and Defense Department sounded alarms on TikTok earlier this month. The Navy previously told its members not to add the app, and to delete it from government-issued devices if it was already installed. The Defense Department also... Continue reading…

Vizio says LeEco has breached the settlement the two companies agreed to last year in the $60 million lawsuit over their failed merger, and claims the Chinese tech conglomerate still owes a “substantial amount of money,” according to a new motion filed in California’s central district court on Monday. LeEco, which was once considered to be the “Netflix of China,” tried to buy Vizio in 2016 for $2 billion as part of its effort to expand its business beyond streaming. Founder Jia Yueting wanted his company to move into hardware like televisions and smartphones so he could create an entire ecosystem of hardware and software products that worked together, hence the “eco” in LeEco. But Jia’s ambition consumed LeEco, as he burdened the... Continue reading…

Photo credit should read DON EMMERT/AFP via Getty Images Times Square revelers will ring in the New Year to a theme of existential crisis tonight. Science teachers and students taking on the climate crisis will push the crystal button to trigger the ball drop in Times Square. Organizers of the annual New Year’s Eve celebration in New York City choose a theme each year based on the biggest issues in the news, and this year that theme is climate change. “[You’d] have to have a soul of Styrofoam not to be moved by the passion of young people demanding that we do better, and ‘listen to the science’ to start solving the problem,” Tim Tompkins, president of the Times Square Alliance, said in a press release. He added that “you’d have to have your head buried” in sand not to be alarmed by 2019’s... Continue reading…

Image: Netflix Netflix released its list of the most popular movies and TV shows of 2019 and, with the exception of Disney Pixar’s Incredibles 2 , every title on the list is a Netflix original. Most notable is Adam Sandler’s Murder Mystery , which Netflix declared as the most watched title in 2019. The Sandler and Jennifer Aniston-starring comedy broke records when it first hit Netflix back in June, generating more than 30 million account views within its first three days. It marked the biggest opening weekend for a Netflix film in the company’s history. Some of the other entires on the list, seen below, also saw record-breaking weekends or weeks for Netflix. A couple – including Henry Cavill’s The Witcher — only just came out. Murder Mystery S... Continue reading…

The Witcher has everything it needs to be Netflix’s next success: popular source material, a massive marketing campaign, a well-received performance by Henry Cavill, and an iconic meme in the form of the hit song “Toss A Coin To Your Witcher.” Yet, while certainly popular, it doesn’t seem like The Witcher is going to become “must see” television like other recent hits, such as The Mandalorian on Disney+ or Watchmen on HBO. At least part of the reason why is how Netflix released it: in a single, all-you-can-eat drop — like almost all of its other shows — instead of a more traditional weekly rollout. Weekly releases have numerous benefits for fans: continued and focused conversation every week around the latest episode, a chance to digest... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge The California Consumer Privacy Act goes into effect January 1st , and it doesn’t look like anyone, even the state of California itself, is totally ready. Draft regulations for enforcing the law are still being finalized at the state level, and questions about specific aspects of the most sweeping privacy regulation since the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) are still not clear. “If you thought the GDPR was bumpy, the CCPA is going to be a real roller coaster,” Reece Hirsch tells The Verge . Hirsch is co-head of Morgan Lewis’ privacy and cybersecurity practice and has been advising clients on how to adapt to the new law. “This is a complex set of new rules, which are still a work in progress.” The crux of the... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge The global hacking campaign known as “Cloud Hopper” perpetrated by government-sponsored Chinese hackers was much worse than originally reported, according to an investigation by the Wall Street Journal you should read in full. The report says that “at least a dozen cloud providers” were affected, but focuses on HP to illustrate the severity of the intrusions and the tactics used to attack and defend. ”The Journal found that Hewlett Packard Enterprise Co. was so overrun that the cloud company didn’t see the hackers re-enter their clients’ networks, even as the company gave customers the all-clear.” ”Inside the clouds, the hackers, known as APT10 to Western officials and researchers, had access to a vast constellation of clients. The... Continue reading…

Townew automatically seals the bag when full and pulls a new bag into place. | GIF: Townew Until there’s a Roomba that takes out the trash, this self-sealing bin from Townew is as close as we’ll get to an automated garbage experience. Townew is fitted with a Refill Ring that contains enough recyclable material to create 25 trash bags. Its touchless design opens the lid with a wave of the hand. When full, a button press on the front seals the bag, opens the top assembly for bag removal, then closes to pull a new bag into place. If the lid won’t close due to overloading, the trash can will automatically lift the top and seal the bag for removal. The trash can is fitted with infrared sensors that detect movement at a range of 35 centimeters (about 14 inches). The bags are pulled from the Refill Ring and cut and sealed using... Continue reading…

The Uncharted movie, based on the massively popular Indiana Jones -like game series, has lost another director, according to Deadline . Its release date has also been pushed back. Deadline says Travis Knight, who most recently directed Transformers spinoff Bumblebee , had to drop from the Uncharted movie because of scheduling difficulties. The movie is set to star Tom Holland as protagonist Nathan Drake. Holland, however, is also committed to playing Spider-Man in the next Marvel iteration of series , which apparently begins shooting this summer. Deadline reports that Sony still plans to release the Uncharted movie, but with a new director and later release date. (It was originally slated for a December 18th, 2020 release.) The Uncharted... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Late last week, Sonos was called out on Twitter by Devin Wilson for its practices around sustainability. The company drew particular attention for a “Recycle Mode” software feature that, once activated, begins a countdown that eventually renders older Sonos devices basically inoperable. Recycle Mode is part of the trade-up program that Sonos announced back in October , which lets customers get a discount on newer Sonos speakers like the One, Beam, or the Port that Nilay just reviewed . It works like this: you check if one of your Sonos gadgets is eligible for the trade-up promo . Then you confirm in the Sonos app that you’d like to “trade” your current device toward a new one. Sonos instantly grants you a 30 percent discount, and then... Continue reading…

Photo credit should read JIJI PRESS/AFP via Getty Images In July , a man walked into a Kyoto Animation’s Studio One and set fire to a bucket of gasoline. The resulting explosion killed 36 people, injured dozens more, and destroyed much of the Studio One building. The Hollywood Reporter today published a feature story about the attack and its aftermath that’s really worth reading. It’s not an easy read, but I walked away from it with a feeling of hope. THR’s story is packed with detail, thanks in part to interviews with Kyoto Animation founder Hideki Hatta and an attorney who has been helping Hatta since the attack. For example, the story describes how Hatta spent hours at Studio One after the attack consoling victims, and then had to drive aimlessly to avoid journalists and TV news trucks that... Continue reading…

NIO’s new EC6 SUV, which is expected to hit the road in late 2020.  | Images: NIO NIO, China’s leading EV startup, announced its third production vehicle this past weekend, a small and sporty all-electric SUV called the EC6. The Tencent-backed automaker also announced it has developed a new battery pack that will enable all three of its production models to travel well over 300 miles on a full charge. But neither of these new products will arrive until late 2020, meaning they offer almost no direct help to NIO when it comes to fixing the troublesome financial situation the startup is currently in. NIO announced Monday that it finished the third quarter of 2019 with just $274 million in cash, and also told its shareholders the company will only survive if it rapidly raises new funding. “The Company’s cash balance is... Continue reading…

Photo: Katalin Vermes / Netflix Netflix’s The Witcher is really popular, at least according to the company — it’s in their top ten most popular series releases this year, despite debuting about a week and a half ago. That’s given The Witcher games a huge bump on Twitch and Steam. Kotaku reported yesterday that over on Steam, The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt — a great game — set a new active player count record, with 94,000 people playing the game, which came out four years ago. That is a 93 percent jump from the month before. pic.twitter.com/VzJ7tgIsGb — Netflix US (@netflix) December 30, 2019 Over on Twitch, the bump was equally large. According to Twitchmetrics , The Witcher 3 had a peak of 31,000 viewers this week alone; back in October, the game was averaging around... Continue reading…

Photo by Jaap Arriens/NurPhoto via Getty Images A handful of depression management and suicide prevention apps — downloaded millions of times — included incorrect or nonfunctional contact information for suicide crisis help lines, according to a new analysis . While apps can offer people with suicidal thoughts or behaviors an important lifeline, experts are worried that many of the apps available on the Apple App Store or Google Play may not be following best practices, or connecting people with appropriate resources. Depression management and suicide prevention apps can fill an important role: many people feel more comfortable looking for information or seeking help online, and report that it’s easier to ask questions and share problems online rather than speaking with a person face... Continue reading…

Credit: Nick Walton AI Dungeon 2 may not have appeared on The Verge’s game of the year list , but it’s one of the coolest video game experiments of 2019, and it’s now playable in its easiest form yet. AI Dungeon 2 is an adventure game run by a text generation program, capable of responding to basically any command with a coherent response. Its earlier versions were either clumsy to set up or limited to mobile apps, which aren’t ideal for a typing-based game — but it recently relaunched on the web in a faster and more stable version. As my colleague James Vincent has explained , AI Dungeon 2 was built on OpenAI’s text production system. When you pick a genre (like fantasy, mystery, or zombie fiction), it generates a setting that you can interact with however... Continue reading…

Image: Wyze An unsecured server exposed the data of Wyze customers over a period of three weeks, the smart security camera manufacturer has admitted. The leak was first discovered by the cybersecurity firm Twelve Security, which published its findings on December 26th , while IPVM , a blog focused on video surveillance products, was able to verify that its own data had been affected by the leak. According to Twelve Security, the data of around 2.4 million Wyze customers was compromised. In a forum post announcing the leak to its users, Wyze co-founder Dongsheng Song wrote that the exposed server was not a production server, but was instead a “flexible database” that was created to allow for customer data to be more quickly queried. The co-founder said... Continue reading…

Netflix’s The Witcher adaptation seems to be the streaming service’s latest hit, helped at least in part by the massive viral success of the hit song of the season, “Toss a Coin to Your Witcher,” sung by the bard Jaskier (Joey Batey) at the end of the show’s second episode to immortalize the epic deeds of Geralt of Rivia (Henry Cavill). But there’s one huge issue with “Toss a Coin to Your Witcher” (other than the fact that it will get stuck in your head seemingly forever): Netflix hasn’t released it (or any of The Witcher ’s soundtrack) for streaming on Spotify, Apple Music, Google Play, or any other major streaming or music purchasing service. The only semi-official release of the song, in fact, comes not from Netflix,... Continue reading…

A tiny New Mexico town has been waiting for space tourists to fly down the road Continue reading…

Image: 91Mobiles / @OnLeaks The Pixel 4A could be Google’s first phone to feature a hole-punch display, new renders published by 91Mobiles claim. The unofficial renders, which are based on information provided by leaker OnLeaks , show what could be an unannounced budget version of the recently released Pixel 4, similar to the Pixel 3A that followed last year’s Pixel 3. The design appears to combine elements of both the Pixel 4 and the 3A. The 3.5mm headphone jack from the 3A returns, as does the bottom-firing speakers and rear-mounted fingerprint sensor. Meanwhile, the square camera bump from the Pixel 4 also makes an appearance here. However, while the Pixel 4 included two sensors on its rear, the renders claim that the 4A will have just one. The 4A will... Continue reading…

He Jiankui at the event where he publicly announced the experiment. | Image: ANTHONY WALLACE/AFP via Getty Images A Chinese court has sentenced the scientist behind the world’s first gene-edited babies, He Jiankui, to three years in prison, saying that the researcher’s team “crossed the bottom line of ethics.” Alongside his prison sentence, The Guardian reports that He was also fined 3 million yuan (around $430,000). He Jiankui was sentenced alongside two colleagues. Zhang Renli was fined 1 million yuan (around $143,000) and sentenced to two years in prison, while Qin Jinzhou was fined 500,000 yuan (around $71,000) and sentenced to 18-months in prison, with a two-year reprieve. “The three accused did not have the proper certification to practice medicine, and in seeking fame and wealth, deliberately violated national regulations in scientific... Continue reading…

Photo by James Bareham / The Verge Tesla has delivered the first cars produced by its Chinese Gigafactory, just under a year after the company broke ground on its first factory located outside of the US. Reuters reports that the Model 3 vehicles were delivered to 15 of Tesla’s employees as part of a ceremony. The deliveries were made well within schedule by the company, which had previously said it wanted to begin delivering its Chinese-made cars before the Lunar New Year on January 25th. The locally-produced cars already offer a large price saving over imported models, and a Bloomberg report recently said the company could lower prices further as it cuts costs and uses more locally-sourced components. The deliveries mark an important milestone for Tesla, which hopes to... Continue reading…

Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge The holidays are here, and if you’re unwrapping a new Kindle (or a non-Amazon-branded e-reader, or just a device with an e-book app on it), you might be looking for some new books to read. If you need some recommendations, here’s a list of some of the best science fiction books released in 2019, which should be the perfect choices for a long plane ride home or a quiet vacation morning. We’ve rounded up our favorite and most-used games, apps, and entertainment. Check out our app picks for iPhones, Android phones, PCs, Macs and TVs; our favorite mobile games from Apple Arcade and Google Play Pass; and our top choices for the PS4, Xbox One, and Nintendo Switch. We’ve also listed our favorite streaming shows on Disney+, Hulu and Netflix,... Continue reading…

Two months ago, just before The Mandalorian was about to premiere on Disney+, I made a joke to some friends: wouldn’t it be funny if this show was better than Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker ? I thought it was unlikely, but possible: ending a trilogy well is hard, and The Mandalorian didn’t have nearly as many expectations riding on it. Eight weeks later and The Rise of Skywalker is out, a very profitable hot mess , and The Mandalorian concludes its first season with a finale that doesn’t try for much, but also rocks. It is, surprisingly, the better Star War. (Very mild spoilers to follow.) Mando and The Child, out and about. What will they find next? Most of the reasons why I like The Mandalorian boil down to restraint: It’s full of... Continue reading…

Storm chasers, a rocket launch, and a melting ice cream cake Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Sci-fi futures, toxic cultures, and scooter wars Continue reading…

You’ve got an evening to kill and a Netflix subscription — don’t waste any time browsing. These ten picks aren’t going to even begin to cover all of the great stuff on Netflix, but it’s a good start. Here’s what you should definitely watch. We’ve rounded up our favorite and most-used games, apps, and entertainment. Check out our app picks for iPhones, Android phones, PCs, Macs and TVs; our favorite mobile games from Apple Arcade and Google Play Pass; and our top choices for the PS4, Xbox One, and Nintendo Switch. We’ve also listed our favorite streaming shows on Disney+, Hulu and Netflix, some great sci-fi books, and exciting new podcasts. (Note: pricing was accurate at the time of publishing, but may change.) Marriage Story ... Continue reading…

Disney The Disney-fueled ESPN+/Disney+/Hulu triple pack might be the biggest power play in the streaming wars yet. The late-2019 bundling of these services offers three huge entertainment libraries, a staggering array of choices that’s mostly good at making it impossible to choose. Don’t sweat it. Here are 10 rock-solid picks culled from all three services, with something for any mood. Unless noted otherwise, most of these are available on Hulu, the service with the largest and most varied library. We’ve rounded up our favorite and most-used games, apps, and entertainment. Check out our app picks for iPhones, Android phones, PCs, Macs and TVs; our favorite mobile games from Apple Arcade and Google Play Pass; and our top choices for the PS4,... Continue reading…

Star Wars is synonymous with big; big battles, big ships and, most importantly, big movie theater screens. But the future is changing, and The Mandalorian perfectly demonstrates what it looks like. The next three years will see Star Wars ’ universe expand on Disney+. Disney isn’t planning to release another Star Wars movie until 2022 . Executives have publicly recognized the audience fatigue the current annual release schedule brings. It’s the first time in four years that there won’t be an annual Star Wars movie, but the franchise isn’t really going anywhere. The first toe dipped into the water was Disney+’s The Mandalorian , which just aired its season finale to critical and fan praise. Ultimately The Mandalorian ’s ambitious,... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge AT&T continues to roll out its low-band 5G network , with the addition of six new cities that add some of the biggest urban areas in the US to AT&T’s growing network: New York City, Washington, DC, Baltimore, Las Vegas, Detroit, and Philadelphia. More 5G for AT&T As with the earlier launch in December, the six new cities feature AT&T’s regular 5G network, built on its low-band 850MHz spectrum technology. (Not to be confused with its rebranded LTE network — which AT&T calls 5G E — or its high-band 5G network based on mmWave technology, which AT&T calls 5G+.) In addition to the low-band rollout, AT&T is also launching its mmWave 5G+ network in select areas of Baltimore and Detroit, although the 5G+ network isn’t available to general... Continue reading…

The Mandalorian and Baby Yoda will return for a second season next fall, executive producer Jon Favreau confirmed today. Favreau tweeted the confirmation, adding that it will arrive in the fall, but with no specific release date just yet. The Mandalorian ’s season 1 finale was released today, and was praised by both critics and fans for its satisfying end . The episode concludes with a tease of what to expect from the show’s villain Moff Gideon — including a possible tie-in to Star Wars Rebels — that many fans are hoping will be explored in the second season. Season 2 of #TheMandalorian coming Fall 2020 pic.twitter.com/8VQYLDMQ0V — Jon Favreau (@Jon_Favreau) December 27, 2019 Fall 2020 is shaping up to be a busy time for Disney+. The... Continue reading…

This decade, babies took on a new life. Everyone wanted to be a baby, and particularly this year, babies dominated the meme cycle. We’re obsessed with babyfication — turning everything into a baby including ourselves and beloved characters. Unlike infantilization, babyfication suggests corporate strategy, foresight about how turning users or characters into babies will spur brand visibility. I can’t pretend to understand why we’re baby-crazy, except for positing that it has something to do with a complete lack of control over the world and our lives. Climate change is going to burn up the Earth; wealth inequality is rampant; and generally, many things are bad. Babies, on the other hand, are good. They’re innocent and pure. They don’t... Continue reading…

Photo by Dan MacMedan/WireImage Phoebe Waller-Bridge is having a great year. Fresh off the second season of her acclaimed show Fleabag , the writer / actor / producer inked a blockbuster deal with Amazon Prime Video in September. She’s emerged at the end of 2019 as one of the biggest names in TV, having worked on the script for the upcoming James Bond film, started on a brand-new HBO show, hosted Saturday Night Live, and won big at the Emmys for Fleabag. Image: Rosalind O’Connor / NBCU Photo Bank / NBCUniversal via Getty Images via Getty Images Fleabag , in which Waller-Bridge plays the title character, is based on a play she wrote and performed at the Edinburgh Film Festival in 2013. Season 1 premiered in 2016, but the show practically went viral... Continue reading…

Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge Popular USB charging company Anker has an all-new iPhone accessory that should elevate your mobile photography game in the lighting department. It’s an LED flash that connects to the iPhone 11 via the Lightning connector. Anker’s new gadget confirms a 9to5Mac report from earlier this month regarding upcoming flash accessories soon to be certified in Apple’s Made-for-iPhone (MFi) licensing program. It appears Anker has one of, if not the , first of these flashes on the market. External flashes have existed for the iPhone in the past , but just not as part of the MFi program. That means these devices haven’t been able to integrate with Apple’s native hardware and software, like the iPhone’s built-in flash or its stock Camera app. ... Continue reading…

Alex Castro / The Verge As first reported by AdAge , Spotify said Friday it will “pause” political advertising early in 2020 on its ad-supported tier and its original and exclusive podcasts, saying it doesn’t have the resources to properly vet such ads. “At this point in time, we do not yet have the necessary level of robustness in our processes, systems and tools to responsibly validate and review this content,” the company said in a statement to The Verge . “We will reassess this decision as we continue to evolve our capabilities.” Spotify does not offer ads on its platform outside the US. The company would not tell AdAge how much revenue its political ads generate, but Sen. Bernie Sanders (D-VT) and the RNC have run ads on Spotify in the past. Spotify joins... Continue reading…

Photo by ARIS OIKONOMOU/AFP via Getty Images A rapidly changing climate drove hundreds of governments around the world to declare states of emergency in 2019. While the declarations are largely symbolic gestures, they have in some cases become jumping-off points for real action. It’s the culmination of coordinated efforts by activists pushing governments to take action that is as dramatic as the threats posed by the climate crisis. “The Climate Emergency movement reached a tipping point” “This year, the Climate Emergency movement reached a tipping point, and thousands of average people began getting involved in climate politics and advocating for change,” Laura Berry, director of research and publications at The Climate Mobilization wrote to The Verge in an email. Her... Continue reading…

Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge Got a VR headset for the holidays this year and unsure of where to start? Not to worry — whether you’ve got an Oculus Quest, Vive Cosmos, or a Nintendo Labo VR kit, here are recommendations for some of our favorite games that best show off the platform’s capabilities. There’s a good range of games that span family-friendly to escape-the-family, so hopefully there’s something here for everyone. We’ve rounded up our favorite and most-used games, apps, and entertainment. Check out our app picks for iPhones , Android phones , PCs and Macs ; our favorite mobile games from Apple Arcade and Google Play Pass ; and our top choices for gaming PCs , the PS4 , Xbox One , Nintendo Switch and VR . We’ve also listed our favorite streaming shows on Disney+,... Continue reading…

Make almost anything work with Sonos, but it’ll cost you Continue reading…

Photo by Chris Welch / The Verge Sonos today announced that it will increase prices on the Sonos Amp and Sonos Port by $50 as it shifts production out of China and into Malaysia. The Amp will now retail for $649 and the Port will sell for $449; the price increases will be effective January 9th, 2020. Other Sonos products will remain the same price. Sonos telegraphed this move earlier in the year, telling analysts on earnings calls that it would be moving production out of China and prices might be affected. The company tells me the move is less about tariffs, which it called a “one-time hit,” and more about diversifying production for the future. The Amp and Port are at the upper end of the Sonos product line — they allow custom AV installers and enthusiasts to... Continue reading…

Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge Getting the most out of your Apple computer often means exploring well beyond the stock apps pre-installed on macOS and the top charts of the Mac App Store. Many of the best productivity, workflow, and OS customization software have been around for years, but they can be hard to find if you’re a first-time Mac user and don’t know what you’re looking for or what the crucial differences are between macOS and Windows. Below, we’ve compiled a list of some of the best software available for Mac, from email and shortcut apps to window organizers and multimedia players. This isn’t meant to be a definitive list; check out last year’s guide for GIF making, recipe organization, and photo editing apps, for example. But it is a good place to start... Continue reading…

Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales Setting up a new phone is a flurry of entering passwords, transferring contact data, downloading must-have social media apps, and entering even more passwords. Once that’s all done, it’s time to fill your phone with everything else you might need day to day: a smarter weather app, a good email client, and some things to make sure you have plenty to read and listen to. Here are our suggestions for where to start. We’ve rounded up our favorite and most-used games, apps, and entertainment. Check out our app picks for iPhones, Android phones, PCs, Macs and TVs; our favorite mobile games from Apple Arcade and Google Play Pass; and our top choices for the PS4, Xbox One, and Nintendo Switch. We’ve also listed our favorite streaming shows on... Continue reading…

Photo by Avery White for The Verge Anyone who has used Windows through more than one version knows that, no matter how many utilities Microsoft adds to its operating system, there are always apps and utilities that will enhance your use. We listed several good ones in last year’s edition ; this year, we have a few new ones to add to the mix. If you have a brand new system, consider installing some (or all) of these. We’ve rounded up our favorite and most-used games, apps, and entertainment. Check out our app picks for iPhones, Android phones, PCs, Macs and TVs; our favorite mobile games from Apple Arcade and Google Play Pass; and our top choices for the PS4, Xbox One, and Nintendo Switch. We’ve also listed our favorite streaming shows on Disney+, Hulu and Netflix, some... Continue reading…

LG’s vegetable cultivator alongside a full-sized fridge. | Image: LG There’s no surer sign that CES is near than the announcement of a massive home appliance of dubious merit. Joining the tradition of giant laundry folders and wardrobe sanitizers is this new indoor vegetable cultivator from LG. It controls light, temperature, and water to grow your own garden from up to 24 “all-in-one seed packages” that LG will happily sell you. The modular packages contain the seeds, peat moss, and fertilizer, and come in 20 varieties of lettuces and herbs including romaine, arugula, chicory, and basil. Growth can be managed from the accompanying app. And from the looks of the supplied press images, the gardening column is designed to slot into kitchens next to full-sized refrigerators. No prices are given for the... Continue reading…

Photo by: Universal History Archive/Universal Images Group via Getty Images There’s no getting around it: a more sustainable future will be a battery-powered one. Without batteries to store energy, renewables are about as reliable as the weather. Still, building the batteries we’ll need to slow down the climate crisis comes with its own costs. As Wil S. Hylton writes in The Atlantic , the world is poised to start mining the deepest depths of the ocean before we’ve even had a chance to understand what might be lost. Here’s where things stand now — to make the batteries that power our electric vehicles, computers, and smartphones, we need cobalt and other metals. Google, Apple, Dell, Microsoft, and Tesla are defendants in a suit filed this month alleging that the companies are in part responsible for the... Continue reading…

This Christmas season, astronauts aboard the International Space Station got into the holiday spirit by baking cookies for Santa in microgravity . Yet neither Santa nor the astronauts will be able to enjoy the baked cookies, since making them was part of a science experiment, designed to test a new oven on the orbital lab. Instead, the cookies will remain sealed and uneaten, only to be returned to Earth later on for analysis. The cookies were made possible thanks to a newly developed space oven sent to the ISS in early November, aboard a Cygnus cargo spacecraft made by Northrop Grumman. The blue, cylindrical oven is the product of a New York-based startup called Zero G Kitchen and space technology developer Nanoracks , with ingredients... Continue reading…

Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge New York Governor Andrew Cuomo has vetoed a bill that would have made electric scooters and bikes legal in the state, citing the lack of a mandatory helmet requirement and other safety concerns . The veto means e-bikes and e-scooters will continue to remain technically illegal across the state, and will further delay any adoption of popular (if polarizing) shared mobility services like Lime or Bird. The bill to legalize e-bikes and e-scooters was passed in June with overwhelming support , clearing the state Senate by a 56-6 margin and the state Assembly by a 137-4 margin. But state lawmakers reportedly waited to send the bill to Cuomo until this week out of concern that he would try to stand in the way of the proposal. Cuomo has voiced... Continue reading…

Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker director J.J. Abrams once praised The Last Jedi director Rian Johnson for introducing Kelly Marie Tran’s Rose Tico to the Star Wars universe, calling it “the greatest thing” Johnson did . Yet Tran’s character reportedly received approximately 76 seconds of screen time within The Rise of Skywalker ’s runtime of two hours and twenty minutes. It became apparent to anyone who watched The Rise of Skywalker that Rose Tico, a main character in The Last Jedi , was benched throughout the new film. Slate writer Violet Kim watched the film with a stopwatch , noting every time Tico appeared on screen. Kim noted that she tried to be “as generous” as possible, including scenes like “at the end where she hugs Chewbacca at... Continue reading…