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Photo by MANDEL NGAN/AFP via Getty Images Twnety-one current and former employees of Jeff Bezos’ space company Blue Origin published a damning essay on Thursday saying the company “turns a blind eye to sexism, is not sufficiently attuned to safety concerns, and silences those who seek to correct wrongs.” Co-authored by Blue Origin’s former head of employee communications Alexandra Abrams, the essay describes multiple accounts of sexist and dismissive behavior from some of the company’s “one-hundred percent” male senior technical and program leaders and says “professional dissent at Blue Origin is actively stifled.” The employees accuse the company’s CEO Bob Smith of brushing off dissent by discouraging staff from raising questions during internal town halls, asking a colleague... Continue reading…

Image: Wyze Wyze, the budget-focused tech company that now sells everything from security cameras to headphones , has launched a new smart scale with four built-in electrodes capable of measuring everything from body fat percentage to body water percentage. In addition to weighing humans, there is also a dedicated mode to let you weigh your “baby, pet, luggage, or your kid’s absurdly heavy backpack,” Wyze says. The Scale S follows the original Wyze Scale released last year , but it’s $5 cheaper with a price of just $15. Weight is displayed on the built-in 3.5-inch LED display, while a companion app (of course) allows you to set goals and track progress over time. It can sync data with Fitbit, Google Fit, and Apple Health and track data for up to... Continue reading…

Cross-app group chats between Instagram and Messenger. | Image: Facebook Facebook will now let you start cross-app group chats between Messenger and Instagram, the company announced Thursday . The update is a big step forward in Facebook’s ambitions to make its apps work better with each other. To be able to use the cross-app communications, you’ll have to opt in, and Facebook says that “over 70% of eligible people on Instagram have updated to the new Messenger experience.” The company is bringing other new features to the messaging apps in addition to cross-app group messaging. Polls will be available in group DMs on Instagram and in cross-app chats so you can, for example, vote on where to grab lunch. Facebook has added group typing indicators to Messenger, so you can see when multiple people are drafting a... Continue reading…

The Surface Duo 2 works with Microsoft’s lineup of Surface Pens, including the Surface Slim Pen 2 . | Image: Microsoft It’s official: the troubled Surface Duo is now last-gen. Microsoft announced its successor, the Surface Duo 2 , during its recent fall Surface event , capping off months of rumors and introducing the device alongside the Surface Pro 8 , Surface Laptop Studio , and a bevy of new devices designed to take advantage of Windows 11 . The new Android-based smartphone starts at $1,499.99 — $100 less than the original — and launches on October 20th in multiple configurations. It retains the hinged design of its predecessor — only this time, it comes equipped with a more thought-out camera system, 5G support, and a modern processor that brings it more in line with flagships from Samsung, Xiaomi, and OnePlus. And while it’s not a foldable in the... Continue reading…

Struggling EV startup Lordstown Motors is nearing a sale of its Ohio factory to Taiwanese iPhone assembler Foxconn, which has its own electric vehicle ambitions, Bloomberg reports . The deal could be announced as soon as Thursday evening. Lordstown Motors bought the 6.2 million square foot facility from General Motors in 2019 shortly after the Detroit automaker closed it down — a decision that drew the ire of then-president Trump. The startup previously announced in August that it was planning to rent out space at the factory in an effort to make money amid a serious cash crunch. Reuters is also reporting that a sale is on the verge of happening . Since buying it, Lordstown Motors has put about $240 million worth of work into getting the... Continue reading…

Sony Santa Monica Kratos’ voice actor, Christopher Judge, says he’s the reason why God of War: Ragnarok was delayed. In a tweet, Judge writes that he needed multiple surgeries in 2019 and that God of War developer Sony Santa Monica studios delayed the game so he could recover and continue voicing video games’ favorite problematic dad. in my feels right now. I need to be forthcoming. This has been approved by no one. To the beloved fandom, Ragnarok was delayed because of me. August 2019, I couldn’t walk. Had to have back surgery, both hips replaced, and, knee surgery. They waited for me too rehab… Cont… — Christopher Judge (@iamchrisjudge) September 30, 2021 No threats, no ,” who do you think you are?” Nothing but love and support. And @... Continue reading…

The 2021 edition of The Game Awards, the annual Oscars-like award show for video games, will take place on December 9th. The show will take place at the Microsoft Theater in Los Angeles, and unlike last year, there will be an in-person audience — though it will be an invite-only event. Details about specific health and safety protocols for the in-person event will be shared “in the coming weeks,” according to a press release. The awards, which will be hosted by creator and executive producer Geoff Keighley, will also be livestreamed on more than 40 different platforms, so you’ll be able to watch from home if you want. The show organizers are also promising that there will be “free playable game content” available as part of an “immersive... Continue reading…

Corsair When it comes to PC components and accessories, there isn’t much that Corsair itself doesn’t make. The company’s adding gaming monitors to its list of offerings with today’s announcement of a 32-inch model called Xeneon. It uses a 1440p quantum dot IPS 16:9 aspect ratio panel that has a 165Hz refresh rate to display fast-paced content. Other standout specs include AMD FreeSync Premium and Nvidia G-Sync compatibility for adaptive sync to eliminate screen tearing when the frame rate fluctuates. It also has 100 percent coverage of the SRGB color gamut, and on its back, there are plenty of ports, which I’ll expand upon later. Corsair is utilizing its well-known presence in the market to go up against not just other monitor manufacturers,... Continue reading…

Photo by Tom Warren / The Verge If you’re an avid PC builder, you know that getting your hands on any of Nvidia’s 30-series GPUs has been next to impossible since they debuted. But Best Buy is hosting an event in select stores starting Friday, October 1st to give you the opportunity. If you haven't been outside in a while, you can use this page to find the store closest to you that will have these GPUs in stock, sold at their retail price. Unfortunately, you can't just head down there cash in hand and hope to snatch one up. Best Buy has stated that you’ll need to line up at one of the designated stores before 7:30AM local time. This is when employees will begin handing out a limited amount of tickets (one per customer) that will allow you to purchase a single GPU. Of... Continue reading…

Apple’s MagSafe Battery attaches to any iPhone 12 or 13 model. | Dieter Bohn / The Verge The Apple MagSafe Battery pack recently launched in July, and we are now finally seeing the first significant discount on the magnetic power bank that usually costs $99. The MagSafe ecosystem may still be a bit underdeveloped , and there are some compelling alternatives from other manufacturers , but the little battery is a svelte option for juicing up an iPhone 12 or 13 on the go. With 1,460mAh and 11.3Wh, the MagSafe battery doesn’t earn its praise on specifications alone, but it has the software integration that no other power bank — magnetic or wired — has, with on-screen animations and charge levels visible, so you know exactly how much charge is left. Not only can it charge certain iPhones, but while it’s recharging via its built-in... Continue reading…

Some of the very best games on PlayStation 5 so far are old titles made new — so it’s fitting that Sony is officially acquiring Bluepoint Games , the acclaimed studio that specializes in remasters. It’s the team that brought us the Demon’s Souls and Shadow of the Colossus remakes , as well as fantastic remasters of the first three Uncharted games , the cult-classic Gravity Rush , and both the Metal Gear Solid HD Collection and Ico & Shadow of the Colossus Collection for previous gen consoles. Bluepoint was behind the excellent 2013 port of Flower to the PS4 as well. That’s not the only reason Sony’s Bluepoint buy isn’t surprising though. The company spilled the beans in June when it bought Returnal developer Housemarque, but accidentally... Continue reading…

Apple Watch | Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge People who get irregular pulse notifications on an Apple Watch but don’t have atrial fibrillation — the condition the feature focuses on detecting — could still have another type of problem with their heartbeat, according to a new study . The findings show that even if someone with a concerning alert from their Apple Watch doesn’t get an atrial fibrillation diagnosis, they may not be in the clear, says study author Marco Perez, the director of the Inherited Arrhythmia Clinic at Stanford University Medical Center. “Even if you didn’t find atrial fibrillation, we were finding a lot of people who had something else that probably needed some clinical attention,” he says. The analysis, published in the journal Circulation , was done using... Continue reading…

Wccftech There have been rumors that Asus partnered with Noctua, maker of very quiet PC case fans and this silent, fan-less CPU cooler , to make a custom Nvidia RTX 3070 desktop graphics card that looks like no other. While its existence has leaked a few times, picked up by PC Gamer in recent months, Wccftech was quick to spot that an Asus employee in Vietnam posted images of the graphics card and other info to the Asus ROG Vietnam Facebook page . Those assets have since been taken down, but not before Wccftech was able to snag the photos and take note of the details. This new GPU, apparently called the RTX3070-08G-NOCTUA, won’t be as affordable as your average RTX 3070 (MSRP of $499), plus the cost of a couple of Noctua fans. Asus’ Facebook page... Continue reading…

It’s a strange thing that one of the most enjoyable physical interfaces I use in my day-to-day life is on a kettle. The Stagg EKG Electric Kettle , specifically, a $150 appliance that’s almost entirely controlled through a single, magnificent dial that is a strong contender for the best way to turn on a kettle (a competition that, admittedly, lacks much competition). Using the Stagg is a delightful experience of tactility. The main control is a single dial/button located on the front right of the base. Turning it on takes just a single press, a deep, solid click that lets you know through touch and sound that you’ve turned on the kettle. Turning it off is a similar single press, another resonant click to announce that the kettle is off. ... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Epic Games announced Thursday that it would be making its parent verification services free for all developers in order to make it easier to build games that keep kids safe online. Epic Games bought SuperAwesome, a safe kidtech company, last September. With this new addition to the company, Epic Games was able to launch its Kids Web Services (KWS) program, allowing developers to “verify the identity of parents or guardians when granting their children permission to use features that collect personal information.” Once a parent is verified through the system, they receive what Epic calls the “ParentGraph,” which makes it simpler to offer verification through other games on the Epic platform. Epic says that this system not only protects... Continue reading…

The Nreal Air smart glasses. | Image: Nreal Augmented reality company Nreal is launching a cheaper, iOS-compatible, more compact version of its smart glasses. The new Nreal Air glasses are supposed to ship starting in December 2021 across Japan, China, and South Korea. The price isn’t set, but Nreal says they’ll cost “a fraction of the price” of its earlier Nreal Light glasses, which started selling for around $600 last year. Based on Nreal’s description, the new Nreal Air glasses have some core similarities with the Nreal Light glasses from 2020. Both are designed to look like relatively normal sunglasses and pitched as ideal for projecting a virtual big-screen display in front of your eyes. They’re both using micro OLED displays for their augmented reality optics and are powered... Continue reading…

Bluestacks X brings Android games to the browser. | Image: Bluestacks BlueStacks started off life as an Android emulator for Windows more than 10 years ago, allowing anyone to run native Arm-based or x86 Android apps on Windows PCs and tablets . Now BlueStacks is transitioning to the cloud, bringing Android games to the browser and across iOS, Windows, macOS, Android, and Linux devices, and even inside Discord. BlueStacks X launches today as the only cloud gaming service that offers free streaming of mobile games across multiple platforms and devices. BlueStacks has built its hybrid cloud technology under its now.gg brand to make this possible, combined with Amazon’s AWS Graviton servers. BlueStacks X also offloads part of the compute and graphics rendering to local devices thanks to advancements in modern... Continue reading…

Dolby Atmos isn’t the reason you should buy it Continue reading…

Spotify Spotify is making podcasts on its platform more interactive. The company announced today that podcasters who create their shows in Anchor, its creation software, will be able to build interactive polls and Q&As into their programs. Listeners across 160 markets will be able to engage with them. For now, the functionality is only available to Anchor podcasters — not even for people who use Megaphone, Spotify’s podcast hosting platform — and it only works on the Spotify app. To view a poll or Q&A, you’ll see it at the bottom of your Spotify mobile app. Once you respond to a poll, you’ll be able to see how others voted, while Q&A answers will be sent to the podcaster privately. These podcasters can then choose to pin and publicly display the... Continue reading…

Photo by Cameron Faulkner / The Verge Backbone Labs has acknowledged the issue that hampers the use of its excellent iPhone gaming controller with the new iPhone 13 Pro and 13 Pro Max. As we noticed last week , the iPhone 13 Pro’s thicker camera bump means the phone doesn’t sit neatly in the Backbone One controller, either sticking out on one side or causing the bridge on the back to slightly buckle. It’s not unusable, but it’s not great. “We spent a tremendous amount of time meticulously crafting every surface of Backbone One (both bits and atoms) and even designing universal support for the iPhones available when it was released,” a Backbone representative wrote in an official post on Reddit . “As a result, we’re disappointed in the situation at hand. Several folks on the... Continue reading…

DISH and Boost Mobile hope to bring in new 5G customers with their own phone, the Celero5G. | DISH/Boost Mobile After acquiring Boost Mobile as part of the Sprint and T-Mobile merger in 2020 and snapping up Republic Wireless for its 5G network earlier this year, Dish is finally ready to turn Boost Mobile into the fourth wireless carrier that the FCC envisioned . Its opening salvo? The satellite television provider is introducing an exclusive budget 5G phone for Boost Mobile’s prepaid customers. The Celero5G is a “custom-built phone” for Boost Mobile, according to its spokesperson. Just like T-Mobile’s Revvl or AT&T’s Radiant, it has unique branding that you won’t find anywhere else. For a carrier that is trying to expand its user base, this is certainly an unusual way to get there. After all, most other carriers try to dangle the latest flagship... Continue reading…

The Fairphone 4’s updated design makes it look like a modern smartphone. | Image: Fairphone 4 Fairphone, the manufacturer focused on making easy to repair smartphones made out of ethically sourced materials, just took the wraps off its fourth-generation handset. The Fairphone 4 uses a modular design that’s similar to the company’s previous phones, only now with more powerful internals, a five-year warranty, and a promise of two major Android updates and software support until the end of 2025. Prices start at €579 / £499 for the phone, which will ship on October 25th. I’ve been using the Fairphone 4 for a couple of days as my primary phone, and while I’m not ready to give a final verdict just yet, it feels like a big step forward compared to the dated designs and low-power components found in the company’s previous phones. Stay... Continue reading…

Here it is. | Image: Drop Sure, why not. Stack Overflow has teamed up with tech retailer Drop to release this cute little keyboard called The Key. It’s programmed to do exactly two things: copy and paste. The product started as an April Fools’ Day joke earlier this year — Stack Overflow users were shown alerts claiming that they had a limited number of copy / pastes and that they could only lift that cap by purchasing The Key. Users, as Stack Overflow’s blog post notes, were disappointed to find out that The Key was not a real thing they could buy. So, you can buy it now. It’s up for preorder on Drop’s website for $29. Per the company, the next batch is shipping on December 13th. Image: Drop What more could you need? As you can see,... Continue reading…

Illustration: Alex Castro / The Verge Google says search is still far from solved Continue reading…

Google’s Tree Canopy Lab | Image: Google Google Maps has new features that should make it easier for users to see wildfires, tree canopy, and locations without formal addresses. It’s all aimed at helping communities be “safer, more sustainable, and discoverable,” according to the company. A new wildfire layer on Maps will begin rolling out globally this week, Google announced today. It’ll show most major fires, those prompting evacuations, across the world. Red splotches and pins on the layer will indicate where blazes are and how far they’ve spread. By tapping on any single wildfire, users can see more information, like how many acres have burned, what percentage of the fire has been contained, and links to local emergency resources. The map is updated about every hour. It... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge All the new features coming to the search giant’s core product Continue reading…

Image: Google Shopping online isn’t always a convenience. If you enjoy window shopping or browsing curated collections at a brick-and-mortar store for inspiration, finding something online you don’t yet know you want or are unaware of is tricky if you start with a text search. Google is announcing new shopping search tools to try to alleviate this, with features that utilize Google Lens for finding products to buy from pictures online, broader search terms to help you browse clothing, and the ability to check in-store inventory from home. It claims the new tools will help shoppers “find what they’re looking for in a more visual way.” This comes after Google allowed all businesses to create listings on Google Shopping for free last year. Now, it wants... Continue reading…

Google is updating its visual search tool Google Lens with new AI-powered language features. The update will let users further narrow searches using text. So, for example, if you snap a photo of a paisley shirt in order to find similar items online using Google Lens, you can add the command “socks with this pattern” to specify the garments you’re looking for. Additionally, Google is launching a new “Lens mode” option in its iOS Google app, allowing users to search using any image that appears while searching the web. This will be available “soon,” but it’ll be limited to the US. Google is also launching Google Lens on desktop within the Chrome browser, letting users select any image or video when browsing the web to find visual search... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge “Can you get medicine for someone at the pharmacy?” It’s a simple enough question for humans to understand, says Pandu Nayak, vice president of search at Google, but such a query represents the cutting-edge of machine comprehension. You and I can see that the questioner is asking if they can fill out a subscription for another person , Nayak tells The Verge . But until recently, if you typed this question into Google, it would direct you to websites explaining how to fill out your prescription. “It missed the subtlety that the prescription was for someone else,” he says. MUM is Google’s biggest, brightest AI language model The key to delivering the right answer, says Nayak, is AI, which Google is using today to improve its search results.... Continue reading…

Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge Almost everything Hasbro won’t give you in one package Continue reading…

The Mandalorian and Boba Fett in The Mandalorian . | Image: Lucasfilm Disney’s The Book of Boba Fett , a new show focused on the iconic Star Wars bounty hunter, will premiere on Disney Plus on December 29th, Disney announced Wednesday . Disney revealed that the show was in the works after a post-credits scene during the season 2 finale of The Mandalorian . Shortly after that big reveal, we learned that the show would premiere in December 2021 , but now we have an official date. Here’s the official synopsis, from Disney: “The Book of Boba Fett,” a thrilling Star Wars adventure, finds legendary bounty hunter Boba Fett and mercenary Fennec Shand navigating the Galaxy’s underworld when they return to the sands of Tatooine to stake their claim on the territory once ruled by Jabba the Hutt and his crime syndicate.” ... Continue reading…

Image: Facebook A little over a month after Facebook announced a test blending Instagram Reels’ short-form video content with its main Facebook app, the company is ready to roll it out fully in the US. Now, the creators who use it can create reels on Facebook, and Facebook is testing suggestions that will push the videos to its users. Image: Facebook Facebook Reels recommendation A big part of the Reels effort is appealing to the people who make entertaining content, and with its news feed, Facebook can offer potential levels of exposure that are bigger than anyone else, including competition like TikTok and Snapchat. To drive the point home, Facebook announced a Reels Play bonus program, which will invite certain creators to... Continue reading…

Image: Disney Disney’s next animated feature, Encanto , has a lot of what you’d expect from the studio. It’s bright and colorful, telling the story of a magical family living in the mountains of Colombia, most of whom have been blessed with superpowers. It’s even a musical with songs written by Lin-Manuel Miranda. But despite the familiar fantasy trappings, it explores new territory for Disney: the narrative tradition of magical realism . “The magic is born out of a human need or drive,” Encanto co-writer and co-director Charise Castro Smith tells The Verge . “It’s all generated by relationships and what these characters are going through.” Encanto tells the story of the Madrigal family, who lives in a magical home and go through a very unique experience... Continue reading…

Image: Sony They’re not audiophile earbuds by any means, but I’ve been a fan of Sony’s “extra bass” WF-XB700 earbuds since they were released. A big part of that is their unconventional shape, which twists into my ear canal deeper than most other earbuds for a sturdy fit that also manages to remain comfortable. But today, Sony is introducing the replacements for those earbuds, and while there are notable improvements like app support (with EQ), longer battery life, and easier controls, the overall design of the new $100 WF-C500 earbuds is definitely playing it safer. They also cost less out of the gate than the XF-XB700s did. Sony says it decided to go for a more compact style this time, but it has maintained the IPX4 water and sweat resistance of... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge In a new attempt to stem the flow of anti-vaccine misinformation, YouTube said Wednesday that it won’t allow videos that claim vaccines approved by health authorities are dangerous or don’t work. The platform is also banning prominent anti-vaccine accounts, including Joseph Mercola’s channel and the Robert F. Kennedy Jr.-linked Children’s Defense Fund. YouTube pulled ads from anti-vaccination content in 2019 , and said in October 2020 that it would remove videos that pushed misinformation around COVID-19 vaccines . The new policy expands to block misinformation around other vaccines, including the flu shot, the HPV vaccine, and the measles, mumps, and rubella (MMR) vaccine. Videos that inaccurately claim that the MMR vaccine causes autism... Continue reading…

Jeff Bezos, Blue Origin’s founder, unveiling his space company’s Blue Moon lunar lander in 2019 in Washington, DC. | Photo by SAUL LOEB/AFP via Getty Images Blue Origin is backed by the world’s richest man — why didn’t it just offer NASA a cheaper lunar lander? Continue reading…

Every year ahead of the League of Legends World Championship, developer Riot tries to get everyone excited with a new song. This year’s anthem is called “Burn It All Down” from American band Pvris, and it definitely fits into the tradition of music to get players amped up. But it also comes with a bonus: a music video that turns some of the game’s best players into anime heroes. (Journalist Ashley Kang has a great thread detailing who is who.) It’s the kind of short that makes you want a full League esports anime, and it even transitions to a 3D art style at the end, in a nod to the upcoming Netflix series Arcane . This year’s iteration of Worlds will take place in Iceland starting October 5th ; it was originally slated for China but was... Continue reading…

Photo by Dan Seifert / The Verge Yesterday, Amazon announced its “home robot” — a wheeled device named Astro that has a display, an array of sensors, and a camera that periscopes out the top of its body like a mast. In advertisements for Astro , Amazon presents the device as an engineering breakthrough and the realization of a long-held sci-fi dream: to build a robot that can help around the house. This is rubbish, of course. What Astro is — for better or worse — is a camera on wheels. Astro definitely can’t get a beer for you The physical limitations of Astro are obvious. It has no arms or manipulators; no way to interact with the world other than bumping into objects at shin height. It can’t navigate steps, and, according to employees who worked on the robot and spoke... Continue reading…

Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge Apple’s Find My app has been a very useful (and reassuring) feature, allowing you to locate a misplaced (or stolen) phone so that you can retrieve it (or contact the authorities, if that’s safer). With the expansion of Find My to a variety of other objects, especially via Apple’s AirTags , it’s become even more useful. And now that iOS 15 brings with it the capability to locate your phone even if the battery has run out or it’s been turned off, the utility of Find My has become even greater. (Note: you can also use the Find My app to help with your own security — to share your location with individuals and send recurring notifications of when you leave and arrive. You can find directions for setting that up in our article “ How to use... Continue reading…

A masterclass in going back to what works Continue reading…

Jeep revealed the 2022 Grand Cherokee 4xe, the first plug-in hybrid version of the automaker’s best-selling SUV. It is the second Jeep vehicle to get an electrified version, following the hybrid 2021 Wrangler 4xe released last year. Jeep also announced an off-roading version of the Grand Cherokee, the Trailhawk, which also comes with a hybrid motor. Tellingly, Jeep is not announcing a pure electric version of the Grand Cherokee, nor selling any battery-electric vehicles. The automaker recently announced that it would release “zero-emission” versions of all of its vehicles by 2025, along with plug-hybrid variants. The Grand Cherokee 4xe (“four by E” in Jeep parlance) is estimated to get 25 miles of all-electric range and... Continue reading…

Photo by Cameron Faulkner / The Verge Despite not being the newest model, the 2020 Razer Blade 15 Advanced still offers plenty of power, which makes its current, $600 discount at Best Buy something to consider. Although we saw an even deeper discount on the 15-inch laptop earlier this month that brought it down to $1,600, today’s $1,800 price remains a solid deal for a laptop that has an RTX 2070 Super graphics chip and a fast 300Hz refresh rate display. It even comes packaged with a free month of Xbox Game Pass Ultimate, allowing you to give your new hardware several benchmark tests. There are plenty of options when it comes to gaming laptops, but it's tough to beat the Razer Blade 15 Advanced in terms of performance and portability. Read our 2020 Razer Blade 15 Advanced... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Lawmakers are preparing to hold the first in a series of data privacy hearings on Wednesday in a fresh effort to bolster consumer data protections on platforms like Facebook, Twitter, and Google. On Wednesday, the Senate Commerce Committee plans to discuss the creation of a new privacy bureau at the FTC and “the need for a comprehensive federal privacy law.” It’s an uncomfortable dodge since Congress has thus far been unable to pass any such privacy law. But with states enacting their own privacy framework, there’s more pressure than ever for some part of the federal government to take action. As legislative efforts have stalled, the FTC could be the Biden administration’s best bet at regulating the tech industry’s grasp over consumer... Continue reading…

‘ Ah, fuck’ — a frame of Weedon getting socked in the face by his friend Tim from the original upload. Whether it wants to be or not, YouTube is a guardian of internet history, with countless classic videos sitting in its archives. That makes it jarring when the company acts like what it is: a multinational corporation with no real understanding of this value. Case in point, this week YouTube removed the original upload of the “ Ah fuck, I can’t believe you’ve done this ” meme, rejecting an appeal from its creator (and the guy who can’t believe this was done) and claiming that the clip violates the company’s “violent or graphic content policy.” In the words of Paul Weedon himself, star of and uploader of the original video: Ah, fuck. Weedon tweeted out the news of the takedown and his unsuccessful appeal, noting that the video had been on... Continue reading…

The Ring Pro 2 video doorbell (pictured) and the Ring Video Doorbell (2020) will now be able to tell you when a package is on your doorstep. | Photo by Dan Seifert / The Verge Ring is bringing package alerts to its Ring video doorbells, and it’s about time, too. This is a much-requested feature that’s already found on most of its competitors’ camera doorbell offerings. When the main selling point for a product is that it will deter porch pirates, it’s kind of important to be able to keep a virtual eye on those packages. The pings that will tell you when a package is on your porch will start rolling out to the Ring Pro 2 and Ring Video Doorbell (2020) in the US and internationally today and should arrive on other buzzers next year. But this still doesn’t address a big issue with most of Ring’s doorbells; the cameras’ wide viewing angles often don’t pick up the spot where the package is left. Only the Pro 2 has... Continue reading…

Today is Amazon’s fall product hardware showcase, and the company’s Alexa voice assistant is learning an intriguing new trick: Amazon says you’ll be able to program Alexa to recognize “custom sounds,” so it could theoretically alert you or trigger smart home actions when it hears something. The company’s experimented with this a lot in the past, saying it’s taught Alexa to detect snoring, and it turned the ability to detect breaking glass and smoke alarm sirens into its Alexa Guard feature in 2018 and 2019 . Theoretically, you could soon program Alexa to do far more, but the company isn’t providing a lot of details today. Amazon announced the feature alongside its sizable new Echo Show 15 smart display , which includes a custom AZ2 Neural... Continue reading…

Amazon’s Echo Show 15 | Photo: Amazon Amazon is once again expanding its lineup of Echo Show smart displays, and this time, it’s going bigger. The new $249.99 Echo Show 15 is the largest smart display the company has released so far, with a 15-inch, 1080p HD display. It’s also got a different design than the company’s prior models — instead of being a touchscreen attached to a bulky speaker, the Echo Show 15 is flat and can be hung on the wall. Amazon’s pitch for this smart display is for it to be a shared hub for families to see things like upcoming calendar appointments, to-dos, sticky note reminders, and shopping lists. It envisions it being placed in communal spaces — a living room, frequently accessed hallway, and, of course, the kitchen. It’s capable of all the things... Continue reading…

Amazon Smart Thermostat | Image: Amazon Amazon revealed its excitement over the “promise of ambient computing” by opening its fall hardware event with a new smart thermostat. Like the ones we’ve seen from Nest , it will automatically adjust your indoor environment when it detects that you’re home and based on other learned preferences. Amazon has built up Alexa’s ability to act on “Hunches” over the last few years, and it appears the thermostat relies on a deep connection with the AI assistant’s smarts to understand what it should do and when. Integrating smart features like Alexa routines and presence detection at its price means that it’s not only poised to undercut more expensive products like the $130 Nest or Ecobee’s $250 option. It’s even cheaper than value-priced smart... Continue reading…

The new Microsoft Store in Windows 11 will also support third-party app stores. | Image: Microsoft Microsoft is opening up its own app store in Windows even further today, inviting third-party app stores to integrate into the Microsoft Store. It’s a significant change that will see both Amazon and Epic Games Store discoverable in the Microsoft Store in the coming months. “Just like any other app, third-party storefront apps will have a product detail page — which can be found via search or by browsing — so that users can easily find and install it with the same confidence as any other app in the Microsoft Store on Windows,” explains Giorgio Sardo, general manager of the Microsoft Store. “Today, we are sharing that Amazon and Epic Games will bring their storefront apps to the Microsoft Store over the next few months, and we look... Continue reading…

A group of Texas law enforcement officials are suing Tesla after a Model X with Autopilot engaged crashed into five police officers. The suit was first reported by KPRC 2 in Houston . It is the latest legal headache for the automaker as it seeks to roll out its controversial driver assistance software to more customers. And it comes as Tesla is facing renewed scrutiny over several crashes that have taken place involving Autopilot and emergency vehicles. The crash took place February 27, 2021, in Splendora, a small town in Montgomery County in the eastern part of the state. According to the lawsuit , the Model X SUV crashed into several police officers while they were engaged in a traffic stop on the Eastex Freeway in Texas. “All were... Continue reading…

We already know that the upcoming Pokémon Legends: Arceus makes some big changes when it comes to combat and capturing monsters . But the latest trailer for the roleplaying game shows some of the other things you’ll be doing. That includes familiar elements like riding pokémon, customizing your trainer with clothes and hairstyles, and what looks like a fairly robust photo mode. The trailer also ends with a look at a brand-new monster called Kleavor. Additionally, the developers revealed that players will get a device called an Arc Phone, which will likely serve as a pokédex of sorts. It also looks suspiciously like the titular new Arceus pokémon being introduced in the game. Arceus isn’t launching until... Continue reading…

Illustration by William Joel I hope my headline is an overstatement, purely for job purposes, but in this week’s Vergecast artificial intelligence episode, we explore the world of large language models and how they might be used to produce AI-generated text in the future. Maybe it’ll give writers ideas for the next major franchise series, or write full blog posts, or, at the very least, fill up websites with copy that’s too arduous for humans to do. Among the people we speak to is Nick Walton, the cofounder and CEO of Latitude, which makes the game AI Dungeon, which creates a plot in the game around what you put into it. (That’s how Walton ended up in a band of traveling goblins — you’ll just have to listen to understand how that makes sense!) We also chat with... Continue reading…