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DECEMBER 7: Actors Leonard Nimoy, DeForest Kelley and William Shatner pose for a portrait with writer Gene Roddenberry and director Robert Wise during the filming of the movie “Star Trek: The Motion Picture” which was released December 27, 1979 in the United States. | Photo by Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry’s signature on the show’s first contract with Lucille Ball’s Desilu Productions is now an NFT. Roddenberry Entertainment is calling it the first “Living Eco-NFT,” which seems straight out of science fiction itself. The NFT’s creators implanted the signature, signed in 1965, into a living bacteria cell in the form of DNA code. As the cell duplicates, it creates new copies of the NFT — over a billion in one night. Even though there will quickly be billions of replicas, the NFT is called “El Primero,” which means ‘the first’ in Spanish. It will be exhibited at the Art Basel Miami Beach art fair that kicks off on December 2nd. DNA is nature’s

Cyber Monday sales were down 1.4 percent year over year, according to a report from Adobe Analytics . Shoppers spent $10.7 billion this year, $100 million less than the $10.8 billion consumers spent in 2020. “Consumers were not waiting around for discounts on big shopping days like Cyber Monday and Black Friday” Amazon’s holiday shopping report only backs Adobe’s claims that Cyber Monday sales took a dip — the commerce giant didn’t report that this year’s Cyber Monday was the “biggest” day of shopping as it has done in the past. In 2019 , Amazon said that Cyber Monday was the platform’s “single biggest shopping day in the company’s history,” while in 2020 , Thanksgiving weekend was described as the “largest holiday shopping season” in... Continue reading…

Illustration by William Joel / The Verge Facebook cryptocurrency chief David Marcus announced today that he’s leaving the company. The former PayPal executive joined Facebook in 2014 to run Messenge r but eventually took over plans to launch a new cryptocurrency and wallet , known at the time as Libra and Calibra, respectively. After some pre-Meta name changes , the digital wallet launched with a small pilot in October under the name Novi but only in two countries (the US and Guatemala) and support for a single form of crypto, the Paxos stablecoin. The currency that spurred so much ire from regulators and politicians around the world, now called Diem, has yet to appear. In posts on his Facebook page and Twitter, Marcus says, “While there’s still so much to do right on the heels of... Continue reading…

Image: The Markup A new browser extension promises to show you which products in your Amazon search results are sold by brands that are either owned by or are exclusive to Amazon, giving you a better idea of who’s selling what you’re buying. It’s called Amazon Brand Detector, and it uses a list of Amazon brands created by The Markup , along with filters and other techniques ( detailed here ) to detect and highlight products that are a part of Amazon’s Our Brands program. The Markup created this extension after its investigation into how Amazon ranks its in-house brands in search results and says the tool (available for Chrome-like browsers and Firefox ) is designed to make searches more transparent. When we tested it, it obviously highlighted Amazon Basics... Continue reading…

The key to the Levels Health system is a device that constantly monitors glucose levels in your bloodstream Real-time glucose tracking for fitness-based purposes is here, but it’ll cost you Continue reading…

The patch apparently fixes some problems with rain. | Image: Rockstar Rockstar’s next Title Update for Grand Theft Auto: The Trilogy – The Definitive Edition looks to address a huge list of issues with the buggy remasters. The game has had a rough launch, and many of the fixes appear to clean up some of the more meme-worthy problems with the games. A lot of the fixes are about rain . Many spelling errors have apparently been fixed. I spotted two fixes for “a hole in the game world” in Grand Theft Auto: Vice City – The Definitive Edition. There are also two fixes for CJ’s face obscuring the camera in Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas – The Definitive Edition , which (sadly) may address the absolutely incredible bug shown in this video : I've changed my mind, the GTA remasters are perfect. (this is looking... Continue reading…

The BMW Concept XM | BMW BMW has revealed a new concept plug-in hybrid electric vehicle, the first in its M class to get an electric motor, the company announced. The BMW XM will go into production at the company’s Spartanburg, South Carolina, plant beginning in late 2022, the company said in a news release . The concept BMW XM has a V8 engine combined with an electric motor to provide 750 horsepower and 737 foot-pounds of torque. BMW spokesman Jay Hanson clarified in an email to The Verge that while the production version of the XM will have a V8 engine paired with a plug-in hybrid system, “horsepower and torque figures should be considered preliminary at this time.” The company said the unusual front-end design, with two large nostril-shaped openings, shows off... Continue reading…

Netflix still has some big releases in store this year — including Don’t Look Up and the second season of The Witcher — but the streaming service is also looking forward to its 2022 lineup. Today, the company released its slate for genre shows and movies coming next year, and while we knew some of them ( last month, Netflix revealed that Stranger Things 4 would be coming out next summer ), there were also some new confirmations. Most notably, both the live-action adaptation of Neil Gaiman’s The Sandman and The Witcher spinoff Blood Origin will debut on the streaming service in 2022. Outside of those heavy hitters, there are also plenty of shows returning — Alice in Borderland’s season 2, Locke & Key season 3, The Umbrella Academy season 3... Continue reading…

With Final Fantasy XIV Endwalker launching in early access this week and officially on December 7th, Square Enix is warning players that they might face the longest log-in queues and wait times the game has ever seen. In a blog post, Square Enix stated that while it has optimized servers in anticipation of heavy traffic, the global chip shortage has prevented the addition of new servers that would help alleviate congestion problems. As such, players can expect to wait longer than normal to log into game servers, visit new Endwalker specific areas, and experience instanced content-like duties. Square Enix also offered tips that players can use to ensure their Endwalker experience is the best it can be. If players are experiencing higher... Continue reading…

Photo by PATRICK PLEUL/POOL/AFP via Getty Images On Black Friday, SpaceX CEO Elon Musk sent an anxious email to his company’s employees, urging them to work over the weekend on SpaceX’s Raptor engine line and describing the production situation as a “crisis.” In the email, a copy of which was obtained by The Verge , Musk argued that the company faces a “genuine risk of bankruptcy” if production doesn’t increase to support a high flight rate of the company’s new Starship rocket next year. The Raptor is SpaceX’s massive methane engine that will be used to propel the company’s next-generation launch system, called Starship. SpaceX plans to use Starship to take people to deep space, and in April, NASA awarded SpaceX a $2.9 billion contract to develop Starship as a lunar lander to transport... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Twitter will now let private individuals request takedowns of pictures or videos featuring them. The company announced the change this morning, extending an existing ban on private information to cover media. It’s aimed at preventing harassment or invasions of privacy and includes exceptions for posts that are “shared in the public interest or add value to public discourse.” “Sharing personal media, such as images or videos, can potentially violate a person’s privacy, and may lead to emotional or physical harm,” reads a Twitter Safety blog post announcing the change. “The misuse of private media can affect everyone, but can have a disproportionate effect on women, activists, dissidents, and members of minority communities.” Twitter will... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Three ex-Google employees claim that Google has a contractual obligation to abide by its well-known “don’t be evil” policy, and they are suing the company for allegedly terminating them for calling out Google’s “evil” doings, via NPR . “Don’t be evil” has been a part of Google’s Code of Conduct since the early 2000s The former workers Sophie Waldman, Rebecca Rivers, and Paul Duke were fired — in addition to a fourth employee, Laurence Berland — in November 2019 for allegedly violating the company’s data security policies , however, they claim they didn’t leak any confidential information. Earlier this year, the acting head of the National Labor Relations Board said that Google “arguably violated” US labor laws by firing the three... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Qualcomm appears to be collaborating with Razer on a new gaming handheld developer kit built around its upcoming Snapdragon G3X processor. Leaked slides published by VideoCardz call the device a “Snapdragon G3X Handheld Developer Kit,” suggesting it will primarily be aimed at software developers and manufacturers to help them build their own software and hardware powered by Qualcomm’s mobile gaming technology. Alongside it, VideoCardz has also obtained slides detailing Qualcomm’s next flagship smartphone processor, the Snapdragon 8 Gen 1. The name shows off Qualcomm’s new branding for its mobile chips announced last month . The processor will reportedly be manufactured using a 4nm process, with a CPU that’s 20 percent faster and 30... Continue reading…

Photo Illustration by Grayson Blackmon / The Verge Taking an unconventional route to a conventional business Continue reading…

Unexplored 2: The Wayfarer’s Legacy. Authorship takes on an all-new meaning in games where the plot is yet to be written Continue reading…

Hello! I’m back from Thanksgiving break and now have mashed potatoes for brains. Really, I’ve eaten mashed potatoes five days in a row. I can stop, but I won’t stop until the leftovers are gone. Anyway, in between mashed potato servings, I did my best to “log off” and not think about audio — no offense — so instead, I binged the entire new season of Selling Sunset and played many crosswords. I’m back for you now, though, and we have a big issue ahead. We’re talking about how a dating app stumbled upon viral audio success, and I chatted with the CEO of podcasting’s latest $100 million-funded company, Podimo. Plus, an update to my RadioPublic story from last week and new Apple charts. Lots! Of! Stuff(ing)! On we go. EXCLUSIVE: Hinge makes... Continue reading…

The International Space Station | Image: NASA Early this morning, NASA postponed a spacewalk scheduled to occur outside the International Space Station today, after getting word of a possible safety threat from some nearby space debris. It’s unclear where the debris is coming from, but the delay comes about two weeks after Russia blew up one of its own satellites in orbit , creating thousands of dangerous fragments that threatened the space station. NASA astronauts Kayla Barron and Thomas Marshburn were all set to don spacesuits and leave the confines of the ISS this morning at around 7:10AM ET, in order to replace an antenna on the outside of the station. It would have been the fifth spacewalk for Marshburn and the first for Barron. NASA says that it didn’t have enough time to... Continue reading…

If you missed out on a few great deals during Cyber Monday or Black Friday, don’t worry, you still have another chance to save big on some popular tech products. It’s “Cyber Week,” meaning that many retailers are still delivering some of the best deals of the year for you to grab all week long. Below, we’ve curated some of the top discounts you can still take advantage of on wireless noise-canceling headphones, earbuds, phones, laptops, TVs, video games, and more. Take a look, and if you like what you see, you may want to buy the product sooner than later. These particular deals could disappear at a moment’s notice. If they do sell out, fret not. It’s very likely that December will bring some repeat deals, plus new sales because of the... Continue reading…

NBA Top Shot moments are one of the most high-profile NFT successes so far, part of the initial early hype wave for the blockchain-based art that’s become one of the biggest buzzwords of 2021. And thanks to a new partnership with Infinite Objects, Top Shot owners will soon be able to immortalize their favorite clips in the real world with officially licensed looping video frames from Infinite Objects. Starting today, Top Shot owners will be able to log into Infinite Object’s portal, connect their Dapper account, view all their currently owned moments, and order a “Video Print” of the clip. Only the owner of an NBA Top Shot moment will be able to buy an Infinite Object frame with the associated video clip on it, and each frame will come... Continue reading…

The Roomba j7 Plus, released this year. | Image: iRobot iRobot has released a holiday-themed update for its latest robot vacuum cleaners to help them handle the cleaning demands of Christmas trees. The j7 and j7 Plus robovacs can also now identify and avoid shoes and socks. The festive trees, shoes, and socks feature builds upon iRobot’s latest navigation and control software, which first released in August last year . This software uses machine vision to identify furniture and specify “clean zones.” For example, you might have a dining table you want a Roomba to specifically clean under after chaotic family meals. There are also “keep out zones” which a Roomba might suggest avoiding, like the area under a TV stand filled with cables for it to get caught on. Mapping data can now be... Continue reading…

Rocket League Sideswipe , a mobile version of the popular car-based soccer game, is now available on iOS and Android. The game started rolling out on November 15th in Oceania, but is now available worldwide, albeit in a “pre-season” mode ahead of Season 1’s kickoff at an unannounced later date, according to 9to5Google . The free to play game, which was first announced in March , is a simplified version of the original Rocket League released in 2015. The biggest change is that the mobile version is played in 2D, rather than offering a fully three-dimensional stadium to drive around. You control your car with a virtual joystick on the left side of the screen, while buttons on the right handle jumping and boost. with touch controls. Rocket... Continue reading…

Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge The BBC is finally bringing its iPlayer app to the PS5 in the UK today, more than a year after the console’s original release. Brits have been waiting patiently for BBC iPlayer on the PS5, especially as the app is already available on more than 15,000 devices, including Xbox Series X / S consoles. The BBC iPlayer app is now available in the media tab on the PS5 home screen, and it includes support for streaming 4K content from the service. “From today, PS5 owners can add the BBC iPlayer app by going to the Media tab on the PS5 home screen and selecting BBC iPlayer from the All Apps section,” explains Neil Hall , head of product at BBC iPlayer. “This will add BBC iPlayer to the apps library and make it available to use direct from the... Continue reading…

Meta, the company formally known as “Facebook.” | Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge The UK’s competition regulator has officially ruled that Facebook parent company Meta’s acquisition of Giphy should be unwound, a year and a half after the social media giant first said it was acquiring the popular GIF-making and sharing website . In a press release , the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) said that it had come to the decision after its investigation found an acquisition could harm competition between social media platforms, and that its concerns “can only be addressed by Facebook selling Giphy in its entirety to an approved buyer.” The CMA said the acquisition could be used to deny or limit other platforms’ access to Giphy GIFs and drive more traffic to Facebook, WhatsApp, and Instagram. It also raised concerns that... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Microsoft’s new Clarity Boost feature for Xbox Cloud Gaming (aka xCloud) is intended to make your cloud gaming streams a little bit less fuzzy, but it will only be available on the company’s Edge browser. Clarity Boost “uses a set of client-side scaling improvements to improve the visual quality of the video stream,” Microsoft’s Milena Gonzalez said in a blog post . I tried Clarity Boost in a few games, and I felt that it made a noticeable difference. Games were generally less blurry, and many smaller details like leaves and bricks looked much sharper than they do with Clarity Boost off. It doesn’t dramatically change the way games look, in my opinion, but if you want xCloud games to be a little more clear, I’d recommend flipping Clarity... Continue reading…

Twitter has a new CEO : Parag Agrawal, who’ll be taking over for Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey, the longest-serving chief executive in the company’s 15-plus-year history. Agrawal isn’t the most well-known of names either inside or outside of Twitter. He’s been with the company for over a decade, though, working his way up from an engineer to become its top executive (and a close friend of Dorsey’s). Agrawal first started at Twitter back in October 2011 with a focus on ad products, and he became the first recipient of the company’s “Distinguished Engineer” title. He was later appointed chief technology officer in October 2017, during which time he’s jumped in to address high-profile problems (like a large-scale password security issue)... Continue reading…

Photo by Tom Warren / The Verge On Black Friday, I introduced you to an extremely curated selection of gaming PCs that might actually be good value for the money and deliver serious GPU oomph at a time when those GPUs are incredibly expensive and hard to find. Let’s do it again for Cyber Monday , shall we? RTX 3080 Ti — $2,400 If you’re looking for Nvidia’s top gaming card — because while the RTX 3090 exists , it’s overkill — HP’s Omen 30L is perhaps the best all-around prebuilt deal. There’s one specific system you can nab for $2,399 with the powerful 4K graphics card and a powerful Core i7-11700K chip, and it doesn’t skimp on the memory or storage this time around: you get 32GB of RAM, a 512GB solid-state drive, and a 2TB hard drive, all powered by an 800W Gold PSU. S... Continue reading…

Photo by PATRICK T. FALLON/AFP via Getty Images The National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) has ordered a new election at Amazon’s Bessemer, Alabama site, a tentative victory for organizers who had sought to unionize workers at the company’s fulfillment locations. The decision , issued by the regional director overseeing the case, builds on a previous recommendation from the hearing officer assigned to the case. “I agree with the hearing officer’s recommendations,” Monday’s decision reads. “Accordingly, I affirm the hearing officer’s rulings, I adopt her recommendation to sustain certain objections, and I order a second election.” Amazon did not immediately respond to a request for comment. “I order a second election” No date has been set for the second election, and Amazon will have ten... Continue reading…

Container ships at anchor outside the Port of Los Angeles in Los Angeles, California, U.S., on Sunday, Nov. 21, 2021. | Tim Rue/Bloomberg via Getty Images Amazon and Target are playing a big role in the port pollution crisis along the US West Coast, according to a report published today. These retail giants are among the top importers in the US and rely heavily on shipping routes between China and California. Communities near the ports of Long Beach and Los Angeles have some of the worst air quality in the nation thanks in large part to Americans’ shopping habits. Online shopping, which increased during the pandemic, has made the situation worse. So has the supply chain crisis that’s caused traffic jams just offshore of the twin ports, which make up the busiest port complex in the Western Hemisphere. “It is past time to hold these retailers accountable for their responsibilities at the... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge People have flocked to TikTok in droves over the past few years — but research into the social media giant’s potential health impacts hasn’t kept up. Despite the fact that TikTok now has over 1 billion users, public health researchers know very little about the health effects it might be having on the platform’s (mostly young) users. That’s concerning, because researchers know social media platforms can be harmful , especially to the health of some groups of teens and adolescents. “The platform is so massive, but there’s almost no scholarly investigation into it,” says Marco Zenone, a health policy researcher at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine. Zenone believes it’s urgent for researchers to start figuring out if TikTok... Continue reading…

CD Projekt says its GOG games storefront will put more focus on offering “a handpicked selection of games” and transfer some developers to other projects, following ongoing financial losses at the division. “Regarding GOG, its performance does present a challenge, and recently we’ve taken measures to improve its financial standing,” CD Projekt CFO Piotr Nielubowicz told investors on a quarterly earnings call. “First and foremost, we’ve decided that GOG should focus more on its core business activity, which means offering a handpicked selection of games with its unique DRM-free philosophy. In line with this approach, there will be changes in the team structure.” “GOG should focus more on its core business activity, which means offering a... Continue reading…

Daniel A. Varela/Miami Herald/Tribune News Service via Getty Images The Miami City Commission voted to end its short-lived ban on shared electric scooters Monday after some new safety measures were put in place. Early this month, the commission voted 4 to 5 to end the city’s multiyear scooter pilot, citing blocked sidewalks and the risk posed by untrained riders on busy streets. The companies that operate shared scooters, including Lime and Spin, argued that their services helped reduce car usage, connect residents to transit hubs, and bring extra revenue to the city. That message appears to have gotten through. On Monday, the commission voted 3 to 1 to rescind the ban on the condition that new safety regulations would be implemented. “Change is coming; it’s going to happen anyway. Regulate it,”... Continue reading…

You want to bring a badass foam blaster to your next Nerf war — or gift one to a very grateful kid or kid-at-heart this holiday. Good news: the Nerf Rival Perses, arguably the best official blaster ever made, is just $50 during Walmart’s Cyber Monday sale. Normally $100, it’s a fully automatic SMG-style blaster that holds 50 far-flying, bouncy foam rounds in its hopper and dishes them out at up to eight shots per second. Plus, you won’t need to buy big bulky dumb alkaline batteries for this one. It comes with its own rechargeable NiMH battery pack and charger, unlike practically every other Hasbro blaster on the market. Just know it’s a little too big for small kids. At over five pounds and with big beefy grips, it’ll be a late... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Sonos is likely planning to announce a new, smaller, and cheaper subwoofer to join its home theater product lineup. A Redditor spotted mention of a “Sub Mini” right in the Sonos smartphone app, and based on the text, it’s evident that this is a real product and not some mistake or placeholder text. In the screenshot, Sonos describes the Sub Mini as a “smaller, cylindrical subwoofer” compared to the large, square, and very pricey Sub. Most conventional subwoofers are hefty squares or rectangles that people often try to keep out of sight. But cylinder-shaped subwoofers aren’t unheard of. The Sub Mini could resemble something like the below subwoofer from OSD. Image: OSD This example of a cylindrical subwoofer is... Continue reading…

Photo by ANTHONY WALLACE/AFP via Getty Images Mobile kitchens that cater solely to food delivery services, like Uber Eats and DoorDash, sound like a great idea in theory, as dedicated delivery kitchens can push out food faster without having to worry about passing meals along to servers. But a report from The Wall Street Journal details some of the mishaps associated with one trailer-bound ghost kitchen company, Reef, which involves third-degree burns and regulatory violations. Just this April, the WSJ reports that one Reef kitchen in Houston, Texas experienced two fiery accidents in just four months. One involved a blast that erupted from the kitchen’s propane burners — and by a stroke of luck, the cook came out unscathed. While the cook escaped harm — she happened to open a... Continue reading…

A screenshot from Cyberpunk 2077. | Image: CD Projekt Red Cyberpunk 2077 developer CD Projekt Red assured investors and players during its latest quarterly earnings that the already-delayed next-gen update for the game is “on track” for the first quarter of 2022. CDPR originally announced a late 2021 target launch for the update in September but said in October that the release would slip into next year . Cyberpunk 2077 had a famously rocky launch , and CDPR has released multiple updates and hotfixes to address many of the game’s issues. But it’s seen a recent surge in popularity; it was one of the top sellers on Steam last week, according to SteamDB , possibly buoyed by a 50 percent price cut as part of Steam’s Autumn Sale. (It’s currently 50 percent off on the PlayStation and Xbox stores as... Continue reading…

Photo by Thierry Monasse/Getty Images House Democrats announced that Facebook whistleblower Frances Haugen will testify before Congress a second time on Wednesday to discuss possible legislative changes to tech’s controversial legal liability shield, Section 230. The House Energy and Commerce subcommittee on communications and technology will hold the upcoming hearing to discuss what Democrats are referring to as “targeted reforms” to Section 230. Several committee members have already introduced bills that would create carve-outs in the law that would make big tech companies like Facebook and Google legally liable for algorithms that amplify content that leads to offline violence . Haugen will testify alongside Color of Change president Rashad Robinson, according to House... Continue reading…

Illustration by The Verge We’re rattling off the best Cyber Monday tech deals as we find them Continue reading…

Photo by Joe Raedle/Getty Images Confirming rumors first reported this morning by CNBC , Twitter co-founder and CEO Jack Dorsey announced his departure. The company confirmed that CTO Parag Agrawal will succeed him and says Bret Taylor is taking over as the new chairman of the board. Dorsey returned to lead the company as CEO in 2015 despite being forced out of the post in 2008. He continues to serve as the CEO of Square, and last night tweeted “I love Twitter.” In the company’s official statement, Dorsey says, “I’ve decided to leave Twitter because I believe the company is ready to move on from its founders. My trust in Parag as Twitter’s CEO is deep. His work over the past 10 years has been transformational. I’m deeply grateful for his skill, heart, and soul. It’s his... Continue reading…

Nissan is the latest automaker to announce a plan to spend gobs of money on an ambitious electrification strategy. The company said it will spend 2 trillion yen (around $17.6 billion) over the next five years to accelerate the roll-out of electric vehicles. And to emphasize that point, Nissan unveiled a pack of delightful EV concepts, including an adorable pickup truck, an outdoorsy SUV, and a sleek sports car. It’s an impressive commitment, but Nissan notably stopped short of making the same promise that other automakers have to phase out the production of gas-powered vehicles. For example, Volvo and General Motors have vowed to become EV-only companies by 2030 and 2040, respectively. Nissan said it will produce 23 new electrified... Continue reading…

Halo Infinite is currently suffering from an influx of hackers and cheaters. Halo Infinite players have been reporting multiple instances of cheaters over the Thanksgiving weekend, with recordings showing people clearly using aimbots and wallhacks to cheat. It’s the latest game to be hit by an increase in cheating across the world’s biggest PC games . Reddit and Twitter users have been posting clips of cheaters, where you can clearly see them snapping to players and getting killing sprees, or tracing rival players through walls. Most of these cheaters are clearly using third-party software on PC, and it has led many players to call for an option to disable crossplay. Halo Infinite Cheating from haloinfinite H... Continue reading…

Spider-Man: No Way Home is set to wrap up the current trilogy of Marvel Cinematic Universe Spider-Man movies soon, but Tom Holland’s incarnation of the web-slinging hero isn’t hanging up his suit just yet: Sony producer Amy Pascal has confirmed in an interview with Fandango that Holland will return for a future trilogy of Spider-Man movies that will continue to be set in the MCU. “This is not the last movie that we are going to make with Marvel — [this is not] the last Spider-Man movie. We are getting ready to make the next Spider-Man movie with Tom Holland and Marvel, it just isn’t part of… we’re thinking of this as three films, and now we’re going to go onto the next three. This is not the last of our MCU movies,” Pascal said. “Marvel... Continue reading…

Photo by MARCO BELLO/AFP via Getty Images Jack Dorsey is expected to step down as CEO of Twitter “in the near term,” according to CNBC’s David Faber , who cited “a number of different people familiar with the situation.” Faber said he doesn’t “know much else” beyond that and wasn’t sure who might be brought in to replace him. The Verge has reached out to Twitter for comment. Dorsey has been CEO of Twitter since 2015 , presiding over a rocky but relatively successful run for the company. During the past couple years, Twitter has started to rapidly roll out new products and features. And while not all of them have been hits, they’ve suggested a transformation into a far more nimble company ready to adapt to its users interests. BREAKING: Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey is expected to step... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Walmart is back with a Cyber Monday console drop. Starting at 12PM ET / 9AM PT, you can have a go at snagging a PlayStation 5 (both the $499.99 disc-based version and $399.99 digital version are available) or the $499.99 Xbox Series X console . To get this early access to boost your chances of getting a console (though it’s no guarantee ), you’ll need to be a paying member to Walmart Plus , starting at $12.99 per month . To reiterate, members sampling the free trial will not get early access. Here are the links, with more details about this restock beneath them. Hey, if you miss out on a chance to get the Series X, it might help during the holidays that the smaller, less-powerful Series S is more readily available and costs less at... Continue reading…

Black Friday is technically over, but many of the same deals have carried over into Cyber Monday — plus a few new ones, of course. We’ve adapted our coverage to make sure that you’re only seeing the latest and best deals on tech that you want, and that we recommend, on wireless earbuds, TVs, games, phones, and more. The occasional Nerf blaster might find its way in here, too. If you’re hoping to get the majority of your holiday shopping done ahead of mid-December, now is a good time to do that. Though, don’t despair if something you’re looking for either isn’t available, or isn’t as cheap as you were hoping. December always brings more deals, and we’ll do our best to give you every opportunity to score on tech deals before the holidays. K... Continue reading…

As part of its annual fashion awards, the British Fashion Council is adding a new category for 2021: an award for “metaverse design.” As broad as that might sound, the award was actually created in partnership with Roblox, and as such, the shortlist is limited to five Roblox creators. The winner, cSapphire, operates an in-app clothing boutique. In keeping with the virtual nature of 2021, the award will be presented by an avatar of Gucci’s creative director Alessandro Michele (pictured above) inside a Roblox experience. Players will also be able to explore a virtual recreation of Royal Albert Hall to watch the awards. “This unique metaverse space BFC has created in collaboration with Roblox represents the future of fashion, and it’s been... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge In a recent memo, Tesla CEO Elon Musk has told the company’s employees to not sprint to make deliveries by the end of this quarter, and to instead focus on minimizing costs, CNBC reports . In the November 26th memo, Musk wrote that he doesn’t want the company “spending heavily on expedite fees, overtime and temporary contractors just so that cars arrive in Q4.” “What has happened historically is that we sprint like crazy at end of quarter to maximize deliveries, but then deliveries drop massively in the first few weeks of the next quarter,” said Musk. “In effect, looked at over a six month period, we won’t have delivered any extra cars but we will have spent a lot of money and burned ourselves out to accelerate deliveries in the last two... Continue reading…

Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison is introducing new defamation laws that would force online platforms to reveal the identities of trolls, or else pay the price of defamation. As ABC News Australia explains, the laws would hold social platforms, like Facebook or Twitter, accountable for defamatory comments made against users. Platforms will also have to create a complaint system that people can use if they feel that they’re a victim of defamation. As a part of this process, the person who posted the potentially defamatory content will be asked to take it down. But if they refuse, or if the victim is interested in pursuing legal action, the platform can then legally ask the poster for permission to reveal their contact information. ... Continue reading…

Backbone One for the iPhone | Photo by Cameron Faulkner / The Verge The Backbone One is the best mobile gaming controller for the iPhone and you can get it from Amazon today for $70 , $30 off of its regular price. In addition, it includes a month of Xbox Game Pass Ultimate, which lets you play over a hundred Xbox games right on your iPhone. If you’re looking for other Cyber Monday deals, be sure to check out our roundup of the best Cyber Monday offers from around the internet. Similar to other gaming controllers, the Backbone One slots an iPhone in between two hand grips, complete with analog sticks, multiple buttons, and shoulder triggers. It’s compatible with any iPhone that can run iOS 13 or later, and works with hardware dating back to the iPhone 6S. In his review earlier this year , Cameron Faulkner... Continue reading…

Photo by Beata Zawrzel/NurPhoto via Getty Images Online sales during Black Friday took a bit of a tumble this year, marking the first time that spending has dipped lower than the previous year, as noted in a holiday shopping report by Adobe Analytics. Online shoppers reportedly spent a total of $8.9 billion this year, falling a little short of the $9 billion that was spent in 2020. Adobe suggests that the trend downward might’ve been caused by an uptick in early spending Adobe suggests that the downward trend might’ve been caused by an uptick in early spending, as some stores started sales and promotions as early as October. And when shoppers did make online purchases during Black Friday, Adobe found that 44.4 percent of those sales were made from a smartphone, a 10.6 percent increase... Continue reading…

Photo by Dan Seifert / The Verge Samsung’s Galaxy Z Flip 3 is the company’s lowest-priced foldable yet at its normal $999.99, but today you can get the trendy phone for way, way less than that. In an early Cyber Monday 2021 deal , the unlocked Z Flip 3 is available from Best Buy for $599.99 if you activate service on the device with your purchase. That’s a colossal $400 discount from the Flip 3’s regular price and brings it on par with something like the Pixel 6. Google’s phone is terrific, but it certainly doesn’t have the cool factor of a folding screen. Verizon and AT&T customers can both get that price for a limited time. In certain cases, you can save even more. Activating a new line of service on T-Mobile / Sprint brings the price down to $499.99 for the unlocked... Continue reading…