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Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge Nintendo’s Switch Lite likely won’t be dropping in price any time soon, so the best deals we have to work with in the meantime are the rare promos, much like GameStop’s Black Friday sale happening right now. Until Sunday night, on the eve of Cyber Monday, GameStop will include a $25 gift card with the $199.99 Switch Lite. This deal works with any color ( turquoise , yellow , grey ), as well as with Nintendo’s limited edition Pokémon Sword and Shield edition model that’s grey with red and blue colored face buttons and sticks. All models are available online, and if you choose to buy one from GameStop’s site, the gift card will be emailed to you. Check your local store’s inventory before you head out, and when you pick it up, GameStop will... Continue reading…

Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge It’s no longer Black Friday , which means that some of the deals have been swept away with the night. However, there are still plenty (and by that, I mean a lot ) of deals available to you to shop. For those remaining deals, Saturday is likely to be the last day you’ll be able to take advantage of them. Cyber Monday is coming on Monday, December 2nd, and that Black Friday deal you may have missed out on just might make another appearance — but you’ll be rolling the dice if you count on it. Here are a few of our favorite deals that are still active. Laptops and tablets Microsoft Surface Pro 7 (Intel Core i3, 4GB RAM, 128GB storage) bundled with a black Type Cover is $599 (usually $959) at Best Buy and the Microsoft Store MacBook Air... Continue reading…

Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge In May, we introduced you to high-wattage USB-C PD external batteries that can charge a full-size laptop on the go — not just a phone — and the $150 Zendure SuperTank was one of our top picks thanks to its (relatively) compact size and price. But for Black Friday, the SuperTank is now more affordable than it’s been since its Kickstarter campaign — just $100.99 after coupon code at Amazon. For the price, you’ll get a 27,000mAh (roughly 100Wh) capacity — enough to fully charge a 15-inch MacBook Pro, and most of the 16-inch MacBook Pro’s larger battery too — and the ability to charge several gadgets at once with one 100W USB-C port, one 60W USB-C port, one 18W USB-A port, and one 15W USB-A port. If you’re looking for a battery that’s a... Continue reading…

Image: Remedy Entertainment Black Friday is the best time of the year for the gaming fans who’ve felt like they didn’t have the budget or the time to pick up every new hit title on release day. I find myself in that category, as someone who played Insomniac’s excellent Spider-Man a year late (currently on Black Friday sale for $14.99 at Best Buy ) and still has quite a few 2019 game of the year contenders sitting in my backlog. Thankfully, this weekend is the time of the year when you can pull together between $50 and $100 and pick up a truly great collection of four or five games on the cheap. While Black Friday is a great time to pick up old games for as little as the cost of a Fortnite battle pass (please play Bloodborne and God of War if you haven’t already,... Continue reading…

Apple Watch | Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge If you’ve been waiting to upgrade your Apple Watch, or you’re a first-time buyer, Black Friday 2019 has been ripe with big deals on Apple’s lineup of smartwatches. Eagle-eyed shoppers might have quickly swept up Walmart’s doorbuster sale that had the Apple Watch Series 3 down to $129 — its lowest price by a cool $70 — which we featured in our larger guide to Apple’s Black Friday deals . But there are still some opportunities to save, whether you’re interested in Apple’s more affordable Series 3 watch, or its more capable Series 5. Where you can still buy a discounted Apple Watch Series 3 Walmart has sold through its inventory of Apple’s 38mm and 42mm Series 3 watches with GPS capability, which were sold earlier today for $129 and $149,... Continue reading…

Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge The LG G8 ThinQ isn’t the most amazing phone in the whole wide world, but it might just be the best bang for the buck this Black Friday. In April, we wrote that “you’ll get a lot of phone for your money” if you managed to find it at $699 — but today, you can snap up the unlocked version for just $400 at Amazon ! That’s $450 off the original price. For that money, you’ll be getting a sharp 6.1-inch OLED-screened handset that works on any GSM or CDMA carrier and comes with flagship specs, including a Snapdragon 855 processor, 6GB of RAM, 128GB of storage, a large 3,500 mAh battery, twin rear cameras (including wide angle before wide angle was cool ), a rear fingerprint sensor and an honest-to-goodness 3.5mm headphone jack with a high... Continue reading…

Image: TheGoncas2 / YouTube China has released a new government policy designed to prevent the spread of fake news and misleading videos created using artificial intelligence, otherwise known as deepfakes. The new rule, reported earlier today by Reuters , bans the publishing of false information or deepfakes online without proper disclosure that the post in question was created with AI or VR technology. Failure to disclose this is now a criminal offense, the Chinese government says. The rules go into effect on January 1st, 2020, and will be enforced by the Cyberspace Administration of China. “With the adoption of new technologies, such as deepfake, in online video and audio industries, there have been risks in using such content to disrupt social order and violate... Continue reading…

Image: Cards Against Humanity The creators of Cards Against Humanity are back for their annual Black Friday stunt, and this one is delightfully dystopian. Starting at 11AM ET today and lasting for the next 16 hours, the human writers on the CAH team are facing off against an artificial intelligence to see who can create the most popular new pack of cards, based on how many people pay for more $5 packs. You can upvote or downvote your favorite cards for each side on CAH ’s website before buying, and you can also watch the humans struggle to come up with new iterations in real time over live stream. On the line are $5,000 bonuses for every employee if team human comes up victorious, or heartless termination in the event the AI takes the top spot. We don’t think CAH a... Continue reading…

Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge Black Friday is one the best times of the year to pick up popular games, consoles, and gaming accessories at huge discounts, and it can be overwhelming keeping track of all of the deals across every retailer. That’s sort of a good problem to have; it means that there’s no shortage of deals for the Nintendo Switch, Sony PlayStation 4, and the Xbox One X and S. If you’re a PC gamer, we’ve pulled together the best deals on PC gaming components happening before or on Black Friday . We’re tracking all of the console deals that we know about below by platform so you can easily find the best deal on exactly what you’re looking for over the holidays. We’ll be updating this post to add new deals and strike through outdated offers. Deals on... Continue reading…

Photo by Stefan Etienne / The Verge Console refreshes happen every few years, but for PC gamers, there’s always a tantalizing potential upgrade that could make your gaming machine just that much better. And with Black Friday now here, and Cyber Monday right around the corner, there are a lot of great deals to consider to find that perfect missing part. We’ve rounded up some of the best deals we could find from a variety of popular retailers, like Amazon, Newegg, Best Buy, and more. Hopefully, there’s one among them that will bring you another great year of gaming. Graphics cards Sapphire Pulse Radeon RX 590 for $179.99 at Newegg (normally $219.99), comes with three months of Xbox Game Pass for PC and a free copy of Borderlands 3 or Ghost Recon: Breakpoint ASRock Radeon... Continue reading…

Apple Watch | Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge Walmart’s Black Friday sale are happening in-store and online all over the country. Like other retailers, there are impressive deals on the seventh-generation iPad, PS4 Slim, and more. It hosted the best deal on the Apple Watch Series 3 that we had ever seen (for $129), but unsurprisingly, it sold out quickly. You’ll be able to take advantage of any of the deals below right now, and in the cases when competing retailers offer a better deal, we’ll let you know. Computers and tablets Apple’s new seventh-generation iPad (Wi-Fi, 32GB) is $249 (usually $329). We’re seeing similar deals happening at other retailers , but it’s still hard not to emphasize how big of a deal this is. This model just released a few months ago, and while it has the... Continue reading…

Photo by Chris Welch / The Verge Hulu’s Black Friday deal is here , and offering a pretty low price for new subscribers, who can get their first year of service on the streaming site for just $1.99 per month, or $23.88 total. That’s 66 percent off of what Hulu usually costs ($5.99 per month), making it one of the cheapest ways to get Hulu, short of borrowing your friend’s login. There are, of course, a few catches: the $1.99 price is only for new customers, or former customers who haven’t subscribed to Hulu in the last 12 months (so you can’t say, cancel your current plan and get the discounted price for a year if you already subscribe.) You also can’t combine the deal with any other promotions or free trials — including the popular $12.99 per month... Continue reading…

It’s rude to play with your food at the Thanksgiving dinner table, but exceptions can be made if you’re sculpting newly announced cyberpunk pickup trucks out of your tubers. On Thanksgiving day, Dan Milano, a producer for NowThis News , shared a video of his brother Greg recreating a Tesla Cybertruck out of his mashed potatoes. Amazingly, the tiny car truly does resemble the truck’s polarizing angular style. My brother has been working on a mashed potato cybertruck for over an hour pic.twitter.com/Bze4kOKiHy — Dan Milano (@DanMilanoHere) November 29, 2019 But Greg didn’t stop there. An entire Twitter thread showcased his sculpting journey as he scooped out the back to create the truck bed and created a ramp out the back end. He even... Continue reading…

Photo: Sony There have been more gaming deals this year for Black Friday than perhaps any other category of tech. If you’re a gamer, that’s obviously a good problem to have, and GameStop’s Black Friday gives you even more to chew on. There are big discounts on games (including a buy-two-get-one deal on pre-owned games), consoles (both pre-owned and new bundles), accessories, such as controllers, and more. Whether you want to shop online or at your local GameStop, you’ll have the same assortment of deals to choose from on gaming consoles, software, accessories, and more. Here are the best deals from GameStop’s Black Friday sale. All pre-owned games for PS4, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch are buy two, get one free. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare “C.O.D.E.... Continue reading…

Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge Costco’s Black Friday sale is underway, and while members will get the most of its discounts, some of them are even open for non-members. Costco was one of the first retailers to debut big Black Friday deals on Dell’s XPS 13, the latest MacBook Pro, as well as the Apple Watch Series 5. Many retailers have since jumped onboard with those offers, but there are still some excellent offers that you can check out below. Vizio’s 36-inch 5.1.2 sound system that’s Dolby Atmos-ready is $299.99 (usually $449.99) Dell’s latest XPS 13 laptop (4K display, 10th Gen Intel Core i7-10710U CPU, 16GB of RAM, 1TB SSD storage) is $1,399 LG Gram 17-inch laptop (4K display, Intel Core i7-8565U, 16GB of RAM, 512GB of SSD storage) is $1,099 (usually $1,499) ... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Security researchers at SRLabs have found a number of vulnerabilities with the way carriers around the world are implementing RCS, the new messaging standard designed to replace SMS, Motherboard reports . In some cases, these issues could compromise a user’s location data, they could allow their text messages or calls to be intercepted, or they might allow their phone number to be spoofed. One issue identified on an unnamed carrier’s implementation could allow any app on your phone to download your RCS configuration file, for example, giving the app your username and password and allowing it to access all your voice calls and text messages. In another case, the six-digit code a carrier uses to verify a user’s identity was vulnerable to... Continue reading…

Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge As you’ve probably seen on The Verge , we’ve been rounding up all of the best Black Friday deals on laptops, truly wireless earbuds, gaming tech, 4K TVs, and plenty of other kinds of tech for the past few weeks. Many well-rated products that our team has reviewed are cheaper than ever, so if you haven’t had a chance to jump into shopping for yourself, or for some lucky people, you’re right on time to snag some excellent deals. Many retailers, such as Best Buy, Walmart, Target, as well as online stores like Amazon, Newegg, B&H Photo, and more have been saving their very best deals for today. Whether you’re planning to drive to your local store, or leisurely shop online without much effort, you’ll find all of the best Black Friday deals... Continue reading…

If you’re always forgetting your passwords, or losing the piece of paper you’ve written them on, it may be time to switch to a password manager. A password manager is a great way to keep your accounts secure. It can create strong passwords for you, store them securely, and automatically log you into sites and apps, so you don’t have to go searching for your passwords. 1Password, a password manager that we recommend , is offering an exclusive Black Friday deal for readers of The Verge . Today only, you can save 50 percent off of your first year of 1Password. An individual account normally costs $2.99 per month, so with the deal, the monthly cost will come down to $1.50. This deal will be active until early Saturday morning November 30th at... Continue reading…

Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge From tomorrow, November 30th, it will be illegal to fly a drone weighing over 250g in the UK without being registered, reports BBC News . That makes today the deadline for registration. In order to do so, you’ll need to head over to this page on the Civil Aviation Authority’s (CAA) website where you can register for an operator ID (if you’re responsible for a drone) and flyer ID (to fly drones). You must be at least 13-years old for a flyer ID, and pass a 20-question multiple choice test. The pass mark is 16, and you can repeat the 20-minute test as many times as needed. You have to be at least 18 for an operator ID which costs £9 annually. Failure to register risks a £1,000 fine. You’re risking a £1,000 fine if you don’t In spite of how... Continue reading…

Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge One of the biggest surprises found in Best Buy’s Black Friday ad wasn’t that it has some great deals in store for the big shopping holiday, but that many of those deals are already happening. Some of them are exclusive to My Best Buy members (Best Buy’s free membership service), but others are open to the general public. The selection of deals is constantly changing, so we’ll be adding and removing products as savings surface or expire. Also, we’ve included a mix of deals that are happening now, as well as the rest of Best Buy’s Black Friday deals, which start on Thanksgiving Day, November 28th, at 5PM local time. Computers and tablets The Surface Pro 7 (Intel Core i3, 4GB RAM, 128GB storage, with black Type Cover) is $599 . This... Continue reading…

Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker will mark the final chapter in the Skywalker trilogy, and prestigious British auction house Sotheby’s is marking the occasion with a new event. “Star Wars Online” collects trinkets, art pieces, and classic toys from the original trilogy, spanning between 1977 and 1983. That includes action figures of important characters like Han Solo, Luke Skywalker, and Princess Leia from A New Hope, The Empire Strikes Back, and Return of the Jedi . There’s even a still of Darth Vader’s head, entitled by “Bring Me the Head of Darth Vader,” designed by director and artist Clive Baker. There are silk screen banners and action figures still in their original packaging — an integral part to Star Wars... Continue reading…

The Epic Games Store isn’t the only digital PC shop with great deals for Black Friday. GOG.com, best-known for its robust collection of classic games and lack of DRM, is offering discounts on a huge range of games, including excellent indies, old-school RPGs, recent releases like Gris and A Plague Tale: Innocence , and slightly older — but still excellent — titles like No Man’s Sky, Firewatch, and The Witcher 3 . There’s a lot to go through — and you can check out the full deals list here — but a few of the best are highlighted below. The sale is on until December 3rd. Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night is 25 percent off (read our review ) A Plague Tale: Innocence is 50 percent off (read our review ) The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt - Game of the... Continue reading…

Photo by Christian Petersen/Getty Images What’s it going to take to convince Xbox boss Phil Spencer to make a VR-compatible Xbox? Earlier this week, Spencer said in an interview with Stevivor that “nobody’s asking for VR” on Microsoft’s consoles, and has followed that up on Twitter by saying that even after playing the highly-anticipated-yet-unreleased VR title Half-Life: Alyx he’s still not convinced. “It’s just not our focus with Scarlett,” tweeted Spencer, referring to the Project Scarlett codename for the company’s 2020 console. However, he admitted that Valve’s upcoming game was “amazing” when he got to play it. In the original interview with Stevivor, Spencer raised “issues” with the current state of VR. “It’s isolating,” he said, adding that his priority with Xbox was... Continue reading…

The newest, fastest iteration of the Roku Ultra is now half price for Black Friday. You can snag the streaming box, which supports 4K and comes bundled with JBL headphones, for $48 on Amazon right now . The media player typically costs $99. While the 2019 version of the Ultra looks virtually identical to its predecessor, it comes with a few welcome changes beyond the included earbuds. That includes a faster quad-core processor, additional memory, and a remote with customizable shortcut buttons. It’s the higher-end streaming option amongst Roku’s various offerings — which makes today’s sale even more enticing. Continue reading…

Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge If you were trying to share Thanksgiving photos today you may have noticed that both Facebook and Instagram have been suffering intermittent outages. Just like you might feel after your third helping of turkey and stuffing: they’re down, but not quite out. Instagram has acknowledged the issue, noting on twitter that “some people are currently having trouble accessing Facebook’s family of apps, including Instagram.” The company noted it was “working to get things back to normal as quickly as possible.” We’re aware that some people are currently having trouble accessing Facebook’s family of apps, including Instagram. We’re working to get things back to normal as quickly as possible. #InstagramDown — Instagram (@instagram) November 28,... Continue reading…

Target, like every other store, is jumping into the Black Friday shopping craze. Its doorbuster sale kicks off Thursday, November 28th, at 5PM local time. Stores will close at 1AM on Friday, then open again at 7AM to welcome shoppers to get in on all of the Black Friday deals. Below, you’ll find the best of what Target will offer, including deals on 4K TVs, headphones, gaming consoles, smart speakers, and more. The most notable offer, so far at least, is an $80 discount on the seventh-generation iPad. Some other retailers are offering it, but it’s great to have more options. It’s also offering the best price we’ve seen on the Xbox One X, which includes a free gift card with the purchase. There are a bunch of other great deals to check... Continue reading…

Dayton-raised artist Keith Rankin has an eye for the surreal and an ear for the avant garde. He puts these to good use not only in his professional illustration practice, but also as the co-founder of Orange Milk Records, where he scouts new talent, art directs album packages, and also releases his own music. Rankin knew he would never have a regular job. He was obsessed with drawing and fantasy stories as a child, and in his teens, music too. He was also a terrible student, dropping out a year into high school and later struggling to finish some college courses. It wasn’t until he started the record label that he would begin to really hone his skill an an illustrator and settle into his style, which I can only describe as nostalgic... Continue reading…

Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge Black Friday officially starts tomorrow, November 29th, but retailers like Best Buy, Target, Walmart, Amazon, and more are making today feel like the party has already started. Compared to other years, we’ve seen more deals (good ones, too) launch earlier than before, specifically right now. There are so many that we thought it was only right to share them with you before you think about braving the packed parking lots and stuffed aisles. We’ve pulled together a bite-sized list of the best early Black Friday deals for each major product category. These aren’t all of the deals you can expect this year, though — some of them will debut starting tomorrow. If a deal isn’t showing up for you, find out when your favorite retailer’s Black... Continue reading…

An iOS developer is building an iPhone app that will turn the smartphone into an iPod Classic with its nostalgic click wheel. Elvin Hu, a design student at Cooper Union college in New York City, has been working on the project since October, and shared an early look at the app on Twitter yesterday. It essentially turns your iPhone into a fullscreen iPod Classic with a click wheel that includes haptic feedback and click sounds just like Apple’s original device. It has generated a lot of interest on Twitter, with even the “ father of the iPod ,” Tony Fadell, noting it’s a “ nice throwback .” Hu built the app because he was working on a paper about the development of the iPod at school. “I’ve always been a fan of Apple products since I was a... Continue reading…

It’s Thanksgiving here in the United States, and you know what that means: coasting into the holiday weekend on a corny hack premise that we ought to be able to wrap up by lunchtime. ( The Interface will return on Monday.) And so, with that in mind, let’s end November on a note of gratitude. Here’s something to be grateful about for each of our big social networks as we close out the year. Facebook is making rapid progress on the development of its Oversight Board , an independent group that will serve as a kind of Supreme Court for moderation decisions. I’m told that the initial board will be named within the next month or so, and will begin hearing cases next year. I’m rooting for the Oversight Board because it could give the social... Continue reading…

Image: @x_feroza TikTok has reversed a ban and apologized to an American teenager whose account was locked after she posted a video criticizing the Chinese government over its treatment of Uighur Muslims, the New York Times reports . TikTok says it is conducting a review into its moderation policies and processes, and plans to publish its first transparency report in the coming months. In a blog post , the company claims that 17-year old Feroza Aziz’s account was restricted because she used a previous account (@getmefamousplzsir) to post a comedic video involving a picture of Osama bin Laden. This account was banned because of TikTok’s policies against imagery relating to terrorist figures. Then, just over a week later, the company says it banned 2,406... Continue reading…

Photo by Stephen Lam/ Getty Images Famed designer Jony Ive has disappeared from Apple’s Leadership page , signaling an end to his time in Cupertino. Ive joined Apple in 1992 and led the design team from 1996. Jony Ive’s last day at Apple was always a bit of a mystery. The press release announcing his departure only said that it would occur “later this year.” Some would say Ive checked out of Apple product design a long time ago after becoming distracted by the design and construction of the company’s new spaceship headquarters. Apple’s Leadership page as of 26 nov 2019 11:12:55 GMT (via Google cache). Ive has been completely removed as of today. Apple will be a client of Ive’s new design company, LoveFrom, which the designer started in collaboration... Continue reading…

If you’re not quite ready to sign up for a full-fledged cloud gaming service like Google Stadia — and who could blame you ? — there are plenty of ways to dip your toe in the streaming game waters for free or cheap. The latest is exclusive to Samsung Galaxy phones, and it’s called PlayGalaxy Link . Like the Steam Link app or Parsec — on which PlayGalaxy is based — you’ll install one client on your Windows PC, another app on your phone, then you can press a button to launch a game that streams to your handset. As XDA-developers notes , it was already available in beta for the Samsung Galaxy S10, S10e, S10 Plus, and S10 5G as of April, is now formally available for the Note 10, and will arrive on the Galaxy Fold, S9, S9+, Note 9, and Galaxy... Continue reading…

Image: Artiphon Nashville-based tech company Artiphon has a new music-making gadget up for backing on Kickstarter called Orba . The Orba is a small, handheld device that’s a synth, looper, and controller all in one. It’s shaped like a halved grapefruit, and mimics the gestures used on smartphones and trackpads to let you make beats and play around with sounds with a variety of motions. The flat top of the Orba is divided into eight segments that let you stack drum, bass, chord, and lead layers, and operate basic controls like record and pause. Then, the center acts as a menu button for cycling between features like presets and the looping function. There is a lot packed into this tiny device, which takes it far beyond just tapping a button and getting a... Continue reading…

Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge On Wednesday, the Justice Department announced an updated drone policy , intended to take the place of a 2015 policy guidance . The new policy maintains a lot of the same language and regulations, with a few key additions addressing concerns about cybersecurity and privacy. The new version of the policy “requires components to evaluate UAS acquisitions for cybersecurity risks, guarding against potential threats to the supply chain and DOJ’s networks,” according to the announcement. The policy also indicates that the DOJ will be coordinating with the FAA around access to airspace including working on a plan for air traffic support. Lastly, the policy specifically mentions information collected from cameras and sensors, and says it will... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Twitter has followed up with more details surrounding its plan to remove inactive accounts over the coming months. First, the company says the process “impacts accounts in the EU only, for now.” That important tidbit wasn’t made clear when the news broke on November 26th. But far more important is that Twitter has recognized that it can’t go around deleting accounts until it finds a way to preserve the accounts of people who’ve died. “We’ve heard you on the impact that this would have on the accounts of the deceased. This was a miss on our part,” the company tweeted today. “We will not be removing any inactive accounts until we create a new way for people to memorize accounts.” Emails sent by Twitter on Tuesday warned that any account... Continue reading…

Photo by Tom Warren / The Verge The Department of Justice has decided not to do anything about wireless carriers’ attempts to turn eSIMs into a way to keep customers locked to their network . It doesn’t entirely rule out taking action against anticompetitive behavior in the future. But for now, the DOJ says it’s going to let the issue go because the industry group behind eSIM is going to — not actually fix the problem — change its decision-making process to be less slanted toward carriers. eSIMs are eventually supposed to replace SIM cards , those little pieces of plastic you put in a phone to set which carrier it’s connected to. eSIMs offer a digital version of that, theoretically allowing you to switch phone carriers at the touch of a button, all through software. Your... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge When used within Russia, Apple’s Maps and Weather apps now list Crimea as being a Russian territory. The move, reported by BBC News , is the latest example of Apple kowtowing to a government’s demands to keep its devices and services in good standing. The company faced significant criticism in October for removing the Taiwanese flag emoji from the iOS keyboard in Hong Kong. This latest change stems from Russia’s roundly condemned annexation of Crimea in 2014. It only applies when Crimea is viewed or searched for with Apple Maps inside Russia; elsewhere in the world, Crimea isn’t labeled as Russian territory. BBC News says that Apple had been in talks with Russia for “several months” about this topic, and apparently, it... Continue reading…

Google is finally adding the ability to manually tag someone in Google Photos, as reported by Android Police . Google Photos has always been able to automatically recognize faces and sort them for you, which makes managing your library far easier than having to tag people manually. But the system misses faces sometimes, and there’s never been a way to correct it. Once this feature rolls out, you’ll finally be able to add in many of the faces it’s been missing. There’s a full breakdown of how the new feature works over at Android Police . In short, you can now tag people in photos the app missed, but there’s a notable caveat: you can only add them if Google detects that there’s a face in the photo in the first place. Basically, if Google... Continue reading…

Image: Wyze Wyze’s security cameras will temporarily lose their person detection feature in January 2020 after the AI startup it partnered with on the feature abruptly terminated their agreement. In a post on its forums , Wyze said that its agreement with Xnor.ai included a clause allowing the startup to terminate the contract “at any moment without reason.” Although Wyze admits that it has made “mistakes,” it says that the loss of person detection functionality should only be temporary. It says it plans to launch its own in-house version of the technology next year, and it will still be offered free of charge to its users. Wyze first added the person detection functionality to its Wyze Cam V2 and Wyze Cam Pan back in July . Wyze’s cameras have always... Continue reading…

There are few secrets in Hollywood as sacred as anything involving new Star Wars movies, which is why when an authentic Rise of Skywalker script ended up on eBay, people at Lucasfilm panicked. Director J.J. Abrams told Entertainment Weekly that an anonymous actor left the script under his bed, a housekeeper found it, and gave it to someone who posted it for sale on eBay. A Disney employee saw it, and purchased the script before anyone else could. Though Abrams may have tried to keep the actor’s name anonymous, John Boyega, who plays Finn in the new trilogy, told Good Morning America it was his fault. The issue, Boyega said, is that he forgot the script was under his bed while partying with friends. Truly, who amongst us can fault him... Continue reading…

Photo by Sean O’Kane / The Verge All the speed you’d expect from a Porsche, with zero emissions Continue reading…

YouTube rolled out a new layout for its homepage a couple of weeks ago , and I’m not exaggerating when I say it’s made using YouTube feel like an utter chore. Complaining about YouTube product updates is run-of-the-mill online. Little tweaks usher in frustrated sighs as people try to figure out how to get things back to normal. I usually bite my tongue: sprucing up the platform to keep it feeling new is important, and there are usually deeper reasons behind the changes, such as tweaks being made to make life easier for new or casual users. But YouTube’s latest homepage redesign changes the entire browsing experience for the worse. The homepage used to be broken up into a number of different, easily digestible sections. Algorithmic... Continue reading…

Thanksgiving is almost here, and nothing goes quite as well with a weekend off from work and eating huge amounts of food like hours spent digesting on the couch, binge-watching movies and TV shows. Unfortunately, given the massive amount of content available on the myriad streaming platforms, actually finding something that everyone can agree on to watch can be as miserable as whenever someone brings up politics during Thanksgiving dinner. Here are our suggestions to help make your holiday streaming go smoothly. Movies The Princess Bride The Princess Bride is a classic adventure movie with something for everyone: “Fencing, fighting, torture, revenge, giants, monsters, chases, escapes, true love, miracles…” Think family comedy, but with... Continue reading…

Photo by Claire Folger Warning: spoilers ahead for major plot points of Knives Out A wealthy publishing magnate has been found dead in his study. It looks like a suicide, but you and I know better. There’s a mansion full of suspects, a Clue board waiting to be solved. So we play the game. It’s called Knives Out, and it’ll make you wonder how the murder mystery — where death is actually fun — has largely been absent from movies in an era where true crime is a genre thriving via podcasts, TV shows, and books. In Knives Out , writer-director Rian Johnson follows up Star Wars: The Last Jedi with a film that returns to his pre-space opera groove: reviving classic genre cinema with clever modern twists. Knives Out is a new whodunit for fans of old ones, in the same... Continue reading…

Lee Se-dol is seen in 2016 during his matches with the AI program AlphaGo. | Photo: Google / Getty Images The South Korean Go champion Lee Se-dol has retired from professional play, telling Yonhap news agency that his decision was motivated by the ascendancy of AI. “With the debut of AI in Go games, I’ve realized that I’m not at the top even if I become the number one through frantic efforts,” Lee told Yonhap. “ Even if I become the number one, there is an entity that cannot be defeated.” Lee lost 4-1 to DeepMind’s AlphaGo in 2016 For years, Go was considered beyond the reach of even the most sophisticated computer programs. The ancient board game is famously complex, with more possible configurations for pieces than atoms in the observable universe. This reputation took a knock in 2016 when the Google-owned artificial intelligence company... Continue reading…

Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge Black Friday and Cyber Monday are great for saving a lot of money on big-ticket purchases like 4K TVs, gaming consoles, laptops, phones, smartwatches, and more. They’re also great for saving money on tech that didn’t cost a lot to start with. Whether you’re on a budget, or just looking for a gadget or two (or all six of the ones you’ll find below) that won’t set you back too much, we’ve pulled together the very best deals under $40. RavPower’s 61W USB-C GaN wall adapter pictured above is just $29.99 ($25.99 if you clip the coupon on the page) at Amazon. This handy, tiny plug can quickly power up anything that uses a USB-C port to charge, given that your device supports fast charging. This includes modern Android phones, iPhones (quick... Continue reading…

The Raspberry Pi Recovery Kit | Image Credit: Jay Doscher Sometimes, certain gadgets speak to you on an intuitive level. They bypass that bit of your brain that demands functionality or value, and make their pitch on pure aesthetics. This custom Raspberry Pi cyberdeck is just such a device for me. With its rugged waterproof case, retro components switches, and compact ortholinear keyboard, it looks like a computer built for the end of the world — and I love it. It’s called the Raspberry Pi Recovery Kit and is the work of Jay Doscher, a maker who shares his projects over at Back7.co . Speaking to The Verge via email, Doscher explains that the apocalyptic theme of the Recovery Kit is as much about aesthetics as functionality. “The ‘end of world’ scenario is a bit tongue in cheek since the focus... Continue reading…

Image: The Verge As 2019 dawned and Mark Zuckerberg announced this year’s personal challenge, I suggested it might be time to retire the concept altogether. Zuckerberg’s “challenge,” as he described in a Facebook post , would be to “host a series of public discussions about the future of technology in society.” “Every few weeks I’ll talk with leaders, experts, and people in our community from different fields and I’ll try different formats to keep it interesting,” Zuckerberg wrote on January 8th. After his first conversation, he replied to a comment about the project by saying, “I have a dream list of leading thinkers in fields ranging from the internet and artificial intelligence to biology and climate change.” Given the challenges facing the company... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge A new initiative has been launched to preserve tweets from deceased loved ones after the social network announced it will begin removing inactive accounts this December . The Twittering Dead project was announced by Internet Archive software curator and digital preservationist Jason Scott, and asks users to provide the Twitter handles of any accounts they’d like to see archived. Unlike Facebook and other services, Twitter does not offer a way to memorialize accounts. Twitter announced its plan to remove old Twitter accounts yesterday. Starting December 11th, any account that has not been signed in to within the last six months risks being deleted, freeing up its username to be registered by someone else. Twitter says it made the decision... Continue reading…