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Photo Illustration by Rafael Henrique/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images Despite its relentless promotion of 5G phones and the fact that it spent more than $45 billion bidding on a new faster spectrum, Verizon support now is advising people on Twitter to turn off their phones’ 5G access to preserve battery life. In a Sunday morning tweet , Verizon support helpfully suggested that “one way to help conserve battery life is to turn on LTE” if users found their batteries were “draining faster than normal.” That step would, of course, turn off 5G in a phone that has it available. It’s also worth pointing out that you don’t actually “turn on LTE” when doing this step — LTE is always enabled as a fallback for the 5G network. But Verizon is obviously being cautious so as not to actually tell its customers to “turn... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/37VNQlB

Samsung Galaxy Chromebook 2 | Photo by Becca Farsace / The Verge Samsung’s latest Chrome OS laptop, the Galaxy Chromebook 2, is now available for purchase at Best Buy . The Chromebook 2 was first announced at CES in January and features a new QLED display, 360-degree hinge, and a striking red paint job. It starts at $549.99 for a Celeron model and goes up to $699.99 for a Core i3 version, putting it at the higher end of Chromebooks. That price is the most significant thing about the Chromebook 2 because it’s considerably less than the Galaxy Chromebook that debuted a year ago. The older Chromebook had an 4K OLED screen and came with a stylus — neither of which you’ll fine with the new model — but it also cost just under $1,000 when it came out. In our review, we found despite the gorgeous screen and... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/2ZZpumw

Supporters of former President Donald Trump flew a US flag with a QAnon symbol outside the Capitol on January 6th. | Photo by Win McNamee/Getty Images The teaser video for Q: Into the Storm , an upcoming documentary series from HBO about the QAnon conspiracy movement has a lot of deplatforming experts concerned; it looks more like a preview for a spy thriller than a careful examination of the umbrella group of conspiracy theories. The breathless tone might be effective at building hype, but it has many disinformation experts concerned. Ben Collins, one of the leading journalists covering online radicalization, tweeted that the trailer was “being marketed in a way that could recruit more people.” Promoted by HBO as a series that “charts a labyrinthine journey to unmask the mastermind behind QAnon,” critics pointed out that the trailer felt a lot like “ a recruitment video for Q.” d... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/3r5gvw1

Photo Illustration by Pavlo Gonchar/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images The Food and Drug Administration has authorized the Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccine, which only needs one dose and can be stored in regular refrigerators. It’s the third COVID-19 vaccine to get sign-off from the agency. The vaccine can be administered to people 18 years and older. It protects against serious disease , and clinical trials did not flag any dangerous safety problems. In the United States, it was 72 percent effective against severe and milder COVID-19. It was slightly less effective in South Africa, where a variant form of the coronavirus is widespread. Early data also suggested that the shot might prevent asymptomatic infections, but researchers need more data before they can say that for sure. The Johnson & Johnson... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/3syykUK

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Microsoft is finalizing its Xbox Game Streaming app for Windows PCs, which includes access to streaming games from the company’s xCloud service. We’ve managed to get access to the latest version of the Xbox Game Streaming app for Windows, an unannounced and unreleased app. Once released, the app will let Windows users stream games from their Xbox Series S / X consoles, and from xCloud. Currently, you can’t stream games from the new Xbox consoles to Windows PCs, as this is unsupported in the existing Xbox Console Companion app. This new app will solve that, and also bring xCloud streaming to Windows PCs for the first time. We first got a look at this xCloud app for Windows last year , and it has improved a lot since then. scoop: here's... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/2NOD8q5

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge A federal judge on Friday gave final approval to a $650 million Facebook class action privacy settlement and ordered the 1.6 million members of the class in Illinois who submitted claims to be paid “as expeditiously as possible.” Chicago attorney Jay Edelson sued Facebook in Cook County Circuit Court back in 2015, alleging that the platform’s use of facial recognition tagging was not allowed under the Illinois Biometric Information Privacy Act. The lawsuit claimed that Facebook’s Tag Suggestions tool, which scanned faces in users’ photos and offered suggestions about who the person might be, stored biometric data without users’ consent in violation of the Illinois law. The case became a class action lawsuit in 2018 . In 2019, Facebook m... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/37VecEf

WandaVision ’s first season is just about to end, but Falcon and the Winter Soldier , Black Widow , Loki , Justice League , Suicide Squad , The Batman , GCPD, and Peacemaker are just around the corner — and that doesn’t account for other series outside of the main Marvel and DC Universes like MODOK , Titans, or Harley Quinn . There are more superhero TV series and films debuting in 2021 than seemingly ever before, and it might have some people wanting to dive into comics. WandaVision has led a few people on staff to dig into past Vision and Wanda Maximoff-centered storylines, for example. I’ve started reading Kieron Gillen’s Eternals run leading up to Marvel Studios’ film. Whatever reason people may have for wanting to begin reading comics,... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/3srO6k2

Photo by JOSEPH PREZIOSO/AFP via Getty Images The best picture I’ve seen this week was a selfie from my father-in-law who just got his first dose of a COVID-19 vaccine. Along with the shot, they gave him a sticker that says “I got vaccinated!” As the vaccine rollout continues, clinics and distribution centers across the country are embracing things like stickers and even selfie stations decked out with colorful backgrounds to help people celebrate getting the shot. The selfie stations are set up as colorful backgrounds, often with pro-vaccine messaging tiled with the name of the healthcare provider . It’s good branding. And hey, if social media-friendly backgrounds helped make some trendy restaurants popular, there’s no reason they couldn’t work for vaccine sites too. This is a... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/3dRj0hL

Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge An outage of Sony’s PlayStation Network that began Friday afternoon appeared to be persisting on Saturday morning. According to an update on the status page timestamped 6:33PM (not clear what time zone that is) on February 26th, the affected platforms are PS Vita, PS3, PS4, and PS5. “You might have difficulty launching games, apps, or network features. We’re working to resolve the issue as soon as possible. Thank you for your patience,” the update reads. Engadget reported that the outage may be affecting some games but not others; Fortnite appeared to be accessible but Minecraft and Call of Duty: Warzone were not. The PlayStation Network outage began a day after Microsoft’s Xbox Live service suffered a global outage for five hours. On... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/3ktxc1K

Image: Square Enix This week’s batch of deals runs the gamut of gadgets and games. Whether you’re a music fan who’s looking to outfit their tech repertoire with new headphones or a big, powerful Bluetooth speaker, or a gamer, this roundup is for you. There still aren’t any deals on hard-to-find graphics cards, but the good news is at least AMD’s powerful Zen 3 processors are in stock right now (but perhaps not for long). If you aren’t finding what you’re looking for in today’s roundup, keep a lock on our Verge Deals coverage throughout the week and follow us on Twitter for the moment-to-moment deal alerts. Get the best-ever price on Beats Solo Pro on-ear headphones Beats Solo Pro noise-canceling headphones are still available for $150 through Woot. You... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/2NIbACI

Photo by Gary Hershorn/Getty Images A new report from The New York Times’ Andrew Jacobs digs into how mask policies on tech platforms that have allowed novelty masks like scrunchie masks to flourish while some mask-makers making high-filtration masks have had trouble selling their wares. Even if you’re vaccinated, wearing a mask is still recommended . It seems like a problem, then, that many masks widely advertised on Facebook, Instagram, and Amazon are novelty varieties that might be less safe than medical-grade N95s. Facebook and Amazon say they are following guidelines from the Center for Disease Control and Prevention. Facebook prevented mask sellers from advertising and selling masks to the masses early in the pandemic, when they were in short supply. The idea was to... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/3r3rA0w

Netflix is constantly looking for its next big franchise hit — a new Stranger Things or The Witcher . And the trailer for Shadow and Bone teases that the upcoming fantasy series could be next. The first trailer for Netflix’s adaptation of the series showcases the series’ main protagonist, Alina, a map maker who discovers that she harbors a special power that can prevent the world from being swallowed up in darkness threatened by a terrifying sea-of-sorts called the Fold. Shadow and Bone is Leigh Bardugo’s fantasy series that has swept readers by storm. The book, which introduces readers to the Grisha universe — a world inhabited by special people who practice a form of spell work known as small sciences — has become immensely popular on... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/3kpVlpO

During today’s Pokémon Presents presentation , the company unveiled new gameplay footage for New Pokémon Snap , the long-awaited sequel to the N64 classic. The new footage showed off the lush and colorful settings that you will explore across the Lental region. New Pokémon Snap will have players assuming the role of a pokémon photographer who will collaborate with the region’s pokémon expert, Professor Mirror, and his assistant Rita to observe pokémon in their natural habitats. Gameplay remains similar to its predecessor but introduces some new mechanics, such as a photo-sharing feature that will allow you to share your photos online, plus a ranking system so you can compete with other players across the globe. The new footage is just one... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/2ZQZwBN

A virtual symposium on the internet’s most important law Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/2O81gUn

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Every Friday, The Verge publishes our flagship podcast The Vergecast , our chat show to discuss this week in tech news featuring our reporters and editors. This week, co-hosts Nilay Patel and Dieter Bohn start off the show with Verge reporter Allison Johnson to discuss the state of 5G in America: T-Mobile bringing back their unlimited 5G plan with no throttling, the results of the C-band spectrum auction, and whether Dish is serious about building a 5G network. What is 5G, and why is it kind of bad right now? Dish is confident in its plan to offer 5G in its first major cities by end of Q3 2021 T-Mobile just brought back a true unlimited data plan with 5G and no throttling T-Mobile has 5G leverage and isn’t afraid to use it Verizon and... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/3bNnpQm

At a special live-streamed event today, The Pokémon Company revealed something fans having been waiting a long time for: an open-world Pokémon adventure. The next major entry in the franchise will be called Pokémon Legends: Arceus , and it looks to be a huge evolution of the long-running RPG formula. The developers describe it as a “pre-make,” which offers “a new challenge and a new frontier for the Pokémon world.” The story takes place in the Sinnoh region, at a period that appears to be long before other Pokémon games, and will include a number of iconic monsters like Piplup, with your choice of starters including Rowlet, Oshawott, and Cyndaquil. It’s expected to launch worldwide on the Switch in early 2022. Here’s the basic premise: As... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/37Qv1QE

Pokémon Diamond and Pearl will be remade for Nintendo Switch. The Pokémon Company announced the news today during a special Pokémon Presents broadcast. Pokémon Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl will launch in late 2021. Diamond and Pearl launched in 2006 for Nintendo DS. The game introduced the Sinnoh region, home to pokémon such as Bidoof, Luxio, Drifloon, and Arceus. The updated versions have a cute, chibified look, though both are “faithful remakes” of the originals. A trailer released alongside the news today teases familiar locations and faces in the Switch version, as well as some quality of life upgrades. Pokémon Home developer Ilca is working on both games alongside longtime Game Freak director Junichi Masuda . There’ve... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/2PiST9r

Image: Square Enix Yesterday, Square Enix announced that it plans to release an enhanced version of Final Fantasy VII Remake for PS5 , and there is a free next-gen upgrade available if you own the game digitally or physically. You can purchase a physical copy of the game right now for $30 at Amazon . Note that if you plan to take advantage of this deal, you will need to own a PS5 with a disc drive to claim your free PS5 copy. Although the game will be free on PlayStation Plus beginning March 2nd , Sony confirmed that the PS Plus version will not be eligible to receive a free upgrade. So, you’ll either need to buy the next-gen version, which starts at $70 , or buy the PS4 version, the latter of which I think is the better deal. While on the topic of next-gen,... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/2MrmyvN

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge The Federal Communications Commission voted unanimously on Thursday to adopt a program that provides emergency discounts of up to $50 per month toward broadband internet service for low-income households. The Emergency Broadband Benefit Program also provides up to $75 per month for households on Native American land and a one-time discount of up to $100 on a tablet or computer for those who qualify. The $3.2 billion for the program was approved by Congress in December as part of a $900 billion coronavirus relief package. The subsidies are available to households that already participate in an internet provider’s low-income or pandemic relief program, subscribers to its Lifeline program, households with children receiving free or... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/3svZH1K

Citizen Citizen, the app that turns everyone into a crime reporter, now wants to track helicopters. The company announced today that it’s introducing helicopter tracking to the app, which will explain to users why there are flying vehicles overhead. The team tells The Verge it employs a 24/7 group to review 911 communications, and now they’ll review data about police helicopters, too. Like any other info on Citizen, users can add their own videos and comments about the incident while Citizen verifies it on its end. When possible, the team will include a “related incident” for a helicopter spotting that’ll better explain the situation. That way, if the helicopter pertains to a missing person report, for example, that report will be linked. The... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/2O341X8

Photo by Chris Welch / The Verge Get some peace and quiet with the best noise-canceling headphones for a variety of uses Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/33c8IDL

Capcom finds itself in an interesting position with Monster Hunter Rise , its new title for the Nintendo Switch. 2018’s Monster Hunter World was a huge triumph, bringing the series to a Western audience accustomed to home consoles and PCs and becoming one of the company’s bestselling games ever. But in doing so, it had to abandon some of the biggest factors behind Monster Hunter ’s Japanese success: portability and local multiplayer. Since Capcom started work on Monster Hunter World , though, the Switch has become a global hit, and on paper it sounds like it should be a perfect system for the series. It’s much more capable than the PSP and 3DS hardware that made Monster Hunter a social phenomenon in Japan, while offering the flexibility to... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/3dLo3Ap

Final Fantasy VII Remake , the modern retelling of the 1997 PlayStation classic, will be free for PlayStation Plus subscribers beginning March 2nd . It is important to note the PS4 version of Final Fantasy VII Remake available for users with an active PS Plus subscription will not be able to receive a PS5 digital version of the game, which was announced yesterday at Sony’s State of Play event. Final Fantasy VII Remake launched last April exclusively on PlayStation 4 and serves as the first of an unknown number of entries in an episodic retelling of the original game. The game is also backward compatible on PlayStation 5, but yesterday's State of Play confirmed that a next-gen version of the game will release on June 10th and will take... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/3pZdThX

Its built-in stylus is useful and enjoyable, but the Stylo 6 is too slow to recommend Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/2ZStqFF

Image: LastPass A security researcher is recommending against LastPass password manager after detailing seven trackers found in the Android app, The Register reports . Although there is no suggestion that the trackers, which were analyzed by researcher Mike Kuketz , are transferring a user’s actual passwords or usernames, Kuketz says their presence is bad practice for a security-critical app handling such sensitive information. Responding to the report, a spokesperson from LastPass says the company gathers limited data “about how LastPass is used” to help it “improve and optimize the product.” Importantly, LastPass tells The Register that “no sensitive personally identifiable user data or vault activity could be passed through these trackers,” and users... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/3sr64TV

Photo by Sam Byford / The Verge Nvidia has started to roll out support for Resizable BAR, a feature of PCI Express that can boost frame rates in certain games by up to 10 percent. The new RTX 3060 graphics card is the first to include Resizable BAR, which allows certain CPUs to access the full graphics frame buffer, instead of being limited to reading just 256MB blocks. Support for other 30-series GPUs will be available in late March. You’ll need the right CPU, motherboard, and graphics card to utilize this new feature, and Nvidia is working with both AMD and Intel to provide chipset support. AMD’s Zen 3 CPUs are supported, alongside Intel’s 10th Gen processors and the company’s upcoming 11th Gen S chips. Image: Nvidia Nvidia’s Resizable BAR... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/3bHYQ73

The repairability score can be seen on the lower right of the product page. | Screenshot: Apple.com Apple has added iPhone and MacBook repairability scores to its online store in France to comply with a new French law that came into effect this year. MacGeneration reports that the rating takes into account features like how easily a device can be disassembled and the availability of repair manuals and spare parts. Links to each product’s final score, with details for how they were calculated, are available on this support page . The ratings for Apple’s products vary between products and generations. Its iPhone 12 lineup all have scores of six out of 10 for example, while the previous year’s iPhone 11s are rated lower at between 4.5 and 4.6. The improvement, according to the detailed scoring assessment, is due to the newer iPhones being... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/3aUBtIk

Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge Sony will allow the PlayStation 5 to make use of expanded SSD storage from this summer, according to a report in Bloomberg . The functionality is said to be coming in a firmware update that will activate the PS5’s M.2 expansion slot, which is currently disabled. Sony told The Verge ahead of the PS5 launch that the feature was “reserved for a future update.” Bloomberg’s sources say that the firmware update will allow for an increase in the speed of the PS5’s cooling fans. The PS5 has an extremely fast built-in SSD, and any compatible third-party drive will need to be equally fast in order to store and run PS5 games; that’s going to generate some extra heat. The PS5 comes with an 825GB SSD right now, leaving users with only 667GB of usable... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/3q0sk5k

Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge Sony has confirmed that Japan Studio, its internal video game developer based in Tokyo, will essentially wind down and refocus around a single team. In a statement to IGN , Japan Studio said as of April 1st it would be “re-centered to Team Asobi, the creative team behind Astro’s Playroom , allowing the team to focus on a single vision and build on the popularity of Astro’s Playroom .” In other words, get ready for more Astro games. Astro’s Playroom is a well-received title packaged with every PlayStation 5 console. It’s a 3D platformer designed to show off the advanced haptic feedback of the new DualSense controller. Before that, the same team developed Astro Bot: Rescue Mission , widely considered to be the standout exclusive PlayStation VR... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/3aT74tS

Image: Square Enix Square Enix just announced Final Fantasy VII Remake Intergrade , a PS5-enhanced version of FF7 Remake that includes graphical improvements like “improved textures, lighting, and background environments.” But some users on ResetEra noticed one other potentially huge graphical upgrade: Cloud’s famously skinny arms may have gotten a bit beefier. Did Cloud get more swole for next-gen, like the PS5 itself ? Clearly, this warranted a full investigation. Check out this image, from user Tyaren : Image: ResetEra user Tyaren And this GIF, from user Rickenslacker : GIF: ResetEra user Rickenslacker Convincing, right? These two images make a strong argument. But my Verge colleagues and I weren’t totally sure.... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/3bEN7pR

Image: Activision The latest Call of Duty game collection may now be too big to fit the base 500GB PlayStation 4 hard drive ( via IGN ). According to the official Call of Duty blog , if you want to have the latest Call of Duty: Warzone update and the full Black Ops: Cold War and Modern Warfare package on your PS4, you’ll have to uninstall content you don’t use. The games make that somewhat easy to do by letting you remove certain modes — for example, if you only want to play Warzone , you could uninstall Black Ops ’s single player, Zombie, and arcade modes , but it seems a bit ridiculous that you can’t fit three (or really, two and a half) games on an entire game console . That’s especially true since Activision sort of treats these three games as one thing:... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/3aTwM1j

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Telegram is updating its messaging app with options for auto-deleting messages, expiring invite links, and new unlimited groups, the company shared in a blog post . Much like Signal, Telegram received a burst of new users in the confusion over WhatsApp’s privacy policy and now the company is adopting features that were already part of its competitors’ apps, features which offer more security and privacy. Auto-deleting messages were already possible in Telegram’s encrypted Secret Chats, but this new update for iOS and Android adds the option to make messages disappear in any kind of chat. Auto-delete can be enabled inside of chats, and set to delete either 24 hours or seven days after messages are sent. Auto-delete won’t remove every... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/3st2tVs

Full-size image here . | Image: 343 Industries We got our first look at Halo Infinite , the next game in Microsoft’s huge franchise, back in July, and the results were... underwhelming. The graphics and visuals weren’t quite as impressive as you might expect from a next-generation game (the demo was running on a PC “that is representative of the experience that players will have on Xbox Series X”), and one vacant-looking enemy even became the infamous Craig meme . The game was delayed to 2021 a few weeks after the demo aired “to ensure the team has adequate time to deliver a Halo game experience that meets our vision.” On Thursday, though, developer 343 Industries shared new screenshots of Halo Infinite in 4K from an in-development PC version of the game, and the graphics look much... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/3qYBqAR

Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge Apple is once again releasing an update to prevent a charging problem from killing MacBooks — this time it’s to fix a problem where 2019 and later MacBook Pros, and 2020 and later MacBook Airs were being damaged when connected to third-party USB-C hubs and docks ( via MacRumors ). It’s unclear how widespread the issues are, but a poll on Reddit had 74 out of 221 respondents report that their M1 Air or Pro had failed after using a hub. As with all polls, it’s best to take the results with a grain of salt, but there’s an indication that some people were experiencing issues. Most of the issues seemed to come from using a third-party dock, and while some of them seem to be from pretty obscure brands, there are a few recognizable ones that are... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/2MrAgPt

Trying to find friends can be stressful on its own, but when you’re a sea monster trying to blend in with the residents of an Italian town who just so happen to hate sea monsters, it’s even more anxiety-inducing. This is the basic premise of Luca , Pixar’s new animated film coming later this year. The movie follows Luca Paguro, a 13-year-old sea monster who wants to see what life is like above the sea, and his friend Alberto Scorfano, who loves the human world. Together, they take on human-looking forms and explore around an Italian town, trying to live a carefree life and enjoy the simple things that humans may take for granted, like bicycles and gelato. If that sounds a little like The Little Mermaid , one of Disney’s most popular... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/3pPfDud

It’s rare to find a button that is almost universally hated, but the infamous touchpad on the Apple TV’s Siri Remote might be the exception. Even over half a decade after its introduction, it stands as one of the most reviled pieces of hardware around. The failings of the Apple TV remote don’t just stem from a bad touchpad (and don’t get me wrong: it is bad) but from a larger misunderstanding on Apple’s part of what makes a good remote and the fundamental purpose of those devices. The typical TV remote is big and ugly, but it’s also extremely easy to find and navigate thanks to differing patterns of buttons that make it clear what you’re touching even without checking. Generally speaking, no one has ever been too confused about how to... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/3qYbDZM

EVGA’s RTX 3060 graphics card | Photo by Sean Hollister / The Verge Nvidia’s new RTX 3060 will be available to purchase starting on Thursday, February 25th at 9AM PT / 12PM ET. Unlike other GPUs in the RTX 30 series, Nvidia is not making a Founder’s Edition of the RTX 3060, but other manufacturers like EVGA and Gigabyte are making their own iterations of the RTX 3060. The price is said to be $329, but as has been the case for the past year, it’s unlikely you’ll be able to find it available for that. Retailers that have posted listings are already marking up 3060 cards to $390 or more, which is much closer in price to the step-up 3060 Ti. The Verge ’s Sean Hollister reviewed EVGA’s iteration of the RTX 3060 and noted in his review that although the GPU’s price makes it more competitive to buy, you’re... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/3dRLmZr

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Esther Cohen is 91, vaccinated against COVID-19, and wants to play mahjong with her friends — who are also vaccinated. She asked Anthony Fauci if they could get back to their games after he spoke at the American Association for the Advancement of Science annual meeting this month. Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said she should wait a bit longer and urged her to be patient. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention was working on guidelines for people who’d been vaccinated because lots of people were asking the same question, he said — why get vaccinated if you can’t get back to normal? Epidemiologists say the 44 million people in the United States with at least one dose of the... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/3pTuzr2

When the first Bravely Default launched in 2014 , it represented a return of sorts. Developer Square Enix made its name with classic turn-based roleplaying games like Final Fantasy , but those eventually gave way to bigger, more cinematic experiences. With Bravely Default , Square was going back to its roots. It may have technically been a new franchise, but the game was pure classic Final Fantasy -style adventuring. It even introduced a novel battle system to help it from retreading too much new ground. So where does that leave a sequel? Bravely Default II — technically the third game in the series, following 2016’s Bravely Second: End Layer — does all of the same things that made the original so interesting. But seven years later, it... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/3klSkXA

Image: Amazon Amazon’s head of Fire TV, Kindle, and its new Luna cloud gaming service departed the company this month. Marc Whitten has joined Unity as an executive on the company’s Unity Create business. Unity is a cross-platform game engine that many developers use to get their games running across multiple devices. Whitten’s departure, spotted by Matthew Ball on Twitter , comes less than six months after Amazon launched an early access version of Luna , the company’s new cloud gaming service. It also comes during the same month Google announced it’s shutting down its in-house game development studios for Stadia. That’s left the writing on the wall for Stadia , as it increasingly looks like Google will focus on licensing the underlying tech it has... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/2O0wahH

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge PlayStation fans, rejoice. Sony is hosting the first State of Play live stream of 2021 today. The 30-minute presentation will feature 10 new games coming to the PS4 and PS5, along with updates on some upcoming third-party and indie games that appeared at Sony's PS5 showcase last June . Sony has not unveiled what games will be announced during today’s event, but the company has a ton of highly anticipated games slated to launch this year and possibly into 2022. These include Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart , which will launch exclusively on the PS5 on June 11th, and Horizon Forbidden West , which is expected to come out sometime this year on the PS4 and PS5. WHEN DOES THE PLAYSTATION STATE OF PLAY EVENT START? The live stream starts today,... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/3spSZtP

Wynn Resorts Podcast studios are now a Las Vegas attraction. Wynn Resorts announced today that it’s investing $3.5 million in Blue Wire, a sports podcasting network, in a deal that’ll include the build out of a podcasting studio in the Wynn Las Vegas’ lobby. That studio will host Blue Wire podcast personalities as well as star athlete guests to entice people to visit the hotel, get excited about sports, and hopefully place bets on them. Wynn runs a subsidiary business called WynnBet, which handles sports betting, and the team specifically eyed Blue Wire to promote that brand. Craig Billings, president of Wynn Resorts, says the studio will be “activated” during March Madness and NFL kickoff, for example, to bring energy to the hotel around sports,... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/2ZOXHoR

Photo by Sam Byford / The Verge Pokémon might be renowned for its cooperative gameplay , delightful spinoffs , and making an intimidating genre approachable , but the franchise also has a long history of creative and interesting gadgets. The series is bursting with technology. The original in-game pokédex clearly takes inspiration from early Palm Pilot-like devices, for example. And if you think about them, pokéballs are technological marvels: they somehow transform living creatures into particles that can be transported across the world (and in the TV show, the pokéballs can even shrink). So it’s not all that surprising that there have been many Pokémon -themed toys and hardware. We’ve collected just a few of the many memorable Pokémon gadgets in honor of the series’ 25th... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/2MrtBVq

Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge Update February 25th, 8:03AM ET: Sony’s PlayStation 5 with the disc drive is currently available for purchase at Target , while supplies last. You can find more information here . Sony’s PlayStation 5 is available now. Due to the pandemic and high demand for the PS5, retailers such as Best Buy and Target will only sell the console online for the foreseeable future. So, if you were planning to camp outside your local Target hoping to buy the console today, there will be no walk-in purchases available this year. But, you can order one online and request an in-store pickup. Until we hear more information from retailers, I strongly advise you to keep a close eye on other popular retailers, including Amazon , Target , GameStop , Newegg , B&H Photo ,... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/33B5zf3

Photo by Vlad Savov / The Verge Ever since Édouard-Léon Scott de Martinville recorded an almost undecipherable version of the French song “Au Clair de la Lune” in the mid-19th century, it’s been clear that the technology that you use to produce and listen to sounds can affect your experience. Even now, about 150 years later, the quality of your gear can mean the difference between a tinny, nearly unrecognizable noise or a fully realized aural experience. As you can imagine, the people here at The Verge spend a lot of time listening to a variety of digital sounds — whether it’s online meetings, music, podcasts, videos, or sound checks of their own multimedia productions. We asked the staff what their favorite devices were to either listen to, enhance, or produce their... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/3aS6wEI

Nerf maker Hasbro has heard you loud and clear, Adam Savages of the world : you want to be able to shoot foam projectiles for days, without carrying around a belt full of magazines or constantly stooping down to reload. Today, the company’s announcing Nerf Hyper, a new line of blasters that not only shoots harder (up to 110 feet per second) than any stock blaster but also features the company’s fastest reloads yet, thanks to a smaller foam projectile that takes up so little space, you can fit 40 of them inside a pistol-sized blaster. That’s unheard of in Nerf. You can clip on (or carry around) 50 or 100 round canisters to quickly top them up, much like a paintball gun. Image by Hasbro The Hyper Rush-40, with the... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/2PaG3dc

Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge The PlayStation 5 is Sony’s latest gaming console and just like Microsoft’s Xbox Series X / S it’s in high demand and limited supply. If you are looking to buy a PS5, you have a shot at securing the $500 model with a disc drive right now at Target , while supplies last. After you secure your PS5 (or if already own one), you should consider picking up a few items that will help you get the most out of your next-gen console. One such accessory is an additional DualSense controller in the event one controller’s battery dies and you want to keep playing but prefer not to be tethered by the charging cable. A one-year subscription to PlayStation Plus is also good to pick up if you have yet to renew your membership or are new to the service.... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/2ZOOkFJ

Image: Valve Steam’s Remote Play Together feature , which lets you stream local multiplayer games with friends over the internet, will no longer require every player to have a Steam account. The new functionality, which is currently in beta , lets Steam users invite a friend to their game with a link, after which they’ll be prompted to install the Steam Link app if they don’t have it already. There are limits to the new feature. Games will need to already support the Remote Play Together feature for it to work (there are filtering options to find these titles), and only one friend without a Steam account can join a multiplayer session. If you want to add more, they’ll need to have accounts. To try the feature out, head to your friends list in the... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/3qUBp0V

Zoom has previously supported AI-generated closed captions for paid accounts. | Image: Zoom Zoom plans to roll out support for automatic closed captioning to free accounts this fall as part of its efforts to make the service more accessible, the company has announced . If you’re a free account holder who needs access to the feature before then, Zoom is allowing users to manually request access to the Live Transcription feature via a Google Form linked to in its announcement . Automatic transcriptions aren’t an entirely new Zoom feature. The service has previously offered AI-powered live transcription for all its paid accounts. Otherwise, meeting hosts have had to manually add their own captions, or use a third-party service. But now the feature will become available to the millions of people that rely on Zoom’s services for... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/3koAYJW

The basic TV option reportedly appears at setup. | Image: Google / 9to5Google Google TV, the search giant’s latest attempt at TV software, will include a new “Basic TV” mode that strips out a TV’s smart features in favor of providing simple access to live TV and HDMI inputs, 9to5Google reports . It’s a potential boon to anyone that ever wanted to dumb-down their smart TV because they prefer an external streamer or because they value privacy. Google TV debuted on the new Chromecast , where it offered a new interface built on Google’s existing Android TV software, but will soon be offered as built-in software for TCL and Sony’s upcoming TVs. According to 9to5Google , you can select the “Basic TV” mode at setup. Doing so strips out the operating system’s apps, content recommendations, and Google Assistant support. It’s... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/3qY97Ta

A new update to popular podcast player Overcast includes a major overhaul of its Apple Watch app. The Apple Watch support is notable at a time when third-party app development for the platform is not necessarily in a great spot, though the Watch itself continues to grow in popularity. Overcast’s update reorganizes the app UI from top to bottom, adding some features that otherwise were only able to be accessed through the phone version. The main screen has large buttons for settings and syncing above a scrolling list of your shows and access to the “now playing” screen. That screen now includes a button on the bottom right that takes you to more detailed info on the podcast and lets you adjust its playback speed, as well as giving you... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/3soIQgZ