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Xiaomi says it split the $15 million development cost of the new smartphone camera sensor with Sony. | Image: Xiaomi Big-sensor cameras are a bit of a white whale for smartphone imaging engineers. Even the most capable smartphone cameras use relatively puny sensors, and efforts to bring bigger sensors to the mobile form factor have been impractical , niche , or never really materialized . Xiaomi appears to be the latest company to attempt to capture the elusive concept with its upcoming 12S Ultra flagship. According to a post on Weibo spotted by Android Authority , the phone will include a 1-inch-type sensor co-developed with Sony. That’s about 1.7 times more surface area than the 1/1.33-inch-type sensor in the Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra’s main camera module. It’s also the same size sensor that’s in Sony’s $1300 Cyber-shot RX100 VII that’s more or less the... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/TtEInFe

Photo by Andrew Hawkins / The Verge The chip shortage and supply chain crisis are doing more than just driving up vehicle prices — they’re also affecting quality. JD Power published its Initial Quality Study for 2022 model-year cars this week, in which it found that new vehicle quality has declined 11 percent year over year, the steepest drop ever recorded by the group. Electric vehicle manufacturers in particular are showing big drops in quality, with Polestar ranking dead last. Tesla, meanwhile, ranks seventh from the bottom, continuing its trend of shoddy manufacturing. In this year’s survey, JD Power recorded 226 problems per 100 Tesla vehicles. Combining all non-Tesla EVs, the survey says that 240 problems were reported per 100 EVs, a slight drop from 251 last year... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/DFkPea5

Apple and other retailers are offering awesome promotions to kick off the summer. | Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge Celebrate our nation’s birthday the Verge Deals way, by saving on some fun tech in time for the summer instead of, you know, doomscrolling about the state of everything . The Fourth of July holiday means different things to different people, but regardless, we’re about to take you on a journey to see all the best July Fourth deals on a variety of tech from across the internet. Several retailers are celebrating the summer holiday by offering excellent discounts and promotions on their products. For instance, Belkin is offering a sitewide discount on its charging peripherals, and Apple is already offering a pair of promotions for anyone in the market for a new tablet or laptop. There’s a little something for everyone. It’s also worth noting... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/KarFV8j

Google’s Switch to Android app now supports all Android 12 phones. The free iOS app is designed to make it easy to switch to Android, transferring important data like your iPhone contacts and calendar entries. Google released the app earlier this year , but it was limited to its Pixel devices initially. Support for all Android 12 phones makes this a key app if you’re moving from an iPhone to a new Android device. The Switch to Android app initiates a transfer process by displaying a QR code on the iPhone, which you then scan to start transferring photos, videos, contacts, and calendar events. Data can be transferred wirelessly instead of having to connect two phones with a cable, but the cable option is faster and better suited to... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/KI4no1a

Climeworks announced the groundbreaking of its new Direct Air Capture plant in Iceland, called Mammoth. | Image: Climeworks Swiss climate tech company Climeworks announced yesterday that it has broken ground on its biggest facility yet for capturing carbon dioxide from the air. The new Direct Air Capture (DAC) plant, named Mammoth, will significantly scale up the company’s operations in Hellisheiði, Iceland. That’s where Climeworks built Orca, which was the largest DAC plant in the world when it came online last September. Orca can capture up to 4,000 tons of carbon dioxide a year, roughly equivalent to how much climate pollution 790 gas-guzzling passenger vehicles release annually. Mammoth, in comparison, can capture about nine times as much CO2 as Orca. Mammoth, in comparison, can capture about nine times as much CO2 There are fewer than 20 such plants in... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/wdZTmqf

Photo by Thomas Ricker / The Verge SpaceX emailed Starlink customers today asking for help in its battle against Dish Network over radio frequencies for its Starlink internet-from-space effort. Some Starlink customers received an email urging them to contact the Federal Communications Commission and members of Congress in order to support SpaceX in the ongoing dispute. “Today we ask for your support in ending a lobbying campaign that threatens to make Starlink unusable for you and the vast majority of our American customers,” the email reads in bold. “Today we ask for your support in ending a lobbying campaign that threatens to make Starlink unusable” Currently, SpaceX and Dish are squabbling over a range of radio frequencies known as the 12GHz band. SpaceX uses these... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/6mkZd5T

Sony is at it yet again with repeat restocks. | Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge Yesterday was a pleasant surprise on the PlayStation 5 console restock front. Sony opened up a public queue for PS5 consoles, and unlike many times before, it stayed open and viable for much longer than usual. Now, there’s another one happening right now, and you can queue up without an invite . There’s no guarantee that this one will be as easy to get into as yesterday’s, but if you have not bought a PS5 direct from Sony before, it’s worth a try. Once you get through the wait time, you should be offered up a few different options for PS5 consoles, including the regular disc-equipped system for $499, the Digital Edition for $399 (though that one seems to usually sell out the fastest), and bundle versions with Horizon Forbidden West for... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/QqjEF3c

Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge Waymo will deliver home goods for Wayfair using its fleet of autonomous semi-trailer trucks, the company announced Tuesday. The deliveries will take place as part of a pilot that’s being conducted by Waymo and JB Hunt Transport Services to test out self-driving trucks along certain shipping routes in Texas. One of JB Hunt’s customers is furniture and home goods giant Wayfair, which will begin sending out deliveries using Waymo’s fleet for a six-week test this July and August. a six-week test this July and August The deliveries will take place in Texas, with Waymo’s Class 8 autonomous truck hauling goods along Interstate 45 between facilities in Houston and Dallas, which was the route used by Waymo and JB Hunt during the original pilot... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/gEloShT

Trevor (Finn Wolfhard) in Columbia Pictures’ Ghostbusters: Afterlife | Image: CTMG, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Pandemic delays caused a wider-than-expected gap between our first peek at Ghostbusters: Afterlife and when it actually came to theaters, but Sony is setting up a tighter schedule for the follow-up. After director Jason Reitman and co-writer Gil Kenan confirmed the sequel earlier this month, Sony has added it to the schedule with a planned theatrical release date of December 20th, 2023. When Ghostbusters: Afterlife eventually reached theaters in December 2021, it eventually grossed $200 million worldwide, so a sequel isn’t a big surprise, and the Ghostbuster universe is also expanding with a new animated series for Netflix that Reitman and Kenan are producing. As scheduled, that release date sets it up squarely against a pair of heavy... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/6bUdjmO

Activists including Climate Action Campaign (CAC) gather outside of the Supreme Court to show support for protecting the Clean Air Act. | Photo by Leigh Vogel/Getty Images for NRDC This week, the Supreme Court is expected to decide a major climate case that could determine what tools the federal government can use to cut greenhouse gas emissions. The case, West Virginia v. Environmental Protection Agency , started out years ago as a battle over how much authority the EPA has to force power plants to cut down their pollution — but it’s turned into a bigger fight over how much power federal agencies have to enforce all kinds of regulations. A bigger fight over how much power federal agencies have With the Biden administration’s climate plans relying on drastically slashing CO2 emissions from power plants, the case is being closely watched by environmentalists. The Supreme Court’s decision could come down as soon as... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.

Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge Valve is doubling the number of Steam Decks it ships to customers, the company announced Monday. “Production has picked up, and after today we’ll be shipping more than double the number of Steam Decks every week!” Valve said in a tweet from the official Steam Deck account . And in response to a question from my colleague Sean Hollister, Valve designer Lawrence Yang spelled out the change more clearly : “in previous weeks we were shipping x units / week to customers, starting this week we’ll be shipping 2x units / week.” If you’ve been eagerly refreshing your inbox every Monday and Thursday for the chance to order your Steam Deck reservation, the increased production could be a sign that you might be able to buy your device sooner than you... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/ozIFaO4

The larger Pixel 6 Pro has a 6.7-inch screen and additional rear telephoto camera. | Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales Google’s top-tier flagship phone, the Pixel 6 Pro , is on sale for its lowest price yet. Woot is selling new unlocked Pixel 6 Pro phones for $779.99 for today only . You can choose from all three colors (including Sorta Sunny, the best one) until the end of the day or while supplies last. The only storage capacity on offer is the base 128GB amount, which is a fair amount, especially when you consider that total savings of $120 off the regular $899 asking price from Google and other retailers. We saw the Pixel 6 Pro previously drop by $100 for Father’s Day, but as the saying goes, the late dad gets the deal worm and saves... or something about bad jokes. Whatever, dad, it’s a good deal! If you’ve been waiting on the Pixel 6 Pro, you’re in... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/KC3LiD2

Image: Google Despite being a more affordable counterpart to last year’s flagship, it’s starting to look like the upcoming Pixel 6A might offer a key improvement over the Pixel 6 series: a faster fingerprint sensor. That’s according to Fazli Halim , a Malaysian YouTuber who appears to have gotten his hands on Google’s upcoming device a month ahead of its official launch on July 28th . We spotted the video via 9to5Google . It’s potentially good news after the Pixel 6 series’ fingerprint sensors ended up being a surprising weak point for the devices, and were noticeably slower to authenticate than other phones. “The fingerprint scanner is the only biometric authentication available, and it’s just not very good,” Dan Seifert wrote in our review . A Google... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/kbIeKUO

Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge Apple’s new 13-inch MacBook Pro M2 base model appears to have slower SSD speeds than its M1 predecessor. MacRumors reports that YouTubers Max Tech and Created Tech have both tested the 256GB base M2 model and discovered the SSD’s read speeds are around 50 precent slower than the M1 MacBook Pro with 256GB of storage. Write speeds are reportedly around 30 percent slower. Testing was completed using Blackmagic’s Disk Speed Test app, and Max Tech even disassembled the 13-inch M2 MacBook Pro and found that Apple is only using a single NAND flash storage chip. The M1 MacBook Pro uses two 128GB NAND chips, and multiple chips can enable faster SSD speeds in parallel. Other 13-inch M2 MacBook Pro models with larger SSD storage don’t appear to... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/mYHJtnd

Photo by Chris Welch / The Verge Facebook’s app for smart TVs, which lets users tune into various videos, shows, and livestreams on the platform, may no longer be available on Apple TV, as first reported by 9to5Mac . Some users say they’re no longer able to access the app after its most recent update. In a thread on MacRumors , one user shares an image of the notice they received after attempting to open Facebook Watch on their Apple TV 4K: “The Facebook Watch TV app is no longer available, but you can still find lots of videos on Facebook at www.facebook.com/watch.” Several other users report having the same experience. Facebook rolled out its Watch app on Apple TV in 2017 after first launching it on Samsung smart TVs . The app is also available on various other smart TVs... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/Mk1JbPB

Image: Riot Games Riot Games, the developer behind the free first-person shooter (FPS) Valorant , will start monitoring players’ voice communications on July 13th (via PCGamer ). The game company says it’s to help train the language models that it will eventually use when evaluating player reports across all its games. Riot initially announced this change in April 2021 after making an update to its privacy policy . The new terms give Riot permission to “record and potentially evaluate voice data when using Riot-owned voice comms channels” with the purpose of combatting hate speech and harassment over voice chat. Riot says it will analyze recordings when a player reports someone for abusive or offensive comments. In turn, this should help the company... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/D6ZmeEX

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Apple’s poised to release a slew of new devices between this fall and the beginning of 2023, according to a report from Bloomberg ’s Mark Gurman . What Gurman describes as a “deluge” of products will reportedly include four iPhone 14 devices, a set of new iPads, three Apple Watches, several M2 / M3-upgraded Macs, a pair of refreshed AirPods Pro buds, a new HomePod, and a spec-boosted Apple TV model. Let’s break down these predictions. Although Apple announced two new Macs with its flagship M2 processor at its Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) earlier this month, Gurman expects to find the chip — and its variations — in several other devices. This includes an M2 Mac mini, M2 Pro Mac mini, M2 Pro / M2 Max 14 and 16-inch MacBook Pros,... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/ioy3lZm

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Apple’s mixed reality headset has been shrouded in rumors for months now, and a new report from Bloomberg ’s Mark Gurman indicates that it could come with Apple’s flagship M2 processor . According to Gurman, Apple’s most recent version of the device, which is reportedly capable of delivering augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR) experiences, includes a base M2 chip and 16GB of RAM. This deviates from supply chain analyst Ming-Chi Kuo’s previous prediction that Apple’s headset will have one processor with the capabilities of an M1 chip and an additional lower-end processor dedicated to handling data from the device’s sensors. While Gurman doesn’t mention the purported secondary chip in this report, a multiple chip setup has also... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/CB79S6Z

Check out that wear and tear. | Image: Andrew Webster Back in November 2009, I was getting ready to attend the Montreal International Games Summit, and I panicked — it was my first major event as a member of the press, and I had no way to record an interview. This was a problem because I was scheduled to talk with Yoichi Wada, then president of Square Enix, along with several other notable industry people. So I rushed to Radio Shack and picked the cheapest voice recorder I could find, a little grey rectangle made by RCA that was locked up in a glass display case. I have no idea what model it is, but it went on to follow me through my entire professional career to date — now, nearly 13 years later, it’s finally being retired. I hung on to that gadget for one main reason: I trusted it . The... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/2vjtLp7

Photo by Bryan Bedder/Getty Images for Spritz Society Spotify has a brand new original topping its podcast chart, but it would probably prefer if you didn’t know about it. Last week, Spotify launched a new pop culture show, Breaking Bread , on Spotify Live. Breaking Bread ’s recordings now rank at number 11 on Spotify’s top podcast chart after holding the number two spot for most of the week, putting it just behind Joe Rogan. The show’s popularity — and the reason the company might be staying quiet about its new hit — is due to its two hosts: Jackie Oshry Weinreb and Claudia Oshry (aka Instagram’s girlwithnojob ), who come with a huge built-in audience. While the sisters have delivered their massive fanbase to the app, they have a controversial history that could be problematic for Spotify at... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/89FJ0vI

It isn’t a fantastic TV or monitor, but it’s a good compromise for people who want both in the same package Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/WVsu1BO

It took a while. My review of the M2 MacBook Pro went up last Wednesday. But as soon as I got my hands on the device on the prior Thursday, it was clear that running down the battery — one of the most important things a laptop reviewer needs to do — was going to be a Whole Thing. Reader, I tried. I would use the device all evening and leave it running all night, but it would still have plenty of charge left in the morning, and I’d have to plug it in for testing, abandon it to film, or give it to our video and photo teams for shooting before I could fully drain it down. I did not have a long enough interrupted span of time to continuously use the device. That’s how absurdly long this laptop lasts. But, with the written review and the video review both... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/e2HdQKX

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge A sophisticated spyware campaign is getting the help of internet service providers (ISPs) to trick users into downloading malicious apps, according to research published by Google’s Threat Analysis Group (TAG) (via TechCrunch ). This corroborates earlier findings from security research group Lookout , which has linked the spyware, dubbed Hermit, to Italian spyware vendor RCS Labs. Lookout says RCS Labs is in the same line of work as NSO Group — the infamous surveillance-for-hire company behind the Pegasus spyware — and peddles commercial spyware to various government agencies. Researchers at Lookout believe Hermit has already been deployed by the government of Kazakhstan and Italian authorities. In line with these findings, Google has... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/1blrMwx

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Apple Music has raised the subscription price of its student plan in the US, UK, and Canada, as first reported by 9to5Mac (via TechCrunch ). While it’s increasing the price from $4.99 to $5.99 / month in the US and Canada, student users in the UK can expect a similar jump from £4.99 to £5.99 / month. Apple hasn’t acknowledged the changes yet, but the new pricing information is currently available on Apple Music’s webpage . Students subscribed to Apple Music have also started seeing the price increase on their iPhones and iPads’ subscription pages. It’s unclear when exactly Apple implemented these changes, but, as 9to5Mac points out, it was likely rolled out sometime between June 21st and the 23rd — an archived Apple Music webpage shows the... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/fdDpAKk

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge In the wake of the Supreme Court’s decision on Friday to overturn Roe v. Wade , Google’s chief people officer Fiona Cicconi sent a staff-wide email to employees on Friday informing them of Google’s response to the ruling. Among other things, the email states that Googlers that they can “apply for relocation without justification,” and that people in charge of the relocation process “will be aware of the situation” in assessing their requests. The Supreme Court’s ruling does not make abortion illegal throughout the US — instead, it leaves the decision up to individual states. A number of states have immediately restricted abortion rights , including Louisiana, Missouri and Kentucky. Other states, including California, where Google is... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/vxiI2Dh

T-Mobile knows what apps you’re using. | Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge T-Mobile’s advertising business is offering a new way for marketers to pry into your app-using habits. Ad Exchanger reports that the un-carrier’s new program is called App Insights, and it’s now fully operational after spending a year in beta . The program allows third-party marketers to buy T-Mobile customer data and centers around a key piece of information that it has unique access to: what apps you use. Customer data is anonymized, and it’s pooled together with others of similar interests and behaviors, so companies can’t buy a specific user’s app history. Still, it’s creepy. The company’s advertising segment touts this offering loud and clear on its website , with the phrase “Apps speak louder than words” splashed across the top of... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/OTybqBn

We’re gonna need a bigger desk. | Image: Samsung Samsung is getting ready to release its massive 55-inch curved Odyssey Ark monitor in August, according to a report from Korean outlet ETNews ( via SamMobile ). The monitor, which was announced in January at CES, has reportedly gone through a few certification programs that have to be done before it can go on sale. Details about this monitor are still scant. The company has said that it’ll have a 16:9 4K panel and that the stand will support pivot, tilt, and rotation. It also announced that it would come out in the second half of 2022 (which the reported August window falls squarely in). But let’s be honest, when you show up with a monitor that promises to physically tower over you while you’re using it, people will pay attention even if... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/lqYHBd3

Cyberpunk 2077: Gangs of Night City is a competitive game for up to four players Cyberpunk 2077 is getting a board game courtesy of a Kickstarter campaign . Cyberpunk 2077: Gangs of Night City is a strange twist on the high-tech, low-life underbelly of the world brought to life by CD Projekt Red and Mike Pondsmith. The game is being published by CMON Games, which have put together board game adaptations of God of War and Bloodborne in addition to other existing IPs. If the slang-ridden synopsis of the game provided on its Kickstarter page is any indicator, it’s clear that its creators have some serious reverence for the source material: “Cyberpunk 2077: Gangs of Night City is a competitive game in which 1 to 4 players take on the role of ruthless gangs vying for control of the underground in the glittering hellhole... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/PHZG6nV

Earth.fm homepage For people who love discovering new sounds, there’s an intriguing new site that collects soundscapes from around the world. The site, Earth.fm , bills itself as “Like Spotify, but for natural soundscapes.” You can listen to bird species in Malaysia or India or forest sounds in Ghana . The sounds are gathered from numerous contributors who have experience recording the natural world in places including Brazil, Spain, Norway, New Zealand, and the United Kingdom. The website features sounds from locations like national parks and the everglades. Users can create their own specialized playlists of sounds available on Earth.fm, zipping from Brazil to Egypt in a matter of minutes. You can compile a list of different... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/2V9sNGS

Bitcoin mining units in Fort Stockton, Texas, on Friday, April 29th, 2022. | Jordan Vonderhaar/Bloomberg via Getty Images After taking a nosedive in June, the price of Bitcoin has stayed so low that it’s forcing the blockchain’s massive electricity use to similarly dip. Over the past couple weeks, Bitcoin’s energy consumption has dropped by more than a third, according to estimates of annualized electricity use by digital currency economist Alex de Vries on his website digiconomist.net . Bitcoin’s energy hunger, which has alarmed environmentalists and consumer advocates concerned about pollution and utility prices , comes from the process of mining new tokens. Bitcoin miners earn new tokens by validating transactions through an inherently energy-inefficient process , using specialized machines to solve complex puzzles. All that computing by all those machines... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/9iPd4jg

Solana CEO Anatoly Yakovenko with the Saga smartphone | Photo by Chris Welch / The Verge The phone previously known as the Osom OV1 , built by a team consisting of former engineers and designers from Essential, is being renamed and repurposed today, and it’s all in the name of crypto. This afternoon in New York City, blockchain company Solana announced its own mobile phone, called the Saga, made in collaboration with Osom. It’s priced at $1,000, and preorders open today. A $100 deposit is required, and Solana says the Saga will ship in the first quarter of 2023. The phone will have a 6.67-inch 120Hz OLED display, 512GB of storage, and 12GB of RAM. It’ll be powered by Qualcomm’s latest Snapdragon 8 Plus Gen 1 chip and is outfitted with a 50-megapixel primary camera, plus a 12-megapixel ultra-wide shooter. But more than the... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/3pCTAnU

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge One thing researchers have used to track the spread of viral stories on Facebook — including ones that spread misinformation — is a tool that Meta owns called CrowdTangle. Based on anonymous sources, Bloomberg reports what many have suspected — that Facebook has largely removed development support from CrowdTangle and is making plans to shut the tool down. Removing CrowdTangle would pull access that people like Kevin Roose have used to surface data showing high engagement with right-wing news sources on Facebook, listing results that sometimes appear to be at odds with Facebook’s curated official reports. In an article last July for The New York Times , Roose described internal “data wars” about how much information the company should... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/6zkEMtH

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Netflix is cutting around 300 jobs today as part of a second round of layoffs. The company previously laid off around 150 employees and dozens of contractors in May. The layoffs impact “many different teams” and mostly workers in the US, though international roles are being cut as well, Netflix spokesperson Bao Nguyen said in a statement to The Verge. Variety first reported on the job cuts. “Today we sadly let go of around 300 employees,” Nguyen said. “While we continue to invest significantly in the business, we made these adjustments so that our costs are growing in line with our slower revenue growth.” It’s the latest round of job cuts after Netflix’s rough Q1 earnings report, where it announced that revenue growth was slowing and... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/m6DuPHc

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Amazon has announced that its annual Prime Day sales are scheduled for Tuesday, July 12th, and Wednesday, July 13th, and this year, as always, Amazon will be dropping prices on a lot of its products for its Prime members. In fact, it looks like there’s already some momentum building up to the big two-day event with some early deals . If you’re interested in the goodies being offered but haven’t signed up for Amazon Prime, don’t worry — Amazon makes it very easy. (Not surprisingly — after all, it would be the sorry vendor who would make it difficult for people to become new customers.) If you’re attracted by the goodies being offered but haven’t signed up for Prime, Amazon makes it very easy Besides giving access to Prime Day bargains,... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/CoIewj8

Two consoles, both out to ruin your wallet | Photo by Sean Hollister / The Verge It seems that both Nintendo and Valve are determined to keep me indoors all summer, and that’s fine by me. Both the Nintendo eShop and Steam have kicked off their seasonal sales, discounting a number of excellent titles. While these sales tend to roll around several times a year, this is an ideal time to round out your library with some titles you may have overlooked. The Steam summer sale starts today and runs until July 7th, while the Nintendo eShop Big Ol’ Super Sale lasts until July 6th. To help you find the best deals for both of these platforms, The Verge Deals team has selected some highlights for the Nintendo Switch and PC that you might consider adding to your collection at a discounted price. Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/EAKDR9f

Illustration by Grayson Blackmon / The Verge Omicron boosters might be around the corner Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/ZcXPKCG

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Mark Zuckerberg announced on Wednesday that Facebook Pay has officially become Meta Pay, but his post is mainly focused on what the company hopes to build in the future — “a wallet for the metaverse.” While Meta Pay is essentially the same tool as it was before, just with Meta branding, Zuckerberg says the company is working on something that will let users manage their identities, items, and payment methods while making their way through the digital world that Meta bets will be the future. The company has hinted at these plans before — its May announcement of the Meta Pay rebranded also mentioned that it was “scoping out what a single wallet experience might look like” with regards to making payments and storing your identity and... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/4c2L3o8

Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge For the first few years of Instagram’s existence, it was a pain to hide Stories from people. You had to dig into an individual Story’s settings and select followers to hide it from. Then, if you wanted to let those followers see the next Story, you had to go into that Story’s settings and undo the block. But in 2018, Instagram launched the close friends feature , which makes it much easier to share content with a limited group. Once you’ve created a close friends list, you’ll have the option to share a Story with just that list. If you’re posting content that could be controversial, personal, or NSFW, the option can save you some stress. In case you don’t know how to add folks to your close friends list, we’ll show you how to get... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/yxRU4iY

General Motors is bringing artificial intelligence into the vehicle inspection process. The automaker is making an undisclosed “strategic investment” in Israeli startup UVeye , which makes vehicle diagnostic systems that use sensors and AI to quickly identify damaged parts or maintenance issues. The investment in UVeye was made by GM Ventures, the automaker’s venture fund, which also has investments in a variety of other AI-themed startups . GM will sell UVeye’s technology to its dealer network to upgrade their vehicle inspection systems As part of the collaboration, GM will sell UVeye’s technology to its dealer network to upgrade their vehicle inspection systems. (The company’s systems are already being trialed at a small number of GM... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/qf5B6i3

Image: eBay eBay made its biggest move yet into the world of digital collectibles with news today of the company acquiring NFT marketplace KnownOrigin . The online auction company is keeping lips sealed on the deal’s value but confirmed in the press release that the deal is closed as of June 21st. “This partnership will help us attract a new wave of NFT creators and collectors,” said KnownOrigin co-founder David Moore. KnownOrigin describes itself as “one the world’s first, and largest, NFT Marketplaces,” and it currently ranks No. 12 on all-time trading volume for Ethereum-backed NFTs at $7.8 million, according to DappRadar . Higher ranked, more popular marketplaces include OpenSea (No. 1) with an all-time trading value at $30.43 billion and... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/kUcCjD5

Image: Marvel Studios Though Kamala Khan ’s powers were significantly reworked for the MCU , the latest episode of Disney Plus’ Ms. Marvel series might be setting up a reveal that connects its hero and her abilities to the original Captain Marvel of Marvel’s comic books. Kamala doesn’t initially think all that much of the vintage bangle she receives in a gift package from her grandmother Sana (Samina Ahmad) in Ms. Marvel ’s first episode. But when she actually puts it on, she immediately realizes that there’s much more to the heirloom than meets the eye. In addition to transporting Kamala (at least mentally) to another plane bathed in neon light, the bangle unlocks her power to generate glowing constructs made out of an unidentified energy that comes from within... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/jkQi2pn

Epic’s ratings system will use a five-point scale. | Image: Epic Games Epic Games has finally introduced a ratings system to its online store, and it’s designed in a way that’s intended to prevent waves of negative user reviews from happening all at once, a practice more commonly known as review bombing. Instead of allowing anyone to review a game they own, random players who have played a game for more than two hours will be asked to review it on a five-star scale, according to a blog post by Epic’s Craig Pearson . Those scores will then be collected to create the “Overall Rating” for each game. Occasionally, review-bomb campaigns can point out legitimately harmful consumer practices , but they’re often used in bad faith to protest a creator taking a political stance or if the media in question features... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/rfvl8Vb

More or less confirmation that an AR headset is coming. | Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Tim Cook teased that Apple’s working on an augmented reality, or AR, product in an interview with state-run outlet China Daily , telling AR fans to “stay tuned and you will see what we have to offer.” It reads as a direct hint that the company is working on some sort of headset, which has been rumored for years — unless, of course, he thinks people will actually be excited about using ARKit apps on their phones. In the clip, brought to our attention by 9to5Mac , the interviewer asks Cook what he thinks the key factors are for an AR product to be successful. Cook responds by saying that he “couldn’t be more excited” about AR, despite it being “in the very early innings” of its evolution. In this @ChinaDailyUSA interview, @tim_cook was... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/OazZEsb

Sony’s WH-1000XM5 headphones have an all-new design. | 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/3iORDJ9

The efforts are currently focused on old Priuses | Photo by Toyota/Getty Images Toyota is partnering with Redwood Materials, a battery recycling company helmed by Tesla co-founder JB Straubel , to collect and recycle vehicle batteries. The plan is to take old, worn-out batteries and either refurbish them or break them down so their materials can be used to create new batteries. Redwood specifically plans on producing materials for anodes and cathodes — two major components of a battery cell. The company’s ultimate goal is to create a “closed-loop supply chain for electric vehicles,” meaning that it takes batteries from old EVs and turns them into batteries for new cars. Decades-old Priuses could end up at Redwood’s facility in Nevada While Toyota is currently launching its first long-range battery-electric vehicle ,... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://www.theverge.com/2022/6/21/23177039/toyota-redwood-materials-ev-battery-recycling-partnership-prius

Image: Paramount Paramount “plans to commission” 150 international originals for its Paramount Plus streaming service by 2025, according to a press release . The company revealed details about seven of the originals on Tuesday, including content from Germany, Italy, France, and Mexico. With this major investment, Paramount is likely aiming to see the kind of traction other platforms have gotten from their own international originals. Netflix’s Squid Game is perhaps the most successful, becoming the streaming service’s biggest-ever series at launch , but its French thriller Lupin has been a hit as well . If you’re an Apple TV Plus subscriber, I’d highly recommend Pachinko , a drama about a Korean immigrant family that Apple recently renewed for a second... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://www.theverge.com/2022/6/21/23176984/paramount-plus-150-international-originals

Photography by Monica Chin / The Verge The best cheap laptops under $800 from HP, Lenovo, and more. Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/lrLYtxM

NASA’s Space Launch System on its launchpad at KSC | Photo by Loren Grush / The Verge After three previous aborted attempts, NASA successfully fueled its new massive deep-space rocket, the Space Launch System, for the first time on Monday — completing a critical milestone ahead of the vehicle’s first flight. However, there was a shadow over the achievement. The fueling was part of an elaborate dress rehearsal that ended 20 seconds earlier than NASA had planned, and it’s unclear if the agency got all the data and practice it needed to proceed with the rocket’s debut launch. The Space Launch System, or SLS, is a key piece of NASA’s flagship Artemis program — an elaborate effort to send the first woman and the first person of color to the surface of the Moon. But first, SLS needs to actually fly, and before that can happen, N... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/tLZG3bi

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Some social platforms limit the number of times you can change your username, while others don’t let you do it at all. Instagram is a username free-for-all; you can alter your Instagram handle whenever you want, as many times as you want — within certain limits. There’s a difference between your username and your display name. The display name is on your profile below your avatar. It doesn’t need to be unique to you, and it can contain emoji and special characters. (And yes, it can also be changed — up to two times within 14 days.) Your username, on the other hand, appears at the top of your profile and at the end of your profile’s URL. It needs to be unique to you. It’s also subject to more restrictions: it can’t be longer than 30... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/A4UqEST

Photo by Sean O’Kane / The Verge Two former Tesla employees have filed a lawsuit claiming the company violated federal law for failing to provide 60 days’ notice for a mass layoff. The lawsuit, which was filed on Sunday, follows the news that Tesla plans on laying off hourly workers, after Tesla CEO Elon Musk initially stated that the hourly workers were likely to be unaffected by the layoffs. The lawsuit was filed by John Lynch and Daxton Hartsfield, both of whom worked at Tesla’s Gigafactory in Sparks, Nevada, when the layoffs began in early June. The two former employees allege they were among “more than 500” Gigafactory employees who were terminated. The two former employees allege they were among “more than 500” Gigafactory employees who were terminated According... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/Yw2mA9K

A screenshot of Downdetector showing problems across numerous services. | Screenshot: Downdetector.com Cloudflare is currently experiencing an outage, according to its status page . Cloudflare’s technology powers numerous other sites and services across the internet, and the outage appears to be affecting a range of different sites, including Discord, Shopify, Grindr, Fitbit, and Peleton, according to Downdetector . The problems appear to have started at around 2:30AM ET. As of 3:20AM ET Cloudflare reports that “a fix is being implemented.” The issues are most problematic if you’re a user of Cloudflare’s own DNS lookup service . Multiple Verge staff members found they were unable to access any websites at all during the outage as a result of using Cloudflare’s 1.1.1.1 DNS service. Thankfully, the fix here is simple: change your DNS... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/UhFYv5j