extremetechlove: September 2020

Wednesday 30 September 2020

Google says the Pixel’s Soli radar and Motion Sense will return

Image: Google

Google’s $799 Pixel 4 had built-in radar. The new $699 Pixel 5 does not — it ditches the sensor-laden forehead of its predecessor entirely in favor of thinner bezels and a hole-punch camera, like the $349 Pixel 4a before it. The result is more screen, but Google’s “Motion Sense” gestures and its answer to Apple’s Face ID are totally gone.

But Google hardware boss Rick Osterloh tells The Verge that the Project Soli radar and gestures will return. “They’ll be used in the future,” he says. They were just too expensive for the phone that Google wanted to build this time.

(He didn’t say whether they’d appear in a new phone, specifically; a recent FCC filing suggests they might come to a new Nest thermostat as well.)

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The just-announced Pixel 5 has somehow already been unboxed

The Pixel 5, Google’s latest Android flagship, was just announced today, and someone on YouTube has already posted an unboxing video of the new device ahead of its release (via 9to5Google).

What’s in the box is fairly standard — there’s the phone itself, as well as a charger, a USB-C to USB-C cable, and a USB-C to USB-A converter. The YouTube user who has the phone, who goes by the name Sergiu, does power it on, giving us a look at the phone’s 6-inch 2340 x 1080 OLED screen and 8-megapixel hole-punch selfie camera. Sergiu doesn’t use the phone all that much in the video, though, sticking mostly to the phone’s home screen.

Sergiu also zooms in on back of the Pixel 5, showing the phone’s aluminum back, fingerprint sensor, and square...

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Teenage Engineering’s new OB-4 is a radio, instrument, and speaker all in one

Image: Teenage Engineering

The synth wizards at Swedish electronics maker Teenage Engineering just introduced perhaps their most perplexing and intriguing product yet: a rewindable radio and speaker system called the OB-4. The device, which is available now in black or red for $599, is as sleek and well-designed as the company’s standard synth products, but it packs a whole lot of interesting tech under the hood.

The core feature of the OB-4 is its manual rewind dial paired with an integrated motor, which the company says will let you rewind back to anything you’ve listened to in the past two hours on a rolling basis — whether it was live radio, a Spotify playlist played via Bluetooth, or even an instrument plugged in, like one of Teenage Engineering’s synths....

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Google’s Pixel 5 and Chromecast event: all of the latest news

The Google Pixel 4A has a rear-mounted fingerprint sensor.

Keep up with all of the announcements and analysis

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For Your Own Kids, Recreate the 'Feelings Chart' From Your Childhood

We’ve all got a lot of big feelings right now, what with *gestures around.* It can be challenging for even the most self-aware among us to pinpoint how we’re feeling from moment to moment. It’s even harder for our kids, who are still learning to put words to all their big feelings.

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How to Stream Google Stadia on iOS/iPadOS

In a perfect world, we could download apps from a centralized, secure app store on our phones, and these apps would allow us to connect to other services we enjoy without any extra hassle. In the real world, you’re going to have to employ some clever workarounds if you want to get game streaming to work on the…

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How to sign up for Amazon Prime

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

This year, Amazon’s Prime Day sales will be coming on October 13th and 14th — three months later than usual, due to the coronavirus pandemic. (And yes, Prime Day is actually two days.) If you’re attracted by the goodies being offered, but you haven’t signed up for Amazon Prime, don’t worry — Amazon makes it very easy. (As you’d expect, it’s the sorry vendor who makes it difficult for people to become new customers.)

Besides giving access to Prime Day bargains, Amazon has come up with a bunch of features to entice people to sign up to its Prime service. These include: access to Prime Video, its streaming video service; free and faster shipping on purchases (with two-day delivery for many items and even same-day delivery for some); deals...

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Xiaomi’s Mi 10T Pro has a 144Hz screen and a 5,000mAh battery

Xiaomi has announced the Mi 10T Pro, its latest flagship phone. The device follows the strategy seen last year, where the sleek Mi 9 was followed by a largely unrelated Mi 9T Pro with a heavier emphasis on specs. The Mi 9T Pro was one of the best phone bargains of 2019 in markets where it was available, so expectations should be high for the 10T Pro.

The two standout specs on the Mi 10T Pro are its screen and its battery. It uses a 6.67-inch 1080p 20:9 LCD with a refresh rate of 144Hz. That refresh rate is what you’d expect from a high-end gaming monitor, and until now it’s mostly only been found on gaming-focused smartphones, making this the most mainstream phone yet to achieve it. Because the screen uses an LCD panel, though, the...

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Marshall adds Qi wireless charging to its latest headphones

Image: Zound Industries

Zound Industries has announced its latest pair of Marshall-branded headphones, the Major IV. Like previous Marshall headphones, the Major IVs have a formidable battery life, which extends up to 80 hours on a single charge this time around. When it comes time to recharge, you can either plug in a typical USB-C cable or charge them wirelessly using a Qi-compatible charger.

We’ve seen numerous true wireless headphones embrace wireless charging over the last couple of years, but the feature is far less common with on-ear headphones like the Major IV. As well as wirelessly charging the headphones at home, the technology means you’ll also be able to charge them using any smartphones that support reverse wireless charging like the Samsung...

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Waffle Yourself a Cheese Blintz

Sweet cheese blintzes are the stars of the stuffed pancake pantheon, but they are, if not difficult, at least somewhat tedious to make and fill. And while I will always choose a homemade blintz over a store-bought frozen one, the less precious nature of frozen grocery store blintzes makes them ideal candidates for…

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Facebook launches cross-platform messaging on Instagram and Messenger

Facebook has taken its biggest step yet in integrating its various messaging platforms, allowing select users on Messenger and Instagram to message one another app to app. In addition to the launch of cross-platform messaging, Instagram is also getting a major overhaul of its DM system, which will be expanded with features taken from Messenger.

New Instagram messaging tools include vanishing messages, selfie stickers, custom emoji, chat colors, new ways to block unwanted messages, and the introduction of Messenger’s Watch Together feature, which lets you watch videos with friends during a video call.

Users will be able to reject the update if they choose, but Facebook will no...

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Fat Bear Week is the matchup 2020 needs

Brown Bear, Ursos arctos, relaxing near creek Katmai, Alaska. | Photo by: David Tipling/Universal Images Group via Getty Images

Sometimes, we need to appreciate the really big things in life — like the fact that even in 2020, Fat Bear Week has arrived right on schedule. The annual tournament kicks off today with head-to-head matchups continuing until October 6th. Anyone with an internet connection can tune into Katmai National Park’s live Bearcam to watch the behemoths binge on salmon, and viewers can vote each day for their favorite big beasts.

Image: Katmai National Park and Preserve

The Fat Bear Week 2020 bracket

Fat bears are healthy bears. So Katmai National Park and Preserve started the tradition six years ago to celebrate its bears, who are likely among the fattest (and healthiest) of their species in the world. The Brooks...

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Asus ZenBook 14 UX425EA review: a standard step ahead

The battle between Intel and AMD continues

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How to Host Virtual Disney+ Viewing Parties With 'GroupWatch'

Disney+ just launched its GroupWatch feature for US customers, which lets up to seven people watch the same Disney+ show or movie together remotely and complete in sync. Plenty of other streaming apps and media companies offer similar watch party features, but Disney+’s GroupWatch is more streamlined—and more…

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Lynk & Co’s compact SUV costs €500 a month but might earn you a profit

Image: Lynk & Co

Car company Lynk & Co has finally revealed the details of its hybrid ownership model, which lets people subscribe to its Lynk & Co 01 compact SUV for €500 per month, with the option of renting the vehicle to other Lynk & Co members to begin earning that fee back.

At a launch event today, the company said customers could even make a profit on their €500 a month subscription if they’re able to rent out their vehicle with enough frequency. The first Lynk & Co memberships will be offered in Amsterdam from the end of October with the opening of its debut Lynk & Co club location. The company envisions opening up “clubs,” not dealerships, in major European cities where members can hang out with local artists, DJs, and chefs, for example, or be...

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Google’s Pixel 5 event: how to watch today’s live stream

WinFuture

Google isn’t known for keeping secrets, especially about the phones they plan to introduce. In the case of Google’s upcoming Launch Night In event, we’re looking forward to two new Pixel phones: the Pixel 5 and the Pixel 4A 5G. But who knows? It’s possible that Google may be keeping some surprises up its corporate sleeve.

There have, of course, been the usual leaks. For the 5.8-inch Pixel 4A 5G, the follow-up to Google’s popular mid-priced Pixel 4A, there is talk about a Snapdragon 765G processor, a dual-camera system with a 12.2MP main lens and a 16MP ultrawide lens, and an 8MP front camera — all similar to what is being said about the Pixel 5. The latter will (possibly) add wireless charging, more RAM, and a higher IP rating among...

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The Google Pixel couldn’t win at the high end, but the midrange isn’t any easier

Image: OnLeaks/PriceBaba

Today, Google will announce the Pixel 5 and 4A 5G. Well, not so much “announce” as launch, since the company already told us these phones were coming when it announced the Pixel 4A in early August. We know what to expect because these phones have leaked every which way but Sunday. And Google has already told us what the Pixel 4A 5G will cost, too: $499.

About the only thing that isn’t widely confirmed as of this writing (late last night) is the pricing for the Pixel 5. There are strong rumors that it will clock in at $699, which lines up with the big takeaway I expect to come away with today. That would be this: Google is retrenching into the midrange this year instead of directly trying to compete with the flagships from Apple and...

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Samsung’s Premiere 4K laser projector now available, starting at $3,499

The Premiere promises a big screen even when placed right up against a wall. | Image: Samsung

The Premiere, a 4K laser projector from Samsung that’s designed as an alternative to its high-end QLED TVs, is now available to order. There are two models: the $3,499 LSP7T which gives you up to an 120-inch projection, and the $6,499 LSP9T which goes up to 130-inches. Samsung describes both as “ultra short throw” projectors, meaning you get massive projection sizes even when the unit is placed directly in front of your wall or screen.

Maximum projection sizes aren’t the only thing separating the two projectors. The LSP9T is brighter at 2,800 ANSI lumens, compared to 2,200 ANSI lumens for the cheaper model. This obviously means it provides a brighter image, but it also means its image should be clearer when there’s more ambient light in...

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Why Coinbase will struggle to ban politics from the workplace

Illustration by William Joel / The Verge

Programming note: There’s a presidential debate tonight! Here’s how to watch it online. And here’s Politico’s handy “pre-bunk” of 10 lies you’re likely to hear at the debate.

If there is a manager in your life, there is a good chance that they are miserable right now.

They are miserable for the reasons everyone is miserable: the pandemic; quarantine; the challenges of working from home while raising children; the steady erosion of American democracy. But unlike us working stiffs, managers are miserable for another reason: their employees are miserable, too — and worse, they expect the managers to do something about it.

In July I wrote about how a surge of employee activism inside tech companies was beginning to remake the relationship...

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Amazon starts offering virtual classes and sightseeing tours via new Explore platform

Image: Amazon

Amazon has launched Explore, a new platform which it promises will let you “explore anything from lessons to landmarks.” It works via a video stream, with tour guides, instructors, and personal shoppers providing one-on-one sessions. Amazon says the video is one-way, meaning only the host is on camera during the virtual experience, but the audio is two-way so you can ask questions and make requests.

The Explore page provides an idea of the range of experiences on offer. These include relatively cheap sessions like a $10, 40-minute virtual shopping experience in Ridgeland, USA, to a 45-minute virtual tour of a mansion in Lima, Peru for $70, or a $129 bagel cooking class. In some cases Amazon lists ingredients and supplies to buy before a...

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Tuesday 29 September 2020

911 outages have become a fact of life — are we even fixing this?

In 2014, after what we described as “frequent failures,” a previous administration’s FCC attempted to change how the United States’ emergency 911 system works, including making it clear who’s responsible when multiple states inexplicably lose the ability to dial 911 at once.

Some of that accountability might have come in handy this week — because we still don’t know what caused yesterday’s 911 outage. And it’s not clear anything would change even if we knew.

Yesterday, 911 services reportedly disappeared in at least 14 states nationwide, some for as long as an hour and a half. Police departments and public safety agencies across the country had to hand out alternative numbers to call — and in some cases, warn residents not to dial 911...

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Apple outage affects App Store, Apple Music, Apple TV Plus, iCloud, Photos and more

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

Many Apple services were hit by outages Tuesday evening, including the App Store, Apple Music, Apple TV Plus, and Apple Arcade, according to Apple’s system status page. For all of the affected services, Apple vaguely says that “some users are affected.” However, as we were writing this article, some of the services were upgraded from being affected by an “issue” to having a full-on “outage.”

Here is the full list of affected services:

Find My
Game Center
iCloud Account & Sign In
iCloud Backup
iCloud Calendar
iCloud Contacts
iCloud Mail
iCloud Web Apps (iCloud.com)
iWork for iCloud
Photos
Apple Arcade
Apple Music
Apple Music radio
Apple TV Plus
Radio
App Store
Apple Books

Apple didn’t immediately reply to a request for comment.

Apple...

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Twitter’s voice tweets are rolling out to more iOS users, and transcriptions are on the way

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

Twitter has just expanded its voice tweets feature, which lets you record a snippet of audio to include with a tweet, to more users on iOS. But perhaps more significantly, Twitter is now saying it plans to add transcriptions to voice tweets to improve accessibility, which could help address criticisms from the feature’s June 17th launch.

If you want to get an idea of how voice tweets work right now, just press play on the below tweet to hear a voice clip from my colleague Tom Warren. There’s currently no way to see captions or a transcription of what he’s saying. (Note: Tom is not actually sharing exclusive next-gen console news.)

Twitter just launched voice tweets. Here’s some exclusive next-gen console news p...

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Cyberpunk 2077 dev breaks promise, will force employees to work six days a week

Image: CD Projekt Red

Cyberpunk 2077 developer CD Projekt Red has told employees that six-day workweeks will be mandatory ahead of the game’s November 19th release date, even though the studio has repeatedly and explicitly promised it would never do that, Bloomberg reports.

On two separate occasions in 2019, studio co-founder Marcin Iwiński told game journalist Jason Schreier how it would address crunch, once even saying that “we want to be more humane and treat people with respect.” It seemed pretty clear from excerpts like this that mandatory crunch was not going to be part of it!

Jason: If I’m a designer at CD Projekt Red and I say you know what I have kids, I have a family, I’m going to work from 10am to 6pm every day, and that’s it. Even until the...

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The Verdict Is In: These Are the Best Non-Stick Pans You Can Buy Online, According to the Experts

Featured Product: Circulon Radiance Non-Stick Frying Pan

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Xbox Game Pass is getting EA Play games on November 10th

Xbox Game Pass Ultimate subscribers will get access to EA Play just in time for Microsoft’s next-gen console launch. EA Play is arriving on Xbox Game Pass Ultimate on November 10th, the same day that Microsoft launches both the Xbox Series X and Xbox Series S consoles. Only Xbox Game Pass Ultimate subscribers ($14.99 per month) will get access to EA Play, alongside the xCloud and bundled Xbox Live Gold benefits.

EA Play will include access to more than 60 additional EA games, including The Sims, FIFA, Mass Effect, and many more. EA Play is similar to Game Pass but exclusive to EA’s games. Xbox Game Pass Ultimate subscribers will also be able to download and play games from EA Play on Windows 10 PCs in December, boosting the collection of...

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Get Access to the 'Call of Duty Black Ops: Cold War' Beta If You're a Comcast Subscriber

Nobody actually likes their internet service provider, particularly because we rarely have much choice in the matter. But if you rely on Comcast for your high-speed internet, at least it can now earn you a free pass to the new Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War beta.

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Playing 13 Sentinels on PS4 is like binge-watching an amazing, ambitious sci-fi drama

13 Sentinels: Aegis Rim has all of the necessary elements for the most confusing science fiction story imaginable. There’s time travel, lost memories, prophetic dreams, android doppelgängers, and a cast of more than a dozen characters each with their own perspective on events that span hundreds of years. It took me around 10 hours before I even had a slight grip on what was happening in its century-spanning mech vs. kaiju story. Yet despite this — or maybe because of it — I’ve been hooked. The narrative is so complex and filled with so many important revelations, that I found it hard to pull myself away. Playing 13 Sentinels is a bit like binge-watching an amazing sci-fi drama — except one where you have a huge amount of control over how...

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Pokémon Sword and Shield expansion, The Crown Tundra, launches October 22nd

The second Pokémon Sword and Shield expansion, The Crown Tundra, is coming to Nintendo Switch on October 22nd. Game Freak announced the news today during a Nintendo Direct.

The Crown Tundra takes players to a snowy new location in-game and introduces additional story content. The expansion will also allow players to capture every Legendary pokémon that has appeared in past games, as well as the opportunity to team up with trainers they’ve previously met. Players will also be able to snag special Pikachu with decorative hats with passwords, the first of which is available with the password “P1KACHUGET.”

Game Freak announced expansions for Sword and Shield, which launched for Nintendo Switch in 2019, earlier this year. The first...

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What to expect from Google’s Pixel 5 event

Image: Google

Fall hardware season is in full swing, and tomorrow, Google will be showing off some new products at its “Launch Night In” event. The company has already officially announced some of what we’ll see: Google will be telling us more about new Pixel smartphones (the Pixel 5 and Pixel 4A 5G), as well as a new Chromecast and a new Nest smart speaker.

We already know a lot about each one of those products, partly because of the the typical pre-event leaks, rumors, and renders — and partly because people have already bought some of these unannounced products off store shelves. (That includes The Verge; we bought the new Chromecast at Home Depot on Monday.)

We’ve collected what we know in this post. And you can follow The Verge for the actual...

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Disney Plus is rolling out GroupWatch feature to all US subscribers

Disney Plus is rolling out its party watch feature, GroupWatch, to subscribers in the US after previous testing in other countries this month.

Similar to Amazon Prime Video’s watch party function, GroupWatch allows a certain number of Disney Plus subscribers to host a private viewing party with friends and family members. GroupWatch will allow up to seven people with Disney Plus subscriptions to watch a title at once, according to the company. The feature, which The Verge previously reported was being tested in Canada, will be available for web, mobile, smart TVs, and connected TV devices like Roku and Amazon Fire TV users.

In an effort to make it as interactive as possible, GroupWatch will also give members the ability to react to...

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Origin EVO15-S (2020) review: a customizable 4K machine

Refined, but not quite enough

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Fry Your Eggs in Too Much Butter

Some might say there is no such thing as “too much butter,” and if they did say that, they would be correct. But thanks to the fat-phobic society we live in, “too much butter” exists as a concept, causing even the most diehard butter fans to, at some point, wonder “is that too much?” after adding a glob of butter to a…

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Take Advantage of These National Coffee Day Deals

For those of us who rely on the power of coffee to get us through our day, it’s something we celebrate year-round. But today is officially National Coffee Day, which means there are freebies and deals to be had on various forms of the beloved beverage. Here is a selection of what’s available:

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Amazon’s $4.99-a-month personal shopper service is now available for men

A seven-day try-on period and free returns. | Image: Amazon

Amazon is expanding its personal shopping service to cover men’s fashion. For $4.99 a month, Amazon Prime members can be sent monthly packs of personalized clothes that match their style and budget based on an introductory survey. They can choose eight items to be shipped to their home for free, with a seven-day try-on period and free returns.

The service, dubbed Personal Shopper by Prime Wardrobe, originally launched for women’s fashion in July last year. It’s Amazon’s answer to Stitch Fix, one of the leaders in online personal shopping. Rather than a monthly subscription, Stitch Fix charges a $20 “styling fee” whenever users request a new package of clothing (the frequency of which depends on the customer). This $20 payment is then...

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Biden for Florida to activate thousands of volunteers for the debate

On Tuesday, Biden for President’s Florida Digital Organizing team will be activating thousands of supporters and volunteers ahead of the first presidential debate. The team will be hosting virtual livestreams and reaching out to voters on Twitter through their specialized social canvassing app, part of a specialized digital effort to organize in one of the most important battleground states this election.

In recent months, the Biden campaign’s Florida Digital Organizing team has been rallying voters online amid the coronavirus pandemic, building the largest grassroots digital team in the country with over 900 volunteers, in order to win the hotly contested battleground state this year. There are more than 37,000 users in the Florida...

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TCL’s range of affordable ‘Roku TV Ready’ soundbars start at $79

The Alto 9 Plus includes a dedicated subwoofer. | Image: TCL

TCL has unveiled its latest Alto soundbars, which offer an affordable way of boosting a TV’s built-in sound. With the exception of the $59 Alto 3, all of the soundbars are certified as being “Roku TV Ready.” This means they should integrate seamlessly with TVs running Roku’s TV OS, allowing you to control and tune them with your TV’s remote. TCL’s Roku TV Ready soundbars range in price from $79 to $299.

At the top of the lineup is the Alto 9 Plus, which was first announced back at CES 2020. It’s equipped with Dolby’s Atmos, which adds height to the surround sound experience. However, rather than doing this with traditional upward-firing speakers, TCL says it’s using “virtual height channels” to create the impression of overhead sound,...

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Epic’s decision to bypass Apple’s App Store policies were dishonest, says US judge

Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales

A US judge hearing arguments in Epic’s antitrust lawsuit against Apple has criticized the game developer’s decision to breach its contract with the iPhone maker by pushing a version of Fortnite with a custom payment system onto the App Store. The decision resulted in Apple removing Fortnite from the App Store.

During a hearing on Monday with both companies, Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers of the United States District Court for the Northern District of California expressed skepticism about Epic’s arguments, particularly its claim that it did not pose a security threat to Apple because it is a well-established company and partner.

“You did something, you lied about it by omission, by not being forthcoming. That’s the security issue. That’s...

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The world’s first foldable PC is now available to order from Lenovo

Lenovo

Lenovo has announced a ThinkPad like no ThinkPad you’ve ever seen before: the ThinkPad X1 Fold. Think Samsung’s Galaxy Fold, but a 13-inch OLED laptop screen. It’s available for preorder now, starting at $2,499.

The idea is that you can use the Fold like a large tablet when it’s fully unfolded (or divide the screen into two adjacent displays). You can prop the Fold up horizontally to use it like a full 13-inch notebook, with an optional detachable keyboard and easel stand. You can fold the thing up 90 degrees, turn it vertically, and use it like a miniature laptop (a touchscreen keyboard pops up on the bottom half). You can turn it horizontally and use it like a book, with an optional stylus. Or you can fold the whole thing up, and...

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How a fake “Real Oversight Board” is putting pressure on Facebook

Illustration by James Bareham / The Verge

Today let’s talk about Facebook’s Oversight Board, the “real” Oversight Board, and what it means for the 2020 election.

Last week I wrote about how Facebook’s vast size and monarchic corporate structure had contributed to a steady stream of controversies all summer. When every decision on which posts to remove comes down to the judgment of one person, that person will be subject to enormous pressure to take one side or another. Facebook’s proposed solution to this is the Oversight Board, an independent group that will serve as a kind of Supreme Court for content moderation.

When it’s up and running, the board will hear appeals from users who believe their posts have been removed in error, and will either uphold Facebook’s original call...

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Running Stadia on iOS gets a lot easier with Stadium workaround

Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge

A new browser app which you can download directly from the App Store provides a relatively simple way to play Google Stadia on iPhones and iPads, Engadget reports. Apple’s rules currently mean that game streaming services like Stadia, xCloud, and GeForce Now are not yet officially available on iOS or iPadOS.

The app, Stadium, isn’t the first workaround that’s managed to get Stadia running on Apple’s mobile devices, but it makes the whole process a lot simpler. Its developer, u/zmknox, outlines how the process works in a Reddit post here. It’s as easy as downloading the app, entering a few details, and logging into your Google account. Other Reddit users have previously reported being able to use existing browsers to achieve the same...

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Polaris and Zero Motorcycles are teaming up to make electric off-road vehicles and snowmobiles

CANADA-TORONTO-INTERNATIONAL SNOWMOBILE ATV & POWERSPORTS SHOW

Xinhua/Zou Zheng via Getty Images

Minnesota-based power sports outfit Polaris is teaming up with Zero Motorcycles to co-develop electric vehicles, including ATVs and snowmobiles. The two companies have signed an “exclusive, 10-year agreement,” which Polaris said will help kick off an effort to have an electric version of every vehicle type the company offers by 2025.

Polaris makes a variety of off-road vehicles, including the popular RZR lineup as well as garish three-wheelers like the Slingshot. It also owns Indian Motorcycle, which it acquired in 2011. California-based Zero, which was founded in 2006, currently has nine electric motorcycles in its product lineup, including the recently released SR/S. Both companies hope to seize upon what they think has been an...

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Amazon One lets you pay with your palm

Amazon One reader. | Amazon

Amazon is unveiling its own palm recognition technology today that will be used initially to turn your hand into a personal credit card inside the company’s physical retail stores. Amazon One uses the palm of your hand to identify you, using a combination of surface-area details like lines and ridges, alongside vein patterns to create a “palm signature.”

At first, this palm signature will be used in Amazon’s own Go stores in Seattle, and the company also plans to add Amazon One to other Amazon stores in the coming months. Amazon One usage will eventually extend beyond just palm-based payments. “We believe Amazon One has broad applicability beyond our retail stores, so we also plan to offer the service to third parties like retailers,...

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Xiaomi’s new India products include a speaker, a soap dispenser, and shoes

Xiaomi has announced a wide range of new products for India under the tagline “smarter living,” further pushing the devices in its ecosystem beyond smartphones. Some of them have already gone on sale in China in altered form, but they’re all new for India.

First up is the Mi Watch Revolve, which looks very similar to a product sold in China as the Mi Watch Color, which was itself almost identical to the Amazfit GTR. The Revolve has a 1.39-inch round OLED screen with 326 ppi, and Xiaomi is claiming up to a week’s battery life.

It’s not clear what software the Revolve is running, but in screenshots it looks similar to what ships on Amazfit watches like the T-rex, and it certainly isn’t Wear OS. Amazfit is part of Xiaomi’s ecosystem, so...

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Monday 28 September 2020

Adobe Lightroom is getting cinema-style color grading

Adobe is adding a new advanced color grading feature to Lightroom, Lightroom Classic, and Camera Raw, bringing a tool more commonly associated with cinema editing to its pro photography apps.

Lightroom will now have a new color grading panel similar to the Lumetri panel from Adobe’s Premiere Pro video editor, letting you separate out midtones from shadows and highlights with a new three-wheel system. There’s also a global luminance wheel and a blending slider.

Adobe hasn’t said when the new color grading features will be available, but in the video above, Pei Ketron from Adobe’s Lightroom team says there’ll be more information at the company’s virtual Adobe Max conference beginning October 20th.

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Snag a Laptop, Desktop, or Printer on the Cheap in the HP Days Sale

Featured Deal: HP Days Sale

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Microsoft Outlook, Office 365, Teams, and more are experiencing an outage

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

Some Microsoft services, including Outlook, Office 365, and Microsoft Teams, are currently experiencing an outage, according to Microsoft’s Office status page. “Users may be unable to access multiple Microsoft 365 services,” a notice on the page reads.

The company first acknowledged issues at 5:44PM ET via the Microsoft 365 Status Twitter account, and said it had rolled back a change thought to be the cause of the issue at 6:36PM ET. But just 13 minutes later, the company tweeted again to say that it was “not observing an increase in successful connections after rolling back a recent change.”

We're not observing an increase in successful connections after rolling back a recent change. We're working to evaluate additional mitigation...

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Google Meet’s noise cancelation feature is rolling out on iOS and Android

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

Google is rolling out its impressive noise cancelation in Google Meet to Android and iOS, but unfortunately, it won’t be available to everybody — you have to be a G Suite Enterprise or G Suite Enterprise for Education customer to take advantage of the handy feature, Google says. Google rolled this out first for the web in June.

The technology is designed to dampen background noise like a keyboard or a barking dog while you’re on a Google Meet call. If you want to get an idea of how effective it can be, check out this VentureBeat video from June of Serge Lachapelle, a G Suite director of product management, demonstrating how the noise cancelation technology quiets a crinkling bag of snacks, a clicking pen, and a clinking glass (skip to...

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Google says Android 12 will make using third-party app stores easier

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

Google is outlining new changes to its developer policies and promising to make using third-party app stores easier on Android 12. The announcement addresses recent concerns around Android app development, including a fight over alternate in-app payment systems and difficulties for businesses moving online because of COVID-19.

Android users can already install apps through third-party stores like Samsung’s Galaxy Store. Google says that in response to developer feedback, it’s adding features to next year’s Android 12 release that will “make it even easier for people to use other app stores on their devices while being careful not to compromise the safety measures Android has in place.” It will release more details on these changes in the...

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How to Transform Your Life Through Leisure, With Writers John Fitch and Max Frenzel

This week, we’re learning how taking breaks and time off from work can actually help us improve both our creativity and productivity. Writers John Fitch and Max Frenzel speak with us about how to develop what they call a quality“rest ethic,” why strategic breaks and time off are necessary for creativity and…

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Choose a 'Benchmark Dish' to Evaluate New Restaurants

When dining out or ordering in, I rarely order the same dish every time. There’s a whole menu to enjoy, and I consider myself a flavor explorer. But, when trying a new establishment, I’ll often get something I’ve had many times, at other, similar establishments. I call these “benchmark dishes,” and they’re very…

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Don't Let Your Friends Get Suckered by This iPhone 12 Scam

No, you’re not getting an iPhone 12, not now, and certainly not for free. As of this writing, there is no iPhone 12—it only exists in the realm of rumor and fantasy until Apple actually announces the thing—but that hasn’t stopped scammers from using it as a lure to draw in unsuspecting victims.

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