I try not to move if I can avoid it, which is why I’ve stayed in the ultra-expensive Silicon Valley—while working remotely for Lifehacker—instead of living like a king in an affordable, smaller town somewhere. When I do move, I take particular care of my desktop PC, because I have a lot of expensive stuff that I don’t…
Illustration by Grayson Blackmon / The Verge
Despite all of the ills and upheavals that 2020 is bringing, there is at least one thing that we can celebrate: summer is here. And while your favorite sports team may be on hiatus, your vacation trip may be canceled, and your family get-together will have to wait, there are still things to enjoy and ways to relax. The staff of The Verge has gotten together to recommend some of their favorite gadgets, devices, and gizmos to help you have the best summer possible.
Sitting inside all day means that even the most simple and short visits outside can feel kind of magical and otherworldly. It’s fun for me to bring my camera, Olympus’ E-M10 Mark II, along for walks...
A massive laptop you probably don’t need
The Fitbit Inspire HR fitness tracker. | Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge
Antitrust regulators and consumer advocacy groups are increasing their scrutiny of Google’s planned acquisition of fitness tracker firm Fitbit.
Google announced it was buying Fitbit last year for $2.1 billion and said it hoped to complete the deal some time in 2020. But it’s possible the acquisition will be delayed over fears about the search giant’s increased access to sensitive data from Fitbit’s hardware, including users’ heart rates, their fitness activity, and their sleep patterns.
The Financial Times reports that EU regulators have sent 60-page questionnaires to Google and Fitbit’s rivals, asking them to assess how the acquisition will affect the digital...
Image: Evo
Fighting game tournament organizer Evo has canceled Evo Online and removed its co-founder and president from the company after serious allegations surfaced about his past behavior. The long-running esports event had previously been scheduled to take place in a new online-only format starting July 4th due to the coronavirus pandemic.
Joey Cuellar “will no longer be involved with Evo in any capacity,” the company said. Tony Cannon, another of the organization’s co-founders, will act as CEO going forward. Cuellar apologized in a tweet, and said he was “not proud of” his past actions.
The announcement of the event’s cancellation came less than 24 hours after fighting game player Mikey “Crackpr0n” Pham alleged that Cuellar had behaved...
Photo by David Cliff/NurPhoto via Getty Images
Lime is relaunching Jump’s electric bike-share service in London in its first move since acquiring the struggling bike brand from Uber.
To start out, the bikes will be available to rent in the Uber app only — they will added to the Lime app at a later date “following further systems integration,” Lime said. A few hundred e-bikes will be available at first, and will grow with demand, the company says. Pricing will be £1 unlock and 15 pence per minute after. The bikes will initially be deployed in Camden and Islington.
The return of Jump’s e-bikes may come as a surprise to some who were pessimistic about the brand’s survival following Lime’s acquisition in June. The bikes were removed from all of their US and European markets after the...
A Captain America skin is now available in Fortnite, Epic Games announced today. He’s the latest comic-themed skin to be added to the popular free-to-play battle royale game.
Captain America costs 2,000 V-bucks (about $20) from the Fortnite in-game store. If you buy the skin, you’ll also get Captain America’s iconic shield, which isn’t just cosmetic — you’ll be able to wear it on your back and use it as a pickaxe in-game. Captain America’s shield has actually already appeared in the game before — you could wield it last year as a special item in a limited time Avengers-themed mode, but you weren’t able to buy it to wear whenever you wanted.
There’s also a new Captain...
Photo by John Lamparski/Getty Images
Billionaire Peter Thiel, the most famous Trump supporter in tech, is distancing himself from the president’s reelection campaign. Thiel fears President Donald Trump will lose the race, according to a report from The Wall Street Journal. Thiel soured on Trump after COVID-19 left tens of millions of Americans unemployed; the billionaire believes that there will be a profound recession when November rolls around, making Trump vulnerable to challenge.
Thiel was a vocal supporter of the president in 2016, speaking at the Republican National Convention in 2016 and donating $1.25 million that year to his campaign and other adjacent political groups and causes. Thiel, who earned his fortune co-founding PayPal before becoming one of the earliest...
Ever since we found ourselves hurling into the midst of a pandemic four long months ago, many of us have been working office jobs with no office in sight. I, for one, am working in a studio apartment with my fiancée, our monitors back to back in a never-ending game of “which one of us has to take our meeting in the…
I’ve got a barbell, but for the first three months of pandemic life I had no place to put it except on the ground. That’s fine if you want to deadlift, or do olympic lifts, or pick it up and curl it or press it. And I did all of those. But you can’t squat without a rack.
2K Games has announced that it’ll sell the next-gen PS5 and Xbox Series X versions of the upcoming NBA 2K21 for $69.99, a $10 increase to the current-gen Xbox One and PS4 versions of the game. And it’s the first indication that the Xbox Series X and PlayStation 5 may be bringing a price increase from the standard $60 that major video games have been sold at for years when they arrive this fall.
Most video games have been sold at a $60 price since the “seventh-gen” console era of the Xbox 360, the PlayStation 3, and the Nintendo Wii, which was a $10 price increase from the $50 standard that had preceded it. But if NBA 2K21 is any indication, that $60 era is about to be over: assuming other game studios follow 2K Games’ lead here, the PS5...
Shane Dawson has apologized for his use of blackface, anti-Semitic and racist language, and disturbing comments about children and animals on several occasions in the past — and audiences have largely given him a pass. But after posting a new apology video on Friday that didn’t go over well with some high-profile viewers, that’s suddenly started to change.
Target said it would stop carrying Dawson’s books. Makeup company Morphe reportedly cleared its shelves of Dawson’s products. YouTube temporarily suspended ads on all three of Dawson’s channels, including his main account that boasts more than 22 million subscribers. And that account lost nearly 1 million subscribers over the past week.
I cannot tell you that by going to a playground right now, you or your child aren’t exposing yourselves to at least some risk of contracting COVID-19. But I see you out there, parents of little kids who are desperate to get them out of the house and burn off some of their energy. If you’ve been debating whether or not …
My girlfriend and I share a single account for every subscription service we use. Most of these services are cool with us using the same account simultaneously, but a few of them aren’t. Spotify used to be one of those more restrictive apps, but the company has just added a new “Premium Duo” subscription plan for US…
Image: Sony
“I am not Iron Man,” I mutter to myself after crashing into a wall for the umpteenth time while waving my arms around. But it’s not for a lack of effort.
Iron Man VR is a game with a simple premise: putting players inside the famous metal suit of Marvel’s Armored Avenger, letting you fly around and battle supervillains with laser blasts and gadgets galore. It’s also the first real console title from Camouflaj, which had previously developed the high-profile mobile game, République, back in 2013 (which has since been ported to PC, Xbox One, PlayStation, and a variety of VR platforms).
It’s the sort of idea that’s uniquely suited to virtual reality. What better way to capture a hero who’s most famous for their helmet...
![Illegal e-waste dumping grounds in Yuen Long. [No. 3] . 09JUL16 SCMP/ Bruce Yan](https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/vDxu7t1uFh1Gd9totFUktsn64W0=/70x0:5269x3466/1310x873/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/67009664/1096277740.jpg.0.jpg)
Illegal e-waste dumping grounds in Yuen Long, Hong Kong. | Photo by Bruce Yan / South China Morning Post via Getty Images
2019 set a record for the amount of e-waste ever generated worldwide: 53.6 million metric tons of discarded phones, computers, appliances, and other gadgets. That’s more than the combined weight of all the adults in Europe. It’s also a 21 percent increase since 2014, according to a new international report.
Just 17 percent of that waste was officially recycled, the report finds. The vast majority of it was either sent to a landfill, incinerated, or vanished somewhere into the bureaucratic ether when officials lost track of it. The report was meant to document global progress on getting a handle on e-waste, authors of the paper say. Instead, they found that the world has backtracked.
T...
Whether you’ve bit the bullet and installed a brand-new iOS beta on your iPhone or you’re updating to a new public release of iOS, the process usually goes swimmingly. When it doesn’t, however, the anxiety kicks in: How the heck do you fix an iPhone that almost works perfectly, save for some new, fatal flaw?
I have never shied away from a visceral meat-eating experience. I find eating bone-in chops and steaks, offal, and even a literal face all deeply enjoyable. Bone-in steaks are a little pricey for everyday consumption, and faces take a lot of prep—but chicken hearts are cheap, easy to skewer, unchallenging to cook,…
Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge
Congratulations! The world is falling apart (or at least feels like it’s falling apart), and you’ve decided to do something about it. That’s a commendable urge. Here’s where I tell you that you’ve also decided to do something very hard. Hosting a charity stream (on Twitch, YouTube, or on any other platform) is much more difficult than hosting a regular live stream, mostly because charity streams involve more moving parts — there’s the charity, the donation flow, guests, and, obviously, anything else you’re doing to make the experience special for your viewers.
And it will be! More than anything, charity streams are about sharing a moment with the people who tune in. You will be overwhelmed, and it will be glorious. The other beautiful...
Photo by Thomas Trutschel/Photothek via Getty Images
For over a year, a mystery shopper known only as “John Smith” has been creating confusion across the web. He’s repeatedly visited numerous online stores, ranging from auto supply shops to home goods merchants, placed single items in multiple shopping baskets, and then left without buying anything. The Wall Street Journal has the story of the mysterious shopper, and it’s well worth reading to get to the bottom of what’s been happening.
The remarkable thing about John Smith is just how relentless his online shopping seems to have been. On a recent Wednesday, he went on a spree lasting a total of 48 hours. One screenshot shared by FinnBinn, an online store that sells boxes for newborns to sleep in, shows 17 abandoned shopping carts from a...
Whether you were willing to wait for it or not, you’ll no longer have to after today: On July 3, Lin-Manuel Miranda’s revolutionary, Tony Award-winning Broadway musical blockbuster Hamilton is coming to Disney+. I can’t think of a better way to kick off the Fourth of July weekend than by hosting a virtual Hamilton…
Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge
Tesla said on Thursday that it was able to deliver 90,650 vehicles during the last quarter, despite its Fremont, California factory being partially shut down due to the coronavirus pandemic. Wall Street analysts had expected the electric automaker to only deliver about 72,000 vehicles during the last three months, according to CNBC.
This was the second consecutive quarter of better-than-expected delivery numbers from Tesla. The company delivered 88,400 vehicles in Q1 of 2020, down from the fourth quarter of 2019, when Tesla shipped around 112,000 vehicles.
Tesla said it delivered 80,050 of its Models 3 and Y vehicles and 10,600 of its Models S and X...
Facebook will pin a box with information about voter registration on the top of the News Feed for every US user who is of voting age starting tomorrow, July 3rd, the company announced today.
The box, once it’s live, will show you information about how to register to vote, including a link to your state’s registration website or to a nonpartisan partner if your state doesn’t have voter information readily available online. Here’s what you can expect it to look like on your phone:
Nick Clegg, Facebook’s vice president of global affairs and communications, first announced the voting boxes would be showing up on top of the News Feed in an open letter published on Wednesday.
Facebook says it will host...
Lasso was an app designed to let users make short 15-second videos. | Image: Facebook
Facebook is shutting down Lasso, the heavily TikTok-inspired video app it launched back in 2018. CNN’s Kerry Flynn spotted the notifications being sent to users, telling them that the app won’t be usable after July 10th, and advising them to download any videos they want to keep.
Ex-TechCrunch editor Josh Constine notes that Facebook appears to be shutting down Lasso as its focus shifts to Instagram’s Reels feature. Reels is a video editing tool that lets users record and edit TikTok-style videos which they can then post to their Instagram Stories, send via DM, or post to a new section of the Explore tab called Top Reels. The feature launched in Brazil last year and expanded to France and Germany last week, according to TechCrunch.
T...
Photo by ERIC BARADAT/AFP via Getty Images
Sarah Friar, CEO of the neighborhood-focused social network Nextdoor, says the company is to blame following widespread reports that moderators were deleting posts that discussed racial injustice or voiced support for the Black Lives Matter movement. The app will be changing its policies to explicitly allow discussion of the movement in future, and will be offering new unconscious bias training to its unpaid moderators.
In an interview with NPR, Friar said it “was really our fault” these posts were removed, and blamed the actions taken by the company’s unpaid moderators (known as “leads”) on a moderation policy that prohibited discussion of national issues in the app’s local groups.
“We did not...
Photo Illustration by Mateusz Slodkowski/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images
Programming note: The Interface is off Thursday. Back on Monday.
I.
Should Reddit pay its volunteer moderators? The thought had not really occurred to me until last week, when I joined a call with CEO Steve Huffman and his general counsel, Benjamin Lee. The executives were briefing me and some other reporters about a significant expansion of the site’s content moderation policies, which were unveiled on Monday and resulted in the removal of 2,000 subreddits, including the notorious forum for hate speech The_Donald.
Reddit’s content moderation scheme differs sharply from the Facebook News Feed or the Twitter timeline. Instead of applying one set of rues for the entire user base, Reddit sets a “floor” of rules that no one can violate but...
Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge
The CEOs of Amazon, Facebook, Apple, and Google will testify before Congress later this month to answer questions related to its broad antitrust investigation of Big Tech. The plans were first reported by Kara Swisher, before a spokesperson for the House Judiciary Committee confirmed the plans to The New York Times. Apple’s Tim Cook, Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg, Alphabet/Google’s Sundar Pichai, and Amazon’s Jeff Bezos have all agreed to testify.
News of the July hearing marks a significant step in the House Judiciary antitrust subcommittee’s inquiry, which is investigating different alleged abuses by each of the four companies. For Google, the discussion has centered on its control of the ad market, but for Facebook the focus has been its...
Photo by James Bareham / The Verge
With traditional trade shows like E3 and Gamescom cancelled in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic, Microsoft is planning to bring a slice of the show floor experience to your living room. As part of Geoff Keighley’s Summer Game Fest, Microsoft will make dozens of demos for upcoming Xbox One games available to download for a week.
In a blog post, Microsoft’s Glenn Gregory cautions that the demos won’t always be representative of the final product, since many of the games are some way off their release. That’s standard practice for show floor demos, of course, but it’s unusual for a major gaming platform to make unfinished games available to such a wide audience.
There’ll be more than 60 demos available, and while the list is still being...
Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge
Google has discontinued its mid-range Pixel 3A and 3A XL smartphones, the company announced today (via Android Police). “Google Store has sold through its inventory and completed sales of Pixel 3A,” Google said in a statement to The Verge. “For people who are still interested in buying Pixel 3A, the product is available from some partners while supplies last.”
That might be disappointing to hear for people who were on the market for a more affordable Google-made phone. In his review last year, my colleague Dieter Bohn found the 3A had an excellent camera, especially for its low price.
The 3A is, in fact, listed as out of stock on the Google Store. However, as of this writing, there’s stock available on Amazon of both the 3A and 3A...
Image: Dark Sky
Popular weather app Dark Sky, now owned by Apple, is keeping its doors open on Android for a little longer.
The company said on Wednesday in an update on its website that it plans to keep the Android version going until August 1st, after initially announcing it would shut it down today, on July 1st. Presumably, the Wear OS version is still functioning as well, but we’ve been unable to check that. Both apps appear to have been removed from the Play Store, however, so you need to have the app downloaded or have downloaded it at least once in the past to be able to continue using it for another month, according to 9to5Google.
On August 1st, all existing subscribers to Dark Sky’s Android version will receive a full refund — Dark Sky has...
Ask any seasoned home office worker, and they’ll probably tell you that a good pair of headphones or earbuds is crucial to staying focused and drowning out the noise of your uncontrollable surroundings. There’s no need to listen to your neighbors having their trees trimmed at 7 AM sharp or your roommate’s hourly…
The images show a very similar-looking device to the LTE Galaxy Z Flip. | Image: TENAA
Images of Samsung’s unannounced 5G foldable, the Galaxy Z Flip 5G, have appeared online, thanks to a listing from China’s TENAA certification center. MySmartPrice reports that the listing initially went live without the images attached, confirming some key specs for the device, but new photos have revealed its design. From the images, it looks as though the phone will be almost identical to its LTE variant, barring a new matte silver color scheme. The unannounced phone was also recently certified by the Federal Communications Commission.
According to MySmartPrice, the specs listed by the TENAA suggest that the phone is getting a small spec bump and will be powered by a Snapdragon 865 Plus rather than the Snapdragon 855 Plus we saw on the...
Photo by Jeremy Moeller/Getty Images
There’s now a Peloton channel available on the Roku platform. Anyone with a Roku device can sign up to access Peloton’s instructor-led workouts from their TV.
“We are excited to roll out our best-in-class streaming fitness service onto the Roku platform,” said Karina Kogan, SVP and general manager of Peloton Digital, in a statement. “We’ve seen growing engagement with our TV apps, especially as more and more consumers look for at-home fitness solutions to keep them physically and mentally fit.”
Don’t be surprised if you see ads. The Peloton app will leverage Roku’s “machine-learning targeting capabilities” to advertise the app to Roku users who would be most likely to use it.
You don’t need a Peloton bike or treadmill to use the app...
Every parent has their particular point of contention: a thing that should be simple—and is simple for other parents—yet it never comes easily for them. A kid that’s never tired at bedtime. A child who flat-out hates the car seat from day one. The toddler who refuses to sit in a stroller, No Matter What. And, of…
If you’re one of the people out there bemoaning the fact that you “can’t even compliment someone at work these days without them taking it the wrong way,” take note: Clever Twitter user Marissa Lingen has found a solution. She suggests using the word “snazzy” when remarking on your colleagues’ outfits—that is to say, …
The Pokémon Company and Japanese jewelry company Ginza Tanaka are selling Pikachu-inspired rings for couples looking to make their marriage themed. Ah, love. Love and pokémon. Two concepts that are definitely entangled in my mind. Why catch ‘em all when you can snag The One?
As a person who buys jewelry that turns my skin green, I don’t know much about engagement or wedding rings. These rings appear to be perfectly fine for matrimony. There are a few band options available in platinum and gold, all pretty simple. They also come with a pokéball box. The collection, which runs from ¥115,500 to ¥346,500 (roughly $1,074 to $3,223), includes a pretty straightforward Pikachu head emblem with “I choose you” engraved into the band, while another...
Samsung’s Galaxy Buds Plus truly wireless earbuds that have excellent battery life and come with a wireless charging case are more affordable than ever today, and we have two special deals to tell you about. Daily Steals has the best price on a new set of Galaxy Buds Plus, down to $130 ($20 off). If you want to check that out, head over to its site and enter VERGESBUDS at checkout to get the discount. These have a one-year warranty through Samsung.
On the other hand, you can save even more money by snagging a refurbished set of Galaxy Buds Plus at Best Buy. They’re just $90, which is a steal. Like all of Best Buy’s refurbished gear, these are tested for quality and include all original accessories. (In this case, that means ear tips, the...
This small speaker boasts delightful sound
Instant Vortex Plus 6-in-1 Air Fryer | $120 | Amazon
The Android 11 Beta was initially slated to launch in tandem with Google’s annual developer’s event, but the world had different plans for this year’s software update. Despite the lack of fanfare, Google has now released the first public beta for Pixel users, leaving enough time to get the kinks worked out before it…
Leftover spaghetti stands with the best of leftovers. In the fridge overnight, the flavors of the sauce meld and soak into the noodles, permeating them. An ex-boyfriend of mine loves leftover spaghetti so much, he eats it cold, straight from the refrigerator, and this is fine. I don’t know that there’s a bad way to…
The emails started rolling in to me around the same time the government started sending out coronavirus relief payments in April.
SinoAlice has much of what you’d expect from a game from Yoko Taro, the acclaimed director best known for his work on Nier: Automata. It’s dark and introspective, with a story that pulls you in unexpected directions. This time around, he’s turned his attention to the worlds of fairytales; SinoAlice takes place in a setting simply called the “Library,” where storybook characters like Alice and Little Red Riding Hood become sword-wielding warriors fighting off waves of monsters in an attempt to revive their “author.” In typical deprecating fashion, Taro says he was drawn to these characters for a very simple reason.
“It’s because the copyright has expired and there’s no cost,” he tells The Verge. “I researched on Wikipedia. What a...
Photo by Becca Farsace / The Verge
It’s always been a dream of mine to put my vintage camera lenses to work again, so when the Raspberry Pi Foundation put out a camera system that supported C- and CS-mount lenses, I knew I had to get one and turn it into a custom digital camera. There was only one thing standing in the way: my total and complete lack of coding knowledge.
My plan was to put the new Raspberry Pi High Quality Camera inside the body of a toy 35mm camera I had, giving me a way to use my vintage lenses without having to pay for processing film.
Photo by Robin Utrecht/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images
On Tuesday, the US Supreme Court issued an unusual ruling on the status of website names, deciding that “Booking.com” is eligible for a federal trademark even though it’s based on a generic term. Bloomberg reports that the 8-1 decision gives Booking.com, owned by Booking Holdings Inc., nationwide legal protection against competing trademarks.
“We have no cause to deny Booking.com the same benefits Congress accorded other marks qualifying as nongeneric,” Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg wrote.
The United States Patent and Trademark Office had previously denied Booking.com’s trademark application because it believed the name to be generic, even with the “.com” addition. However, the Supreme Court overturned that decision, reasoning that it was...
Several Mac desktops and laptops have all the hardware they need to stream 4K HDR video from services like Netflix, but they’ve been hamstrung by Safari’s limited video codec support. Luckily, Apple is updating its stock browser with support for the HEVC codec so users can finally watch 4K HDR shows and movies on…
Initially, Your Progress Will Be Saved feels like something you’d find in a modern art gallery. Attendees start off in a sort of holding area, a dimly lit room with a clean, minimalist aesthetic. A flight of stairs takes you to a broken mirror resting on a pedestal, with a description of the mirror emoji pasted on the wall behind it. But things get strange when you turn around. In order to move forward, you have to walk right through a glowing blue wall into a completely new location. This is art by way of Fortnite.
Your Progress Will Be Saved is the first part of a new project from the Manchester International Festival (MIF) called the “Virtual Factory,” which is essentially a virtual art gallery built using Fortnite’s creative mode....
I don’t know why, but yesterday was a day for Google peripherals. There were three or four pieces of news that were all harbingers of future products that you might use in conjunction with an Android phone. But while it’s getting easy to divine what’s going to happen with Android phones thanks to all the leaks, it’s still very unclear what Google really intends to do with watches, smart glasses, or even its Stadia controller.
Google’s hardware division acquired the smart glasses company North — which comes on the heels of the last year’s Fitbit acquisition. This is a weird one! Google still makes Glass, but has specified that it’s meant mainly for industrial purposes. North made a valiant run at consumer smart glasses, including...
Photo by FRED TANNEAU/AFP via Getty Images
Rarely do we see so many ban hammers drop over a 48-hour period as we have seen this week. The big social platforms, who were once loath to intervene in matters of political speech, are getting much more comfortable with the idea. Today let’s look at what happened and why — and, for the sake of variety, let’s try to rank them in order of their long-term importance.
5. YouTube bans a group of far-right creators. The most remarkable thing about YouTube getting rid of Stefan Molyneux, David Duke, and Richard Spencer, among others, is that it took so long. An exhausted “finally!” is often exclaimed in cases like this — but here even Facebook, which faces near-constant accusations of bending over backwards to appease the far right, had...
Spotify
Spotify is making it easier for couples who live together to split the cost of a premium membership while also merging their music taste. The company is debuting its newest subscription offering, Premium Duo, which costs $12.99 a month and allows two people who live at the same place to share one plan while maintaining their own accounts.
With Premium Duo, Spotify will also create a special Duo Mix playlist that’ll update regularly and incorporate music that both people like. The idea is that Spotify knows what you and your partner like individually, so its software will design a playlist that you can put on in the house that’ll appeal to both of you. Listeners can switch between a chill or upbeat playlist.
Existing, single Premium...
FuboTV is the latest virtual TV service to introduce a sharp subscription fee hike, not long after YouTube TV announced that it was drastically increasing its subscription fees to $65 a month.
The company sent out emails to subscribers today letting them know that standard plans are increasing from $55 a month to $65 as of their next billing cycle following August 1, 2020. As part of the hike, people on standard accounts will be rolled into Fubo’s Family Bundle plan, which includes three simultaneous streams, Cloud DVR Plus, and 500 hours of DVR space, according to the email.
Fubo last increased the price of its standard plan in March 2019, going from $45 to $55 a month. Other FuboTV customers posted screenshots on social media of...
