Walmart is expanding its robot-powered fulfillment centers to ‘dozens of locations’

Walmart is planning to increase the number of local fulfillment centers across the United States, it announced on Wednesday. Walmart’s approach of more localized fulfillment centers is a direct parallel to Amazon’s strategy, as both companies continue to face off amid an increasing demand for online orders. The new fulfillment centers are warehouses that will either be built within or adjacent to its existing retail locations.

Walmart’s first fulfillment center opened in 2019 in Salem, New Hampshire, when the retail giant started piloting the concept. These warehouses use wheeled robots — called Alphabots — to pick items from the shelves and prepare orders placed online.

"Walmart is piloting new technologies for some of its fulfillment..."

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Spin is testing remote-controlled electric scooters to prevent blocked sidewalks

Spin, the scooter company owned by Ford, is testing a new scooter that can be controlled by a remote operator. The scooters, Segway’s T60 model, look different than Spin’s regular fleet with the addition of a third wheel in the front. They’re also outfitted with sensors and other technology provided by a startup called Tortoise, which has been testing how teleoperation could potentially make fleets of shared electric scooters easier to manage.

Starting this spring, Spin plans to start testing 250 remote-operated scooters in Boise, Idaho, before deciding whether to expand the pilot to additional markets. Tortoise’s software — which uses the scooters’ front- and rear-facing built-in cameras — makes it possible for remote operators to move...

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How r/WallStreetBets gamed the stock of GameStop

gamestop

The Reddit meme that bludgeoned a hedge fund

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Ring’s new $60 video doorbell is its smallest and cheapest yet

Amazon’s Ring has debuted its latest video doorbell, the (blandly named) Ring Video Doorbell Wired which, at $59.99, is the cheapest and smallest doorbell that the company has ever offered.

As the name implies, there is one major limitation of the new Ring Video Doorbell Wired — unlike its pricier siblings, it can only be used as a hardwired doorbell, instead of the battery-powered option offered by products like the Ring Doorbell 3 or the $99.99 Ring Video Doorbell that the company refreshed last year.

Assuming you’ve got your home wired already, though, the rest of the Video Doorbell Wired checks all the boxes for a Ring doorbell: 1080p video, night vision, custom motion detection zones, and support for other Ring...

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HBO Max hits subscriber goal two years ahead of schedule

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

HBO Max has nearly 40 million US subscribers, AT&T disclosed in its first quarter earnings report on Wednesday. Combined with traditional HBO subscribers, the platform has surpassed a 41 million subscriber milestone the company says it didn’t expect to hit for two more years. Globally, AT&T says HBO now has more than 60 million subscribers.

There are a few caveats worth mentioning. For one, AT&T has different metrics for different levels of its subscriber base. Total subscribers includes not only people who pay for a standalone subscription, but also those with access to HBO Max either through an existing HBO subscription through a cable company or through a promotion via AT&T’s cell carrier business, regardless of whether they’ve even...

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Reddit’s GameStop traders turn their attention to AMC stock

Photo by Victor J. Blue/Getty Images

Reddit traders who have successfully profited off GameStop (GME) stock are now turning their attention to struggling movie theater chain AMC. Reddit board r/wallstreetbets has helped push GameStop stock to record levels in recent days, with the stock closing up 92 percent yesterday alone. It’s part of a chaotic, meme-fueled effort to create an organized short squeeze, and force traditional hedge funds into losing millions of dollars on their bets against struggling companies.

AMC appears to be next on the list. Overnight, online traders at r/wallstreetbets’ Discord server spent hours creating memes and spamming AMC emoji in an effort to convince thousands of people to buy AMC stock. Hundreds swarmed rapper Soulja Boy’s live Twitch stream...

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Fujifilm’s GFX 100S is a 102-megapixel medium format camera for $5,999

Fujifilm has announced a new medium format camera, the GFX 100S. This new model is essentially a smaller, more accessible version of the GFX 100, which was released in 2019 for $9,999.95.

Like the GFX 100, the 100S has a 102-megapixel 43.8 x 32.9mm medium format sensor with 100-percent phase-detection AF coverage. It’s a full 500g lighter, however, and has a few features missing or tweaked: the EVF is no longer interchangeable, for example, and there’s no option for a vertical battery grip.

The in-body OIS system is smaller and lighter, but Fujifilm actually says it should slightly outperform the GFX 100’s with up to six stops of stabilization for most lenses. This is all thanks to an upgraded gyro sensor and improved algorithms,...

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Staples’ Easy Button is a cheap toy that envisions a perfect button

As buttons go, there are few as well-known as Staples’ “Easy Button” — a bright, Staples-red button that was featured in a series of ad campaigns beginning in 2005. The ads were so popular that Staples ended up actually selling real replica versions of the Easy Button shortly after they debuted — and it’s since sold millions of the desk toys.

The fictitious Easy Buttons featured in the commercials possess magical qualities that allow the user to sorcerously solve their (usually office supply-related) issues with the press of a button. The sad irony, of course, is that the real-life version of the product is significantly more disappointing. Pressing it doesn’t summon a rain of printer ink or raise the Great Wall to defend against an...

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Bowser’s Fury is a heavy metal remix of Super Mario 3D World

With Super Mario 3D World + Bowser’s Fury for the Switch, Nintendo is once again giving a great Wii U game a second chance on a more successful platform. But it’s also more than just a straight port. In addition to the main game, this rerelease also includes a separate experience — the titular Bowser’s Fury. __ It’s essentially a built-in expansion pack with a strong heavy metal vibe to remix the classic gameplay.

For starters, you don’t actually have to play 3D World to access Bowser’s Fury. Both titles are accessible right from the main menu, and you can swap between them at will. Progress in one doesn’t appear to impact the other. Fundamentally, the two games are the same: Bowser’s Fury still plays and controls just like 3D World , __ which...

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Samsung Galaxy Watch 3’s EKG feature is coming to 31 new countries

Dan Seifert / The Verge

Samsung is expanding its Health Monitor app to 31 new countries, including 28 European countries, and people in those countries will be able to use the app with a Galaxy Watch 3 or Galaxy Active 2 smartwatch to take electrocardiogram (EKG) and blood pressure readings.

Samsung says the app was granted a CE marking in December, which means that it complies with applicable regulations in Europe and can be offered in the European Economic Area.

Here is the full list of countries in Europe that will soon be able to get the app: Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania,...

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DJI is now selling a warranty to replace your drone if it flies away

Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge

DJI is now offering flyaway coverage for its Mini 2 and Mavic Air 2 drones, should they develop a mind of their own and take off. The cost of replacing the escaped drone is $225 for the Mini, and $399 for the Mavic, which is on top of the price of DJI’s Care Refresh extended warranty. For that, you’ll pay $50 for the Mini, and $80 for the Mavic. If you already own one of these drones and the extended warranty, you’re eligible for flyway replacements going forward.

The extended warranty also lets you replace your drone if you damage it, twice per year, for $50 each. For flyaway coverage, there’s a one-time limit — if your replacement also goes AWOL, you’ll be on the hook to replace it, though there is a two-year version of the warranty...

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Bloodhound’s 1,000 mph rocket car being sold for $11 million

Image: Bloodhound LSR

For sale: a rocket-powered car named Bloodhound built specifically to break the land speed record. Theoretical top speed of 1,000 miles per hour. Seats one. Price? A paltry $11 million.

The tortured saga of the Bloodhound Land Speed Record project has reached a sadly predictable impasse: the current owner is done spending money trying to set a new record after saving the project from bankruptcy in 2018. It’s hard to blame him. The Bloodhound program has been going for the better part of a decade at this point and has yet to break the 763 mile-per-hour record, let alone scratch at the group’s ultimate stated goal of 1,000 miles per hour.

The Bloodhound still needs an additional rocket in order to make its full- speed runs, too, despite...

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Xbox Game Pass subscribers hit 18 million

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

Microsoft is continuing to attract people to its Xbox Game Pass service. The “Netflix for video games” service now has 18 million subscribers, up from the 15 million previously reported in September. Xbox Game Pass is a subscription service that offers access to a growing selection of more than 100 Xbox games for $9.99 per month.

Microsoft has been pushing Xbox Game Pass for more than a year now, and it’s clear the company is heavily invested in its future. Bungie’s Destiny 2 title appeared on Xbox Game Pass late last year, and Control is also available on the service for both Xbox and PC.

On an earnings call today, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella also revealed that Xbox Live has more than 100 million monthly active users. Nadella also said...

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The new iPhone update fixes security bugs, so it’s best to install it ASAP

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

Apple just released iOS 14.4 and iPadOS 14.4, and the update notes contain some worrying language (via TechCrunch). Under kernel updates, Apple notes that “a malicious application may be able to elevate privileges,” and under WebKit updates, it says “a remote attacker may be able to cause arbitrary code execution.” After both statements, the update notes say, “Apple is aware of a report that this issue may have been actively exploited.”

What this means, broadly, is that you should update your iOS devices as soon as possible. To put the language into plain terms: Apple found a security hole in its operating systems, and it also has evidence that someone may have exploited it. The update notes don’t have any further details, so for now, we...

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Tweetbot 6 brings essential updates and a monthly subscription to the iPhone’s best Twitter app

Tweetbot has long been one of the best third-party Twitter applications around for the iPhone and Mac, and today sees the launch of the latest version for iOS: Tweetbot 6, which converts the app into a paid subscription service instead of the single-time purchase that was previously offered.

The new app makes the change to Twitter’s new API that the company introduced last summer, enabling some long-missing features in the premium Twitter app like Twitter cards and polls. That change does come with some trade-offs, though, including the removal of user-selected options for URL shortening, image uploads, and video uploads.

The free version of the app offers some basic functionality in allowing users to view Twitter — but you’ll have to...

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Google’s VR painting app is getting the axe, but it will live on as an open-source project

Image: Google

Google is ending development on the virtual reality painting app Tilt Brush — one of the most well-known VR applications — and making it open source. Tilt Brush was acquired by Google in 2015 after launching for the HTC Vive and Oculus Rift, and it was soon folded into the company’s larger VR plans, like its Google Cardboard and Daydream headsets.

Tilt Brush’s main feature is three-dimensional painting in VR, but the app received interesting updates over its tenure at Google, including multiplayer support and an open-source toolkit that offered the ability to export Tilt Brush drawings for use in animation. With this latest announcement, that development is coming to an end, and future support of Tilt Brush is in the hands of the...

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Verizon plans to almost double its mmWave 5G coverage this year

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

Verizon has big 5G plans for 2021 after formally launching its next-gen network in October of last year, and close to the top of its list of priorities is expanding coverage of its ultra-fast mmWave coverage. That flavor of 5G is currently restricted to select areas within select cities in the US, and it’s highly dependent on your proximity to a Verizon 5G site due to the inherent technology that powers it.

Marketed under the name 5G Ultra Wideband (5G UW), this variety of 5G is the type with high speeds but poor coverage, meaning Verizon has its work cut out for it expanding network coverage in 2021. But in its earnings report on Tuesday, the company says it plans to nearly double its 5G UW network this year by adding more than 14,000...

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These are Intel’s first Iris Xe desktop GPUs

Asus’ first Intel Iris Xe graphics card. | Image: Intel

Intel is launching its first Iris Xe desktop graphics cards today. Originally codenamed “DG1,” these new desktop GPUs are primarily aimed at small- and medium-sized businesses and mainstream desktop PCs. Intel is teaming up with Asus and other partners to sell these cards to system integrators who will bundle them with prebuilt systems.

Much like the Iris Xe Max graphics cards that debuted in laptops back in October, these desktop GPUs aren’t really designed for gaming. Intel is marketing them as a way to improve what’s offered on mainstream desktop PCs, with better graphics, multi-display support, and improved hardware acceleration for certain codecs.

Intel is working with other partners on these cards.

The cards...

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Here’s every game coming to the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X in 2021

Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge

For the early adopters of next-gen hardware

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Nvidia is making buying a gaming laptop more confusing

Photo by Cameron Faulkner / The Verge

Gaming laptops that have Nvidia’s powerful RTX 30-series graphics chips inside are now shipping. I have a first look at MSI’s 2021 GS66 Stealth with the RTX 3080, and my colleague Monica Chin published two reviews for launch day: the Asus ROG Flow X13 (with its detachable RTX 3080 eGPU) and the MSI GP66 Leopard with the RTX 3070.

We discovered something strange: an RTX 3070 can now be faster than an RTX 3080 in some cases. We saw this first-hand in a few benchmark runs, where the RTX 3070 in the GP77 Leopard slightly surpassed the RTX 3080 in the GS66 Stealth. It wasn’t a blowout, just a few odd frames per second more in the benchmarks built into games like Horizon: Zero Dawn , Red Dead Redemption 2, and Shadow of the Tomb Raider. But...

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Byte, Vine’s successor, has been purchased by another TikTok clone

Image: Byte

Byte, a TikTok competitor, has been purchased by Clash, another TikTok competitor. It sounds as though Clash may be merged into Byte, but the details are vague for the time being. Clash’s website now directs visitors to download Byte, and the company says Clash won’t be available on the iOS App Store for “an extended period.”

Clash co-founder Brendon McNerney told The New York Times __ that the two apps will be released “together as one product” within a few months.

“The market for apps that let you create and post videos from your phone has become extremely saturated. There are many competitors with similar (or better) feature sets, and far more distribution,” Byte creator Dom Hofmann, who was previously a co-founder of the video app Vine,...

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AMD made a billion dollars more in Q4, and multiple billions in 2020

AMD is firing on all cylinders these days: it’s the guts of every modern PlayStation and Xbox, it has the desktop CPUs to beat, it’s nearly caught up to Nvidia in GPU performance (if not availability), and it’s about to challenge Intel in laptops as well — with its Ryzen 5000 mobile CPUs and RDNA 2 GPUs due later this year.

All of that can translate to eye-popping dollar signs: the chipmaker just announced its Q4 and full-year 2020 earnings, and it’s adding billions of dollars wherever you look:

• $3.2 billion in revenue this quarter, up 53 percent from $2.1 billion last quarter
• $1.78 billion in profit this quarter, up 948 percent from $170 million last quarter*
• $9.76 billion in revenue this past year, up 45 percent from $6.7 billion in...

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Xbox, Surface, and cloud once again boost Microsoft’s Q2 earnings

Microsoft posted the second quarter of its 2021 financial results today, reporting revenue of $43.1 billion and a net income of $15.5 billion. Revenue is up 17 percent, and net income has increased by 33 percent. We saw some impressive growth for Surface, Xbox, and cloud-related services in Microsoft’s previous quarter, and it’s very much the same this time around.

The PC market just had its first big growth in 10 years, with around 300 million shipments of devices during 2020. The pandemic has impacted the way a lot of people work or learn, and many have turned to laptops to continue remotely.

Windows OEM non-pro revenue has grown by 24 percent for Microsoft, reflecting the demand from consumers. Windows OEM revenue overall, including...

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How to personalize your Chromebook’s lock screen

Photo by Becca Farsace / The Verge

Google has released the latest version of Chrome OS, with a few new features for Chromebook owners to try out. If you’re a Chromebook owner, your device should have the newest version now or very shortly.

First off, your Chromebook can now function as a smart display (like Google’s Nest Hub Max) when you’re not actively using it. Like the Nest Hub, it can act like a digital photo album and display pictures on its lock screen. You can select a photo album for your screensaver to cycle through or pick from a gallery of preloaded images.

You can now use the lock screen for other smart display tasks as well. For example, you can play and pause music and check the weather without unlocking the Chromebook.

To turn on the personalized lock...

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Weeks later, Google still hasn’t added privacy labels to its most popular iPhone apps

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

Three weeks after Google promised it would add Apple’s mandatory app privacy labels “as soon as this week,” none of the company’s main apps have the labels, including Gmail, search, Photos, Docs, and YouTube.

There have been some questions about whether Google is purposefully not updating its apps to avoid the labels, so I looked through every Google app in the iOS App Store to find out whether the updates have been coming.

Some have: 12 apps now have the iOS privacy labels, though they may not be as recognizable as YouTube or Gmail:

• Stadia
• Google Translate
• Google Authenticator
• Google Play Movies and TV
• Google Classroom
• Google Fiber
• Google Fiber TV
• Wear OS
• Onduo for Diabetes
• Project Baseline
• Google Smart Lock
• Motion Stills - GIF,...

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The HomePod mini finally adds its long-promised ultra-wideband handoff feature

Image: Apple

Apple has officially released iOS 14.4 and a matching update for its HomePod mini speaker, adding the long-promised ultra-wideband (UWB) handoff feature that will allow newer iPhones to more seamlessly transfer music, calls, and podcasts between the two devices.

While both the original HomePod and the HomePod mini have supported handing off music for some time, the smaller device features a U1 ultra-wideband chip that promises to make it even easier to transfer content over from an iPhone 12 or iPhone 11 device. The new U1-enhanced functionality also adds additional features, including new visual and haptic feedback. The U1-based system also will give the option to show listening suggestions when you bring your phone close and display...

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Testing sidelined as health departments focus on vaccination

Photo by Paul Hennessy/NurPhoto via Getty Images

Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles was the biggest COVID-19 testing site in the United States, with the ability to test over 10,000 people each day. But two weeks into January, amid a chaotic and slow-moving COVID-19 vaccine rollout, the city shut down the site in order to convert it into a vaccination site. The city closed another testing site, as well, temporarily slashing government-run COVID-19 testing capacity by one-third.

It’s a pattern playing out across the country, in states like Florida, Nevada, and Illinois. Health departments are working with limited resources to fight COVID-19, and many had to make a choice: keep testing at the same level or focus on vaccinating. “We remain very concerned that there’s only so many resources to...

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Apple execs discussed not ‘leaving money on the table’ when setting Apple TV subscription fees

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

In Apple and Epic’s ongoing court battle over App Store fees, one of the key sticking points has been Apple’s insistence on maintaining a 30 percent cut as a cornerstone of the storefront.

But newly revealed Apple executive emails from the case show that the App Store rules that Apple flouts as essential to the fairness of the app economy were carefully negotiated into existence over time in a way that ensured Apple wasn’t “leaving money on the table.”

The emails date back to a 2011 discussion, which included Apple software and services leader Eddy Cue, around how Apple would handle subscription video applications on the Apple TV — an important conversation, given the rise in popularity of streaming services. And while the discussion...

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Verizon Fios is experiencing outages on the East Coast

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

Verizon Fios, the company’s fiber optic network, appears to be experiencing outages in many locations on the US East Coast.

There are more than 22,000 user reports of problems with Verizon on Downdetector, and there appear to be hotspots on Downdetector’s outage map for Verizon in Boston, New York City, Washington, DC, and more. A few Verge staffers are experiencing outages as well.

A screenshot of Downdetector’s outage map for Verizon , captured at 12:25PM ET.

Many people on Twitter are also reporting issues with their Fios service. Verizon’s support account has replied to some individuals reporting problems, saying that it has been “informed of a potential outage in the area.” The account also said there has been a...

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The Alpha 1 is Sony’s new flagship camera with monstrous specs and a $6,500 price

Image: Sony

Sony has today announced its most advanced mirrorless camera yet: the $6,500 Alpha 1 features a new 50.1-megapixel full-frame sensor, is capable of continuous photo shooting at 30 images per second, and can record 8K video at 30fps. It’ll ship beginning in March.

The powerhouse camera is priced significantly above the highest-end mirrorless cameras from Canon and Nikon, but Sony promises that customers who buy in will be rewarded with “the most technologically advanced, innovative camera” it’s ever made.

It sounds like a dream for sports and action photographers: even with its large sensor, Sony says the buffer lets you shoot “up to 155 full-frame compressed RAW images or 165 full-frame JPEG images at up to 30 frames per second with the...

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