Subscribers of Apple TV Plus will continue to get credit refunds until June

Image: Apple

Apple has notified subscribers of its Apple TV Plus streaming service that they’ll continue to get refund credits on their accounts until June, following a second extension of its free trial program earlier this month, 9 to 5 Mac reported.

Apple extended the free year-long trials of Apple TV Plus to customers until July 2021. The trials were included with the purchase of any Apple device (an iPhone, iPad, Mac, or Apple TV) and were initially set to last until November 1st, 2020. This was the second extension; an earlier extension had pushed back the free trial end date to February, allowing users who started a free trial between November 2019 and June 2020 to get up to five months of additional access for free.

But before Apple issued...

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A good COVID-19 vaccine is good enough

A pharmacy tech holds a dose of the Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccine during a clinical trial in December. | Photo by Michael Ciaglo/Getty Images

Experts have been looking forward to seeing results from Johnson and Johnson’s COVID-19 vaccine trials for months. The vaccine is a logistical dream compared to the other two authorized in the US. It’s much easier to store, and it requires only one shot instead of the two required by its competitors. The only outstanding question was how well it actually worked. On Friday, they got their answer — it works pretty well.

In a 43,783 person trial that spanned the globe, the vaccine was 66 percent effective at preventing moderate to severe COVID-19. Now, 66 percent might seem like a let down compared to the 90-plus percent efficacy from Pfizer/BioNTech and Moderna. But that’s a matter of perspective. Before results of those vaccine trials...

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Escape from GameStop stock drama with these deals

The Magic Keyboard for 11-inch iPad Pros and the new iPad Air is $100 off. Scroll down to find the deal | Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge

January 2021 has been full of important news, but it’s been a bit lousy when it comes to deals. Still, we’ve done our part in scouring all of the major retailers for discounts on products we care about (and we think you care about, too). There aren’t many brand-new deals to be found in this week’s dispatch, but go ahead and take a look if you haven’t been following them closely.

If you feel caught up on deals, here’s a reminder that you can hang out here to have a quiet moment from all of the ongoing GameStop and AMC stock drama. Then again, if this is the first time you’re hearing about all of that and want to hear more, check out my colleague Liz Lopatto’s Big Picture video that’s all about it.

Photo by Chris Welch /...

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After aborted SLS hot-fire test, NASA and Boeing will try, try again

Photo by NASA/Robert Markowitz via Getty Images

NASA will make another attempt next month to test-fire its massive Space Launch System rocket after its first try was cut short, the agency said Friday night.

The rocket’s 212-foot-tall core stage will try to fire its four engines for eight minutes at NASA’s Stennis Space Center in Mississippi. The attempt is the last milestone “Green Run” test before the behemoth rocket gets shipped to Florida for its debut launch toward the moon.

All four of the rocket’s Aerojet Rocketdyne RS-25 engines ignited together for the first time earlier this month. But what was intended to be an eight minute test only lasted a little over a minute — a much shorter runtime than what engineers needed to proceed to Florida. The SLS core has been in development...

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GeForce Now comes to Chrome browsers and M1 Macs

Image: Nvidia

Nvidia’s GeForce Now game streaming service has launched for the Chrome web browser and M1 Macs in beta (via XDA-Developers), bringing resource intensive games to laptops and other devices that might not have been powerful to run them on their own. We just tested out the Chrome browser version on a Mac and a Windows 10 PC, and it seems to be running smoothly.

GeForce Now already had applications for Windows 10 and Android devices, but expanded to an even wider audience with a beta launch for Chromebooks in August of 2020, and followed it up by beating Stadia to iOS devices with a web app workaround that lets you stream games through the Safari web browser there.

GeForce Now running in Chrome on MacOS.

Now,...

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Elon Musk’s SpaceX violated its launch license in explosive Starship test, triggering an FAA probe

Photo by Loren Elliott / Getty Images

SpaceX’s first high-altitude test flight of its Starship rocket, which launched successfully but exploded in a botched landing attempt in December, violated the terms of its Federal Aviation Administration test license, according to two people familiar with the incident. Both the landing explosion and license violation prompted a formal investigation by the FAA, driving regulators to put extra scrutiny on Elon Musk’s hasty Mars rocket test campaign.

The December test launch of the “Serial Number 8” Starship prototype at SpaceX’s Boca Chica, Texas, facilities was hailed by Musk as a success: “Mars, here we come!!” the chief executive tweeted moments after the rocket exploded on its landing, celebrating SN8’s successful 8-mile-high ascent...

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Jared Leto and Anne Hathaway will help Apple re-create the WeWork disaster for TV

Image: Warner Bros. Pictures

Apple’s television adaptation of the podcast adaptation of the real-life soap opera that was WeWork now has some major talent attached. Jared Leto, the soon-to-be leading vampire of __Morbius, and Anne Hathaway, are joining the Apple TV Plus series WeCrashed as Adam and Rebekah Neumann, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

WeCrashed takes its name from the Wondery podcast it’s based on, detailing the meteoric rise and fall of the real estate company that billed itself as a technology company. Many of WeWork’s problems (and, presumably, the plot of the show) were centered on the Neumanns. Adam Neumann was described as a risk factor in the S-1 documents released before the company’s IPO, and a profile of the Neumanns in The Wall Street...

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How many stocks will Robinhood let you buy? The numbers keep shrinking

Illustrations by Alex Castro / The Verge

Robinhood only wants users to have a limited number of shares of companies like GameStop, and that number keeps getting smaller and smaller. On Thursday, the company halted users’ ability to buy stocks that were associated with r/WallStreetBets, including GameStop, AMC, and Nokia, but the company promised that users would be able to buy limited quantities on Friday. Today, it released a shifting support document that details just how limited things are — and to slightly paraphrase Lando, the deal’s getting worse all the time.

When trading opened earlier today, users were limited to owning five shares of GameStop in aggregate, meaning they could only own up to five — if they already had three GameStop stocks, they could only buy two more...

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G4 will return with a weekly series on Twitch and YouTube

The revival of G4, a network focusing on video games with programs like X- Play and Attack of the Show! , is underway. The company announced today that it’s launching weekly series B4G4 on Friday, January 29th. The series will air on Twitch and YouTube.

B4G4 is part of the lead-up to the network’s return this summer. It will feature original sketches, music parodies, game reviews, and more. Viewers will also be able to provide feedback on that content via the network’s Reddit community.

Twitter accounts for Attack of the Show! and X-Play teased G4’s revival last year during the digital version of San Diego Comic-Con; both shows are expected to return. The network has been hunting for talent via a Twitter campaign.

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Facebook’s Oversight Board wants your feedback on whether the company was right to ban Trump

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

Facebook’s Oversight Board, the independent body empowered to review the social network’s most complex platform moderation decisions, is now accepting public comments on the company’s decision to “indefinitely” ban former President Donald Trump in the aftermath of the US Capitol attack on January 6th.

The two posts in question include the one-minute video Trump posted to his account on January 6th repeating false claims that the US election was stolen from him and offering words of sympathy to the Capitol rioters, some of whom were, at that moment, continuing to endanger the lives of Congress members and Capitol police.

The second is a written post in which Trump wrote, “These are the things and events that happen when a sacred...

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Tesla’s new Model S will automatically shift between park, reverse, and drive

Tesla’s redesigned Model S and Model X will have a very unconventional and possibly controversial feature: automatic shifting between park, reverse, neutral, and drive (or PRND). There will be an option to change drive modes on the touchscreen, but CEO Elon Musk made the case for automatic shifting on Twitter late Wednesday night.

“Car guesses drive direction based on what obstacles it sees, context & nav map,” Musk tweeted. “After you drive without using a PRND stalk/stick for a few days, it gets very annoying to go back & use a shifter! You can override on touchscreen.”

An internal Tesla document obtained by Electrek __ expands, slightly, on what Musk means by “guesses”:

The vehicle uses its Autopilot sensors to intelligently and...

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Go read this profile of the trader whose huge bet on GameStop moved the entire market

The markets are not okay. If you’ve paid any attention to internet chatter this week, you’ve probably seen the names RoaringKitty or DeepFuckingValue — the bullish trader behind the recent GameStop stock phenomenon who’s inspired millions of retail investors to get behind his bet, which has nearly bankrupted at least one hedge fund. Until recently, the person behind the handles has been something of a mystery; they post their balance sheet with their millions in gains and losses on Reddit’s r/WallStreetBets forum, but that’s all there’s been to go on. Today, however, The Wall Street Journal catches up with the 34-year-old behind the sensation: his name is Keith Gill, and he’s a father and certified financial analyst who lives in...

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The gorgeous Asus ROG Flow X13 will be over $1,000 cheaper without its eGPU

The Asus ROG Flow X13 was one of the most-hyped announcements of CES 2021, with good reason — how often do you see a 13-inch convertible gaming laptop, especially one that looks so cool? — but there was a catch. On Asus’ store, the ROG Flow X13 was only listed in a $3,000 bundle with an XG Mobile eGPU. (This was also the only preorder link given to media at the time of the Flow X13’s announcement.) That’s a chunk of change, and it led most Flow X13 reviewers (myself included) to express reservations about the steep price.

But a new clarification from Asus may change the game. On the latest episode of the ROG Pulse Podcast, Asus marketing manager Sascha Krohn indicated that the company does, in the future, plan to sell the ROG Flow X13...

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WandaVision episode 4: Ready, A.I.M., theorize

Courtesy of Marvel Studios

Certain names have popped up again and again over the first few episodes of WandaVision, but there’s one organization we haven’t discussed yet: A.I.M.

Before diving into this week’s theories, however, let’s take a second to acknowledge just where the show is within the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s timeline. Marvel Studios previously confirmed that WandaVision took place just after Avengers: Endgame , but thanks to a sad revelation about Monica Rambeau’s mom, Maria Rambeau, that plays at the beginning of the fourth episode, we know it’s about three weeks since the blip. (Remember, the “blip” is how they referred to Thanos’ great snappening, referencing events that took place in Avengers: Infinity War.)

Three weeks is a relatively fresh...

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Netflix testing a timer feature on Android devices that stops streaming after set period

LIAM DANIEL/NETFLIX

Netflix is launching a global test today on Android devices that will allow subscribers to set a timer for their viewing period.

The new feature lets people choose between four timer settings: 15 minutes, 30 minutes, 45 minutes, or end of whatever people are watching. After the selected time limit comes to an end, the Netflix app will stop. This should, in theory, help conserve battery life on Android devices while also ensuring that episodes don’t continue to auto-play. (Fall asleep to Bridgerton __ without worrying about where you left off!)

Although the test is limited to select users globally with Android devices right now, Netflix will explore bringing it to other devices, including TV sets and desktops, depending on how widely the...

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You can watch the Snyder Cut while snacking on a $130 Justice League-themed meal kit

Image: Wonderland / Twitter

Zack Snyder’s Justice League — known to fans as the mythical “Snyder Cut” — hits HBO Max on March 18th, and Warner Bros. is celebrating the at-home blockbuster relaunch in a unique way: with customized, themed $130 Snyder Cut meal boxes.

Described as “a first-of-its-kind, immersive, at-home dining experience” for customers in the US and the UK, Warner Bros. is teaming up with Wonderland Restaurants (a self-described “creative & innovation studio for the food and beverage industry”) to create the kits. Wonderland Restaurants is also currently working on Park Row, an upcoming high-end DC Comics-themed restaurant in London that was announced in early 2020.

The meal kits are designed to resemble the film’s MacGuffin-y Mother Boxes and cost...

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Tweaking COVID-19 vaccines will keep them effective against new variants

Photo by PUNIT PARANJPE/AFP via Getty Images

Since the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, experts have cautioned that the first batch of vaccines created against the virus might not be the last. Like all viruses, this one would mutate, and eventually, those mutations could make the virus different enough that a different vaccine would be needed to combat it. Only two months into the vaccination campaign, researchers are preparing for that inevitability.

There’s early evidence from South Africa that both the Novavax and the Johnson and Johnson vaccine candidates are not as effective against a variant form of the virus first identified in the country, called B.1.351. The shots still offer some defense and still protect against hospitalization and death. Preliminary research...

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University will stop using controversial remote-testing software following student outcry

Students head to class at the University of Illinois in Urbana-Champaign. | E. Jason Wambsgans/Chicago Tribune/Tribune News Service via Getty Images

The University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign announced that it will discontinue its use of remote-proctoring software Proctorio after its summer 2021 term. The decision follows almost a year of outcry over the service, both on UIUC’s campus and around the US, citing concerns with privacy, discrimination, and accessibility.

Proctorio is one of the most prominent software platforms that colleges and universities use to watch for cheating on remote tests. It uses what its website describes as “machine learning and advanced facial detection technologies” to record students through their webcams while they work on their exams and monitor the position of their heads. The software flags “suspicious signs” to professors, who can review its...

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Vergecast: This week’s GameStop timeline

GameStop photo

The Verge had extensive coverage this week of how the subreddit r/WallStreetBets sent GameStop’s stock skyrocketing, and the chaos that ensued thereafter.

For this week’s episode of The Vergecast, The Verge ’s Nilay Patel, Dieter Bohn, and Elizabeth Lopatto attempt to chronicle that chaos into a timeline of events, while also explaining the interweaving machinations of stock trading, short selling, and internet culture.

Listen here or on your preferred podcast player to hear the full discussion.

Verge s tories featured in this episode:

• A year into coronavirus, we’re still counting the dead
• Slow certification process keeps some pharmacists from giving COVID-19 vaccines
• Go read this report about the tech systems behind the US’s vaccine...

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The ‘Snyder Cut’ of Justice League is coming to HBO Max on March 18th

Zack Snyder’s Justice League (aka “The Snyder Cut”) will hit HBO Max on March 18th, the director announced on Twitter today.

The original theatrical release of Justice League debuted in November 2017 and, ahead of its release, endured a difficult production. Most notably, director Joss Whedon stepped in to finish the film during post-production after Snyder stepped away from the project for personal reasons. After Justice League was released, fans criticized Whedon’s contributions to the film, which included a lighter tone. Fans started an internet campaign for Warner Bros. to “Release the Snyder Cut” in the years since.

Reborn #SnyderCut Streaming 3.18.21 #UsUnited pic.twitter.com/q5pVjCwYur

— Zack Snyder (@ZackSnyder) January 29,...

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Johnson and Johnson says single-shot COVID-19 vaccine is 66 percent effective

Photo by JUSTIN TALLIS/AFP via Getty Images

A single shot of the Johnson and Johnson COVID-19 vaccine can prevent 85 percent of severe cases of the disease, the company announced today. Overall, it is 66 percent effective against both moderate and severe cases of disease.

“We’re 85 perfect effective at preventing severe disease, which we define as disease that makes you feel particularly sick at home, or may go to the hospital, or worse,” Mathai Mammen, global head of research and development at Johnson and Johnson, told CNN. The company plans to file for emergency authorization next week.

The efficacy is lower than that of the two COVID-19 vaccines already authorized for use in the United States, which prevent about 95 percent of symptomatic cases of COVID-19. Those vaccines...

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Now is the best time to play the Yakuza series (on Xbox)

For almost a decade and a half, the Yakuza franchise was all but exclusive to Sony’s PlayStation consoles. Other than a Japan-only Wii U remaster of the first two games, every single mainline entry or spinoff was released solely on the PlayStation 2, PSP, PS3, or PS4.

Then Microsoft came along. Along with Kingdom Hearts and Final Fantasy , Yakuza has slowly become a flagship Japanese series for Microsoft’s Xbox Game Pass service. It all started under a year ago with the addition of Yakuza 0 , and as of this week you can play almost every mainline Yakuza game on Game Pass.

Couple this with the fact that the next-gen version of Yakuza: Like A Dragon is still exclusive to Xbox Series consoles, with a PS5 version not set to arrive until March,...

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Where to buy the Samsung Galaxy S21, S21 Plus, and S21 Ultra,

Photo by Chaim Gartenberg / The Verge

Samsung’s new line of smartphones the S21 line — the Galaxy S21, S21 Plus, and S21 Ultra are now available for purchase at various retailers. Below, we tell you where you can order them and what deals you can get from each retailer. As a reminder, their prices range from $999.99 to upward of $1,379.99.

If you want to check out our thoughts before you buy, we reviewed the Galaxy S21 and the Galaxy S21 Ultra. If you want more information on the Galaxy S21 Plus, The Verge ’s Chaim Gartenberg did a hands-on earlier this month for all three phones.

Where to buy the Samsung Galaxy S21

• You can order the Samsung Galaxy S21 directly through Samsung’s website, starting at $799.99. If you have a phone to trade-in, you can get up to $700 in...

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Google salvaged Robinhood’s one-star rating by deleting nearly 100,000 negative reviews

Google is actively removing negative reviews of the Robinhood app from the Google Play Store, the company confirmed to The Verge. After some disgruntled Robinhood users organized campaigns to give the app a one-star review on Google’s Play Store and Apple’s App Store — and succeeded in review-bombing it all the way down to a one-star rating — the company has now deleted enough reviews to bring it back up to nearly four stars.

Robinhood came under intense scrutiny on Thursday, after the stock trading app announced it would block purchases of GameStop, AMC, and other stocks made popular by the r/WallStreetBets subreddit, and some users have already replaced their deleted one-star reviews with new ones to make their anger heard.

Here’s a...

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Gambling apps are coming to Google’s Play Store in the US and 14 other countries

Illustration: Alex Castro / The Verge

An upcoming change to Google’s Play Store policies will allow gambling and betting Android apps that use real money in 15 more countries, including the US, according to 9to5Google. Currently, gambling apps are only allowed in four countries: Brazil, France, Ireland, and the United Kingdom.

The new rules will be applied starting on March 1st, and they’ll permit gambling apps in Australia, Belgium, Canada, Colombia, Denmark, Finland, Germany, Japan, Mexico, New Zealand, Norway, Romania, Spain, Sweden, and the United States. Of course, each country will have its own limitations on what kind of online gambling is legal, with some countries allowing online casinos, sports betting, lotteries, and daily fantasy sports, and some being more...

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Stadia’s biggest (timed) exclusive won’t be exclusive anymore

Crayta ’s timed Stadia exclusivity is coming to an end soon, with developer Unit 2 Games confirming that the title will be making its way to PC “very soon.” Originally announced as a “First on Stadia” timed exclusive, Crayta ’s jump to other platforms was always more a question of “when” rather than “if,” but the announcement marks the first official indication of the regular PC port.

The news — originally spotted by 9to5Google, citing a tweet from Twitter user @Yogarine — comes from an announcement by Unit 2 Games in the game’s Discord chat. The company promises that it’ll have more information (including a launch date and the digital storefront where Crayta will be offered) in the coming weeks, but it does promise that it’s “still every...

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Epic Games Store users claimed 749 million free games last year

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

Epic Games Store released a bevy of stats to show off how its game storefront grew in 2020 compared to 2019, its launch year. It announced that there are over 160 million accounts now on PC, up from the 108 million users registered in 2019. It almost doubled in monthly active users from 32 million in December 2019 to 56 million last month. Epic also saw its daily active user count go up to 31.3 million, which the company claims is a 192 percent boost. Its peak concurrent player count hit 13 million in 2020, almost doubling its 7 million peak in 2019.

Unsurprising to no one, giving away free games each week is a nice way to keep people coming back to your storefront. (It also helps when your store is the sole provider of Fortnite on PC.)...

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Robinhood will allow ‘limited buys’ of stocks like GameStop starting Friday

Robinhood has announced that, beginning on Friday, January 29th, it will allow “limited buys” on restricted stocks, potentially signaling the end of a brutal day-long hold on GameStop, AMC, BlackBerry, Nokia, and other stocks.

“Starting tomorrow, we plan to allow limited buys of these securities,” the company said in a blog post. “We’ll continue to monitor the situation and may make adjustments as needed.” The company’s statement does not elaborate on how limited purchases will be for GameStop and the other restricted stocks.

"“To be clear, this was a risk-management decision”"

On Thursday morning, Robinhood restricted purchases of GameStop and the other stocks, which had been driven to unusually high prices by coordinated activity on the...

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Go read why r/WallStreetBets was founded and how its creator left

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

The Wall Street Journal has written an excellent profile of the man who started r/WallStreetBets, the subreddit that’s been embroiled in controversy this week. His name is Jaime Rogozinski, and if you’re wondering how he’s been feeling about this whole thing, he likens it to “watching one of those horror films where you can see the bad guy slowly going up the stairs.”

The article gives the impression that the subreddit, which is now trying to raise the price of GameStop stocks to the moon, wasn’t only created for profit — it was created for fun. Rogozinski was apparently bored with the usual stock market advice about just buying index funds and was looking for actual discussions about individual stocks. He also talks about how the...

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E-Trade confirms it halted GameStop and AMC stock, will let you buy some Friday

Photo by Justin Sullivan / Getty Images

Financial services company E-Trade has restricted purchases of GameStop and AMC stock, the company has confirmed to The Verge — and, like Robinhood, it plans to resume trading of both stocks on Friday.

The two stocks have become popular on forums like the r/WallStreetBets subreddit and seen their prices skyrocket to unprecedented highs over the past week. (GameStop hit $483 earlier on Thursday and briefly went above that during the day. Last Thursday, the stock closed at $43.)

Here’s E-Trade’s full statement:

Amid the extraordinary volumes in GME and AMC, we chose to limit client activity in these names late in the trading day in order to ensure that we could continue to serve our broader client base. We take actions like this seriously,...

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