Sony sold 4.5 million PlayStation 5 consoles last year

Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge

Sony shipped 4.5 million PlayStation 5 units worldwide in 2020, as revealed by information published alongside the company’s latest earnings report. The number highlights Sony’s current ability to mass-produce the console, which has been extremely difficult to buy since its launch in November.

Demand for the PlayStation 4 dropped dramatically year-on-year, with 1.4 million units shipped in the October-December quarter — a 77 percent decrease from the previous year. Sony actually managed to sell fewer PS4s in the holiday quarter than it did from July to September.

"The best quarter in PlayStation history"

Sony’s gaming business overall performed much better than a year ago, with analyst Daniel Ahmad noting that it was actually the best...

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Huawei’s next folding phone is coming on February 22nd

Huawei will announce a new flagship foldable phone later this month, according to a Weibo post on the company’s official page. Based on the name, the Mate X2 sounds like it should be a more substantial followup to the original Mate X than Huawei’s last foldable phone, the faster and slightly tweaked Mate XS.

Unless Huawei is being deliberately cryptic, the teaser image for the Mate X2 actually suggests that the phone could possibly switch to a different folding screen design with the flexible panel on the inside, like Samsung’s Galaxy Z Fold line. The previous Mate X phones had a single panel that wrapped around the outside when closed, like Royole’s Flexpai devices.

Otherwise, there’s not much in the way of details on the Mate X2 yet....

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This hypercar is China’s first Belt and Road electric vehicle project

Image: Silk EV

A new engineering and design startup called Silk EV headquartered in Italy’s venerable Motor Valley is more than just another attempt at making an electric hypercar. It’s also the latest arrow in the quiver for China’s massive Belt and Road project, though the first that deals with electric cars.

Silk EV announced on Tuesday that it will co-develop an “ultra-luxury hypercar” called the S9 in the home region of Lamborghini and Ferrari with First Automobile Works (FAW), China’s original state-owned automaker. The S9 will be part of the Chinese automaker’s longstanding Hongqi brand, which means “red flag” and was once exclusively made for high-ranking Chinese government officials before becoming more widely available.

The two companies...

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A Cyberpunk 2077 security exploit makes installing mods risky business

Image: CD Projekt Red

CD Projekt Red has warned players that installing Cyberpunk 2077 mods or custom save files on the PC could pose a security risk (via Kotaku). According to the company’s tweet, there’s apparently a “vulnerability in external DLL files the game uses which can be used to execute code on PCs.” The game’s official mod tools were just released last week.

The company warns users not to install files from unknown sources, though as Kotaku points out, that pretty much rules out all mods unless you can read and understand their code. When you’re dealing with a vulnerability that could potentially lead to arbitrary code running on your computer, it’s probably best not to risk it until a fix is available.

If you plan to use @CyberpunkGame...

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The GameStop stock roller coaster has come to the dip

It hasn’t been a good day for WallStreetBets, as GameStop’s stock has plummeted today. AMC, the community’s other bet, dropped as well. But unlike previous dips, the stocks don’t appear to be rallying. Prices stayed low for the entire trading day, something that hasn’t happened since WallStreetBets became a household name one week ago.

When the market closed today, the price of GameStop was $90 even, an 81 percent drop from GameStop’s peak at $483, and a 58 percent drop from its price of $218 on Friday evening. AMC is down too, closing today at $7.82, which is a 61 percent drop from its peak at $19.88.

It’s hard to believe that in August of last year, GameStop was trading at $4.50. Between then and last week, some investors bet that the...

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Apple’s next macOS Big Sur update should make iPad apps look less awkward on the Mac

Photo by Alexander Kramer for The Verge

Apple just yesterday released its latest update for macOS Big Sur with improved Bluetooth reliability and a handful of bug fixes. And today, it’s rolling out the first beta of macOS Big Sur 11.3, which will bring further refinements to Safari, Reminders, Apple Music, Apple News, and other apps. This update will also try to improve the experience of running iPhone and iPad apps on M1 Macs, which can still be a little awkward at this early stage (and without a touchscreen display).

iPadOS apps will now appear larger than before — if your screen size allows for it — and beta testers will find a new preference pane for iPhone and iPad apps that’ll let them better personalize the “touch alternatives” keyboard commands. Touch alternatives...

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Another SpaceX Starship nails clean test flight, but explodes on landing

SpaceX’s latest Starship prototype launched on Tuesday, soaring miles above its South Texas facilities in a successful flight demonstration before exploding during the landing attempt. It’s the second failed landing in a row, after a previous prototype, SN8, launched and failed to stick the landing in December.

This week’s launch demo — one of many in the books already — follows weeks of tension between SpaceX and the Federal Aviation Administration, which approves test launches like this one. During its high-altitude test launch with SN8 two months ago, the company violated its FAA launch license. This triggered an investigation that held up today’s SN9 flight and frustrated SpaceX CEO Elon Musk, The Verge reported last week.

"SpaceX..."

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The iCloud for Windows version that let you sync Apple passwords is no longer available

Apple’s rocky rollout of iCloud password sync on Windows has hit another bump: you can no longer download the version of the app that allowed syncing passwords from your Apple devices with your Chrome web browser on a Windows PC (via Windows Central). Version 12 of Apple’s iCloud for Windows app released last week with supposed support for the feature, but the Chrome extension to make it work wasn’t available until two days ago. Now, version 12 is gone from the Windows Store, with version 11.6 taking its place.

Weirdly, the changelog on the Windows Store still says that the password syncing functionality is present. However, upon downloading, the app shows the version as 11.6 in the top right. We verified this for ourselves, and you can...

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Instagram is stopping some people from posting feed photos to stories

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

Instagram is disabling the ability to share (and reshare) posts from your feed to stories as part of a test to see how it changes engagement with the popular feature. The company announced the change in a notification banner sent to users in “select countries” where the test is being conducted, Social Media Today __ writes. We’ve reached out to Instagram for specifics on exactly which countries are participating and will update if we hear more.

“We hear from our community that they want to see fewer posts in Stories,” the notification starts. “During this test, you won’t be able to add a feed post to your Story.” Resharing posts to stories is a fairly common practice, though it does create situations where you’ll see a post in your feed and...

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TikTok reduces India staff after long-standing countrywide ban

A user browses TikTok in Tehatta, India. | Photo by Soumyabrata Roy/NurPhoto via Getty Images

More than seven months after India issued a countrywide ban on TikTok, the app is significantly reducing its staffing in the country. On Tuesday, Nikkei Asia reported that TikTok was “essentially withdrawing” from India, citing sources familiar with the company.

Reached for comment, a TikTok spokesperson confirmed that it was reducing its workforce in India but disputed the details of Nikkei ’s report.

In a statement, a TikTok spokesperson told The Verge: “ Given the lack of feedback from the government about how to resolve this issue in the subsequent seven months, it is with deep sadness that we have decided to reduce our workforce in India... [We] hope to get the chance to relaunch TikTok in India to support the hundreds of millions of...

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Google Meet’s new ‘green room’ lets you do an audio / video pre-check

It can be difficult to figure out how you’re coming across in a videoconference, especially if you want to make sure everything works before you start the meeting. How is your lighting? Are you sitting too close or too far from the camera? Is your audio okay, are you accidentally muted, or do you sound as if you’re in an echo chamber?

Google has now made it easier to check your appearance and your tech before a Meet conference with its new “green room” feature (via 9to5Google). When you start or prepare to join a meeting, in the usual “Ready to join?” window that first appears, you will now also see a small button below your video that says “Check your audio and video.” Just click on that button, and a pop-up window will not only show...

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Apex Legends is finally coming to the Nintendo Switch on March 9th

Apex Legends is coming to the Nintendo Switch very soon. Today, EA announced that the portable version of its sci-fi battle royale will debut on Nintendo’s tablet on March 9th.

Chad Grenier, Apex ’s game director, says the new version will include “cross-platform play, our latest seasonal content, and full feature parity with the other versions of the game.” Apex Legends originally launched in early 2019, and a Switch version was announced last June. It’s developed by Respawn, the studio behind games like Titanfall and Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order.

The Switch version launches not long after the game’s eighth season, which launches today. To make up for the difference, EA says that “since we’re launching a few weeks after the start of...

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The rise of the GOP Poster’s Caucus

It was September 2018, while Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey was testifying before Congress for the first time, when sitting lawmakers had their first confrontation with the wild nature of the online right. Nearly 90 minutes after the hearing began, Laura Loomer, a far-right internet celebrity, stood up from the committee audience. “Please help us Mr. President before it is too late,” Loomer yelled, selfie stick in hand.

She said something about “censoring” and then something about “shadowbanning,” although it was hard to make out the argument.

“What is she trying to say?” Rep. Billy Long (R-MO) asked, before pretending to lead a live auction, imitating an auctioneer’s call to drown out Loomer’s voice and forcing her out the hearing room.

A...

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Amazon’s latest earnings cap off a sterling 2020, despite the pandemic

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

Amazon founder and soon-to-be-former CEO Jeff Bezos is stepping down from his role, making way for Amazon Web Services CEO Andy Jassy to take his place, and the company couldn’t be in better shape financially for the big transition.

Despite the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, Amazon has kept growing bigger during times that have strained many other businesses. In its Q4 2020 earnings release this afternoon, the company reported net income more than doubling to $7.2 billion for the quarter, compared to $3.3 billion for the same period in 2019. Amazon’s full-year 2020 net sales were up 38 percent, to $386.1 billion.

There’s a little more to unpack in these Q4 earnings than one might usually see. For 2020, Amazon shifted its Prime Day shopping...

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New trailers: The Map of Tiny Perfect Things, Ginny & Georgia, Young Rock and more

Dwayne Johnson in Young Rock | NBC

I think I’m in Ted Lasso withdrawal, you guys; no other shows are quite working for me since I finished it. I just started season 2 of Servant , though, thinking maybe I needed a genre-switch. Servant is still creepy, and Lauren Ambrose’s Dorothy is still both totally unlikeable and totally sympathetic at the same time, which is a marvelous bit of character development. We’ll see how things go, but chances are I’m just going to re- binge Ted again.

This week’s trailers are a nice mixed bag of comedy, teen romance, and spy thriller. Also The Rock!

The Map of Tiny Perfect Things

So the trailer gets the obvious out of the way early on— it’s about is a teenager stuck in a repeating time loop a la “ Groundhog Day and Edge of Tomorrow ,” as lead...

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NASA delays moon lander awards as Biden team mulls moonshot program

Photo by Ozkan Bilgin/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images

NASA last week quietly delayed its plan to award two high-profile crewed lunar lander contracts, moving the finish line back two months for a crucial program under the Trump administration’s hasty timeline to get astronauts on the moon in 2024. With short funding from Congress and a new administration focused on more pressing national issues, the move was expected.

Elon Musk’s SpaceX, a team of aerospace giants led by Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin, and Leidos-owned Dynetics won a combined $967 million in seed funding from NASA last year to develop rivaling concepts for a human lunar landing system. It’s the space agency’s first effort to spend money on astronaut moon landers since the Apollo program in the 1970s.

Last Wednesday, NASA told the...

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Amazon’s Ring now reportedly partners with more than 2,000 US police and fire departments

Photo by Dan Seifert / The Verge

All but two US states — Montana and Wyoming— now have police or fire departments participating in Amazon’s Ring network, which lets law enforcement ask users for footage from their Ring security cameras to assist with investigations, the Financial Times reported, Figures from Ring show more than 1,189 departments joined the program in 2020 for a total of 2,014. That’s up sharply from 703 departments in 2019 and just 40 in 2018.

The FT reports that local law enforcement departments on the platform asked for Ring videos for a total of more than 22,335 incidents in 2020. The disclosure data from Ring also shows that law enforcement made some 1,900 requests — such as subpoenas, search warrants, and court orders— for footage or data from Ring...

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The people wanted Lego bike lanes, and Lego is finally listening

Screenshot: Lego

The quest to get one of the most popular toymakers in the world to make a little space for bicycles

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Motorola One 5G Ace review: a weak hand

The Ace offers a large screen and massive battery, but it falls short in some key areas

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Facebook is getting pulled into a fight about the politics of Israel

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

On November 10th, a Facebook employee sent out an unusual email to an unknown outside party, hoping to arrange a conversation about how the platform moderated against anti-Semitism. “We are looking at the question of how we should interpret attacks on ‘Zionists,’” reads the letter, whose recipient was redacted, “to determine whether the term is a proxy for attacking Jewish or Israeli people.”

That strange but seemingly innocuous email has set off a firestorm in certain corners of the left. Since Tuesday, activists have been circulating a petition calling on the platform to halt any potential changes to the way Facebook moderates the word “Zionist.” Both sides agree the term is often used as part of racist rhetoric that is accurately...

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The latest Steam Game Festival kicks off Wednesday

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

Valve’s latest Steam Game Festival begins Wednesday, giving access to playable demos of more than 500 upcoming games from indie developers, along with livestreamed chats and panel discussions. The first iteration of the festival took place alongside The Game Awards in December 2019, and was followed by similar events last fall and spring that provided indie developers a chance to show off their titles after the 2020 Game Developers Conference was canceled.

A trailer video from Steam titled Play What’s Next teases a few of the games that look to be available for demo during the event, which include Genesis Noir from Feral Cat Den; The Riftbreaker from Exor Studios; Narita Boy from Studio Koba; Almighty: Kill Your Gods from Runwild...

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Volunteers built a one-stop website to find open NYC vaccine appointments

Photo by ANGELA WEISS/AFP via Getty Images

The first two months of the COVID-19 vaccination campaign have been chaotic: local health departments and hospitals are struggling put the limited shots they have available in arms, and people eligible for those shots are often frustrated by buggy sign-up websites. Older adults, in particular, are having trouble with online tools.

In New York City, one of the main pain points is that everything is fractured. Multiple different groups — including the city, the state, and various hospital groups — are distributing the vaccine across dozens of sites. That leaves New Yorkers juggling multiple registration websites as they search for open slots

After experiencing the frustration of jumping from site to site to site firsthand, software...

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G.I. Joe’s Fortnite collaboration includes a Snake Eyes skin and action figure

With all of its recent licensed characters, which includes everyone from Sarah Connor to The Mandalorian, the virtual battlefield of Fortnite is starting to resemble a playground full of action figures. When you think about it like that, a collaboration with G.I. Joe makes a lot of sense. With that in mind, Epic and Hasbro announced that iconic character Snake Eyes will be available as part of the Fortnite universe starting today — both in-game and as a physical toy.

The new version of the character is called Snake Eyes: Zero Point edition, an allusion to a key part of Fortnite lore (one which took on more significance this season). The in-game version will be available starting on January 30th for 1,800 V-bucks, while a 6-inch-tall...

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Google union in turmoil following global alliance announcement

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

The Alphabet Workers Union (AWU) is in turmoil following the announcement of an international alliance on Monday. The alliance, Alpha Global, was billed as a worker-led initiative, but union members in the US say they didn’t know about it until The Verge published an exclusive. That piece included a press release quote from AWU executive council member Parul Koul, which she says she didn’t write.

The news was an unwelcome surprise to union members who expect the Alphabet Workers Union to run democratically. Now, multiple sources tell The Verge that some AWU organizers are considering pushing the group to disaffiliate from the Communications Workers of America (CWA), a national union representing workers in telecommunications and media....

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Coachella has been canceled for the third time due to the coronavirus pandemic

Photo by Timothy Norris/Getty Images for Coachella

Health officials have ordered the Coachella music festival scheduled for April to be canceled due to the coronavirus pandemic. It’s the third time the pandemic has forced the annual outdoor festival that draws hundreds of thousands of fans to the California desert to be postponed or canceled.

“The Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival and the Stagecoach Country Music Festival currently scheduled for April 2021 are hereby canceled,” Riverside County Health Officer Dr. Cameron Kaiser said in an order issued Friday. Kaiser’s order also canceled the Stagecoach Country Music Festival, also scheduled for April.

Due to the pandemic, Public Health Officer Dr. Cameron Kaiser today (Jan. 29) signed a public health order canceling Coachella...

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Go read this story about how bad software helped slow coronavirus vaccine distribution

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

It’s no secret that the US is struggling to distribute coronavirus vaccines; some states haven’t received enough doses, and finding an appointment on sign-up websites has been a chaotic experience. A new report in MIT Technology Review looks at why, almost a year into the pandemic, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention seemed totally unprepared for actually getting shots into people’s arms.

According to Technology Review , the agency knew it needed a robust, one- stop shop that could be used by patients, clinics, employers, and government officials. But instead, the CDC spent $44 million on something called the Vaccine Administration Management System —-VAMS— built by consulting firm Deloitte (via no-bid contracts) which was so...

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After a wild week of stocks, you can’t stream most of the biggest Wall Street films

It has been a wild week for the stock market, with amateur traders from Reddit’s r/WallStreetBets subreddit battling traditional investors. The past several days have been full of massive swings in stocks like GameStop and AMC and app-fueled drama that’s sparked a larger debate over the nature of Wall Street as a whole.

But if you were hoping to kick back this weekend, relax, and enjoy a classic business movie about shark-like investors and over-confident Wall Street executives, you’re probably out of luck. Nearly every major finance film isn’t available to stream right now in the US (at least, not at the time of publication of this article), thanks to the capricious nature of the streaming marketplace, the increasingly fragmented...

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WhatsApp is using Status messages—its version of Stories— to try to reassure users about privacy

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

Facebook-owned messaging app WhatsApp has started posting Status messages to users about its “commitment to your privacy.” The in-app messages were appearing for members of The Verge staff in the US and UK on Saturday, and some users reported the Status messages — WhatsApp’s version of Snapchat Stories or Twitter Fleets—have been appearing in India for a while now.

“There’s been a lot of misinformation and confusion around our recent update and we want to help everyone understand the facts behind how WhatsApp protects people’s privacy and security,” a WhatsApp spokesperson said in an email to The Verge. “Going forward, we’re going to provide updates to people in the Status tab so people hear from WhatsApp directly. Our first update...

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Chromebooks just had their best year ever

According to analysts, Chromebooks had an incredible 2020, with the last quarter being the strongest ever for Google’s laptops (via 9to5Google). According to research firms Gartner and Canalys, over 30 million of the devices shipped last year, with somewhere between 11 and 11.7 million shipping in Q4 alone. Canalys says that’s a staggering 287 percent __ more than were shipped in Q4 2019.

The firms disagree on how much growth this is when compared to 2019, but both estimate that it’s a lot: Gartner estimates that Chromebooks are up 80 percent, while Canalys says it’s 109 percent. For comparison, PC sales were up by 11 percent this year, which is the biggest growth the category had seen in a decade. This isn’t to give the impression that...

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Acer’s Swift 5 (late 2020) puts the ‘ultra’ in ‘ultraportable’

A lightweight laptop that doesn’t cut too many corners

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