Polestar made a more powerful version of its electric sedan for the Goodwood Festival

Swedish electric performance automaker Polestar made a more powerful version of its electric fastback sedan for the Goodwood Festival of Speed in the UK, which kicks off today, July 8th.

Polestar, which is jointly owned by Volvo and Volvo’s Chinese parent company Geely, has tuned the dual motor configuration to pump out 476 horsepower, compared to 408 horsepower in the production version. By doing this, it hopes that the modified Polestar 2 will be able to finish Goodwood’s hill-climbing race in record time.

The company has also widened the vehicle’s stance by 10 millimeters on both sides and lowered the ride height by 25 mm to improve its handling on the track. And it’s carried over a few features from its first vehicle, the plug-in...

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Mozilla’s RegretsReporter data shows YouTube keeps recommending harmful videos

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

That the machine learning-driven feed of YouTube recommendations can frequently surface results of an edgy or even radicalizing bent isn’t much of a question anymore. YouTube itself has pushed tools that it says could give users more control over their feed and transparency about certain recommendations, but it’s difficult for outsiders to know what kind of impact they’re having. Now, after spending much of the last year collecting data from the RegretsReporter extension (available for Firefox or Chrome), the Mozilla Foundation has more information on what people see when the algorithm makes the wrong choice and has released a detailed report (pdf).

In September 2020 the extension launched, taking a crowdsourced approach to find...

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Another Amazon-first gadget brand has suspiciously vanished: Choetech

If you’re in the market for a new charger or cable, you might find fewer brands on Amazon than you’d expect — because at least six of them have mysteriously disappeared. The giant retailer confirmed last month that it had removed Aukey, Mpow, RavPower, Vava and TaoTronics, but now a sixth gadget maker has similarly vanished in a puff of smoke: Choetech, a company perhaps best known for inexpensive wireless charging pads. (A few Verge staffers have them sitting around right now.)

Amazon isn’t talking this time, but the modus operandi is the same: if you visit Choetech’s seller page on Amazon, you’ll see the same telltale empty boxes where the company’s products used to be. Searches for Choetech only surface products from other sellers...

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Dota 2’s The International will now take place in Bucharest in October

Photo: STR/AFP via Getty Images

Dota 2’s prestigious The International tournament will now be taking place in Bucharest, Romania in October, Valve announced on Wednesday. The event had been originally set to take place in Stockholm, Sweden in August, but Valve had announced in June it had started looking for other locations because of restrictions on esports events in Sweden.

The rescheduled event, which will be hosted in Bucharest’s Areana Nationala, will kick off on October 7th, with the Group Stage running through October 10th. Main Stage events start on October 12th, and the final match taking place on October 17th. Players will be competing for an eye-poppingly large prize pool of more than $40 million. Tickets aren’t on sale yet, but information about that “will...

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Google faces new antitrust lawsuit over Google Play Store fees

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

On Wednesday, a coalition of state attorneys general launched a new antitrust lawsuit against Google, accusing the search giant of abusing its control of the Android app store, as reported by Bloomberg.

The lawsuit, filed by 36 states and Washington, DC, in California federal court, challenges Google’s policy forcing Google Play app developers to pay a 30 percent commission fee on sales made through the app. Google recently expanded the fees to cover more digital goods purchased on the Play Store, taking particular aim at a number of prominent apps that had previously been able to sidestep the tax.

As of press time, the lawsuit was visible on the court’s website, confirming Bloomberg’s reporting. The central complaint has yet to be...

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Google Calendar adds RSVP options for attending events virtually

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

As companies large and small settle on how they’ll return to working in-person, a hybrid work future, where working from home is common and expected, is beginning to seem like more of a reality. To accommodate hybrid workplaces, Google plans to expand RSVP options over the next few weeks to let users say whether they’ll attend an event virtually in Google Calendar invites.

Virtual attendees will specify their status through a new drop-down menu that is viewable by the host and other guests in the event details. The company hopes that listing how people plan to attend an event will help organizers know what to expect, and presumably accommodate attendees who won’t physically be in the room. While the new options are currently limited to...

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The best gaming laptops in 2021: seven laptops to get your game on

Our top picks from Asus, MSI, Razer, and more. | Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales/ The Verge

The best gaming laptop at every size and price

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You can now apply for a job through TikTok

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

TikTok is testing a job application tool that allows its users to directly apply with video resumes to companies like Chipotle, Target, and Shopify.

The short-term pilot program, called TikTok Resumes, stems from content that has organically popped up on the platform, like #CareerTok, and the company’s deliberate initiatives to influence college students and younger users. There are more than 30 companies signed up to accept resumes for the pilot, which will last until July 31.

Users will have to create a video resume, post it to TikTok, and then send that video to recruiters through the app. An instructional video for the pilot program recommends applicants don’t include personal contact information like their email address in the...

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Android app tests your phone’s waterproof seals without a drop of water

Water Resistance Tester is designed to check waterproofing, which can degrade over time.

Water Resistance Tester, available on the Google Play store and spotted by Android Police, falls firmly into the category of “neat stuff we didn’t know you could do with an app.” It tests the integrity of your Android phone’s IP67/IP68 rating by accessing the device’s barometer. Just download the free app, follow the prompts to press down firmly on the screen, and you’ll get a swift pass/fail grade. It’s simple, geeky, and practical, which is a combination we love.

Developer Ray Wang says he created the app to help people check the state of their devices’ waterproof sealing after a repair or as it degrades over time. Obviously, don’t take a passing grade as a free pass to chuck your phone into a lake. That said, it appears to work...

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Roblox, explained

Illustration by Grayson Blackmon / The Verge

Roblox is one of the biggest apps in the world, and you’ve probably been hearing its name: the company recently went public, and its stock price climbed so high it was temporarily worth more than gaming giants EA and Take-Two combined. Roblox has come up as a contentious topic in the Epic Games v. Apple trial as well.

But it’s also just an astonishingly popular app: 42.1 million people play Roblox daily. And its popularity is surging during the pandemic. Daily active users were up 85 percent in 2020, compared to the year before.

Until recently, though, I didn’t really understand what Roblox actually was, despite the app having been around since 2006. (Just to give you an idea of how long that is in tech years, the App Store for iOS...

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Melinda French Gates will leave foundation if she and Bill Gates can’t ‘work constructively’

Photo credit should read SONNY TUMBELAKA/AFP via Getty Images

Melinda French Gates and Bill Gates recently announced their divorce plans but largely left the question of how the co-chairs would continue to work together at the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation unanswered. Now, a new statement from the foundation has offered some clarity: they might not (via The New York Times). The foundation says Melinda French Gates will resign from her position as co-chair and trustee if either she or Bill Gates decides they are unable to work together after two years. It’s not clear how the organization settled on that timeframe.

Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation CEO Mark Suzman announced the two-year post-divorce trial period along with the commitment of an additional $15 billion from Melinda and Bill toward...

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Verizon has its own version of spatial audio and it’s already pushing it on phones

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

You know spatial audio is having quite a moment when wireless carriers decide to create their own implementations of it. Verizon has announced a new sound feature it’s calling “Verizon Adaptive Sound,” and the company claims it “produces a brilliant spatial surround experience regardless of what headphone, soundbar, or earbud brand you use or what application you’re watching or listening to.”

The audio trick, which Verizon says has been in the works since 2019, is coming to Motorola phones first, including the new Motorola One 5G UW Ace that goes on sale July 8th. The Motorola Edge Plus also just received a firmware update that seems to add this feature, as noted by Droid Life.

Verizon Adaptive Sound is integrated right into the...

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Donald Trump files sweeping, nonsensical lawsuits against Facebook, Twitter, and Google

Photo by James Devaney/ GC Images

Former President Donald Trump has filed proposed class action lawsuits against Facebook, Twitter, and Google subsidiary YouTube as well as CEOs Mark Zuckerberg, Jack Dorsey, and Sundar Pichai. The lawsuits come six months after Trump was permanently or temporarily suspended from all three platforms.

Trump announced the lawsuits at a press conference today, following an early report by Axios. He referred to the cases as “a very important game-changer for our country.”

However, the claims are based on an amalgamation of mostly untested or disregarded legal arguments, and they come after numerous other failed attempts to sue social media companies over suspensions or other forms of moderation.

The complaints allege that social media...

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Facebook’s new AR feature for Portal lets you dress up as Harry Potter characters

Facebook’s_Harry Potter-themed AR masks for Portal._ | Image: Facebook

Facebook’s Portal video calling device is getting a Harry Potter and the Cursed Child crossover that lets you and up to three friends dress up as characters from the play using augmented reality technology.

Here’s how you can use it, according to a Facebook blog:

Anyone can initiate the experience by tapping “Curtain Call” in the effects tray on Portal. You can then select one of three locations from the menu to visit: Hogwarts Great Hall, the Ministry of Magic or the Edge of the Forbidden Forest. When the lights come up, each person on the call will embody a character from the show with a unique spell, which is assigned randomly. Simply nod your head or tap the screen to cast it and watch as your friends marvel at the magic.

The AR...

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Ladies and gentlemen, a leather case for your MagSafe puck

What if MagSafe, but covered in leather? | Image: Nomad

I’m not going to pretend to understand how product development meetings work, but there must have been something pretty special in the water when Nomad’s crack team of accessory specialists put together its latest pitch. From the company that was brave enough to encase your AirPods Pro case in leather, comes an all-new leather MagSafe case. That’s right, it’s a leather case for the iPhone 12’s magnetic charging puck.

Nomad’s argument is that the case, which is available in either black or brown, gives a MagSafe charger “a classic, yet bold new look,” and that it makes the charger slightly bigger and easier to grip to remove from a phone. But it also costs $25.

Image: Nomad

Nomad’s expanded leather universe.

As...

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Final Fantasy VII Remake’s directors wanted to show ‘a new side’ of Midgar with Yuffie chapter

Final Fantasy VII Remake isn’t a complete story. Instead, the game explores the beginning of the classic RPG, with later chapters planned to finish the narrative at some point in the future. This means you’ll meet most of the main cast, but certain characters haven’t yet made an appearance — which turned out to be helpful when co-director Motomu Toriyamastarted thinking of the game’s first add-on.

“We were going to depict a side of Midgar that took place during the same timeline as the Final Fantasy VII Remake base game, and so I thought Yuffie, who was an optional character [in the original game], was the logical choice,” he tells The Verge. “Even in the source material, she makes an appearance in the middle of the journey, but the...

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BMW’s actually making the futuristic CE 04 electric scooter

Image: BMW

BMW has been warning us for years that it wants to make and sell a radical electric city scooter, and now it’s following through. On Wednesday, the German automaker announced that its Motorrad division will put the striking BMW CE 04 into production, with decent range and speed on offer as well as plenty of futuristic vibes.

The CE 04 broke cover as a concept scooter in November 2020, though that itself was basically just a reimagining of another concept that BMW debuted in 2017. What’s really striking about the images BMW released Wednesday is how similar the production version looks. Instead of watering down the bold design in an attempt to please a wider range of buyers, the CE 04’s bright orange accents and sharp, angular lines make...

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Conservative social networks keep making the same mistake

On the rise and fall of Gettr

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Russian hackers reportedly attacked GOP computer systems

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

Russian state hackers affiliated with the group Cozy Bear were reportedly behind an attack last week on Synnex, a contractor that provides IT services for the Republican National Committee (RNC), Bloomberg writes. The attack may have exposed the organization’s information.

When asked by _Bloomberg,_a spokesperson for the RNC denied the organization’s systems had been hacked, but confirmed that one of its IT providers Synnex, had been exposed. The RNC provided the following statement in reference to the attack:

Over the weekend, we were informed that Synnex, a third party provider, had been breached. We immediately blocked all access from Synnex accounts to our cloud environment. Our team worked with Microsoft to conduct a review of our...

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Microsoft issues emergency Windows patch to fix critical ‘PrintNightmare’ vulnerability

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

Microsoft has started rolling out an emergency Windows patch to address a critical flaw in the Windows Print Spooler service. The vulnerability, dubbed PrintNightmare, was revealed last week, after security researchers accidentally published proof-of-concept (PoC) exploit code. Microsoft has issued out-of-band security updates to address the flaw, and has rated it as critical as attackers can remotely execute code with system-level privileges on affected machines.

As the Print Spooler service runs by default on Windows, Microsoft has had to issue patches for Windows Server 2019, Windows Server 2012 R2, Windows Server 2008, Windows 8.1, Windows RT 8.1, and a variety of supported versions of Windows 10. Microsoft has even taken the unusual...

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Don’t count out the Nintendo Switch Pro

The Nintendo Switch is_fine_. Like Alex says, there’s no pressing reason for Nintendo to replace it right now. But does that mean today’s new OLED variant has utterly dashed our dreams of a more powerful Switch Pro, one that might play games like _Xenoblade Chronicles 2, Hyrule Warriors,_and _Persona 5 Strikers_without chugging?

I wouldn’t rule out a Switch Pro just yet, partly because I have a hard time believing Nintendo can resist pumping out as many models as the market will hold:

I’m on vacation today but just gonna leave this here for no particular reason pic.twitter.com/qo5B3xFHRY

— Chaim Gartenberg (@cgartenberg) July 6, 2021

And partly because, if I were Nintendo, I’d be saving a Switch Pro for a moment it’ll truly count.

T...

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Pokémon Go is still incredibly relevant

Photo by James Bareham / The Verge

Even though Pokémon Go is turning five years old this week, it’s still going strong with upcoming events, some notable fans, and what appears to be a whole lot of profit. It looks like Niantic’s Pokémon Go brought in over $5 billion since its launch in July of 2016, averaging around a billion dollars per year, according to Sensor Tower analytics. The game started out as a viral sensation but has obviously had staying power over the five years that it’s been around. Sensor Tower claims that Pokémon Go players spent $1.3 billion in 2020, besting its record-setting 2019 revenue by around $400 million.

Sensor Tower’s data seems to indicate that the game not only survived the pandemic, but came out stronger. It’s a bit surprising, at least...

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TikTok confirms the app is ‘experiencing some issues’

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

The TikTok app is currently “experiencing some issues,” according to the app’s support account on Twitter. The app’s team is “working quickly to address” the problems.

The problem appears to be fairly widespread, with more than 40,000 user reports of problems on DownDetector at one point.

The TikTok app is currently experiencing some issues, which our team is working quickly to address. Thank you for your patience!

— TikTokSupport (@TikTokSupport) July 6, 2021

Personally, I can’t log in to the app on either the web or my phone. When I try, I get this message, which feels like it is downplaying the issue: “There is a small problem with the server, fixing it now.”

There are also many people on Twitter reporting that TikTok is down...

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Universal and DreamWorks films to exclusively hit Peacock within four months of theatrical releases

Beginning next year, Universal theatrical releases will head to Peacock as exclusives no later than four months after they premiere in cinemas — a clear bid to win over subscribers who may have missed the studio’s flicks on the silver screen.

The multi-year deal will see not only Universal titles but films from DreamWorks, Illumination, and Focus Films as well. As part of the agreement, titles will head to Peacock for the first four months as well as the last four months of the traditional 18-month pay-one window, the companies announced Tuesday. (Pay-one refers to the agreements between services and studios for first rights to stream films and content after their initial release.)

Universal’s 2022 film roster includes some highly...

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Peugeot reveals a wicked wingless hypercar

Peugeot’s new hypercar, the 9X8. | Images: Peugeot

French automaker Peugeot has revealed the new hybrid hypercar that it will race in the World Endurance Championship series and the 24 Hours of Le Mans next year. Not only does it look extremely cool — it truly “looks fast standing still,” as they say in motorsports — but it’s missing the typical rear wing, meaning Peugeot’s designers and engineers are making a huge bet that they can create the kind of aerodynamic downforce required to compete with Toyota, the dominant player in prototype racing.

The new car, named the 9X8, is also just the latest reason to start following the top sports car racing series in the world, as it’s a sign that automakers of various stripes are taking the new Le Mans Hypercar class seriously and — crucially —...

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The best Chromebook for 2021

Photo by Monica Chin / The Verge

The best Chromebooks for every user

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Microsoft Teams tries out Together Mode for smaller groups

Microsoft is adding support for smaller gatherings to its Together Mode feature of Teams, which uses AI to place all of the participants in a meeting into virtual environments (via OnMSFT). Sports fans may recognize the feature from the NBA’s use of it during the pandemic to provide a crowd-like experience for basketball games. The change to allow smaller crowds is somewhat the opposite of that and is currently in beta. Given Microsoft’s focus on Teams as a personal communications app as well as a corporate one, it’s not necessarily surprising that Together Mode will be able to work for family gatherings as well as company-wide all-hands.

At the moment, the feature’s availability seems to be limited to people using the Teams Developer...

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macOS 101: how to force quit a Mac app

Apps on macOS are usually well-behaved, but there are times when they can stop working or freeze and slow down your entire Mac. If that happens to you (and it might happen often if you’re playing with the latest Monterey betas), it’s time to quit the app.

The first thing to do, of course, is try to quit the app normally:

• Right-click on the app’s icon in the menu bar and select “Quit,” or...
• Press the Command-Q keys.

However, if the app is frozen or just won’t go away, then you need to force a quit. Again, there are a couple of ways to do this:

• Click on the Apple icon in the top-left corner and look for a choice that says “Force Quit” or...
• Press Command-Option-Esc.

You may be able to find “Force Quit” in the Apple...

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Welcome to Simulation City, the virtual world where Waymo tests its autonomous vehicles

The Alphabet company is doubling up on simulation as it gets closer to commercialization

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Netflix’s Witcher prequel gains Michelle Yeoh as... a sword-elf

Michelle Yeoh is joining the cast of The Witcher: Blood Origin, Netflix’s six-part spinoff of its live-action television adaptation of the novels by Andrzej Sapkowski. The streaming service announced that the blockbuster film veteran will play “Scían,” bringing some star power and action skills to her role as the last remaining member of a tribe of “sword-elves.”

According to Netflix, Scían is on a quest to retrieve a stolen sacred sword, which probably leads to her crossing paths with Blood Origin’s other announced cast member, Laurence O’Fuarian as Fjall. Blood _Origin_is focused on the creation of the first prototype Witcher (mutant monster hunters for those out of the loop) and the events that lead to the “Conjunction of the Spheres,”...

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