Google adds option to instantly delete your last 15 minutes of search history

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

Google is launching a new privacy feature for search that lets you instantly delete your last 15 minutes of search history on mobile, the company announced on Thursday. The new option was first revealed alongside several other search and Chrome improvements at I/O 2021 and is now rolling out to everyone.

The option to delete your last 15 minutes of search history is currently only available in Google’s iOS app and is headed to Android later this year. On desktop, your options for deleting searches are limited to setting your history to auto-delete every three, 18, or 36 months (18 months is the default for new accounts), or deleting searches by hand. You can see what the new option looks like in the iOS app below:

I...

Continue reading…

Old memes are Bill Murray, dodging them is Tilda Swinton

One of the photos from this Cannes photo shoot has been widely memed. Please make it stop. | Photo by Samir Hussein/WireImage

Twitter said Thursday it was hearing from users who were seeing too many topic suggestions in their home timelines and was moving to remedy the situation. “We’re fixing that now, and will continue to improve Topics and find ways to show you the very best of Twitter. Things you want to see, that is,” its Support account tweeted. To its credit, Twitter has seemed more responsive to users’ complaints — or their lack of interest — of late; in addition to Thursday’s topics announcement, Twitter said this week it would kill off Fleets, its ephemeral disappearing tweets that apparently no one was using.

But instead of showing us more things we want to see, I think Twitter should lean into taking away things we don’t want. I have a suggestion...

Continue reading…

Video game handhelds didn’t die after all

Steam Deck. | Photo: Valve

When the beloved PlayStation Vita eventually died out, many blamed the rise of mobile gaming. “I think the PS Vita, while ahead of its time in many ways ... launched at exactly the wrong time in terms of market opportunity,” former Sony vice president of marketing John Koller told The Verge about going up against smartphones. But despite the Vita’s demise, dedicated gaming handhelds didn’t die out — in fact, the space is arguably as vibrant as ever.

Valve just announced the Steam Deck, a chunky portable PC that looks like a Sega Game Gear from a parallel universe. It’s designed to let players take their Steam library of PC games on the go. Just a few hours later, preorders opened for the latest iteration of the Nintendo Switch, one that...

Continue reading…

Self-driving startup Aurora will raise $2 billion in SPAC merger

Self-driving technology startup Aurora, which was founded by the former head of Google’s autonomous vehicle program, is the latest company to announce that it’s going public by merging with a special purpose acquisition company (or SPAC). The deal will give Aurora about $2 billion in new cash when it closes, which will help the startup in its quest to become a provider of self-driving hardware and software to companies in the trucking and ride-hailing industries.

Aurora is merging with a SPAC called Reinvent Technology Partners Y that’s already listed on the Nasdaq stock exchange, and is run by LinkedIn co-founder Reid Hoffman, Zynga founder Mark Pincus, and investor Michael Thompson). That trio is also in the process of taking electric...

Continue reading…

Facebook’s payment system extends to online retailers in August

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

Online shoppers will eventually see another option listed next to the usual payment methods, now that Facebook Pay will expand beyond the company’s own platforms. Not long after credit card companies dropped out of its Libra cryptocurrency project, Facebook launched its payments system for use across the main site, as well as WhatsApp and Instagram.

Image: Facebook

Facebook Pay is coming to online shopping.

Now, just like Google’s stored cards, PayPal integrations, Amazon Pay, and others, Facebook Pay is opening itself up for use in transactions with participating retailers. Shopify merchants are first in line to add the system on their sites, with others to follow after it launches in August. Interested...

Continue reading…

Elgato’s Facecam is a $200 webcam with streamer-friendly features

The Facecam includes a monitor mount, but you can also mount it to a tripod with its quarter-inch thread. | Photo: Elgato

Elgato has attempted to be the brand of choice for streamers and content creators who need gear to get started — even if it’s rarely the most affordable option. It makes its own LED lighting rig, multiple kinds of mounts for lights and mics, app-controlled adhesive light strips for your monitor or desk, sound-dampening pads for podcasting, a mouse pad that doubles as a green screen, and a lot more. Now, it has a $199.99 webcam to sell you.

The Elgato Facecam is a 1080p webcam that can record at up to 60 frames per second. It has a Sony Starvis CMOS sensor, with an eight-element prime fixed focus lens with an f/2.4 aperture, 24mm full-frame equivalent focal length, and up to an 82-degree field of view. The company says it’s great for...

Continue reading…

Where to preorder the Nintendo Switch OLED model

Image: Nintendo

After months of speculation and a sea of rumors, Nintendo officially announced the next iteration of its popular gaming console: the Nintendo Switch OLED model. The upcoming device serves more as a midlife update than anything else, a refinement of the 2019 model as opposed to the more powerful “Switch Pro” that was rumored (and may still launch).

On sale for $350 starting October 8th, the aptly-titled Nintendo Switch OLED model is the next iteration of what has become one of the best-selling consoles over the last two years. It’s outfitted with a 7-inch 720p OLED display, a new dock with a wired Ethernet port, and an improved kickstand that seems to take a cue directly from Microsoft’s Surface Pro tablets. It also offers 64GB of...

Continue reading…

New Anthony Bourdain documentary deepfakes his voice

Photo: CNN

In a new documentary, _Roadrunner,_about the life and tragic death of Anthony Bourdain, there are a few lines of dialogue in Bourdain’s voice that he might not have ever said out loud.

Filmmaker Morgan Neville used AI technology to digitally re-create Anthony Bourdain’s voice and have the software synthesize the audio of three quotes from the late chef and television host, Neville told the_New Yorker_.

The deepfaked voice was discovered when the New Yorker’s Helen Rosner asked how the filmmaker got a clip of Bourdain’s voice reading an email he had sent to a friend. Neville said he had contacted an AI company and supplied it with a dozen hours of Bourdain speaking.

“ ... and my life is sort of shit now. You are successful, and I am...

Continue reading…

Valve’s new Steam Deck can run Windows and turn into a handheld Xbox

Valve’s new Steam Deck. | Image: Valve

Valve just announced its new handheld Steam Deck, powered by a custom Linux operating system. The 7-inch device will play the latest AAA games, and because it’s a PC, you’ll even be able to install Windows on it. That means the Steam Deck could be the perfect Xbox portable, given Microsoft’s investment in shipping all of its future Xbox Game Studios titles on PC.

“Steam Deck is a PC so you can install third-party software and operating systems,” says Valve, which means this hardware isn’t locked down in the way we’re used to seeing from tech companies.

The Steam Deck itself will ship with SteamOS, a custom Linux operating system that loads into the familiar Steam interface you’re used to on PC. While Linux support for gaming has been...

Continue reading…

Black teen barred from skating rink by inaccurate facial recognition

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

A facial recognition algorithm used by a local roller skating rink in Detroit wouldn’t let teen Lamya Robinson onto the premises, and accused her of previously getting into a fight at the establishment.

But Robinson had never even been to the rink.

The facial recognition system had incorrectly matched her to another patron, she told Fox 2 Detroit. The rink removed her from the building and put her outside alone, her family says.

“To me, it’s basically racial profiling,” Juliea Robinson, her mother, told the TV station. “You’re just saying every young Black, brown girl with glasses fits the profile and that’s not right.”

The harms of facial recognition systems deployed in businesses and by police have been slowly coming to light as the...

Continue reading…

Here are the finalists to be included in Emoji 14.0 this September

Image: Emojipedia

The draft list for the next round of new emoji was announced today, two days ahead of World Emoji Day on July 17th. Contenders include a melting smiley face, a low battery, a disco ball, and several new hand shapes — like heart hands and index finger pointing at viewer — for courting your sweeties or taunting your enemies.

The release of new emoji was delayed this year because of the pandemic, and proposal submissions were on pause until April. This list won’t be finalized by the Unicode Consortium until September, but in general, most candidates shown in the draft make it through. The final versions should roll out to different devices and platforms starting in late 2021 through 2022.

Image: Emojipedia

Drafts...

Continue reading…

Samsung’s Galaxy Chromebook Go is available now for $299

Image: Samsung

Samsung’s new entry-level Chrome OS laptop, the $299 Galaxy Chromebook Go, is available to purchase now at Samsung’s website and other retailers. While only the Wi-Fi model is available Thursday, Samsung plans to offer an LTE model in the coming weeks, which should be a nice extra perk for web browsing on the go.

The Galaxy Chromebook Go’s modest price seems to be reflected in its features. It’s got a 14-inch 1366 x 768 HD display, a definite step down from the 4K OLED panel that shipped on the $549 Galaxy Chromebook 2. It’s also working with an Intel Celeron N4500 processor and 4GB of RAM, which probably won’t set the world on fire, but should be enough for casual Chrome use.

Image: Samsung

The Galaxy...

Continue reading…

Valve’s gaming handheld is called the Steam Deck and it’s shipping in December

Valve just announced the Steam Deck, its long-rumored Switch-like handheld gaming device. It will begin shipping in December and reservations open July 16th at 1PM ET. It starts at $399, and you can buy it in $529 and $649 models as well.

The device has an AMD APU containing a quad-core Zen 2 CPU with eight threads and 8 compute units’ worth of AMD RDNA 2 graphics, alongside 16GB of LPDDR5 RAM. There are three different types of storage: 64GB eMMC storage, 256GB NVMe SSD storage, and 512GB of high-speed NVME SSD storage, according to Valve. You can also expand the available storage using the available high-speed microSD card slot.

A rear view of the devices showing off its four grip buttons, triggers, bumpers, vents and...

Continue reading…

Record high tide flooding hit coastal communities last year

A walkway at the Tidal Basin leads to a flooded sidewalk from the rising high tide on July 2nd, 2019, in Washington, DC. The Tidal Basin’s crumbling seawall and sidewalks are routinely under water due to the rising sea levels high tides and threatening some Cherry Blossom Trees.  | Photo by Mark Wilson / Getty Images

High tide flooding hit record levels in the US last year and is only expected to get worse, according to a new report by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). Coastal communities experienced twice as many days with high tide flooding last year than they did 20 years ago. Records were either matched or broken in 14 places across the Southeast Atlantic and Gulf coastlines.

Nationally, coastal communities were hit with a median of four days of high tide flooding in the past year — although some places suffered through more than quadruple that number. NOAA’s outlook for the rest of the year until April 2022 rises to three to seven days of flooding. But because of sea-level rise tied to climate change, the long-term...

Continue reading…

Google Meet is getting a wider rollout on Google Glass

googleglass,glassenterprise,google glass enterprise

Google Meet videoconferencing is adding fuller support for Google Glass, the company’s frequently overlooked augmented reality headset. Yesterday, Google announced an open beta of “Meet on Glass” for the Glass Enterprise Edition 2. Users with Google Workspace can sign up to test the service following a closed beta announced last year.

As _The Verge’s_Sean Hollister laid out last year, Meet on Glass works differently from normal online videoconferencing. When a Google Glass wearer connects, other participants get a first-person view from the headset camera. Google pitches it as a collaborative remote troubleshooting tool for the business-focused Glass Enterprise Edition, replacing less hands-free options like capturing a video with your...

Continue reading…

Facebook Messenger’s new sound emoji let you hear Fast and Furious quotes in your chats

Facebook is adding emoji with sound to Facebook Messenger. The name for them, of course, is Soundmojis.

To access Soundmojis, tap the emoji button while you’re in a Messenger conversation, tap on the sound icon on the far right, and then scroll through the list of available options. Just tap on an emoji to preview the accompanying sound and then hit the “send” button to drop it into your conversation.

There are expected sound effects and some surprising ones

Some of the sounds are expected: the goat emoji utters a bleat, while the clapping hands emoji plays an applause sound effect, for example. But some are musical, such as the hourglass, which plays Drake’s “you only live once, that’s the motto” lyric, and the sun, which plays a clip...

Continue reading…

A new website makes it really easy to turn Twitch clips into TikToks

Crossclip’s interface. | Image: Streamlabs

Logitech-owned Streamlabs, maker of the popular livestreaming app Streamlabs OBS, is releasing a new tool today called Crossclip that lets you take your favorite Twitch clips and turn them into social videos formatted for platforms like TikTok, YouTube, or Instagram.

The tool is free for anyone to use on the Crossclip website. It has some smart features that let you quickly generate a shareable video that highlights both the streamer and the game they’re playing. A video for TikTok, for example, might show the streamer on top and their game cropped beneath them in a vertical format.

I’ve been playing around with Crossclip for a couple of days, and I’ve found it really easy to use. It could be a very useful tool that lets streamers...

Continue reading…

The game makers and artists pushing Roblox to its limits

Climb The Giant Man Obby.

Creators are putting their own spin on the virtual realm

Continue reading…

Fights over COVID-19 vaccines are spilling over to other types of shots

Photo by Matthew Busch for The Washington Post via Getty Images

The Tennessee Department of Health is suspending outreach for all types of childhood and adolescent vaccinations, the Tennessean reported this week. Along with stopping COVID-19 vaccine events at schools, the department will no longer do outreach for the HPV vaccine, isn’t planning for flu shot clinics at schools, and is taking the department’s logo off of back-to-school vaccination information sheets. The shift in policy came after Republican lawmakers in the state got upset that the department was promoting COVID-19 shots for teenagers.

It’s a strong signal that the politicization and backlash around the COVID-19 shots, driven by conservative politicians and right-wing commentators, is spilling over to other types of vaccinations. It’s...

Continue reading…

The Aston Martin Valhalla is a dramatic 937-horsepower hybrid supercar

Images: Aston Martin

Two years after Aston Martin debuted the striking but clumsily titled AM-RB 003 concept, the final production version has arrived with a much simpler name: Valhalla.

The automaker revealed the hybrid supercar on Thursday ahead of this weekend’s British Grand Prix, where Aston Martin will compete as a manufacturer for the first time in over 60 years. Aston Martin returned to F1 this year with a team that’s co-sponsored by Cognizant, the professional services firm at the center of Casey Newton’s multipartinvestigation into Facebook’s content moderation problem. In 2020, the company was taken over by Canadian billionaire Lawrence Stroll, the de facto villain from the third season of Netflix’s _Drive to Survive_series.

Stroll walked away...

Continue reading…

Go read how Pepper was a very bad robot

Don’t kill me, please. | Photo by Sam Byford / The Verge

SoftBank’s Pepper robot is dead, and The Wall Street Journal is dancing upon its grave with a thorough account of how the “emotional robot” failed to live up to the hype. Expectations were so inflated back in 2014 that the first batch of 1,000 robots sold out in a minute, despite being priced close to $2,000.

The entire article is well worth a read as a reminder that tech is hard, and predicting its impact on society is even harder.

Although SoftBank certainly overhyped Pepper, saying its launch would be remembered “100, 200, or 300 years” into the future, humans are also to blame for getting sucked in by the bot’s doe-eyed demeanor, despite The Verge’s article titled “I met an emotional robot and felt nothing.”

The WSJ report does...

Continue reading…

Microsoft reveals first Windows 365 pricing for PCs in the cloud

Microsoft announced its new Windows 365 service yesterday, but the company said it wouldn’t discuss pricing options until the Cloud PCs launch on August 2nd. Now, Microsoft has inadvertently revealed one pricing option, allowing businesses to use a virtual Windows PC in the cloud for $31 per user, per month.

The pricing option was revealed during a Microsoft Inspire session yesterday, as the company demonstrated how businesses can sign up to the service. For the $31 monthly subscription, Microsoft offers two CPUs, 4GB of RAM, and 128GB of storage. This is part of the Windows 365 Business option, designed for businesses with fewer than 300 overall users.

“This is pricing for just one SKU. Microsoft will have many more options, both in...

Continue reading…

Blue Origin picks teen to fly to space after anonymous auction winner reschedules

The fourth passenger to ride with Jeff Bezos on his space company’s suborbital rocket next Tuesday is an 18-year-old named Oliver Daemen, Blue Origin revealed Thursday. Daemen’s seat had been reserved for the winner of a $28 million auction that closed last month, but that winner remains anonymous and “has chosen to fly on a future New Shepard mission due to scheduling conflicts,” a news release said.

Blue Origin’s launch, scheduled for July 20th, marks the company’s first crewed mission to the edge of space. Four people will launch aboard its suborbital New Shepard rocket from a remote desert site in Van Horn, Texas. Blue Origin founder Bezos, his brother Mark, aviation icon and astronaut candidate Wally Funk, and Daemen will be New...

Continue reading…

Surgeon general calls out platforms over COVID-19 misinformation

Photo by Caroline Brehman-Pool / Getty Images

On Thursday, the surgeon general published a new report calling on social media platforms to make new investments in combating online coronavirus misinformation.

The report calls for an all of society push to address vaccine and coronavirus misinformation, including sweeping policy recommendations for companies like Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube. Surgeon General Vivek Murthy specifically calls on companies to redesign their algorithms to “avoid amplifying misinformation.” He also suggests that they build more “friction” into sharing functions that urge users to rethink whether to share a post containing false information.

Murthy also recommends that platforms put out “clear consequences for accounts that repeatedly violate platform...

Continue reading…

Elago’s Siri Remote case has room for an AirTag tracker

PREMIUM SILICONE! | Image: Elago

Apple’s new Siri Remote arrived without a built-in locator chip, so Elago has created the next best thing: the R5 silicone case with a slot for Apple’s new AirTag tracker. According to Elago, it features a “THICK LAYER OF PREMIUM SILICONE,” which is so dense it can only be expressed in caps.

The $14.99 price doesn’t include the cost of the $29 AirTag, but it does promise to put an end to lost Siri remotes, especially if you own an iPhone fitted with UWB to enable precision tracking. It costs a lot more than comparable AirTag cases available on AliExpress that list for just a few dollars, but well, this one can be found on Amazon for whatever that’s worth. Alternatively, you could always just 3D-print your own case if you’re in more of a...

Continue reading…

Preorders for the new OLED Nintendo Switch will start at 3PM ET / 12PM PT today

Image: Nintendo

Preorders for Nintendo’s new OLED Switch model will start today, July 15th, at 3PM ET / 12PM PT, the company announced today. The console is set to be released on October 8th for $350, a $50 price increase over the standard Switch model. Nintendo isn’t offering any specific details, directing customers to check with stores directly for how they’ll be handling preorders.

_The Verge_will have a complete guide to preordering an OLED Switch soon, so check back later today to find out how Best Buy, Amazon, Walmart, and more are handling preorders for the popular new console.

Pre-order #NintendoSwitch (OLED model) starting today, 7/15 at 12pm PT.

Check with select retailers for more details. https://t.co/17dPY3iUDxp...

Continue reading…

Lyft is bringing back shared rides starting on July 19th

Lyft is bringing back shared rides | Lyft

Lyft will once again allow passengers to share their rides with strangers starting next week after suspending the service over a year ago in response to the pandemic, the company announced today. Shared rides will be available in Philadelphia, Chicago, and Denver starting on Monday, July 19th, followed by additional markets “in the coming months.” It’s good news for anyone who wants a cheaper or more environmentally friendly way of making a journey in a private hire car.

Although shared rides are returning, they’re doing so with some social distancing restrictions. Drivers and passengers will still be required to wear masks at all times, and eating or drinking is banned during journeys. Shared rides will also be limited to two riders...

Continue reading…

TSMC’s revenues surge as it warns chip shortage will continue into next year

Getty Images

Chip manufacturer Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) has reiterated that it expects chip shortages to continue into next year, Bloomberg reports. The warning came as the company reported its latest financial results, which saw its net sales rise almost 20 percent to NT$372 billion (around $13.3 billion) compared to the same quarter the previous year. However, automakers should see the shortage gradually easing this quarter.

As the world’s largest contract chip manufacturer, a lot of attention has been paid to TSMC amid the global chip shortage, which has impacted the manufacturing of everything from cars to game consoles. TSMC is a leading manufacturer of semiconductors and is responsible for producing the majority of...

Continue reading…

Instagram experiences survived the pandemic and are expanding

Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge

The pandemic nearly killed those Instagram-ready pop-up experiences. Places like Color Factory and Museum of Ice Cream laid off employees as the world shut down, and they tried, seemingly unsuccessfully, to re-create their photogenic experiences online. But now, they’re back, raising money, and opening new locations.

Color Factory tells The Verge it recently closed a $10 million fundraising round from private equity and angel investors, which it’ll use to expand and hire people who help build the sites. Today, it’s additionally announcing its next location: Chicago. It’ll be opening a Color Factory in the Willis Tower, a major sightseeing destination that brings in nearly 2 million visitors a year on its own. The idea is clearly for...

Continue reading…

Microsoft’s new 3D emoji include Clippy coming back to life in Office

Microsoft is bringing its infamous Clippy character back to life as an emoji in Office. After a successful campaign to get some Twitter and Instagram likes, Clippy will now replace the paperclip emoji that exists across Windows, Office, Microsoft Teams, and other Microsoft 365 products. It’s part of a bigger update that will see 1,800 emoji in Microsoft 365 updated with 3D designs and the company’s Fluent Design language.

Clippy is the star of the show, with 3D emoji that have been redesigned to add a lot more personality. “I grew up using Clippy, and it just seemed like a fun little Easter egg,” says Claire Anderson, Microsoft’s official “Emoji-ologist,” in an interview with The Verge. “We just all imagined that delight when you put the...

Continue reading…