Doctor Who’s 13th season is a single story, and here’s the first trailer

The COVID-19 pandemic has pushed _Doctor Who_to do something it hasn’t done in the modern era — dedicate an entire season to a single story. That’s the word from showrunner Chris Chibnall in a new Doctor Who panel at the online-only San Diego Comic-Con today. Oh, and did I mention we’re getting our very first fleeting glimpse at Series 13 in a teaser trailer? Hit that video play button above to watch it.

We’d learned last year that the new season would just be eight episodes long, but Chibnall says it pushed the BBC to go big: “The big thing that we’re going to be doing this year is it’s all one story, so every episode is one chapter in a bigger story,” he says.

More:

There were two ways you could go: we’re just going to do lots of tiny...

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Banned brand Aukey is still selling earbuds on Amazon

When Amazon started cracking down on mobile electronics companies with shady reviewer programs, Aukey and Mpow were the first to get whacked — and yet Aukey is still selling at least three sets of wireless earbuds at the giant online retailer, _The Verge_has found.

Two weeks ago, I pointed out to Amazon PR that both Aukey and Mpow had seemingly found a way around their bans. Mpow had an “xMpow MFly” set of wireless Bluetooth headphones, and Aukey was selling several different sets under its “Key Series” sub-brand.

I’ve been watching their product pages ever since, and today I noticed that the xMpow MFly has disappeared. But Key Series is alive and well with three products. Aukey appears to be paying Amazon extra to promote them in...

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The Steam Deck has an ‘optional built-in FPS limiter’ for better battery life

When Valve and _IGN_revealed last Thursday that the new Steam Deck handheld will target 30Hz gameplay, not everyone was impressed with that low bar — but Valve’s Pierre-Loup Griffais has taken to Twitter to clarify his original comment, and reveal a new feature of the portable console.

First, he says 30 fps is more of a minimum bar than anything else:

@Plagman2 (Twitter)

“The ‘30 FPS target’ refers to the floor of what we consider playable in our performance testing; games we’ve tested and shown have consistently met and exceeded that bar so far,” he writes.

In other words, when Griffais said in that IGN video interview that “We haven’t really found something that we could throw at this device that it couldn’t...

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New trailers: Dune, Star Trek: Prodigy, The Last Duel, Blade Runner: Black Lotus, and more

Zendaya and Timothee Chalamet in Dune | Legendary

Happy Saturday! Posting the trailers roundup a day early this weekend since I’ll be on vacation starting Sunday (and shout out to the reader who said he preferred when we did the roundup on Saturdays, you got your wish at least for this weekend).

The internet (or at least the little corner I inhabit) seemed divided into camps this week: people who really like the Apple TV Plus show Ted Lasso and people who... don’t. It’s OK to not like things! I had a longer rant prepared about how the effort to look cool online seems so exhausting but really, who cares, Ted Lasso has returned for season two and it’s still a lovely, warm-hearted show about a bunch of very likeable weirdos.

We ended up with a very sci-fi themed roundup this week which...

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Robinhood’s IPO roadshow answered questions I wasn’t asking

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

“What’s your favorite planet?” is a real question that Robinhood execs really picked to answer during the Q&A section of its retail investor roadshow.

“Definitely Pluto,” says long-haired CEO Vlad Tenev. He is having a good time. He goes on to explain that there will be a great view of Venus tonight after sunset.

The first meme IPO

Many of the questions the management picked have been lackluster; asked if Robinhood will add a customer support line, Tenev cheerily explains there already is one. Another question is wasted on whether the stock will pay dividends — anyone who read the prospectus knows the answer is no.

I am watching this roadshow — my first, and the first, I suspect, of many who are watching — because Robinhood plans to sell...

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GM, Cruise suing to stop Ford from using the name ‘BlueCruise’

GM is suing Ford over the BlueCruise name for its hands-free driving system | Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

General Motors has filed a lawsuit to try to prevent Ford from using the name “BlueCruise” for the hands-free driving feature it announced earlier this year. First reported by the Detroit Free Press, GM claims the name is too close Super Cruise, the name of is own hands-free driving technology introduced in 2017, and to its autonomous vehicle subsidiary Cruise. GM is suing Ford for trademark infringement and unspecified damages.

In the lawsuit filed Friday, GM said in that the companies had been involved in “protracted discussions” over the name but were unable to resolve the matter. “Ford knew exactly what it was doing,” GM alleges in its complaint, adding that if Ford “wanted to adopt a new, unique brand, it easily could have done so...

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New job posting shows Amazon seeking a digital currency and blockchain expert

Amazon may be testing the cryptocurrency waters | Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

Amazon is hiring a digital currency and blockchain product lead for its payments team, according to a new job listing. First reported by Insider, the ecommerce giant is looking for an “experienced product leader to develop Amazon’s Digital Currency and Blockchain strategy and product roadmap.” The listing, which Amazon has confirmed is legitimate, continues:

You will leverage your domain expertise in Blockchain, Distributed Ledger, Central Bank Digital Currencies and Cryptocurrency to develop the case for the capabilities which should be developed, drive overall vision and product strategy, and gain leadership buy-in and investment for new capabilities.

Amazon.com doesn’t accept cryptocurrency as payment, but a spokesperson told Insider...

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Genki ShadowCast review: a clever but limited capture card

A viable option for streamers and gamers on the go

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The Senate’s E-BIKE Act could make electric bikes a lot cheaper

A bill that would offer Americans a refundable tax credit on the purchase of a new electric bicycle was just introduced in the Senate by Ed Markey (D-MA) and Brian Schatz (D-HI). The bill is called the Electric Bicycle Incentive Kickstart for the Environment, or E-BIKE Act for short, and it’s the companion bill to one introduced in the House of Representatives earlier this year.

E-bikes are more expensive than normal bikes, typically costing anywhere from $1,000 to $8,000 for some of the more high-end models. But they also have the potential to replace car trips for a lot of people, with a recent study finding that if 15 percent of car trips were made by e-bike, carbon emissions would drop by 12 percent.

“the electrification of...

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Blizzard exec calls sexual harassment allegations ‘extremely troubling’

A new lawsuit alleges widespread sexual harassment at Activision Blizzard | Photo Illustration by Pavlo Gonchar/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images

The president of Blizzard Entertainment sent an email to staff calling allegations of sexual harassment at the company “extremely troubling.” First reported by Jason Schreier at Bloomberg, J. Allen Brack wrote that “the fight for equality is incredibly important to me,” and that he has spent his career fighting against “bro culture.”

The California Department of Fair Employment and Housing (DFEH) filed suit against Blizzard and owner Activision Blizzard on Tuesday, alleging a culture of “constant sexual harassment” existed at the company. The complaint describes a “frat boy culture” that included male employees drinking and sexually harassing female employees without repercussions. Brack is named in the complaint as being one of the...

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Super Mario 64 probably won’t be the last million-dollar video game

_A screenshot from_Super Mario 64. | Image: Nintendo

Earlier this month, a sealed copy of Super Mario 64 sold for $1,560,000 at auction, a staggering price that nearly doubled a record set just two days before by a similarly pristine copy of The Legend of Zelda. The auctions could mark just the beginning of even more eye-poppingly large video game sales. It seems very likely that Mario’s first 3D adventure won’t be the last game to command a million-dollar sum.

“I think we’ll see more million dollar games, probably sooner rather than later,” Chris Kohler, editorial director at Digital Eclipse, a developer that works on rereleases of classic video games, tells The Verge.

Collecting and selling stuff has become a popular trend

Collecting and selling stuff — both physical and virtual — for...

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The Apple Watch Series 6 is $279 at Best Buy and Amazon

Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge

The best deal available today is on the 40mm Apple Watch Series 6 with Wi-Fi and GPS connectivity. Usually $399, it’s just $279 at Best Buy through Saturday, July 24th. Amazon is honoring this deal, too, even going a bit lower with a $265 price (though, act fast as Amazon’s stock tends to sell out faster than Best Buy’s). The thing is, this price cut is limited to the Product Red colorway that has a red aluminum case and a red sport band. This is great news for people who can’t get enough of the color red in their lives, but it’s probably not most people’s first choice in terms of how they’d like their Apple Watch to look. It’s hard to argue with the price, though. We’ve seen it sell for $20 less than this, but not since late in April. R...

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Here are the best iPad deals right now

Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge

Deals on Apple’s iPad are more common than you might think. Whether you’re after the affordable iPad, the high-end iPad Pro, or something in between like the iPad Air or iPad Mini, there’s usually some sort of price cut happening somewhere. Of course, it’s difficult to know exactly where you can find those deals unless you’re looking around at all of the major retailers. But that’s what we’re doing each day when we hunt for deals, so let us help you out.

Below, we’ve listed each of the current iPads available for purchase. Most of the time, there’s some sort of discount happening on a new or refurbished model. When there is a deal we think worth telling you about, we’ll let you know, along with any info you need to keep it in context. If...

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Here’s where you can buy a Nintendo Switch

Image: Nintendo

The Nintendo Switch was, like most consoles during the pandemic, once in short supply. Thankfully, retailers like Best Buy, Amazon, and Walmart now routinely stock the Nintendo Switch and Switch Lite in multiple color configurations and models, giving those who struck out ample opportunity to purchase Nintendo’s versatile console.

We’re keeping an eye across the web to find where you can buy a Nintendo Switch, the Nintendo Switch Lite (the portable-only version of the console), and the forthcoming Nintendo Switch OLED model, as well as any bundles that seem like good deals.

Keep in mind that stock — new, preowned, or otherwise — may still occasionally sell out as a result of the pandemic. However, we’ll do our best to keep this article...

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Oculus’ Passthrough API will enable experiences that mix VR and the real world

Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge

Facebook announced a new API that will let developers incorporate video from the Quest 2’s sensors into their games and applications, creating a mixed reality experience. With the Passthrough API, developers will not only be able to mix the black-and-white images from the headset’s sensors into their experiences, but they’ll also be able to customize how it ends up looking to the player, apply effects, and even have the real world show up on specific surfaces.

Facebook’s announcement includes examples of how the API could improve productivity software by allowing integration of real-life keyboards and desks, and how games could include your real-life furniture for enemies to hide behind. It’s also easy to imagine other fun experiences...

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NSO’s Pegasus spyware: here’s what we know

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

Throughout the past week, we’ve seen story after story about a company called NSO Group, and a piece of spyware called Pegasus. Some of the stories have been shocking, with allegations that fully updated smartphones can be hacked with a single text message, and reports that two women close to murdered journalist Jamal Khashoggi were among those targeted by a government agency using the spy tool.

A coalition of news outlets, including The Washington Post, Le Monde, and The Guardian is behind the reporting, and they’re calling it the Pegasus Project. The project was led by Forbidden Stories, an organization of journalists that works on stories after the original reporters have been silenced in some way. Amnesty International ran detailed...

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NASA’s Europa Clipper will fly on SpaceX’s Falcon Heavy

Image: NASA

NASA’s Europa Clipper will start its journey to Jupiter’s icy moon aboard a Falcon Heavy rocket built by SpaceX. NASA will pay SpaceX $178 million to launch the vehicle in October 2024.

The Europa Clipper got the green light from NASA in 2015. It will fly by the moon 45 times, providing researchers with a tantalizing look at the icy world, believed to have an ocean lurking under its icy crust. The Clipper is equipped with instruments that will help scientists figure out if the moon could support life.

For years, the Clipper was legally obligated to launch on NASA’s long-delayed Space Launch System (SLS). But with the SLS perpetually delayed and over budget, NASA has urged Congress to consider allowing the Europa Clipper to fly...

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Rivian raises another $2.5 billion as it looks to build a second factory

Electric vehicle startup Rivian has raised another massive round of funding, this time to the tune of $2.5 billion, bringing its total raised to date over the $10 billion mark. The funding round comes as Rivian recently confirmed it’s looking for a location to build a second factory — one that will also produce batteries for its vehicles — in the United States. The company is currently aiming to roll its first electric pickup trucks off the line at its existing factory in Illinois this September.

The new round was led by Amazon’s Climate Pledge Fund, Ford, D1 Capital Partners, and funds advised by T. Rowe Price, each of which are already investors in Rivian. Amazon and Ford each own more than 10 percent of the buzzy EV startup, and are...

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HBO Max will release 10 Warner Bros. films straight-to-streaming in 2022

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

After deciding to release its full slate of 2021 Warner Bros. films on HBO Max under a hybrid streaming and theatrical model, it appears WarnerMedia is prepared to continue using its Warner Bros. assets to lure subscribers to the service in 2022.

During AT&T’s second-quarter earnings call this week, the company’s executives were asked about how the pandemic release model would shape a more permanent release strategy going forward, particularly as it relates to theaters. Citing the theatrical success of Godzilla vs. Kong to the tune of $463 million in revenue, WarnerMedia chief Jason Kilar responded that while “the motion picture format absolutely matters,” the company also feels “very good about the response that consumers have given it...

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iDOS 2 emulator gets App Store takedown notice

Apple may be removing iDOS 2, a popular (or, at the very least, popular for a DOS emulator designed to run decades-old software and games) emulation app that allows users to run DOS games and software on Apple’s iPhone and iPad devices.

According to the developer, Chaoji Li, Apple issued the notice of the pending takedown after a recently submitted update for a bug fix. While iDOS 2 has been available since 2014 on the App Store, it seems that with the most recent update, the company has changed its mind.

Per the letter that Li received:

Upon re-evaluation, we found that your app is not in compliance with the App Store Review Guidelines. Specifically, we found your app is in violation of the following:

Guideline 2.5.2 — Performance —...

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A missing ampersand locked some users out of their Chromebooks

Photo by Monica Chin / The Verge

A major bug in a recent Chrome OS release (91.0.4472.147) left some users bricked out of their Chromebooks. Reddit, in due course, has already spotted the issue. As some eagle-eyed users, including one “elitist_ferret” (first spotted by Android Police), have pointed out, the problem appears to boil down to a missing ampersand in Google’s code.

Specifically, it seems that Google used one “&” in a conditional statement in its Cryptohome VaultKeyset, rather than two “&&”, which is the “AND” operator in C++, breaking up the line. The mishap prevented Chrome OS from checking user passwords against stored keys, as Ars Technica notes, and that left some users unable to log in.

Google has not yet responded to a request for comment.

The Chrome...

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Instagram users worry a new sensitivity filter is censoring their work

Illustration by Alex Castro & Grayson Blackmon / The Verge

But Instagram downplays the changes

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Pokémon Unite turns monster battles into a team sport

Games like League of Legends and Dota 2 are massively popular, and have been for the better part of a decade. But they can also be impenetrable to new players and viewers: there are so many characters and strategies that figuring out what’s happening on-screen is a huge challenge. The just-launched Pokémon Unite aims to fix that. It doesn’t just add cute monsters to the genre, but also some clever fixes to streamline it and make things more approachable. It’s kind of like a mashup of a strategy game and basketball, but with a Gengar thrown in.

For the uninitiated, a MOBA — or multiplayer online battle arena, to use the genre’s unnecessarily long full name — is a five-on-five competition where the goal, usually, is to destroy the opposing...

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Workers for Google Pittsburgh contractor HCL reach tentative union contract

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

The United Steelworkers Union (USW) said Friday it has reached a tentative contract deal with a sub-contractor for Google Pittsburgh. The announcement comes almost two years after employees of engineering and IT contractor HCL Technologies voted to unionize, saying that even though they worked alongside Google employees, they didn’t receive the same benefits.

Amanda Parks, a member of the USW bargaining committee who works at HCL, said in a statement that the proposed three-year contract includes “meaningful wage increases” and addresses pay parity concerns. It includes language that offers job security and additional time off, according to the statement. “We work hard, and we deserve what all workers deserve, an agreement that reflects...

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Vergecast: Jeff Bezos in space, RCS on Verizon, and Biden on Big Tech

Image; Blue Origin

Every Friday, The Verge publishes our flagship podcast, The Vergecast, where our editors discuss the biggest stories in tech news this week.

This week on The Vergecast,the show is split into three sections, hosted by _Verge_executive editorDieter Bohn.

In part one, Dieter and Verge managing editor Alex Cranz chat with _Verge_policy editor Russell Brandom to talk about President Biden’s criticism of Facebook’s handling of misinformation on its platform, the continuing fight for the right to repair, and the nomination of Google critic Jonathan Kanter to lead the Department of Justice’s antitrust division.

• Biden says platforms like Facebook are ‘killing people’ with COVID-19 misinformation
• Facebook pushes back against Biden remarks on...

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The pandemic made it even harder to check on the ocean’s vital signs

A man takes a picture of German icebreaker and research vessel “Polarstern” upon arrival at the harbour of nothern German town of Bremerhaven, on October 12, 2020, after a year-long mission, the biggest Arctic expedition in history, bringing home observations from scientists that sea ice is melting at a “dramatic rate” in the region. - The researchers’ observations have been backed up by US satellite images showing that in 2020, sea ice in the Arctic reached its second-lowest summer minimum on record, after 2012. The Polarstern mission, dubbed MOSAIC, spent 389 days collecting data on the atmosphere, ocean, sea ice and ecosystems to help assess the impact of climate change on the region and the world. (Photo by Patrik Stollarz / AFP) | Photo by PATRIK STOLLARZ/AFP via Getty Images

After taking a hit during the pandemic, the coming months will be a crucial time for ocean research. People rely on data collected at sea for weather forecasts, understanding climate change, and keeping coastal economies afloat. To make that happen, scientists keep track of everything from the temperatures to salinity and oxygen levels in the deep. But the COVID-19 crisis interrupted research around the world, and ocean scientists are trying to recover.

The coming months will be a crucial time for ocean research

“Overnight, our vessel transformed from a research ship observing a decade’s worth of ocean changes, into a simple express steam home,” Leticia Barbero, an assistant scientist at the University of Miami, said in a June 2020 p...

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Facebook brings cloud gaming to Apple devices with a web app

Illustration by Alex Castro

Starting Friday, Facebook is bringing its nascent cloud gaming service to iPhones and iPads through a web app people will be able to add to their homescreens like a native app. The site will let you play simple web games like Solitaire and match-threes and stream more graphically intensive titles like racing games.

But thanks to Apple’s rules, it’s unclear how people will find it, since third-party developers like Facebook are barred from steering their app users to websites featuring purchasing mechanisms that aren’t Apple’s own. It’s a huge point of friction with not just Facebook, but other gaming companies like Epic that have strongly protested Apple’s grip on iOS payments. Facebook’s library of web games, which include HTML5-based...

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Chevy Bolts recalled again for fire risk, as GM admits battery defects

Photo: Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge

General Motors is recalling 2017-2019 model year Chevy Bolts a second time because of a risk that the battery packs could catch fire. The new recall comes after two Bolts recently caught fire despite having received the purported software fix from the previous recall, which was first announced in November 2020.

GM has also finally shed a little light on the source of the problem. The automaker says that, working with battery supplier LG Chem, it discovered that some of the cells that make up the Bolt’s pack can have two simultaneous manufacturing defects. The company did not say specifically what these defects are, but when they are present they can cause a fire.

GM says it’s still preparing the recall, and so it’s telling owners to take...

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The Tokyo 2020 opening ceremony was filled with some of gaming’s greatest tunes

The opening ceremony of the Tokyo 2020 Olympics kicked off this morning, and tunes from classic video games played as all of the athletes from participating countries were welcomed into a crowd-free arena. There was plenty of representation on the RPG front, with well-known songs from franchises including Dragon Quest, Final Fantasy, Kingdom Hearts, Phantasy Star, and more. Perhaps more surprising were some of the deeper cuts from Chrono Trigger, Monster Hunter, Ace Combat, Nier, and others.

Our pals at Polygon have the full list of songs:

• Dragon Quest “Overture: Roto’s Theme”
• Final Fantasy “Victory Fanfare”
• Tales of series “Sorey’s Theme - The Shepherd”
• Monster Hunter series “Proof of a Hero”
• Kingdom Hearts “Olympus Coliseum”
• C...

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Judge rejects Wisk Aero’s effort to block rival air taxi startup Archer from using ‘stolen’ patents

Archer

A federal judge in San Francisco rejected air taxi startup Wisk Aero’s request for a preliminary injunction against rival startup Archer Aviation, as Silicon Valley’s first big “flying car” legal drama heats up.

Wisk, a joint venture between Boeing and Kitty Hawk, wanted to block Archer Aviation from using any of the 52 trade secrets it alleges were stolen. Wisk is also seeking unspecified monetary damages from Archer in a lawsuit that was filed April 6th. Federal investigators are also looking into the case.

In his ruling, US District Court Judge William Orrick wrote that Wisk’s request was “too uncertain and equivocal,” though he acknowledged that there were “some arguable indications of misappropriation.”

“some arguable indications...

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