Sgt. Pepper’s to get new Atmos mix because current version ‘doesn’t sound quite right’

Photo credit should read JULIO CESAR AGUILAR/AFP via Getty Images

The Beatles seminal Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band is set to receive another Dolby Atmos mix, after producer Giles Martin, son of the album’s original producer George Martin, admitted that the current version “doesn’t sound quite right.” The current mix, produced by the younger Martin in 2017, was made with Dolby Atmos theaters in mind, rather than personal listening via services like Apple Music. “I’m gonna replace it,” the said the two time Grammy winner to Rolling Stone. “It’s good. But it’s not right.”

The current Atmos mix of the album was created to coincide with its 50th anniversary in 2017. At the time, it was designed to be played in Dolby Atmos cinemas at a series of live listening events. But now that it is available...

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AMD’s new Radeon RX 6600 XT offers 1080p RDNA 2 gaming for $379

An AMD Radeon RX 6600 XT GPU from Asus | Image: AMD

AMD has a new entry-level RX 6000-series GPU: the $379 RX 6600 XT, which is still based on the same RDNA 2 architecture as its beefier cousins, but it offers a more wallet-friendly price point. The new card promises the “ultimate 1080p gaming experience,” for customers who don’t necessarily need a next-gen 4K gaming setup.

At a suggested retail price of $379 (AMD isn’t selling its own version of the card), the RX 6600 XT slots at an even cheaper price point than the $479 RX 6700 XT that the company released earlier this year, which targeted 1440p gaming.

The RX 6600 XT features 32 compute units, 8GB of GDDR6 RAM, a 2359 MHz base clock, 2589 MHz boosted clock, and draws 160W of power. For comparison, the top-of-the-line RX 6900 XT 80...

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Dish adds HBO Max and will now offer HBO and Cinemax

Photo Illustration by Igor Golovniov/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images

Following a prolonged standoff between Dish Network and AT&T over licensing terms to carry HBO channels, Dish has reached an agreement with WarnerMedia to offer HBO, HBO Max, and Cinemax.

Dish TV customers nationwide will be able to access both the HBO and Cinemax networks today, though they’ll need to subscribe to HBO Max to get linear HBO. To promote the deal, Dish will run a free 10-day preview of the premium networks for existing customers right around the time the Olympics Games will be wrapping up, from August 6 to August 15. Customers don’t have to do anything to take advantage of the preview; the networks will appear automatically.

Users interested in subscribing to HBO Max can score a discounted subscription to the service’s...

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Here are the best Amazon Echo deals right now

The Echo Show 5 (left), Echo Show 8 (middle), and the Echo Show (right). | Photo by Dan Seifert / The Verge

When it comes to the Echo smart speakers, Amazon has a slew of devices to choose from, one for practically every occasion. For example, maybe you simply want to add Alexa to a room, or you are looking for an Echo device that will allow you to easily manage your other smart home products. Regardless of the reason, these are the best Echo deals available right now.

The best Echo Dot deals

Late last year, Amazon released the fourth generation of the Echo Dot, which looks more like a sphere than an actual dot. But if you prefer the previous design, don’t worry: Amazon has not discontinued the third-gen Echo Dot, which still retains the familiar dot shape.

During Prime Day, we saw the fourth-gen Echo Dot drop to its lowest price of $25....

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Verizon’s new hotspot plans are built for your #vanlife dreams

Verizon’s hotspot plans offer mobile data that can be shared with other devices in your luxury camper van, er, house. | Image: Verizon

Verizon has introduced new mobile hotspot plans, with four options to choose from starting at 15GB for $20 per month up to 150GB for $80 per month. They offer standalone and unlimited plan add-on mobile hotspot data that’s ready to be taken on the road. Maybe in a Class B Winnebago Solis with a pop-up sleeping compartment, as featured on Wheel of Fortune, south through the redwoods and along the coast and then on through the painted deserts of the Southwest. What? I said that out loud? I mean, hypothetically.

Anyway, the most basic plan, Essential, offers low-band Nationwide 5G and 4G LTE connectivity. The three more expensive plans — creatively named Plus, Pro, and Premium — include Ultra Wideband 5G, which encompasses the very fast,...

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Bungie reveals how Destiny 2 crossplay will and won’t work, and a rough idea when

A screenshot from_Destiny 2._ | Image: Bungie

Destiny 2 developer Bungie revealed a whole lot of information about the game’s upcoming crossplay support in a blog post on Thursday afternoon. Let’s get this out of the way first: Bungie still doesn’t have an exact date for when you’ll be able to play with your friends on other platforms, but the studio promises the feature will launch “early” in Season 15, which is expected to kick off on August 24th.

Season 15 will also bring an important change to ensure you have a persistent identity across platforms for crossplay: a new Bungie Name system. Your Bungie Name will be generated based on the name associated with the platform you play Season 15 on first, and will look something like PlayerName#1234. You can get a better idea of how it...

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Snapchat is crashing for a lot of people again

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

Snapchat is experiencing a massive issue as of Thursday evening, with more than 125,000 users reporting problems on Downdetector. I tried logging into the app on my iPhone 12 Mini, and now the app just crashes every time I try and open the app. Two other Verge staffers aren’t able to open the app, either.

Snap acknowledged that there’s a problem in a tweet at 6:51PM ET. “We’re aware of an issue preventing some Snapchatters from logging in,” the company said from Snapchat’s support account. “Hang tight, we are looking into it and working on a fix!”

The outage follows a nasty bug from June where a version of the iOS Snapchat app would crash at launch. That bug was eventually fixed in an update released soon after.

As always, I highly...

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Forza Motorsport 7 will be driving into the sunset in September

Photo: Turn 10 Studios

_Forza Motorsport 7_will no longer be available to purchase from the Microsoft Store or play on Xbox Game Pass after September 15th, 2021, as it’s reaching “end of life” status. The game won’t be completely going away — if you own it you’ll still be able to download and play it, and the multiplayer will still be accessible, but anyone without the game won’t be able to buy the digital version. According to the _Forza_Twitter account, this is happening because the game’s licenses to use real-world cars and tracks are starting to expire.

If you’re a long-time _Forza_fan, you may have seen this happen before. Games in the series have historically been delisted around four years after their release. _Horizon 3_was delisted in September 2020 after...

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Robinhood’s public trading is off to a rocky start

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

Robinhood started trading at $38, dropped about 10 percent, recovered, but still closed down 8 percent at $34.90 on its first day of trading. It’s the worst first day among 51 firms that raised as much as Robinhood or more, according to Bloomberg. It’s also bad news for Robinhood’s experiment at offering retail investors a chunk of the IPO.

Robinhood’s shares priced at the bottom of the targeted price range of $38 to $42 a share, perhaps because of concerns about volatility or perhaps because Robinhood wanted to ensure a pop for its retail investors. And though Robinhood had said it would allocate up to 35 percent of its shares to retail, only 20 percent actually went to retail, which “indicated less interest than expected,” according to...

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Sony’s new PS5 beta update also fixes one of its silliest flaws

Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge

The first major system update for Sony’s PlayStation 5 is arriving in beta form today, finally letting you expand the console’s 667GB of usable storage by adding your own PCIe Gen 4 SSD as well as testing new UI options and expanding 3D Audio support. But the full changelog also includes a few features that Sony didn’t highlight to press — including a way to easily update your DualSense controller if you press the wrong button!

You see, the PS5 currently has a very silly flaw: the only time you can update your controller is when you boot the console. And if you say no or accidentally press the O button instead of X, you can’t trigger that update until 24 hours have passed (or you tweak your PS5’s internal clock to cheat it).

But in Beta...

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Amazon gives Alexa a new iOS widget and the ability to assign reminders

Photo by Dan Seifert / The Verge

Amazon has updated the Alexa app on iOS so that you can access the voice assistant right from your home screen via a new widget. Everyone can use the assistant to remind specific members of your household to do tasks through a new “assign reminders” skill.

Due to the somewhat restrictive nature of the widgets on iOS, the new Ask Alexa widget isn’t so much Alexa itself as it is a link directly to the iOS app. But if you have the Alexa widget placed on any of your screens and you’ve already given the Alexa app permission to use your iPhone’s mic, you’ll be able to start making requests with a tap.

The Ask Alexa widget in iOS.

And now those requests can get a bit more granular. Amazon’s given Alexa the ability to assign...

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Amazon’s earnings show why Andy Jassy is now in charge

Photo: Getty Images

As stores reopen and in-person shopping picks back up, the surge in demand for Amazon purchases has finally started to wane — not much, to be clear, but just enough to frustrate investors.

From April through June, Amazon saw $113.1 billion in sales of products and services, growing 27 percent year over year. That’s an enormous amount of money, but investors were hoping for a bit more, around $115 billion, and Amazon’s stock has been slipping since releasing the figures in its Q2 2021 earnings report this afternoon.

AWS is picking up speed

But there was one spot investors are happy to see, and it helps to explain the company’s recent executive shuffle. Amazon Web Services did $14.8 billion in net sales, up 37 percent year over year. That...

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Why wildfire smoke can be worse than other air pollutants

A haze of wildfire smoke and clouds is seen at sunset in an aerial image taken during a flight from Seattle to Los Angeles as Western wildfires, including the Bootleg, Dixie, and Tamarack fires, continue to burn in Oregon and California. | Photo by Patrick T. Fallon / AFP via Getty Images

The explosive growth of wildfires in the Western US has spewed smoke across the landscape, creating a growing threat to public health. Driven by climate change, the 2020 fire season was so bad that it doubled the previous record in California for acres burned, and at-home monitoring of the smoke’s effects on air quality became almost commonplace. This year’s season got off to a devastating start and has already darkened skies on the East Coast with smoke from West Coast wildfires.

Smoke isn’t your ordinary air pollution. The tiny particles found in smoke can be up to 10 times more harmful to human health than soot from other things like tailpipes and factories, according to research published in the journal Natureearlier this year.

T...

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Joe Biden wants states to pay people $100 to get vaccinated

The Biden administration wants states and local governments to give $100 to “every newly vaccinated American,” the Treasury Department said in a statement today. It’s the latest federal effort to improve vaccination rates as COVID-19 continues to surge around the country, driven by the highly contagious Delta variant.

States could use funding from the American Rescue Plan to fund the payments. The administration is not mandatingthe incentive, but the Treasury Department said it was partnering with the Department of Health and Human Services to help governments roll it out.

New York City announced this week that it would give $100 to anyone who got a shot at one of the city-run vaccination sites. “I think when someone says here’s $100...

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Uncontrolled firing from Russian module causes brief ‘tug of war’ on International Space Station

Russia’s Nauka module | Roscosmos

The International Space Station unexpectedly shifted in orbit on Thursday when thrusters on a newly docked Russian module began firing uncontrollably. The thrusters reoriented the football-field-sized laboratory’s position by as much as 45 degrees, NASA said. The station is back under control, a NASA spokesperson said, and its seven-person crew of astronauts, including three US astronauts, are safe, according to the agency.

The erroneous thruster firings from Russia’s Nauka module, a new 23-ton multipurpose laboratory, began at 12:25PM ET, a few hours after it docked to the ISS. Thrusters on another side of the space station, from Russia’s Zvezda service module, fired up to counter the force from Nauka in what NASA’s mission control...

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Annapurna showed off lots of cool games at its first showcase

Stray.

Thanks to games like Florence, Gorogoa, and What Remains of Edith Finch, Annapurna Interactive has steadily become one of the most exciting indie game publishers around. And at its first showcase event, the publisher showed that there’s plenty more in the works. In less than 30 minutes, Annapurna revealed some exciting new partnerships and showed off upcoming games that involve everything from being a cat to hunting demons in heaven. Here’s everything that was shown off.

Stray turns you into a cyberpunk cat

Arguably the highlight of the event was the debut gameplay trailer for Stray, a game set in some kind of forgotten cyberpunk city in which you play as a lost cat. It looks like a great action-adventure game, albeit one where you can...

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Windows 11 now has its first beta release

Microsoft has released the first beta of Windows 11, available to those enrolled in its Windows Insider Program. Until today, getting access to Windows 11 meant installing the Dev preview, which Microsoft says is for “highly technical users” as it has “rough edges.” According to Microsoft, the beta release is less volatile, with builds being validated by Microsoft (though it’s still probably something you’ll want to install on a test machine or second partition).

Of course, to install the beta you’ll need a compatible computer. Figuring out if your hardware will work with the next version of Windows has been notoriously tricky to pin down, but Microsoft’s article about preparing for Insider builds directs people to its system...

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GarageBand can now help you remix tracks from Lady Gaga and Dua Lipa

Image: Apple

If a year inside convinced you to shoot your shot at becoming an international DJ, Apple is updating GarageBand for iOS and iPadOS on Thursday with a low-stakes way to start dabbling in the world of remixes. GarageBand’s Remix Sessions lets you try your hand at remixing tracks from Dua Lipa and Lady Gaga with short video tutorials available to watch while you mess with loops.

You can access the new Remix Sessions from the Sound Library section of GarageBand. There’s currently only one song for each artist, “Break My Heart” for Dua Lipa and “Free Woman” for Lady Gaga, but the amount of samples and loops each song comes with is surprisingly broad. If you’ve played with GarageBand’s Live Loops before, the experience should be...

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Scarlett Johansson is suing Disney over Black Widow’s streaming release

Image: Marvel

Scarlett Johansson is suing Disney over the simultaneous streaming release of Black Widow, which debuted the same day in theaters and on Disney Plus through its Premier Access service.

The suit was filed Thursday in Los Angeles Superior Court and alleges that Johansson’s contract with Marvel Entertainment, which is owned by Disney, ensured a “wide theatrical release” of the film. The suit says it’s “well understood” that the agreement meant an exclusive release that would not include streaming. Johansson’s salary was in part based on the box office performance of the film, the suit says, meaning the streaming offer could meaningfully cut into her paycheck.

“Disney knew that the cannibalization of [box office receipts] by Disney+ would...

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Motorola debuts Edge 20 flagships globally with fast refresh screens and 108-megapixel cameras

The Motorola Edge 20 Pro, Edge 20, and Edge 20 Lite all support 5G and come with a 6.7-inch OLED. | Image: Motorola

Motorola is keeping its return to flagship devices running for the second year in a row with today’s global announcement of the Edge 20 Pro, Edge 20, and Edge 20 Lite. The top-end 20 Pro includes a periscope-style telephoto lens for the first time in a Motorola device and includes a Snapdragon 870 processor.

All three devices support sub-6GHz 5G, offer 108-megapixel rear-facing cameras, and include 6.7-inch OLED screens with fast refresh rates. They’re due to arrive in August in Europe, Latin America, and Asia. While Motorola doesn’t offer specifics, it says that it plans to bring a 5G Edge device to North America this fall.

Image: Motorola

The Edge 20 Pro comes in a handsome indigo vegan leather option.

P...

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It’s not just you, streaming the Olympics is a mess

Sunisa Lee of Team United States competes on the balance beam during the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games in Tokyo, Japan. | Photo by Amin Mohammad Jamali/Getty Images

Figuring out how to watch the Olympics this year has been frustrating. NBC holds broadcasting rights to the Games in the US, so it naturally seized on the opportunity to boost subscribers to its streaming service, Peacock, by making it “the place to flock for the Games’ top moments.” Streaming the Olympics should’ve been as easy as signing up — except it wasn’t.

Peacock’s coverage was a problem straight out of the gate. The opening ceremony wasn’t streamed live on the service at all (though the closing ceremony will be), even though it was streamed live on the NBC Olympics website. The service is paywalling men’s basketball, seemingly to boost Peacock’s paid plans. And while live broadcasts and on-demand coverage of most other games and...

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The NBA and iHeartMedia are planning to make a whole lot of podcasts together

Photo by Justin Casterline/Getty Images

The NBA and iHeartMedia, which owns iHeartRadio, will be launching more than 20 new co-produced podcasts as part of a multiyear partnership, the two companies announced. The first show is scheduled to debut in the fall.

“The new shows will be produced using a wide variety of content from the NBA archives to tell the backstories of some of the greatest moments in sports history, along with a mix of the latest league news, player commentary, insider analysis, and much more,” according to a press release.

The lineup could include daily shows as well as limited series, and it may pull from the NBA’s archives of content, according to Bloomberg. “We’ve been looking for the right partner to help bring our archives to life,” David Denenberg,...

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Amazon’s Fire TV Cube can now do Zoom video calls

Image: Amazon

Amazon has announced that its second-gen Fire TV Cube is now able to participate in two-way Zoom video calls. The company rolled out support for videoconferencing between the Fire TV Cube and Alexa smart displays late last year, but Zoom opens up even more possibilities for hosting virtual chats or work calls on the biggest screen in your home. This really would’ve come in handy over the last year, but better late than never, I guess — and it should still prove convenient for anyone working a hybrid office / home schedule in the months ahead.

The Zoom app for Fire TV is required to get started. So is a webcam, obviously, and the company has some minimum requirements to meet on that front:

You will need to connect a webcam that supports...

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Disney Plus’ Hawkeye show gets a November 24th release date

Image: Marvel Studios

Marvel’s Hawkeye spinoff show is officially debuting on Disney Plus on November 24th, the company announced today. The announcement comes with the first official image from the show, that sees Jeremy Renner’s Clint Barton iteration of the archer superhero alongside the newly introduced Kate Bishop version of the character, played by Hailee Steinfeld in the upcoming show.

#Hawkeye never misses so don’t miss @JeremyRenner and @HaileeSteinfeld in this @EW exclusive first-look of Marvel Studios’ Hawkeye. The Original Series starts streaming Wednesday, November 24 on @DisneyPlus. pic.twitter.com/8DnB18oSIk

— Marvel Studios (@MarvelStudios) July 29, 2021

_Hawkeye_joins WandaVision, The Falcon and the Winter Solider, and the recently...

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Electric boat startup Arc wants to make a big splash

Images: Arc

Electricity and water don’t mix — well, actually, they mix really well, which can be problematic for humans. So the thought of an electric boat may seem risky. A new California startup called Arc is going to try to shred that perception, starting with a limited edition 24-foot watersports boat that will cost around $300,000.

That’s an incredible amount of money. But Arc — which is coming out of stealth mode today, boasts a handful of SpaceX expats, and is backed by Silicon Valley powerhouse firm Andreessen Horowitz — plans to work its way down from that price point once it’s producing and selling boats, just like Tesla once did for electric passenger cars with the Roadster, followed by the Model S and X, and then the Model 3 and Y.

“We...

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Hulu’s live TV service gets NFL Network and RedZone ahead of 2021 season

A new sports add-on from Hulu with Live TV. | Image: Hulu

Hulu is adding two big channels for football coverage to its live TV service. The NFL Network will be included in Hulu’s live TV package beginning today at no extra cost, while NFL RedZone will now be offered as part of a new sports add-on. The add-on includes a half-dozen channels, but subscribers will have to pony up for access.

The NFL Network joins the more than 75 live TV channels already available as part of Hulu’s live TV package, which starts at $65 per month. The channel includes studio coverage, original series, live NFL season games, as well as NFL preseason games.

The NFL says broadening distribution is among its “top priorities”

Hulu’s new sports add-on package can expand those channels with NFL RedZone in addition to MAVTV...

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Lenovo Flex 5 Chromebook review: midrange done right

The Flex 5 is built for its price range

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Fortnite teases concert series with ‘record-breaking superstar’

The next big Fortnite concert is happening very soon — but who will be performing remains a mystery. Developer Epic announced an event called the Rift Tour, which will take place from August 6th to the 8th, with a series of events across different time zones. It’s described as “a musical journey into magical new realities where Fortnite and a record-breaking superstar collide.” Epic previously teased an alien-themed event happening on August 6th with an in-game countdown.

Who that superstar is remains to be seen. Recent rumors suggest that Ariana Grande could be the next performer to take Fortnite’s virtual stage. She would join the likes of Travis Scott and Marshmello, whose Fortnite performances have been some of the most popular...

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Airbnb’s new tool makes it easier for hosts to list Wi-Fi speeds for remote work getaways

Airbnb is adding a new tool for hosts that will let them easily test and list their Wi-Fi speeds on listings. The new addition is in recognization of the fact that — particularly with the current remote work and school model — customers are renting Airbnb properties not just for vacations but for working trips that provide a change of scenery. In that vein, knowing that you’ll actually be able to have strong internet when you’re booking is a useful feature.

While it’s been possible for hosts to list Wi-Fi speeds or share screenshots of speed tests before, the new tool is integrated directly into Airbnb’s app (using M-Lab’s open-source software) and allows for Wi-Fi speed to be displayed directly on a listing alongside other information...

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Jodie Whittaker’s run on Doctor Who will end in 2022

Image: BBC

The Thirteenth Doctor is set to step away. Today, the BBC announced that Jodie Whittaker, who took over as the first female lead in Doctor Who in 2017, will end her run on the show in 2022. Showrunner Chris Chibnall will also be leaving.

“My heart is so full of love for this show, for the team who make it, for the fans who watch it and for what it has brought to my life,” Whittaker said in a statement. “And I cannot thank Chris enough for entrusting me with his incredible stories. We knew that we wanted to ride this wave side by side, and pass on the baton together. So here we are, weeks away from wrapping on the best job I have ever had. I don’t think I’ll ever be able to express what this role has given me. I will carry the Doctor and...

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