New York Auto Show canceled as delta variant spreads

Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge

The 2021 New York International Auto Show has been canceled as the delta variant of COVID-19 continues to spread throughout the United States. The show was supposed to run from August 20th to August 29th at the Jacob K. Javits Center in New York City.

The show’s organizers announced the cancellation Wednesday “with great disappointment,” according to a statement, citing the spread of the delta variant and increased safety measures such as the new proof of vaccination requirements announced by New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio this week. The decision came suddenly, as just last week organizers revealed a poster for the event titled “The Future is Bright.” This year’s show was supposed to have a special focus on electric vehicles.

“All...

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Gmail 101: How to increase the time you have to unsend an email

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

If you’ve ever hit “Send” on a Gmail email and regretted it ten seconds later, you’ll know how handy — even necessary — a delayed send function can be. It could be the sudden realization that you accidentally hit “Reply all,” or a feeling that you may have sent it to the wrong contact, or that there is a misspelling somewhere in there — or, perhaps worst of all, the knowledge that you just sent off an angry missive that you probably shouldn’t have. In any of these cases, a few seconds to stop that email could keep your day from imploding.

(Gmail, of course, isn’t the only email app with this ability; other apps offer it as well.)

Gmail offers a standard five-second window to allow you to change your mind and unsend the email, but if you...

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Code for America employees are unionizing

Employees at Code for America (CFA) announced today they are unionizing with the Office and Professional Employees International Union (OPEIU) Local 1010. Organizers say 62 people have signed authorization cards, meaning 77 percent of eligible employees have indicated their support for the effort.

The national nonprofit builds tech products for government agencies, including helping county courthouses automatically clear peoples’ records once they are eligible and operating one of the biggest intake sites for California food stamp benefits.

Employees say they are largely happy with the work — and are better paid than colleagues at other nonprofits. Still, they feel a union could give them more of a say in business decisions. “A union...

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Ghost of Tsushima’s multiplayer mode is getting new content and a standalone release

Ghost of Tsushima: Legends’ new Rivals mode. | Image: Sony

Ghost of Tsushima’s multiplayer mode, Legends, is getting some new free content and a standalone release, Sony and developer Sucker Punch announced Wednesday. The standalone release will be available on September 3rd for $19.99 / €19.99 / £15.99 on both PS4 and PS5.

That same day, a big new 2v2 mode called Rivals will be introduced to Legends. Here’s how Darren Bridges, a senior game designer at Sucker Punch, describes it in a blog:

In Rivals, two teams of two will compete to defeat waves of enemies. With each defeated foe, you’ll collect Magatama that you can use to harm the other team. For example, you can spend Magatama on Shades to block your opponents’ purchases, Curses (health drain, exploding bodies, etc), Hwacha fire, and more....

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Final Fantasy VII Remake for PS4 and PS5 is half off through August 19th

Image: Square Enix

If you haven’t yet played the Final Fantasy VII Remake, now is a good time to jump in since you can get the game for up to half off its usual cost. Square Enix has slashed the price of the digital copy of the base game for PS4 (upgradeable to the PS5 version for free, with your game saves intact) down to $30. This matches the best deal we’ve seen yet for the digital version.

Though, if you’re a PS5 owner and want access to the _Integrade_downloadable content containing a new episode focused on Yuffie, there’s a great deal for you, too. Normally $70, you can get the digital version of Final Fantasy VII Remake Intergrade for $50 — essentially making the Yuffie-focused episode a complimentary goodie on top of the base game.

Final Fantasy VII...

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Floods endanger millions more people than previously estimated

 Aerial view of rescue team using inflatable rafts evacuate residents from flooded area after heavy downpour, on July 26, 2021 in Weihui, Xinjiang City, Henan Province of China. | Photo by Cui Nan/China News Service via Getty Images

Flooding poses a grave risk to tens of millions more people than researchers previously estimated. Up to 86 million more people lived in flood-prone areas around the world in 2015 compared to 2000, according to a new study published today in the journal Nature.

Thanks to satellite remote sensing, researchers were able to build what they say is the most comprehensive dataset of observed floods yet. It shows that more people have moved to waterfronts where they’re at risk. The findings also suggest that older flood maps used to inform urban planning and insurance policies might be underestimating the real-world risk of flooding.

Just in the past month, shockingly severe floods have taken hundreds of lives in China, Germany, and Belgium....

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Samsung’s stripped down Tab S7 FE comes to the US starting at $529

The Tab S7 FE comes with a stylus in the box. | Image: Samsung

Samsung’s Galaxy Tab S7 FE is officially coming to the US starting on Thursday for the 5G version with the Wi-Fi model expected a few weeks later, the company has announced. The specs of the stripped-back FE, or “Fan Edition,” version of Samsung’s flagship tablet from last year have been public since a listing for the tablet appeared on its German store in May, but now we have full details of its US pricing and availability.

The first version of the Galaxy Tab S7 FE to release in the US will be its 5G model. It’ll be available to order starting Thursday, August 5th, from AT&T, Verizon, and Samsung’s own online store, with prices starting at $669. It will also be available from other retailers, as well as T-Mobile and US Cellular “in the...

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PowerA’s Fusion Pro is an enthusiast Switch controller that won’t enthuse everyone

Customization aplenty, but the omissions are hard to ignore

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Slim keyboards for your iPad, Xbox accessories, and more are discounted today

Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge

If you plan to get some typing done on your iPad, Apple’s Smart Keyboard might be a good accessory to pick up. Right now, it’s $115 at Amazon, which is $44 off its usual price. It has plummeted to around $100 before, according to pricing data from CamelCamelCamel, but this is a great deal if you need to buy right now. This model can work with the previous and current generation of the base 10.2-inch iPad, as well as the last-gen 10.5-inch iPad Air or the last-gen 10.5-inch iPad Pro models.

For a little less, you can opt for a more protective and capable keyboard from Brydge. Its 10.2 Max Plus model supports the previous and latest generation of the iPad, and it adds not just a keyboard, but also a large trackpad. You’ll need to keep it...

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Nissan cuts starting price of its electric Leaf to under $30,000

The entry-level Nissan Leaf now starts at $27,400. | Image: Nissan

Nissan’s Leaf 2022 range starts at just $27,400, making it the cheapest mass market electric car currently available in the US, according to Electrek. That starting price drops to as little as $19,900 if you include the full $7,500 federal tax credit, for which Nissan vehicles are still eligible. These prices don’t include other charges like licensing and destination fees, or additional state-level incentives, but it’s a promising sign of how affordable electric vehicles are becoming.

The exact price difference between Nissan’s 2021 and 2022 Leaf cars varies from model to model. The entry-level Leaf S, which has a 40kWh battery, has reduced by $4,270 from $31,670 to $27,400, undercutting the electric Mini Cooper’s starting price of...

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How to (hopefully) restore your Gmail account if you lose access

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

Losing access to your Google / Gmail account can be an incredibly frustrating and unhappy experience. When researching this article, I came across several accounts of people who had been locked out of their accounts after forgetting their passwords — and a few who had still not been able to get back in, even after several weeks.

Google does provide a list of methods to try if you’ve been locked out of your account — either because you’ve forgotten your password or because somebody has hacked into your account and changed it. Sometimes, they work.

Your options beyond Google’s suggestions may be limited, so it’s best to be prepared ahead of time. Here are some suggestions to place you in the best possible position to get your stuff back.

B...

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Sony’s $499 PS5 is no longer selling at a loss

Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge

Sony’s $499 PlayStation 5 console is no longer selling at a loss. _Bloomberg_reports that Sony chief financial officer Hiroki Totoki shared the news just a week after the company announced it had sold 10 million PS5 consoles.

While the PS5 with a disc drive is no longer selling for less than the cost to produce it, the less expensive and disc-less $399 PS5 Digital Edition is reportedly on track to have Sony’s related losses offset by other hardware sales like accessories and the PS4. Sony sold 500,000 PS4 consoles in the most recent quarter, bringing lifetime sales up to an impressive 116.4 million.

Image: Sony

The PS5 won’t be as costly as Sony’s PS3 launch.

It took Sony years to stop losing money on PS3 sales,...

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Facebook bans academics who researched ad transparency and misinformation on Facebook

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

Facebook has banned the personal accounts of academics who researched ad transparency and the spread of misinformation on the social network. Facebook says the group violated its term of service by scraping user data without permission. But the academics say they are being silenced for exposing problems on Facebook’s platform.

The researchers were part of NYU Ad Observatory, a project created to examine the origin and spread of political ads on Facebook. As the group explained in a blog post in May, their aim is to uncover who pays for political ads and how they are being targeted. Such work has important implications for understanding the spread of disinformation on Facebook, as the company does not fact-check political ads.

To help...

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The PS5 worked fine with the slowest compatible SSD we could find

Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge

If your PS5 is already running out of speedy solid state storage, there’s a fix on the way. Sony’s new beta update for the PS5 allows you to expand your paltry 667GB of usable space by popping in the same sort of M.2 SSD stick you might slip into your laptop or desktop PC. My colleague Mitchell has a PS5 SSD buying guide right here that meets all of Sony’s recommendations, such as speeds of at least 5,500MB/s. That might leave you wondering, though: what about slower SSDs?

That’s why we tracked down an ADATA XPG Gammix S50 Lite, one of the slowest compatible PCIe Gen4 drives we could find at 3,900MB/s reads and 3,200MB/s writes, and stuck it into a PS5, along with another drive.

Image by Sean Hollister / The Verge ...

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Microsoft pauses free Windows 365 cloud PC trials after ‘significant demand’

Image: Microsoft

Microsoft launched its new cloud PC Windows 365 service earlier this week, and the company has already had to pause free trials due to demand. Windows 365 lets you rent a cloud PC — with a variety of CPU, RAM, and storage options — and then stream Windows 10 or Windows 11 via a web browser. The service reached max capacity after only a day of signups.

“Following significant demand, we have reached capacity for Windows 365 trials,” reads a statement from the Microsoft 365 Twitter account. “We have seen unbelievable response to Windows 365 and need to pause our free trial program while we provision additional capacity,” explains Scott Manchester, director of Windows 365 program management.

Image: Microsoft

Windows...

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Oppo announces ‘next-generation’ under-display selfie camera

A prototype phone with Oppo’s latest under-screen camera tech. | Oppo

Oppo has announced the latest iteration of its under-screen camera technology, claiming it allows for a selfie camera to be placed under the display “without compromising the integrity of the screen.” Unlike earlier approaches that reduce pixel density in the portion of the screen that covers the camera in order to let more light pass through, Oppo is using smaller pixels to maintain the same 400-ppi sharpness as the rest of the OLED panel.

The result, according to Oppo, is that users should notice “almost no visual difference between the [under-screen camera] area and the rest of the screen during everyday use, creating a much more immersive visual experience.” The company has shown off an image of a prototype phone running an e-reader...

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Street Fighter’s Guile and Cammy are coming to Fortnite

Street Fighter’s_Cammy and Guile in Fortnite._ | Image: Epic Games

Epic Games is adding two more Street Fighter icons to _Fortnite._Playable Chun-Li and Ryu skins were added to the game in February, but soon, Guile and Cammy skins will make their debut in the game’s item shop. You’ll be able to buy them starting August 7th at 8PM ET.

I think both skins look great — I’m personally a huge fan of Guile’s ridiculous-looking flat top hair.

Round 2. FIGHT

Announcing two new challengers! Guile and Cammy from @StreetFighter are making their way to the Island.

Read about their upcoming Cosmetic Sets and about the Cammy Cup where you can win her Outfit early.

: https://t.co/ASHildQt70pic.twitter.com/Uc1nizbn9V

— Fortnite (@FortniteGame) August 3, 2021

Each skin will have two different variants, which you can...

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Apple launches big redesign of its online store

Apple’s new Apple Store layout. | Image: Apple

The Apple Store was mysteriously down on Tuesday for just about an hour, but it has emerged from the downtime with a brand new look and a dedicated tab on Apple’s top-level navigation.

At the top of the store, there are images and links to many of Apple’s product lines (Mac, iPhone, AirPods, etc.). Some of those links take you to new dedicated Store pages for the products, which show you what models are available and point to resources like shopping guides, accessories, and support. On the main Store page, there are also sections for what’s new, links to support pages, and more.

The iPad category in the new Apple Store.

The new design is filled with cards — it’s somewhat reminiscent of Apple’s Store app for iOS. It...

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T-Mobile confirms it will shut down Sprint’s LTE network next year

T-Mobile has wasted no time consolidating Sprint’s network and spectrum with its own. | Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

As reported by Light Reading and confirmed to The Verge, T-Mobile has committed to a June 30, 2022 shutdown date for Sprint’s LTE network. It’s an expected move as T-Mobile continues to absorb Sprint’s network and customers into its own base, and comes six months after its contentious planned January 1, 2022 shutdown of Sprint’s 3G CDMA network.

A third of Sprint customers have already been moved onto the T-Mobile network, according to T-Mobile. The company expects to be able to migrate the remaining two thirds by that mid-2022 deadline, according to CFO Peter Osvaldik’s remarks at an investor conference last month. Some of those customers will likely need new devices that are compatible with T-Mobile LTE and VoLTE, though the company...

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AT&T has officially spun off DirecTV, which is now its own business

Photo Illustration by Thomas Trutschel/Photothek via Getty Images

AT&T announced earlier this year that it would spin its video properties DirecTV, AT&T TV, and U-verse into a new company it would co-manage with private equity firm TPG Capital. That transaction is finally complete, and the services will now operate as a single company under the name DirecTV.

As outlined earlier this year when the company initially announced plans to off-load its struggling DirecTV business, AT&T will retain a 70 percent stake in the company, while TPG will take a 30 percent stake. The telecom giant said the deal for which it received $7.1 billion in cash would help pay off its massive debt, with the company projecting it can put a stop to the bleeding by the end of 2023.

Part of that debt is owed because of AT&T’s a...

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SpaceX’s Starlink app gets big update to help find clear sky

Photo by Joey Roulette / The Verge

SpaceX’s Starlink mobile app got a refreshing upgrade this week that makes it easier to find clear patches of sky and monitor connection outages — and adds a new dark mode for its user interface. The app improvements came out yesterday as SpaceX reported 90,000 active users in its open “better than nothing” beta phase, which spans rural regions across 12 different countries so far.

The “completely updated and renovated” version, as SpaceX describes in its Apple’s App Store changelog, includes a new way to scan your surroundings for obstructions before installing a Starlink terminal. Like its previous method, the app directs users to scan their surroundings using their phone cameras, but the new version generates a tiny dome around your...

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Google leaks unannounced Nest security cameras on its own online store

An image from Google’s online store that shows off a new Nest Cam and Nest Doorbell. | Image: Google

Google has apparently leaked some unannounced Nest security cameras right on its own online store (thanks for the tip, Eric!). Google confirmed in January that it would be releasing a new lineup of security cameras this year, and it seems like the company’s store may have just revealed what’s on the way.

As far as we can tell, the new devices include a combined outdoor / indoor battery-powered Nest Cam, a Nest Cam with floodlight, an indoor wired Nest Cam, and a battery-powered Nest Doorbell. When we tried to click on the “Learn More” and “Buy” links for those devices, the site sent us back to the main Google Store homepage, so it seems that they might be live earlier than they are supposed to be.

Image: Google

T...

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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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HBO Max looks to woo new subscribers with free episodes

HBO Max is offering free content to potential users. | Image: HBO Max

HBO Max is offering free episodes to potential new subscribers in-app and free of charge so they can take its more popular series for a test drive before committing to yet another streaming service.

The company announced that, starting today, new viewers mulling a subscription can watch a selection of 13 pilots from HBO and HBO Max without having to sign up for the service. Normally, subscribers would pay $10 per month for HBO Max’s ad-supported tier or $15 per month to go ad-free and get special perks like 4K streaming and day-and-date releases for Warner Bros films. (HBO Max does not currently offer a free trial.) The full list of series whose pilots can be streaming for free is as follows:

• Batwoman
• Euphoria
• Game of Thrones
• Harley...

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The PS5 SSD buying guide

Photo by Tom Warren / The Verge

Sony released its first PS5 software beta last Thursday, and with it came the much-anticipated support for adding an M.2 SSD, letting you install more PS5 games than the fairly restrictive 825GB built-in SSD allows. Alongside the beta, Sony provided a list of requirements, making it clear that you wouldn’t necessarily be able to just grab any SSD and chuck it in your PS5.

Which SSDs work with the PS5?

Sony’s main requirements are that the SSD be PCIe Gen4 and at least 250GB. However, Sony makes it very clear that your SSD needs a heatsink, which can complicate things, given the limited amount of space in the PS5’s SSD bay. What SSDs you’ll want to consider depends on whether you want to install a heatsink yourself or not, and whether...

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WhatsApp launches its ‘View Once’ disappearing photos and videos

Image: WhatsApp

WhatsApp is rolling out its “View Once” feature today, which deletes photos or videos from your chat after they’ve been opened by the recipient. When sending a photo or video, you can make it view once by tapping the “1” button to the left of the send button. After the recipient opens it, it’ll be deleted. The recipient will be able to see that it’s a disappearing photo, so it’s still the type of thing you’d only want to use for people you trust to not take a screenshot.

In June, Mark Zuckerberg confirmed that the feature would be coming, though details about when it would release were scarce. According to WaBetaInfo, the feature has been in beta for about a month.

GIF: WhatsApp

The recipient will be left with a...

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Snapchat knows when you were born if you used it to check your horoscope

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

Despite how things may seem, Snapchat hasn’t learned your birthday or birthplace on its own — you likely told it yourself. The app’s exact knowledge of the exact time, date, and location of a user’s birth has been an issue of some concern for users on Twitter and TikTok over the last few days, but it’s due to Snapchat’s Astrological Profile feature and not some nefarious new skill the app has gained as it’s soared in popularity over the last year.

You can view your “Astrological Birthday” in the settings section of Snapchat, and if you weren’t aware you had already given the app all of that information, it would be a fairly alarming discovery. Checking baby photos will not reveal that the Snapchat Hot Dog has been with you since birth,...

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Nikola shows its truck going uphill, for a change

Just five days after Nikola founder Trevor Milton was indicted, in part, for allegedly misleading investors with footage of a moving truck that was secretly rolling downhill, the hydrogen-trucking startup released footage of a newer prototype driving uphill.

The startup showed the video during a presentation of its second quarter financial results on Tuesday. (It also published the footage on YouTube.) While it may be a moral victory for the company to show its truck climbing a 12 percent grade hill in light of the more infamous clip Milton once orchestrated, the release of the footage nonetheless came alongside some bad news: Nikola now expects to deliver half the number of trucks this year than it had originally estimated. Worse, the...

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Blizzard’s head of HR is out

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

Blizzard president J. Allen Brack isn’t the only executive leaving the company today after presiding over a culture now accused of fostering “constant sexual harassment.” Jesse Meschuk, the company’s head of global human resources, has also now departed, an Activision Blizzard spokesperson confirmed to Bloomberg and to The Verge.

“Jesse Meschuk is no longer with the company,” wrote an Activision Blizzard spokesperson. The company declined to comment further. Meschuk appears to have deleted his Twitter account as well.

While Brack oversaw the entire Blizzard brand and was named in the state of California’s lawsuit as an alleged enabler, Blizzard’s human resources department was also allegedly complicit. The lawsuit suggested that...

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Intel leak reveals Thunderbolt 5 could offer 80Gbps USB-C ports

Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge

Thunderbolt 4 is still relatively early on, but that isn’t stopping Intel from working on its next version of the connectivity standard, Thunderbolt 5. And thanks to a hastily deleted tweet from Intel executive Gregory Bryant that was caught by Anandtech, we’ve already gotten a sneak preview at the next-generation Thunderbolt standard, which could offer twice the speed of Thunderbolt 4 while maintaining physical USB-C plugs.

The most notable thing on the post was a title for “80G PHY Technology” — referencing a physical connector that offers 80Gbps connections, which would be twice the speeds offered by Thunderbolt 4 (which maxes out at 40Gbps).

Photo: Anandtech

The next line confirms that the new technology still...

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