Google’s new Nest cameras and doorbell have lower prices and more smarts

The new Nest Cam | Photo: Google

Google has announced a new line of home security cameras and a video doorbell under its Nest brand. The new models, which include an indoor-only camera, an indoor / outdoor camera, a floodlight, and the video doorbell, replace the older Nest IQ cameras and Nest Hello doorbell. The main themes with the new devices are a unified design language and more accessible pricing — each model costs less than the camera it’s replacing, while adding more capabilities.

The design of the new cameras will be familiar to anyone who’s seen other Nest products released in the past couple of years, such as the latest Nest Thermostat, Nest WiFi, or the Nest Audio smart speaker. The company has been moving toward softer edges and muted color palettes, and...

Continue reading…

Lyft’s $20 per month membership program gets new bike-share benefits and an annual plan

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

Lyft is boosting its $19.99-per-month Lyft Pink membership program with new bike-share benefits and an annual option that’s cheaper than paying for the service month to month, the company announced Thursday.

Lyft Pink’s primary benefit is a 15 percent discount on car rides, but previously, it also offered three free 30-minute bike or scooter rides per month (in certain markets). With the new bike-share benefits, you’ll get an unlimited amount of 45-minute bike rides on “classic” bikes (aka non-electric) at many of the company’s bike-share systems across the US as well as discounted rates on e-bike rides.

The new annual option for Lyft Pink will cost $199 per year, which is a $40 discount over paying monthly. If you regularly use Lyft...

Continue reading…

Yelp will let businesses list their vaccination policies

Users can search via the new attributes. | Image: Yelp

Yelp will let businesses share their policies on COVID-19 vaccinations, the company announced today. There are a pair of new attributes businesses can add to their profiles; one to share whether their staff are fully vaccinated, and one to specify whether customers will be required to provide proof of vaccination. Businesses can list the attributes via their Yelp for Business accounts. allowing users of the service to find places with policies they’re most comfortable with.

The ability to list vaccination policies joins a long list of pandemic-focused features Yelp has added to its service over the past year. Early on in the pandemic, the service let businesses specify whether they offer virtual or contact-free services, and later...

Continue reading…

Facebook’s ban of third-party researchers ‘deeply concerning’

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

Facebook is being criticized by politicians and researchers for banning the accounts of academics who analyzed political ads and misinformation on the social network.

In press statements, Senator Mark R. Warner (D-VA) said the company’s actions were “deeply concerning,” while Senator Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) said she was “deeply troubled” by the news. Creator of the Firefox browser, Mozilla, which conducted a privacy audit of the academics’ work, said Facebook’s justification for banning the researchers was “wrong.”

“In our view, those claims simply do not hold water.”

“Facebook claims the accounts were shut down due to privacy problems with the Ad Observer,” wrote Mozilla’s chief security officer Marshall Erwin in a blog post. “In our view,...

Continue reading…

Asus releases Windows 11-ready BIOS updates with automatic TPM support

Asus is making a range of its motherboards ready for Windows 11. The motherboard manufacturer has released BIOS updates for a variety of chipsets, including ones that support Intel Kaby Lake processors from 2017. Both Intel and AMD chipsets are supported, and these new BIOS updates will even automatically enable TPM (Trusted Platform Module) on AMD and Intel systems.

A TPM is a minimum requirement for Windows 11, and it’s a change that caused some confusion after many realized their PCs didn’t have the option enabled in the BIOS, or it was confusingly named “PTT” or “PSP fTPM” in BIOS settings. Microsoft’s Windows 11 upgrade checker didn’t ease that confusion initially, so it’s encouraging to see big manufacturers like Asus now enabling...

Continue reading…

Steve Jobs’ biographer Walter Isaacson is writing a book about Elon Musk, says Elon Musk

Musk has an interesting relationship with his self-image, as evidenced by his appearance on SNL as Wario. | Image: SNL

Like most of the super-rich, Elon Musk has one eye on his legacy, keen to shape how his huge fortune is perceived now and in the future. This perhaps explains why he recently shared the fact that Walter Isaacson, biographer of Steve Jobs, is writing a book about him.

“If you’re curious about Tesla, SpaceX & my general goings on, @WalterIsaacson is writing a biography,” tweeted Musk.

He added in subsequent tweets that Isaacson has shadowed Musk “for several days so far,” and that he “particularly liked” Isaacson’s biography of US founding father Benjamin Franklin. He also repeated that he will “maybe one day” write his own autobiography.

Musk says he “particularly liked” Isaacson’s book about Benjamin Franklin

There have been a number...

Continue reading…

Biden wants half of new cars sold in 2030 to be hybrid or all-electric

President Biden at an event before the launch of the all-electric Ford F-150 Lightning in May 2021. | Photo by NICHOLAS KAMM/AFP via Getty Images

President Biden wants 50 percent of all new cars sold in the United States in 2030 to be all-electric, plug-in hybrid, or hydrogen-powered — a goal he will lay out in an executive order later today, according to senior administration officials. In addition, his administration will propose new fuel economy and emissions standards that will more or less erase the Trump administration’s rollback of the previous Obama-era rules covering cars made through 2025.

Biden will also sign an executive order that tasks the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) to develop aggressive long-term rules to support his 2030 target, ones that include medium- and heavy-duty vehicles as well.

“When I...

Continue reading…

Nintendo profits decline year-on-year as Switch hits 89 million sold

Illustrations by Alex Castro / The Verge

Nintendo has released its earnings for the April-June quarter, and while the figures would normally be strong for what’s usually a slow period, revenue and profit are both down compared to a year ago. That’s perhaps not surprising given the company was then riding a surge in demand for video games during the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic, and had just released the mega-hit Animal Crossing: New Horizons.

By comparison, Switch hardware sales were down 21.7 percent to 4.45 million units, and software sales decreased 10.2 percent to 45.29 million units. Nintendo has now sold 89.04 million Switch consoles in total; for comparison, the PS5 just hit 10 million. Revenue decreased 9.9 percent to 322.6 billion yen ($2.94 billion), while...

Continue reading…

American Airlines will let you watch 30 minutes of TikTok in the air for free

Photo by Joe Raedle/Getty Images

Free TikTok has arrived on some of American Airlines’ flights, according to a press release put out by the company (via CNET). Passengers will be able to use the app for up to 30 minutes for free, which gives them time to watch at least ten of the new, longer TikToks. If you don’t have the app already installed, the airline says you’ll be able to download it for free while in the air.

The move to make TikTok available to travelers comes as airlines are trying to get attention back on flying, after the number of people traveling by air dropped during the pandemic. One of its competitors, United, has also been adding tech upgrades to its fleet, allowing passengers to pre-order in-flight snacks and adding planes that support bluetooth audio...

Continue reading…

Draw like it’s 1989 with this Kid Pix web app

Kid Pix, an iconic piece of kid-friendly desktop art software, has been ported to Javascript and HTML by Vikrum Nijjar. The web version of Kid Pix is based one the original 1.0 version released for Macs in 1989 by Craig Hickman.

It has the expected tools like paint brushes, rubber stamps, shapes, and letters, all scored by Kid Pix’s highly memorable sound effects. The sounds and Kid Pix’s somewhat inscrutable interface are the real draw here. The program’s inherent playfulness encourages you to explore, even if you’re not a kid anymore. You can see a spokesperson from Kid Pix’s first publisher Broderbund talk through some of the original app’s features below:

I didn’t remember using Kid Pix at first, but pulling up the web version of...

Continue reading…

iOS 15 may give the iPhone’s camera an upgrade: fewer green flares

The latest version of Apple’s iOS 15 beta seems to be making subtle improvements to photos by processing out the green lens flares that can show up in outdoor pictures (via 9to5Mac). News of the feature was posted to the iOSBeta subreddit by Reddit user Doubleluckstur, and The Verge was able to see it in action by testing with an iPhone 12 Mini running the public beta.

Many iPhone users will be familiar with the green blobs, and while taking a picture it seems like nothing’s changed — the flare still shows up in the viewfinder. But when you go to view the final picture, the flare is nowhere to be seen (in some cases; we’ll get to that in a bit). It does seem to be the result of all the post-processing that’s done to the picture, as the...

Continue reading…

Facebook streamlines the settings page on mobile

The old Facebook settings page compared to the new one on mobile. | Image: Facebook

Facebook is streamlining the settings page on mobile in a new redesign that’s rolling out starting Wednesday. Visually, the new layout looks much less cluttered, and individual settings don’t have descriptions, meaning you’ll see more on the page at a time.

Facebook has also changed up the organization of the settings themselves. The company has reduced the number of categories for settings and renamed them, according to a blog post, so now, you’ll see six categories of settings: Account, Preferences, Audience and Visibility, Permissions, Your Information, and Community Standards and Legal Policies. Some settings have also been relocated so that they’re by related ones, Facebook says.

You’ll be able to see the new look on Android, iOS,...

Continue reading…

Job alert: ‘Spaceport Mixologist’

Two since-destroyed Starship prototypes stand erect at SpaceX’s Boca Chica, Texas Starship facilities. | Elon Musk

Elon Musk’s SpaceX is seeking a “Spaceport Mixologist” who can whip up space-themed drinks next to the company’s sprawling rocket factory in south Texas.

While space itself likely won’t be in their future, an experienced bartender — who will have one of the coolest job titles — will be tapped to join the hundreds of employees working on SpaceX’s massive Starship rocket system in rural Boca Chica, Texas. The mixologist will probably work out of the small house next to SpaceX’s budding spaceport that Musk calls the Starbase Tiki Bar and sling tiki drinks like the Test Pilot or Jet Pilot.

“Experience pairing drinks with a themed menu” is on the list of preferred skills. “SpaceX has a number of food service outlets and formats serving our...

Continue reading…

Apple places female engineering program manager on administrative leave after tweeting about sexism in the office

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

Apple has placed senior engineering program manager Ashley Gjøvik on indefinite administrative leave after she tweeted about sexism in the office. The company is currently investigating claims Gjøvik made about a hostile work environment.

“For months, I have been raising concerns with Apple employee relations about years of experiences with sexism, a hostile work environment, sexual harassment, unsafe working conditions, and retaliation,” Gjøvik says in an interview with The Verge. “I asked them to mitigate the hostile work environment while they investigate, and they initially offered me EAP therapy and medical leave. I told them that made no sense, and said they should talk to my leadership and set up oversight and boundaries. I added...

Continue reading…

The Playdate’s first season of games won’t hit every handheld at the same time

Photo: Panic

One of the most intriguing aspects of Panic’s Playdate — besides its lovely crank — is the unique game delivery method that will bring 24 free games to the device. Panic plans to release a season of games (Season One), two games at a time each week. In a new FAQ released on Wednesday, Panic explains a bit more about how that’ll work and reveals that, due to limited manufacturing capacity, not everyone will be playing new games at the same time.

All Playdates will download new games weekly on “New Game Day” as long they’re connected to Wi-Fi, starting with the first two games when you connect your device. The catch is that not everyone will connect their Playdate to the internet on day one due to limited preorders. That means rather than...

Continue reading…

This Flo Rida Roblox Amazon TikTok ad is fake but amazing

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

On Wednesday, a surreal TikTok ad from an advertiser posing as Amazon confused users into thinking the e-commerce giant was taking a stab at including absurdist internet humor into its online marketing strategy.

The ad featured gaming footage from the lego-like title _Roblox_interspersed with strange clips of a man dancing to Flo Rida and T-Pain’s 2008 hit “Low,” but only the part where T-Pain says “Apple Bottom jeans.” There are also robot voices bullying each other about grandmas and girlfriends overlaid on the ad. The bizarre video was highlighted by Eddy Burback, a popular YouTuber and streamer, on his Twitter feed Wednesday.

this was an amazon ad I got on tik tok???

this is 100% real I just recorded it pic.twitter.com/cST0JoKb33

—...

Continue reading…

NYT crossword puzzle no longer works in third-party apps, crosses puzzle solvers

Photo by Clive Gee - PA Images/PA Images via Getty Images

People will no longer be able to play the digital version of The New York Times daily crossword puzzle in third-party apps, according to an announcement made by the Times on Monday. Starting August 10th, the crossword will be available digitally only via the NYT site or on its own crossword app. Downloadable PDFs, in addition to the physical newspaper, will still be available for people who want to print and play.

Until now, crosswords were available in the Across Lite .puz file format, so anyone with a Times games subscription could download a puzzle and open it in the desktop or mobile app of their choice. The change applies not just to future puzzles but to the archive of puzzles that are currently in the .puz format.

Everdeen...

Continue reading…

The best deals on true wireless earbuds right now

Photo by Becca Farsace / The Verge

When it comes to true wireless earbuds, there are a ton of brands and products to choose from. Whether you enjoy the unconventional design of Samsung’s Galaxy Buds Live or prefer Jabra’s compact Elite 75t, there’s a pair of wireless earbuds for just about everyone. Fortunately, many of the best wireless earbuds go on sale on a regular occurrence.

Regardless of which brand you prefer, we have compiled some of the best deals on wireless earbuds available right now. Of course, if you want to do more research before making a buying decision, we also encourage you to read our guide to the best wireless earbuds, which can help you determine which pair of earbuds are best for you.

Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge ...

Continue reading…

Peloton is updating its treadmills to again be useful without a subscription

Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge

Peloton owners will again be able to use their treadmills without a subscription to the Peloton All-Access Membership, according to the company. In June, Peloton released a software update that required its treadmills to be secured with a passcode, a feature the company said was only available to paying subscribers due to “technical limitations.” At the time, Peloton promised that another software update was coming that would enable the feature for everyone, and it provided three free months of the subscription that usually costs $40 per month. On Wednesday, the company told The Verge that “all Tread owners can now access Tread Lock” along with the “Just Run” feature.

According to Peloton’s support page, the Tread Lock feature locks the...

Continue reading…

TikTok is testing a Snapchat-style stories feature

Image: Matt Navara / Twitter

On a long enough timeline, every social media app trends to adding stories, and now it’s apparently TikTok’s turn: the popular video app is experimenting with a new stories feature. The feature was highlighted by Matt Navarra on Twitter, and a TikTok spokesperson confirmed the test in an email to The Verge.

The new feature, simply called “TikTok Stories,” appears to work similarly to other stories functions on apps like Instagram or Snapchat. Stories live in a newly added slide-over sidebar, where you’ll be able to see stories posted by accounts that you follow on TikTok for 24 hours before they’re automatically deleted. Other users will be able to react and comment on your story, too. And just like on Instagram and other platforms,...

Continue reading…

Amazon’s new MMO delayed for the fourth time, but this time by just one month

A screenshot from Amazon’s_New World._ | Image: Amazon

Amazon Games has delayed New World, its upcoming MMO, from August 31st to September 28th, the studio announced on Wednesday. The delay — the game’s fourth — comes shortly after the end of a closed beta, which wrapped up on August 3rd at 2:59AM ET.

The team will be “making some improvements” based on what players found in the beta, taking time to “smash bugs, improve stability, and polish the game,” according to a post on Twitter.

“This was not an easy decision to make,” the team said. “We know this isn’t the first time we’ve changed our launch date in pursuit of quality, and that it can be disappointing to wait a bit longer. But we want to be sure we deliver you the highest quality game possible at launch.”

A message from the New...

Continue reading…

Facebook can project your eyes onto a VR headset, and it’s exactly as uncanny as it sounds

Facebook Reality Labs

Facebook Reality Labs wants to help people see your eyes while you’re in virtual reality — even if the results sit somewhere between mildly unsettling and nightmarish. Earlier this week, FRL released a paper on “reverse passthrough VR,” a recipe for making VR headsets less physically isolating. Researchers devised a method for translating your face onto the front of a headset, although they emphasize it’s still firmly experimental.

“Passthrough VR” refers to a feature that displays a live video feed from a headset’s cameras, letting users see the real world while they’re still wearing the device. Facebook’s Oculus Quest platform, for instance, shows users a passthrough feed when they step outside their VR space’s boundaries. It’s useful...

Continue reading…

HBO Max is getting its own exclusive podcasts, starting with Batman

Photo by Jeff Kravitz/FilmMagic for HBO

The HBO Max team wants its app to not just be the place people find big movie premieres but podcasts, too. The company announced today that it’s planning to release its new Batman podcast, Batman: The Audio Adventures, as an in-app exclusive, meaning it won’t make its way to other podcasting apps or be available through an RSS feed. The scripted show, which features Jeffrey Wright as Batman and Rosario Dawson as Batwoman, will premiere this fall, although no exact date was provided.

In a chat with The Verge, Joshua Walker, chief strategy officer at HBO Max, says the decision to make _Batman: The Audio Adventures_exclusive has to do with the show being a scripted original series.

“For scripted originals our working theory now is that...

Continue reading…

Google’s Tensor chip is only the first step toward truly great Pixel phones

Photo: Sundar Pichai / Twitter

Google’s Pixel 6 is shaping up to be the company’s most ambitious smartphone in years, largely due to the new, custom-designed Tensor processor, which aims to catapult Google to the forefront of the smartphone market with the power of Google’s years of machine learning experience. And Google needs it: despite the popularity of Pixels in tech circles, its phones just aren’t popular sellers in the US, barely moving the needle compared to juggernauts like Samsung and Apple or even smaller players like Oppo or Xiaomi.

Tensor is Google’s big bet, centered on the AI-boosting TPU that promises to improve photos and videos, search, captioning, text-to-speech, and more. It’s a tall order for any chip, much less one focused mainly on machine...

Continue reading…

Disney’s Star Wars hotel is just like Westworld: only for the wealthy

Disney has been teasing its upcoming Star Wars: Galactic Starcruiser hotel for years now, promising an almost Westworld-style immersive experience (complete with “real” lightsaber props) that will expand its Galaxy’s Edge theme park into a full-fledged two-day interactive Star Wars adventure. You’ll sleep in a Star Wars-themed room, eat and drink Star Wars-inspired fare, and be surrounded by actors guiding you through your own Star Wars vacation.

Today, the company announced a lot more information about the practical aspects of the Galactic Starcruiser experience, including a first look at pricing — and like the fictional Westworld theme park, it looks like Disney’s real world immersive Star Wars hotel will be limited to the extremely...

Continue reading…

Here are the best Kindle deals right now

Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge

When it comes to finding a device to use to read your ebooks, you have a few options to choose from. You can always buy a tablet or use your smartphone, but those devices are multipurpose and can be used for a ton of things, like surfing the web or doom-scrolling on Twitter. If you are looking for something to strictly read books, e-readers, while niche, are designed to store all of your books in a virtual library with limited functionality.

Amazon, having helped pioneer the e-reader, has dominated the space for years with its Kindle lineup, which consists of three unique models with their own pros and cons.

Below, we’ve listed each model currently available for purchase. Sometimes, there isn’t a deal for one, or any, of the products....

Continue reading…

Sony’s next-gen PSVR was reportedly detailed at a developer summit

Sony’s original PSVR.

More and more details for Sony’s planned next-generation PlayStation virtual reality headset appear to be popping up. According to YouTube channel PSVR Without Parole with further corroboration from UploadVR,Sony held a developer summit on Tuesday where it detailed new information about the controllers and game development strategy for the sequel to the PSVR, and seemed to confirm some features that have already been reported.

Among the new details, the next-gen PSVR controllers (or NGVR controllers, based on what PSVR Without Parole claims is the codename for the device) can reportedly not only detect when you’re holding the controller and touching buttons but also how far away your fingers are. The feature sounds a bit like the radar...

Continue reading…

Colleges across the US and Canada are adopting virtual student IDs

The University of Alabama will be the first school to exclusively issue mobile student IDs this fall. | ANDREW CABALLERO-REYNOLDS/AFP via Getty Images

Apple Wallet has supported contactless student IDs since 2018, with three US universities supporting the feature at launch. The program has been gradually expanding ever since. Yesterday, the company announced that its virtual IDs will finally arrive in Canada this fall. An unspecified number of additional US universities will adopt it for the first time as well.

The University of New Brunswick and Sheridan College will be the first two Canadian schools to use Apple Wallet IDs. The new US roster includes Auburn, Northern Arizona University, University of Maine, and New Mexico State University, in addition to “many more colleges across the country.” The University of Alabama, one of the program’s early adopters, will also be the first...

Continue reading…

Reconciliation could create a new kind of climate job

U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) speaks at a press conference urging the inclusion of the Civilian Climate Corps., a climate jobs program, in the budget reconciliation bill, outside of the U.S. Capitol on July 20, 2021 in Washington, DC. Ocasio-Cortez was joined by (L-R) Sen. Ed Markey (D-MA), Rep. Marcy Kaptur (D-OH), Rep. Judy Chu (D-CA), Rep. Joe Neguse (D-CO), Joe Sen. Ron Wyden (D-OR) and climate activists. | Photo by Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images

If Democrats and progressives have their way, tens of thousands — or even millions — of Americans could soon find work planting urban trees, managing forests, and making homes more energy efficient and resilient to the ravages of climate change. They’d form a new “Civilian Climate Corps” that lawmakers and activists are hoping to fund through the budget reconciliation process.

The idea has picked up significant momentum

For more than a decade, different proposals have floated around for a new civilian mobilization focused on climate adaption. Recently, the idea has picked up significant momentum. The most ambitious proposal yet was introduced by Senator Ed Markey (D-MA) and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) in April. Joe Biden proposed a...

Continue reading…

Buying an Oculus headset to help get your Facebook account back is a risky move

Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge

Some Facebook users stymied by the company’s seemingly impenetrable support channels have turned to an interesting — and expensive — loophole to get access to their locked accounts: buying an Oculus Quest headset, as reported by NPR. But it doesn’t appear to be a reliable way to get access, as many reports online indicate that the solution didn’t work out for them.

The crux of the issue is that it’s often difficult to know if Facebook is receiving support requests when you submit them through its normal channels. From NPR:

Facebook tells users to report hacked accounts through its website. The site instructs them to upload a copy of a driver’s license or passport to prove their identities. But the people NPR spoke with said they had...

Continue reading…