The best deals on 4K TVs

The 55-inch Samsung Crystal TU-7000 is on sale at Best Buy for $450. | Image: Samsung

There are a lot of 4K TVs available to choose from, complete with a wide variety of prices and performance. And, with many summer sales in full swing, now might be the best time of the year (or, at least until the fall) to get an amazing TV deal. Even if your budget is less than $500, you can get a good 4K TV in a bigger size than you might expect. Whether you want a secondary TV for the bedroom or a high-end OLED that’s built for a cinema-like experience, we’ve picked out the best TV deals across four common categories:

• The best 4K TV deals for most people
• The best TV deals on a budget
• The best deals on OLED TVs
• 4K TVs for the Sony PS5 and Microsoft Xbox Series X

We will provide regular updates to this post so be sure to check back...

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IMDb TV app finally arrives on iOS and Android

Image: IMDb TV

Amazon’s free streaming service IMDb TV now has its own dedicated app for the iPhone, iPad, and Android after launching on other major platforms earlier this year.

IMDb TV is a dedicated hub for free, ad-supported movies and series as well as its own dedicated originals produced by Amazon Studios. Previously, you could find IMDb TV’s content slate in the primary IMDb app, but a standalone streaming app for the service was not available for iOS and Android. A spokesperson told The Verge the content is still available to stream through IMDb, but the new IMDb TV app was “designed for the streaming experience.”

IMDb TV’s content slate is quite good, even if its originals have struggled to make as much of a splash as titles from larger...

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Bill Gates admits meetings with Jeffrey Epstein were a ‘huge mistake’

Image: CNN

Bill Gates said that spending time with convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein was “a huge mistake” in an interview with CNN’s Anderson Cooper. The interview covered Gates’ relationship with Epstein, which he says was an attempt to get “billions for philanthropy,” as well as Gates’ alleged workplace misbehavior at Microsoft and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

Gates’ story regarding his relationship with Epstein hasn’t changed much since their meetings came to light. In 2019, he told The Wall Street Journal that he had met Epstein, but “didn’t have any business relationship or friendship with him.” A month later, The New York Times quoted a spokesperson for Gates, who said that Gates “regrets ever meeting with Epstein and...

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Tesla reportedly paid $1 million to former employee who said supervisors called him a racist slur

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

A former Tesla employee won a $1 million award from the automaker after an arbitrator found the company failed to prevent his supervisors from calling him a racial slur, Bloomberg Law reported. Melvin Berry, who is Black, was hired at Tesla’s plant in Alameda, California in 2015. He said a supervisor called him the N-word, then retaliated by forcing him to work longer hours and do more physically demanding work when Berry confronted him. Tesla has denied the allegations.

Arbitrator Elaine Rushing said in a May 12th ruling that Tesla was liable for the harassment Berry described, according to Bloomberg. “Case law is clear that one instance of a supervisor directing the N-word at a subordinate is sufficient to constitute severe...

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Virgin Galactic reopens ticket sales at $450K per seat

Photo by PATRICK T. FALLON/AFP via Getty Images

Richard Branson’s Virgin Galactic is reopening ticket sales for its SpaceShipTwo spaceplane, the space tourism firm announced Thursday in its second-quarter earnings release. The price: $450,000, an expected increase from the roughly $200,000 price point the company had years ago, before it closed sales.

The ticket reopening comes on the heels of Branson’s successful flight to the edge of space aboard SpaceShipTwo, Virgin Galactic’s flagship space tourism vehicle that can carry four passengers some 53 miles high for a few minutes of weightlessness. That mission, called Unity 22, was a key milestone test of the rocket-plane before Virgin starts flying individual customers sometime next year.

“Leveraging the surge in consumer interest...

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Twitter Spaces adds co-host option to help moderate and manage rooms

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

Twitter is updating Spaces to allow hosts to designate up to two co-hosts for its social audio rooms, making it easier for hosts of the audio space to help manage and moderate conversations.

Once invited, co-hosts have almost all the same moderation and managing privileges as the main host: they can speak, invite other members of the room to speak, pin tweets, boot people from the room, and more.

There are a few limitations, though: only the main host can invite or remove other users as co-hosts — one co-host can’t invite a second one, for example. Co-hosts also can’t end the room; only the original host can.

The co-host feature also expands the number of participants that can talk at once in a Space: now...

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Apple reveals new efforts to fight child abuse imagery

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

In a briefing on Thursday afternoon, Apple confirmed previously reported plans to deploy new technology within iOS, macOS, watchOS, and iMessage that will detect potential child abuse imagery, but clarified crucial details from the ongoing project. For devices in the US, new versions of iOS and iPadOS rolling out this fall have “new applications of cryptography to help limit the spread of CSAM [child sexual abuse material] online, while designing for user privacy.”

The project is also detailed in a new “Child Safety” page on Apple’s website. The most invasive and potentially controversial implementation is the system that performs on-device scanning before an image is backed up in iCloud. From the description, scanning does not occur...

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Instagram scammers figured out a way to get paid for banning people

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

Instagram scammers have developed a lucrative “banning” racket, according to a new report from Motherboard. For around $60, some scammers will get banned whatever Instagram account you choose, friend or foe, and often the scammers make even more money on the backend by helping the targeted users regain access to their accounts.

The process, according to interviews and material reviewed by Motherboard, involves using a verified account to impersonate a target (their name, photo, bio), and then reporting the target as an impersonator to get them banned. Apparently, as long as the target has a human in their profile picture the method works.

Banning and restoring accounts pays well

_Motherboard_writes that other users they spoke to also had...

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Amazon’s Halo band can share your heart rate to other apps and workout equipment

Image: Amazon

Amazon is updating its Halo fitness band today with the ability to share live heart rate information with third-party devices and fitness apps over BLE (Bluetooth Low Energy). The company is currently partnered with NordicTrack for its iFit service, along with Openfit and CLMBR.

Live heart rate has been available to view since launch in the Live tab of the Halo app, but connecting it to display in other apps and devices is just as easy. Amazon says you can turn on heart rate sharing by going to the Halo app’s Settings, selecting Heart Rate Sharing, switching it to on, and then following the on-screen prompts to share your heart rate with the other app or device.

Image: Amazon

Halo live heart rate data overlaid in...

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The Xbox Series X is available online now at Walmart

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

Update August 5th, 3:14 PM ET: The Xbox Series X appears to be out of stock, however, as we mention below, Walmart often rolls out new stock in 10-minute intervals, which seems to be happening.

Microsoft’s $500 Xbox Series X is available online for delivery through Walmart. It’s also offering both the PS5 disc-based console and the digital version. The pricier and more powerful Series X that has a disc drive and 1TB of storage has been almost as tough to find as the PlayStation 5, so this restock is very welcome news.

If this is your first time jumping into the ring, there are a few bits of advice that might lead to success for you. Don’t leave the site if the console appears to sell out immediately. Walmart usually releases stock in...

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The PS5 is available online from Walmart

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

If you haven’t been able to secure a PlayStation 5, you might be in luck. Walmart has opened orders for the PS5 (online only); this includes the $500 disc-based version of the console as well as the $400 digital disc-less version. Remember, it’s usually the first who gets the worm, but not always. If you miss out on the first wave at Walmart, the retailer usually releases more in 10-minute intervals, with the next being at 3:10PM, 3:20PM, and so forth until it runs out of stock.

Also, if you don’t get lucky at first, persist! Sometimes, the “add to cart” button will pop up intermittently, so just be patient and watch closely. It’ll only help your chances of securing a console if you sign in to your Walmart account and ensure that all of...

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Amazon’s office workers now won’t return until early 2022

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

Amazon’s corporate workers won't be returning to its offices until January 2022, the company has confirmed to The Verge. This marks a delay of around four months, as the company’s previous plan called for employees to return on a hybrid basis starting on September 7th, 2021.

Amazon released updated return-to-office procedures for its employees in June, and it tells The Verge that wearing masks will be optional for fully vaccinated employees but required for everyone else. The company’s news post about the return to office guidance stated that employees could expect a hybrid work model, with the standard being three days in the office and two remote.

Many of Amazon’s workers have been working on-site throughout the pandemic

The news of...

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Scarlett Johansson’s Black Widow lawsuit has unearthed a huge problem with streaming

Image: Marvel Studios

This summer’s biggest Hollywood attraction is a multimillion-dollar battle between two of the industry’s best-known players: Scarlett Johansson and Disney. Johansson sued Disney last week over its day-and-date release of her Marvel superhero film Black Widow, which put the movie on Disney Plus the same day it hit theaters, potentially depriving her of a huge box-office-infused paycheck. The aftermath has been chaotic, but it’s more importantly illuminated the myriad ways that streaming has forever changed the way we experience movies and the implications for the creatives and talent who make them.

Movie contracts have traditionally been negotiated around box office results, with sizable bonuses tied to how well a film performed. This...

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Microsoft is creating a single OneNote for Windows app with a visual refresh

The new OneNote visual refresh. | Image: Microsoft

Microsoft is planning to unify its OneNote and OneNote for Windows 10 apps into a single OneNote app. The software maker is taking all the improvements in its UWP OneNote for Windows 10 app and bringing them over to the traditional OneNote desktop app instead.

These improvements will appear in a series of updates over the next 12 months to the traditional OneNote desktop app that installs as part of Office. The updates include a visual refresh and “key existing features currently unique to OneNote for Windows 10.” It’s not clear which features from OneNote for Windows 10 will make their way over to the OneNote desktop app, but Microsoft says “we are working to ensure that all the most loved features will continue to be a part of...

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The best gaming laptops in 2021: seven laptops to get your game on

Our top picks from Asus, MSI, Razer, and more. | Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales/ The Verge

The best gaming laptop at every size and price

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Apple will reportedly scan photos stored on iPhones and iCloud for child abuse imagery

Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge

Apple plans to scan photos stored on iPhones and iCloud for child abuse imagery, according the Financial Times. The new system could help law enforcement in criminal investigations but may open the door to increased legal and government demands for user data.

The system, called neuralMatch, will “proactively alert a team of human reviewers if it believes illegal imagery is detected, who would then contact law enforcement if the material can be verified,” the Financial Times said. neuralMatch, which was trained using 200,000 images from the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children, will roll out first in the US. Photos will be hashed and compared with a database of known images of child sexual abuse.

The system will be used first...

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A recall of Philips respiratory devices has left users stranded

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

Over a month after the recall, people who rely on ventilators, CPAPs, and BiPAPs are unsure what to do

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Here’s a closer look at Apple’s canceled AirPower wireless charger

A working Apple AirPower prototype unit. | Image: Giulio Zompetti

Apple’s AirPower wireless charger was supposed to arrive with the unique ability to charge an iPhone, Apple Watch, and AirPods all at the same time. Unfortunately, Apple canceled AirPower in March 2019, citing difficulties in bringing the product to life. Since then, we’ve seen a teardown of AirPower, some AirPower clones, and Apple’s MagSafe battery packs. Now, an Apple prototype collector has obtained a working AirPower unit for the first time.

Speaking to The Verge, Giulio Zompetti, a 28-year-old from Italy, says he has been able to purchase a prototype AirPower unit from Chinese e-waste sources. “The unit lacks all of its exterior housing, and shows this beautiful and heavy stainless steel chassis,” says Zompetti.

I...

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AMD’s Ryzen 5000 processors with integrated graphics are now available to buy

In April, AMD announced versions of its Ryzen 5000 desktop CPUs with integrated graphics cards, but it only made them available for prebuilt OEM systems, promising that it would sell the chips to consumers later this year. Well, “later this year” is today, with AMD now offering its Ryzen 5000 G-Series APUs to anyone to buy, not just multimillion-dollar PC manufacturers.

Right now, only two of the Ryzen 5000 G-Series chips are available to purchase on AMD’s website: the eight-core Ryzen 7 5700G for $359 and the six-core Ryzen 5 5600G for $259. Both chips, like the standard Ryzen 5000 CPUs, are built on AMD’s 7nm process with its Zen 3 architecture.

A good option if you don’t need a powerful GPU

Right now, AMD is just selling those two...

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Free Guy is like a AAA game: fun, goofy, and doing narrative backflips to make a guy the lead

Photo by Alan Markfield

In Free Guy, Millie (Jodie Comer) is a game developer on the outs working to prove that publisher Antwan (a strutting Taika Waititi) illegally stole game code from her and her partner, Keys (Joe Keery) to create Free City, the most popular video game in the world. She infiltrates the game, hunting for the evidence to prove that her original idea was stolen — evidence that she thinks is hidden somewhere deep inside the game itself.

And you would think that the movie is about her, right? But Free Guy seems more focused on offering up Ryan Reynolds guilelessly moseying across the screen as the titular Guy, in what feels like a version of The Lego Movie that swaps “charming, stop-motion-style Lego animation” for “video games” and throws in...

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Moderna says a third shot of its COVID-19 vaccine may be needed to protect against variants

Moderna says a third shot of its COVID-19 may be needed against variants | Photo by Ivan Damanik/NurPhoto via Getty Images

Pharmaceutical company Moderna said its COVID-19 vaccine is 93 percent effective through six months after the second dose, but as new variants of the virus emerge, people who received the vaccine may need a booster shot before winter.

The company made the announcement as part of its second-quarter earnings release Thursday.

“We are pleased that our Covid-19 vaccine is showing durable efficacy of 93 percent through six months, but recognize that the Delta variant is a significant new threat so we must remain vigilant,” Moderna CEO Stéphane Bancel said in a statement with the earnings release. Moderna president Stephen Hoge said during an earnings call that a third booster “will likely be necessary to keep us as safe as possible through...

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Nothing Ear 1 earbuds review: almost something

Standout design, noise cancellation, and wireless charging for $99

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Amazon launches new resale programs to cut down warehouse waste

Staff label and package items in the on-site dispatch hall inside one of Britain’s largest Amazon warehouses in Dunfermline, Fife. | Photo by Jane Barlow/PA Images via Getty Images

Amazon announced new efforts that might be able to prevent some overstocked and returned items from becoming trash. It launched two new programs that are intended to make it easier for third-party retailers to sell returned goods and unsold inventory.

The moves come in the wake of several separate investigations into Amazon warehouses that found that many returned and unsold items were labeled for destruction. Businesses that use Amazon to sell their products pay to hold their stock in Amazon warehouses. When those goods don’t sell, or if returned items pile up, they might decide to chuck the products to save money.

Amazon’s new “Grade and Resell” initiative will now give third-party sellers in the UK the option to sell stuff that’s...

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A three-pack of Google Wifi mesh routers is just $150 at Amazon

If you have a solid internet connection, you owe it to yourself to get a mesh Wi-Fi system. It’ll help to cover more of your apartment or home in fast Wi-Fi. You can get Google’s Wifi in a three-pack for $150 at Amazon, down from $200. This 25 percent discount is the biggest price markdown yet. And considering that Google sells a single Wifi unit for $100, it doesn’t make much sense to opt for that when you can get another two for just $50 more.

Now, Google’s newer Nest Wifi does offer better range and more features than this product, but these are still worth getting if you’re on a budget (not to mention, it’s cross-compatible with Nest Wifi, should you ever upgrade). Each Google Wifi router has dual gigabit ethernet ports, and plugs in...

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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...

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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...

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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...

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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,...

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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...

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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...

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