The Amiga is the latest game system to get a mini retro remake

Commodore’s Amiga 500, a home computer that became a popular game system, is receiving a remake. The A500 Mini is being developed by Retro Games Ltd, which previously released a mini version of the Commodore 64.

The Amiga 500 was the most successful model in the Amiga family of PCs, which started to appear in the mid-’80s and drew a devoted following as gaming systems, particularly in Europe. While the A500 Mini is clearly based on the Amiga 500, Retro Games Ltd says it’ll also emulate the more powerful AGA graphics hardware from the Amiga 1200.

The list of games confirmed so far includes:

• Alien Breed 3D
• Another World
• ATR: All Terrain Racing
• Battle Chess
• Cadaver
• Kick Off 2
• Pinball Dreams
• Simon the Sorcerer
• Speedball 2:...

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Now Microsoft is protesting after Amazon won a $10 billion NSA cloud contract

Photo by SAUL LOEB/AFP via Getty Images

After spending years battling over the Defense Department’s $10 billion JEDI cloud services contract, Microsoft and Amazon are fighting over another government deal. Now it’s the National Security Agency offering a contract that could pay up to $10 billion as it shifts away from on-premises servers to a commercial provider. However, as Washington Technology reported first, this time around, Amazon Web Services won the $10 billion contest, and it’s Microsoft turn to file a protest with the Government Accountability Office.

_Washington Technology_reports that Microsoft’s claim is the NSA didn’t conduct a proper evaluation while considering a provider for its new project, code-named WildandStormy. In a statement to NextGov, an NSA...

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T-Mobile has started offering fiber home internet in a limited pilot program

The company is exploring adding fiber as a complement to its fixed wireless home internet offering. | Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

T-Mobile has quietly started selling fiber-based home internet, as tipped to T-Mo Report and confirmed by the company to The Verge. T-Mobile says it’s testing fiber optic internet in certain residential buildings in Manhattan as a complement to its fixed wireless offering, which it made available to the public in April. The company isn’t deploying an entirely new fiber network for the pilot; it’s running on a local provider’s fiber lines.

Details on the dedicated T-Mobile Fiber site are thin, but it claims the service offers 940Mbps upload and download speeds. A Wi-Fi 6 router is included, along with chat and e-mail customer support for fiber customers. A T-Mobile rep had no other details to share with us, just that the program is a...

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BitMEX crypto exchange agrees to pay $100 million to get financial regulators off its back

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

Cryptocurrency exchange BitMEX has agreed to pay a $100 million civil penalty as part of a settlement with the US Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) and the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN), the company announced Tuesday. The fine addresses charges that the derivatives exchange allowed illegal trades and violated anti-money laundering laws.

BitMEX didn't address the less savory uses of its platform for years, as FinCEN says the company “willfully failed to comply with its obligations under the BSA (Bank Secrecy Act).” According to the organization:

For over six years, BitMEX failed to implement and maintain a compliant anti-money laundering program and a customer identification program, and it failed to report...

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Ford chip shortage means your Mustang Mach-E delivery may be at least six weeks late

Photo by Sean O’Kane / The Verge

Ford’s F-150 was hit by the global semiconductor shortage, and now its flagship Mustang Mach-E electric vehicle is seeing a serious delay too — by a minimum of six weeks for prospective owners who were scheduled to get their vehicle between July 5th and October 1st. That’s according to emails Ford sent to buyers today (via Electrek).

It’s not the first delay for the Mustang Mach-E, either, after Ford held back some 4,500 cars in March for unspecified quality checks, and Ford’s handling this delay in much the same way, giving owners an additional 250kWh of free charging at stations in the company’s FordPass Charging Network. That’s on top of the 250kWh they were already going to receive for purchasing the vehicle. Since the Mach-E has a...

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The JRR Token cryptocurrency is almost certainly headed for Mt. Doom

I wish the token had never come to me. I wish none of this had happened. | Image: JRR Token

I hate to be the one to tell you this, but there’s a cryptocurrency themed after The Lord of the Rings. It’s dubbed the JRR Token, and its creators have called it “The One Token That Rules Them All.” Upon learning about it, my snap judgment was that it’ll be like _The Hobbit’s_trilogy of films (pointless and doomed to fail), but that may be unfair. Let’s take a look at the video its creators made to explain what makes it special:

Okay, wait. Before we even go into the crypto stuff, I’m wondering what the legal situation is with this video — the video includes images of rolling green countryside overlaid by very Lord of the Rings-esque text, while what sounds like a piano rendition of Howard Shore’s The Shire plays. Even if those don’t...

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Apple’s controversial new child protection features, explained

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

Apple stakes its reputation on privacy. The company has promoted encrypted messaging across its ecosystem, encouraged limits on how mobile apps can gather data, and fought law enforcement agencies looking for user records. For the past week, though, Apple has been fighting accusations that its upcoming iOS and iPadOS release will weaken user privacy.

The debate stems from an announcement Apple made on Thursday. In theory, the idea is pretty simple: Apple wants to fight child sexual abuse, and it’s taking more steps to find and stop it. But critics say Apple’s strategy could weaken users’ control over their own phones, leaving them reliant on Apple’s promise that it won’t abuse its power. And Apple’s response has highlighted just how...

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Facebook Dating is getting audio chats

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

Facebook Dating, the company’s dating service, doesn’t appear to be as popular as other dating apps, but the company is introducing some new features to make it more useful for virtual dating, which has boomed during the pandemic.

One of the biggest new features is audio dates, which will let you start an audio conversation with somebody you match with. When you try to start a call with someone, the other person will receive an invitation. If they accept, you both can have a chat.

Facebook is also allowing you to set up to two additional places in Facebook Dating where you want to look for matches. The feature, which Facebook calls Match Anywhere, should make it easier to match up with people who may be temporarily working or living in...

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AMC and Warner Bros. have agreed to make movies exclusive to theaters for 45 days

AMC and Warner Bros. have struck a deal to have the studio’s movies stay exclusive to theaters for 45 days, instead of being immediately available digitally (via The Hollywood Reporter). The news was announced by AMC CEO Adam Aron during an earnings call, and it means that Warner Bros. won't be making its 2022 movies, which include The Batmanand Sesame Street, available at home (or on HBO Max) until just over six weeks after they’re released in theaters.

Warner Bros. already had a similar deal in place with Regal Cinemas’ owners, but today’s news truly seems to herald the end of the streaming experiment the studio was trying out in 2021. While HBO Max may not be getting movies the same day as theaters anymore, things aren’t exactly...

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Sonic the Hedgehog 2 casts Idris Elba as Knuckles

Knuckles the Echidna is set to make his live-action debut in _Sonic the Hedgehog 2_next year — and now we know who’ll be voicing him: none other than Idris Elba (_Cats_and alsoother movies, apparently). Elba appears to have not yet been completely scared away from showing up in hybrid live-action / animated films with sometimes-questionable CGI.

According to a leaked synopsis for the film, Sonic the Hedgehog 2 will actually see Elba’s animated echidna team up with Jim Carrey’s Dr. Robotnik “in search for an emerald that has the power to both build and destroy civilizations.”

Knock, knock....#SonicMovie2#Knucklespic.twitter.com/N1PW5XaCEd

— Idris Elba (@idriselba) August 10, 2021

Elba will join Ben Schwartz, who voiced Sonic in the...

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Diablo II: Resurrected is getting an open beta on August 20th

Blizzard is giving players a couple of chances to try out Diablo II: Resurrected, a remastered version of one of the studio’s most popular titles, ahead of the game’s release on September 23rd. The upcoming betas arrive during a tumultuous time for Blizzard, which is under intense scrutiny following a lawsuit alleging parent company Activision Blizzard has a culture of “constant sexual harassment.”

According to Blizzard, people who have preordered the game (or the Diablo Prime Evil Collection, which also comes with Diablo III) can check out the early access beta from August 13th at 1PM ET to August 17th at 1PM ET. Everyone else will be able to play the open beta a week later, from August 20th at 1PM ET to August 23rd at 1PM ET.

The betas...

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Memestock AMC now plans to accept Bitcoin

Photo Illustration by Rafael Henrique/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images

AMC will begin accepting Bitcoin payments for concessions and theater tickets as soon as the end of the year, marking the latest development in AMC’s hard lean into memestock superstardom.

During the company’s second-quarter earnings call on Monday, AMC boss Adam Aron kicked off the Bitcoin bullet point by noting, unsurprisingly, that many of AMC’s new shareholders “are quite enthusiastic about cryptocurrency.” (If you’ve been following along with the memestock drama at home, this should come as absolutely no surprise.) He added that the company will have the technology systems in place to accept Bitcoin by the end of 2021. Bitcoin payments will have to be made online but will be widely supported across all of AMC’s US theaters.

Bitcoin...

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Activision Blizzard shareholder says company’s response doesn’t ‘go nearly far enough’

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

Today, one of Activision Blizzard’s shareholders released a letter saying that the company’s proposed remedies for the pervasive allegations of sexual assault and discrimination “do not go nearly far enough.” As first reported by Axios, the SOC Investment Group acknowledged Activision Blizzard CEO Bobby Kotick’s improved response over previous “tone-deaf” statements, but also said his statement did not adequately address “the deep and widespread issue with equity, inclusion, and human capital management at the company.”

The SOC specifically cited the retention of union-busting law firm WilmerHale as one of the deficiencies in Activision Blizzard’s strategy. The letter stated that the firm “has no track record of uncovering wrongdoing”;...

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Mercedes-Benz confirms the electric EQS will cost over $100,000

Photo by Andrew Hawkins / The Verge

Mercedes-Benz has confirmed that the EQS sedan, its flagship electric vehicle, will cost at least $100,000, as it began taking orders in Germany on Tuesday. The base model, which has a 90kWh battery pack and uses a single electric motor to power the rear wheels, starts at €106,374.10 — roughly $124,000. The more expensive dual-motor, all-wheel drive variant features a 107.8kWh battery pack and will start at €135,529.10 — or nearly $159,000.

As buyers spec out their EQS, the prices can certainly go up from there. But even once they have the car, Mercedes-Benz will use the EQS to test whether customers are going to be interested in paying to unlock or accept other features made available by over-the-air software updates. For instance,...

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DOJ letter tells Dish and T-Mobile to figure out CDMA customer migration, or else

T-Mobile plans to shut down Sprint’s legacy CDMA network on January 1st 2022, a move that Dish Network calls anti-competitive. | Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

The Department of Justice has “grave concerns” about the upcoming shutdown of Sprint’s legacy CDMA network, according to a recent letter spotted by Bloomberg, and is urging both Dish Network and T-Mobile to take “all appropriate steps” to reduce the impact on customers still relying on the network. Many of Dish’s Boost Mobile customers — which it acquired from T-Mobile as a condition of the Sprint merger — still rely on the older 3G network and stand to lose phone service when the Un-carrier decommissions it on January 1st, 2022. It’s been a sore spot in increasingly troubled relations between the two companies.

This July 9th letter from the DOJ was shared by Dish as part of its second quarter financial filings yesterday. It’s addressed...

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Amazon will pay up to $1,000 in damages caused by defective products

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

Amazon has announced a new policy to pay customers directly for claims of property damage or personal injury under $1,000 caused by defective products. The new policy begins on September 1st and will apply to all products sold on Amazon.com regardless of who sells them.

Previously, if you wanted to file a similar type of claim, you had to work with the seller — which has raised questions of who’s really at fault for defective problems sold on the platform. But when this policy kicks in, Amazon customer service will help facilitate claims between a customer, the seller, and the seller’s insurance provider.

The $1,000 figure accounts for “more than 80 percent of cases,” according to Amazon. The company won’t ask sellers for reimbursement...

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Twitter shares analysis of racist abuse that followed Euro 2020 final

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

Twitter claims identity verification wouldn’t have prevented the torrent of racist abuse against Black players on England’s football team, which followed the team’s loss in the Euro 2020 championship game last month. According to an update posted by Twitter UK today, the majority of the accounts suspended for abusive content during the tournament were not anonymous.

“Of the permanently suspended accounts from the Tournament, 99 percent of account owners were identifiable,” said Twitter. The company also said that, while the racist tweets came from around the world, the majority originated from the United Kingdom.

Our data suggests that ID verification would have been unlikely to prevent the abuse from happening - as of the...

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Here’s why Apple’s new child safety features are so controversial

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

Encryption and consumer privacy experts break down Apple’s plan for child safety

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A24 will stream The Green Knight for one night on August 18th

A24

A24’s The Green Knight will make its virtual debut much earlier than expected — on August 18th, you’ll be able to buy a $20 ticket to stream the film through A24’s Screening Room platform.

The one-night-only stream isn’t a full streaming release for rental or purchase, given that The Green Knight is still otherwise exclusive to theaters. (A regular digital release will come later on in the theatrical cycle.)

As such, the screening is also far more limited than a typical rental: once you’ve purchased a $20 ticket, you’ll be able to stream the film during a four-hour window on August 18th starting at 9PM ET. The stream does come with a bonus Q&A with the cast and crew after the film, however.

Based on the classic epic poem, The Green...

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OnePlus is trying to jump on Samsung’s folding phone hype

Image: OnePlus

Samsung’s August Unpacked event is scheduled to take place tomorrow with foldables and wearables tossed about, but it appears that OnePlus has a thirst for attention that simply can’t wait.

The company tweeted out this brief video clip with some kind of two-screened mobile device, although it’s unclear exactly what we should expect.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by OnePlus➕ (@oneplus_usa)

LG has already done the second-screen phone case thing (more than once), so if that’s all OnePlus has up its sleeve it could be disappointing. That said, the durability of Samsung’s early foldable devices has been disappointing and this could be a way for OnePlus to poke the bear on its big day. Or...

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OpenAI can translate English into code with its new machine learning software Codex

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

AI research company OpenAI is releasing a new machine learning tool that translates the English language into code. The software is called Codex and is designed to speed up the work of professional programmers, as well as help amateurs get started coding.

In demos of Codex, OpenAI shows how the software can be used to build simple websites and rudimentary games using natural language, as well as translate between different programming languages and tackle data science queries. Users type English commands into the software, like “create a webpage with a menu on the side and title at the top,” and Codex translates this into code. The software is far from infallible and takes some patience to operate, but could prove invaluable in making...

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NASA’s new space suits are delayed, making a 2024 Moon landing ‘not feasible’

The person in the white suit is wearing a prototype of NASA’s new xEMU in 2019, whose development has been delayed, an inspector general report found. | Photo by Joel Kowsky / NASA via Getty Images

NASA’s development of new astronaut space suits will be nearly two years late and nix its effort to land humans on the Moon by 2024, an inspector general report released on Tuesday found. Those delays compound a daunting set of schedule challenges NASA already faces — from the development of its new human-rated lunar lander to getting its massive Space Launch System rocket off the ground.

An audit from the agency’s Office of Inspector General said NASA is on track to spend more than $1 billion on space suit development by the time its first two suits are ready, which would be “April 2025 at the earliest,” the report said. “Given these anticipated delays in spacesuit development, a lunar landing in late 2024 as NASA currently plans is not...

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Senate approves $1 trillion infrastructure package as crypto worries loom

Photo by Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images

After weeks of negotiations, the Senate approved a bipartisan $1 trillion infrastructure package Tuesday authorizing over $500 billion in new spending to improve roads, bridges, and other physical infrastructure like broadband and EV charging. It’s the largest domestic spending bill in over a decade.

“It’s taken quite a while. There have been a lot of bumps in the road,” Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) said Tuesday.

“It’s taken quite a while”

Aside from more traditional infrastructure spending like roads, the bill seeks to bolster US broadband networks with an additional $65 billion. It also makes permanent a pandemic-era internet subsidy program called the Emergency Broadband Benefit fund, renaming it the Affordable Connectivity...

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Nvidia’s tiny RTX A2000 GPU can fit inside a small form factor PC

Nvidia’s A2000 is nearly half the size of the RTX 3090. | Image: Nvidia

Nvidia is launching its new RTX A2000 GPU today, designed for professional workstations. It’s Nvidia’s smallest Ampere-based GPU so far and can easily squeeze into small form factor workstations. Like Nvidia’s old Quadro cards, the RTX A2000 is designed primarily for professionals who want to leverage ray tracing and Nvidia’s AI capabilities, and it’s the latest in a line of A-series GPUs.

The RTX A2000 can deliver 8 teraflops of GPU performance, coupled with 3328 CUDA cores, 6GB of GDDR6 memory with ECC, and a memory clock of 6001Mhz. That makes it look more capable on paper than something like Nvidia’s RTX 3050 laptop GPU. It also only consumes 70 watts of power, so it’s very power-efficient.

Image: Nvidia

N...

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COVID-19 misinformation is increasing amid US virus surge

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

The surge in COVID-19 cases around the United States, driven by the highly contagious and fast-moving delta variant of the coronavirus, is accompanied by a similar surge in virus misinformation, The New York Timesreported.

Rates of misinformation about COVID-19 and the COVID-19 vaccines increased dramatically from June to July, according to Zignal Labs, which tracks mentions of phrases on social media and by news outlets. False claims, including statements saying that the vaccines don’t work, immunity from infections is better than vaccination, and vaccines cause miscarriages, skyrocketed. The falsehoodthat the vaccines don’t work is up 437 percent, the analysis found.

The spike comes after a lull in misinformation during May and...

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No adults in the room

Daversa, the firm tasked with getting adults in the room in Silicon Valley, had no adults in the room, according to a recent lawsuit

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Google One VPN expands internationally to Canada, Mexico, UK, and more

Photo by Michele Doying / The Verge

Google is expanding the VPN service that it provides as part of its Google One subscription to seven new countries: Mexico, Canada, the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Spain, and Italy, as spotted by 9to5Google.

The company started offering VPN access to 2TB Google One cloud storage subscribers in the US late last year, as a free addition to the existing $9.99 / month plan. But today’s announcement sees a marked expansion of the service.

There are a few limitations that separate Google One from more comprehensive VPN solutions. First off, you’ll only be able to use the service in one of the supported countries — the company’s support page notes that “you won’t be able to connect to VPN by Google One if you are traveling to an...

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A NASA scientist explains why the weather is becoming more extreme

A view of the Houston skyline after heavy rains broke during the aftermath of Hurricane Harvey August 29, 2017. Harvey, swirling for days off Texas and Louisiana, dumped more than 49 inches (124.5 centimeters) of rain on the region. | Photo credit should read BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI/AFP via Getty Images

We’re headed into ‘uncharted territory’

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CyberDog is a new ominous-looking robot from Xiaomi

Chinese tech giant Xiaomi has unveiled a quadrupedal robot named CyberDog: an experimental, open-source machine that the firm says “holds unforetold possibilities.”

CyberDog is the latest example of tech companies embracing the quadrupedal form factor in robotics. The most notable example of the trend is Spot, a machine built by US firm Boston Dynamics. Spot went on sale last year for $74,500 and has been put to a range of uses, from surveying dangerous mines to helping doctors connect with patients remotely. It’s also been tested by both law enforcementand the military, though not as a weapon.

Xiaomi says CyberDog has a “pet-like nature”

It’s not clear what purpose Xiaomi envisions for CyberDog. In a press release, the company...

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Gaming companies should avoid predatory designs, lawmakers say

Democrats are calling on some of the largest gaming companies to better protect children by extending new UK design rules to children in the US. The regulations could ban companies from selling in-game loot boxes to minors, among other restrictions.

In letters to a dozen major gaming companies, including Blizzard, Epic Games, Microsoft, Nintendo, and Riot, Sen. Ed Markey (D-MA), Rep. Kathy Castor (D-FL), and Rep. Lori Trahan (D-MA) pressed executives to extend new UK design regulations to children in the US.

“It is imperative that Congress acts with urgency to enact a strong privacy law for children and teens in the 21st century,” the lawmakers wrote. “As we work towards that goal, we urge you to extend to American children and teens...

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