Audi’s new autonomous concept car is also sort of a Transformer

Audi released details of a new concept car this week called the Skysphere, a self-driving roadster that can change shape at the touch of a button.

The sleek, villainous-looking convertible pairs an electric powertrain with luxury amenities for a result that even Batman would find a bit over the top. Notably, the vehicle features an adaptable wheelbase that can change size based on the driving mode, as well as a digital cockpit with a retractable steering wheel and pedals that stow away when the car drives itself.

It’s a more fantastical outlook on the future than some of the German automaker’s other recent concepts

It’s a more fantastical outlook on the future than some of the German automaker’s other recent concepts. But that doesn’t...

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Free Guy guy gets paid Fortnite skin

Epic Games

It’s another day ending in -y so Fortnite is having a new crossover event. Today, Fortnite players can complete quests in order to earn a new Free Guy skin and emote. It was inevitable that Free Guy would get a Fortnite crossover in some way. Fortnite is slowly gobbling up every video game and pop culture IP known to man, so it’s only natural that the video game movie would get a piece of that action, too. After all, _Free Guy_is the closest we’ve ever gotten to an actual _Fortnite_movie — for now. (Which is exactly the threat it sounds like.)

The “Dude” skin is a super beef-ified version of Ryan Reynolds’ character Guy and looks like the kind of person who routinely sets off the lunk alarm at Planet Fitness. Dude curiously has a blue...

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Verizon vows to protect Tracfone’s low-income users in new merger promise

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

On Thursday, Verizon announced a range of new public commitments to protect low-income consumers in connection with its proposed acquisition of Tracfone. The commitments are part of a deal with public-interest groups and communications workers unions, who have agreed to support the acquisition on the basis of today’s announcement.

For its part of the deal, Verizon pledges to continue to provide Tracfone’s Lifeline subsidy programs for at least three years after the merger closes. Verizon is also promising to offer a subsidized 5G program for low-income Tracfone users. According to the Communication Workers of America (CWA), over 1.7 million Tracfone customers depend on the Lifeline program.

The CWA, Public Knowledge, and the Benton...

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The lightest folding electric bike is a costly rideable that almost does it all

Hummingbird’s second-generation electric bike gets a lot right

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Google bans tracking tool that sold users’ location data

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

Google has banned a company that sold Android users’ location data for COVID-19 mapping and other purposes, Motherboard reports. SafeGraph was one of several companies that collected geolocation records through plug-ins in other Android apps, then aggregated it for organizations including The New York Timesand Centers for Disease Control.

According to Motherboard, Google told developers in June that they had to remove SafeGraph’s software development kit within seven days. Motherboard says it’s not clear whether SafeGraph is still collecting any data from Android apps, and The Verge has reached out to Google and SafeGraph to confirm.

SafeGraph’s ban follows an earlier crackdown on location-collecting apps. In December 2020, Google and...

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Nikola wins $2 million DOE grant after founder’s indictment

Image: Nikola

Hydrogen trucking startup Nikola has won a $2 million grant from the Department of Energy just two weeks after founder and former chairman Trevor Milton was indicted for allegedly committing fraud.

The grant is meant to help Nikola research autonomous refueling technologies for hydrogen refilling stations. It was awarded by the DOE’s Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy transportation office as part of its Hydrogen and Fuel Cells R&D program, which is focused on proving the reliability and sustainability of using hydrogen as a zero-emissions power source.

The DOE grant comes at a time when the department is getting ready to ramp up funding activity to help advance the United States’ development of clean energy technologies — a...

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ToneStone is a music production app from the people behind Guitar Hero and Left 4 Dead

Image: ToneStone

ToneStone is an app designed to make producing music easy, even for users without any musical experience, and it’s created by people who worked on Guitar Hero and Left 4 Dead. Even though the app is officially being announced today, it’s still in closed beta, and there’s a waitlist for those who want to try it out. As a music production hobbyist, ToneStone’s interface and game-like features very much seem like my kind of jam, based on videos I’ve seen of the app and my conversation with founder Greg LoPiccolo.

If you’ve never heard of LoPiccolo, you’ve probably heard of games he helped make. He worked at Harmonix, the studio that made music-based games like _Rock Band_and Guitar Hero. Another ToneStone founder is Tom Leonard, who has...

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Netflix reveals cast for its live-action Avatar: The Last Airbender series

Photo: Nickelodeon

It’s been some time since we’ve heard news about Netflix’s live-action adaptation of Avatar: The Last Airbender, but today the streaming company is finally revealing details: namely, the cast for some major roles. The show will feature Gordon Cormier (The Stand) as Aang, Kiawentiio (Beans) as Katara, Ian Ousley (13 Reasons Why) as Sokka, and Dallas Liu (Shang-Chi and the Legends of the Ten Rings) as Zuko.

The live-action adaptation was first announced in 2018 and ran into some trouble last year when Avatar creators Michael Dante DiMartino and Bryan Konietzko stepped away from the project citing creative differences with Netflix. “I realized I couldn’t control the creative direction of the series, but I could control how I responded,” D...

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Even Microsoft is mocking its Xbox Series X name

Microsoft has been the subject of many memes about its Xbox naming decisions in recent years. The Xbox Series X follows the Xbox One X, and the Xbox Series S is the successor to the Xbox One S, and before that there was the Xbox One. That’s led to the internet making memes about one Xbox One X box, and a series of Xbox Series X boxes. After many Xbox box memes, Microsoft has now started openly mocking its Xbox naming decisions.

In a video on Instagram, Microsoft has made its own Xbox box meme, which includes an Xbox Series X, an Xbox Series X box, an ex-boxed Xbox Series X next to its box, a series of ex-boxed Xbox Series X next to their boxes, and a series of ex-boxed Xbox Series X next to their boxes in the shape of an X. Dizzy yet?

...

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HP Elite Folio review: style over substance

Good looks, but average performance

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The Galaxy Watch 4 is still more a Samsung wearable than a Google one

Photo by Becca Farsace / The Verge

This week was supposed to be the first day of Google’s big reentry into flagship smartwatches. Samsung is back on board after years of Tizen-based wearables, with its new Galaxy Watch 4 that runs the new, revitalized Wear OS 3. It’s the smartwatch OS that merges the best of Google and Samsung’s discrete platforms together.

But there was just one issue: Google was strangely absent from the proceedings. In fact, aside from a few oblique mentions of working with Google on the software, you might have watched Samsung’s whole presentation and not even caught that the new watches were running on Wear OS at all.

On the one hand, this is extremely par for the course for Samsung. It’s practically a running gag at this point that Samsung goes...

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Honor’s Magic 3 is its first post-Huawei flagship

The Honor Magic 3 Pro. | Image: Honor

Honor has announced its first flagship smartphones since being sold off by former parent company Huawei: the Magic 3 series. The lineup consists of three phones, the Magic 3, Magic 3 Pro, and Magic 3 Pro Plus. They’re coming first to mainland China, but Honor says they’re getting a global release at a later date.

When they launch globally, the phones will come with Google’s apps and services, which Honor wasn’t previously able to include while a subsidiary of Huawei due to US sanctions. It should make the Magic 3 series much more competitive outside of China compared to Honor’s recent Huawei-era phones, which had to rely on Huawei’s own services and AppGallery to download software. This setup came with significant drawbacks.

...

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Jabra’s Elite 65t are just $50 at Best Buy right now

With decent sound and a stable connection, the Elite 65t were once our go-to alternative to the AirPods. | Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales

It seems like the market for true wireless earbuds becomes more and more crowded each week, with products like Samsung’s Galaxy Buds 2 and Nothing Ear 1s being two of the latest contenders to jump into the already-burgeoning field. And while the Jabra Elite 65t are beginning to show their age in comparison and are by no means top of the field, they’re still a great pair of earbuds with enjoyable sound and a customizable fit, not to mention a two-year warranty that covers any potential damage they may sustain from prolonged exposure to sweat or dust. Normally $80, you can pick up the copper-black model at Best Buy for $50, slightly more than their best price. Read our review.

When talking TV recommendations with the rest of _The Verge_s...

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Reddit is now valued at more than $10 billion

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

Reddit, the self-declared ‘front page of the internet,’ says it is now valued at more than $10 billion after raising an additional $410 million in funding, with the final round expected to grow to up to $700 million. The company continues to build and sanitize its business, removing racist, misogynist, and otherwise controversial communities, as it prepares to go public at some point in the future.

“We are still planning on going public, but we don’t have a firm timeline there yet,” Reddit’s co-founder and CEO Steve Huffman told The New York Timesin an interview. “All good companies should go public when they can.”

The company previously raised $250 million in funding earlier this year for a valuation of $6 billion. But Huffman told the...

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Google Meet users have more options to add co-hosts, limit screen sharing, and mute others

Google is adding a bunch of new features to Google Meet, making it easier for users to control and direct meetings. However, exactly which controls will be available depends on whether you are using Meet as a regular user or as part of a Google Workspace team.

The main update is that all users will now be able to assign up to 25 co-hosts per meeting, who will have access to host controls. This will let them limit who can share their screen and send chat messages, as well as mute all participants with a single click, end the meeting, and control who can enter the meeting (though this last feature is only available to certain Google Workspace versions). Previously, assigning co-hosts was only available to Google Workspace for Education...

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Spotify’s Wear OS app is getting offline playback in the coming weeks

Image: Spotify

Spotify’s updated Wear OS app is releasing “over the coming weeks,” Spotify has announced, and it’ll support offline playback on smartwatches running Wear OS 2.0 and up. The new functionality was announced in May alongside the news of Google’s collaboration with Samsung on the next-generation of the wearable operating system, Wear OS 3.

The fact that offline downloads will be available on Wear OS 2 means that it’s not exclusive to upcoming Wear OS 3 watches like Samsung’s recently announced Galaxy Watch 4 and the Galaxy Watch 4 Classic. Spotify says it should work on watches from the likes of Fossil, Mobvoi, and Suunto. Meanwhile Google’s new YouTube Music Wear OS app, which also supports offline listening, is exclusive to Wear OS 3.

S...

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Warhammer’s new subscription streaming service is coming to iOS, Android, and smart TVs

Roboute Guilliman, primarch of the Ultramarines, takes on the Black Legion. | Image: Games Workshop

Games Workshop is preparing to launch Warhammer Plus, a niche subscription streaming service for fans of the sprawling, lore-dense Warhammer universe (or rather, universes: the sci-fi world of Warhammer 40,000, and fantasy setting of Warhammer Age of Sigmar). The company now says Warhammer Plus will not only be available on iOS and Android through a number of dedicated apps, but also on Apple TV, Amazon Fire TV, and Roku services.

The launch comes at a rather awkward time for Games Workshop, given that some fans are currently boycotting the firm after a recent change to its intellectual property policy. Warhammer 40k in particular has an extremely vocal and active fanbase (check out r/Grimdank for a taste) that produce memes, cosplays,...

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Zoom’s new focus mode could keep students from distracting each other

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

Zoom has announced a new Focus mode, which it says is meant to keep students from getting distracted while in a virtual classroom, while still allowing the teacher to keep an eye on everybody. When activated, Focus mode will make it so that a meeting’s participants won’t be able to see each other’s videos or screen shares, while the host is still able to see everyone’s webcams. It provides some of the control found in Webinar mode, without the complexity and lack of flexibility that comes with it — for instance, a teacher could turn on Focus mode while presenting, and then turn it off when it’s time for a class discussion. And, while hosting a Webinar costs money, Focus mode appears to be available to free accounts, based on my testing.

T...

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Lordstown Motors pivots to renting space at former GM factory

Lordstown Motors is looking to essentially loan out some space at the massive former General Motors factory it owns, as the troubled startup gets closer to building its first production-quality Endurance pickup trucks later this year. Interim CEO Angela Strand shared Wednesday that Lordstown is in “serious discussions... with several potential partners” who may build vehicles or do other types of work at the plant alongside the startup — meaning the startup could act like a sort of WeWork for manufacturing.

“This is a critical strategic pivot for us, a decision that we believe will lead to significant new revenue opportunities for Lordstown at the same time as production of the Endurance is ramping up,” Strand said.

“Our current...

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Twitch responds to ‘Twitch Do Better’ movement with improved chat filters

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

Today, Twitch issued a statement announcing the steps it’s taking to protect its marginalized streamers.

“We’ve seen a lot of conversation about botting, hate raids, and other forms of harassment targeting marginalized creators,” Twitch wrote. “You’re asking us to do better, and we know we need to do more to address these issues.”

Twitch said it identified “a vulnerability in our proactive filters, and have rolled out an update to close this gap and better detect hate speech in chat.” It also said it will implement more safety features in the coming weeks including improvements to the account verification process and ban evasion detection tools.

This statement is in response to the hashtag #twitchdobetter which was an effort started by...

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Three more high-profile Blizzard employees are no longer at the company, including Diablo 4’s director

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

Three prominent Blizzard employees were let go from the company, reports Kotaku, marking the latest departures from the studio following a major sexual harassment lawsuit brought by the state of California. Diablo 4 game director Luis Barriga, lead designer Jesse McCree, and World of Warcraft designer Jonathan LeCraft are not employed at Blizzard anymore, according to Kotaku.

Activision Blizzard has apparently not shared why they are no longer at the company, according to a Kotaku source. McCree was one of the people included in a screenshot of a group chat for Blizzard’s so-called “Cosby Suite,” which was reported on by Kotaku. McCree is also the inspiration for the name of the McCree character in Overwatch.(Some_Overwatch_ League...

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Nestflix is a Netflix for fake movies and shows from real movies and shows

Image: Nestflix, Lynn Fisher

It’s been notoriously difficult to watch lost classics like Vincent Chase’s Aquaman or The Rural Juror— in part because they’re not real — but thanks to the launch of Nestflix, that’s all changing. Those movies are from Entourage and 30 Rock, respectively, created as gags or plotlines, but Nestflix, “the platform for your favorite nested films and shows,” will let you browse them anyway.

The basic premise behind designer Lynn Fisher’s Netflix alternative is “what if every fake show or movie featured in a real show or movie lived on a single platform?” The result is something that looks a lot like that red-and-black-colored streaming service you might be familiar with, populated with fake TV show and movie listings for projects that...

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How to preorder the Galaxy Z Flip 3 and Z Fold 3

Photo by Chris Welch / The Verge

Like in previous years, Samsung used its latest Galaxy Unpacked event to announce a slew of new devices, including the Galaxy Z Fold 3 and Galaxy Z Flip 3. The two smartphones are already available for preorder starting at $1,799.99 and $999.99, respectively, and will launch alongside the Galaxy Buds 2 and a handful of other devices on Friday, August 27th.

How to preorder the Galaxy Z Fold 3

The Galaxy Z Fold 3 is Samsung’s latest foldable, yet it seems to take a cue directly from the Note, adopting S Pen support as well as an optional flip case designed to hold the stylus when not in use. The forthcoming device appears to be more rugged, too, with IPX8 water resistance, tougher aluminum in the hinge, and a protective film that is...

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Forget the Note — Samsung’s foldables are coming for the Galaxy S as well

Photo by Chris Welch / The Verge

It’s been easy to dismiss folding phones as the stuff of science fiction, even after they became a reality two years ago. They were too expensive, too large, too compromised to make sense for most. Some flips instantly flopped. But in 2021, a folding phone appears to have just killed off Samsung’s long-running Galaxy Note — and I’m starting to wonder if they’ll destroy the flagship Galaxy S as well.

That’s because last month, Samsung promised to make foldables mainstream. And at $999, with fewer compromises than ever, Samsung’s new Z Flip 3 sounds dangerously close to a complete replacement for Samsung’s $999 Galaxy S21 Plus. For the same price, they’ve both got 6.7-inch 120Hz AMOLED screens, the latest Snapdragon 888 processors, the...

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Uber’s latest delivery service partnership has drawn the FTC’s attention

The US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) is looking into a recent partnership between Uber and grocery delivery service Gopuff, according to a new report from The Information. Gopuff agreed to list its collection of grocery and liquor store items on Uber Eats in May, expanding Uber’s delivery abilities to an even greater degree as it competes with other companies like DoorDash and Instacart.

The FTC is concerned that the deal “could hamper competition in online sale and delivery of alcohol and convenience-store items,” according to The Information. Gopuff’s been growing on its own recently, acquiring the BevMo liquor store chain to use as stores and delivery centers, almost like Amazon warehouses for alcohol. The FTC is reportedly also...

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The best Chromebook for 2021

Photo by Monica Chin / The Verge

The best Chromebook laptop or two-in-one for every Chrome OS fan

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The Criterion Collection’s first run of 4K Blu-rays includes Citizen Kane

Photo by Silver Screen Collection/Getty Images

The Criterion Collection has announced plans to release a six-film slate of classics on 4K Blu-rays for the first time, including a rerelease of Orson Welles’ American epic Citizen Kane.

Besides the perennial film buff favorite, Criterion is also releasing the following films as part of its initial collection of ultra high-definition Blu-rays:

• Menace II Society directed by Allen and Albert Hughes
• _The Piano_directed by Jane Campion
• Mulholland Dr. directed by David Lynch
• _The Red Shoes_directed by Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger
• A Hard Day’s Night directed by Richard Lester

Criterion writes that each release will include the film in 4K UHD along with a traditional 1080p Blu-ray print. Special features, arguably one of the...

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Yes, Twitter changed its font

Twitter has changed the way the platform looks, including changing the font to its Chirp font. | Image: Twitter

Twitter is rolling out its Chirp font to the Twitter app and feed, meaning that your daily scrolling might look a little different than you’re used to.

Twitter’s main account posted about the change Wednesday. I’m personally seeing the new font on the web and on the iOS app, but one colleague isn’t seeing it anywhere, so it may not have rolled out to everyone yet.

okay confirmed it did

— Twitter (@Twitter) August 11, 2021

Twitter detailed the Chirp font as one part of a broader brand refresh unveiled in January. “Chirp strikes the balance between messy and sharp to amplify the fun and irreverence of a Tweet, but can also carry the weight of seriousness when needed,” Twitter said in a blog post.

At the time, Twitter used it in things...

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1Password 8 on the Mac brings a big redesign

A few weeks after 1Password started rolling out the Windows version of the redesigned 1Password 8, the company is now showing off the Mac version of the update, which is also available today to try in early access.

Like the Windows version, 1Password 8 on the Mac features an overhauled design, which aims to make it clearer when items are being shared, who they’re shared with, and better labeling of groups in the sidebar.

There’s also a new search bar, which shows suggestions as you search (similar to Apple’s Spotlight or Alfred), and an updated version of Watchtower, which shows a comprehensive overview of your overall password security.

Lastly, the new app overhauls the editing window, which the company says includes a...

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Senators target Apple’s App Store exclusivity in new bill

There’s a new bill introduced in the Senate Wednesday targeting the power dominant tech firms like Apple and Google have over the app store market.

The bipartisan “Open App Markets Act,” introduced by Sens. Richard Blumenthal (D-CT), Marsha Blackburn (R-TN), and Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) would ban app stores from forcing developers to use the store’s payment systems. It would also bar companies from punishing developers that offer lower prices on a separate app store or through their own payment systems, along the lines of Apple’s public dispute with Epic Games. Notably, the bill would also make it unlawful for companies like Apple to use non-public data from their stores to build competing products against companies using their service.

“...

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