How to install the iOS 15 and iPadOS 15 public betas

Photo by Chaim Gartenberg

Apple’s iOS 15 and iPadOS 15 are launching officially on September 20th, 2021, but you can test them in the public beta right now if you’re willing to risk encountering possible bugs. Here, we walk you through the steps for installing the software. It’s a similar process for the iPhone and iPad, but we’ve made separate sections for each OS.

As expected, Apple announced the release date at its September event, where it also showed off the new iPhone 13, iPad Mini with USB-C charging, and more.

Before we get started, here’s the usual word of warning about installing unfinished beta software: these releases may seem stable for general use, but they could contain some bugs. Your experience may differ from others depending on the apps you...

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Tern GSD S10 LX electric cargo bike review: no more excuses

A powerful, impressive cargo bike in its own right, but it’s really all about the accessories

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The iPhone 13 is a pitch-perfect iPhone 12S

The iPhone 13, featuring a very similar design to the iPhone 12. | Image: Apple

Apple had a lot of new features to announce with its iPhone 13 lineup this week. The iPhone 13, iPhone 13 Mini, iPhone 13 Pro, and iPhone 13 Pro Max have better battery life, faster A15 Bionic processors, smaller display notches, upgraded cameras, and, when it comes to the Pro models, high refresh rate 120Hz ProMotion displays.

It’s a nice collection of updates, but take a step back and the range starts to look an awful lot like an iterative update over last year’s iPhone 12. They have an almost identical look to the squared-off design introduced with last year’s models, and Apple was careful to not directly compare the performance of its new A15 Bionic chip to last year’s A14 Bionic, only to its competitors. There’s also no major new...

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Here’s where you can buy a Nintendo Switch

The Nintendo Switch OLED model boasts a vibrant, 7-inch display and slate of minor upgrades. | Image: Nintendo

The Nintendo Switch was, like most consoles during the pandemic, once in short supply. Thankfully, retailers like Best Buy, Amazon, and Walmart now routinely stock the Nintendo Switch and Switch Lite in multiple color configurations and models, giving those who struck out ample opportunity to purchase Nintendo’s versatile console.

We’re keeping an eye across the web to find where you can buy a Nintendo Switch, the Nintendo Switch Lite (the portable-only version of the console), and the forthcoming Nintendo Switch OLED model, as well as any bundles that seem like good deals.

Where can I buy a Nintendo Switch or Switch Lite right now?

• Over at Amazon, you can buy an updated Nintendo Switch model with gray Joy-Cons, plus a 64GB SanDisk...

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DoorDash sues New York City over law that requires it to share customer data with restaurants

DoorDash is suing New York City (again) | Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

Food delivery company DoorDash has filed yet another lawsuit against New York City, calling a new law requiring delivery companies to share customer data with restaurants “a shocking and invasive intrusion of consumers’ privacy.”

Under the law approved in July, third-party food delivery services in the city would have to share customers’ names, phone numbers, emails, and delivery addresses with a restaurant that fulfills a DoorDash order, unless the customer opts out. In its complaint, DoorDash argues that customers entrust DoorDash with sensitive data, “that they would not entrust to small businesses that do not have similar robust data safety and security protocol.”

The company added that in-person diners don’t typically expect to...

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Congress will investigate claims that Instagram harms teens

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

Two top lawmakers on the Senate Commerce Committee’s panel over consumer protection said they were launching a probe into Facebook after The Wall Street Journalreported Tuesday that the company was aware of the harm Instagram can cause to teenage girls.

Sens. Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) and Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) announced their investigation into Facebook in a statement released Tuesday. The senators said that they were in touch with “a Facebook whistleblower” and would seek new documents and witness testimony from the company related to the reporting.

“It is clear that Facebook is incapable of holding itself accountable”

“It is clear that Facebook is incapable of holding itself accountable. The Wall Street Journal’s reporting reveals...

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Workhorse abruptly drops lawsuit against Postal Service over new mail truck

Image: USPS

EV startup Workhorse has abandoned its lawsuit protesting the United States Postal Service’s decision to let Oshkosh Defense build the next-generation mail truck. The court accepted Workhorse’s voluntary dismissal late Tuesday — just one day before the first oral arguments were scheduled to begin regarding the USPS’s attempt to dismiss the case.

Workhorse filed the protest in the US Court of Federal Claims in mid-June, nearly four months after the USPS announced that it had awarded the contract to build the next-generation mail truck to defense contractor Oshkosh, ending a contest that started in 2015.

“We are pleased to learn that Workhorse Group has withdrawn its bid protest of the award of the United States Postal Service Next...

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Best gaming laptop in 2021: seven laptops to get your game on

The best gaming laptop is the Asus ROG Zephyrus G15. | Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales/ The Verge

The best gaming laptop at every size and price

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How to watch the Inspiration4 launch, SpaceX’s first fully private mission to space

Inspiration4 / John Kraus

SpaceX is set to launch the first fully private crew of passengers to space on Wednesday. The Inspiration4 crew, three ordinary people and a billionaire philanthropist who’s funding the mission, will board SpaceX’s Crew Dragon capsule on Wednesday afternoon and lift off at 8:02PM ET atop a Falcon 9 rocket, speeding toward an orbit 360 miles above the ground — farther from Earth than the International Space Station.

If all goes according to plan, the mission will mark a new milestone in the budding commercial space industry, where companies owned by billionaires like Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos have been racing to normalize space travel for people other than government astronauts. The mission also aims to raise $200 million for St. Jude...

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Here’s the tech behind the Carolina Panthers’ giant AR cat

Image: Carolina Panthers

This past weekend marked the first Sunday of the 2021 NFL season, and while it was full of exciting highlights, one may have towered over them all: the Carolina Panthers’ viral video of a giant virtual panther leaping around Bank of America Stadium.

The video is ridiculous. A big virtual cat jumps into the stadium, paces around the field, shreds a New York Jets flag (the Panthers’ Sunday opponents), and hops away with a menacing roar. It’s proved to be hugely popular, with 5.6 million views on Twitter.

Check out our new mixed-reality panther that debuted today pic.twitter.com/8DwEvam9KM

— Carolina Panthers (@Panthers) September 12, 2021

While the Panthers’ tweet calls the mascot a “mixed-reality panther,” it actually seems...

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Political parties told Facebook its News Feed pushed them into ‘more extreme positions’

Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge

Facebook reportedly fielded complaints from political parties saying a major News Feed change pushed them toward negative, polarizing posts. Today, The Wall Street Journal posted leaked reports from Facebook after it boosted “meaningful social interactions” on the platform. While Facebook framed the move as helping friends connect, internal reports said it had “unhealthy side effects on important slices of public content, such as politics and news,” calling these effects an “increasing liability.”

The news is part of a larger Wall Street Journal series based on internal Facebook research. Today’s report delves into the fallout of a 2018 decision to prioritize posts with lots of comments and reactions. Facebook allegedly made the change...

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How to back up your iPhone with or without iCloud

Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge

Yes, of course you want to back up your iPhone — as we all know, despite phone cases and Gorilla glass and careful engineering, disaster — in the form of cracked displays, lost devices, and three-year-olds who think it’s fun to sit on your latest phone — can happen. When that happens, you want to have all your data backed up.

The easiest way to go is to back up using iCloud, which is not only simple to set up, but makes it just as simple to set up a new phone if your old one is no longer available. (You can also back up to other services, such as Google Drive, but it isn’t nearly as convenient.) Or, if you’re an iPhone user who is steadfast about retaining your privacy, you can back up your iPhone to your Mac or Windows computer and...

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How to move all your data to your new iPhone

Image: Apple

If you’ve just upgraded — or are planning to upgrade — to Apple’s new iPhone 13, congratulations! You’re going to want to try out your snazzy new phone as soon as you open that box. But first, you need to get all of the apps and data from your old iPhone onto your new one.

It’s actually very easy — in fact, if you haven’t upgraded for a while, you’ll find it easier than ever. The process of moving your data used to require restoring it from an iCloud or iTunes backup. Now, you don’t have to bother with that backup (although backing up your stuff is always a good idea). You can move your apps, data, and ID over to the new phone directly with what Apple calls iPhone migration. (However, if you prefer, you can still restore it from iCloud.)

...

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Goodbye and good riddance to Apple’s 64GB iPhones

Image: Apple

Apple’s new iPhone 13 and 13 Mini mark the official end of the 64GB iPhone era: the company has effectively doubled the storage capacities for its 2021 models while keeping prices the same, so the new smartphones now start with 128GB of storage with options for 256GB and 512GB. (For those who require more space, the iPhone 13 Pro models offer up to 1TB.)

While 64GB capacities will still stick around on the legacy iPhone 12, iPhone 11, and iPhone SE models, Apple’s newest hardware will come with a minimum of 128GB now.

To which I say, goodbye and good riddance. This change was long overdue. Just 64GB wasn’t enough to cut it in 2018, and the issue has only grown as apps, photos, videos, and games continue to grow in size. Though Apple has...

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Sony is releasing its Pulse 3D Audio headset in midnight black

Sony

The Pulse 3D Audio wireless headset that Sony made to take advantage of the PS5’s 3D Audio tech is getting a new color option. It’ll be available in midnight black in addition to white, just like its DualSense controller, for the same $99.99 price that it debuted at last year. Most of the white headset colorway was black already, but now there’s simply more of it, covering the headband in black detailing. You can preorder it now through Sony’s site, and it’ll be available on October 22nd, 2021, but more retailers will likely stock it as well.

In the PlayStation Blog, Sony says that this announcement coincides with a new PS5 update that gives Pulse 3D Audio headset owners some new settings to customize the sound. You’ll have three audio...

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Good 4 who? How music copyright has gone too far

Here’s why Olivia Rodrigo keeps handing out songwriting credits

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App Annie will pay $10 million to settle a fraud investigation with the SEC

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

App Annie, a company that collects and sells information about the performance of mobile apps, has agreed to pay $10 million to settle a securities fraud investigation, the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) said in a statement.

According to the SEC, App Annie used confidential information from app companies to generate its statistical models of app performance. It told the companies the data they provided would be aggregated and anonymized, and not disclosed to third parties. But the SEC alleged that between late 2014 and mid-2018, App Annie and its former CEO Bertrand Schmitt used data that had not been aggregated or anonymized to make its estimates more valuable to sell to trading firms. And, the SEC alleged, App Annie...

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The HP Chromebook 14 is just over $230 at Amazon right now

The 32GB HP Chromebook 14 is no powerhouse, but it can nail the basics without breaking the bank. | Image: HP

The perfect laptop for the college-bound, this versatile 14-inch Chromebook from HP is available at Amazon for just $236, one of its better prices to date. This device packs a remarkable amount of versatility into a compact and lightweight package. At less than an inch thick and weighing in at less than 3.5 pounds, it's easy to tote around, without it turning into a third wheel. While the 13-hour battery may not provide all-day power, it's more than enough to ensure that it won’t die on you during a crucial lecture.

The 32GB of onboard storage provides ample room to back up your documents, too, and the pair of USB-C and single USB-A ports can accommodate a variety of storage options. Equipped with a built-in wide-angle webcam and mic,...

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YouTube TV is expanding its Spanish-language programming

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

YouTube TV is expanding its live TV channels to include more Spanish-language content and add-on options.

The company announced that beginning today, three new Spanish-language networks — Univision, UniMás, and Galavisión — would be joining the YouTube TV experience at no additional cost to subscribers. Notably, the new networks will include coverage of two events that are just around the corner: the 22nd Annual Latin Grammy Awards premiering on November 18th and the Campeones Cup airing on September 29th. This week’s announcement corresponds with the start of Hispanic Heritage Month.

CNN Español, Fox Deportes, and more will be offered as a paid add-on

Local programming from Univision and UniMás will also be available to subscribers in...

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Xiaomi announces 11T Pro with 120W fast charging

Xiaomi has launched its 11T series, the headline of which is the 11T Pro and its previously announced 120W HyperCharge fast charging system. The phone has a 5,000mAh battery, and Xiaomi says the bundled 120W charger can fill it from zero to 100 percent in just 17 minutes. A 10-minute charge will get you to 72 percent, meanwhile. That’s even faster than the 120W Mi 10 Ultra Xiaomi released in China last year, and the 11T Pro is coming to Europe and beyond.

For more on the 11T Pro’s fast charging technology — like whether it’ll destroy the battery or burn down your house, for instance — you can read my interview with Xiaomi’s Dan Desjarlais from last week.

The 11T Pro is an entirely different phone to the Mi 11 flagship released earlier...

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Xiaomi returns to Android tablets with the 11-inch Pad 5

Xiaomi has announced its first tablet in a few years, the Xiaomi Pad 5. (The last one was 2018’s 8-inch Mi Pad 4; Xiaomi recently phased out its Mi product branding.) It’s launching in the company’s European markets.

The Xiaomi Pad 5 is an 11-inch tablet with a WQHD+ 120Hz display, quad speakers, 6GB of RAM, and a Snapdragon 860 processor — that’s the new speed-bumped version of the 855, Qualcomm’s flagship chip from 2019. Round the back there’s a 13-megapixel camera, and there’s a 8-megapixel sensor on the front.

The Pad 5 pretty inescapably looks like an iPad Pro, from the slim bezels and flat edges to the tablet-specific MIUI customizations like the apps dock. The build isn’t as solid, and the screen doesn’t quite sit as flush with...

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Microsoft accounts can now go fully passwordless

You no longer need a password for a Microsoft account | Image: Microsoft

Microsoft now lets you remove passwords from Microsoft accounts to embrace a passwordless future. Starting today, the software giant will let consumers sign into Microsoft accounts with its Microsoft Authenticator app, Windows Hello, a security key, or an SMS / email verification code instead of a password.

The new option arrives just months after Microsoft started rolling out passwordless authentication for commercial users in March to help people adjust to the realities of remote work. “When I think of security, I think you’ve got to protect your whole life,” says Vasu Jakkal, corporate vice president of Microsoft security, compliance & identity, in an interview with The Verge. “It’s no longer enough just to think about work or home...

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T-Mobile is rolling out a new ‘5G UC’ icon for iPhones to tell when you have real 5G

5G branding is going to get even more confusing, soon: T-Mobile has announced that it’ll be rolling out a new “5G UC” icon on the upcoming iPhone 13 lineup to let customers know when they’re connected to T-Mobile’s “5G Ultra Capacity” network, instead of the regular old 5G network.

The difference here is one of bands and brands: at T-Mobile, an unadorned “5G” icon will soon refer to the company’s low-band network, which it calls “5G Extended Range.” As the name suggests, it’s a slower network (closer to legacy LTE speeds) but it reaches a broader area. From a spectrum perspective, it exists in largely the same areas as LTE but uses 5G technologies and techniques for improved speeds.

A “5G UC” icon, though, will mean that you’re either...

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Don’t count on resurrected woolly mammoths to combat climate change

Co-founders of Colossal, Ben Lamm (L), CEO and George Church (R) | Image: Business Wire

A flashy new biotech startup launched yesterday called Colossal is on a mission to make an elephant-woolly mammoth mashup — with the ultimate goal of promoting biodiversity and combating climate change, it says. The effort has gotten a lot of hype and big-name backers, but scientists who work in conservation are still pretty skeptical.

The science behind Colossal is in very early stages and is mired in ethical quandaries

The science behind Colossal is in very early stages and is mired in ethical quandaries. The company won’t actually bring back a woolly mammoth, which hasn’t roamed the Earth in about 10,000 years. Instead, Colossal’s de-extinction effort aims to create a hybrid between a woolly mammoth and its distant relative (the two...

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Apple says it every year, but the iPhone 13 cameras do seem much improved

Cameras continue to be one of the biggest differentiators in smartphones, and Apple’s iPhone lineup is no different. Apple says the iPhone 13 and 13 Mini have the company’s “most advanced dual-camera system ever,” while the 13 Pro and Pro Max have “our three most powerful cameras ever.”

Which you’d hope for, of course. But this year, Apple really does appear to be making a big push with its cameras, particularly with the Pro models. As ever, the question will be what Apple is able to wring out of its hardware with image processing and software.

The iPhone 13 lineup represents the first time Apple has increased the primary camera’s sensor size across the board since the iPhone XS and XR in 2018, though last year’s 12 Pro Max had a 47...

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LG now makes a 2,000 pound TV that costs $1.7 million

Less “big TV” more “projector replacement.” | Image: LG

LG has announced a new lineup of Direct View LED (DVLED) home cinema displays, which range in size from a huge 108-inch HD screen to an obscene 325-inch 8K panel that costs an eye-watering $1.7 million, according to CNET, and weighs in at over 2,000 pounds. The company has previously reserved these displays for commercial buyers, but now it’ll sell them to anyone with pockets deep enough.

Obviously, these screen sizes mean the home theater displays aren’t going to fit in a lot of houses, a limitation that’s likely to have a lot to do with the display technology they’re using. Rather than using an LCD layer to create pixels, and lighting it with separate LEDs, these displays just use LEDs (with some using smaller MicroLEDs, according to C...

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Ford, Argo, and Walmart are bringing robo-delivery to three US cities

(Photo by Jared Wickerham/Argo AI)

Ford and Walmart are teaming to launch a robo-delivery service in three US cities, using autonomous test vehicles equipped with sensors and software developed by Argo AI. Customers who live in Miami, Austin, and Washington, DC, who order items from Walmart online and live within a specific geographic area may be eligible to have their items delivered by a Ford/Argo vehicle.

The companies plan on kicking off “integration testing” for the delivery service this year, with plans to expand the geographic areas over time. Autonomous delivery is seen as a potentially lucrative market, with online grocery shopping growing fivefold over the next decade and American consumers spending upward of $100 billion on food-at-home items by 2025,...

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Instagram internal research: ‘We make body image issues worse for one in three teen girls’

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

How bad is Instagram for the mental health of its younger users? It’s a hugely important question, especially with Facebook planning to launch a version of the app for children.

A new report from The Wall Street Journal suggests the answer is “pretty bad,” based on internal research conducted by Facebook that it’s been unwilling to share with the public. The _WSJ_recentlygot access to these in-depth studies, which paint a bleak picture of the detrimental effects Instagram has on its younger users, particularly teenage girls.

For this latter group, Instagram is a powerful engine for “social comparison” — when one judges one’s own value, attractiveness, and success based on comparisons with others. Teenage girls are often blasted with...

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Amazon Prime now includes free Deliveroo deliveries in the UK

Photo by Nathan Stirk/Getty Images

Amazon is now offering a year of Deliveroo Plus with its Prime subscription in the UK. Amazon Prime customers will be able to access the silver tier of Deliveroo Plus free of charge, enabling free deliveries on orders over £25. Deliveroo normally charges £3.49 a month for Deliveroo Plus, making this a saving of more than £40 per year.

Deliveroo Plus includes unlimited free deliveries of food from a variety of participating restaurants. You’ll either need to be eating a lot or ordering for two or more people to really take advantage of the service, though. You’ll need to hit a minimum spend of £25 or more per order to benefit from free deliveries.

The partnership comes more than two years after Amazon invested in UK-based food delivery...

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There’s a new bubbles emoji that’ll go just great with the peach

My editor put together this image disturbingly soon after I pitched this article. | Image: Thomas Ricker

If I were an emoji sommelier, there’s one pairing I’d definitely be recommending after looking at this year’s 37-strong selection of finalized emoji. And that’s a combination of the new “bubbles” emoji with the existing “peach.” The former emoji has just been finalized with version 14.0 of the Unicode Standard, but the collection has been public since earlier this year.

The reason is simple. Peach has long pulled double duty as the internationally recognized symbol for the human butt, making “butt bubbles” an elegant euphemism for farts. Sure, you’ve long been able to tell a similar visual story by combining the peach with the gust of wind emoji (which I now see is technically called “dashing away”). But now you’ve got more options. Like...

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