How to preorder the Surface Duo 2

The new Surface Duo 2 comes in black and white variants.

As expected, Microsoft announced the new Surface Duo 2 during what was an otherwise laptop-focused Surface event. The tech giant debuted the new Android phone alongside four new Surface devices, including the Surface Pro X, Surface Pro 8, and Surface Go 3.

Packed with some major updates, the successor to last year’s Surface Duo is faster and comes equipped with an improved camera and support for contactless payments. Pricing starts at $1,499.99, and the dual-screen, hinged device will launch on October 20th. However, you can preorder the phone — as well as the other Surface hardware — from several retailers now, and check out our hands-on to see if it’s worth the purchase here.

How to preorder the Surface Duo 2

Unlike its predecessor,...

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Apple won’t let Fortnite back on iOS until the Epic v. Apple verdict is final

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

Fortnite will not be returning to the iOS App Store anytime soon, according to a series of emails published on Twitter on Wednesday by Epic Games CEO Tim Sweeney.

Epic’s iOS developer account had been suspended as a result of the company’s intentional violations of the App Store guidelines in August 2020, which set the stage for the companies’ court battle. But in the wake of the ruling earlier this month, the state of Epic’s iOS apps — particularly Fortnite — has been unclear.

“Apple lied,” says Epic CEO

The emails published on Wednesday indicate Epic Games’ various apps are unlikely to return to the App Store for the foreseeable future. One letter published by Sweeney — dated September 21st and sent by lawyers representing Apple —...

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Microsoft’s fall Surface event: the 7 biggest announcements

Microsoft’s Panos Panay at Wednesday’s Surface event. | Image: Microsoft

Microsoft just wrapped up its latest Surface event, and it was packed with news — including the redesigned Surface Pro 8, a camera-equipped Surface Duo 2, and even a new flagship laptop that puts a hinge behind the screen.

If you weren’t able to watch the show live, catch up with all of the biggest announcements from the event right here. And if you’re interested in buying any of the products, they’re all available for preorder Wednesday ahead of release on October 5th.

Image: Microsoft

Microsoft’s Surface Pro 8, which has a new design.

The Surface Pro 8 redesigns the Surface Pro line

Microsoft’s Surface Pro 8 brings a big redesign to the popular Surface Pro line, with thinner bezels, a larger 13-inch...

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How to preorder all of the new Surface hardware

Microsoft

Microsoft recently held its fall Surface event to debut new hardware, and the company essentially refreshed its entire lineup, plus some. Microsoft recently held its fall Surface event to debut new hardware, and the company essentially refreshed its entire lineup, plus some. There’s a Wi-Fi version of the Surface Pro X, followed by the Surface Pro 8, Surface Go 3, and the all-new Surface Laptop Studio. Microsoft picked a good time to release a bunch of new gadgets, as they’ll be among the first to run Windows 11, the next iteration of the OS that launches on October 11th.

The improvements made to each of these products seem substantial, with the Surface Pro 8 featuring faster 120Hz refresh rate displays. Last but not least, there’s...

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Brydge updates wireless keyboard for the new Surface Pro 8

Brydge, the accessories manufacturer best known for its lineup of excellent iPad keyboards, has announced a wireless keyboard for Microsoft’s newly announced Surface Pro 8, as well as a new Thunderbolt 4 dock.

The Brydge SP Plus keyboard has similar specs to the company’s existing Surface keyboards but with a design tailored towards Microsoft’s redesigned tablet. The keyboard features up to six months of battery life, backlighting, connects via Bluetooth 5.0, and has a trackpad measuring 4 x 2.2 inches in size.

The advantage of using Brydge’s keyboard over Microsoft’s first-party version is that you’re left with a computer that has a much more traditional laptop form factor, which a lot of people find easier to use in portable...

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The Surface Pro X gets a Wi-Fi-only version

Microsoft

The Microsoft Surface Pro X now comes in a Wi-Fi-only version. Microsoft is offering a version of its ARM-based Surface device that does away with cellular connectivity.

Cellular connectivity on the Surface Pro X has been a bit of a thorny issue. The higher-end version of the Surface Pro X rocks a custom SQ2 processor based on Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 8cx Gen 2 processor. That 8cx can support 5G, but the Surface Pro X limits cellular connectivity to 4G LTE. The new model almost feels like it’s taking a step backwards by doing away with cellular connectivity entirely.

Until you remember that the future is much more work from home than the past, and the demand for a Windows 2-in-1 capable of connecting anywhere might not be as big as one...

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Microsoft’s new Slim Pen 2 uses haptics to mimic the feeling of using a real pen

Microsoft has refreshed its Slim Pen to fit in the keyboard that magnetically fits into the Surface Pro 8’s keyboard. Notably, the Slim Pen 2 has a custom chip called Microsoft G6 and haptic functionality that aims to make writing and drawing feel more realistic. Microsoft says that it’s extending the haptic tech to work in several apps, and it showcased the stylus being used in Adobe Photoshop.

The artist on display claimed that its sharper tip makes it easier to use and more responsive. It can work with every product announced today, including the Surface Pro 8, the Surface Go 3, the Pro X, and the Surface Duo 2 via its pen cover. It can attach magnetically to the side of the new Surface Laptop Studio.

Microsoft says the Slim Pen 2...

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Microsoft Surface Pro 8 hands-on: the one we’ve waited for

The Surface Pro 8. | Photo by Becca Farsace / The Verge

A new screen, new keyboard, new processors, and more

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Microsoft Surface Duo 2 hands-on: once more, with cameras

The Microsoft Surface Duo 2. | Photo by Becca Farsace / The Verge

Duo, part deux

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Microsoft Surface Studio Laptop hands-on: one weird, powerful computer

The Surface Laptop Studio | Photo by Becca Farsace / The Verge

That’s one way to put something on a pedestal

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Google will let you check up on advertisers’ campaign histories

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

Google will start giving users more information about who’s running the ads they see. The company’s “About this ad” menu will show basic information about advertisers, as well as any other ads they’ve run in the past 30 days. The goal is to help users better judge whether a given ad buyer is trustworthy, following criticism about scams on the platform.

Google mentioned that more ad disclosures would be coming last year, when it started verifying the identities and locations of all advertisers. (It had previously reserved verification requirements for political ads.) The company says it’s started verifying advertisers in 90 countries, but the disclosure option is launching only in the US in the coming months, then expanding to more...

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Surface Laptop Studio is Microsoft’s new powerful flagship laptop

Microsoft is announcing the Surface Laptop Studio today, a successor to the Surface Book line of powerful laptops. It presents a total redesign for Microsoft’s flagship laptop, ditching the removable display in favor of one that pulls forward to transform from laptop into tablet (or what Microsoft calls studio mode).

“Surface Laptop Studio is the most powerful Surface we’ve ever built,” says Pete Kyriacou, vice president of devices at Microsoft. “It is the culmination of years of Surface innovation – on hinges, display, silicon, and more – and brings the best of the Surface heritage together in one powerhouse device.”

Image: Microsoft

Microsoft’s new Surface Laptop Studio is a complete redesign of the Surface...

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Surface Adaptive Kit makes Microsoft’s laptops more accessible

Microsoft is creating a Surface Adaptive Kit for people with disabilities. The kit makes Microsoft’s range of laptops and tablets more accessible with keycap labels, bump labels, port indicators, and device openers.

The keycap and bump labels make it easier to identify important keys, or find ports and cables. The opener support includes a pull tab and ring to provide more flexibility for opening a laptop lid or maneuvering a Surface kickstand. Microsoft has created the kit in collaboration with people with disabilities to make sure it covers a wide spectrum of needs.

Image: Microsoft

The Surface Adaptive Kit includes pull tabs, bump labels, and keycaps.

Image: Microsoft

The full...

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Microsoft’s new Surface Duo 2 has all the features that were missing the first time around

Microsoft Surface Duo 2

Microsoft has officially announced the new Surface Duo 2, its second attempt at an Android-powered folding phone. The Duo 2 retains the head-turning design of the first-generation model, but it specifically addresses many of the complaints we had. This time around, Microsoft is putting a legit camera on it, supporting 5G, using a current processor, and is throwing in bigger screens — things that are all quite nice to have on expensive phones. Microsoft says the Duo 2 will be available starting on October 5th for $1499.99.

The Surface Duo 2, which is available in the same white color as the first gen plus a new black option, has two 5.8-inch, 1344 x 1892 OLED displays connected by a hinge that allows you to open it like a book or prop it...

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Why does Amazon make games?

New World.

When Amazon makes a new movie or TV show, the reason is pretty clear: the tech giant needs to build out its streaming service Prime Video. One of the best ways to do that is to make (or buy) exclusive series and films. But when Amazon develops a new video game, the reasons aren’t so clear. The company’s upcoming MMO, New World, isn’t exclusive to Amazon’s Luna cloud service or Twitch (which Amazon also owns). It’s a regular PC game you can buy on Steam.

But according to Amazon Games VP Christoph Hartmann, the reason is pretty simple: if you want to be involved in entertainment in any way, you can’t ignore games. “It’s almost impossible to imagine a world where you have a foot in entertainment without considering games,” he tells The...

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Tiny electronic fliers could float like seeds on the breeze to monitor the environment

A selection of microfliers imposed on top of their inspiration from nature: a propeller seed, used for dispersal by trees including maple, sycamore, and ash. | Image: F. Frankel

When trees and plants disperse their seeds, they often rely on the wind to carry them to pastures new. Different seeds adopt different methods of flight: some glide through the air, others parachute to the ground, and some spin like helicopters on the breeze. For scientists, these aerodynamics have provided the inspiration for a new sort of airborne sensor — tiny fliers, some smaller than a grain of sand and others electronically equipped, that could, in the future, float into the atmosphere for tasks like environmental monitoring.

Microfliers could be dispersed by drone to monitor atmospheric data

These fliers, which range in size from around 40mm across (the largest) to 0.4mm across (the smallest), do not move under their own power....

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Live blog: Microsoft’s 2021 Surface event

Image: Microsoft

Surface Go, Surface Book, Surface Duo, Surface Pro X... a lot of Surfaces

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Tim Cook says employees who leak memos do not belong at Apple, according to leaked memo

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

Tim Cook sent an email to Apple employees Tuesday evening about an all-hands meeting that leaked to The Verge last week. He said the company is doing “everything in our power to identify those who leaked” and noted that “people who leak confidential information do not belong” at Apple.

On September 17th, Tim Cook announced during an internal company-wide meeting that Apple would be requiring frequent testing for unvaccinated employees — but was stopping short of a vaccine mandate. He also said that he was “looking forward to moving forward” after the Epic v. Apple antitrust case. Shortly after the meeting, both pieces of news leaked to The Verge.

Now, Cook is tying the news to product leaks — which the company has historically gone to...

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Guardians of the Galaxy is part action RPG, part dysfunctional family simulator

Image: Square Enix

Guardians of the Galaxy, Square Enix’s latest attempt at adapting a Marvel franchise into a successful video game, is best described as — and I mean this as a glowing compliment — a Dysfunctional Family Management Sim. As Peter Quill, your job is to motivate, reassure, comfort, and lead your merry band of found-family misfits through dialogue choices designed to profoundly impact gameplay and story. I had the opportunity to play a full chapter of the game ahead of its release, and I gotta say, I’m impressed.

It is, however, fair to say that my enthusiasm for what I’ve seen of Guardians so far is because I kept my expectations in check. There have been excellent Marvel games in the past — one need only look over yonder to what Insomniac...

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The imaginary rocket driving a small-town spaceport

A saltwater marsh on Cumberland Island, Georgia | Photo by: Education Images/Universal Images Group via Getty Images

Is the FAA licensing spaceports that are doomed to fail?

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Samsung’s behemoth Odyssey G9 gaming monitor is $200 off right now

The 49-inch Odyssey G9 makes it easy to immerse yourself in your favorite game. | Photo by Sean Hollister / The Verge

When it first debuted at CES 2020, the otherworldly Samsung Odyssey G9 gaming monitor stunned the audience. Boasting an immersive 1000R curvature and a sci-fi-inspired frame, it looks less like a screen and more like a spaceship command center that’s capable of transporting you into whatever it is your watching on-screen. As you can imagine, however, its price was equally jaw-dropping. Today, however, it’s a little less so.

Right now, you can get the best bang for your buck with a gaming monitor that does the work of three. Instead of $1,100, the 49-inch Samsung Odyssey G9 is currently $900 at Amazon, matching the monitor’s lowest price to date. As one of the most immersive monitors on the market, it offers a curved screen with a 32:9...

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Robinhood’s crypto wallets are finally ready for a test run

Robinhood is finally adding cryptocurrency wallets to its platform so that users can spend and trade their Bitcoin and Ethereum. The wallets will start as a test, and the company’s setting up a waitlist where people can sign up to be among the first to get access. However, this doesn’t mean that you can use Robinhood to buy stocks with Bitcoin. If you don’t mind the extra steps, the company says you can sell crypto for another currency and use that money to buy stocks. Still, it represents a big step in the company’s crypto journey, one that some of its users have been asking it to take for years.

Robinhood says it’ll start testing wallets with an “alpha” group in the next few weeks. Speaking to Robinhood’s crypto lead Christine Brown,...

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Ford will recycle its EV batteries with ex-Tesla exec’s startup

Photo by Sean O’Kane / The Verge

Ford has tapped startup Redwood Materials — run by former Tesla chief technology officer JB Straubel — to handle the recycling of its electric vehicle batteries. The two companies also plan to use this new partnership to help build out the battery supply chain in the United States, which is something that the Biden administration has stressed as a goal.

As part of the deal, Ford is investing $50 million into Redwood Materials, which Straubel said is part of the startup’s recently announced $700 million funding round.

This is not the first customer Redwood Materials has lined up — Straubel’s startup already recycles batteries from Nissan, Specialized (which has an increasing number of e-bike batteries), and scrap from Tesla and Panasonic...

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A generation that grew up with Google is forcing professors to rethink their lesson plans

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Rad Power Bikes’ new RadCity e-bike makes commuting (and hill climbing) much easier

Rad Power Bikes’ electric commuting bike, the RadCity, is getting a serious makeover. The Seattle-based company has completely redesigned the bike’s powertrain, including a semi-integrated battery, and made a number of other upgrades to make riding easier, faster, and more intuitive.

The RadCity 5 Plus is the second bike in Rad Power Bikes’ lineup to receive many of these design updates, following the flagship RadRover fat-tire bike. It shows how Rad Power Bikes is evolving as it settles into its position as the number one e-bike manufacturer in North America.

The new RadCity will climb hills 40 percent faster

Rad Power Bikes says the new RadCity will climb hills 40 percent faster than the previous generation. The bike’s range has also...

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HP’s new 11-inch tablet has a flipping webcam

HP’s 11-inch tablet also includes stylus support. | Image: HP

HP has announced a new 11-inch tablet that appears to be a more or less direct competitor to Microsoft’s Surface Go, with a couple of interesting tricks. For starters, its 13-megapixel rear facing camera can flip around the short edge of the display to work as a webcam, which HP claims is a first for a tablet, and also makes it the highest resolution front-facing camera to boot.

It’s also able to work with its keyboard accessory in either portrait or landscape modes: Handy, since in landscape mode its webcam is on the wrong edge of its 2160 x 1440 IPS display. As well as the keyboard, the tablet also works with HP’s Tilt Pen, and there’s a USB-C port for plugging in more accessories as well as charging, alongside a microSD card slot and...

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How to watch Microsoft’s Surface event on September 22nd

Microsoft is holding an online hardware event on Wednesday, September 22nd, at 11AM ET / 8AM PT, where it’s expected to announce redesigned Surface tablets and laptops (and potentially a new phone). _The Verge_will be covering any announcements from the event and running a world-class live blog, and here’s how you can watch along with us, too.

It’s simple: Microsoft will have a livestream on the events page of its website, and you’ll also be able to watch it on on Microsoft’s Surface Twitter account. You can follow @verge on Twitter to see news from the event as it happens.

Looming over the event is the upcoming release of Windows 11, which will be coming out on October 5th. While it’s almost a given that anything Microsoft announces at...

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Gitamini is a cute, compact, cargo-carrying robot that will follow you around like a dog

The Gitamini uses machine vision and AI to follow its owner. | Image: Piaggio Fast Forward

Piaggio Fast Forward, a subsidiary of storied Italian automotive firm Piaggio, has launched its second robot, a compact version of its cargo-carrying bot Gita named Gitamini.

The form and function of Gitamini remain the same as that of full-sized Gita (the name is Italian for a small trip or outing). The robot consists of two large wheels, a central trunk, and a machine vision system that it uses to identify and follow its owner. Gitamini weighs 28 pounds and can carry up to 20 pounds in its interior for 21 miles. That makes an interesting comparison to Gita, which can carry more — 40 pounds but only for 12 miles.

Gitamini uses an array of cameras and sensors, including radar (not available for the original Gita), to navigate and...

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Uber thinks it could actually turn a profit this quarter

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

Uber says it may be profitable this quarter for the first time in its history. The disclosure came in a new filing made with the US Securities and Exchange Commission. Whereas the company previously expected to make a net loss of under $100 million, it now believes it could make an adjusted profit of up to $25 million.

“We believe Uber is now tracking towards Adjusted EBITDA [earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation] breakeven in Q3, well ahead of our prior guidance,” said the company’s CFO, Nelson Chai, in the filing.

In a worst case scenario, the company cautions that it could still make a loss of $25 million.

However, criticism has been levelled at the way Uber calculated its adjusted profits. G_izmodo_notes that...

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Need to trap a Roomba? You don’t need anything more sophisticated than a rug

iRobot recently launched a new robot vacuum cleaner that uses AI to avoid dog poop, but the company’s Roombas have long struggled with a more basic problem: confusing dark patterns on carpets and rugs for perilous drops.

A video recently shared on Twitter by IBM researcher Dmitry Krotov shows exactly the problem: a Roomba rolling around inside a rectangular box pattern on a rug, refusing to drive over the lines as if were physical walls. Usually, iRobot’s software flags this sort of problem as a dangerous “cliff,” and a quick search on Twitter for “roomba rug cliff” shows it’s a pretty common error. As one user complains: “I swear that Robby the Roomba is a right drama queen!! This is NOT a cliff Robby. It’s a rug!”

The actual mechanics...

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